This one is hard for me to review! I had to think about it for a good while after finishing it to collect my thoughts! 

First off, Nghi Vo is a master of crafting emotionally devastating minutiae. There is no detail here that isn’t profoundly impactful, and I guess that’s the point. As a reader, I felt Vitrine’s rage and grief because of all the supremely human, supremely inconsequential details this ageless being held inside her. Every crumb of the lives moving around her felt vital to the story, vital to understanding the demon at the heart of the narrative. Excellently done. 

I also LOVED Vitrine and her angel. The sometimes deeply passionate and steady, sometimes mercurial and otherworldly demon immediately had my heart. Her angel, with his deep grief and rage was a compelling mirror, and I found myself holding my breath to see what would happen to the pair next as they coexisted in the city. 

Both pacing and plot were strong for 80% of the book, and I found it an easy, balanced read. Toward the end, however, I feel like something didn’t quite settle in to its niche. I feel like the climactic city conflict was one that was, more or less, presented as plainly as things we as readers were expected to take in stride over the course of the narrative, so I didn’t really feel the emotional impact and devastation that I was meant to, I think. I was frankly confused by the resolution to the conflict, or why all of a sudden this powerful, capable demon needed the particular resolution she got. I needed to understand more the why of it, and I was left a little unsure. 

In terms of the denouement, I…was disappointed, I think. Perhaps it was simply a matter of this being a different kind of story than I expected, but it felt hollow, somehow. As I ponder, perhaps the significance will come to me, but in the meantime I’m left feeling a little sad it ended how it did. 

Anyway, I still recommend it and will happily handsell it at work!