Jingwen spends her nights as a showgirl at the Paramount, one of the most lavish clubs in Shanghai. To cap off her shifts, she runs money for her grandmother, the exclusive surgeon to the most powerful gang in the city – a position her grandmother is pressuring her to inherit. When a series of dancers are targeted, the attacker stealing their faces, Jingwen fears she could be next. And as the faces of the dancers start appearing on wealthy foreign socialites, she realizes Shanghai's glittering mirage of carefree luxury comes at a terrible price.
This debut is a genre blend of mystery and fantasy with some amazing world building. Readers will enjoy being transported to a new world. Fans of fantasy will want to know Lin’s name.
Jingwen is abrasive, despite the loyalty and love she shows to those she holds dear, and often downright frustrating in her flatness ... Similarly, the magic that Jingwen is exposed to lacks an explanation that would make it feel like a tangible part of the world ... The author’s love for Shanghai is clear from the early pages, and her descriptions of the Jazz Age and its effects on the city unfold in gorgeous, vivid detail.
Atmospheric if overwritten ... Unfortunately, the story often gets buried under purple prose... breaking the spell and making it difficult to follow what’s happening. Readers will need a high tolerance for labored metaphor to get through this.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
