this is a beautifully written book about how after a bunch of angels destroy a demon's city, the demon curses one of the angels and then they fall in love.

i love nghi vo, but i've always disliked these sort of star-crossed ill-fated romances because they feel instalovey to me. if the stakes are this high there isn't going to be like banter to be charmed by, and in fact this was mostly biting and sky fighting and throwing bits of rotten corpses at each other.

until this became a love letter to a fictional city.

i still didn't love our characters (who felt more like figures than people) or their relationship (you can keep being frenemies creating a culture together as far as i'm concerned), but i love the strange short fantastical books nghi vo keeps coming up with.

bottom line: whatever nghi vo is writing, i'm reading.

(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)