Reviews - Shanghai Immortal

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

674 reviews for:

Shanghai Immortal

A.Y. Chao

3.38 AVERAGE

madscientistcat's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Content Warnings

kaveeta's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

aliereads's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

karina_s's review against another edition

5.0

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not what I thought it was going to be in a delightfully unexpected way. It is full of humor and mischief.

Our protagonist, Lady Jing, is a fiery, quick-tempered, half-vampire/demon and half-hulijing fox spirit. She was traded by her mother to the King of Hell when she was young and is now living in immortal Shanghai, running menial errands for the king.

The book centers around her journey to seeking the truth about a plot to steal a highly coveted dragon pearl from the king. Through her adventures, she finds friendships, love, and herself.

To me this book was a cozy fantasy with low stakes. You will love the story if you’re a fan of the found family troupe. I enjoyed reading Jing’s character journey and felt she had a lot of growth from the beginning to the end. She also has a unique voice and says a lot of quirky things that may not be for everyone’s tastes, but I liked it. The love story was unexpected and endearing, and I loved the friendship she formed with the character of Gigi.

I don’t have much to critique. If anything, I would say this book came off to me more in the YA genre, but this could be just Jing’s character quirks giving off that energy. I also thought the ending, while satisfying, felt a little abrupt, and I was left wanting more, so hopefully there is a sequel. Other than that, I didn’t have much to critique, and I enjoyed my reading experience.

allie8973's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 7%

The story, the setting all sound appealing. Even the snarky main character I could get down with but something not jiving with me about the writing. It's too descriptive in places that don't need description. There are too many descriptions and you lose train of thought about what is going on. The dialogue is immature. I could forgive an immature character but unfortunately I'm going to push through this one. The descriptions of the setting are beautiful but yeah not working for me

tamararex's review against another edition

2.0

I so much wanted to like this book - and as far as the story is concerned I did. However, I couldn’t get past the juvenile dialogue (ta-tas, some of the repetitive insults) and the inner monologue of the main character. I was excited to see that the characters were above 18 and was hoping they would act like it, and I get that being 100 in immortal terms is young, but it didn’t feel adult at all.

I really enjoyed the way the yin and yang Shanghais were described and the nods to actual historic figures and places. It felt immersive as far as that goes, but it was just so hard to get past Lady Jing being so immature and hard to deal with.