Review – The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: May 5, 2026
ASIN: B0FMSBQ4TM
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

“When Mercy Chan washes up on the shores of Hong Kong with no family, no money, and no memories, the only refuge she finds is the infamous, ghost-infested slum of Kowloon Walled City. Since then, she has rebuilt her life, working for the local triad as a ghost talker and dealing with the angry and bitter spirits who haunt the district. The filthy gutters and cramped alleyways of Kowloon have become her home.

But the past Mercy can’t remember isn’t done with her. An unusually powerful ghost has infested Kowloon’s waterways, drowning innocents and threatening the district. It claims to know Mercy—and secrets from her past that are best left forgotten.

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.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.
Thoughts: This was a unique read that I really enjoyed the beginning of, I didn’t really realize what this was going to turn into and didn’t enjoy the second half as much. The story jumps between many timelines and characters, but is never hard to follow. There is a lot in here about WWII which I wasn’t expecting.

Mercy Chan wakes up with no memory or resources as a young woman on the shores of Hong Kong. She ends up making her living ghost talking for a slum lord. The slum of Kowloon Walled City is rife with ghosts, and she works to talk them to peace and help keep the slums safe. When Mercy and her boss are contacted by a city official, they are made aware of a ghost that has been drowning innocents. This ghost must be caught before the city destroys the slums completely in a campaign of making Hong Kong “safer”. As Mercy gets deeper into the case, she finds out that her past has literally come to haunt her.

I really loved the first part of this book. I loved that this is an alternate history that jumps mainly between the 1940’s and the 1970’s and adds ghosts into the infrastructure of the world. It’s a very cool world. I loved the idea of Mercy having a ghost talker/detective striving to help these ghosts find rest. Mercy is also in her early 50’s and I always love to read about older heroines.

The story takes quite the turn about midway through, and the story switches from Mercy’s perspective to that of her niece. At that point, we spend a lot more time in the 1940’s during WWII. This book turns into an alternate history about WWII where ghosts have a large role in the Chinese resistance against the Japanese. I wasn’t expecting to revisit the history of the Nanjing Massacre in this book (something so horrible I really never want to read about it again). I started to enjoy the story a lot less at this point.

I came into this expecting a book about a cool alternate world with ghosts and a murder mystery; what I ended up reading was something much heavier, much sadder, and much less entertaining. This really delves into a lot of WWII and the horrible things that happened there. It also delves into the topics of selfishness, revenge, and what war can drive people to.

The writing here felt a bit stiff and stilted at times, but it was an intriguing story, and I finished it. I also thought the jumping around between so many timelines and people was distracting. Although this worked okay for telling the story and managed not to be too confusing.

While I am glad to have read this, I still feel a bit like I got the bait and switch here. This just ended up so different from what I was expecting, and the ending felt pretty unsatisfying.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this was a unique read. I loved the world-building and alternate history here and really enjoyed the first part of the story. Unfortunately, I wasn’t expecting the deep dive into WWII (something I have read a ton about and am ready to take a break from for a few years). All the jumping between timelines and characters was a bit distracting and made it tough to really sink into the story. While I probably won’t seek out more books from Dean, I don’t regret reading this either.