[Buddy read with Cel 💕]
[Early copy from Netgalley. This doesn’t affect my opinions/review.]

As a huge fan of Sim’s Timekeeper trilogy, I was extremely excited to see her tackle adult fantasy. While I found the world-building and characters intriguing, The City of Dusk’s downfall was the pacing. It was abysmally slow and also kind of dense, which made reading the book take FOREVER because I’d think I’d read several pages but it was actually only two or three. It took me ages to make any real progress because I’d read a few chapters and then be in the mood to do something else.

This book gave strong Gideon the Ninth vibes, which honestly fits because that’s another adult SFF book with a badass protagonist I loved and a world I was intrigued by that—in my opinion—was unfortunately bogged down by a slow, dense story. Both books feature various houses with unique magical abilities, as well as a headstrong, sassy queer protagonist, so if you like one, there’s a very good chance you’ll like the other.

As for the characters, there are a lot. I liked most of them, but my absolute favorite—no contest—was Taesia. She has the personality of Rose Hathaway and Thomas Cresswell combined, two characters I adore, so of course I adored her too. And, you know, snarky, badass girls with weapons… my weakness. 😍

A roundup of the other characters: Risha is awesome and also quite attractive. (👀) Nik is a cinnamon roll in need of a hug. Angelica is pretty cool too and slightly unhinged, but I’m here for it. I like Dante, but I wish we’d seen more of him. Julian, Jas and Fin all fall in the category of characters I kind of like but mostly don’t know how to feel about.

Despite the overall impressive cast of complex characters, the longer I was reading this book, the readier I was to just… be done with it. I know, that sounds bad, but it’s true. So half the time, something would happen that I was probably supposed to be astounded by, but instead I was just like… okay. Yikes. What’s next?

The main reason I gave it 3.75 stars instead of a lower rating was the brilliant creativity of the twists in the second half. There were multiple curveballs thrown that I never saw coming, so even from a less-invested stance, I was impressed. Kudos to Sim for that.

I realize this review is all over the place, but honestly, so are my thoughts on this book. I’m doing my best here. I’ll probably read the second one? To be determined. As for whether or not I recommend the book, I would say yes, but not to everyone. Whereas some books I think everyone should read, I would say The City of Dusk is more of an acquired taste, if that makes sense?

Words are hard. I tried. I’m done now.

Representation