Author: Janie Chang
Published: February 10, 2026 by William Morrow
Format: Kindle, 336 Pages
Genre: Gothic
Blurb: Shanghai, 1911. Lisan Liu is elated when she is hired as secretary to wealthy American Caroline Stanton, the new mistress of Lennox Manor on the outskirts of Shanghai’s International Settlement. However, the Manor has a dark past due to a previous owner’s suicide, and soon Lisan’s childhood nightmares resurface with more intensity and meld with haunted visions of a woman in red. Adding to her unease is the young gardener, Yao, who both entices and disturbs her.
Newly married Caroline looks forward to life in China with her husband, Thomas, away from the shadows of another earlier tragedy. But an unwelcome guest, Andrew Grey, attends her party and claims to know secrets she can’t afford to have exposed. At the same party, the notorious princess Masako Kyo approaches Lisan with questions about the young woman’s family that the orphaned Lisan can’t answer.
As Caroline struggles with Grey’s extortion and Thomas’s mysterious illness, Lisan’s future is upended when she learns the truth about her past, and why her identity has been hidden all these years. All the while, strange incidents accelerate, driving Lisan to doubt her sanity as Lennox Manor seems unwilling to release her until she fulfills demands from beyond the grave.
My Opinion: You know that rare feeling when a book pulls you in from the very first page and you realize that you’re in the hands of a storyteller who knows exactly what they’re doing? This novel gave me that feeling immediately. Even though I first encountered Janie Chang through The Phoenix Crown, co-written with Kate Quinn, it is this book that made me understand why her name carries weight. And since co writing can blur who’s doing what behind the scenes, I’m happily counting this as my true introduction to her work.
Set in 1911 Shanghai, just on the cusp of World War I, the novel wraps you in a world thick with tradition, superstition, whispered curses, and the kind of history that surrounds you. At its heart are two women—each guarding her own secrets—living in a decaying mansion where the past refuses to stay buried. Chang blends historical fiction with magical realism so seamlessly that the boundaries blur; the house feels alive, the shadows feel watchful, and the truth reveals itself in slow, deliberate layers.
The gothic elements are all here: the crumbling manor, the sense of dread, the family mysteries, the creeping inevitability of revelation. But there’s more than atmosphere. Chang builds tension with such care that even when you think you’ve figured out all of the aspects, she still manages to drop surprises that land with a gasp. Some twists you might anticipate; others you absolutely will not. That unpredictability is part of the thrill.
A few readers have labeled this as horror; it’s not. To me, it reads as deeply immersive gothic fiction—the kind that makes you whisper, “just one more chapter,” until suddenly you’ve abandoned your weekend plans because you have to know what happens next. It’s absorbing, elegant, and quietly relentless.
I think I’ve found a new to me author to be on the lookout for.
Newly married Caroline looks forward to life in China with her husband, Thomas, away from the shadows of another earlier tragedy. But an unwelcome guest, Andrew Grey, attends her party and claims to know secrets she can’t afford to have exposed. At the same party, the notorious princess Masako Kyo approaches Lisan with questions about the young woman’s family that the orphaned Lisan can’t answer.
As Caroline struggles with Grey’s extortion and Thomas’s mysterious illness, Lisan’s future is upended when she learns the truth about her past, and why her identity has been hidden all these years. All the while, strange incidents accelerate, driving Lisan to doubt her sanity as Lennox Manor seems unwilling to release her until she fulfills demands from beyond the grave.
My Opinion: You know that rare feeling when a book pulls you in from the very first page and you realize that you’re in the hands of a storyteller who knows exactly what they’re doing? This novel gave me that feeling immediately. Even though I first encountered Janie Chang through The Phoenix Crown, co-written with Kate Quinn, it is this book that made me understand why her name carries weight. And since co writing can blur who’s doing what behind the scenes, I’m happily counting this as my true introduction to her work.
Set in 1911 Shanghai, just on the cusp of World War I, the novel wraps you in a world thick with tradition, superstition, whispered curses, and the kind of history that surrounds you. At its heart are two women—each guarding her own secrets—living in a decaying mansion where the past refuses to stay buried. Chang blends historical fiction with magical realism so seamlessly that the boundaries blur; the house feels alive, the shadows feel watchful, and the truth reveals itself in slow, deliberate layers.
The gothic elements are all here: the crumbling manor, the sense of dread, the family mysteries, the creeping inevitability of revelation. But there’s more than atmosphere. Chang builds tension with such care that even when you think you’ve figured out all of the aspects, she still manages to drop surprises that land with a gasp. Some twists you might anticipate; others you absolutely will not. That unpredictability is part of the thrill.
A few readers have labeled this as horror; it’s not. To me, it reads as deeply immersive gothic fiction—the kind that makes you whisper, “just one more chapter,” until suddenly you’ve abandoned your weekend plans because you have to know what happens next. It’s absorbing, elegant, and quietly relentless.
I think I’ve found a new to me author to be on the lookout for.
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