Thank you, NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton, Hodderscape, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Lady Jin is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit and an absolute sasshole. Pawned by her mother to the King of Hell when she was a child, as his ward she has spent ninety years running errands, trying to control herself, ignoring the taunts of the hulijing courtiers and more. When she overhears one of them planning to steal a priceless dragon pearl from the King, she decides to seize this chance and expose them. With the help of a gentle mortal, who was tasked to set up the Central Bank of Hell, Jing embarks into a dangerous chase through Hell and then mortal Shangai, looking for intel. But some of her hijinks put the mortal into danger and she's forced to ask herself what's more important: save her face and get revenge or get the chance to love?

Sometimes when a book is really hyped I'm a bit cautious and I'm afraid of being disappointed by the story. This was absolutely not the case. Shangai immortal is the MAGNIFICENT debut by A. Y. Chao and it's unbelievably good. It's an adult fantasy debut, with a rich and intriguing worldbuilding, with half spirit, demons, deities, king of Hell, magic and so much more. The main character is Lady Jing and she's AWESOME! All trouble, really sassy, witty and smart, involving herself and a poor mortal into a quest to find intel in order to avenge her loss of face. Deities and demons in jazz age, mortal and immortals, an outstanding tale of Chinese mythology, told with brilliant writing style, intriguing and complex characters and with a plot filled with twists, dangers, love and more.
You can't not fall in love with Lady Jing. She's the best.

My original review for this book wasn't very good - and whilst I stand by some of the points I made, I wanted to come back and revisit it and give it a fair review after some reflection.

I think that the book reads a little more like YA than it does adult - but I don't think that's a bad thing. It was just a little bit difficult to reconcile what I thought I was reading to what I was actually reading.

I also found it a little jarring in the difference between the way that Ling and the others in Hell spoke, versus the way that the people in Mortal Shanghai spoke? It felt like that was the biggest issue for me.

Overall though, I did actually quite like the storyline and the twists, even if I guessed some of them.

A joyful romp through the underworld with one of the most hilarious, wonderful protagonists I've read in a long time.

The biggest problem I had with this book, that I've seen a lot of people discussing as well, is that it is marketed as Adult but reads very YA. The main character is supposedly a hundred years old, but reads very very young - she's very childish and petty, and very juvenile. I really could not get along with her and it made for a disappointing and frustrating reading experience. There were mentions of "ta-tas" and "piss-farts" every other page, and I just ended up skimming because it felt like I was reading the exact same page over and over again. I found it really hard to be invested in the story - it wasn't as exciting or captivating as I would expect a story in this setting to be. But as I said, I just couldn't get past the main character and her incessant whining - I don't think I'll be continuing with this series sadly.

Thank you to the Publisher for the Arc!

I absolutely loved this! it was fast paced and i loved the main character so much!

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC! This review was voluntarily by me.

Actually, I have a tough time reviewing this because I think things that I like and dislike in this novel are nearly balanced, making me think hard about this review. Actually, I don't really feel the romance but I know it is still there. Maybe it is just me that I really like the main characters as friends more than love interests. For Lady Jing, I’m not sure whether I like her or not, I know that her character is not really to my liking but I can see her improving later in the story. One thing that I like is the worldbuilding of yin and mortal Shanghai where the description is vivid and detailed enough. I am actually interested to know more about other yin Chinese cities like yin Beijing like on who lives there and what those cities look like. The writing and the plot is nice even though there are some words that don’t really vibe with me but I think there are quite a number of jokes and hilarious moments in the story but I only get some of them so most of them fell flat. For me, if you are into fantasy set in a quite modern era, this story may be for you.

Rating: 3 - 3.5 ⭐

Thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of Shanghai Immortal. This was a little hard to read with the arc formatting they used but the story was absolutely fantastic and I cannot wait for this to come out in America. I absolutely love Chinese folklore and I know I will have to carry extra copies of this one in my book store

This was exactly what I was looking for in a book! I absolutely love the mmc’s and their dynamics. The writing style was good! I found the pacing was just right!

I enjoyed this book and the concept behind it - Lady Jing is half vampire, half fox spirit and she got bought, or adopted, by the king of Hell. She lives in, well, Hell - which looks a lot like 1930s shanghai because the King wanted to.
The mythology and worldbuilding is rich, and the plot interesting, even though the pace could be a bit uneven at moments, and Lady Jing's character building and burgeoning relationship with a mortal felt sometimes forced, I have to say that I still enjoyed this story a lot and would like to pick up the next book!
This is definitely a strong debut.

I want to thank NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for gifting me an ARC in exchange for an honest revidew.

A fantasy novel taking place during the Jazz Age of Shanghai peaked my interest. I enjoy reading fantasy with historical elements to it. The world-building this novel had a lot of potential but I found it fell flat in a couple areas.

In the first half of the novel, the author created a rich and vivid description of Hell where are main character lives. As the reader is given a tour of this underworld, they are able to discover a unique world.

While I enjoyed the world building in this novel, I felt that the plot was weak and over done. The characters help guide the reader through this book but I found the second half of the novel to drag on. There is a lot of banter between characters and introductions of new settings to distract the reader from the lacking plot.

The novel’s main character Jing is an over the top character. Her behaviours were amusing at first but I found her to be exhausting as I read the book. However, the secondary characters are charming and I enjoyed the scenes when they called Jing out on her behaviours.

Overall, as I contemplate the novel as a whole, I had to rate this book lower. I really wanted to enjoy this book and I may still give this author another chance.

Thank you so much Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc.

I'm really torn on how to review this book. I read half and then DNF. At first, I really loved it, but then it didn't seem like it was going anywhere. The quirkiness of the main character charmed me at first, but then very quickly started to get annoying. This is a character who is supposed to be old, yet it felt like she was a child of about fourteen or so. The premise and world building was great, but the FMC wore on me. I'd like to pick this book up again in the future because I think it has a lot of promise. Maybe I just wasn't in the read head space to enjoy it.

This book has such an amazing plot and world. I was so excited to read this, but I think I was expecting something different. That being said, I think a lot of people will enjoy this one. It did read more YA than I was expecting.

The book was very fast paced and the characters were really interesting. Overall, this was a fun, quick read.

Shanghai Immortal is the first in a new fantasy series that follows Lady Jing, the half-vampire, half-fox spirit ward of the King of Hell. Jing has spent most of her time in immortal Shanghai running errands for the King of Hell and getting into trouble for her temper and manners. When she discovers a plot to steal a dragon pearl from the King, she must team up with a mortal to uncover the plot and expose the courtiers who have spent so many years making her life miserable.

Shanghai Immortal has a really intriguing premise and I really thought this was going to be a book that I fell in love with. The story is fast-paced and there’s plenty of action and adventure to keep the reader hooked. The story felt well written but some of the writing – the terms like tatas and piss-fart really threw me out of the story.

I thought the settings of mortal and immortal Shanghai were really well depicted. They were so vibrant and really came to life. I did wish there was more of a chance to learn more about the different creatures residing in immortal Shanghai but that might be explored more in subsequent books. Lady Jing is a brilliant main protagonist, she’s very sarcastic and there are plenty of humourous moments. I did thing the romance could do with a little more development, but I did enjoy the depiction of female friendship.

Overall Shanghai Immortal was a story with a really intriguing premise that missed the mark a little bit for me. If you’re a fan of fast-paced fantasy stories with a sassy protagonist this could be just the book you’re looking for.

I am amazed by this book, and I loved every minute of it!

It was sassy, witty, entertaining, and charming! The characters, the world, the premise - all hooked me, I couldn't put the book down. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a fun read!

enjoyed this book more than I thought I would! the family dynamics and character arc really made this book for me. this would be a cute animated short film. read this if you want a silly goofy book and a good time.

There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with this book, but the writing style just wasn’t for me. I think it was mostly that my expectations were way off from what the book actually was. It felt juvenile and really drew me out of the story. I went in expecting a more serious tone based on the description, but what I got felt more like a jock telling an exaggerated tale to his buddies. I may be able to listen to the audiobook at some point, but I couldn’t make it past the 20% mark.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodderscape, and A.Y. Chao for an e-arc of Shanghai Immortal in exchange for an honest review.

Shanghai Immortal was a quirky fantasy story following Lady Jing who have both nine tailed fox and vampire inside her blood and living at Shanghai pararel wolds between mortal and Hell. Sound interesting and intriguing enough?

The pace of the story is very fast, and Lady Jing is interesting and full of flaws character. She is free spirit, feisty, wild, easy to provocate and seem found difficult to fit in into her role as King of Hell's ward. She tried to hardened her action to hidden her vulnerable emotions after being abandoned by her own family.

The story started strong and intriguing me. The premise very unique and interesting. I personally love the worldbuilding and want more about it. Some of it actually confusing but I tried to compare with some classic funny Chinesse ghost movies and I found the "picture" of several entities mentioned at here.
The plot feel dragging at middle and less engaging. A fun and very promising debut but totally a wild rollercoaster read.

Thank you Netgalley and Hodderscape from Hodder & Stoughton for provided me with this copy. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was filled with rich imagery that interlaced fantasy with the setting of Shanghai. The main character of Lady Jing has an enviable sense of wit and level of sarcasm that made her easily one of the most relatable main characters that I've read in a fantasy book filled with vampires and fox-spirits. She brought a whole new level of sass and comedy that I wouldn't have realised that book had needed but know it would be lacking without it now. There is nothing I love more, or hate more, than a slow-burn romance however this was crafted so well that it was hard not to love the romance elements in this narrative.

Shanghai immortal
@ay_chao
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This humble one offers gracious words of exuberation and adoration to the virtuous and kindly lady Ay Chao for writing this masterpiece.
Anyway enough flowery piss fart on my review. Let's speak plainly.

Lady Jing is chaotically perfect.
She's absolutely flawed and brash but not a bad person. She still has fears, insecurities and trauma which make her prickly and closed off to people. Yet she is also thoughtful, impulsive, easily hurt and just wants to not be seen as the 'mongrel' most see her as .
Titans, if you were held down by a pack of raging bitch women from your own home and almost drowned from being scrubbed to get the "foreign stench" off you, you'd be a bit prickly too (and afraid of water but I didn't say that 👀).
When you're half vampire and half hulijing (or "the bitch of a fox spirit" in layman's terms) and told you aren't allowed to wear changpaos like the men of immortal shanghai (like seriously how are you supposed to bend your legs in a qipao efficiently?!) you're bound to be a bit off the rails, maybe run around immortal shanghai naked a few times, right? Even Big Wang, the only parental figure she has and even then, when lady soo, her grandmother's favorite handmaiden and Jings biggest rival who has rotted turds for brains consistently prods her and tries to get her in trouble (she started a fire once okay, not twice!), he still makes Lady Jing apologise and be embarrassed infront of the council.
Well no more! When the mortal, Mr Tony Lee turns up to immortal shanghai with a fake amulet, (what kind of person can't tell a real from a fake? One with fermented tofu for brains, that's who!) and lady Jing decides she can use him to catch lady Soo in the act of stealing the dragon pearl that her mother traded to Big Wang for her life (and a big diamond) , it all goes ta tas up when they journey to mortal shanghai and Jings feelings for Tony start to grow... Mostly because of those "too see rolls" and caramels he keeps feeding her. But when he finds out her plan was to use him all along before the feelings arose, Tony tells her a few home truths (and lies, the hypocritical piss fart). When Jing is then captured by her grandmother of the hulijing everything turns around and starts making more and more sense.
This book is hilarious, emotional and also very telling about women, mostly in Chinese cultures but also all around the world being told "no this is for men only, you're a woman, you can't do that" and kicking them in their virtuous peaches when we show them how much better we can do it when given the chance.
An incredibly well written book that I couldn't put down!

Set during the jazz age where both mortal and immortal realms of Shanghai coexist, Shanghai Immortal follows Jing, a half-fox spirit, half-vampire netherworld dweller whose latter half makes her the subject of scorn for an entire court of fox spirits, including her own maternal grandmother. Fortunately, she doesn’t have to live with them as the Big Wang, King of Hell has long made her his ward. Instead, when she’s not off doing her own thing, she does what Big Wang tells her to — albeit reluctantly and/or mulishly at times.

Thus, begins the story where Jing finds herself having to deliver the mortal Mr Lee to Big Wang. This mortal turns out to be a key figure for Big Wang’s planned, massive project that could make obsolete the power and standing of some beings in power. Of course, this upsets those beings and Jing finds herself entangled in an adventure where she grows, becoming a little more mature, a little more grounded in her identity, and a little more secure in regards to where she belongs. Along the way, she also discovers the value and importance of found family, friendship and love.

Personally, I didn’t find this book as funny or sassy as expected (since some of the earlier marketing touted this). Sure, Jing as the narrator does add sass and snark to the tone, plus her couldn’t-care-less attitude makes the story more fun to read. But, this also makes her come off as very immature and too much of a try-hard at being a feisty BAMF. There were many moments when all this felt especially forced too.

Nevertheless, I really liked the interspersed Chinese and literal translations in the narrative as they made everything feel more authentic (they’re funnier when you know the meaning too!). The imagery used to bring the story and its setting to life were delightful as well. I could picture mortal and immortal Shanghai vividly in my mind as I read the book. However, there were places where the plot gets eclipsed by context and expositions which then, dragged the pacing. I still enjoyed reading Shanghai Immortal, though, and look forward to the sequel.