It was a bit disappointing because the ghost stories were not as scary or grotesque as I had hoped. ( )

Great stories, pre-modern and modern, and wonderful-looking recipes I'm going to have to try! ( )

Since the title is "A banquet for hungry ghosts" and with the subtitle, "A collection of Deliciously Frightening Tales",I was guessing that this book was going to fuse old asian horror stories about food with chinese cuisine.

I also guessed that much of the stories would involve traditional chinese cuisine as the center of the plot of the story, or the food itself can relate to the character's life. (As alot of traditional chinese dishes has meanings behind them like ingredients, names, ect.)

I think the author wrote this book to re-introduce chinese culture and food, mixed with old hungry ghosts stories. Also, it has recipes to each chapter to the ministories so that people would be interested in learning to origins and cooking that dish. ( )

If a person dies hungry or angry in China, the belief is that they will come back looking for revenge. It is Tradition to leave food outsde the home, on days spirits are known to roam free, to distract the ghosts for the home's inhabitants. These are some fairly gristly horror stories that will scratch the scary-story-itch for many kids. The book includes a lot of interesting information on Chinese lore and includes good sounding recepies between each story. ( )

Chinese folklore is full of ghosts, and the worst ghosts are hungry ones. These ghosts must be appeased with food offerings, but if these hungry ghosts are murder victims, they’ll not be held at bay for long by this. These horror stories, set in China from the time of the building of the Great Wall to the present day, all feature hungry ghosts and the ways they haunt the living.

Written for young adults, readers of all ages can enjoy these stories. Compestine, who grew up in China, brings life to them with folklore and custom, especially food customs. Recipes are included between stories so that the reader can try out the dishes mentioned in the tales. These would be great to read in front of a fire at night. ( )