A review  of ‘The Shanghai Circle’ by a member of the Online Book Club on the 24th of October 2023 – 3rd review

4 stars out of 5

‘The Shanghai Circle’ by Tony Henderson is a historical fiction set in Shanghai. The book first takes readers through the lives of three individuals. Davina is a driven young woman whose father gave her an excellent education and trained her to take over his company. Because of political unrest, the company’s structure needed to change. Therefore, Davina had to step up and help save their company. The other character is Joseph. He is the son of the leader of an influential society. This organization is involved in different practices that are considered immoral. They will do almost anything to increase their bank balance. Joseph is trained to look at the suffering of the weak with indifference and gain profits too. Irina is the third character. She is a helpless young woman who has beauty to her advantage. She has no money but plenty of debts to pay. Therefore, she resorts to selling her body. Over time, their worlds come together as they struggle to survive in difficult times.

The first thing I enjoyed about this book was the description. This book is set in the early 1900’s. The descriptions are important to help readers understand the scene at the time. Many things have certainly changed now. Therefore, these excellent descriptions helped me visualize the city at that time. Readers who enjoy descriptions of locations from different periods will love this.

The writer has taken his time explaining the lives of three different characters whose lives are intertwined. Understanding their pasts and reading about each individual separately gave me a good understanding of their character. The style in which their stories have been narrated also follows a seamless pattern. They didn’t make me feel muddled. I also found myself engrossed in each individual’s story while I was reading about it. This shows how interestingly each character has been written.

This story became more interesting with each page. As their lives began to intertwine, the excitement built up. Although the initial chapters seemed comparatively slower, the writer made up for it later. Therefore, I highly recommend that readers keep going because it only gets better. There is a possibility that readers may feel restless in the initial chapters. This is especially because they may be overwhelmed by the characters being introduced.

I noted that this book has described violence in considerable detail. There is mention of bloodshed and human violence. This may alarm some readers or make them uncomfortable. Readers who are triggered by violence will need to be careful when choosing this book.

There was absolutely nothing that I disliked about this book. Readers will get an excellent depiction of Shanghai in a different period with interesting characters and their exciting journeys. Apart from the flaws in the editing of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Therefore, I would rate it four out of five (4/5) stars.