In Jade City, Fonda Lee writes a story set in the gritty, realistic urban sprawl of Janloon City that feels strongly inspired by kung-fu movies such as The Way of the Dragon, The Boxer from Shantung, and The Chinatown Kid. Control of the city is being contested by the No Peak Clan and the Mountain Clan, two of the largest clans that have gobbled up minor clans in their war to achieve supremacy. They have different views on how Janloon should be run, so they often come to blows over their differing ideals, especially regarding the jade trade.

Jade is sort of the magic of this story, and it’s deeply embedded in the economy as well. In this world, people are Jade-blind, a person who can get sick from using or handling jade, a Green Bone, a person trained to use and handle the power of jade, or a Stone-Eye, a person who is completely unaffected by jade. No Peak is Green Bones. The Mountain Clan is Stone-Eye. The introduction of SN1, a synthetic drug that allows anyone to handle jade, throws everything into chaos and shifts the balance of power in Janloon.

All of this is seen through the eyes of the Kaul family running the No Peak Clan. The three siblings–Lan, Hilo, Shae–and their adopted cousin, Anden, struggle to carry the weight of the family legacy as it shifts onto their shoulders, and right as the Mountain Clan decides it’s time for a shift in power.

Unfortunately, this portion of the story was what pushed me away. The world-building was tight. Everything made sense and operated realistically. The family dynamic was there. But it was boring. All the politics sapped away any energy I felt being created. Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of politics to begin with, so I don’t particularly enjoy letting them seep into my reading.

What I did enjoy was the jade aspect. Lee writes of jade use almost as a drug. The Green Bones can wear jade to amplify their powers. It’s far from traditional magic use, but it fits nicely within this world. The users get a rush every time they put it on, and they crash every time they take it off. They feel the pull of jade when they are close to it and get the “itch” when they wear too much for too long, which Lee emphasizes repeatedly in the book. When they wear too much jade or wear it for too long, the symptoms worsen. It’s because of this that a synthetic drug, SN1, has been developed to help wean jade users off the symptoms. As mentioned, this also leads to bigger problems.

Where the story struggles is in the personal. Don’t get me wrong, very personal things happen to all the characters in this novel, but we don’t necessarily feel them. I never got inside the main characters’ heads or hearts, so I never felt attached to any of them. Lee does a whole heap of telling in this novel, but she doesn’t do much showing, creating distance. It’s this distance that prevented me from connecting with anyone, making the portions of the novel I liked less (the politics) hard to get through.

The story is intriguing, if you’re in the right mindset. The prose is competent, but not inspired. The family drama is dramatic, but never gets personal. It’s an above-average read if you’re in the mood for a family-driven political crime drama urban fantasy novel.