674 reviews for:

Shanghai Immortal

A.Y. Chao

3.38 AVERAGE

adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
slow-paced
lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
adventurous funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I was really looking forward to this book. It’s set in the 1930’s in a parallel world to Shanghai. The Shanghai we’re in is the hell version, known as Immortal Shanghai which is where the name of the book comes from 📖

We follow our main character, Lady Jing, who is a vampire, as she tries to solve an ancient mystery. I found Jing to be very unlikable, especially her dialogue which felt like it was trying to be funny but missed the mark 🧛‍♀️

The world building had so much potential, but it was lost in the too long explanations and too long scenes. The pacing was off, the first 80% or so felt far too slow/dragged out, then the last bit was far too fast 😕

I did enjoy the relationship between Jing and Mr Lee, it was pretty cute. There’s no spice in this book, but we do get to see some light romance ❤️

A historic setting, vampires, ancient mystery and hell sounded right up my street, but it didn’t live up to my expectations 🙁
adventurous lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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
adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
adventurous mysterious medium-paced
lighthearted slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No