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A review by girlreading
Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody
3.0
I hear circuses and I instantly want to know more. Which is exactly why the moment I heard about Daughter of the Burning City, it shot to the top of my TBR but although I definitely enjoyed this, unfortunately I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped to.
For a large part of the book, I found the pacing pretty slow, which meant it felt a little tiresome to get through as times. Having said that, I loved the faster paced action scenes towards the end and would have loved to have had a bit more of that sprinkled throughout. Although I predicted the murderer pretty early on in the book, I was kept guessing and at times questioning myself. Which is always fun experience when reading a murder mystery.
I enjoyed the characters and their different abilities but although I found them intriguing, I didn’t feel too attached to them. I would have really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know Sorina’s family of illusions better, as I thought they were all really interesting and had a lot more to give! I felt similarly towards the world Daughter of the Burning City was set in. It was incredibly intriguing and I loved the snippets we got into life in Gamorrah. With that being said I wasn’t the biggest fan of the world building as a whole, (and this was probably entirely my fault, reading whilst exhausted probably wasn’t my best idea…) but because I was continuously confused as to how the worlds clock worked and the difference between The Up-Mountain and The Down-Mountain and because of this, I didn’t feel I had a grasp on Gamorrah and the places travel to in this book.
As I mentioned before, I did enjoy this book and something I loved was the diversity, specifically the casual approach towards sexuality. Although labels weren’t used, it appeared as though our main character, Sorina, was bisexual, mentioning on a few occasions of how she was excited about her future with either a prince or princess. The love interest was somewhere on the ace spectrum (demi-sexual seems the best fit based on the text and from what I’ve read from other reviewers). Sorina’s sister was a lesbian and her father was also bisexual. Apart from one occasion of confusion, which lead to a brilliant discussion on consent from someone seemingly on the ace spectrum, no ones identity was ever questioned or confronted with prejudice or bigotry, which was absolutely fantastic to read. Sorina also came across as suffering with anxiety at times and mentioned having panic attacks on a few occasions, which was really refreshing to see portrayed in a fantasy!
The plot, setting and characters of Daughter of the Burning City were most definitely unique and although I didn’t absolutely love this book, it was still an intriguing and enjoyable read. I’m definitely excited to see what Amanda Foody has in store for us next and considering this was her debut and had so many great elements, I can only imagine her books will just get better and better!!
For a large part of the book, I found the pacing pretty slow, which meant it felt a little tiresome to get through as times. Having said that, I loved the faster paced action scenes towards the end and would have loved to have had a bit more of that sprinkled throughout. Although I predicted the murderer pretty early on in the book, I was kept guessing and at times questioning myself. Which is always fun experience when reading a murder mystery.
I enjoyed the characters and their different abilities but although I found them intriguing, I didn’t feel too attached to them. I would have really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know Sorina’s family of illusions better, as I thought they were all really interesting and had a lot more to give! I felt similarly towards the world Daughter of the Burning City was set in. It was incredibly intriguing and I loved the snippets we got into life in Gamorrah. With that being said I wasn’t the biggest fan of the world building as a whole, (and this was probably entirely my fault, reading whilst exhausted probably wasn’t my best idea…) but because I was continuously confused as to how the worlds clock worked and the difference between The Up-Mountain and The Down-Mountain and because of this, I didn’t feel I had a grasp on Gamorrah and the places travel to in this book.
As I mentioned before, I did enjoy this book and something I loved was the diversity, specifically the casual approach towards sexuality. Although labels weren’t used, it appeared as though our main character, Sorina, was bisexual, mentioning on a few occasions of how she was excited about her future with either a prince or princess. The love interest was somewhere on the ace spectrum (demi-sexual seems the best fit based on the text and from what I’ve read from other reviewers). Sorina’s sister was a lesbian and her father was also bisexual. Apart from one occasion of confusion, which lead to a brilliant discussion on consent from someone seemingly on the ace spectrum, no ones identity was ever questioned or confronted with prejudice or bigotry, which was absolutely fantastic to read. Sorina also came across as suffering with anxiety at times and mentioned having panic attacks on a few occasions, which was really refreshing to see portrayed in a fantasy!
The plot, setting and characters of Daughter of the Burning City were most definitely unique and although I didn’t absolutely love this book, it was still an intriguing and enjoyable read. I’m definitely excited to see what Amanda Foody has in store for us next and considering this was her debut and had so many great elements, I can only imagine her books will just get better and better!!