Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody is a dark, atmospheric fantasy set in the mystical world of Gomorrah, a traveling carnival filled with illusions and secrets. Sorina, a girl who can create illusions that feel real, faces danger when someone begins killing her creations. With rich world-building, mystery, and a unique magic system, it’s perfect for fans of twisted, imaginative fantasy tales.

The world of Daughter of the Burning City was such a treat to have been transported to. The atmosphere that Foody creates for the traveling circus, the different abilities that those in Gamorrah possess was enchanting and magical. I could feel myself immersed in the surroundings, smelling the popcorn in the air.

I enjoyed some of the characters in the cast, but I would have liked more development and time with Sorina's family. The main plot of the book focuses on the fact that her family of illusions are being murdered, it is unfortunate that we don't get much time with these characters so their deaths feel underwhelming when revealed.

Overall, I did enjoy Daughter of the Burning City and look forward to the other works of fiction that Amanda Foody brings to the table.

Very dark and magical, two of my favorite things in any fantasy novel. I loved the characters and the twists and turns. The writing is so well done, and the world is beautifully crafted. I also loved the mystery, as good ones (especially combined with fantasies) are hard to find in YA. All in all, a win from me!

Well, crud. What do I say about Daughter of the Burning City when I’ve already forgotten so much about it as I write this? I’ve gotta review it. Got a review copy, therefore must deliver review if possible–and it’s very possible. It’s just difficult. There’s plenty to like in Foody’s debut novel, but I have some issues too, particularly with Luca’s identity since we fall under the same queer umbrella.

The book starts out strong with its solid worldbuilding and the intrigue of how a mystery person is killing Sorina’s illusions. While she tries to figure things out, Luca the “gossip-worker” who can’t be killed decides to get involved. Whether you poison him or stab him through or what, he doesn’t die–and he’s very good at knowing everything that happens in the traveling festival city Gommorah.

The worldbuilding done as Sorina and Luca search for the killer(s) raises such intriguing questions that it’s a bit sad the novel is a standalone with no apparent plans for other novels set in this world.

That’s all the good I can squeeze out. By the time I was halfway through the book, the characters and dilemma no longer held my interest and I came up with excuse after excuse not to read it. Though I compliment the worldbuilding, I’d forgotten a great deal of it within hours of finishing the book. Half the time, I forget Sorina’s name when recalling the book!

Then there’s Luca, who Foody states on her Tumblr is “ace spectrum (somewhere around demisexual or demiromantic/asexual)” and yet his romantic/sexual identity is still such a mystery to me.

Luca himself says that he’s “always found people’s romantic lives rather baffling. Like everyone was gushing about a song [he’s] never been able to hear” (ARC, p. 252). On the next page, he adds onto it by saying he doesn’t look at someone and feel attracted to them. He has to care about the person before the attraction appears.

Seeing as there’s so little asexual and demisexual representation in all of literature, let alone in YA, it’s vital to be clear in representation, which isn’t happening with Daughter of the Burning City. The above paragraph demonstrates both demiromantic identity (the direct quote) and demisexual identity (the paraphrased quote from the next page) rather than asexual identity. But the words are never used in the book, implying that there are no such words in Foody’s novel. Other characters don’t speak kindly of his identity and lack of romantic/sexual interest in others either.

Being demi and being ace are two different things. Even if you’re demi ace or aro demi, they’re different! Don’t believe me? Go look in on the Riverdale fandom. The character Jughead is canonically aromantic asexual in the comics, but his identity was erased in the show and he gets into a relationship with Betty. Now people who are mad about the aro ace erasure are fighting with people who see him as demi and are claiming him as their representation. Both groups deserve representation and shouldn’t have to fight over who someone represents. Just make it clear in the source material!

We have a hard enough time as it is. God help you if you ever peek into the “ace discourse” tag on Tumblr because you’ll see some nasty stuff from people who exclude ace people from the queer community. We don’t need to be fighting with each other over yet another character whose identity is left unclear.

Rather than getting Word of God representation people have to search an author’s site for or otherwise look to an out-of-text source for, I’d prefer if the word and representation were clear in the text itself.

Without the cloudy state of Luca’s identity, Daughter of the Burning City is a creative, unique debut novel. With it, it’s just another reason I feel wary when a book wants to represent one of the identities under the asexual umbrella. Take it, leave it, it doesn’t make much difference to me. Reviewing this book and trying to put my issue with Luca into words made me tired.

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley.com.

First line: I peek from behind the tattered velvet curtains at the chattering audience, their mouths full of candied pineapple and kettle corn.

Summary: Sorina is a blind illusionist who works for a traveling circus called Gomorrah Festival. She creates illusions that live and are her family. But when one is murdered she has to hunt down the murderer and find out how they can even kill an illusion.

Highlights: Pretty cover.

Lowlights: I think I am getting harder and harder to please. I want the story to grab me from the beginning. I do not like to have to stumble over the dialogue. I LOVE young adult novels. They are my guilty pleasure but maybe I have read too many and am now disillusioned. I read the first chapter and decided I did not want to finish this.

FYI: DNF.

Daughter of the burning city surprised me greatly! I loved many parts and the whole mystery of who killed these illusions intrigued me immensely. Foody writes very fascinating about the whole circus and it all feels magical in a sense. I loved this and would recommend it to others for sure! Many thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read it before release.

Absolutely adored this weird fantasy book! We featured this one in our July Whimsify box along with a wicked carnival theme. Amanda Foody has a knack for making the impossible seem possible and the completely bizarre seem completely normal.

Review on https://smadasbooksmack.blogspot.com/

**3.5 Stars **
William is the Proprietor of Gomorrah and Sorina is his adopted daughter. Sorina is unique herself, with no eyes or spot for eyes and the ability to bring illusions to life. And that is how Sorina created herself a family as well as performers for her freak show- by creating them from her illusions. But when one of her beloved illusions was found murdered, she is shocked and horrified. When nobody else seems to care or what to discover the truth, Sorina takes it upon herself to find the killer. But this is just the beginning.

​Gomorrah was the coolest part of the story, it was the setting as well as almost a character itself. Gomorrah is a traveling city full of performers and oddities, they just pick up their caravans and move to the next city for shows, yet the city is burning (or appears to be so- the how I was not certain of, but still a cool concept). Yet Gomorrah has both an uphill and a downhill, and where you live indicates the persons class and status in the city, which I found very interesting with a traveling city that is not stationary or set they still establish boundaries. Boundary still exist in a world where they are all basically "freaks" of some kind, with gifts and skills outside the range of normal people. ​

​I did have a logistical question- how can a girl with no eye holes cry? How can she see? At the beginning of the book it said that Sorina is deformed and has no spot for eyes and she used her illusions to see, but she can she see and cry even when her illusions are not around so it was odd.​ Sorina completely lacks people skills and knowledge of most people, only comfortable with her illusion family members. She hides behind her eyeless masks as well as the moth illusion she projects over herself to blend in and not be noticed since she is scared of what others will think about her. She has never been in a relationship before due to her lack of outside interaction and deformity, but dreams equally about men and women romantically. She did experience a lot of growth as a character through the book and was able to look inside herself and see her strengths, making her so much more confident, which was really nice to see (and went along with the authors comments about the book and the power of Sorina).

​Luca is the mysterious boy who has been helping Sorina with her investigation, he is an UpMountainer (aka wealthy outsider) who has become more a part of the underbelly of Gomorrah that Sorina has ever been. Luca is known as a Poison-Worker who performs a show where people are allowed to murder him and he always comes back to life, and he also calls himself a Gossip Worker- he knows and researches the secrets that everyone keeps. I will admit that he was the most interesting part of the story to me with his truths, insights, quirks and dry wit- every interaction with him made me so excited and blow through those pages (I could 100% relate to his curiosity about people and that he just liked to know stuff). Definitely my favorite character.

This was as much a murder mystery as a political intrigue? Was the murder a personal vendetta, an accident or machinations of political unrest? I liked that there were so many possibilities to the plot that I was kept guessing as to the direction the story would take next. I did like how this entire plot wrapped up in a single book so I don't have to wait for more to come. This was my first book by Amanda and I am really impressed with her ability to create this dark, twisty world, with dimension and personality, unlike anything I have encountered before. This book was 100% unique and interesting, even when it was not pretty (except the cover, the cover was always gorgeous and I lurv it!).

As a side note, I started this book on audio and it was ok, and then I read parts as an ebook which was ok as well but I highly recommend this as a physical book since there are some really cool and interesting illustrations included in the pages about the illusions. I am a visual person and really liked to see what the illusions looked like as well as the killer's comments scribbled on the top- the aubiobook read the illustrations but did not do them justice (in my opinion).

This story drew me in and kept me reading even when the writing wasn't totally my style. It was inventive and interesting.

Rating: 4/5

Genre: YA Fantasy/Mystery

Recommended Age: 16+ (violent deaths, sexual content, but lots of diversity)

Pages: 377

Author: Amanda Foody

Amazon

I was given an arc of this book on NetGalley then obtained my own copy. Thanks NetGalley! All opinions are my own.

In 2017 there were three major books about carnivals that came out. Why carnivals? Well, because they always have had an aura of mystery and intrigue about them. And from reading this book I think I have found out why they seem so mysterious. Mostly fantasy, but part mystery, this book centers on an eyeless girl named Sorina and her ability to create illusions. And then someone starts killing her illusions and she must work to find out why this is happening and most importantly how. I thought the characters were all very well developed and the plot was very intriguing. The book was adequately well paced as well, which made me not want to put down this enthralling read.

However, I did feel that there was some room for more world-building. Two things that are central to the plot are the politics of the Upper Mountain and Vallium and Angi’s backstories and development. While the book did excellent at surprising the reader with the “whodunit” portion of the book, it made me wonder if there were intentional clues left behind or if this revelation came out of nowhere like it appears to me right now.

Verdict: If you’re looking for a mystery fantasy stand-alone novel this is your book! It’s weird and fun and amazingly well written and it’ll keep you guessing until the very last page.

Interesting premise with a good start, but the story lost steam about halfway through. There seemed to be a lot of running around without a lot of progress.

This book was something very different. I did love the cover to it the story idea. The world building to it was good. Would read more of Amanda Foody books by her.

The traveling circus idea was so cool! Especially because its a dark circus. I thought that this idea was carried off rather well.. I liked that it actually not a safe place to be. Sorrina and her illusions that are real, are interesting. How to kill an illusion is kinda bizarre. I liked Sorrina a lot. I found her a very down to earth protagonist. She's determined to find whoever is killing her family worried about her father's expectations of her and dealing with the fact that she is "a freak." She's a real person with fears and insecurities and talents. I liked that everything was wrapped up in one book.

Overall good book. I was expecting more...the concept is great, but like others mentioned the lacing seemed slow and sluggish. I got an arc copy, with illustrations to come, which would've helped establish characters/ominous killer notes. I didn't love the main character; I don't think it was explained early enough about the girl who sees without eyes.

Somehow it needed more grounding and backstory, but also more editing to streamline. Like the Night Circus, I want to know more about the festival world. It was a slow read which was odd to me considering my excitement from the summary, yet the book dragged and had somewhat predictable plot points.

There is a lot to enjoy here. It tells the story of Sorina, a young girl living in the travelling festival city of Gommorah, her family and the war between the Up-mountain and Down-mountain peoples. Firstly, there are some incredibly original ideas interwoven into the narrative. I really liked the idea of illusions as portrayed here and I liked the atmosphere of the city. It falls somewhere between a giant circus and a market town and there are a lot of well-drawn periphery characters that enhance the description of Gommorah. Sadly, there was quite a bit of plot that I just found all too familiar and quite predictable. The villains, the love interest and the overall structure of the narrative did not live up to the originality displayed in some of the other aspects of the book. That being said, this book is an enjoyable read and will definitely appeal to it's target YA audience - it just didn't blow me away.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I enjoyed this book and it was a fun magical carnival story. However, I did find it predictable at some points and especially towards the ending. I also didn't think that the story arc really built up as much as I would have liked. The climax of the story just didn't feel as high as it should have and blended into the rest of the story a little. I like the idea of the story and it was a fun read, it just wasn't as spectacular as they make the Gomorrah Festival sound. I found Sorina to be a very naive and gullible main character which made me just annoyed at her for not recognizing what was going on around her but I loved all of her family members and how her gifts worked. I also really liked the illustrations throughout the book with the notes on each of the members of her freak show from the perspective of the murderer. I wish those drawings were mentioned in the story itself or integrated in more but they were a fun addition. Overall, I liked the book but I just didn't love it.

The concept of this book is rather clever and a very interesting take on a circus setting. I will be adding a copy to my collection in the near future!

I was disappointed with this one. There were a lot of inconsistencies in the vast, complicated world building. The Festival itself was well drawn, but not the realm. It just simply tries to cover too much territory. The author really missed an opportunity to explore Sorina's disability. It was really just a vanity side note. In all the characterization did't quit click. The intermittently flowery writing was distracting.

I'm going to start off by saying that I LOVED THIS BOOK.

I was immediately drawn to the premise, and I wasn't disappointed. It was dark and twisted, but also inspiring and magical. I thought Sorina was a wonderful protagonist. She was an immensely interesting character, vulnerable yet strong, flawed and truthful. Whatever happened, I just wanted her to succeed!

I loved the relationship she had with her family of illusions, they all complimented each other, and they were all so wonderful and I loved them all.

I laughed, I cried, I got angry (at things that happened), I cheered, and I just highly, HIGHLY recommend this book.

This book is a fun adventure! Wonderful imagery, a unique twist to a carnival type setting, and an awesome mystery throughout! I absolutely adored every minute of this book. Not too heavy a read, the book simply requires that you sit back, get comfy, and enjoy all that is Daughter of the Burning City!