Although I always prioritise sharing books written by women, on Women’s History Month, it is an absolute must. There is no shortage of incredible female authors, and I will do everything I can to promote their books. This week’s book comes to us from one of my favourite Canadian authors (who also wrote The Porcelain Moon), a haunting new novel that immediately grabbed me. Onto The Fourth Princess by Janie Chang!
Thank you to William Morrow for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 
The Fourth Princess, Janie Chang
Shanghai, 1911. Lisan Liu is elated when she is hired as secretary to wealthy American Caroline Stanton, the new mistress of Lennox Manor on the outskirts of Shanghai’s International Settlement. However, the Manor has a dark past due to a previous owner’s suicide, and soon Lisan’s childhood nightmares resurface with more intensity and meld with haunted visions of a woman in red. Adding to her unease is the young gardener, Yao, who both entices and disturbs her.
Newly married Caroline looks forward to life in China with her husband, Thomas, away from the shadows of another earlier tragedy. But an unwelcome guest, Andrew Grey, attends her party and claims to know secrets she can’t afford to have exposed. At the same party, the notorious princess Masako Kyo approaches Lisan with questions about the young woman’s family that the orphaned Lisan can’t answer.
As Caroline struggles with Grey’s extortion and Thomas’s mysterious illness, Lisan’s future is upended when she learns the truth about her past, and why her identity has been hidden all these years. All the while, strange incidents accelerate, driving Lisan to doubt her sanity as Lennox Manor seems unwilling to release her until she fulfills demands from beyond the grave.
Why You Should Read This…
Janie Chang has been one of my favourite historical fiction authors for a while now, and The Fourth Princess only proves why she is.
I typically am hit and miss with Gothic novels. I won’t lie, I am a bit of scaredy-cat- sometimes they are just too creepy for me. However, Chang grounds the story in our characters and their lives, rather than focusing on the setting, and it is a much more human-sort of Gothic novel. I think that this approach has made for a much more modern version of the Gothic novel, rather than an imitation of eighteenth and nineteenth century novels in the genre.
This is certainly a sad novel, with almost each character coping with a traumatic past and a present that is full of difficulty and traps. While I was never quite sure who I should trust, I still felt compelled to to know what had happened to our main protagonists and what choices they would make- after all, our past influences our future. It does end on a note of hope, which I also found a change to many Gothic novels. (I prefer this- if you are going to haunt me throughout the novel in various ways, at least give me a sliver of hope!)
As always, Chang skilfully weaves together several stories. Everything is uncovered in its own time, it is not an info dump but rather a tapestry slowly coming together. Did I often want it to happen faster? Yes, I am impatient ha! But it made for all the more enjoyment when reading.
If you are a fan of historical fiction, this is a must-read!
Is The Fourth Princess by Janie Chang on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
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