Masquerade

by Mike Fu

Set between New York and Shanghai, Masquerade is a queer coming-of-age mystery about a lovelorn bartender and his complex friendship with a volatile artist.

Newly single Meadow Liu is house-sitting for his friend, artist Selma Shimizu, when he stumbles upon The Masquerade, a translated novel about a masked ball in 1930s Shanghai. The author’s name is the same as Meadow’s own in Chinese, Liu Tian—a coincidence that proves to be the first of many strange happenings. Over the course of a single summer, Meadow must contend with a possibly haunted apartment, a mirror that plays tricks, a stranger speaking in riddles at the bar where he works, as well as a startling revelation about a former lover. And when Selma vanishes from her artist residency, Meadow is forced to question everything he knows as the boundaries between real and imagined begin to blur.Exploring social, cultural, and sexual identities in New York, Shanghai, and beyond, Mike Fu’s Masquerade is a skillfully layered, brilliantly interwoven debut novel of friendship, queer longing, and worlds on the brink, asking how we can find ourselves among ghosts of all kinds, and who we can trust when nothing—and no one—is as it seems.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Thriller, LGBT, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Queer

336 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 2024

Reviews

[Cozy · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars, rounded up.
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

Thank god I’m done with this. The only reason I don’t consider this a waste of time is because I read it while doing my cardio at the gym and if anything the frustration made me work harder. This was a complete bore. Mostly it was Meadow laments about his love life, he gets drunk maybe does some drugs, passes out, reminisces about his past sexual and romantic encounters, wakes up, goes to work, comes home, repeat. Oh and sometimes he cooks.
Nothing engaging happened for the vast majority of the book. When you do get something interesting it is immediately cut away from to do an uninteresting flashback or random cut away. I will give it one thing and that is that it has some interesting moments involving the book inside the book but it has barely any page time at all. When something happens in the plot we can’t let things get exciting, oh no, we have to kneecap that pacing to cut away for 2 flashbacks and then a jump forward.
This book is also overwritten. We get a strange coincidence and the author immediately has the main character comment on what a strange coincidence that is and can you believe this other thing happened just the other day?? Let the readers draw the connections please… The author feels the need to spell out any clever moment in case the reader missed it and that’s not fun at all, it’s annoying. It felt like the author was trying to do a Haruki Murakami style meandering plot but missed all of the parts that make that style engaging. Mix that with a Holden Caulfield-ish protagonist and you have a recipe for boredom.

I’m going to talk about the ending extremely vaguely and without specifics but if you don’t want to have even vague spoilers I recommend not reading past this point. Just know that like everything else, I didn’t like it.


********potential spoilers below********



Okay so the way it ends was even more frustrating than the rest of it. Meadow does nothing to earn it but everything seems to just wrap itself up nicely. He gets an explanation that just ties everything into a neat little bow and then has an earth-shattering revelation that makes very little sense and had no setup and was the only part of the story that could actually use an explanation without actually getting one. I feel like it was the conclusion of a story I didn’t read. Did I miss all the setup? Maybe. Did the author forget to set it up and just wanted a twist ending for the heck of it? Also maybe. What a mess.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5 ARC gifted by the publisher

I enjoyed this metafiction about the stories we use to reinvent ourselves. Things seem very meandering and meaningless right until the end. Definitely a book that will require lots of patience to decipher the meanings.

Reminds me of PARASOL AGAINST THE AXE a bit with its structure and themes! Perfect for lovers of weird books

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lush, almost dreamlike coming of age set in NYC and Shanghai. Masquerade captures the feeling of not quite aimlessness as one pivots, trying to figure out life as a grown up. And, here, Meadow, is a tad lost, from being ghosted, while staying at a friends' apartment. Plus, there is a book within a book, that leads to Meadow searching for meaning and clues, and maybe his friend is missing? This is a quietly unsettling book, that makes me quite happy that I am no longer at that rootless time of my life.

I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.

[Mai H.]

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Tin House Books

[Maria Greufe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a good time reading this and enjoyed the characters and existential reflections- but the mystery plot missed the mark a bit for me

[Sarah-Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be honest: Masquerade was a disappointment. The publisher's description calls it "a queer coming-of-age mystery about a lovelorn bartender and his complex friendship with a volatile artist.... Over the course of a single summer, Meadow [the main character] must contend with a possibly haunted apartment, a mirror that plays tricks, a stranger speaking in riddles at the bar where he works, as well as a startling revelation about a former lover. And when Selma [the volatile artist] vanishes from her artist residency, Meadow is forced to question everything he knows as the boundaries between real and imagined begin to blur."

There's lots that sounds promising there: interesting people, multiple and varied locations, the possibility of something unearthly. Others' reviews of the work noted that it was very slow to start, but there were also a lot of positive comments about how the novel winds up. I agree with the first of those two, but not with the second. I really pushed myself to finish this one because I had faith that if enough other readers had found it ultimately worthwhile, then I would too—but I didn't.

It seems that the reader is intended to find the novel transformational, changing the life path of the central character. But the transformation didn't transform. As far as I could tell, the central character remained exactly who he was from the novel's start: an intelligent, hopeful individual too willing to let the world outside him determine his destiny, rather than making a determination of his own.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title; the opinions are my own.

[Elena L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

[ 3.5/5 stars ]

Meadow Liu is house-sitting for his friend, artist Selma, when he stumbles upon 'The Masquerade', a translated novel about a masked ball in 1930s Shanghai whose author shares his Chinese name. Also when Selma disappears, Meadow questions everything he knows.

Fu plunges one into both Liu's frame of mind and the literary world - falling into the pit of existential, the plot is meandering in a way that allows one to pause and detect a whisper of meaning within lines. By following this tale of deviance and deception with ghosted characters and suspicious facts, Fu exposes loneliness, queerness and mostly relationships, which intense intersections between desire and reality translate into uncontrolled bodily satisfaction.

With abstract prose, the episodes of memories can feel disorienting, as the uncanny dictates Liu's actions and also leads the reader into misleading directions. And here lies the brilliance of this novel, when Fu makes use of allegories and events as a bare frame to materialize with the reader's imagination. I must confess that many of the weird turns and symbolism often went over my head, however this didn't take away from the cleverness of this novel. I was firstly invested into the mystery but the way it unfolded was underwhelming. With open ending, this book invites one to define one's own narrative.

MASQUERADE is a refined meta-fiction that might not work for everyone. This literary mystery is inventive, vague and all for one to decipher the connections.

[ I received an ARC from the publisher - Tin House books . All thoughts are my own ]

[Ming · Rating 2 out of 5]

That's it?! That's the resolution??? I'm very underwhelmed and very dissatisfied.

The writing is technically solid, sometimes a bit over the top in terms of being flowery or fixating on details (e.g., clothing, room decor, etc.). And the writing style is not evocative or affective. The "feels" are described but generally there is a clinical tone and perspective. It comes off as mechanical--a camera merely taking in images and recording them.

The parallel stories concept was intriguing...until the conclusion. That reveal was implausible and dull. I am angry for having certain expectations dashed and for having wasted my time.

The Acknowledgements were boring too.

[Annalise · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author is not a bad writer, but this really didn't work for me.

[Tanja Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gets 4 stars mainly for the lyrical writing style, the pictures Mike Fu’s words conjures up. But it is so hard to figure out what is real and what is not as Meadow journeys through a strange summer, aimless in New York, house sitting for his friend Selma, who may not be who she appears. A lot of this book, and the book-within-the-book, is not as it appears. I did like the end, at least to the extent I could connect all the dots. I agree with those who said Meadow lacked agency throughout most of the novel, that things happened to him, rather than him initiating action. But then, I think that’s the point.

[mary!!!!! · Rating 3 out of 5]

was pretty slow for the vast majority of the book :/ every time something interesting happened, we'd go into a long flashback that killed the momentum!! and the ending was a bit corny and on-the-nose for me, it kind of gave teen drama first person narration in the worst way

i do think mike fu does a great job with fleshing out the characters and making them memorable and interesting, it's what kept me going!!

the synopsis on the back of the book made this seem like a supernatural mystery situation and this was very much not that. i had fun learning about all the characters, but the book still dragged and i felt underwhelmed with the ending

[Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had pretty high hopes for this book that explored the diaspora between Shanghai and New York. Apart from a few beautifully written excerpts, and a peek into the life of a wanderer in New York who enjoyed parties with friends with inherited wealth in Brooklyn/ Queens, drinking like a fish and doing drugs, I found this book quite pointless at the end. I kept reading on and on for something meaningful to happen, but some scenes felt superfluous — I felt like I didn’t understand more of Meadow nor the intriguing Selma — more like a dump of the author’s personal experiences and portraits of acquaintances in New York maybe? The ending was disappointing, after many twists and turns, a mystery does not turn out to be a mystery anymore, with no character development, no closure, just portraits of dancing to Sade/ Whitney Houston/ Prince in Cape Cod living the soft life?

Excerpts

The utter serendipity that allowed their forefathers to survive when so many others perished because of catastrophes wrought by man or nature, or simply bad luck, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. How tenuous, all the things that linked them to the present moment, this stormy spring night in Brooklyn, sitting knee to knee: the minor miracle of seeing another person take shape before one’s very eyes.

Long drives into the countryside, staring up at the stars, wondering if he would ever have someone to call his own. Or if anyone could ever know him entirely, find him in this crevice where he was lodged, pull him out of it.

Some corners of Shanghai are wretched indeed, but the fabulous ambience of tonight's party could exist in no other city, Mizuno thinks. Part of him feels as though he conjured it up for himself: this house and all these people are almost the exact image of the glamorous world he once dreamt of as a young man, the fantasy that originally enticed him to leave his country and rush toward continental adventures and this cauldron of modernity.

There was something endearing about the group of them, the ease with which they performed their social identities, at once cosmopolitan and unpretentious.

"You're like elastic drawstring pants," Bobby replied without missing a beat. "You slide on real easy and can accommodate lots of different shapes and sizes.

Yueh-Lan knew plenty of this man Mizuno, alternately pitying and despising him for what he could so easily overlook. Though she knew him not to be a strident imperialist per se, he was all too happy to pretend that his nation was not carrying out a murderous campaign throughout all of Asia. He behaved as though he could simply glance away, whistle a few bars, and dance a few rounds, and then the whole messy business of war and bloodshed could conclude and a new era of peace would prevail. What a farce. Mizuno deserved his fate for this selfishness alone. Shanghai was being crushed under the military occupation of the Empire of Japan. Men like Mizuno would rather see it as but a minor inconvenience, filling their time with their gin rickeys and horse races, movie premieres and garden parties. Meanwhile, the chokehold of empire tightened by the day in the form of curfews and checkpoints, clampdowns on social life, the exploitation and reallocation of business and industry.

In an era of subjugation and humiliation, and the Chinese to whom this land belonged at the mercy of foreign occupiers, a man like Mizuno was only too content to peddle entertainment to the masses: the latest starlets and soft films, perfumes, fashions, expensive hotels and luxury steamers. The audacity to present a veneer of peace and prosperity when the world was anything but.

The naive notion that this could all continue in perpetuity somehow took hold in the back of his mind, that he might stay in this city forever, riding the L and Q around town, enjoying oysters and cocktails, meeting men who provided some semblance of love. All of these trappings of urban life were enough to allow him to craft a narrative of sufficiency, if not fulfillment.

[Leia Cohen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this story was being told on two different planes, one was done really well, but the other left a lot to be desired. The first layer, Meadow being untethered and searching for love and meaning, was done really well. It never quite reaches a conclusion, but I enjoy the way the author portrays Meadow’s life and its uncertainty. The moments Fu laid out were so human and I felt seen in both the good and the bad. From appreciating solitude and the small rituals you create for yourself, to not knowing what’s next or how to sit in that uncertainty.

The second layer was the one I was most excited about - the mystery of what happened to Selma and how all the pieces she left behind fit together. It is a really interesting concept, comparing the book inside the book to what Meadow was experiencing. However, any metaphor explaining the connection between the two layers of the book feels unfinished and too built up.

Still really enjoyed the book and can’t wait to see what Fu does next

[Nursebookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

TITLE: MASQUERADE
AUTHOR: MIKE FU
PUB DATE: 10.29.2024

A Best Book of October at People, Chicago Review of Books, and The Millions

THOUGHTS:

Dreamy
Fantastical
Queer coming of age

Meadow Liu house sits for a friend in New York and finds a translated book Masquerade about 1930’s Shanghai by an author with her same name in Chinese - this sets off a series of events - a book within a book, this meandering story is a beautiful debut, a coming of age story, that touches on the themes of identity, friendship, and the intersection between reality and dreams. I love the inventive style of this literary mystery that is fascinating as it is brilliant.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Masquerade for two reasons. One, I enjoyed the evocative imagery in the writing, and the relatable descriptions of the main character Meadow's quest to find direction in life.

However, it felt like 75 percent of the book was the diary of a low key alcoholic and drug user, which got pretty boring after a while. At points I was just yelling at Meadow to grow up. He never explored any interests or passions but just went to the bar every night.

The mysterious aspects of the plot were great, I won't give anything away but I wish we found out more. The author kind of leaves it to your imagination to decide if things were in Meadow's imagination, dreams, or actually happened.

[Dezirah Remington · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the act of reading this novel full of coincidences, doppelgangers, close calls, and quite a lot of recreational drugs, I’m not sure I understood any of it. That may have been the point.

Fu makes choices that kept me engaged, even when I struggled to follow. The complicated lives of the protagonist Meadow and his friends in NYC, navigating a gay dating scene, feeling lost an immature when surrounded by friends who are moving on and up in life, the art scene, comparisons of Shanghai and NYC, complicated family dynamics, a possible ghost, a disappearance, and a strange book that seems in lock step with Meadow’s life and even his name. This novel was full of twists and turns, offset by entire chapters of back story that slowly illuminate the structure of the narrative. The regular drunken and drug addled pages left the reader just as confused as Meadow about the lines between imagination and reality. All with an ending that well… just kind of ends.

The writing is crisp, thoughtful and stylish while still easy to read. The characters appear to be fully developed, only to have a twist throw everything the reader thought they knew into chaos. The complexity makes this a meditative read. Although I walked away with little ability to articulate what I read, the challenge was very enjoyable, which may be the entire point. It is called Masquerade after all.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had so much promise! A relatively unfocused 30-something bartender is housesitting for a friend and, on his departure to visit his family in Singapore he finds a strange book in the apartment. And thus begins a strange story that is both a retelling of the book, Masquerade, and following Meadow's life (both present day and in flashbacks).

The bigger problem is that it's never quite clear what's going on, and not in a good way. Meadow is just not likeable, and the connections between him, this book and his life is unclear and honestly it didn't really matter because there was never a reason to care. At times the prose was awkward, which could have been an attempt to play up the translation of the book-within-a-book but, again, I never really cared.

eARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss.

[Ginger Rubin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As per my 2024 resolutions, I’m renewing my commitment to cataloging my literary and cinematic pursuits! Picked this book up at Pegasus books with zero expectations, and was pleasantly surprised by Fu’s poignant exploration of blossoming adulthood and all its confusion.

Masquerade infuses even the mundane experiences of its protagonist with a magic, blurring the lines of sanity and reality. The settings, New York and Shanghai, are written about with such care— they are lush and full of life and movement. Overall, a novel that finds meaning in an untethered life, and a lovely read!

[Donna Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was gonna be 3 stars for the longest but I actually liked the end, contrary to a lot of other reviews so far. Its hopefulness and purpose helps counterbalance the main character's lack of agency through most of the novel, which got frustrating. That and the way the mystery was not much more than mysterious. Meh. I have to think about this one for a bit.

[Lorelei Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. As a person in my early 20s, reading this book was an especially powerful experience. Meadow's uncertainty about his life and search for answers through other people or signs was very relatable, and this book offered reassurance to me as if to say I'm not the only one feeling the chaos of early adulthood😅. I also especially related to the concept of being split between different countries. It's something I haven't read a lot about and appreciated the inclusion of. The mirror and mask metaphors were delectable, and I loved Fu's style of writing. I always get excited when authors use such varied and high-level vocabulary in their writing. It's so precise and wonderful to read.

My favorite quote: "The mythologies and unrcircumscribed world of his young adult existence were no longer impenetrable, or even as sturdy as he'd wanted to imagine."

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

a bizarre love letter to NYC, where not much happens and yet a whole lot happens at the same time. reminiscent of the strange lushness of classic science fiction I read in high school!

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It had a slow pace but held my attention. The main character, Meadow, is in a sort of existential melancholy while a mysterious series of events in his life give him reason to become distrustful of those around him and to reassess what he's living for. I thought it was really cool that there was a book within a book - Meadow discovers a book called Masquerade, and we get to experience that book with him. I enjoyed the feel of the story - it was almost like a lucid dream or sleepwalking, and had an undercurrent of dread and paranoia. I'll probably be rereading this one at some point. It gave me a lot to think about.

I received a print ARC from the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masquerade started strong. I was interested in Meadow and his situation, and in the tale being told through the mysterious book he finds. The themes in the book were explored in a fascinating manner and I loved the ethereal, mysterious nature of the story. However, my attention wavered a bit in the latter part of the book, and when it ended, I felt there were questions I still wanted answered, the lack of those answers making it feel a tad unfinished; although, I acknowledge that may have been a conscious choice by the author: to leave things open and up to the reader's interpretation. I am giving this book four stars. I liked a lot about it, but I couldn't help but feel something was lacking at the end. I recommend it to fans of literary fiction that includes elements of magical realism and mystery. I would check out other works by this author in the future.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Brice Montgomery · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Tin House for the ARC!

Mike Fu’s Masquerade might be marketed as a surreal exploration of the narratives we believe about ourselves, but don’t let the pitch fool you—this is a book that seems to think repetition is reflection, redundancy is recursion, and recognition is re-evaluation.

It’s an exhausting and fruitless read, particularly because it is so insistent on telling you it has a lot on its mind without ever offering any evidence to support such a claim.

The protagonist, Meadow, has settled into that post-grad school malaise where his life is uneventful. He’s just gotten out of yet another relationship, and his best friend prophetically says, “You fall easily into this kind of story. Invent a new one and start over.” Then, she promptly vanishes, and Meadow finds a book written by someone who shares his name. Sounds exciting, no?

There’s definitely potential here for parsing out the difference between self-narration and self-mythology, and that seems to be what Fu is reaching for. Unfortunately, it remains beyond his reach at every opportunity, starting with his characters.

The voices throughout the book are interchangeable, often doing little more than explicitly commenting on their inability to write their own narrative. Before you think that’s a very meta and heady approach, please know that it’s not an approach—it’s just something that happens over and over with no development. Fu treats the book’s premise—write a new story—as its conclusion, and it reads like a thought exercise without a thought behind it.

Similarly, the Matryoshka doll approach to storytelling Fu employs here feels like it could add a lot to a deconstruction of narrative. We revisit the same scenes repeatedly, and it seems like the intention is to craft a kaleidoscopic, multilayered story where we dive deeper into the impact of specific moments. What we actually get is closer to an extended montage, endlessly recapping scenes without development and undermining any of the surrealism suggested by the marketing copy with the most wooden literalism imaginable. Most of these scenes are wine-soaked dinner parties, but we don’t even get to enjoy the listless vibe of a hangout. The book just feels like a novella-shaped premise stretched beyond recognition into a novel.

Ultimately, I don’t think these things would matter much if the prose were good. I’ve read many uneventful books that still feel rewarding because each sentence stands as a work of art. Sadly, Masquerade lets readers down here too, offering a frustrating pastiche of clichés—ChatGPT-core, if you will.

It’s a harsh critique, but there were so many moments that felt like an algorithm’s notion of “literary” writing—radical anonymity when it’s clear the author is capable of more. Consider, for example, the following sentences:

“But none of this has come to pass. Meadow has no idea yet about the sordid tale that’s on the cusp of unfolding.”

So much of the prose is uncomfortably and artificially elevated like this, and it’s unfortunate because the authorial voice periodically relaxes into something far more distinctive. I fully believe that Mike Fu could write a book that accomplishes more if it were less preoccupied with identifying its own ambition.

In the end, Masquerade is a frustrating disappointment, a surprise from Tin House. While I sympathize with its command to “write a new story,” I encourage interested parties to skip this book and instead read a new story.

[Tiffany-Amber Moton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading 95% of this book. and full disclosure: as a new yorker who also lived in east brooklyn for an era that sparkles, even now, with nostalgic divinity, i was immediately charmed by Fu's commitment to placing nearly every scene in a distinct location--such that i could summon them all with painstaking detail in my head. that said, my personal fondness for the sort of reverent scrutiny palpable in Fu's depiction of my city undoubtedly enriched my reading experience.

now, new yorker bias aside, i was also quite taken with meadow and the entire cast of characters from early on. i found their comfortable queerness and artistic whimsy as captivating as their flaws. even as we perceived them through meadow's limited and increasingly surrealistic gaze, they read like real people--at least, they did to me. as the story unfolded, i became entranced by the sprinkling of nightmarish phenomena; the phantasmic, trance-like passages intended to mystify. these scenes promised an eventual revelation, whether it be supernatural or utterly psychotic, and i was all in. i gave Masquerade and all its simmering enigma my full attention, committing the details to memory and thinking critically, dutifully analyzing mizuno's sections in relation to meadow's narrative in an effort to decode the meaning of it all. "evidence of thematic cohesion must be buried here somewhere" i insisted to myself, "if i just keep reading, it'll all come together soon".

alas. soon enough i was down to 15 pages left, still clinging to the hope that i simply 'hadn't gotten to the good part yet'. i had been having such a good time, until suddenly, the narrative shucked off its uncanny disguise and revealed that underneath it all had been...er. nothing? all that dreamy promise of an otherworldly pay-off, the poignant bits of surreality that seemed to be building toward a climactic reveal of answers that lay in the supernatural, or even a complex yet deeply profound delusion--all of it, snuffed out in a matter of 2 or 3 chapters that felt abrupt and jarring. all those elusive mysteries that'd been simmering since the start were neatly resolved with a few sentences' worth of perfectly-rational explanation. it was dissatisfying, to say the least.

and i recognize that the novel did inform me of meadow's unconscious tendency to make something out of nothing. or as selma describes it: "you fall easily into this kind of story". still, i'm sorry to say that if meadow was meant to be understood as seeking out meaning where there was none and making connections that never quite fit, none of that translated, at least not to me. i suppose i can accept that meadow's longing for self-fulfillment and reassurance that he's where he's meant to be may have fueled his inclination to grasp at ghosts and follies of cosmic meddling to avoid accepting the emptiness of what were, ultimately, just a series mundane disappointments. but if the whole point of the story was that meadow simply needed to 'get the f*** out of new york', then meadow and i, evidently, share this foolish inclination--for i, too, had been grasping at ghosts and follies of cosmic meddling while reading Masquerade, and likewise, i was forced to accept that, in the end, there was nothing really there but a series of mundane disappointments. (3 stars for gorgeous, evocative prose and a vividly-drawn cast of queer characters)

[Michael Doane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike Fu’s Masquerade is a layered and atmospheric debut that blends queer coming of age fiction with literary mystery, psychological unease, and transnational reflection. Set between New York and Shanghai, the novel unfolds over one unsettled summer in which reality begins to feel porous and identity itself becomes a shifting mask.

At the center of the story is Meadow Liu, a recently heartbroken bartender house sitting for his friend Selma Shimizu, a volatile and charismatic artist. When Meadow discovers a translated novel titled The Masquerade attributed to an author whose Chinese name mirrors his own what begins as coincidence deepens into obsession. The apartment seems haunted, mirrors behave strangely, and cryptic conversations at the bar blur into literary echoes. Meanwhile, Selma’s sudden disappearance forces Meadow to confront not only external mysteries but his own emotional evasions.

Fu skillfully uses the structure of a nested text a novel within the novel to explore questions of authorship, selfhood, and cultural inheritance. The Shanghai of the 1930s, evoked through the mysterious book, parallels Meadow’s present day New York in ways that feel deliberate yet destabilizing. Time folds in on itself. Personal history and collective history overlap. The boundaries between imagined narrative and lived experience begin to dissolve.

What makes Masquerade especially compelling is its exploration of queer longing and displacement. Meadow’s emotional terrain infatuation, insecurity, desire for artistic and romantic recognition mirrors the broader theme of searching for identity across languages and cities. Fu examines the tension between performance and authenticity: how much of the self is costume, and how much is core?

Stylistically, the prose is introspective and often dreamlike, leaning into ambiguity rather than tidy resolution. The novel resists easy categorization part ghost story, part literary thriller, part meditation on diaspora and artistic creation. Readers willing to inhabit its uncertainty will find a richly textured exploration of friendship, obsession, and the fragile line between invention and truth.

Masquerade announces Mike Fu as a bold new voice in queer literary fiction one unafraid to let mirrors crack and let meaning shimmer rather than settle.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

               Though Masquerade is only the second book I’ve read in 2025; I’m guessing it’ll be one of my favorite reads of the year. It’s a dreamy novel that perfectly captures a particular atmosphere – it feels like being slightly tipsy on a summer evening in Brooklyn after watching the sunset over Fort Greene Park. Of being young(ish) and wandering into the New York night without a plan, but knowing you’ll be up until dawn.
 
                  Meadow has a vacancy to him, as though he is less defined by what he IS and more by the things he is NOT. Listless on the cusp of 30, he has recently left academia (first dropping out of grad school, then leaving a 9-5 university admin job), been ghosted by a man he was falling in love with and has become apartmentless - subletting from his enigmatic artist friend Selma. As the novel begins, Meadow is violently hungover and late for his flight to Shanghai where he is visiting his parents. As he is leaving, he discovers a strange old book called ‘Masquerade,’ authored by Liu Tian – Meadow’s name in Chinese, setting the course for a series of strange, magical realism-tinged events that take us through the course of a reflective summer in the city.
 
Alternating between the present and the past, Meadow fills us in on the past decade of his life, from his quieter days in Harlem to the endless nights where he stayed out until dawn with Bobby, his eccentric best friend who shepherds him into the excess and joys of being young and queer in the city (unless, of course, you’re actually looking for love or a monogamous relationship).
 
This book mastered a certain meandering mood. It’s a gorgeously descriptive novel – its plot was interesting, for sure, but more of a second thought overall (for me). If you like propulsive, plot-heavy books maybe this one isn’t for you, but if you’re like me and love a dreamy, cinematic style with long, insightful interior reflections on life and love (and going out too much), then I highly recommend this one!!

[Maven_Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masquerade by Mike Fu is a dreamy, queer coming-of-age mystery that follows Meadow Liu, a lost and wistful bartender in New York, as he stumbles into uncanny parallels with a 1930s Shanghai novel written by someone whose Chinese name is the same as his own. The discovery of The Masquerade, a strange book that seems to mirror his own life coincides with his friend Selma’s disappearance, a haunted mirror, cryptic bartenders, and an existential tremor in his otherwise slow-burning summer.

Reading this book felt like drifting through a reverie: Meadow’s life is painted with parties, hangovers, and longing, but underneath it all is a tender urgency about identity, belonging, and the masks we wear. Fu’s prose is both vivid and unsettling; the narrative leans into the strange mirrors that reflect different versions of the self, a doppelgänger in a dusty book, without ever becoming fully fantastical. The novel is “meandering, surreal, and unsettling,” giving off a persistent hum rather than an explosive climax. And yet, by the end, there’s a gentle hopefulness, a subtle shift in Meadow’s sense of purpose. I especially appreciated how Wilson/Meadow’s diasporic duality split between New York and Shanghai is handled with nuance: his internal life isn’t tethered to one geography, and his longing isn’t simple. Fu’s debut is less about big plot reveals and more about the poetry of longing, of displacement, and of trying to piece together a sense of self in a world that feels both glamorous and alien.

If you’re someone who enjoys literary fiction that favors mood and character over fast pacing, this book might feel like a late-night confessional. At times, the mystery doesn’t resolve in neat ways, and some may wish for more concrete answers. But for me, that ambiguity was part of its charm, it felt honest to the uncertainty of adult life and queer identity. Rating: 4 out of 5. I loved its atmosphere, its emotional honesty, and the way it lingers in the mind, even when its mysteries don’t entirely coalesce.

[Susie Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

{thank you to the publisher for my copy of this book!}


Masquerade was quite the ride of a book and I had no idea what direction the ride was going or where it would end up. In some ways, it's a slow book, but at the same time, it feels like there's a lot happening. Meadow, staying at his friend Selma's NYC apartment for the summer, finds a mysterious book called "The Masquerade," a translated novel about a masked ball in 1930s Shanghai written by an author with the same name as Meadow's Chinese name. From there, strange things start happening and much of them seem to go back to the book.

The novel contains lots of flashbacks so we can learn about the beginning of Meadow's friendship with Selma and details about his recent breakup with a man named Diego. Honestly, my biggest issue with the book is that Meadow's personality felt so "blah." But I think perhaps that was intentional on the part of the author. I guess I'd need a sequel to see if that changed. The ending frustrated me in many ways and left several questions unanswered, though it also did tie things up in other ways.

A unique and interesting book that I don't see becoming a huge bestseller, but that will certainly find its audience of fans.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who are we at the end of our youth except the person we're going to finally be, like it or not? Mike Fu's "Masquerade" is a strange book, a Pynchonian mystery, a belated coming-of-age, a paean to our 20s (that decade when anything seems possible and often is). The story of a grad school dropout turned bartender who keeps getting his heart broken, who drinks and smokes too much, who perhaps is hanging out with the wrong crowd(s) may not have a strong narrative but I think that's the point. Life isn't plot-driven when we're trying to figure out our core identity, although there are plenty of entertaining anecdotes and encounters along the way. It's also a time when artworks can resonate with peculiar power (like Fu's novel-within-a-novel), lifelong friends end up having a shelf-life, drugs trigger passing revelations, and family can feel like an unwanted anchor. Fu's choice to situate his anti-tale in New York City is brilliant since the five boroughs often give people a false sense of purpose and/or identity, one that ultimately doesn't pan out. At times echoing Henry James or Somerset Maugham, "Masquerade" asserts that an examined life is always worth reading.