Reviews

Shanghai Immortal by A.Y. Chao

lochnessrachel's review

DNF @ 32%. 

FMC is around 90 years old and has reached the age of maturity, but she acts like a petulant teenager. She constantly acts the victim and nothing is ever her fault. 

meags777's review

The writing left MUCH to be desired and did not feel like an adult book at all. I could not connect with it whatsoever.

brookehally's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

farah_sk's review

2.0

MR LEEEEEEEEE （＞ｗ＜ ）

meigothic's review against another edition

1.0

Disclaimer: I received a review copy for free via NetGalley, but I am voluntarily leaving my honest review. Many thanks to the publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, and the author for the opportunity!

You can read the first chapter of the book here: https://www.pastemagazine.com/books/a-y-chao/exclusive-cover-reveal-shanghai-immortal-excerpt-fantasy

I really wanted to like this one, but from the get-go, it was kind of hard for me to enjoy following the POV of Lady Jing, the FMC. This felt more like a coming of age story, which is something I wasn't expecting with the premise. There's nothing wrong with that, but with the super strong sassines coupled with her personality, it just made it hard to connect with her. Again, nothing wrong with an emotional (and slightly immature) character, but it was just jarring to see her reactions to things compared to other characters, especially when the main plot, imo, didn't quite move forward until about 35-40% in.

I wish that we got more with tone and vibes in the environment and the setting, as I personally feel that's lacking as we follow the cast through hell and mortal Shanghai. I was kind of expecting a Baccano-esque jazzy vibes, but I didn't get it here in the tone nor the writing. While we get some worldbuilding and politics in the beginning, I also really wanted more exploration there that didn't just revolve around Lady Jing's past and her grievances around the characters there.

The humor and sass didn't quite work for me either since despite

Spoiler

being 99 years old, she often throws tantrums and gets really emotional and angry when things don't go her way or when people aren't on her side. It can be relatable sometimes (like wanting to wear pants instead of a dress when needing to fight), but it's jarring when the entire rest of the cast are not really like her. There are some catty females, and it's funny to see how Chang'e is depicted here, but it would've been more nice to have more buildup. I don't mind an angry and immature character who goes through growth, but she has repeatedly been like "No one's on my side/believes me!!" and even stomped her foot, etc. and angry cried when she had to apologize to someone for almost half the book. The growth just came too late for me.

Regarding the romance with Mr. Lee, buildup seems slow (which isn't bad -- I LOVE slowburn), but it feels kind forced, and things are awkward and distant in a way as we don't really learn much about him until the latter half. It takes a while for him to be more fleshed out as a lead, and to me stayed one-dimensional for too long as he was very formal.

Spoiler

There was also an early scene where MMC's face slapped against her ass when she threw him over her back, and I think that's supposed to build up tension and add humor. Didn't work for me though, lol.

and I wanted more tension build-up rather than just jealousy.

Diction-wise, in the dialogue, it feels like it's super literal in translation from Chinese. I don't speak Mandarin/Cantonese, but there's definitely flowery words that is brought up very often that the characters straight up go like "please speak plainly", which is fine BUT characters say "speak plainly" SO often that I wish there would be different approaches to this. There's also literal translations of some insults which can be kind of jarring for some like "piss fart" or "turd-eggs". That part actually was more than fine for me because it added to the Shanghai vibes. It's just that she also then says "ta-tas", lol... which I expect was supposed to add to the sass and the time period, but just didn't work for me.

Overall, I really wanted to connect more with the writing and the characters, but unfortunately didn't even by the end, and felt that there could've been more expansion on the vampirism and magic throughout the book, as well as more worldbuilding with setting up the environment rather than the bits that we did get. I did like some scenes with Jing and Mr. Lee in Shanghai, but didn't feel invested in the characters to want to continue the story, assuming there is a sequel.

legallyhot's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad

4.5

At first I wasn’t sure about the main character but she really grew on me as the story progressed and I began to find her incredibly relatable. Deep down she’s just an angry, scared little girl who’s suffered so much abuse and now struggles to fully trust / open up to people. I’m glad she finally found her happiness🩷🫶🩷

cyndqls's review

2.5

okay this was very easy to read because i read it on audio, and so the parts that i struggled with were able to just... happen without me forcing my eyeballs to follow along on the page. i don't think it was bad, and there were parts that were fun but mostly i just sort of felt meh about it? the overall vibes were fun but the tone was surprisingly young and i could not stand the tatas thing. a little cringe but... it is what it is, i guess?

hsaven's review

3.5

3.5

giulia_hikari's review

3.0

Il titolo mi interessava parecchio, ma già alle prime pagine avevo paura che non mi sarebbe piaciuto poi tanto. Non tanto per l'irriverenza della protagonista, quanto più per i termini che utilizza (merda, culo, scoregge e tante altre belle cose) che sebbene possano avere senso da lei, non le trovo adatte al contesto in cui si svolge il tutto. Poi anche il fatto che lei sia una mezza vampira occidentale, mi ha lasciato un po' così.

Alla fine ho continuato a leggerlo e quando ho visto che era anche su Audible ho preferito continuare ascoltandolo (esperienza bellissima, la lettrice è stata molto brava).
La storia, anche se catalogata come fantasy, si basa principalmente sul folklore e tradizioni cinesi e gli eventi sono più che altro "slice of life" potremmo dire che fanno avanzare il rapporto tra lady Jing e Mr Lee principalmente, ma anche con i secondari. Questo non mi è dispiaciuto, perché il punto centrale per me era che Lady Jing si sentisse meno sola, però la risoluzione finale l'ho trovata molto sbrigativa e poco emozionante.
Il personaggio di Mr Lee, poi, solo una bella statuina.

Non mi ha fatto impazzire, ma poteva andare peggio

elizabeth_lepore's review

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Misogyny

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders