Rosalie M. LinReseñas

"In Shanghai, we are allowed to wear multiple skins, which we collect over our lifetimes and store away for when we need them."

The decadence of 1930's gangster-run Shanghai glitters in this fantasy novel starring a dancer with deep ties to the underworld.

Jingwen skirts the edges of trouble, delivering human bones for her surgeon grandmother who makes a living giving gangsters robotic parts in exchange for their human counterparts. As a cabaret dancer, she's trying to find the richest date to bring to the Christmas dance. But when she attracts the attention of one wealthy expat at the same time as dancer's faces start to get stolen, she finds that Shanghai's dangers are closer than she ever dreamed.

Decadent, dreamy prose shine through a complicated plot, where some of the main action occurs in drug-induced hazes. While villains and their role in bringing ferocious gods to life was not always clear, the book introduces the reader to a beautiful world. My favorite part was when Jingwen visits a secret, underground nightclub, where the flamboyance of the pageantry contrasts with the drug-induced experiences.

At the heart of this glitzy romp of a fantasy is a love story with a city: Shanghai as it was.

Jingwen is a dancer in Shanghai in the 1930s. Her grandmother, who raised her, is a doctor… and works for one of the local high ranking gangs. Jingwen does errands for her grandmothers to make extra money; this is dangerous as these errands often involve gangsters. She dances in the evenings where men buy dance tickets to dance with the girls, and during the day, she is learning a routine with a group of dancers (none have had formal dance training) so they are not well-known nor particularly sought after.

An American doctor-turned-businessman dances with Jingwen one night and charms her (and/or vice versa?)), but at the dance, there is a horrifying scream. One of the other dancers is crying on the floor and when she turns her face up, they see her lips have been cut off.

The next day, the building and dance company Jingwen is dancing with during the day has been bought and she, herself, is going to be the next star of the company. They are switching from ballet to traditional Chinese dancing (this type of dance is new to all the dancers).

There is a lot going on! It does all end up meshing together, with Chinese mythology and fantastical elements weaved in, as well. The mythology was told like a story-within-a-story (which I’m not a fan of), so I kind of skimmed that. Also not a big fantasy fan, so the fantasy stuff didn’t peak my interest, either. The book was very dark. I like horror, so the “type” of darkness in a book doesn’t always bother me, but dark mysteries, for example, are not always appealing to me. The darkness in this book also didn’t “do it” for me. I really didn’t like any of the characters in the story, either. So, this one is definitely not for me.

I really had trouble getting interested in the storyline. I think I needed more of explaination of into the world at the beginning to understand. However I did find the actual word description quite lovely.