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What: Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody

Who: Harlequin Teen Australia

When: July 25th 2017

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Harlequin Teen Australia for review.

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.

This is probably one of the most solid three star ratings I’ve ever given. And please keep in mind that three stars for me is definitely in the realm of ‘I liked it’. It just isn’t in the realm of ‘I loved it’, and here are four reasons why:

1) The world building

I felt like some aspects of the world building were great – Gomorrah itself was pretty well developed, and the parts that weren’t were only that way because Sorina hadn’t actually explored them herself so the first person POV couldn’t account for those aspects. However, there was a bit to be desired when it came to the world building of the world Gomorrah was actually in.

When the plot took quite a political turn I felt like there wasn’t enough behind it for me to be intrigued by it or invested in it. Because Gomorrah operated under its own jurisdiction the whole Down Mountain and Up Mountain aspect just didn’t feel important, especially when there were no real personal stakes involved.

2) The characters didn’t feel fleshed out enough

Which isn’t to say I didn’t like them because I was actually quite a big fan of most of the characters, but I also felt like there was something missing. Even in terms of the MC, Sorina, I just didn’t feel that connection to her and she didn’t feel quite three dimensional enough.

Sorina’s illusions were all amazing, and I loved the idea of them, but they just didn’t have enough page time. As readers I suspect we were supposed to care a lot about the fact that someone was killing them off, and even though I found it horrible I didn’t feel the emotion because these illusions were given so little time to develop as characters, and there wasn’t enough establishment of their relationship to Sorina and each other.

3) The plot

At times it moved quite quickly, and at others it felt like nothing was happening.

I mentioned before that there was a political storyline involved, and I honestly felt like this came out of nowhere and held no real importance to the overall plot. I suppose there was some connection, but there was quite a bit of time towards the end spent on this storyline which I felt wasn’t connected enough to the killing off of Sorina’s illusions to hold my interest.

I’m usually a big fan of political intrigue but this really came out of nowhere for me, and wasn’t even really directly related to Gomorrah so I was left wondering why I should care about it.

4) The ace- and aromisia and ace/aro rep

Luca, Sorina’s love interest, is stated to be demisexual or demiromantic/asexual by the author. At first I was really excited about that, but every time a character spoke about Luca they would mention his ace/aro-ness as something inherently bad. I wasn’t a huge fan of this because it a) seemed unnecessary, and b) was never addressed in the text. These characters just said this awful stuff about Luca’s identity and it was just left at that.

Furthermore, I found it quite difficult to actually ID Luca, and had to google the author and whether she had explicitly defined his identity. To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of relying on an author’s word for a character’s identity. I much prefer it to be stated and explained in text because then it’s truly canon and explicit rep. There were about two conversations in which Luca spoke to Sorina about his identity and they were very fumbled and vague. I don’t know whether that was intended (like Luca didn’t really understand his own feelings, which is 100% okay) or whether it was just a subpar explanation and exploration on behalf of the author.

Either way, the ace- and aromisia, and the lack of explicit rep and exploration of Luca’s identity was not so great for me.

~

Something I really liked was that there was quite a bit of queer rep. Sorina is bisexual (although the word was never used on page – however I have seen on the author’s Tumblr that the final copy does have a passage that explores her bisexuality that wasn’t in the ARC I read), her older sister illusion is a woman loving woman (again no ID use), and then there’s Luca’s demisexuality/demiromantic-asexuality.

Sorina’s bisexuality and her sister’s attraction to women were seemingly accepted by the Gomorrah community, which was lovely to read about, but also made me question why Luca’s identity was not.

~

Overall, I did enjoy Daughter of the Burning City; there were just aspects that prevented me from really falling head over heels. I would recommend this book, though, because a standalone fantasy with a bisexual MC and other LGBTQIA+ characters is something that we don’t get very often.

© 2017, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

trigger warning: police raid, ableism, torture, terminally ill mother, beheading, accident resulting in broken leg, use of ableist language, sex worker discrimination, murder of infant brother (drowning), murder of uncle (suffocation + stabbing) with graphic aftermath, thievery, acemisia, aromisia, death of a father, attempted murder, abduction, and reference to slavery in this novel

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Posted on: August 11, 2017 • By: Chiara

14 Responses to Four Reasons Why I Didn’t Love Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody

  1. Eeep I do want to read this one! I have it on reserve at my library. The world sounds really interesting, although pity it’s not as fleshed out as it could be. ? I I LIVE for good worldbuilding in fantasy novels!!

    And I think it’s great to see more fantasy with queer rep (!!) but also agreement that it seems confusing that ace would be seen as terrible in the same world where bisexuality is fine? Hmm. Although I do understand that some fantasy books wouldn’t use the actual labels, probably thinking that they weren’t around back then. But IDK. I hadn’t thought about that before.

    Loved the review and LOVED the photos!!

    • Chiara says:

      I hope you like it, Cait! I mean, we all have different expectations when it comes to world building, and for me this book didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

      Right? I was just not completely on board with that. I would have rathered all queer identities be values and respected, especially since there are so few ace characters in YA. Sometimes it’s obvious in fantasy books without a label being used, but I think sometimes for the benefit of readers looking to see themselves in books using labels is important. I don’t think we should have to search for the author’s answer when it comes to identity.

      Thank you, Cait :D

  2. This cover is so beautiful to me ;_; A bit sad the characters didn’t live up to their full potential — I NEED to be connected to the characters, otherwise the reading experience isn’t really enjoyable for me. Also, world-building…hmm. It also sounds like the pacing was very off, which kind of sucks. Sometimes I get stuck in the slowness of the plot and can’t get myself to finish a page, a chapter, etc. I literalyl have to force myself to do it. That happened with the second to last book I read. I think I just may place this one on the back burner for now — there are plenty of other things I want to read more!

    • Chiara says:

      Isn’t it gorgeous? I adore it. Yeah, to be honest I sometimes forgot the main character’s name when I was reading D: There was definitely a lot of potential when it came to this book, but for me there were just a few too many things preventing me from falling in love with it. I know the feeling!

  3. Sorry to hear you didn’t love this! I have yet to read it but I had heard some mixed things where some people loved it and other people hated it and that some aspects of it were confusing like the fact she has no eyes but can still cry and all. Thanks for your honesty though Chiara and lovely review, I love the photos! <3

    • Chiara says:

      I am sad I didn’t love it, as well :( Maybe it’s one of those books that’s always hit and miss. I mean, crying is an emotional response, not just a physical one so even though she doesn’t cry tears she still sobs. I hope in the finished version some of the things about the MC’s lack of eyes would have been cleared up (there was a sentence where she narrowed her eyes, which is… impossible)! Thanks, Anisha :D <3

  4. I read a few pages of this the other day and was wondering whether to continue, but your review definitely gives me a good prelude so I know what to expect! I’m really interested in the political intrigue now that you talk about it lol. Lovely review Chiara!

    • Chiara says:

      Don’t get too excited about the political intrigue. It’s barely there, and hardly makes any sense – that’s why I was not so happy about it, haha. Thanks, lovely! Hope you like this one :)

  5. Karen Blue says:

    Okay, I totally get it now. A story about Gomorrah is kinda brilliant. I love that the characters are not all hetero. I can totally relate to a bi female character. And wasn’t that the “problem” about Gomorrah? People not being just hetero despite “god’s plan” for people. I might just have to read this. Thanks for your detailed review!

    • Chiara says:

      I loved the LGBTQIA+ diversity in this book! I had no idea that Gomorrah was based off anything, but my religious knowledge is pretty low, haha. I hope you like it if you pick it up, Karen! My pleasure :)

  6. Ack! I’m so unsure about this one. Firstly, the cover is so pretty… but I’m already very particular with my fantasy-ish books as it is. I normally find them just okay, or mind-blown jump-up-and-down crazy OMG loved it. It does seem like there are lots of things in this one that might work for me, though if the characters aren’t up to scratch there’s not much else to be said. Might pick this up at the library someday. Thanks for the review!

    • Chiara says:

      The cover is incredibly gorgeous! I love looking at it, haha. There was something missing from this book that prevented me from really falling in love with it. But you never know – it might be for you! No problem ^.^

  7. Jackie B. says:

    I will be honest, I’ve seen this book around and it just doesn’t pique my interest. The idea of murdering someone who doesn’t exist seems… odd? I dunno. It’s like this is trying to be a dark YA thriller but the description doesn’t really give off that vibe.

    I’m glad this was a solid 3. That still speaks well to Foddy’s writing! Is this a debut? Sometimes, I find that debuts fall flat– particularly involving character realism.

    • Chiara says:

      Oh, the people getting killed definitely exist. They’re corporeal and they have their own minds and personalities. It’s just they weren’t.. born. They were created! The thrill aspect definitely wasn’t there for me. It was more like a slow moving mystery, since the murders were so spaced out their effect was kind of lost on the overall feel of the book.

      It is a debut, actually! I would be interested in reading another book by this author, as there were things I enjoyed in this one :)

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