Reviews - Shanghai Immortal

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674 reviews for:

Shanghai Immortal

A.Y. Chao

3.38 AVERAGE

tasha5492's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional funny 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

vivisreadingpages's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Cute. Would recommend to a younger me. Funny. Loved Lady Jing and Gigi

lyzus's review against another edition

3.0

fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

It was okay.

Some of the dialogue was awkward/YA trying to be adult, and the choice of first person + present tense writing was strange. The decision of “turd eggs” as a regular term was one I did not enjoy 😂

Some of the descriptions were beautiful and the scenes of immortal Shanghai had the essence of Spirited Away which was very nice.

sarawyrl's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous funny hopeful 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

marimoose's review against another edition

3.0

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book (which, I know I know, is a bit late)!

I think I would have liked this well enough if my expectations had been tempered to young adult complexities found in this book. Shanghai Immortal was designated as an adult book, but it read a bit on the YA side and dealt with a character saddling the intricacies of several different worlds and yet not feeling that sense of belonging (almost teetering on a coming of age tale...but for divinity). I admired that, and in some sense, I could relate.

But for some reason it was also hard to believe that a character at almost 100 years of age could act as though she was a rebellious 16-y-o. It took until the end of the book for me to realize why: a majority of the antagonistic characters were just as immature.

I did like Lady Jing's eventual development, and things were interesting when she and Mr. Lee were in mortal Shanghai. The tie-ins of Chinese folklore and mythology were cool, and eventually even the awkward turns of phrases and crude terminology became background noise. Still, it wasn't quite the book I was expecting.