A review by anna4
The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers

mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

I’m so utterly confused by this book that I don't really know where to begin with this.

When I read the description of the book and it said “for fans of The Starless Sea”, I knew this would be a hit or miss, as I wasn’t a big fan (or any fan for that matter) of The Starless Sea. But I got blinded by the cover and the rest of the description so here we are.

Now that I’ve finished the book, all I see is really a shorter version of The Starless Sea to be honest, but with more plot. Both books have a similar and arguably the same structure and if the books give off anything, then it’s the same vibes. And confusion.

The world building of anything not-real-world-related was very vague: Doors, keys, scholars and elsewhere. So vague, that I still don’t have a concept of it, really. I guess the goal was to make it seem magical. This other, unknown place, where all those great things are possible. Whatever they may be.

The characters in general were meh at best and unnecessary at worst. 
The best I can say about the main characters Violet and Aleksander is probably that I feel indifferent to them. 
Violet was your typical “doesn’t know anything and has to figure out everything”- type of girl. And she really did know nothing. But was really quick sometimes to make sense of things. How ?
And Aleksander is “the broken one who fails to pick a side because it’s loyalty > common sense and is blind to the obvious”- kinda guy. I’m still not sure of his full backstory, his personality or him as a person.

The romance, if you can call it that, between those two was more of a suggestion considering they barely spend any actual time together. Their connection really boils down to Violet seeing him as her source of all those things she doesn’t know anything about.
Penelope is the one and only character I would call interesting and that's only because she reminded me of the Evil Queen from the early seasons of Once Upon a Time…

The writing was fine. The descriptions were very..broad? A lot of big words were used and a lot of the time it was a mouthful to a point that I had to reread some parts because I didn't know what the author was talking about.

The strongest and best part for me of the book were the handful of interlude chapters. They were short and nicely done.

The pacing was fine up until the 50% mark and then it just got very weird. A lot of time jumps and changes of locations. 

The last ca. 50 pages of the book I can only describe as rambling and constant repeating of thoughts and things we already know ( and have read several times). This whole part could have been either shortened or edited out.

This book felt in equal parts too long and too short.

I wasn’t feeling like I got a satisfying conclusion for all of the different plot strings, even though the author made sure to mention everyone who had more than a-one sentence-appearance.

Having said all of that, I can see who this book might appeal to. And the cover is pretty.The rest..I think going into this with no expectations will help with your reading experience.

Thank you Hodder & Stoughton for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.