Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Mystery
Format: ARC (received at BookCon)
Page Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: July 25, 2017
About Daughter of the Burning City (via Goodreads):
A darkly irresistible new fantasy set in the infamous Gomorrah Festival, a traveling carnival of debauchery that caters to the strangest of dreams and desires.
Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.
But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.
Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all of her loved ones disappear.
Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.
But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.
Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all of her loved ones disappear.
Daughter of the Burning City was one of my most anticipated novels of the year, and it definitely did not disappoint. The was as twisty and dark as I had hoped, and Amanda Foody did not fail to conceal the many tricks she had up her sleeve. Even when I started suspecting people or started to piece together the details in attempt to solve the mystery, Foody threw me for a loop, revealing and connecting even more underlying details to the schemes that took place in and out of the festival.
I loved Sorina as a protagonist. She was so imperfect and human and real. She was a strong and powerful person overall, but she also wasn't afraid to let her emotions show and allowed herself to grieve and feel hurt and all the feelings when she needed to. On top of being strong though, she did face a lot of internal struggles, especially with her self-confidence and appearance. It was definitely a difficult journey for her (emotionally and just overall), but I felt myself rooting for her throughout all the different obstacles and conflicts she faced. Although there definitely were times where I wish she had been more assertive and inquisitive, I still thought she was a great main character.
All of the characters were super unique and probably one of my favorite aspects of the story. Although a lot of the characters were Sorina's illusions come to life, they all had their own unique personalities and minds of their own. Their different abilities and personalities both harmonized and clashed (I know that sounds oxymoronic but it's hard to explain) at the same time and it was a wonderful sort of family dynamic, which is not very prevalent in the novels that I normally read. (I do wish the other characters were explored a bit more though, especially Iosef and some of the other residents of the Gomorrah Festival that weren't a part of Sorina's family.)
The plot definitely varied in speed a lot, which was frustrating at times, but also kind of nice? For example, there was a decent stretch in the book where there was a lot of sleuthing and not much actual action, but it did give me some emotional reprieve and some answers, which was nice. All in all though, I will say that I had trouble putting it down, even when there were slower parts because I was so intrigued by the story.
The only other issue for me throughout the novel was the world-building. The fundamentals were mostly covered, and Foody's descriptions of the festival as a whole were wonderful, but there were a decent amount of underlying political problems in the world outside of the festival that played a role in the story that were not fully fleshed out and a bit difficult to understand. The descriptions and explanations of the magic system were also a bit confusing and not fully developed, which were not a huge problem for me as I was reading, but as I thought more about the book as a whole afterward, became more problematic. A lot of the major workings of the magic system that made the plot possible were not ever explained or made clear. Although the magic system was a bit messy, I still loved the concepts for all the different styles of jynx work and loved seeing how those different abilities shaped the festival and the story as a whole.
Overall, Daughter of the Burning City was an immensely enjoyable read full of twists and turns, a fun and exciting cast of characters, and an intriguing world I loved to explore.
The plot definitely varied in speed a lot, which was frustrating at times, but also kind of nice? For example, there was a decent stretch in the book where there was a lot of sleuthing and not much actual action, but it did give me some emotional reprieve and some answers, which was nice. All in all though, I will say that I had trouble putting it down, even when there were slower parts because I was so intrigued by the story.
The only other issue for me throughout the novel was the world-building. The fundamentals were mostly covered, and Foody's descriptions of the festival as a whole were wonderful, but there were a decent amount of underlying political problems in the world outside of the festival that played a role in the story that were not fully fleshed out and a bit difficult to understand. The descriptions and explanations of the magic system were also a bit confusing and not fully developed, which were not a huge problem for me as I was reading, but as I thought more about the book as a whole afterward, became more problematic. A lot of the major workings of the magic system that made the plot possible were not ever explained or made clear. Although the magic system was a bit messy, I still loved the concepts for all the different styles of jynx work and loved seeing how those different abilities shaped the festival and the story as a whole.
Overall, Daughter of the Burning City was an immensely enjoyable read full of twists and turns, a fun and exciting cast of characters, and an intriguing world I loved to explore.
My Rating: 3 stars
