Shanghai Immortal is a gritty, glittering tale of gods and monsters in a reimagining of 1930s China. The fearsome half-vampire half-deity Lady Jing swaps anger management lessons for a crash course in the mortal realm and you can't help but root for her and the chaos she leaves in her wake. Full of fury, passion, and beauty, this is a debut that will grip you in its fangs and make you bleed-all the while wanting more." - Saara El-Arifi At first, I thought I would be annoyed by her behavior but Lady Jing grew on me. Since her vampiric father is absent and her hulijing mother was killed, Lady Jing was sent to Yan Luo Wang for protection. However, Lady Jing assumed that she was pawned by her mother to the King of Hell to repay shopping debts. With resentment and hidden disappointment growing, Lady Jing hides her true feelings behind her rebellious actions and impatient personality. In actual fact, she just wants to be friends with others and live a normal life without people looking at her for being different.

Relationships, whether romantic, friendly or familial, play an important part in the story throughout and yet Jing can’t seem to shake those self-doubts. There’s a wonderful found family aspect to Shanghai Immortal and if you’re a fan of those kinds of stories then this will definitely be a book for you! Every one of the “good” characters has something incredibly endearing about them. So we have Lady Jing, an immortal of soon to be hundred years and considered as a child not so long ago (the aging and adulting of immortals are different I guess). The slow burn romance between Jing and Mr Tony Lee, a human from Mortal Shanghai who was a balm to her fiery nature. He is the epitome of hope and was also brave in partaking certain responsibilities.Chao said: “I am thrilled Shanghai Immortal found a home at Hodder and so excited to be working with trailblazing editor Molly Powell. Having not only my agent Jamie Cowen but now also Molly and her amazing team cheering on Lady Jing in all her irreverent arseyness fills me with gratitude and joy.” I want to preface this review by saying that I know for a fact that this book will not be for everyone. If you have delicate sensibilities and are easily offended by words like "piss-fart" and "ta-tas," as a matter of fact, you might hate this book. I, however, have the mouth of a sailor and am not offended by profanities. In fact, I found them hilarious. You see, Lady Jing, our FMC, is an absolute sasshole, and I love her for this. I love that Chao didn't shy away from developing Lady Jing's sassiness because she felt colorful and full of life. Gorgeous book in all aspects, from the characters to the plot and worldbuilding and the writing. Shanghai Immortal is one of my all-time favorites. 5 stars are not enough!!!!!!! I'm really fond of this story, it speaks about finding out where you belong and learning to love and be loved. The elements of chinese-mythology as well as the idea of both Mortal and Immortal Shanghai cohexisting are very entertaining, so if you're a fan of Chinese Mythology, you don't want to miss out on Shanghai Immortal! Next, the novel is set in 1930’s Shanghai. There are yin and yang Shanghai. Thus, you’ll not only see immortals in this book but also the normal people. I really enjoyed the tour of yang Shanghai with Lady Jing. The writer beautifully describes each and every detail of Shanghai at that time. My most favorite scenic beauty of yang Shanghai is the sunset.

Source: eARC provided by the publisher (this in no way affects my review which is honest and unbiased) First this novel is based on the unique Chinese mythology of yang and yin about the cosmos. It contains celestial bloodthirsty immortals, hell, fox and vampire concepts. I mean if you have watched a series like Tale of the Nine Tailed or Avatar then you might understand what I’m saying 😉. Shanghai Immortal includes some of my favourite storytelling tropes. Firstly, that of an outsider in their world, as Lady Jing is only half fox-spirit, so she is ostracized by her fellow huiljing. Secondly, the relationship between a mortal and an immortal, the friendship between Mr Lee and Jing. Finally, the two worlds within one space, as we discover both Shanghai and the immortal counterpart.With the help of a gentle mortal tasked with setting up the Central Bank of Hell, Jing embarks on a wild chase for intel, first through Hell and then mortal Shanghai. But when her hijinks put the mortal in danger, she must decide which is more important: avenging her loss of face, or letting go of her half-empty approach to life for a chance to experience tenderness – and maybe even love. Shanghai Immortal is the must-read debut of 2023, both intensely fun and heart wrenching. A wild ride through a Shanghai you've never seen before Where this book really shines though, is the worldbuilding. We get to experience two really interesting settings- immortal Shanghai aka hell that is ruled by Lord Wang and abundant with mythology and real Shanghai in the 1930s. Mortal Shangai feels like a clash of cultures from both the West and East and was so fun to explore.

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to Net Galley, the author and the publisher for allowing this. It took me a while to get used to this narration. In first person, we get a very emotional and oftentimes sarcastic commentary by Lady Jing herself. It's fast-paced, easy to read, and the story and characters continue to be interesting and entertaining. We follow Jing through her ups and downs in this spectacular world that Chao has crafted and narrated with this book - from her thrillingly dark Immortal Shanghai, a mirror world based on real counterparts of historical Shanghai, to the actual Mortal Shanghai of the time. I truly enjoyed the influence of the author's culture: how much we learned through her Fantasy story alone, and how we actually felt the influence that the real history had on this fictional version. This book has the perfect balance of romance and plot, of quiet fun and action and of irreverence and seriousness. When the synopsis depicts Lady Jing or Jing as “half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit and all sassh0le”it’s exactly our heroine! Shanghai Immortal includes many great quotes but this line cuts deep. And I think it describes this book quite well. Yes, we got vampires and hulijings, Chinese mythology, jazz-era Shanghai (the 30s to be accurate), the sassy main character, and humor, nevertheless, the story is mostly carried by dialog.I’m in love with Shanghai Immortal and I’ve only recently just found out about the book. I hope people don’t sleep on this. Why did I fall for Shanghai Immortal? There is simply this charm to the writing, characters, and setting. Also, I loved all the Chinese mythology and lore embedded into the plot and locations, but they had twists to them. The narration: while witty and later on enjoyable, is not going to be everybody's cup of tea. It's very sarcastic, deeply emotional and at times self-depricating, and conveys Jing's anger and fear in a way that is not always pleasant. It took me a good 20% of the book until I was able to enjoy it.