I'm really torn on how to review this book. I read half and then DNF. At first, I really loved it, but then it didn't seem like it was going anywhere. The quirkiness of the main character charmed me at first, but then very quickly started to get annoying. This is a character who is supposed to be old, yet it felt like she was a child of about fourteen or so. The premise and world building was great, but the FMC wore on me. I'd like to pick this book up again in the future because I think it has a lot of promise. Maybe I just wasn't in the read head space to enjoy it.

This book has such an amazing plot and world. I was so excited to read this, but I think I was expecting something different. That being said, I think a lot of people will enjoy this one. It did read more YA than I was expecting.

The book was very fast paced and the characters were really interesting. Overall, this was a fun, quick read.

Shanghai Immortal is the first in a new fantasy series that follows Lady Jing, the half-vampire, half-fox spirit ward of the King of Hell. Jing has spent most of her time in immortal Shanghai running errands for the King of Hell and getting into trouble for her temper and manners. When she discovers a plot to steal a dragon pearl from the King, she must team up with a mortal to uncover the plot and expose the courtiers who have spent so many years making her life miserable.

Shanghai Immortal has a really intriguing premise and I really thought this was going to be a book that I fell in love with. The story is fast-paced and there’s plenty of action and adventure to keep the reader hooked. The story felt well written but some of the writing – the terms like tatas and piss-fart really threw me out of the story.

I thought the settings of mortal and immortal Shanghai were really well depicted. They were so vibrant and really came to life. I did wish there was more of a chance to learn more about the different creatures residing in immortal Shanghai but that might be explored more in subsequent books. Lady Jing is a brilliant main protagonist, she’s very sarcastic and there are plenty of humourous moments. I did thing the romance could do with a little more development, but I did enjoy the depiction of female friendship.

Overall Shanghai Immortal was a story with a really intriguing premise that missed the mark a little bit for me. If you’re a fan of fast-paced fantasy stories with a sassy protagonist this could be just the book you’re looking for.

I am amazed by this book, and I loved every minute of it!

It was sassy, witty, entertaining, and charming! The characters, the world, the premise - all hooked me, I couldn't put the book down. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a fun read!

enjoyed this book more than I thought I would! the family dynamics and character arc really made this book for me. this would be a cute animated short film. read this if you want a silly goofy book and a good time.

There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with this book, but the writing style just wasn’t for me. I think it was mostly that my expectations were way off from what the book actually was. It felt juvenile and really drew me out of the story. I went in expecting a more serious tone based on the description, but what I got felt more like a jock telling an exaggerated tale to his buddies. I may be able to listen to the audiobook at some point, but I couldn’t make it past the 20% mark.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodderscape, and A.Y. Chao for an e-arc of Shanghai Immortal in exchange for an honest review.

Shanghai Immortal was a quirky fantasy story following Lady Jing who have both nine tailed fox and vampire inside her blood and living at Shanghai pararel wolds between mortal and Hell. Sound interesting and intriguing enough?

The pace of the story is very fast, and Lady Jing is interesting and full of flaws character. She is free spirit, feisty, wild, easy to provocate and seem found difficult to fit in into her role as King of Hell's ward. She tried to hardened her action to hidden her vulnerable emotions after being abandoned by her own family.

The story started strong and intriguing me. The premise very unique and interesting. I personally love the worldbuilding and want more about it. Some of it actually confusing but I tried to compare with some classic funny Chinesse ghost movies and I found the "picture" of several entities mentioned at here.
The plot feel dragging at middle and less engaging. A fun and very promising debut but totally a wild rollercoaster read.

Thank you Netgalley and Hodderscape from Hodder & Stoughton for provided me with this copy. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was filled with rich imagery that interlaced fantasy with the setting of Shanghai. The main character of Lady Jing has an enviable sense of wit and level of sarcasm that made her easily one of the most relatable main characters that I've read in a fantasy book filled with vampires and fox-spirits. She brought a whole new level of sass and comedy that I wouldn't have realised that book had needed but know it would be lacking without it now. There is nothing I love more, or hate more, than a slow-burn romance however this was crafted so well that it was hard not to love the romance elements in this narrative.

Shanghai immortal
@ay_chao
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This humble one offers gracious words of exuberation and adoration to the virtuous and kindly lady Ay Chao for writing this masterpiece.
Anyway enough flowery piss fart on my review. Let's speak plainly.

Lady Jing is chaotically perfect.
She's absolutely flawed and brash but not a bad person. She still has fears, insecurities and trauma which make her prickly and closed off to people. Yet she is also thoughtful, impulsive, easily hurt and just wants to not be seen as the 'mongrel' most see her as .
Titans, if you were held down by a pack of raging bitch women from your own home and almost drowned from being scrubbed to get the "foreign stench" off you, you'd be a bit prickly too (and afraid of water but I didn't say that 👀).
When you're half vampire and half hulijing (or "the bitch of a fox spirit" in layman's terms) and told you aren't allowed to wear changpaos like the men of immortal shanghai (like seriously how are you supposed to bend your legs in a qipao efficiently?!) you're bound to be a bit off the rails, maybe run around immortal shanghai naked a few times, right? Even Big Wang, the only parental figure she has and even then, when lady soo, her grandmother's favorite handmaiden and Jings biggest rival who has rotted turds for brains consistently prods her and tries to get her in trouble (she started a fire once okay, not twice!), he still makes Lady Jing apologise and be embarrassed infront of the council.
Well no more! When the mortal, Mr Tony Lee turns up to immortal shanghai with a fake amulet, (what kind of person can't tell a real from a fake? One with fermented tofu for brains, that's who!) and lady Jing decides she can use him to catch lady Soo in the act of stealing the dragon pearl that her mother traded to Big Wang for her life (and a big diamond) , it all goes ta tas up when they journey to mortal shanghai and Jings feelings for Tony start to grow... Mostly because of those "too see rolls" and caramels he keeps feeding her. But when he finds out her plan was to use him all along before the feelings arose, Tony tells her a few home truths (and lies, the hypocritical piss fart). When Jing is then captured by her grandmother of the hulijing everything turns around and starts making more and more sense.
This book is hilarious, emotional and also very telling about women, mostly in Chinese cultures but also all around the world being told "no this is for men only, you're a woman, you can't do that" and kicking them in their virtuous peaches when we show them how much better we can do it when given the chance.
An incredibly well written book that I couldn't put down!

Set during the jazz age where both mortal and immortal realms of Shanghai coexist, Shanghai Immortal follows Jing, a half-fox spirit, half-vampire netherworld dweller whose latter half makes her the subject of scorn for an entire court of fox spirits, including her own maternal grandmother. Fortunately, she doesn’t have to live with them as the Big Wang, King of Hell has long made her his ward. Instead, when she’s not off doing her own thing, she does what Big Wang tells her to — albeit reluctantly and/or mulishly at times.

Thus, begins the story where Jing finds herself having to deliver the mortal Mr Lee to Big Wang. This mortal turns out to be a key figure for Big Wang’s planned, massive project that could make obsolete the power and standing of some beings in power. Of course, this upsets those beings and Jing finds herself entangled in an adventure where she grows, becoming a little more mature, a little more grounded in her identity, and a little more secure in regards to where she belongs. Along the way, she also discovers the value and importance of found family, friendship and love.

Personally, I didn’t find this book as funny or sassy as expected (since some of the earlier marketing touted this). Sure, Jing as the narrator does add sass and snark to the tone, plus her couldn’t-care-less attitude makes the story more fun to read. But, this also makes her come off as very immature and too much of a try-hard at being a feisty BAMF. There were many moments when all this felt especially forced too.

Nevertheless, I really liked the interspersed Chinese and literal translations in the narrative as they made everything feel more authentic (they’re funnier when you know the meaning too!). The imagery used to bring the story and its setting to life were delightful as well. I could picture mortal and immortal Shanghai vividly in my mind as I read the book. However, there were places where the plot gets eclipsed by context and expositions which then, dragged the pacing. I still enjoyed reading Shanghai Immortal, though, and look forward to the sequel.

It's not often a book makes me laugh out loud but I really love Lady Jing - she's sassy and hilarious!

I loved the world building and learning about Chinese mythology.

I'm excited to see where the series goes from here!

Thank you so much to A. Y. Chao, Hodderscape and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Shanghai Immortal brings us a very interesting and developed fantastic world, although with few details, but it is understandable, it is the first book.

I really liked the protagonist, I felt that she was fresh, honest (at least towards us, the readers), funny, and that she stands out from many that she read. I liked that it was set in the Shanghai jazz age.

Now, although all this that I said before attracted me towards reading. I didn't connect at all. It wasn't that I wanted to read it all the time to find out what was going on, and that made me unable to give it all the stars I wanted. For a debut novel it is very promising and I have faith that the author will write more incredible things in the future, so I recommend this book.

But personally I didn't get to go as deep as I usually do with fantasy books.

Thanks Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC I read via NetGalley, a change from an honest review.

Genuinely one of the best fantasies I've read, with the most intriguing lore built up to surround the mythology, and possibly some of my favourite character backstories.

Writing that bustles with description and vibrant turns of phrase. Although this one slightly missed the mark for me, I will definitely be looking out for more of the author's works in the future!

As a contestant for the most stunning cover 2023 this novel is in the lead. I applied for the ARC especially because the cover caught my attention. Yet, the story behind the cover and the interesting blurb didn’t deliver.

Shanghai Immortal seems to defy all genres that I would have assigned to it, is it an adult (urban) fantasy with Chinese mythology elements or a paranormal mystery/paranormal romance?

I’m not sure what this book’s genre actually is, but it read too modern for a story set in the Jazz Age. The MC, Lady Jing, acted like a spoiled teenager rather than a nearly 100-year-old immortal princess/half-vampire-half-fox-spirit with ties to two high courts of the mythical realm. Lady Jing is acting up just for the sake of annoying everyone around her, which shows how the author is using Jing’s childhood trauma as a plot device, it’s the only reason given for Jing’s behaviour. Furthermore, Jing doesn’t listen to the advice from the people around her, which the author tries to hide under the cloak of the “miscommunication trope”.

Where Lady Jing is presented as the anti-hero hero who wants to prevent the theft of a certain dragon pearl from the King of Hell, the secondary characters are depicted as typical paste-board romance novel characters. There’s the uber-beautiful bestie and her love-interest. There is the overly protective, yet obnoxiously annoying father-figure and his cronies, the “turd for brain bitches” who have been bullying Jing all her life, there is an avuncular figure who we get to see two three times but they have to make the deus-ex-machina work, and there is the handsome, clueless and hard to crack mortal love-interest.

Ugh! I thought I’d get an Urban Fantasy with Chinese Mythology woven into it not a hot mess of a story that I’d rank as a bland romance story that has the maturity level somewhere between middle-grade and YA. It definitely isn’t an adult paranormal/mythological urban fantasy mystery.

Thank you, NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Wow, this book was amazing. From page one I was invested in the story and couldn't stop reading. The world-building of yin shanghai was rich, and I really felt like I was there with Jing. I loved the pacing of this, I felt like there was a good balance between action and dialogue. At its core, it is about Lady Jing discovering who she is, and overcoming what others say about her. The relationship between her and Mr. Lee was an added bonus. And don't get me started on Big Wang, Hornsey, and Bullhead, their relationship with her was beyond cute, and you could really see how much they wanted to protect her. I'm definitely excited to see what else this author comes up with, and to continue Jing's story!

I think I would have liked this well enough if my expectations has been tempered to not so much the adult complexities designated in this book. Shanghai Immortal read a bit on the YA side and dealt with a character saddling the intricacies of several different worlds and yet not feeling that sense of belonging. I admired that, and in some sense, I could relate.

But for some reason it was also hard to believe that a character at almost 100 years of age could act as though she was a rebellious 16-y-o. It took until the end of the book for me to realize why: a majority of the antagonistic characters were just as immature.

I did like Lady Jing's eventual development, and things were interesting when she and Mr. Lee were in mortal Shanghai. The tie-ins of Chinese folklore and mythology were cool, and eventually even the awkward turns of phrases and crude terminology became background noise. Still, it wasn't quite the book I was expecting.

Half spirit fox and half vampire, Lady Jing was sold to the King of Hell. Much to her dismay, she is constantly tormented by her family and she wants nothing more than to be free of her lowly position. However, when hears of a plan to steal a dragon pearl from the King of Hell and loses her reputation, Lady Jing is determined to save face by any means necessary including using the moral Tony Lee for her plans.

The story was full of Chinese mythologies and intricately weaves its aspects into the historical and cultural parts of the setting: Shanghai. It was a narrative that took a while to pick up but didn't lack the smooth intrigue in its story to keep my interested. It didn't take long for me to be immersed in the story and want to accompany Jing on her dubious plans.

With a colorful and varied cast, the story developed an interesting dynamic and chemistry between the two main characters and the secondary ones. I enjoyed seeing Jing and Lee's slow friendship blossom into something more. I also loved Gigi's friendship with Jing. What I didn't like much as Jing herself in some areas. Her behavior felt more like a teenager rather than the adult she was explained to be. It would've made more sense if age in Hell flowed differently and Jing's age was equivalent to that of a teenager. Alas, it didn't seem like that was the case and it was rather off-putting to see. Another thing was the overuse of the word "ta-tas". At first it made for an amusing joke. But using it so consecutively in a book where the writing and language used is categorized as mature...it didn't do it for me.

The ending in particular felt anticlimactic and incomplete. There was no real closure between Jing and Lee. Nothing that tells me what happens with them now that everything is solved. And that irritated me especially since we have been on this journey with them since Chapter 1. Overall, Immortal Shanghai is definitely a rich story of mythology, culture, beautifully written atmospheric elements, and intricate narrative. However, some parts felt a bit short for me.

3.5 / 5 stars
Thank you to Netgalley for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a pretty fun read and I can see it appealing to certain readers, but it didn't quite work for me and my personal tastes when it comes to adult fantasy. The world was interesting and the plot had potential, but the main character wasn't my favorite unfortunately.

This was a very fun, fast-paced read, which I highly enjoyed! The plot moved very quickly, and there were very little moments were it dragged, which meant that I could hardly put it down while I was reading. The worldbuilding was well done, and I enjoyed seeing the yin version of Shanghai, and how it mirrored but also differed from mortal Shanghai. Overall, though, this books strength lies in its main character: Lady Jing. Jing is such a fun, witty, brave, and memorable heroine, and her narrative voice was so clear while I was reading. It wasn’t hard at all to root for her, and I loved how flawed she was as well, as her imperfections brought real depth to her personality. SHANGHAI IMMORTAL was such a fun book to read, and I cant wait to see the sequel!!