Almost everything has a life cycle, including cities. 

 

Vitrine, a rather modest demon that just wants a place to call their own, has watched the city of Azril grow from the rubble and ruin of a city long-gone to a masterpiece. It’s her city, full of her people, and she loves it so. 

 

But, as we all know. Rome fell in less than a day. Azril did too, when angels came for it. The only thing keeping Vitrine from burying herself under a mountain and going into an eternal slumber is that she has someone she can punish for this violation: an angel she somehow marked before he could make it back behind the gates. He can’t return home unless she takes back what she’s done to him, but so long as he’s marked he belongs to her; and oh, how she likes the idea of the angel belonging to her when he’s one of those that took everything from her. 

 

It’s been said before by many people, but I’ll join in with the chorus: This book is unbelievably good. Nghi Vo is one of my auto-buy authors for a reason: Her standalone novel writing is incomparable, always straddling a fine line between fantasy and magical realism with the style, construction, and depth of meaning that comes from literary fiction. Vo has a magical and prodigious talent for using fantasy to examine the human condition, never flinching from pointing out the worst in us. It’s painful but beautiful, sad but soothing. 

 

There are passages in this book that wound my heart up into a tangled ball of emotion and others that wrapped tight around it in grief. It’s a must-read book for 2024. 5 Stars. 

 

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. 

 

File Under: 5 Star Review/Dark Fantasy/Literary Fiction/Supernatural Fantasy