I had the highest hopes for The Girl with a Thousand Faces and I’m obsessed with this book now. It’s a gorgeous look at generational trauma, at revenge, and talking with your ghosts. Keep reading this book review of The Girl with a Thousand Faces for my full thoughts.
Summary
When Mercy Chan washed up on the shores of Hong Kong with no family, no money, and no memories, she was thrust into the horrors of World War II. She only survived by hiding in Kowloon Walled City, an infamous, ghost-infested slum full of lost and traumatized civilians. Since the end of the war, she has rebuilt her life and found work with the local triad as a ghost-talker, dealing with the angry and bitter spirits who haunt this place. These days, the filthy gutters and cramped alleyways of Kowloon feel like home.
But the past she can’t remember won’t let her go. An unusually powerful ghost has infested Kowloon’s waterways, drowning innocents and threatening the district. Unnervingly, it claims to know Mercy―and her forgotten childhood. As Mercy is drawn into a deadly cat-and-mouse game with this malignant spirit, she begins to realize that the monster she fights within these walls may well be one of her own making.
33 years before, mere days ahead of the Japanese invasion, Sung Siu Yin and her mother flee Hong Kong, intending to hide out on her mother’s ancestral island home. It’s beautiful, tranquil, and remote. . . but also inhabited by ghosts ever since the entire village drowned in a storm many years ago. Still, it’s better than living under occupation.
But as the war drags on and isolation sets in, Siu Yin is increasingly drawn into the island’s grim past―a past that may still have a hold on the present. There is a darkness lurking beneath that idyllic ocean, and it has been waiting many years for someone to return.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the author. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
The Girl with a Thousand Faces is a gorgeous, lyrical, and emotional historical fantasy. Dean’s sophomore book explores our ghosts. It’s captivating as ghosts swirl and pull us down into this dreamless sleep of beyond. There’s this universal question of when we hold onto the past, and when we let go of it. It’s rooted in history, in poverty, in wars, and desperation. The Girl with a Thousand Faces forces us to live with our ghosts of the world we know, our family, and our enemies all at once. It’s atmospheric with musty drowning crumbling wood and still water. This is a book about revenge and reconciliation, but also mystery steeped in the murkiness of water and the past.
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When fear outweighs love, protection, and sacrifice. The Girl with a Thousand Faces is about facing our past, but there’s this reflective quality which induces emotions and nostalgia within us. At the same time, there’s this burning rage, this horror at injustice, and resentment. About the ghosts which haunt our ghosts. And what happens if we’re the last one standing – will that give us everything we wanted? The Girl with a Thousand Faces explores cycles of revenge, of war, and forgiveness. Find The Girl with a Thousand Faces on Goodreads, Storygraph, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.