The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean

Author : Sunyi Dean

Book : The Girl with a Thousand Faces

/ Fantasy , Horror /

Publication date : May 7, 2026

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Blurb:

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.

My thoughts:

Let me start with the obvious - the cover is mesmerising and gorgeous! I love it! The story inside is even more captivating, with its heavy and magnetic atmosphere that holds you in a chokehold until the very last page.

Mercy Chan has no recollection of her past, but somehow she manages to build a life in the ghost-haunted city of Kowloon as the triad's famed ghost talker. Until one day, the past she doesn't remember comes knocking at her door with a vengeance. The prose and storytelling are so immersive that you can almost feel the harrowing atmosphere of ghosts, post-war suffering, and loss... but at the same time, there are those small glimpses of fresh air and friendship. The themes of anger, pain, and revenge are developed in such a compelling way that it makes you ponder so many questions. One saying that came to mind was, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," and when enough is enough... after pain and suffering make a full circle? A bittersweet and satisfying ending was the perfect wrap-up to that emotional journey.

Absolutely brilliant read!