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_teoeo'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? Yes
3.75
All in all it was a good book!
Pros:
Pros:
- I loved the world building
- A lot of LGBTQ* and POC characters
- Taesia!!!!
- Liked the plottwists!!!
- The story was really interesting and I will totally read the second book
Cons:
- It took me reeeeaaaaallyyy long to read the book
- A lot of text on the pages, was a pain in my ass to read that
didn't liked the part where Angelica was at a brothel, thought that is problematic because it was portrayed as kind of normalised and there wasn't a word about the suffering that can be involved with prostitution - The last 100 pages there was a lot going on, that overwhelmed me a bit
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Addiction, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Self harm
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Suicide attempt
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
adancewithbooks's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.
The City of Dusk is Tara Sim's first foray into Adult Fantasy and I quite enjoyed this darker take on houses.
In The City of Dusk there are 4 houses. Each house received the power of one of the gods of the 4 realms. There is necromancy, shadow magic, elemental magic and light. While other citizens might have some magic the 4 houses are meant to have been specifically chosen by their Gods. As such each generation there is an heir that comes forward. While they might have the most power, the city and realm is ruled by the king who takes advantage of the willingness of the houses to become his follow-up.
What I appreciated about this book is that the characters from the houses we follow aren't necessarily the most amazing from their houses. One struggles to bring forth all the elemental magic without a musical instrument to help her and the other was shunned by their God during a ritual. All this heir and legacy thing isn't quite as easy or as straight forward as it is foretold.
I also enjoyed seeing how the characters still had, reasonable, good contact with each other. Being of the same age and being in the same boat does create a bond with one another. It was also interesting getting an insight in the houses and lives of each. Taesia as the not heir, her brother being that, has approached a lot of things very differently. Yet she has more of a shadow in her heart than her brother. And yet she was always taking care of the poor of her own choice. It was also interesting to see how the necromancy was being used throughout the city with Risha. What place Nik and his light took up in the city and what happened with his mother. And what was expected from Angelica.
I have seen a lot of others claim that this is a young adult because the characters are young. They are youngish with 18-20 from what I can guess. But that doesn't make it a young adult. The tone is still different from the authors other work that is YA. And even if just the ages had something to do with that it would make this a new adult rather than young adult.
Having said that I do think that it took a while for the book to get going and that some elements certainly took too long to be placed. The pace could have been a bit quicker.
The City of Dusk is Tara Sim's first foray into Adult Fantasy and I quite enjoyed this darker take on houses.
In The City of Dusk there are 4 houses. Each house received the power of one of the gods of the 4 realms. There is necromancy, shadow magic, elemental magic and light. While other citizens might have some magic the 4 houses are meant to have been specifically chosen by their Gods. As such each generation there is an heir that comes forward. While they might have the most power, the city and realm is ruled by the king who takes advantage of the willingness of the houses to become his follow-up.
What I appreciated about this book is that the characters from the houses we follow aren't necessarily the most amazing from their houses. One struggles to bring forth all the elemental magic without a musical instrument to help her and the other was shunned by their God during a ritual. All this heir and legacy thing isn't quite as easy or as straight forward as it is foretold.
I also enjoyed seeing how the characters still had, reasonable, good contact with each other. Being of the same age and being in the same boat does create a bond with one another. It was also interesting getting an insight in the houses and lives of each. Taesia as the not heir, her brother being that, has approached a lot of things very differently. Yet she has more of a shadow in her heart than her brother. And yet she was always taking care of the poor of her own choice. It was also interesting to see how the necromancy was being used throughout the city with Risha. What place Nik and his light took up in the city and what happened with his mother. And what was expected from Angelica.
I have seen a lot of others claim that this is a young adult because the characters are young. They are youngish with 18-20 from what I can guess. But that doesn't make it a young adult. The tone is still different from the authors other work that is YA. And even if just the ages had something to do with that it would make this a new adult rather than young adult.
Having said that I do think that it took a while for the book to get going and that some elements certainly took too long to be placed. The pace could have been a bit quicker.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Torture and Suicide attempt
Beheadings
More...