4/5

A story of power, corruption, greed, and redemption. Jingwen is a cabaret dancer in 1930's Shanghai, where her main priority is to appeal to wealthy, foreign socialites. Her grandmother, though, is a surgeon with ties to the Blue Dawn gang. As Jingwen begins to understand the underworld of Shanghai, she gets pulled into conflict that she could have never imagined. With confrontations against gods, men, and shamans, this dark historical fiction is full of adventure.

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"Daughter of Calamity" was beautifully written, with Lin's vivid imagery painting amazing images into your head. The story was very interesting, with nuanced enemies, causing me to challenge my own understandings of "good" and "evil". But there were always conflicting ideals at play -- traditionalism vs. modernism, globalization vs. localization, technology vs. spirituality. Yet Lin's nuanced take showed there can be evil in any ideal, and maybe we just need to embrace change while actively working to ensure those we love are safe.

While I loved the way the story came together, it's definitely a slow burn. The author introduces many characters/ideas throughout the story, and you will think these are minor details until they aren't. Normally, I'm not interested in slow-paced reads, however, I'm so glad I gave this a chance. I will say, the first plot-driver happens around the 25% mark, the book picks up a bit more around the 50% mark, and then it's an absolute page-turner from the 70% mark until the end. Patience really is a virtue here!

I definitely recommend this book and I'm looking forward to future works by Rosalie M. Lin!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an opportunity to read an ARC of this book. First, can we please talk about this gorgeous cover?! It sucked me in, and then I read Shanghai, gangs, and dancers losing faces. Heck yeah!

While the writing in this book is beautiful, and premise appears to promise a story of adventure and mystery, the pacing was overall slow and made it a bit of a slog. I thought I had reached the end and I couldn't figure out why there were 3 more chapters. I thought there would be much more story behind Jingwen, her mother and her grandmother, but I feel like that fell short.

This was a bit of a miss for me overall.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

This book depicted such a magical take on Shanghai and all of its layers. You can tell that this is the author's passion project, and the storyline unfolds in a really interesting way that keeps you engaged. However, my only gripe is that the narrator's internal monologue would take me out of the storyline. She'd be having a conversation and then would be thinking about something else completely different in the monologue, which is fine, but I would've appreciated a little more integration. 3.5/5

Gorgeous prose and inventive setting, but this ultimately failed to pull me in. Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the opportunity to check this title out in advance of release!

~I received an ARC of Daughter of Calamity from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review~

Daughter of Calamity develops a steampunk universe in early 1900s China set after the Opium Wars. Jingwen, the main character is a cabaret dancer who experiences some of her peers being attacked and parts of their faces being stolen away. The premise of the story is interesting and the development is complex.

I definitely liked the cyberpunk and fantasy aspects of the story and Rosalie Lin makes a detailed effort to lay out the aspects of Shanghai culture through language and imagery to develop the story.

I think at some point Jingwen's motivations get a little unclear and her development gets a little lost, but, I do appreciate the relationships between the women in this story.

An interesting tale to be sure.

I really wanted to love this story, it has such an exciting premise but the way that it’s written is not something I enjoyed, nor do I think it serves this type of story.

I’m really not a fan of the narrative style. The constant use of simile (every damn page has a simile) feels like it’s trying to be a more artistic style than it’s actually achieving. The dialogue is stunted and unnatural, it feels like robots talking to each other. The main focus is on the atmosphere of 1930’s Shanghai with a secondary focus on the action of the plot, but that’s kind of all it has going for it. The characters are fairly flat and lifeless, they don’t feel like real people and lack any unique tone or depth.

I’d give this book 2 stars strictly because the setting delivered exactly what I expected, and it was the highlight of the story. But everything else really wasn’t working. I’d say the author was going for a gritty dark theatrical movie feel, but that really doesn’t work in a novel the way it does on screen.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc!

This book was beautifully written, with scenes that are so well described you feel almost like you can step into them. The setting manages to combine glamour and danger. What kept me at arm's length was the characters and rather slow pacing.

I received an ARC of this via NetGalley.

Dancers, gangs, and gods all fight for control in the dark and glamorous streets of Shanghai.

Jingwen leads a double life as a showgirl by night, and a money runner for her grandmother, a surgeon for the most powerful gang in the city, by day. Jingwen strives for the glitz and glam, but it comes at a dangerous price, one she comes to know all too well.

I was drawn in by the premise, but was slightly let down by the execution. I feel like the author should have spent more time detailing Jingwan and her motives. We were thrown into the action, and I prefer a more personal start with the MC. Thankfully, the atmosphere is top notch. I loved Shanghai and all its glamor. If you prefer action over characterization, this story is a better fit.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

Daughter of Calamity sounded so interesting, between the historical Shanghai setting and the mystery of the cabaret girl’s faces, I was really looking forward to reading it. This is such a strange book with so many threads and motivations at play. While at its core it is Jingwen’s story of claiming her own power and strength, it is also a story of different forces trying to create their idealized world and the corruption of people coming to steal the resources of the city. It’s such an interesting blend of Shanghai culture and beliefs being subsumed in some senses by the European forces coming into the city. I don’t know how I feel about choices though the story telling was compelling (though slow building in the beginning especially). I like how complex and imperfect all the characters are and that Jingwen isn’t trying to be a good person, per se, but is trying to be good for her community and the future she wants to see. In the end, this was a very intriguing read and I did love the blend of fantastical and normal; I think this is a story I’m going to have to sit with to full absorb and process.

This is a historical fiction with a dash of magical realism. The book is set in the 1930’s in Shanghai’s where there is a lot corruption, crime and greed. The main character, Jingwen is a showgirl and a money runner for her grandmother. Her grandmother works for/with the Blue Dawn gang in Shanghai. There is rival gang wants control of Shanghai and will stop at nothing to get it. The author does an amazing job with description of the setting and really set the tone for a eerie, creepy atmosphere. The first half of the book I was hooked due to this and found that I lost the intrigue for the story as it continued on as I felt it became overly complicated and too many things were going on at once. I found it hard to follow. I felt the book fell flat overall. But with that said, I would definitely give this author another chance as I did enjoy the style of writing. Also the cover art is amazing!

I feel like this was a good first book release, but it wasn’t great. The first half of the book was very slow; I almost stopped reading because it didn’t start to pick up until after 40% through.

The author writes some beautiful passages with gorgeous sentences that caused me to pause, reread, and appreciate the beauty of her writing. And then other times I felt like I was reading words for the sake of words as opposed to really moving the plot along.

The ending felt rushed and a little too “happily ever after” for the rest of the book. All told, I’m not upset I read it, but it isn’t a book I will be recommending.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this but unfortunately this one is a DNF for me. The world building was good but I had a hard time getting into the story itself.

First time from this author and not sure i will read anything further.

I was so excited to receive this arc but it definitely fell flat. there characters were boring and it definitely didn't keep me engaged. I did finish the book but was very hard to finish and stay engaged. the plot fell flat.

Seems there is nothing to look forward to in the novel or any explanation on what is going on. I just felt confused, rushed and not interested.

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

3.75. I liked aspects of this! Lusciously written, cool worldbuilding and pretty solid writing. I'm quite curious to see what this author does next.

This was a wild ride from start to finish, and I enjoyed every second of it. Through everything the feeling of sisterhood and taking your fate into your own hands even outshone the gods and magic of the world. A beautiful story full of twists and turns that I would gladly read again!

This is a lovely premise, up my alley in all things, but I feel it isn’t as mature or as polished as it needs to be to do the premise justice. It feels very uneven in terms of pace, handing of plotlines (information dumps, arcs evolving and loose ends tying up) and as for depth, it varies from what feels very tangible and well-researched (such as bits about the dance) to handwavy and vibes-only.

I really had trouble getting interested in the storyline. I think I needed more of explaination of into the world at the beginning to understand. However I did find the actual word description quite lovely.

Overall, a really nice story! I enjoyed reading about the characters and the world building was excellent. I’m sure I would want to read more of the author's works.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Although it took me some time to really get into the story, the setting really sucked me in. I loved the creepiness of Shanghai, with all of the mysteries going around- specifically ones about girls face being stolen. I wish the story specifically stuck around that feeling!! I did feel that there were many things happening at once that made me worried in how they would all connect with each other- the more the plot grew, the more I lost interested. While I liked the main character, I did wish there was more character development with her and others. Despite this, it was a fun historical fiction read!

Thank you to St. Martins Press for my arc.


I actually ended up really enjoying this despite it moving at a super slow pace. I loved the world building and the characters as a whole and loved the ending.