Daughter of Calamity

DEBUT In 1930s Shanghai, the shadowy and notorious gangs that run rampant through the city hide behind a facade of jazz and glittering nightclubs. Jingwen is granddaughter of Liqing, the powerful surgeon for the Society of the Blue Dawn, who takes limbs of flesh and replaces them with steel. Jingwen could succeed her grandmother as surgeon, but she would rather dance, practicing with a troupe during the day and entertaining wealthy foreigners at the Paramount at night. When she gets caught up in a horrifying series of attacks—her fellow cabaret dancers are having their faces stolen and given to elite socialites—Jingwen discovers that the underworld she has tried to stay above hides strange things (rival gangs; communing with gods), and Jingwen herself may have to become something she never could have imagined—for better or worse. The highly detailed story moves at a slow pace through the first half of the book, which may leave readers wanting a bit more action, but Lin successfully creates a world that is as much a character in the novel as the people who live in it.