Daughter of Calamity
by Rosalie M. Lin
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted June 2, 2024
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Another debut novel, and another digital review copy received from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Rosalie M. Lin's Daughter of Calamity will be released on June 18. It is a combination of fantasy and historical fiction, set in 1930s Shanghai. Several of the mythical figures mentioned are genuine Chinese legends, others may be unique to this book. The lead character, Yue Jingwen, is the Daughter of Calamity through a sequence of events initiated by her maternal grandmother, Yue Liqing. Jingwen's mother appears briefly in a few scenes, but they have been estranged for a long time. The Mother of Calamity, the traditional defender of Shanghai, had fled the city in 1908, due to the incursion of multiple foreign business interests, all of whom were protected from Chinese law due to the Foreign Concessions. Liqing took on the power of the Mother of Calamity by sacrificing her daughter, Jingwen's mother, to be inhabited by the goddess for a day. At that time she also stole the goddess's crown. When Jingwen was born, her mother left her with Liqing.
Jingwen is a taxi dancer at the Paramount cabaret. She is also a dancer for the East Sea Follies troupe. She is perpetually late for rehearsals with the Follies due to her late nights at the Paramount. She and a rival dancer make a bet; the one who is invited to the annual Fireman's Ball by the richest patron will receive the services of the loser as a servant for the next year. Jingwen also has a third "job" assisting her grandmother, who has mastered surgical techniques that are in demand by a group of gangsters, the Society of the Blue Dawn. She replaces their arms with mechanical ones made of silver, which increases their strength. Jingwen later learns of other surgeries performed for other, more dangerous reasons, which causes her to walk away from Liqing. The rival dancer, Li Beibei, attracts the attentions of an American timber baron, while Jingwen is approached by Dr. Bailey Thompson. She asks if he is rich, but he just laughs, saying he is only an obstetrician, but he has come to Shanghai to try his hand at business. His efforts must have been sucessful, because shortly after their first meeting Thompson is able to purchase both the Paramount and the East Sea Follies. For the latter, he replaces its main choreographer with another of his own choosing.
Jingwen is the first-person narrator. She loves Shanghai, she loves to dance, with all of her lyrical observations of the city and the inhabitants steeped in that love. She doesn't learn the reasons for her mother's abandonment until later, which draws her closer to the woman she had feared she would never know. The story weaves in and around multiple plot threads, some of which I feared were not going to be resolved. The Society of the Blue Dawn are not the only gangsters, and Bailey Thompson is not the only one working behind the scenes to appropriate powers previously reserved by the gods. The new direction of the East Sea Follies was to perform the Qingniao, a traditional dance of birds which are thought to be messengers from Niang Niang, the Queen Mother of the West, also known as the Feral Goddess. I am not sure, but she may also be the Mother of Calamity, but multiple searches have not been fruitful, so it is possible the Mother is a different entity altogether.
In addition to the meandering narrative, which caused me to wonder which parts were the most important, there are several times I was struck by repetitive phrasings within the same paragraph, or even within one sentence. Those may be typos that will be edited for the final edition. None are that egregious to ruin the thoughts expressed. I think this is a stand-alone novel, but if it is not I will be interested in reading the follow-up. If it is, I will still be on the lookout for the next book by Lin. Recommended.
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