Lady Jing is half vampire, half fox spirit and she's the king of hell's ward. The story follows Lady Jing who wants to escape her low status and unravel an old mystery. Along the way, she gets involved with a human named Tony Lee. This story was chaotic, fun, interesting and at some parts even funny. 3.5 stars!

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

The humour of this book put me off entirely and while the growth of immature characters into something more can be done well and enjoyable, I'm personally over reading it.

weird… dragon thing was cool but confused about the 2 shanghais and world building. like what was she exactly and why did those ladies want that pearl so badly?

I didn’t know what to expect when I read this book but I was pleasantly surprised and I actually really enjoyed it! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to love this but I just felt disconnected from the story. The juxtaposition of the Gatsby era feel of the characters but Lady Jing cussing like a middle schooler who just found out they could swear was off putting. Im not opposed to swearing in book I’m just not a fan when it detracts from the story. I haven’t seen the word fart, turd, and piss so many times since I was on my public school bus in middle school. It just gave the book a very childish feel while also including action scenes that seemed more adult. I think fans of Song of Silver Flame Like Night would love this. Lady Jing has the same acquired taste as Lan.

I did enjoy the Chinese folklore and the fact that this story includes vampires and fox spirits. That was a really fun twist and the ending of the story did pick up and get more exciting. Overall this isn’t a bad story by any means it just wasn’t a personal favorite of mine. I appreciate the cultural aspects that were included and know that the author wanted a character who was headstrong and pushed back against societal norms. All of these things were wonderful I just felt like this story was a miss for me.

Thank you Hodderscape and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC

i'm of two minds about this one. on one hand i found the world to be vivid and fun, and the general pace of the book to be quick moving and interesting. on the other hand i found the main character's sense of humor to undermine the good of the book, as well as being very distracting. oh well

4,5 stars. That was wild, unexpectable, and fun!! This is a one-of-a-kind cozy fantasy haha

Lady Jing is part hulijing, part vampire. and even though her grandmother is the matriarch of the hulijing court, every single hulijing court member HATE her because of her dirty"foreigner" vampire blood. She believed that her mother sold her to the King of Hell to be able to buy big diamonds. That makes her mindset skeptical and prejudiced the worst in everything. She loves to cause all sorts of trouble, and lying is as natural as breathing for her.

One day she met a human, a guest of the King of Hell himself: Mr. Lee. their interactions starting out funny with Lady Jing thought that he's a blood supply gift for her and he carried a fake protective talisman so Lady Jing had to do extra protections from hungry deities. After all, she doesn't want to disappoint her guardian.

The strongest aspect of this book is the character dynamics and the banter. Also the story's narrated using Lady Jing's voice which is sassy and interesting. She's truly a Mood and has Behaviors lmao. She reminds me of Vanja from Little Thieves which was surprising because apparently there's more layers about her past that shaped her mindset:(

The character interactions were naturally amusing!! I giggled a lot by the absurdity of the conversation. But started from &0% mark towards the end, the vibes turned somber a bit. not in a tragic way but achingly heartwarming? if that make sense.

I have some reasons on why I didn't give it 5 stars:
- the world building was pretty hard to imagine, and the way the author used 3 different names for the same location didn't help (Hell, Yin Shanghai, Immortal Shanghai)
- A lot of names & social status were threw at my face at the beginning of the book which make the story a bit hard to follow. Then at one point I decided that I don't care about them (bc apparently most of them didn't appear agaiin later) then I started to be able to enjoy the story better.
- the author used a lot of Chinese words and there's no glossary in the book. Good thing Kindle has automatic definer to help this non-Chinese reader

Overall it's a nice debut, but the ending felt to early, will there be a sequel???? I still want to read Lady Jing & Mr. Lee's adventure:(

🧧🀄Shanghai Immortal🀄🧧

(I received an ARC from NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review.)

Half vampire and half fox spirit, Lady Jing is probably the sassiest B (and I say that lightly) in all Shanghai. This adult fantasy debut from AY Chao introduces us to an immortal world parallel to the mortal world where adventures and hijinks are clearly the norm.

Shanghai Immortal is a fast-paced comedic adventure, peppered with all kinds of language; feisty, sassy, hilarious, and everything all over again in Mandarin phrases. It is quite a delight having to read Lady Jing's mutterings.

Though she is pegged at almost a century old, for an adult fantasy Lady Jing still gives off a teen YA vibe with the way she thinks and talks. I recommend reading this when you're in a lighthearted mood and itching for some laughs.

The book feels very plot-centered despite the world it is set in, which I felt was not built up enough to fully reveal and understand it. If you are familiar with Chinese fantasy, or speak Mandarin yourself, most of the terms used would be easily understood as they are glossed over and only briefly described.

There are a number of characters present and introduced in the book but I feel like this is more of an introduction to Lady Jing and her narrow view of her world so we don't really get to see or understand the other characters as they could potentially be. Hopefully we get to see more of these issues addressed in future books.

I've been struggling to form an opinion on this. In my opinion this was much more of a YA novel than an adult - Lady Jing acted like a sulking toddler for most of the story, throwing hissy fits every few pages and using language like "piss farts" and solely referring to breasts as "tatas" made me uncomfortable throughout.

I loved the premise of this book and the last 10% especially was really engaging (even if there was a huge tonal shift from the rest of the book). I would have loved to see more of the fox-spirit, I feel like it was something that was brought up at the start and not mentioned again. Gigi was the best character and the most developed in the book and I'd like to explore her story more.

<i>Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

On paper, this book should have been everything I was looking for: an adult fantasy novel set in 1930's Shanghai featuring Chinese mythological elements. However, that initial promise didn't quite live up to my expectations.

I immediately struggled with this novel. The first person narration written in the present tense was jarring, although I did eventually get used to it. The main character, Lady Jing, was described as someone who was fierce and fiery, but I wasn't prepared for just how immature she would be. Frequent repetitions of "ta-tas" and "piss-fart" continually took me out of the moment and made it difficult to concentrate on what was actually being said.

The pacing, overall, was also a challenge. I found myself, at multiple points throughout the novel, wondering when I would finally reach the point of the plot. For me, that wasn't until about 80% of the way in, the rest having been dedicated to world-building and establishing characterization. When things finally started to come together, I found it difficult to really care about the stakes or the outcome. It was easier to settle in and enjoy my time reading once I began to think of the it as a mislabelled Young Adult novel, but that first impression was still a challenge to overcome.

Overall, if you're looking for a novel with a strong-willed, outspoken, insecure, and irreverent main character, <i>Shanghai Immortal</i> has that in spades. While I'm curious to see where the story will go in the rest of the planned trilogy, I'm not sure if I'll be sticking with it in order to find out.

🪻 ARC

I absolutely enjoyed this one!
I loved the setting and the characters.
Amazing wordbuilding and a really fun read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC!

I went into this book with high expectations, I've been seeing glowing reviews non-stop. For me, this book fell flat. The FMC fell a bit flat, seemed quite immature. The book didn't read like a an adult book whatsoever. It felt more YA. I also didn't like the use of the slur "imbecile" whilst yes, this comment was made by a hateful group in the book, it's not really corrected in the book or shown that it's wrong whereas another slur that is used at various points throughout the book, something is down about that. These are the sole reasons I rated this 3 stars.

That being said, I did quite like the world. It was a fairly enjoyable read. I got through it quite quick. I would recommend this book if you're interested in vampires, but don't go into the book thinking it's purely about vampires, because its not, which was quite refreshing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I think this book may have been one of my biggest disappointments this year. I eagerly anticipated it and when I finally read it, I found it incredibly underwhelming and cared very little for the story and characters. In fact I found the main character a little annoying, but maybe that’s just how I feel about most, if not all, “sasshole” characters.

I was given an Arc copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I absolutely loved this book! It had me laughing out loud in some parts!

I went into this book thinking it was something totally different than it actually was and I was so pleasantly surprised.

The main character, who is half vampire and half fox spirit, was funny and witty. However at the beginning her childish attitude kind of put me off for a bit!

I am pretty sure this is marketed as an adult but it very much reads like a YA. But don’t let that put you off of the book it was very well done!

All in all I couldn’t get enough of it. Will be recommending it and buying a physical copy for my shelf!

This book really took me by surprise! When I picked it up I was expecting (in typical fantasy fashion) a more serious but also lush writing style. However, this book starts off witty and sarcastic and truly hilarious. I absolutely love our MC and how, because she is immortal and has lived for so long, she doesn't worry about the same things us humans normally would such as propriety.

I really enjoyed all of the different creatures and how they were written. I have always LOVED vampires and in recent years I also found a love for the kitsune! They were both written so well but most importantly, so uniquely!

This story was such a wild ride and the MC truly had my whole heart. She is chaotic and has an unbreakable kind of strength.

I loved this book so much!

Thank you so much to A.Y. Chao, Hodder & Stoughton, and NetGalley for my e-ARC!

This is adult fantasy, and the first in a trilogy.

Our main character is half vampire, half fox spirit, and live in Hell as a ward of the king. She does not fit in with the nobility and is not well thought of by the guards as she kind of runs riot, but when she overhears plans to steal a dragon pearl from the king and no one will listen to her, she decides that she's going to be the one to sort this out.

And when she's tasked with guarding a mortal, that gives her the opportunity to secretly investigate while getting in various scrapes in both hell and in mortal Shanghai.

Plus there is maybe a chance for some romance with the mortal!

I really liked this, the tone is joyful and refreshing. This is adult fantasy and our main character is 100 years old (so flipping the standard age difference gender-wide with out young mortal man) , but at the same time, 100 is young for her people so she does sort of behave as someone in their late teens.

I just really liked the main character, I liked her approach to life, I liked that she was stroppy but upbeat and taking joy in new things (despite trauma in her past) that she comes across in mortal Shanghai.

The romance is sweet rather than spicy, she is very much clueless in that regard and doesn't see it coming, doesn't expect anyone to be interested in her.

4.5 stars!

The premise of this book seemed so interesting with Lady Jing being a half vampire, half fox spirit and the adventure she goes on. The idea for the book seemed like it would be the perfect read. However, this book fell flat for me.

The main thing for me is, that this book is marketed as an adult fantasy but reads very much like YA. As well, the main character continuously says words like piss-fart, dog-fart, turd-egg, and ta-tas which made her sound very immature. With the use of these terms it made me want to DNF the book but I pushed through as I did enjoy the writing style of the author and that's what made the book enjoyable. I just was not a fan of who Lady Jing was and her character.

In addition to this, the love interest developed out of nowhere. There was very lacklustre connection between the two and it just seemed out of place in the novel. The romance between the two was not developed well. As well, not much happened in this book. I really did want to enjoy this but it was not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this e-ARC!

I loved this book so much! It took me a little while to get into it because I had a hard time figuring out the lore, but I found Lady Jin to be endlessly charming (even if she's a little rough around the edges), and I finished the last half of the book in a near marathon sprint because I couldn't put it down! It's something I maybe wouldn't have ordered for the library before but definitely will now!

Ta-Tas. I tried to move past the use of the word. I failed. Not only the use of that word, but also the over describing of things leaving very little for the reader to absorb.

Shanghai Immortal by A. Y. Chao is an enchanting literary masterpiece that takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the captivating city of Shanghai. From the very first page, Chao's vivid storytelling and meticulous attention to detail transport you to a world where ancient traditions seamlessly blend with modern marvels.

The book explores the mystical allure of Shanghai, delving deep into its rich history, vibrant culture, and the enduring spirit of its people. Chao's descriptive prose paints a vivid picture of the city's bustling streets, majestic architecture, and the contrasting landscapes that make Shanghai a truly unique destination.

One of the book's most commendable aspects is the author's ability to effortlessly weave together multiple storylines and characters, creating a tapestry of narratives that converge and intertwine in unexpected ways. The diverse cast of characters adds depth and authenticity to the story, allowing readers to form emotional connections and experience the city through their eyes.

Moreover, Chao's meticulous research shines through in the book, as the historical accuracy and cultural nuances are impeccably portrayed. From the opulent lifestyles of Shanghai's elite to the everyday struggles of ordinary citizens, the author captures the essence of the city and its people with remarkable precision.

Shanghai Immortal is a literary gem that captivates readers with its lyrical prose, evocative imagery, and an intriguing plot that keeps you engrossed until the very last page. The book not only entertains but also educates, offering valuable insights into Shanghai's past, present, and the possibilities of its future.

In conclusion, A. Y. Chao's Shanghai Immortal is an extraordinary work of fiction that deserves high praise. It is a mesmerizing tribute to the city, a celebration of its timeless beauty, and a testament to the immortality of Shanghai's spirit. Whether you are an avid reader, a history enthusiast, or simply someone seeking an unforgettable literary experience, this book is an absolute must-read.