Daughter of Calamity, Rosalie M. Lin
Daughter of Calamity, Rosalie M. Lin
List: $28.99 | Sale: $20.29
Club: $14.49

Daughter of Calamity

Author: Rosalie M. Lin

Narrator: Si Chen

Unabridged: 13 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/18/2024


Synopsis

Genres collide in this dark and atmospheric reimagining of 1930s Shanghai for fans of Nghi Vo and S. A. Chakraborty.

Jingwen spends her nights as a showgirl at the Paramount, one of the most lavish clubs in Shanghai, competing ruthlessly to charm wealthy patrons. To cap off her shifts, she runs money for her grandmother, the exclusive surgeon to the most powerful gang in the city. A position her grandmother is pressuring her to inherit…

When a series of dancers are targeted—the attacker stealing their faces—Jingwen fears she could be next. And as the faces of the dancers start appearing on wealthy foreign socialites, she realizes Shanghai's glittering mirage of carefree luxury comes at a terrible price.

Fighting not just for her own safety but that of the other dancers—women who have simultaneously been her bitterest rivals and only friends—Jingwen has no choice but to delve into the city's underworld. In this treacherous realm of tangled alliances and ancient grudges, silver-armed gangsters haunt every alley, foreign playboys broker deals in exclusive back rooms, and the power of gods is wielded and traded like yuan. Jingwen will have to become something far stranger and more dangerous than her grandmother ever imagined if she hopes to survive the forces waiting to sell Shanghai's bones.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

About Rosalie M. Lin

Rosalie M. Lin is a Chinese-American writer from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has, at various points in the past decade, graduated with a degree in Comparative Literature, pole-danced in two Beijing nightclubs, and dropped out of a biomedical PhD program before seriously pursuing her original dream of becoming an author. Daughter of Calamity is her debut novel.

About Si Chen

SiChen is a queer Chinese American actor who is passionate about stories that show the beauty and complexity of the immigrant, queer, femme, Asian experience. She is a classically trained violinist and violist, native Mandarin speaker, and has an extensive science background ranging from genetics to robotics to AI. As a narrator, their voice has been described as soothing, intimate, and witty.


Reviews

Goodreads review by lisa (fc hollywood's version) on July 10, 2024

Update July 2024: I will be withdrawing my review of this book in solidarity with the St. Martin's Press boycott, please visit @readersforaccountability on Instagram for more information. My request of this ARC was made before the boycott, and in my haste, I forgot the withdrawal (many thanks to the......more

Goodreads review by Lexi on February 07, 2024

I received an ARC from St Martin's directly! thank you! Shanghai gangster historical fantasy is weirdly popular these days. It feels like such a cool, magical time in history when China was the epicenter of world culture and there was a lot of buzz around the city in particular. People were writing s......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on May 28, 2024

There's no arguing the author's talent with words. She built the setting of Shanghai so viscerally and with great attention to detail. Unfortunately, that didn't translate to plot, world-building, or characters. Jingwen is a showgirl by day and an errand girl by night. She has no desire to take over......more

Goodreads review by Debbie on March 21, 2024

Jingwen spends her nights as a showgirl at the Paramount, one of the most lavish clubs in Shanghai, competing ruthlessly to charm the wealthy men in the 1930's filled with glamour, gangsters and wealth. This book is a historical fantasy and I had a hard time reading this book in the beginning that i......more

Goodreads review by Kara-karina on January 26, 2024

*review copy courtesy of the punlisher* This was dreamy, poetic, and very Chinese in its essence. I really liked Daughter of Calamity. Jingwen, the main character, is cold, abrasive, and standoffish, but deep down, she has a strong moral core and loyalty to those she holds dear. Like Shanghai itself, s......more


Quotes

"This debut is a genre blend of mystery and fantasy with some amazing world-building...Fans of fantasy will want to know Lin's name." - Booklist, Starred Review

"Lin successfully creates a world that is as much a character in the novel as the people who live in it…historical fantasy enthusiasts will be delighted by the worldbuilding." - Library Journal

"The author’s love for Shanghai is clear from the early pages, and her descriptions of the Jazz Age and its effects on the city unfold in gorgeous, vivid detail." - Kirkus

"Unfolding against a backdrop of shadowy club interiors, steam-filled alleys and overlooked temples, Daughter of Calamity is a novel that demands you turn the pages. I was utterly swept up in this tale of glittering cabaret girls and deadly gangsters, and Lin's incarnation of Shanghai—seductive, sprawling, full of malice—is a character in itself." - Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns

"Lin’s Shanghai invites you in with an open hand or an offer to dance; here, every page is full of glamour, possibility, treachery. DAUGHTER OF CALAMITY will pull you in like a fever dream." - Grace D. Li, New York Times bestselling author of Portrait of a Thief

"Rosalie Lin crafts a world dripping with atmosphere and intrigue where gods and shamans wreak havoc in mist filled alleys while dance girls spin on clouds of gold and desire. Lin’s Shanghai bursts from the page, decadent, dangerous, and addictive. A thrilling debut.” - A. Y. Chao, Sunday Times bestselling author of Shanghai Immortal

“DAUGHTER OF CALAMITY transported me to dazzling, blood-soaked Shanghai. I was swept away by the spectacle of vicious feuds between gangsters and gods, caught up in the heart-pounding twists and betrayals that kept me turning the pages. A dark and fantastical read.” - Judy I. Lin, New York Times bestselling author of A Magic Steeped in Poison

"Darkly atmospheric and richly layered, Daughter of Calamity fuses the luxury of 1930s Shanghai, its criminal underbelly, and the powers of the gods themselves. This is a story that seeps into your imagination and persists to the very last page." – Andrea G. Stewart, author of the Drowning Empire trilogy