nuhafariha's profile picture

nuhafariha 's review for:

City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim
5.0
dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Now available.

Time moves both immeasurably slow and in a blink of seconds in Juhea Kim's second novel City of Night Birds. Through gorgeous details, we follow the triumphant yet pained life of Natalia Lenova from her humble beginning to her ascent as the prima ballerina in St Petersberg and Paris. Though the ballet takes center stage in this novel, Kim also speaks to current day issues such as the Russian Ukranian war & the two countries' complicated histories. Sometimes we spend chapters on a single day and sometimes entire days, weeks, and years are jumped over - creating an ethereal otherspace where we slowly unspool Leonova's many psyches. An enjoyable task indeed.