Premise- (5/5) The City of Brass has been on my TBR list for quite some time, and the premise promises soooooo much! Con artists, djinn, magic, politics. I was so excited! And honestly, even the premise is well-written. My hopes were really high.

Characters- (4.5/5) There was a nice spread of characters throughout The City of Brass, and I enjoyed them all. Nahri and Ali were interesting narrators (though it took a little while to get to Ali's POV). But beyond that, all the characters had really interesting viewpoints. Nahri brought a fresh prospective to Daevabad while Ali's perspective was very different since he was much more familiar with Daevabad. We also had Dara, whose past we got bits and pieces of, but had a heavy influence on the story. Learning more and more about his backstory was interesting to see from Nahri's eyes, and made a nice contrast to all the hints and rumors about the Scourge of ages past. I also enjoyed Muntadhir and Ghassan, Zaynab and Nisreen (though I would've liked to see more of them), and Jamshid, among others.

Plot- (4/5) I think I was expecting the action at Daevabad sooner than it did, but I still enjoyed Nahri and Dara's journey there. The pacing was a little weird because the journey to Daevabad was so action-packed, as were the pieces of Ali's narration we got on the Tanzeem and Daevabad politics. But then once Nahri and Dara got to Daevabad, things slowed down some. Which was for the most part fine; honestly, I kind of felt like I needed a second to catch up. It did seem a little weird that Dara just disappeared from the action for a while, but then things got very intense again near the end. And I'm definitely intrigued in the directions the plot is going at the end! There was so much to take in, and I'm super curious to see how it plays out in the sequel.

World- (4/5) Chakraborty's world is so, so rich. I wish I'd understood it a little better, honestly, but I felt like I was able to follow pretty well, for the most part. There was a fair bit of terminology, and a lot to keep straight between the different types/classes of djinn. And the politics! Wow was there a lot going on, which really kept me on my toes. Though difficult to keep up with sometimes, it was tons of fun to read, with lots of varied, well thought out viewpoints and nuances.

Writing- (4/5) The descriptions are vivid, full of detail without being too flowery, which made reading really enjoyable. Plus, Chakraborty obviously put a lot of thought into her world building and it showed. I do wish some of that world-building had been a touch better explained, but Chakraborty's writing was still a pleasure to read.

Overall- (4.3/5) The City of Brass is a really complex story in terms of its plot, characters, and world. Though here and there I felt like I missed some of the details, everything came together pretty well, with drama, and lots of plot twists. I want to get to know and understand Daevabad better through the eyes of both our narrative characters and supporting characters, whom I definitely want to see more of. All in all, I was deeply intrigued by the world of Daevabad, even when it confused me. Strong writing, characters, and plot more than compensate for my minor confusion with the world.

Content Warnings: violence, blood and gore, mention of rape, prejudice, brief self-harm