🕯️ Book Review: What the Dead Know by Nghi Vo (Kindle Edition, Into Shadow Collection)
A haunting, lyrical short story that blends historical fiction with supernatural mystery—Nghi Vo delivers a chilling meditation on truth, performance, and the voices we try to silence.
🧠 Overview
Published in November 2022 as part of Amazon Original Stories’ Into Shadow collection, What the Dead Know is a 31-page short story by Nghi Vo, Hugo Award–winning author of The Empress of Salt and Fortune. The story follows Maryse, a traveling performer posing as a medium, and her partner Vasyl, as they arrive at the Fogg River Seminary, a girls’ school in small-town Illinois. Their séance act is a sham—until a blizzard traps them inside and Maryse begins to hear real voices from the dead.
As the storm intensifies, so does the presence of something ancient and unresolved within the school’s walls. Maryse must confront not only the truth behind her act, but the deeper truths buried by time, silence, and power.
✨ Key Themes & Highlights
- 👻 Supernatural realism: The ghostly elements are subtle but powerful, used to explore justice and memory
- 🎭 Performance vs. authenticity: Maryse’s fake séances contrast with the real spiritual reckoning she faces
- 🧠 Historical trauma: The story hints at buried abuses and forgotten voices, especially those of young women
- 💬 Vo’s poetic prose: Rich, evocative language creates a dreamlike atmosphere full of dread and beauty
“In the freezing halls, there’s a voice speaking the secrets of the dead, and Maryse has no choice but to listen… because this time, the voice is real.” — Goodreads summary
💬 Reader Reception
- ⭐ Goodreads rating: 3.60/5 from over 6,000 ratings
- 📖 Readers praise the story’s atmosphere, emotional depth, and subtle horror
- 🧾 Some found the pacing slow or the ending ambiguous, but many appreciated its thematic richness
- 💬 “Uses the supernatural to explore justice… and the responsibility of what it means to speak for the dead.” — The StoryGraph review
⚠️ Considerations
- 📄 Short format: At 31 pages, it’s a compact read—best approached as a literary vignette
- 📚 Subtle storytelling: Leans more on mood and metaphor than plot-driven suspense
- 🧾 Part of a collection: One of six stories in Into Shadow, each exploring dark, transformative themes
🏁 Final Verdict
What the Dead Know is a quietly powerful supernatural tale that showcases Nghi Vo’s gift for weaving history, emotion, and spectral mystery. With its evocative setting and poetic voice, it’s perfect for readers who enjoy ghost stories that speak to deeper truths—and who believe that sometimes, the dead have the most important stories to tell.
