Shanghai Immortal by A. Y. Chao is a brilliant blend of fantasy and historical fiction. This book is an immersive experience that transports you to the vibrant and chaotic streets of Shanghai. The author's descriptions of the historical setting are vivid and well-researched, bringing the story to life.

The plot follows the journey of a young woman, Jing, who has always been considered an outsider. The characters are well-developed, and their struggles are relatable and heartbreaking. The themes of identity, love, loss, and sacrifice are explored in a nuanced and thought-provoking way.

Overall, Shanghai Immortal is a beautifully written and engaging novel that I would highly recommend to anyone who loves fantasy or historical fiction. A. Y. Chao has created a masterpiece that will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an eARC of Shanghai Immortal in exchange for my honest review.

I loved Lady Jing's character in this book as well as the complexity of this world. Lady Jing's character felt endearing even with and even because of her course exterior and behavior. She's supposed to act courtly in this world that treats her poorly but she won't have any of it. I also really loved the fact that she never called the love interest by his first name, so adorable! It's a bit strange to say that this felt like a comforting read but it did. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Shanghai Immortal has a great setting - a flipside to the real Jazz Age Shanghai populated by the immortal court. It's definitely irreverent and campy and adventurous, and a vampiric Hulijing who's battling to control her bloodthirst is SO fun. I think readers who enjoy that will love it, but unfortunately the humour and the juvenile main character wasn't really for me.

This book was a lot of fun! Lady Jing is a brittle potty-mouth half-Vampire, half-houlijin demon fox. I grew to love her courage to stand up to herself and her bark that tries to push people away. I adore her frenemy relationship with Gigi. The romance subplot between Lady Jing and Mr Li was quite cute.

The story moves at a good pace through immortal and mortal realms of 1930’s Shanghai which is dynamic and vibrant. I also found myself craving Xiao Long Bao while reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers

Shanghai immortal is a great book that is written exquisitely, I fell into the story straight away and I enjoyed the journey .
The characters in this novel are created with a realism and they're well developed, they all serve a purpose in this novel and the world around them is lavishly described creating a world that as a reader it was easy to fall into.
The play out of this novel was enjoyable to read.

I loved this!

Lady Jing is a heroine with so many layers. I love how Chao weaves Chinese myth and legend to create a unique story that is thoroughly intriguing and gripping until the end.

I cannot wait to see what else Chao brings to the table.

One of the best fantasy books I’ve read. The story, the setting, the characters! It was all beautifully written in this amazing debut. I cannot wait to read more form this author and I just enjoyed every second off it. It was very atmospheric, very engaging and a book I picked up and didn’t put down until I finished. It was a great start to a new series and I really think an interesting debut that left me with questions that hopefully the sequel will answer.

I had to DNF this one about a quarter of the way in. I really struggled with the writing and also didn't really connect with any of the characters. I think my main problem was with with my expectations, I was expecting an adult fantasy but this reads very much like a typical YA one and I found that very jarring. The premise and world building were amazing though and I did enjoy all the mythology the author explored.

Thank you to Hodderscape and Netgalley for the ARC.

This book gave me serious Spirited Away vibes, I am obsessed. Lady Jing is half vampire all trouble, running around 1930s demon Shanghai (sometimes in her underthings) and I adore her.

/!\ This review contains some spoilers

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Hodderscape for this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Shanghai Immortal is A.Y. Chao's debut novel, published on June 1st, 2023 and the first in the Shanghai Immortal series, in which we follow Lady Jing, a half-vampire, half-hulijing as she tries to expose courtiers because they are planning to steal a dragon pearl, with the help of a mortal named Mr Lee.

First of all, vampires and dragons? Sign me up for that. I really enjoyed the fact that this universe was a mix of real-life Shanghai and Chinese folklore and mythology. I highly suggest reading the author's note for more information, but this story takes place in 1935 Shanghai, so historically-speaking it takes place just before the Second Sino-Japanese War and it shows as the author describes the political and social context (with the American, British, Japanese and French jurisdiction, and the way people dressed). There are also a lot of references to Chinese legends and mythology such as Hua Mulan, pixiu and dragons and dragon kings.

The plot was great and the book kept calling to me, but it was missing something at the end (at the beginning of the book, the author insists on the fact that she is almost 100 years old and that she will soon discover how many tails she has, but there is no mention of that during the story; maybe in book 2?) and I loved learning more about Chinese history and mythology. There was a romance subplot with little to no spice that appeared around the two thirds of the book and I was here for it, even though I didn't really like the female main character, Lady Jing. The reason why is because although she is 99 years old, she still behaves like a teenager and curses a lot.

One thing I struggled the most with is the book formatting on NetGalley: as you can see on the second slide, the page numbers and the meta information are all over the page and it was a nightmare to read.

Thank you so so much to Netgalley and the author/publisher for accepting my request to read and review this book early.

I was really excited for this one, I also had heard it would be a Fairyloot book pick which had my expectations even higher.

However, I just could not jam with this at all, and actually I this this was falsely advertised. It says on goodreads it is an adult book, it also was an adult pick for a book box: which is crazy as this read as YOUNG YA... not even mature YA.

I am so frustrated by YA books being marketed as adult maybe due to a tiny bit of gore or sexual content when the book as a whole is YA.

Even aside from this: I do like some YA but this was not gripping me at all and I didn't really care for any of the characters.

Also, this was definitely another case of "romance for the sake of romance" when the author themself clearly wasn't that interested in it so as a reader I couldn't care less.

I could be interested in this author's works if it wasn't trying to fit the mould of everything else coming out.

You know what?
I received the e-ARC in exchange for honest review, but I'm too lazy to read so I put in on my TBR ... BUT, when I read just several pages, ISTG THIS IS THE BOOK I AM LOOKING FOR ALL THIS TIME. So, I close the ARC, I buy the book instead. End of story.

You will be wacthing me roaming around on instagram, goodreads and twitter, talking about how much I love Lady Jing <3

Thank you for the e-ARC tho.

I really enjoyed this intriguing Chinese inspired fantasy! I thought the mythology and world building were so intriguing.
I thought the characters are very well written, and likable. I absolutely love the cover of this book too! The pacing was good and kept my attention start to finish. I can’t wait to read more from this author!

3 /5

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review

Shanghai Immortal is an urban fantasy of a half-vampire half fox-spirit set in Shanghai. Just on premise alone, it sounds like it should tick all the boxes for me, but unfortunately, this one fell short. I found the main character quite intolerable, rather than feisty she comes off as insufferable. I feel like her being a vampire was glossed over in most of the novel only unless it could somehow progress the plot. It seemed like the author thought making the main character a vampire would be cool (true) but then did not care to flesh out that part of her identity fully. The plot felt all over the place and I think I spent the first 30% of the book being confused about what the plot was supposed to be. I think the found family aspect of the book was great. I loved watching the main character blossom into her relationships and realize how much she was cared for. I did enjoy the mythological aspect of things and the setting as well. This book had some strong points but the weaknesses really detracted from my ability to enjoy the story. Despite this, the premise and world were creative and interesting enough that I would keep an eye out for future works from this author.

This book had a really good premise and it's reminiscent of a lot of books I've loved in the past. There's parts I liked and I really wish I loved it more. I feel like if it was longer and more developed it would be a 5 star

Okay so I was really looking forward to reading this but I just couldn’t get into it. I tried reading it multiple times before I just gave up. The concept sounded really interesting but I just didn’t enjoy it or the care for the characters at all.

Half fox-spirit and half vampire, Lady Jing has always been an outcast in yin Shanghai. Her grumpy personality and short temper do not help the matter either. Being the ward of the King of Hell, she is tasked with running errands. Deliveries mostly. One of those turns out to contain a mortal, Mr Lee challenging her control over her vampire side...

When Jing overhears some courtiers’ plan to steal the priceless dragon pearl from the King, she decides to expose them.

This book was different from what I expected. Without any prior knowledge, I believed it to be similar to The Daughter of the Moon Goddess, but the only link between them is the Chinese folklore background. Shanghai Immortal turned out to be completely different. It is a fast, chaotic and highly entertaining read. Lady Jing is a brilliant character. She is smart, sassy, sarcastic, surprising, and rebellious and struggles with anger management issues. She has noble ancestry, but she has been mistreated since childhood because of her mixed blood, making her prickly. Her total lack of social skills and innocent approach to love made her weirdly adorable. It also leads to many funny situations, as this book is full of rather absurd humour, despite touching on serious subjects like drug use and child abuse.

To sum up, it is a quick and entertaining read.

Shanghai Immortal was an enjoyable fantasy with a romantic subplot. The pacing of the book was pretty good and I was entertained throughout the story. The characters had well fleshed out personalities and the humor was fun. I will say I think this story was more enjoyable for me than most because I have some knowledge of Asian culture and had a friend that could explain some of the unfamiliar slang. Some of the slang/insults didn't translate well to English, so that could be disruptive for the reader. I'll also say I'm not sure why this is categorized as a adult, as it read as more upper YA/coming of age tale.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for this ARC for my review.

I have mixed feelings towards this book.

The premise was beautiful but the story lacked depth.
I loved the rich references to Chinese mythology but would have probably appreciated the story more if I had actually had any basic knowledge of these myths and legends.
I enjoyed Lady Jing's sassy attitude but she still seemed too immature for my liking most of the time.
The romance was sweet but felt too much insta-love.

All in all, one too many BUTS...

An adult fantasy novel set in an immortal version of Shanghai where the FMC is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit? Sign me up! Unfortunately, this is where the positives ended.
In theory this sounded like something I'd love, but when I actually opened it, and was greeted with the word ta-tas in the first chapter (probably first page too, but it showed up as the second for me) I knew this would not be the case.
The FMC is one of the most immature characters I've ever read (this includes YA books where the characters are still literal children) and the writing is absolutely atrocious. The term "piss-fart" shows up no fewer than 12 times, "turd" shows up 25 (turd-eggs, turd-brained bitches, etc), and ta-ta' 13 times. I don't know anyone who speaks like this - let alone a century-old badass immortal.