3.5 stars. This book gets the upgrade to 4 stars mainly because of the wonderful atmosphere the author was able to create. I’m also really impressed with the fact that this was her first published book. Overall, I did enjoy this book quite a bit, even though there were a few things I found a bit confusing.

What I liked:

1. The characters. I like Sorina and loved her family, especially Nicoleta and Verena. Some of her illusions were not as developed as others, but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment.

2. The festival. I loved the descriptions of the festival and its different acts. I felt like I was there.

3. The concept. This book was very unique. I don’t know that I’ve read many fantasy murder mysteries before, and I thought it was really interesting here. I also thought the murder mystery was handled well. I had some theories as I was reading the book. Some were correct, others were not. I felt relatively satisfied with the reveals and the way the climax unfolded.

4. I liked that there was some diversity here. There are a few gay characters, and also someone who I believe is demisexual, although that exact term is never used.


What I didn’t like:

1. Confusing world-building. While I found the descriptions of the festival very lush and intriguing, I did find the world-building in general to be a little lacking. I feel like I don’t really understand the world outside of Gomorrah and even what Gomorrah really is. It’s referred to as if it’s the same Gomorrah from our bible, but the world itself doesn’t seem to be based on our actual world. We are told it’s a ‘wandering city’ and that there is an ‘uphill’ and ‘downhill’ but I don’t really understand how that works. When they move from place to place do they find a hill to set up the city around? Maybe that sounds like a ridiculous question, but I kept finding myself distracted and wishing I could visualize it a little better in my mind.
I will say that I listened to the audiobook for the majority of this and so it’s entirely possible that at some point this was discussed and I was distracted or something like that.

Also, the political rivalries were a little murky for me because I didn’t really understand the world outside Gomorrah. That could’ve been developed a bit more, maybe by actually interacting with these characters who are supposed to be the enemy...

2. While I liked the murder mystery aspect of this story, the very end did feel a little rushed to me. So much information was being thrown out there. I wish certain things had been expanded on a bit, and there were a couple of things that happened at the end that felt a little anti-climactic.

At the end of the day I thought this was a strong debut. I loved the atmosphere. I’ve heard people compare this to The Night Circus and I would say that if you are a person who enjoyed The Night Circus and also enjoys somewhat gruesome murder mysteries, you may want to check this book out. I am eager to read more from this author in the future.