The City in Glass - Book Review

 

The City in Glass

by Nghi Vo

What is it about:

A demon. An angel. A city that burns at the heart of the world.

The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot.

And then the angels come, and the city falls.

Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.

She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.

Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.

The City in Glass is both a brilliantly constructed history and an epic love story, of death and resurrection, memory and transformation, redemption and desire strong enough to burn a world to ashes and build it anew.

What did I think of it:

I love the The Singing Hills Cycle books by Nghi Vo, so wanted to give something else by Vo a try.

And got my heart stepped on and broken in the most devastatingly beautiful way.

This book is so gorgeously written. The imagery, the stories, the doomed city, I fell in love with Azril even where I didn't have it in me to love Vitrine. With all her passion and love for the city, Vitrine was too selfish to be the heroine in this story even as both she and the angel are changed by their connection. Instead she's the catalyst, the heart of Azril for better or worse.

All in all this is both a wonderful story and one I will not easily pick up for a reread, although it will definitely get a spot on my keeper shelves.

Why should you read it:

It's hauntingly beautiful.