I honestly didn't know what to expect when I first started reading this novel. At first I thought it was just going to be a story about ghosts haunting a small rural village in China, but then I slowly began realizing it was going to be a lot more than that.

 

It was interesting enough at first, with a good balance between lighthearted fun that comes along with a child MC, and the darkness, creepiness and suspense that comes with a good scary story. 

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So before getting into any spoilers, let me give you a quick recap of the premise of the story, I'll do my best to keep it brief:

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While the township is setting up for the funeral of a woman who recently died, we are shown how a mentally challenged child is treated in the community by both the naive children, and the ignorant adults alike. 

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The boy is picked on and called "Dummy", even by the adults. Now, I know that Chinese novels tend to call people "fatty" or "dummy" way too casually sometimes (it's a cultural thing), but this kid was straight up being picked on and it was obvious to everyone but him. He's simple and was oblivious to what the others would say. 

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Fair warning, now I'm going into SPOILERS:

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It turns out that his mother visited a woman who could communicate with ghosts and apparently had enough knowledge of Taoism to make sure that she could become a ghost herself to keep her son safe after she died. 

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Sounds great in theory, just like Pet Cemetary, she didn't come back the same and begn attacking and even killing other villagers. 

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This forces the town to come together and call upon a real Taoist Master to come and get rid of the ghost. 

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The MC is a young 6 year old boy that got ceremonial ashes in his eyes early in the story, they end up granting him the ability to see ghosts. Those are the "ghost eyes" mentioned in the title, and this is pretty much his origin story.

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The story was really cool to read because I didn't quite know what to expect and I was just strapped in for the ride. I was just expecting a tale of ghosts in a small village and a boy who could see them, but before I knew it, the master is taking in the young boy as an apprentice and he's off to teach him his ways and learn martial arts. 

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Now I'm starting to see where this story is going and I really hope that it lives up to it's potential because it's original, it's a great balance between creepy, goosebumps inducing chapters, and really lighthearted scenes where they are all just getting ice cream and whatnot. No one is overpowered, characters aren't terribly complex, but also not bland or one dimensional. Most importantly for me, so far, the Taoist Master seems like a thoughtful, caring, wise old man, but still enough to just be human.

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