S
Sunyi Dean
Sunyi Dean is the author of the genre-bending novel The Book Eaters. If you're looking for a story that plays with the very idea of reading, you'll want to check out their work.
The Girl with a Thousand Faces
Synopsis
Mercy Chan is a triad exorcist with a mysterious past. After washing up on the shores of Hong Kong with no memory during World War II, she found a home in Kowloon Walled City, an infamous, ghost-infested slum full of lost and traumatised civilians. Since the war ended, Mercy has rebuilt her life and found work as a ghost-talker for the local triad, dealing with the angry and bitter spirits who haunt this place. But the past she can’t remember won’t let her go. An unusually powerful ghost lurks in 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 realise that the monster she fights within these walls may well be one of her own making.
Genres
Characters
Mercy ChanProtagonist
A ghost talker in Kowloon Walled City who works for the local triad and is trying to uncover the amnesia-erased truth of her own past.
Cobra LilySupporting
The ruthless triad boss Mercy works for in 1975 Kowloon Walled City.
Siu YinSupporting
A young woman in the novel's 1941 timeline who flees to the island of Shek Ham Chau as war reaches Hong Kong.
Daiyu (The Girl with a Thousand Faces)Supporting
Siu Yin's mother, who returns to her birthplace and confronts the ghosts of her own family.
Bao (The Girl with a Thousand Faces)Supporting
A shapeshifting ghost cat (a maogui) who accompanies Mercy and appears across both of the novel's timelines.