Review of The Woman with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean
Title: The Woman with a Thousand Faces.
Author: Sunyi Dean.
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Ghost
Year Published: 2026
My Rating: 5/5
Blurb:
From the USA Today bestselling author of The Book Eaters comes The Girl with a Thousand Faces, a Gothic tale set in a historical Hong Kong that meshes ancient myths and local legends into a haunting story of ghosts, grief, and women who will not forgive.
When Mercy Chan washed up on the shores of Hong Kong with no family, no money, and no memories, she was thrust into the horrors of World War II. She only survived by hiding in Kowloon Walled City, an infamous, ghost-infested slum full of lost and traumatized civilians. Since the end of the war, she has rebuilt her life and found work with the local triad as a ghost-talker, dealing with the angry and bitter spirits who haunt this place. These days, the filthy gutters and cramped alleyways of Kowloon feel like home.
But the past she can’t remember won’t let her go. An unusually powerful ghost has infested Kowloon’s waterways, drowning innocents and threatening the district. Unnervingly, it claims to know Mercy―and her forgotten childhood. As Mercy is drawn into a deadly cat-and-mouse game with this malignant spirit, she begins to realize that the monster she fights within these walls may well be one of her own making.
33 years before, mere days ahead of the Japanese invasion, Sung Siu Yin and her mother flee Hong Kong, intending to hide out on her mother's ancestral island home. It’s beautiful, tranquil, and remote. . . but also inhabited by ghosts ever since the entire village drowned in a storm many years ago. Still, it’s better than living under occupation.
But as the war drags on and isolation sets in, Siu Yin is increasingly drawn into the island's grim past―a past that may still have a hold on the present. There is a darkness lurking beneath that idyllic ocean, and it has been waiting many years for someone to return.
Review
The Girl with a Thousand Faces is one of the most moving and beautiful stories I have ever read, when I was never expecting it to be. The novel focuses on Mercy Chan, a fifty-something ghost-talker employed by the Triads. Her job is to speak with troubled ghosts in order to help them move on from the mortal plane. The novel is set in a walled city named Kowloon in Hong Kong. Ghosts are a particular problem here in the enclosed and claustrophobic city, to the point of the residents not being able to wander the streets at night.
I was ready for and excited about this novel to be focused on a duo of no-nonsense, kick-ass women (Mercy and her boss) practically becoming supernatural detectives in order to combat the mysterious and malevolent Girl with A Thousand Faces; a powerful and vengeful ghost that is threatening Hong Kong. However, the book utterly subverted my expectations and ended up becoming one of the most heartfelt and breathtaking books I've ever read.
The overarching mystery of the novel was enthralling; the narrator transporting you back in time with snapshots of the sombre past. These glimpses showed insight into the harrowing and traumatic pasts of some of the characters; revealing little morsels of clues in every chapter. Usually I'm quite proficient at deciphering mysteries and predicting twists, but I could only make some vague guesses as to what was going on, missing out the finer details.
The story depicted 'tangible' supernatural ghosts in tandem with metaphorical ghosts, displaying how traumatic memories can haunt a person, changing them forever. Furthermore, if you are unable or unwilling to work through your trauma, this amplifies the power of your metaphorical ghosts. This, in turn, causes generational trauma stemmed from emotional neglect. The Girl with a Thousand Faces starkly shows how circumstance, setting and trauma can shape a person through heavy, powerful prose that felt poignant and stimulating. Dean used the time jumps well; I usually find them confusing and erratic but the novel was coherent.
In these glances into the past, we witness the effects of World War 2 on one of the characters; a microcosm of the visceral and merciless grip Japan had on Hong Kong; Kowloon City in particular. The novel as a whole does not glorify war but highlights how cruel it is, noting how the act of killing is - and shouldn't be - classified as just, whereas murdering someone outside of war is deemed egregious. Dean accentuates how brutal and needless war is on civilians - particularly women - who did not ask to participate or fight in war. Through the eyes of two separate characters, we witness their reaction to the pivotal moment in the war: the bombing of Hiroshima. Dean handles this grievous and intolerable act of war with grace and deference; it becoming a very emotional - though short - piece of the book. Furthermore, I enjoyed learning the history of Kowloon City and Hong Kong itself; Dean was vastly informative without being dry.
I also appreciated how the main character was a fifty-something year-old lady, something becoming increasingly rare in fiction. This combined with the ending of the novel tells the reader that it is never too late to start anew. This message particularly resonated with me as I lost a lot of my 20s to undiagnosed chronic illness, and I am slowly learning how to be a functioning person again.
In the same vein, I also appreciated how much of the novel was populated by and focused on female characters; even including a trans-woman which was rare and appreciated. Moreover, the novel incorporates Chinese traditional folklore, highlighting that women make up the majority of ghosts. This calls attention to how much women suffer (particularly at the hands of men) and how their pain is ignored.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The Woman with a Thousand Faces and I honestly cannot find any aspect to criticise. The novel was slow-paced, which can make me antsy, but it truly didn't feel drawn-out or prolonged. It was engaging at every step of the way; a poignant and beautiful story in every page that evoked tears.
Thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.