Daughter of Calamity

January 1, 2024

Lin debuts with a historical fantasy set in 1930s Shanghai. When an attacker steals faces from cabaret dancers--that then show up on wealthy foreign socialites--Jingwen, a showgirl and heir to her grandmother's position with a powerful gang, is afraid, but she'll delve into the city's dangerous underworld to fight for their safety. With a 75K-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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March 18, 2024
Cabaret dancers square off against gangsters, foreign businessmen, Mongolian shamans, and angry gods for control of Jazz Age Shanghai, “the Sin City of the East,” in Lin’s atmospheric if overwritten debut. Yue Jingwen’s grandmother, Yue Liqing, makes her living attaching magical silver arms to members of the Society of the Blue Dawn gang, but Jingwen refuses to become her apprentice. A chorus girl in the East Sea Follies, her greatest ambition is to win a backroom contest among her coworkers to “bring the richest date to the annual Firefighters’ Yuletide Ball.” American doctor Bailey Thompson seems like her ticket to victory when he buys the East Sea Follies and promotes her to leading lady, but soon Jingwen is drawn into Bailey’s schemes to export a rare drug that, when smoked, makes the inhaler feel like an ancient Chinese god. Jingwen and her fellow dancers come under attack by a mysterious magical force that steals their lips and eyes—and Jingwen’s grandmother may know more about what’s happening than she lets on. Unfortunately, the story often gets buried under purple prose (“But in the shadows of taxicabs and leafless plane trees, I sense a hum of nervousness, like violin strings pulled taut under my skin”), 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. Agent: Kurestin Armada, Root Literary.

April 1, 2024

DEBUT In 1930s Shanghai, the shadowy and notorious gangs that run rampant through the city hide behind a facade of jazz and glittering nightclubs. Jingwen is granddaughter of Liqing, the powerful surgeon for the Society of the Blue Dawn, who takes limbs of flesh and replaces them with steel. Jingwen could succeed her grandmother as surgeon, but she would rather dance, practicing with a troupe during the day and entertaining wealthy foreigners at the Paramount at night. When she gets caught up in a horrifying series of attacks--her fellow cabaret dancers are having their faces stolen and given to elite socialites--Jingwen discovers that the underworld she has tried to stay above hides strange things (rival gangs; communing with gods), and Jingwen herself may have to become something she never could have imagined--for better or worse. The highly detailed story moves at a slow pace through the first half of the book, which may leave readers wanting a bit more action, but Lin successfully creates a world that is as much a character in the novel as the people who live in it. VERDICT While Lin's debut starts slowly, historical fantasy enthusiasts will be delighted by the worldbuilding.--Kristi Chadwick

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2024
In 1930s Shanghai, Jingwen is a dancer at a club. But there is a bit more to her life than the nights of dancing and flirting with important and wealthy men--she is also the granddaughter of Liqing, a surgeon with ties to the gang that runs the city. Liqing replaces limbs with metal, giving gang members an advantage. She is able to do this because of something she stole from a god. However, this is not the only trade that Liqing engages in: when Jingwen discovers that her grandmother is attaching pieces of dancers to wealthy individuals, she decides to help end her grandmother's reign. However, there are forces at work that Jingwen doesn't believe in or understand. Her new-to-town ally, Zikai, who represents an outside gang, talks about the need to bring the gods back to Shanghai. Jingwen is only focused on what she needs to get help for the dancers, but she is in over her head. 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.

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May 15, 2024
A talented young cabaret dancer finds herself entangled with gangsters, socialites, and practitioners of ancient magic. Set in Shanghai during the early 1900s--a time and place full of old magic--this novel tells the story of Jingwen, a skilled showgirl at the Paramount looking to get a leg up on her fellow dancers. When several of the women are attacked in public and their stolen faces begin to appear on the foreigners who watch them perform, Jingwen finds herself torn between the life of wealth and revelry that she yearns for and the city she calls home. Soon enough, a convoluted web of back-alley politics and ancient gods reveals itself to Jingwen, and the spectacular mirage that is Shanghai's nightlife comes crumbling down. Jingwen is abrasive, despite the loyalty and love she shows to those she holds dear, and often downright frustrating in her flatness. She's present during several shocking acts of violence--early on, one of her fellow performers has her lips cut off while she's with a patron--and has very little reaction; although shaken, she quickly moves on and the story progresses. Though her lack of affect might be an act of self-preservation or a result of her upbringing running money for her grandmother, it deprives the story of gravity or emotional depth. Similarly, the magic that Jingwen is exposed to lacks an explanation that would make it feel like a tangible part of the world--it is, in the end, thin as the smoke it often appears as. 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. The early 20th century was a formative time for both music and dance, and they play important roles in Jingwen's life. With that in mind, this novel would perhaps be more appealing to readers looking for a lovingly detailed work of historical fiction than a fantasy novel. A fascinating time period and intriguing cast of characters, but the story lacks depth and development.

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