A review by beejai
City of Night, by Michelle West
4.0
I will not lie to you. This book had me a bit choked up more than once. I can watch the most dramatic of tear-jerker movies without batting an eyelash, but put a heartbreaking moment in a well-written book and I cannot hold them back. At three different moments I *so* want to talk about (but won't because... spoilers) I had to put the book down and grab me some tissues.
The first 2/3 the book was a slow burn similar to The Hidden City. Many of the same characters are here, now three years older. This brings them into their early teens and Michelle West does an excellent job of portraying the dynamic of a household of kids, orphans, all this age living together. They have moved out from living with Rath and have been scraping along by occasionally finding and selling an artifact from the Hidden City. (Or should we now call it the "City of Night"?)
Then the first big bad happens. And the second. Grab the tissues, come back, and now it seems almost like I am reading a different novel. The pacing has changed. The perspectives are often very different. And from here to the end it is almost as if we are reading a different novel. It is still in itself good, but the change is a bit jarring.
While MW's characterization and world-building are excellent, her magic system is not. It's a minor complaint and considering how many more books there are in the series, there is plenty of time to flesh it out better. The only other thing I did not appreciate was her too frequent use of the "d" word. Though I don't curse myself, I don't get all prissy with occasional profanity, but it seemed like every other sentence was "d" this and "d" that. Perhaps it has to do with how she thought a bunch of young teens would talk and think? Either way, it was overdone but a minor issue in comparison with this excellent story.
Now... Where can I get my hands on a copy of House Name?
The first 2/3 the book was a slow burn similar to The Hidden City. Many of the same characters are here, now three years older. This brings them into their early teens and Michelle West does an excellent job of portraying the dynamic of a household of kids, orphans, all this age living together. They have moved out from living with Rath and have been scraping along by occasionally finding and selling an artifact from the Hidden City. (Or should we now call it the "City of Night"?)
Then the first big bad happens. And the second. Grab the tissues, come back, and now it seems almost like I am reading a different novel. The pacing has changed. The perspectives are often very different. And from here to the end it is almost as if we are reading a different novel. It is still in itself good, but the change is a bit jarring.
While MW's characterization and world-building are excellent, her magic system is not. It's a minor complaint and considering how many more books there are in the series, there is plenty of time to flesh it out better. The only other thing I did not appreciate was her too frequent use of the "d" word. Though I don't curse myself, I don't get all prissy with occasional profanity, but it seemed like every other sentence was "d" this and "d" that. Perhaps it has to do with how she thought a bunch of young teens would talk and think? Either way, it was overdone but a minor issue in comparison with this excellent story.
Now... Where can I get my hands on a copy of House Name?