Rosalie M. Lin's DAUGHTER OF CALAMITY swept me away in ways a story hasn't in a long while. Such an original, compelling concept that is also extremely well-executed. I devoured the novel and cannot wait for Lin's next book.

DNF'd at 20%

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this. I was hopeful that I liked this, but I just don't. I have learned that I just cannot do historical books. They are so boring to me and I can't find myself invested and this story was exactly that.

Not bad, but not for me. The concept was pretty interesting, but it was hard for me to want to pick up time and time again. I didn't connect with the FMC, and I just couldn't enjoy myself.

Not entirely what I was expecting, but ended up being wonderful! Eager to read more from Lin. Parts of it seemed a bit overwhelming, but I loved the concept and the setting, I felt completely immersed and involved in the story!

Really enjoyed the genre blending and world building in this novel. It reminds me of the Jade City trilogy by Fonda Lee

I was drawn with the magical realism and the historical fiction in Shanghai + the Chinese mythology. I am able to imagine the scenery and the vibe/atmosphere about the 1920s.
But overall, at the end of the book, something was unsatisfying. The plot seemed to have some struggle with keeping me engaged.

Daughter of Calamity was a feast for the imagination. The setting, the variety of characters, the twists and turns of the story - I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would have loved if the book could have been even longer while keeping the same brisk pacing. There were so much more to this world that I wanted to explore.

From the dancehalls, to a hidden speakeasy, to temples of ancient goddesses, everything is covered in the neon fog of Shanghai’s nightlife. I was in love with the setting and the cast of characters that brought it to life.

Daughter of Calamity is set in 1930s Shanghai, but thrown into the mix is a dark criminal underworld, magical shamans, and a powerful, vengeful goddess. The heart of the story, however, concerns is a group of showgirls from the Paramount Club who are somehow having their faces stolen. Eyes, lips… they are torn from the girls’ faces, leaving a swirl of darkness in their place. And those same features later begin to appear on the city’s wealthy elite.

The dark atmosphere, mythology, and historical glamour were some of the driving factors keeping me ensnared in this story.

Paired with Rosalie M. Lin’s incredibly descriptive writing and her ability to capture great pacing for this story, this surprisingly turned into a book I had a hard time putting down.

I particularly enjoyed the twists. Maybe I was too caught up in the atmosphere of the story to see them coming, but they took me by surprise, which made me enjoy the reading experience even more. I definitely felt fully immersed in this book.

The world building, although having a lot of mythological elements, drew from various periods of history and also included a lot of cultural history as well. This added so much depth to the characters, the setting, and the story.

I’m looking forward to more books from this author - there’s no doubt in my mind that I will read them. That being said, I’m hoping that her next book isn’t a sequel - I’d rather see more of what the author’s imagination can bring to life, rather than a continuance of this book.

Highly recommend.

Special thanks to #NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a DRC!

This book was just fine. I expected a bit more from it and wanted to be fully invested in the characters and their stories but found myself not being so, which left me a little disappointed.

The vibes with reading Daughter of Calamity were this: dancing under the stars. Adore, adore, & adore the beautiful and intriguing writing Rosalie offers with this novel. You emerge into poetry with every page that you turn. On the outside, Daughter of Calamity centres around a life of extravagance and amusement, but when you delve deeper, you are thrust into a world of chaos and face-stealing monsters.

Daughter of Calamity follows Jingwen, who performs as a showgirl for the Paramount (a club). She lives a double life, from performing and competing with the other showgirls to being a successor to her grandmother, who is famous for her craft. This is where it gets dark; this reimagining of ShangHai has an operation run by gang members with limbs that aren’t human. The more pages I turned, the more I was immersed into this captivating world that wasn’t what it seemed like on the outside. It’s a world that merges both the old city and the new. It felt as if I was part of an exclusive club, and every drink that I was offered had the potential of being poisoned.

I especially enjoyed visualising the glamorous stage that bonded and divided the cabaret girls. These characters never failed to make an impression. They are all ambiguous and allow you to question your morality. Another element that I focused on was all of the relationships that took place, whether that was through Jingwen’s companions, her family, or even her love interest. As someone with a complicated relationship with her family, I find Jingwen’s inner thoughts and how she plays her strings incredibly relatable. She proves to be a strong character who has her flaws, but that makes her such a realistic character whose desires to protect her loved ones and change the city she adores (for the better) drive her to become the person that she is. As for Jingwen and Zikai, their relationship makes you swoon! I was blushing during all their interactions. So adorable! Their romance doesn’t completely take over the story, which I loved.

Overall, Daughter of Calamity offers a provoking atmosphere; it is extravagant but also unsettling. You can imagine it as a dark retelling of Shanghai in its golden age and it’s perfect for those who enjoy a little mischief with a touch of anticipation and glamour.

I felt very bored reading this and the story felt very hollow to me. Was there even really a plot? Not sure

Jingwen leads two lives: as a Shanghai showgirl, competing with other women for wealthy foreigners and as a gopher for her grandmother, relaying amputated bones from her grandmother’s operations to a local gang. The worlds collide when Jingwen finds out facial features are being magically and mysteriously stolen from other dancers.

It’s a compelling set-up that paints a lush picture of a bifurcated world torn between new and old Shanghai, West and East, and so on. I think this is beautifully represented with how Jingwen goes by different names in each world.

I liked a lot of this, but I got bogged down in trying to understand how the magic worked, specifically what was possible and what wasn’t. It reminds me a bit of Anatomy: A Love Story where the story is set in a world identical to our own except science is closer to magic, and the characters operate some magic with utter nonchalance but are completely baffled by other magics with no discernable difference to the reader. I think the gap between the reader and the book characters can be really interesting – it’s a chance to occasionally remind the reader how this familiar world is so alien – but it was less successful here and made for a frustrating read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of Daughter of Calamity by Rosalie M. Lin!

I loved this book. The premise stayed in my mind for months after I read it. Writing was really, really good.

Gorgeous world building informed by a rich sense of history and imagination. A glamorous, cosmopolitan society built on crime and corruption and decay....at once a familiar dynamic, told in a very imaginative unique way. Beautiful urban fantasy storytelling here.

Daughter of Calamity follows Jingwen, a Jazz Age Shanghai club showgirl enamored with the city's duality of bright lights and dark alleys. As patrons from each find their way to her club, Jingwen finds being swept into their paths consuming and difficult to navigate. As thrilling danger and unparalleled luxury threaten to compromise her morals and her family, Jingwen has to pick a side before her city crumbles under the strain.

After the dancers at the club incite a semi-friendly competition to find the wealthiest, most powerful date to the upcoming ball, a horrific tragedy strikes one of the dancers as she's maimed on the floor. Jingwen is understandably shaken by this, but she's soon distracted with a mysterious ex-pat patron, keen to become her benefactor. Jingwen finds no solace at home as her grandmother, a kind of mystical, underground surgeon to the gangs that run Shanghai, pressures her to take over the family business. As she's pulled between duties at the club, her aging grandmother, festering gang activity, her potential benefactor, and the sinking feeling something is very wrong with the city as the attacks on her peers skyrocket, Jingwen must find a way to weave these loose ends back into the fabric of the city she loves before its too late.

Lin does a great job of painting Shanghai's picture. The descriptive detail given to the streets cramped with clubs, restaurants, temples, and tiny apartments brings them to life, giving the reader a sense of place so strong that you can practically feel the glow of the street lanterns and smell the offerings on the food vendors' carts outside the clubs. Jingwen's love for the city drips from the pages. The story is fresh, and it pulls in the reader from early on, often leading you somewhere unexpected. From there, things get a little muddled.

The story has interesting elements at every turn, but the sheer volume of these ended up sacrificing some depth of the characters experiencing them. The fantastical and horror elements almost feel like an afterthought when they could easily be the driving element here. Outside of the already complex plot, a few additional asides lack the time and detail to serve as an extra layer and end up feeling like an afterthought. These dabble in everything from Jingwen's view on spirituality to her relationship with her mother and from a would-be love triangle to mystical mechanical birds. While they serve as minor elements, the level of detail feels unbalanced with their place in the tale. It would've served better to extend the novel's length and build up more depth to these elements or perhaps thin a few of them out even further to streamline the packed story.

From the description, Daughter of Calamity sounds like something I would devour. I read this book back in May, intending to review it for Wyrd & Wonder. While this review comes late primarily due to my own schedule, it’s also partially because every time I sit down to write about it, I don’t know what to say. I liked it alright, I guess, but it felt sluggish to get through?

The plot described above in the copy sounds quite compelling, with a fast pace and high stakes. However, I found it too stop and go. Possibly, this is a case of too much happening in one story. I wanted more of certain plot elements and wondered when the main plot would pick up again. The ‘power of gods’ and stealing faces elements that link to the fantasy aspects of the book aren’t explored to their full potential. I did make a note at the book’s conclusion “that’s kind of dope”, though, so it does end on a high point, haha.

The prose also hindered my ability to clip through this book. Kasia over on Goodreads wrote, “It’s actually pretty difficult for me to decide if this book was underwritten or overwritten.” Yes! A lot of minutiae is detailed, bogging down parts of the story, but when it comes to the most fascinating parts (ie the fantasy elements), little is described.

Jingwen at least is a fun protagonist, with her cabaret girl attitude and daring manipulations of everyone around her in order to achieve her personal goal of helping the girls who faces are being stolen. Her actions seem sometimes at odds to that goal, though, and are a contributing factor to why the plot feels clunky start and go. But I enjoyed her dynamic with various characters, such as the other dancers, her grandmother and mother, and foreigner Bailey. I didn’t care for her romance subplot, though. She finds her cocky love interest “infuriating” for a good chunk of the book. That is my least ‘favourite’ romance dynamic but you may appreciate it more if you’re a fan of that trope!

The Bottom Line 💭
I would still say Daughter of Calamity makes for an impressive debut. I enjoyed many of the individual elements. They just didn’t come together in a compelling way.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

"Daughter of Calamity" was one of those books that started great. I liked the premise and the writing style, but then I began to struggle. It couldn't keep my interest and started to not invest in the characters as I would have hoped. Unfortunately, this story wasn't for me.

Glamorous 1930s Shanghai Fantasy

Daughter of Calamity by Rosalie M. Lin is a historical fantasy novel set in the dazzling and dangerous world of 1930s Shanghai. The story follows Jingwen, a talented showgirl at the Paramount, one of the city's most lavish nightclubs. Jingwen competes ruthlessly to charm wealthy patrons while balancing a double life as a messenger for her physician grandmother. The plot thickens when a series of cabaret dancers are attacked, their faces stolen by cruel magic and appearing on wealthy foreign socialites. Jingwen fears she could be next and is drawn into a web of intrigue, glamour, and danger.

Daughter of Calamity is a compelling read for fans of historical fantasy and dark, atmospheric storytelling. Rosalie M. Lin’s debut novel offers a richly textured glimpse into 1930s Shanghai, blending elements of glamour, danger, and magic. While it may have some minor flaws in character development, the novel's strengths lie in its vivid setting, intricate plot, and the moral complexities faced by its protagonist. Overall, it is a promising start for Lin and a worthwhile addition to the genre.

I really wanted to love this book but ultimately it fell a little short for me. I could not connect with the characters but I did enjoy the writing.