Vampires of Shanghai By Katherine Mercer
Blurb:
A dark, gothic fantasy of obsession, survival, and the dangerous duality of love—perfect for fans of A Dowry of Blood and Certain Dark Things.
Lian Zhang has ruled Shanghai for decades, weaving power from charisma, cutthroat pragmatism, and an empire built on human blood. To be chosen by her is both privilege and prison, her affection as addictive as it is suffocating.
Mina Park knows this better than anyone. Once Lian’s favored fledgling, now her reluctant captive, Mina dreams of freedom in a city where blood is currency and loyalties are lethal. But resisting Lian means more than defiance—it means rejecting the allure of the only person who has ever truly seen her.
Meanwhile, Javier Robles, a human donor searching for his sister, arrives in Shanghai armed with certainty—about right and wrong, about monsters and victims, about the kind of man he believes himself to be. Helping Mina and surviving a city designed to devour will strip those beliefs away one by one, forcing him to confront destabilizing truths about his own past, along with a legacy he never meant to inherit.
Power. Devotion. Ruin.
Vampires of Shanghai is a dark fantasy novel exploring obsession, abuse, and autonomy within relationships defined by extreme power imbalance. Content warnings are provided at the beginning of the book.
Review:
Sometimes an author’s world-building captures my eye, and I want to dive in to see how everything works in the world they have created. Vampires of Shanghai is an urban fantasy set in modern-day Shanghai, where vampires rely on willing human donors. This is a character-driven story that follows multiple POVs, who each bring a different perspective on what it’s like to live in this city.
Javier comes in as a human blood donor who is searching for his missing sister. Mina is a favored fledgling of a powerful vampire who has ruled Shanghai for decades. Then there is August, a powerful vampire lord.
Each character added to the world-building. With Javier’s POV, I understood the immigration process. Plus, through the interactions he has with other humans, you learn the appeal but also the downsides of moving to Shanghai. August is a well-connected vampire who is able to walk into rooms where vampires are openly discussing world domination. I loved August’s chapters, but my favorite scene is him watching Dracula with two other fledglings in his solarium. There are so many devastating scenes in this book that the tender moments feel extra special.
The most heartbreaking POV to read is Mina’s. You see how depressed she is with the decisions she made as a teen and how she cannot escape her abusive relationship. The chapters you follow remind me a lot of A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson in how it captures domestic abuse, both emotional and physical. At times, Lian Zhang, Mina’s abuser and vampire lord, makes Dracula seem not so bad.
I found the premise of this world to be equally fascinating yet horrifying. Shanghai is a vampire-controlled city where vampires and humans share a symbiotic relationship. Humans are offered free housing and an annual stipend of $40K, as long as they continue to donate their blood every 6 weeks. On the surface, it seems like a great deal and perfectly safe if you are human. Unfortunately, the power dynamic between humans and vampires is never erased. Even worse, not all vampires are content with the blood economy and find other ways to source their blood through a gritty underbelly.
Mercer stays true to traditional vampire mythology but adds her own unique twist to make these monsters fit in our modern setting. Like explaining why photographs never work for them, and neither will your cellphone. Vampires also have physicians in this world. They rely on science to study their own species to treat diseases and extend their lives. I appreciated how Mercer included this since biology determines their behavior and abilities, making them seem less like folklore.
We also get to explore vampire politics and learn how they are slowly planning on controlling more than just Shanghai. Honestly, this was the most terrifying part of the story for me. Each vampire ruler has their own vision of ruling their future domains. Some sound quite democratic, while others sound like human farms.
My biggest criticism of this story is how Javier was written. At times, he acted more like a naive 20-something man than someone older. His actions made me question whether he was sheltered or just ignorant. Maybe I wanted him to have more street smarts. Despite this, I did appreciate his perspective on the immigration process since it helped answer so many questions that would have been unanswered if we had followed only the vampires.
I would recommend this to fans of Dowry of Blood because of how well Mercer highlights abuse and how difficult it can be for victims to escape. Also, if you enjoy exploring the politics in a multicultural city run by vampires, then you will enjoy this.
