This sounded interesting when I read the synopsis on Netgalley. Faces in the Crowd is a collection of thirty six short stories by Feng Jicai, all located in the port of Tianjing.

While I entered this collection with high hopes, hoping to get to know some unusual and delightful characters, I found myself unimpressed. Perhaps it’s because I’m already Chinese, but I felt that these characters were very normal. While I didn’t dislike any of the characters, the only on that stood out was the Yellow Lotus Divine Matriarch, a female Red Lantern who was said to a better fighter than any of the Boxers.

Perhaps the reason why I felt so uninvested with the stories is that they are really more of character sketches than stories. It’s normally about one or two anecdotes in that character’s life, but I didn’t really feel a sense of stakes when I read it. The stories, too, were largely unconnected and if it weren’t for the fact that this was a Netgalley book and I had nothing else to read at that time, I might not have finished it.

That said, the illustrations at the front of each chapter were delightful. It reminded me of the Chinese comics I used to read in the school library.

Overall, I didn’t hate this but I wasn’t very impressed with it either. Perhaps it’s because it’s the first time I’ve read Feng Jicai and am not familiar with his style, but I don’t really feel compelled to seek out more of his works based on this.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.

Featured Image: Photo from Canva Photo Library