In Rosalie M. Lin’s Jazz-Age Shanghai, gods and demons mingle with cabaret dancers and absinthe cocktails. We follow Jingwen, an ambitious young dancer; her family deals with silver-armed gangsters and dubious medicine, but she spends her nights charming wealthy patrons at the Paramount Club until she witnesses a horrific event on the dance floor. Suddenly the city is full of ominous magic, and Jingwen has to untangle friend from foe to save those she loves.

There was a lot of potential in this story, which incorporates Chinese mythology and a fearless heroine. I was reminded of Nghi Vo’s “Siren Queen,” which had a similar setting and cutthroat supernatural atmosphere. There were some very exciting scenes in this book, and lots of surprises, but personally I felt it was missing some deeper characterization; for instance, Jingwen’s relationship with her grandmother was pretty central to the plot, but there was actually very little on-page interaction between the two of them.

The pacing was slow and thoughtful, the prose dense and lyrical, and overall I found the plot was satisfying in its conclusion. While it may not have been a perfect book for me, “Daughter of Calamity” is a promising debut novel with a unique voice.

3.5 stars

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A reimagining of 1930s Shanghai with a touch of gangster historical fantasy mixed in. The story follows a showgirl who spends her nights dancing in one of the most lavish clubs in Shanghai while competing to charm wealthy men. Yet her world of glitz and glamour hides something darker... as girls are being attacked and killed and she'll have to navigate the world of ancient grudges, gangsters, and foreign playboys. Honestly this book sounded so fantastic and fun but ran into the issue that I found many historical books have: it was boring. The book somehow manages to both overexplain and underexplain things. The world is beautiful I will absolutely give the author that, however the actual book itself felt a bit bland and not enough of the characters were actually well fleshed out or interesting. I so badly wanted to like this but it just missed the mark for me. The book mixes in historical crime fantasy with gods and deities and its definitely slow burn. I really just found myself not caring for the main character who's entire personality was : dance, despite going through so many horrific things and then there's the love interest who really didn't even feel like one. Overall, if you enjoy slow slow burn historical books with a touch of romance and crime, I'd say give it a go!

Release Date: June 18,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Daughter of Calamity follows Jingwen, a showgirl at the Paramount night club in Shanghai, as she uncovers the city’s dark underbelly while attempting to get to the bottom of who is killing cabaret dancers.

The shining star of this book, for me, is the atmosphere. The glitz and glamor, the dancing, the mysticism, the darkness, all of it works in beautiful and frightening tandem to create a world I would love to keep reading about. Our main character, Jingwen, is passionate and motivated, but also clever and nuanced and incredibly interesting to follow. While I do think the pacing of this book struggles quite a bit, and some plot points could be ironed out to be less confusing, overall I thought this was a pretty solid fantasy that will have me picking up Lin’s future work for probably years to come.

3.5 stars rounded up
Set in 1930's Shanghai, Daughter of Calamity follows
Jingwen, a dancer at one of the most lavish nightclubs.
Suddenly the faces of other dancers are being stolen
and Jingwen delves into the dark underbelly of what
makes Shanghai glittering facade.

When I first read the synopsis of this I immediately got
Chloe Gong vibes. Not only do we have a similar
setting to her Secret Shanghai series but we have
fantasy meshed with science fiction in the plotline. I
really enjoyed the historical story of colonized
Shanghai. Jingwen was a great leading character. I
really enjoyed her character arc throughout the book. I
also really love the dynamic between the varying
factions of society: the dancers, the gang, the
shamans, the foreigners, etc.

The fantastical elements were interesting. I love a book
based on mythology and Lin does a great job of telling
the mythological story of Xiwangmu within the
historical setting of Shanghai and the fictional life of
Jingwen. While I enjoyed this book, I did struggled
with the length. At about 350 pages, this is by no
means a long book. However, there were parts that felt
much longer. Some of the storytelling and history
didn't quite come full circle.

Overall, if you enjoy mythology woven into fiction,
found family, and a very minor romantic subplot, this is
a great choice! Congratulations on your debut!

In The Daughter of Calamity, I thought Rosalie did a great job of transporting readers to 1930s Shanghai. Thanks to the richness of her descriptions I found myself curious to learn more about China in the 1930s. I also enjoyed the mystery elements of this book and the sisterhood between the cabaret dancers. In general, all the relationships between the female characters in this book were incredibly compelling. Finally, I thought Rosalie did a great job in depicting the impact of colonialism on colonized people in terms of the way that they are forced to adapt to colonization as well as the losses they experience as a result.

Personally, I enjoyed the first portion of the book, with its focus on the mystery, more than the rest. Once the fantastical elements were introduced I felt that the story became difficult to follow and the fantastical elements were never explained to my full satisfaction. Overall though, I found Daughter of Calamity to be a decent freshman novel and will be curious to pick up Rosalie’s future works.

Daughter of Calamity by Rosalie M. Lin is a fantastic debut title.
I don’t think my review can do this book justice.
An intriguing historical fantasy set in Shanghai in the 1930s.
This story had my heart racing to the end.
What a phenomenal debut.

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

I truly enjoyed this story from start to finish. Some of the plot was a bit hard to follow for me at times (mostly because I think I wasn't paying close enough attention) but I loved how the cabaret girls had power in the end! Jingwen, despite being at constant odds with these girls was willing to fight gods to bring them back to themselves and I respect her so much for that. The mobster aspect was also really cool (always loved mobster boys) and I appreciated how they respected women with power too. Zikai was an unexpected favorite too. I didn't think (based off his introduction to the story) that I would like him very much. I was glad to see that I was wrong!

Overall, the combination of gods/magic, and badass girls made this a very enjoyable book. I'm looking forward to anything else this author puts out in the future!!

Thank you to St. Martin’s and Netgalley for this ARC. Unfortunately this didn’t work for me at all and I had to DNF. The premise seemed really intriguing, and the setting was well done. I found the writing to be a bit flowery for my tastes, but it wasn’t terrible. My issue is the dialogue was so fake that it took me out of the story. It was just too hard to get beyond that.

So first thing's first, I want to talk about what I liked most about this book, and that is definitely the way that Lin brings 1930s Shanghai to life in this book. I felt like I could see the sights, hear the sounds, and feel all the feelings that Jingwen is feeling, and I felt like it was a character of its own. This was such a vibrant and lighting in a bottle time period for Shanghai, and the culture really pops and made a huge impression on me in this novel, mostly because Lin just knows how to convey the atmosphere. This book is VERY atmospheric, really. But I think that what didn't work as well for me was the way that the world building felt a bit muddled, and that the magical systems needed a bit more explanation for me. This is especially true as someone who isn't SUPER into fantasy but can get into certain stories if the development is well done. I would probably be interested in reading more from Lin in the future, but this one was a bit of a mixed bag.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this e-arc! 2.5 stars rounded up for me, this had some enjoyable aspects but overall was lacking in multiple ways.

listen, I love a good description - the only reason I liked grapes of wrath was because of all the exposition and description of the settings - but while the descriptions were beautiful, there was not enough actual coherent plot to balance out all the description. I couldn't actually figure out what was going until until maybe 30% of the way through the book and the entire time, I was fighting lin's paragraphs and paragraphs of descriptions of the settings and shanghai and the people, so something I usually love reading mostly just became something that I had to wade through in order to figure out exactly what was going on. even then, the plot simply wasn't clear to me at first? lin introduces elements of the setting and historical background and mythology, but not in a comprehensive way that I feel helps build up the plot - it mostly feels like she's just mentioning random things that are kind of related but not really. in addition, jingwen did not grow on me as a character - she feels shallow and stagnant, and while there are some aspects of her character that I liked, I think I was ultimately unable to connect with her on any level. overall, a bit of a disappointing debut considering the really interesting setting and premise.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Daughter of Calamity by Rosalie M. Lin is a novel that transports readers to the vibrant and tumultuous world of 1920s Shanghai, where the glitter of the Jazz Age meets the shadows of the underworld. Through the eyes of Jingwen a cabaret dancer with aspirations beyond the stage, we are plunged into a narrative that is as much about the pursuit of dreams as it is about the cost of ambition.

Where the story stumbles is that during Jingwen’s journey she encounters extreme violence, and other situations which would deeply impact a person, however Jingwen seems to shrug these things off - which is certainly atypical behavior. Jingwen's personality gives one pause - it is not wholly relatable, and all book lovers know this is a must, because all of us, regardless of our differences, must have areas of common ground, areas where we can mesh with a novel's characters.

However, the novel’s strength lies in its rich setting and the intricate web of characters that move within this setting—each driven by their own desires and secrets.

The story’s magical elements sometimes lack the depth you might seek, they do, however, serve as a compelling backdrop to the human drama unfolding on the streets of Shanghai.

Jingwen herself is a character of contrasts—her resilience and loyalty are as evident as her flaws, making her a protagonist who is frustratingly human.

Rosalie M. Lin’s prose is a tapestry of historical detail and narrative momentum, capturing the essence of an era that was as decadent as it was destructive. Daughter of Calamity is a tale of power and corruption, of love and betrayal, and ultimately, of the choices that define us.

It is a debut that promises much and delivers a story as complex and captivating as the city it celebrates.

This was a hard book to review, as there are parts of this story I enjoyed, other parts of this journey I found unfathomable.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with this e-ARC. My review is not affected by this.

Despite my disdain of recent releases and how they all sound like each other, this book was one of my most hopeful releases of this year. When I requested this on Netgalley last year, I had many high hopes, and maybe it was because of this that I am profoundly disappointed.

There is no doubt that the author is an incredible writer in the literal sense of the word: in this book, she paints a marvellous picture of Shanghai, that is so vivid to the point that it makes me nostalgic of my short time living in China. The descriptions are beautiful and fortunately not overly long, the writing is, for me, very easy to read.

Despite that, I found myself struggling to find interest in reading this book. I can blame that on my current mental state, but also because there is nothing compelling in this book to hold me down. I was very intrigued during the exposition (about the first 20%) but I find myself languishedly bored because the author didn't seem to bother herself with worldbuilding and magic system. This shows the limit of her debut, because the premise has every element buildable towards success, but she didn't seem to find the creativity to develop her outline or to make the story particularly interesting. It didn't help that the main character lacks nuances and the side characters are void of personality. The ending was unfortunately very flat, because everything was tied up neatly with a nice bow, something that I cannot appreciate for this genre and the premise itself.

Overall, I am confident that Lin's next releases will be significantly better with experience, because this book feels amateur (in my opinion). It's just a shame that, with this excellent premise, I was unfortunately very disappointed with what this book had to offer.

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Where was the plot?

I couldn’t find a plot.

Even at 66% I was unsure of what the plot was?

What was the reason for this story?

I don’t think I’ve ever not been able to follow a plotline like this, and that’s not a compliment. It wasn't twists and turns and surprises, it was just confusion. If I had to write a summary on this book, I wouldn't even know what to say. The main character was really unlikeable. She was selfish, self-centred, and pretty stupid (like, it was right in from of you the entire time!!), so that made this even harder to read. I had much higher hopes, especially for some sort of romance, but nope.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Rosalie Lin for this ARC.

After being enthralled with the “These Violent Delights” series, I realized that I truly enjoy Shanghai gangster historical fiction. So, it was a no-brainer to immediately request this ARC, set in 1930s Shanghai amid cabaret clubs, dark gods, dangerous gangsters, and some interesting tech magic.

This debut novel was full of rich descriptions of Shanghai that absolutely enchanted me. The beauty of the city shines through every single chapter, and I believe this is one of the book's most redeeming qualities. However, while I felt the magic of the city, I didn’t understand what I was reading and began to get super confused by the fantasy elements in play.

Some danger and horror elements worked well, although I expected the FMC to be more shocked when these events unfolded. Maybe it was the entire fantasy element, but she wasn’t as terrified as I would have been if I suddenly saw my friend with no eyes.

The pace was slow, and the scene transitions felt odd at times. The dialogue also seemed forced, and I often couldn’t tell if something was happening or was a drug-induced scene. It added a lot of mystery to the plot, but after a few times of this happening, I felt dumb and confused. I will say that the ending happened quickly, and I am still trying to piece together all the craziness from the last few chapters.

“Daughter of Calamity” is a debut historical fantasy novel with an incredible premise. The writing is lyrical and beautiful, and you can tell the author has an intimate knowledge of Shanghai. However, I was left wanting more world-building and character development in the end. If you love historical fiction with a dash of fantasy, give this book a try, and let me know what you think!

Daughter of Calamity by Rosalie M. Lin is part historical fiction, part fantasy, and part based on folklore.

Jingwen is a cabaret dancer in 1930s Shanghai. Shanghai is ruled by gangsters and is influxed with foreigners. Her grandmother is a powerful woman, but Jingwen is not interested in being involved with her grandmother's business. But when circumstances develop in a way where Jingwen is forced to act, will everything be the same?

This story has so many elements. A city trying to hold on to her roots, people struggling to stay true to their culture, colonialism, the divide due to colonialism, and the power struggle. It took some time for me to get into this story. I liked several elements in the book, but at the same time, all these elements were underdeveloped. I am still trying to understand why the gods are supposed to be evil or demons. Overall, it's not a bad book, and it's readable.

Thank you, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this book.

I honestly really enjoyed this book. Lin has beautiful flowery language (which at points was a bit too flowery but not so much so that it took away from the story). The characters were wonderful, dynamic, and interesting and I wanted to continue reading about them and learning more. The world of the dancers and the streets was beautifully painted and very easy to visualize and appreciate. The prominence and respect of the culture represented within the story was one of my favorite parts. I loved how Lin weaved some magic into the naturally magical city of Shanghai and I thought the magic system was incredibly unique and fascinating. I loved the beginning and middle and felt they were well-paced and building up to the final moment very well. However, that final moment let me down. I wanted way more from it and was a bit disappointed by how things were tied together. It felt convenient, not earned in some cases, and out of character in some respects. It prompted such a vast change that happened too quickly to be understood and realistic. The climax felt a bit deus-ex-machina and I just wanted more pages explaining and creating the situation and the final stakes before having such a quick ending.

2.5 Rounding Up

This has such great bones but didn’t live up to its potential for me.

Shanghai as the setting was its own character and truly did feel live a living breathing part of the story. The author portrays such a sinister undercurrent with the setting that I thought was really well done. As the reader I really did get the feeling any number of things were waiting just around the corner, in a temple, or down an alley.

There are a number of truly stunning and memorable scenes in this book, mainly when something major is happening. I thought these sections were captivating, but my issue seems to come in between these big scenes. The down-time felt very sluggish to get through. Over-descriptive sentences pertaining to minute details that could have been removed in favor of more character work. I kept hoping something else big would happen to keep my interest alive. It just felt like cohesion was lacking.

I truly did not know if I would fully understand the plot and magic by the end as things kept moving around and the fantasy/magic elements are not laid out for the reader to understand. I felt like I knew enough by the end that this didn’t end up bothering me, but it may be something other readers end up not liking.

All in all, some really cool elements and imagery/scenes, but lacked the cohesion to make this as great as it could have been.

DNF at 11%.

I ultimately was not engaged. I only made it a little way through and found nothing of it interesting. Even the narrator for the audio wasn’t very good. Didn’t show any inflections or any differences between the characters or people. If I wanted that, I could’ve listened to myself read it.

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately it is a DNF for me @ 27%

The book has a fascinating premise, and of course I want to support my AAPI girlies, so I had high hopes for this book. The writing was just not for me, and the characters were frustrating. I just wasn't in the mood to force myself to keep reading.

This is an example of a book with an amazing concept that just didn't quite follow through for me personally. Jingwen is such an interesting character, but I could not tell if she was supposed to be naïve or more mature because her personality, thoughts, and actions varied wildly between the two. I loved the magical-type aspects in the book, but the story was very slow in getting to the action and twists so that I was less invested when they eventually came. I also couldn't quite figure out the relationships she had with both friends (enemies?), family and romance. The descriptions could be beautiful, but also vague. I also enjoyed this version of Shanghai that the author altered just subtly enough to make you questions what is real and what is not. There are a lot of different things going on and the transition between them was (for me) confusing. I think this author has such interesting ideas and maybe with time can craft a dazzling book.