Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced copy of this book to read.

it never quite gets a handle on what separates adult fantasy from young adult fantasy. i otherwise enjoyed the characters and the story

Having enjoyed Tara Sim's previous work, I was excited when The City Of Dusk was made available on NetGalley, and was excited to be granted access to the eARC prior to its release. My download expired when I was just a couple of chapters in, and then I did not get my hands on another copy until well after it was out on shelves. However, even after finally procuring a copy, I struggled with this book. The concept is strong - a city that lays at the crossroads of (essentially) heaven and hell, an aging king with no heir, noble families jockeying for position, and their teenage children uninterested in the politicking, but granted the power and the magic nonetheless.

I made it about halfway through the book - with a lot of effort - before I finally gave up, because it was moving glacially slowly. There were too many character POVs and several of them were a slog to reach the plot and the POVs that seemed to move it. I debated for a long time whether to even post a review, given that this was a rare DNF for me, but I do feel strongly that there's an interesting concept and a rich fantasy world that other readers may enjoy, even though it did not work for me.

The City of Dusk by Tara Sim is a promising and lengthy first installment of The Dark Gods series. From the point of view of young heirs of the four realms burdened with the responsibilities of their families, we dive into this dark fantasy. Continue reading down below for my opinions on this new release.

I had to double-check, but The City of Dusk technically is an adult fantasy. The writing, however, feels more geared towards a young adult audience. I’m not sure if it is just the fact that the main characters are young adults and feel in a way coming of age responsibilities (with obvious dark fantasy twists). I don’t think the dark fantasy feel is enough to make it more adult than young adult. Not that this is a huge issue, but if you prefer not to read young adult, keep this in mind.

The world-building was A LOT in The City of Dusk. This was an immense book! Sim does a great job of figuring out how the world, its magic, politics, and culture works. I really appreciated how well thought out it was. This sets up the next book to not need to explain away anything or do too much leg work to help build the world.

The attention to world-building unfortunately was a detriment to the plot. The pacing was up and down, with some parts really picking up and dragging in others. Given this pacing, the plot was lacking in some ways. Not a lot actually seemed to happen as the world was being set up.

There were several different narrators, several of them heirs to the noble houses, each with different magical abilities. Even though it was a long book, it seemed that certain narrators were given more of a central role. Granted, I enjoyed these central characters, such as Taesia. I just would have expected more depth from these characters considering the length of the book. This opens up an opportunity for the second installment.

Overall
It was an interesting book. Since the word count spent much of the time on creating the social and political structure and the working of magic in this world, its plot was lacking. This does not put me off as I will be looking out of the second book in this new Dark Gods series.

This story was kind of set up for failure by focusing on pushing a plot / forcing the main characters together without establishing the world first. By the 1/4 mark, I had no idea how any of the four types of magic worked (such as what limits their were, how people who weren't in the four houses used them, which magic "anyone" could use vs which were specific to a family and why, what the familiar were and what they did)... I was left with so many questions that I didn't have bandwidth to care about the characters who were practically shouting for my attention.

I was definitely a fan of the queernormative world, and I could have gotten behind it a bit more if we'd only focused on two POV characters (my preference would have been Taesia and Risha, and not just because they were the first two we got introduced to).

This book was a little confusing at the start. It was hard to keep all the gods and their heirs straight, but it became much more enjoyable once I was able to hold all of that information in my head and keep it straight. The guide in the beginning was very helpful and I referred to it many times.

As the book progresses, it becomes very important to have a firm grasp on that knowledge as there are many moving parts and many plots happening at the same time. It was a little convoluted and I had to reread a few sections a few times to understand what was actually happening. But I am definitely going to be picking up the next book and giving it a chance so I can find out what happens to all the characters! Overall, this is a good start to a series.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit Books, and Tara Sim for an e-arc of The City of Dusk in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the story, but the magic system was very confusing for me. I think if better developed upon this could be a truly gripping story.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were all very different, and worked well as a cohesive set. As many other reviewers have said, this reads more like a YA book than adult - I actually didn't realize it was meant to be adult until I looked at some other reviews. There is some darkness to it that might be a bit more adult, but nothing that is super uncommon in YA.

The magic system wasn't super well developed, but I'll forgive that being that it's the first in the series. I love the potential for a lot more books in the other realms. Good LGBTQ rep. Would definitely look out for the second one.

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC.

I really liked the God world building in this one. It felt like the author really thought it out about the Gods and how it would affect each part of life. Not to mention, that I was particularly a fan of how locations and settings were described.

I'm pretty terrible with names while reading. Everyone is at first, but my memorization is one of recognition, not of recall. This is all to say that I think the headers with the houses are cool, but every time I had no idea until I started reading, or if I flipped back to the houses page. This is more of a me thing, because while I appreciate the different point of views, I would have to stop and remind myself who this was again and what do they want, which would take me out of the story in the beginning.

I do appreciate the map and noble houses page. Not always the easiest to flip back to in an ebook, but it was there! Plus, again, makes me feel like the author really thought about that and wasn't making it up on the fly.

Taesia was my favorite character. She was headstrong but also empathetic. I enjoyed her journey throughout the book

Heres the thing... I want to be obsessed with this book... it actually has all of the elements of books that I am obsessed with. But this does not feel adult this is very much YA and unfortunately I have accepted I am too old to really appreciate YA or even have the desire to fully want to. I also think that this was too long for a first book in a series. With that being said I loved the cover and elements to this book, I even really loved the beginning, but as a whole this let me down.

I’m a huge fantasy enthusiast and after reading Sim’s YA novel Scavenge The Stars, I was super excited to be approved for a copy of The City of Dusk! However, this book was a let down and I nearly DNFed it multiple times. I feel like this book should’ve been reworked into a YA fantasy rather than NA.

I've enjoyed Tara Sim's other books and this was no exception. It was a great read with a really interesting world and characters. Can't wait for the rest of the series!

Ugh I hate to DNF, especially a book I received an ARC for and own a special edition copy of, but I gave this 100 pages and I just cannot bring myself to care.

The political situation is boring and confusing, the timeline feels weird, and the cultural anachronisms (can I call it that if it's a fantasy novel?) are distracting. Sim's prose and character work do little to make up for any of this, so unfortunately this is a pass for me.

Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood, but I found this book extremely difficult to get through. I was confused by the world building and all of the character names. I really love fantasy, especially high fantasy, but this one just didn’t click with me. I was confused about all the houses and powers, but I am very willing to try again. But, right off the bat, this didn’t really do it for me. I can see a lot of potential and would be interested in reading other books from this author in the future.

The City of Dusk is the first in an Adult Fantasy series appropriately called The Dark Gods by Tara Sim. Four Heirs for the Four elements are trying how to save the dying world. But, like most stories about Gods and Religion, they learn what they have been taught is flawed and wrong. The magic of conjuring is illegal, which is how you can communicate with demons and gods, and the heirs are desperate to learn it.
The book is told in multiple POVs, following each heir as they seek to discover the truth about God's Night, a special night of power that happens once every 100 years. The detail and worldbuilding are richly detailed. The descriptions of the different issues plaguing this city and how the Gods are supposed to speak to each heir were intriguing. Constant action throughout the story, the usual villain appearing toward the end, the young questioning all they have been told, and finding how involved their parents are involved in the cover-ups. I can't wait to see what the following books will share with us.

I actually had a really hard time getting through the beginning of this book. The premise really drew me in and I was so excited to read it but I find the first quarter of the book rather slow and a little predictable. That made it hard for me to continue reading but I'm really glad that I did. Around the halfway mark I found myself unable to put it down. Overall I enjoyed the book and would recommend it. 3.5/5 stars.

This was a fun read, but did get confusing at times given the world and number of magic systems going on. I did like the characters and their dynamics were fun. But some were more annoying then endearing (you know who you are). Overall I enjoyed this enough that I will pick up the sequel.

Goodreads review;

Honestly, I liked this book. It was slow at the beginning and I had trouble getting into the story. I stopped reading halfway for about two weeks, but I'm glad I picked the book up again.

I have the special edition from Fairyloot and it's absolutely gorgeous.

I generally don't like multiple p.o.v books but this one was doable.

The ending was pretty good, will pick up the second book when it comes out.


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I read the book a while ago, I liked it as I said in my review. The beginning was very intriguing and I couldn't put the book down. Then the middle part happened, I just couldn't get trough the book. I did put it down for a few weeks and I had no interest in picking it up again. I received the gorgeous Fairyloot edition and I just wanted to finish it, so I set myself to reading it again. honestly, it was good. the ending made up for the middle part and I really did not see the actual fifth heir coming. I really enjoyed it,

Unfortunately this book was a no from me. I really enjoyed the setting but I couldn't care less about the characters

REVIEW: THE CITY OF DUSK BY TARA SIM
BOOK REVIEWSMARCH 24, 2022BY FIONA DENTON

The City of Dusk is the debut adult fantasy novel from Tara Sim. It is the first instalment of The Dark Gods trilogy and is published by Orbit. I would like to thank Orbit for sending me an eARC of the novel to be able to provide my review for Grimdark Magazine.

57197053. sy475 In The City of Dusk we follow the four heirs of the four noble houses in the city of Nexus. The families of Lastrider, Vakara, Mordova, and Cyr have kept the city running for over five centuries. Each family represents a different deity and holds different divine skills to help the city run smoothly. But their gods no longer favour Nexus, and the heirs of the families must work together to save their kingdom.

As this is a review for that corner of the internet dedicated to getting knee deep in grit, I need to say from the get go that The City of Dusk is not the darkest of dark fantasy novels. Although it has a lot of dark elements, there are not enough consistently grim features to make it grimdark. It is, however, a good fantasy, with a cracking ensemble cast and a wonderful world.

In fact, the world of The City of Dusk is my favourite aspect of Sim’s novel. It is a gorgeously crafted realm where each of the main characters, and their magics, are believable. From necromancy, to wielding shadows or wings of light Sim has created a unique magic system that is easy to follow and understand. The history of the different religions and their feuding noble families is also well built, where all relevant information is shared without ever feeling like it is bogging down the narrative. I also loved that The City of Dusk is a world without the prejudices and biases of our society. There are a range of sexualities, races, and religions in Sim’s world with no stereotyping or token inclusion. This is a very refreshing feature for a fantasy world to have! It also focuses on some deep emotional issues, such as grief, in a careful and considered way.

However, although there were many things that I enjoyed about The City of Dusk I did struggle in some places. The denouement was fantastic, but the slow and steady pace of the rest of the novel made those final few chapters feel almost too quick. I also think that Sim’s writing style is more juvenile than I expected from a book being billed as an adult dark epic fantasy. The City of Dusk has all the ingredients to make it that, but to me it felt like I was reading a very long young adult novel and I took a while to get into the swing of it. Although I liked all of the characters, I often perceived them as younger than the narrative states them to be which also added to my sense that this is more of a crossover fantasy novel than an adult one. I do not mean this as a huge criticism; I have read and liked Sim’s young adult novels. But I do think readers who do not also enjoy “new adult” writing may struggle with the style of The City of Dusk.

Overall I think that The City of Dusk is a good read. It will appeal to the fans of fantasy who prefer a less grim world whilst still being a dark novel. It is a novel with violence, sex, swearing, political intrigue, and characters with some moral ambiguity. These traits just are not quite as explicit or harsh as grimdark readers would be used to or might be expecting from it. The cliff hanger of The City of Dusk has kept me interested and I am invested enough in the characters and this world to continue with the next instalment of The Dark Gods when it comes out. 3 / 5