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winterstar's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I wanted to LOVE this book, but it ended up being middling for me. Started off great, with smooth prose and engaging pacing, then that all kind of unraveled into a slog. Then the last 15% or so was fantastic.
Enjoyed: interesting world, intriguing plot, great tone and flavor, characters genuinely not afraid to get dark and weird and complicated.
Didn't vibe with: meandering middle, a few of the characters I found either bland or insufferable, some clunky storytelling and truly confusing moments, prose that was way more tell than show.
Overall I was driven more by curiosity about what the gods were up to, and interest in the different realms, than in the characters. It's hard to say where exactly this goes wrong, because I connected with the characters at first, but as the book went on and I spent more time with each one, they all started to seem a little flat. Ironically, so much of what the characters are thinking and feeling is hammered in. There were so many scenes I wish the writing would have just let speak for themselves, rather than hamfistedly explaining their significance; on the other hand, there were a few crucial scenes that tried to convey everything through implication, and could have used more clarity. I really liked a few individual lines and paragraphs of the writing, which vacillates between truly evocative and shockingly clumsy.
I think the book is worth reading if a dark, complex world and plot as well as a few interesting characters are enough to keep you interested. I'll be picking up the sequel to see if it's an improvement, since I really enjoyed the last chunk of the book and the cliffhanger left me wanting to know more.
Enjoyed: interesting world, intriguing plot, great tone and flavor, characters genuinely not afraid to get dark and weird and complicated.
Didn't vibe with: meandering middle, a few of the characters I found either bland or insufferable, some clunky storytelling and truly confusing moments, prose that was way more tell than show.
Overall I was driven more by curiosity about what the gods were up to, and interest in the different realms, than in the characters. It's hard to say where exactly this goes wrong, because I connected with the characters at first, but as the book went on and I spent more time with each one, they all started to seem a little flat. Ironically, so much of what the characters are thinking and feeling is hammered in. There were so many scenes I wish the writing would have just let speak for themselves, rather than hamfistedly explaining their significance; on the other hand, there were a few crucial scenes that tried to convey everything through implication, and could have used more clarity. I really liked a few individual lines and paragraphs of the writing, which vacillates between truly evocative and shockingly clumsy.
I think the book is worth reading if a dark, complex world and plot as well as a few interesting characters are enough to keep you interested. I'll be picking up the sequel to see if it's an improvement, since I really enjoyed the last chunk of the book and the cliffhanger left me wanting to know more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Gore, Cannibalism, and Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Blood, Self harm, and Emotional abuse
sylsbookcorner's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Y’all this book, there aren’t words to describe how good this book is! I knew from the opening line it was gonna be a roller coaster and I was NOT disappointed. It grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go til the last page! The world building is glorious, the magic system is clever, and the characters are endlessly interesting and messy and I love them. I couldn’t put it down and I cannot WAIT to devour the sequel!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death and Panic attacks/disorders
maregred's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury
booksthatburn's review
This has a lot of story elements I’d normally like, but for some reason it’s just not working for me. I gave it a month and it started to feel like a chore.
I think I’m having trouble because of the size of the cast. It starts out with four main characters (with one more important one who isn’t a POV character) and then adds another one. They’re all in the same city and there’s a degree of redundancy as one character learns something and then one or two others figure it out separately. Whatever the reason, I’m not enjoying it and I’m stopping.
I think I’m having trouble because of the size of the cast. It starts out with four main characters (with one more important one who isn’t a POV character) and then adds another one. They’re all in the same city and there’s a degree of redundancy as one character learns something and then one or two others figure it out separately. Whatever the reason, I’m not enjoying it and I’m stopping.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Racism, Blood, Xenophobia, Animal death, Kidnapping, Violence, Medical content, Chronic illness, and Death
Minor: Child death, Self harm, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Alcohol
sophiesmallhands's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, and Vomit
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse
midnightgremlin's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Easily one of my favourite reads of 2022!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, War, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent
msradiosilence's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Tldr; Taesia is the best, and I’m really looking forward to book 2.
Read my full review at: https://www.rainyreader.com/single-post/the-city-of-dusk.
Read my full review at: https://www.rainyreader.com/single-post/the-city-of-dusk.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Cursing, Racism, Police brutality, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Murder, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship
rorikae's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
'The City of Dusk' by Tara Sim is an engaging fantasy novel with great worldbuilding, political intrigue, and necromancy.
The story follows the heirs of four houses who each have their own powers and complicated relationships with one another. Taesia and her brother are dealing with discoveries and possible consequences. Angelica is dealing with learning the proper way to call forth her powers. Nik is hefting his family's expectations and a new responsibility. Risha is struggling to keep the others from coming to blows. With the tenuous relationships between their city and the gods in disarray and the question of succession causing friction between the houses, each of the heirs seek ways to save their city and keep their house afloat.
This story has a slow start but I think that really benefited the characters. Sim gives each character plenty of time within the story so that I felt I had a good grasp on each of the characters and their relationships before the full meat of the plot began to unfurl. The characters and relationships are the heart of this story and so it works really well to cement them strongly at the beginning. For readers looking for more excitement and plot, it definitely appears but only after we have a good understanding of the characters. By weaving in the worldbuilding with the characters, which is aided by them each being heir to different houses and having their own powers, we get to understand the world in a way that felt natural and not forced. There is a solid base layer of understanding that Sim continues to build on throughout the story, especially as characters begin to uncover previously unknown pieces of their world.
A lot is set up in this first book and it's clear that the story is headed for even more intense places (which is saying a lot as this book delves into many different topics). I'm excited to see where Sim takes the characters next and to learn even more about the world.
The story follows the heirs of four houses who each have their own powers and complicated relationships with one another. Taesia and her brother are dealing with discoveries and possible consequences. Angelica is dealing with learning the proper way to call forth her powers. Nik is hefting his family's expectations and a new responsibility. Risha is struggling to keep the others from coming to blows. With the tenuous relationships between their city and the gods in disarray and the question of succession causing friction between the houses, each of the heirs seek ways to save their city and keep their house afloat.
This story has a slow start but I think that really benefited the characters. Sim gives each character plenty of time within the story so that I felt I had a good grasp on each of the characters and their relationships before the full meat of the plot began to unfurl. The characters and relationships are the heart of this story and so it works really well to cement them strongly at the beginning. For readers looking for more excitement and plot, it definitely appears but only after we have a good understanding of the characters. By weaving in the worldbuilding with the characters, which is aided by them each being heir to different houses and having their own powers, we get to understand the world in a way that felt natural and not forced. There is a solid base layer of understanding that Sim continues to build on throughout the story, especially as characters begin to uncover previously unknown pieces of their world.
A lot is set up in this first book and it's clear that the story is headed for even more intense places (which is saying a lot as this book delves into many different topics). I'm excited to see where Sim takes the characters next and to learn even more about the world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
anxiousnachos's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.25
The vibes in this book are absolutely IMMACULATE. Truly spectacular, I am here for the goth metal fantasy about death gods and shadow gods and skeletons and spirits and a bisexual rogue who slowly descends into an absolute monster of a human and the monster hunter she is kind of falling for and the knives-to-throat-hair-grabbing relationship they have. Spectacular. It is like this book was made for me.
But the first 150-200 pages are so dense. The worldbuilding is so heavy, in that “I need to explicitly and directly tell the reader all these things about the world” way. It’s such a complex and dense set up, and thus the pacing is very slow and I agree with other reviewers that this could easily have been cut 100 pages and the pacing would have flowed a lot better.
In saying that, I say push the fuck through because the pay off is excellent, the characters and their relationships are wonderful and I support bisexual shadow dagger-wielding monster girls who want to tear the world apart and the boys they fancy.
Content warnings: blood and gore, murder, dead bodies, cannibalism, self-harm, burns/burn injury, animal cruelty and torture, animal death, possession, sex, sex work, violence
But the first 150-200 pages are so dense. The worldbuilding is so heavy, in that “I need to explicitly and directly tell the reader all these things about the world” way. It’s such a complex and dense set up, and thus the pacing is very slow and I agree with other reviewers that this could easily have been cut 100 pages and the pacing would have flowed a lot better.
In saying that, I say push the fuck through because the pay off is excellent, the characters and their relationships are wonderful and I support bisexual shadow dagger-wielding monster girls who want to tear the world apart and the boys they fancy.
Content warnings: blood and gore, murder, dead bodies, cannibalism, self-harm, burns/burn injury, animal cruelty and torture, animal death, possession, sex, sex work, violence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Cannibalism, Violence, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Gore, Blood, Animal death, and Grief
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual content
allisonwonderlandreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The City of Dusk is an intricate political fantasy where four warring aristocratic families try to curry favor with the king and leverage their unique god-given magic for power and influence. Our main characters are the heirs and spares of these illustrious families, born into a world that is fading at an accelerated rate, cut off from the other realms and their magic. With all four families eyeing the crown, the youngest generation has more on their minds. Separately and together, they have ideas for how to save their world. But there is much they don't know about magic, about each other, and about other powerful forces on the move, all who would use them as pawns in a terrifying, high-stakes game.
What I enjoyed most about this book were the twists and turns, the queer cast, and the reflections on power and privilege. While the relationships were a bit surface level and trope-y for my tastes (especially the romantic plots were predictable and rushed), the political power games were fascinating and kept many surprises until the very end. In terms of queer representation, there are both sapphic and mlm romances brewing among the main cast at the end of this first installment, and an important side character is a trans girl. There is also an established sapphic couple as one of the main character's mom and stepmom. It seems to be a queer-norm society. I appreciated how the characters struggle throughout the book to come to terms with their own power in a magical and political sense. They have to consider their duty, the future of their world, and what role they should play in it. They also have to consider what greater powers are meddling in their lives and those of everyone, powers that perhaps shouldn't be revered once viewed in a more honest light.
Beyond relationships that took a back seat to plot, the main deterrent keeping me from being fully immersed in this story was the drawn-out pacing. I lost motivation at several points throughout because I felt sluggish moving through the plot. I think it's always a risk having a book this long, and it takes a special connection between reader and book to keep interest up throughout. That didn't happen for me here, but I still found a lot to admire and enjoy.
What I enjoyed most about this book were the twists and turns, the queer cast, and the reflections on power and privilege. While the relationships were a bit surface level and trope-y for my tastes (especially the romantic plots were predictable and rushed), the political power games were fascinating and kept many surprises until the very end. In terms of queer representation, there are both sapphic and mlm romances brewing among the main cast at the end of this first installment, and an important side character is a trans girl. There is also an established sapphic couple as one of the main character's mom and stepmom. It seems to be a queer-norm society. I appreciated how the characters struggle throughout the book to come to terms with their own power in a magical and political sense. They have to consider their duty, the future of their world, and what role they should play in it. They also have to consider what greater powers are meddling in their lives and those of everyone, powers that perhaps shouldn't be revered once viewed in a more honest light.
Beyond relationships that took a back seat to plot, the main deterrent keeping me from being fully immersed in this story was the drawn-out pacing. I lost motivation at several points throughout because I felt sluggish moving through the plot. I think it's always a risk having a book this long, and it takes a special connection between reader and book to keep interest up throughout. That didn't happen for me here, but I still found a lot to admire and enjoy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Body horror, Grief, Gore, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Blood, Classism, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Sexual content, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Animal death, and Confinement