Sunyi Dean's The Girl With A Thousand Faces: Ghosts, World War 2, and Remembrance

Welcome back! This week Dani and Jenny tackle a historical fiction/fantasy novel, "The Girl with a Thousand Faces" by Sunyi Dean (2026). Although Jenny initially thought Dani was dragging her into a fantasy pit, ultimately this novel deals with war memory, trauma, and grief in Hong Kong (Kowloon specifically) after World War 2. Dani appreciates the discussion of grief and how Dean conveys the complexities of the process of grieving and healing, and Jenny loses herself in monologues about (war) memory culture and remembrance, which are part of her field of research. Win win win win all around.

Elsewhere, in yet another discussion about booktok trends, our two hosts once again concede that they do not like conformity and do not want to be told what to read in what season of the year.

For fans of historical fiction, fantasy, ghost stories, but also deep family based narrative, this episode has a lot in stock for them. Enjoy!

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If you'd like to read along, here are our September books:

The Girl With a Thousand Faces (Sunyi Dean)

Big Mouth and Ugly Girl (Joyce Carol Oates)

The Unknown (Riley Sager)

Still Life (Louise Penny)

Disappoint Me (Nicola Dinan)