Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The City Beautiful

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros

29 reviews

sashahc's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-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

5.0

I am loving the current renaissance of Jewish fantasy, especially queer Jewish fantasy. It’s so fun and rich and weird. Aden Polydoros’ #book “The City Beautiful” is about a queer Jewish immigrant teenage boy in 1893 Chicago. Haunted by a dybbuk and his own past, he’s trying to solve the disappearances of other Jewish youths. It’s sweet and funny and deeply sad at points. It’s about PTSD and resilience and fighting back. And there are worker’s strikes and the World’s Fair and Yiddish Newspapers. A truly rich tapestry. Highly recommend.

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bluejayreads's review

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3.75

I'm generally not interested in historical fiction or murder mysteries. However, I am interested in Jewish protagonists and characters getting possessed by ghosts, so I decided to give it a shot. And it was good. I read it in a single evening, which is impressive for a 500-page book, but honestly that says more about my mood that day than the book itself. Not that there was anything wrong with it - in fact, there was a lot that was good. The historical Chicago setting felt vivid, the characters were solid, the emotions were done well, the plot was strong, the romance developed well with a lovely touch of angst, and I loved the Jewish community and tradition that infused every page. But the possession element was much smaller than I expected (more a catalyst for the plot than a main element) and the primary plot was the murder mystery of tracking down Yakov's killer. Which, unfortunately, I wasn't all that into. Again, not a failing of the book, just a personal opinion, but mysteries in general aren't and have never been my thing. If you enjoy mysteries (and/or historical fiction), you'll probably like this a lot more than I did. Again, it's not bad, and there's a lot about it that's really good - it just didn't really appeal to my personal reading tastes.

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emburs's review

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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mmefish's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious 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

4.5

I did not expect this book to turn out to be so well written, nuanced and intriguing. It touches on important topics, such as survivor guilt, generational trauma, grief, consent, being responsible for a sick relative, and more. I also appreciated the glossary at the end.

That's how life is. You're breathing, so you have to keep going, even when it doesn't feel like you're still alive.

They'll never welcome us into their whole cities, because ambition becomes something ugly when it has a Jewish face.

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emily_mh's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This was such a great read! The MC Alter was so dynamic, because as well as having to deal with possession and finding a serial killer, he has a rich inner world as the narrator. He’s trying to earn the money to bring his family over to the US from Romania, he is haunted by internalised homophobia and he is living in poverty in an antisemitic world and responding to that situation in his own way. His perspective really exposed the facade of the American Dream.

Alter’s romance with Frankie was great. I love when an author writes an romance where the MC is oblivious to how much the LI is into them but the reader can clearly see it, and the romantic subplot here is exactly that. Because Alter and Frankie had already been through so much together before the events of this book, their connection was believable and their chemistry was good. I like how balanced their relationship was, with Frankie helping Alter with his mission, and Alter helping Frankie through his grief and trauma.

It’s hard to comment on the predictability of the mystery as I am older than the target audience, but I found it to be engaging. I also don’t believe that the point of the mystery here was to be elusive and hard to solve, but to compound the social themes Polydoros was exploring. And boy did he EXPLORE. The narrative looks at the intersection of classism and antisemitism in the experiences of Alter, showing how doubly vulnerable it makes poor Jewish people to exploitation and violence. It displays the dissonance between having a grand international exhibition while people are living in poverty; the ludicrousness of the existence of the mega-wealthy when there are those with nothing. What is truly sickening is that these same issues and oppressions characterise today’s society too, like Polydoros was holding up a mirror to the present. I appreciated him foregrounding these issues for that reason, and also because it gives a more realistic depiction of Chicago and the US in general in 1893.

Another fantastic element in this book was the atmosphere the author created. He conveyed the darkness and grit of Victorian Chicago effortlessly: the senseless violence and exploitation and the constant presence of danger. It was completely immersive and, like the mystery, engaging, so that even in slower-paced moments the book didn’t feel like it dragged at all, despite its 450+ pages.

Rep: gay Jewish MC, gay Jewish LI, Jewish SCs

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hobbithopeful's review

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adventurous challenging 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

4.5

Queer Jewish historical fantasy? Yes please!
Aden Polydoros wows in this gripping tale about the demons inside all of us, and the consequences of guilt.
Set in Chicago in the 1890s Alter works himself to the bone, numbers running through his head all day as he saves up to bring his Mother and sisters over from Romania. His plans become derailed when his best friend is found dead, and soon he finds himself embroiled in the mystery of missing and dead Jewish boys. To make matters worse he has become possessed by Yakov's dybbuk, his past has come back to haunt him, and it seems his only solution is to ask his ex friend Frankie for help. (Frankie who is doing very well for himself with his mini crime empire, overall attractiveness, and assimilation into "American ways")
Please check your trigger warnings, as this does go to dark places. (It's worth it, I promise!)
I loved how incredibly honest and angry this book was. Every page just felt raw, not in an unpolished and unedited way, but as if the author was baring his heart and soul for us to see, his emotions bleeding through every page and character. (Seriously y'all, you can feel the rage and injustice) I saw so much of myself in so many of the characters, but most of all Frankie. I wanted to scream at the police officers who refused to help, and when

it is revealed what Mr. Katz has been doing to young boys, and Frankie, I cried. I wish such lengths could be taken for every person who has committed such despicable and inhumane acts.

I honestly went in with pretty low expectations after reading The Bone Weaver, and to say this book blew me away was an understatement. The City Beautiful has won a ton of awards, and rightfully so.
The only reason this isn't a 5 star read for me is I felt it kinda slowed down near the end. It was all going so well and great and then

with multiple different bad guys it was a bit hard to keep up with and

I just felt like it lost steam for me.

I highly recommend this book, and with a renewed interest in the author, I look forward to what he will write next.

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