A review by monicakessler
City of Flowers by Mary Hoffman
5.0
Gosh, I really love the Stravaganza sequence, and I can really tell why this was my favourite series as a teen.
What other author in the early noughties was writing YA fantasy featuring a mixed race, child carer protagonist?? What other YA author was setting their stories in magical Renaissance Italy?? And what other YA author focuses on love hexagons rather than love triangles in their stories (although that was more in City of Stars)??? All with a wonderful cast of main characters?? Mary Hoffman was really feeding me the goods.
IIRC, City of Flowers was my favourite of the original trilogy, and I can see why. Dramatic scenes, an amazing large and colourful cast of characters, etc. But reading with an adult's eye, I can also see why City of Stars is commonly considered the best in the series - Stars is a better book. While the politics and fantasy elements expand a bit in Flowers, Stars focuses on telling a very well-structured story with the absolute best resolution. Even though Flowers had both incredible and important scenes, the actual arc of the story was far less strong - down to the detail of the fantasy elements, which were incredibly hazy at best and about as unexplored as possible, as well as the story being a little less compact than it perhaps should have been. I don't know what would have been cut, but some things felt like they should have been tightened, and pacing and events smoothed into each other a little better. You can tell that this book is the editor/agent (I forget which)'s favourite book because it feels like it's been through the least before publication, because everyone liked it so much. And let's be real - I'm one of those people. I love it. But mainly for the characters and perhaps events 3/4 of the way through - not for the whole story arc, or Sky's big conclusion, which was definitely the weakest of the three books so far, even if it was significant to the macro plot.
I just love this cast of characters so much, and definitely this one in particular felt the most like a book that would make a great TV series - much more so than the previous two. In contrast, City of Masks would be the most disappointing to adapt of all three so far imho.
I now look forward to delving into the second trilogy of this series. I am hopeful for recurrence of the main characters; I know Luciano will always be there, but fingers crossed for Georgia, Sky, and Nick too.
On a last note, I've always wondered why I've been impervious to people saying, "such and such a book is AMAZING because it's got really good morally grey characters". I've since realised it's because I've been reading about the best morally grey characters in fiction like Stravaganza and His Dark Materials since I was in double digits. And I threw aside comments of, "bookworm readers pick a character and steal their personality traits," thinking that didn't apply to me. Well upon re-read, I realised how much I had been trying to emulate the traits of the amazing Sky Meadows. We live and we learn.
4.75*
What other author in the early noughties was writing YA fantasy featuring a mixed race, child carer protagonist?? What other YA author was setting their stories in magical Renaissance Italy?? And what other YA author focuses on love hexagons rather than love triangles in their stories (although that was more in City of Stars)??? All with a wonderful cast of main characters?? Mary Hoffman was really feeding me the goods.
IIRC, City of Flowers was my favourite of the original trilogy, and I can see why. Dramatic scenes, an amazing large and colourful cast of characters, etc. But reading with an adult's eye, I can also see why City of Stars is commonly considered the best in the series - Stars is a better book. While the politics and fantasy elements expand a bit in Flowers, Stars focuses on telling a very well-structured story with the absolute best resolution. Even though Flowers had both incredible and important scenes, the actual arc of the story was far less strong - down to the detail of the fantasy elements, which were incredibly hazy at best and about as unexplored as possible, as well as the story being a little less compact than it perhaps should have been. I don't know what would have been cut, but some things felt like they should have been tightened, and pacing and events smoothed into each other a little better. You can tell that this book is the editor/agent (I forget which)'s favourite book because it feels like it's been through the least before publication, because everyone liked it so much. And let's be real - I'm one of those people. I love it. But mainly for the characters and perhaps events 3/4 of the way through - not for the whole story arc, or Sky's big conclusion, which was definitely the weakest of the three books so far, even if it was significant to the macro plot.
I just love this cast of characters so much, and definitely this one in particular felt the most like a book that would make a great TV series - much more so than the previous two. In contrast, City of Masks would be the most disappointing to adapt of all three so far imho.
I now look forward to delving into the second trilogy of this series. I am hopeful for recurrence of the main characters; I know Luciano will always be there, but fingers crossed for Georgia, Sky, and Nick too.
On a last note, I've always wondered why I've been impervious to people saying, "such and such a book is AMAZING because it's got really good morally grey characters". I've since realised it's because I've been reading about the best morally grey characters in fiction like Stravaganza and His Dark Materials since I was in double digits. And I threw aside comments of, "bookworm readers pick a character and steal their personality traits," thinking that didn't apply to me. Well upon re-read, I realised how much I had been trying to emulate the traits of the amazing Sky Meadows. We live and we learn.
4.75*