I loved the setting of Shanghai in the 1920s for a "fantasy" novel.  (I'd argue this is sci fi not fantasy.) But the Romeo & Juliet re-telling and YA-ness of it all pulled me out of it. Yeah Shakespeare's a great and yada yada but when I'm so over the source material before starting this, it's kinda doomed. I liked how she changed the story though!

The YA-ness just meant it was a little on the nose with explaining the patriarchy, class, privilege, and racism. Which is like so important and brought up in interesting ways with a historical and international context here, but I'm not the audience for this delivery.

Also plot-wise I just didn't care? Nothing was shocking or convincing. The characters are all very flat. I literally care about no one but Bennedict, Marshall, and Roma's sister...

And the thing they had to do to defeat the madness... just seemed dumb and lucky and made no sense but I digress.

I'm bummed, but I think I'll read the next one anyway. (listen to the audiobook)

ALSO! It's the same narrator as the twisted series (shoutout Cindy Kay) but like that was a jarring jump as I am currently halfway through listening to that series.