A review of ‘The Shanghai Circle’ by a member of the Online Book Club 28th of December 2023

4 out of 5 stars

The Shanghai Circle 4 out of 5
The novel was quite good for a book that was inspired by real-life history, and Tony Henderson did a good job delivering it through this book. The way the story revolves around people who live in Shanghai’s economy and their culture gives me an eye-opening experience about a side of Shanghai I have never heard of. Thus, the story is also involved with some memorial events in history, which gives it an immersive feeling as we are drawn to it. I got hooked after reading four chapters of the book and kept wondering what surprise the book was offering me.

Talking about the characters from the book itself, they are very notable to me. In this book, we follow the story of many people with their own perspectives and the way of life this character goes through. Two of the “main” characters most interesting to me are Davina and their “Quest” company and Joseph and the Sung Triad society they work for. Each has their own problem as they race to conquer Shanghai’s economy, and along with their own personal struggles, they become quite a notable rivalry.

Some things that I didn’t like about the book were that it showed some mature scenes, which I found quite extreme for me. And thus was the reason for me to give the book these ratings. It does not ruin the experience of reading it, but for me, I was caught off guard by the depictions of these scenes, and it’s hard for me to read it sometimes. Though I already anticipated in the first place that there might be some of these scenes in my head, I just didn’t know it would be this excessive.

I guess this book does a good job describing the lives of people in Shanghai, with a side of historical fiction in it. I like how the author describes these characters’ development and also their personalities, and the connection of these characters to each other is quite well portrayed, and overall, the editing quality of the books is good. This is a very well-written book.