The Girl with a Thousand Faces

Entangled in a family curse, two women slip in and out of life and death while seeking vengeance on those that have wronged them—including each other—in this gripping gothic fantasy from Dean (The Book Eaters). Mercy Chan mysteriously washes up on Hong Kong’s shore in 1942, during the Japanese occupation. Joining first the resistance, and later a criminal syndicate, she uses her ability to speak to ghosts to earn a living. Siu Yin, trapped as a spirit, also arrives in Hong Kong but devises a much more destructive agenda. Watching over both is the goddess of mercy and compassion, who tries to stop the feud between the two before it can devastate the ghost-filled Kowloon Walled City district. Though the plot sometimes feels cluttered with flashbacks and POV changes, Dean uses her body-stealing ghosts to have a lot of fun with the slippery nature of identity, and the maogui (“cat ghost”) who stalks bad guys at Mercy’s side is a feline scene-stealer. In the midst of the entertaining drama, serious meditation on the nature of revenge and its effect on its seeker makes a heartfelt argument for the power of forgiveness. Dean’s fans will not be disappointed. Agent: Harry Illingworth, DHH Literary. (May)