I wanted to love this book...but unfortunately I just didn’t...but I also didn’t hate this book.
For me personally, this book fell into the category of just okay. It wasn’t anything amazing, but I know a lot of people will really enjoy it.
There were a lot of elements happening in this plot and I found it hard to keep every thing straight. There was a lot of characters that had a lot of different end goals and motivations, and I was just struggling. I usually enjoy this in books, but with the City of Dusk something just wasn’t clicking. The actual writing wasn’t difficult to follow, I just found myself forgetting plot details because I didn’t care enough to remember.
I think that a lot of readers who are knew to adult fantasy will enjoy this book. I think that readers who connect more with the characters will find themselves engrossed in the story.
And I did enjoy the magic system! I think necromancy is something that I will always love in books. I also liked the way each family had their own category of magical abilities.
Overall, while this book didn’t quite work for me, I would still recommend readers who find the synopsis interesting check it out!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book delivers on so many promises some of which being: dark fantasy, sapphic characters, adult-y gore.

The book does, however, feel a bit unnecessarily long, and it reads a bit YA. I'm not sure if this is the cause of adult books being miscategorized as YA (which is a whole problem, rooted in misogyny) or if the Tara Sim is finding her footing in the Adult genre.

Outside of that, the story is a standard fantasy and I hope to see it branch out with the next books in this trilogy!

Tara Sim's The City of Dusk is a fantastic start to a new series. It is weird (in a wonderful way) and should be winner for anyone looking for character driven fantasy with a diverse cast of characters.

If you've seen my reviews before, you'll know that one of the big things that makes or breaks a book for me is world building and The City of Dusk is a fantastic work of worldbuilding. We get to see the world through four unique pairs of eyes and each gives us an interesting understanding of how the world functions at a larger level. It's also just a fascinating and unique world in general. I've never quite seen a world like it before in fantasy and it's used in such a way that I'm really interested to see where it goes in the subsequent books.

The cast is also wonderfully diverse. Each character feels wholly unique and brings something amazing to the story. Sim makes the reader feel for their cast and there were multiple moments in the book where my jaw was open and I was left worrying for characters.

I highly recommend this book and I'm thankful for the review copy given to me via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

"Death was lovely and sad, and never quite an ending."

I think the concept of this book was really great. It was just...a lot. I felt like the author really tried to pack everything into this and it didn't really come through. In some ways it worked, in others, not so much. I just felt that part of the reason this book was as long as it is was to make room for the worldbuilding. But there was just sooo much of it. I found the worldbuilding easy to understand, and yet complicated at the same time which just made me confused a lot.

"A scepter of ice, a throne of obsidian, a cloak of storm wind, and a crown of flame."

I actually really liked the characters and the world - but there were areas where the characters were just kind of bland. It was super interesting getting to unlock everyone's secrets, but it took a really long time to get there. But for a lot of this - I just got really bored and felt the plot was dragging. I think I would have preferred if this was a faster paced novel.

"Four elements. Four gods. Four Houses. Each of them were like these elements, all the good and bad of them. Risha Vakara was earth - stubborn. Nikolas Cyr was air, flighty and unpredictable. Dante and Taesia Lastrider were water: wily, unruly, adaptable. And she... Angelica was fire, read to burn whoever stood in House Mardova's way to ash."

I liked this, I really did. But it was just missing some things that would have made me love it.

This was okay. There were a good number of parts that I enjoyed, but there were also some big issues starting with it not being the book I thought I was getting. First, I want to be clear that I love YA fantasy. In fact, it is one of my very favorite categories to read I enjoy it so much. However, I picked this book up specifically because it did NOT have the YA tag on it. I was in the mood for a queer dark adult read and I thought this would be just what the doctored ordered. Instead, this felt very YA and never hit the level of dark I was hoping for. I was so excited when one of the mains started murdering people just because I wanted anything dark to finally come. In the end, I have read much darker YA stories and many YA stories where the characters acted more adult and didn’t have that juvenile feel like in this book. I think I have to tag this book YA and not adult.

This was a large book and that is one of its problems. I could have easily cut out at least 100 pages and not even batted an eye. There was a lot of space being taken up with things that didn’t feel important enough, and when I finally was really into a part, it was over all too soon. This book has a large cast of main characters and unfortunately they don’t all get equal treatment. You can tell that the author really likes Taesia as she gets time and storylines that make her far more interesting than the others. The only other character I enjoyed was Angelica, because who doesn’t like a stereotypical angry lesbian that wants to burn the whole world down. I was actually hoping that a romance would spark between these two (Taesia is bi) because they have this wonderful enemies relationship going on that just sparks with real chemistry. There is a reason enemies to lovers is one of the best tropes ever, but instead Taesia is wasting time on a different character who is too sensitive about her having great powers. I won’t give away how the small relationships seem to be playing out, but I do see at least some potential in a certain love interest for Angelica and I really hope that it will be better explored in the next book.

As other reviews have mentioned, this book could be a bit of a slog at times. Luckily, the last third of the book, basically when the women characters decided to finally fight back, the book got much more interesting. However, the big reveals -there are more than one- and the whole puzzle and how everything comes together, does get a bit convoluted. We are told it is this, but it is actually this, but then this and this. There is a random character -that I think I remember meeting once- that is all of a sudden important, and other similar things happened that didn’t sit so well with me. There was one twist that I thought was pretty good, but the rest felt like the author threw everything but the kitchen sink, hoping something would stick.

TLDR: A dark adult fantasy book that wasn’t very dark or very adult. If you like epic books with big casts of characters, this might work for you. In my opinion there could have been less pages and less main characters for the book to feel like less of a slog. The book was wonderfully queer, but there were only a couple characters that you end up caring about. In the end this was about an average fantasy read. I think I would read the sequel, but I’m not going to be counting down the days until it comes out.

A really interesting first installation into this fantasy series! I love series that have complex magic systems and extremely detailed worlds. The characters were loveable and multifaceted, and the writing style was incredibly immersive. My only issue was that a lot of the major world-building gets thrown at you quickly within the first few chapters, so the book sometimes reads more like a history textbook than a fantasy novel. Really excited for book 2!

This is the first book in a trilogy! Yay excited about that!
In a world of Gods and elementalist, the realms are starting to die. The four heirs for the four elements are trying to discover how to stop this. In the process they discover that what they have believed about their religious history is flawed and at some point was changed.
They are trying to learn the illegal magic that has been outlawed to gain the powers of the Gods.
I felt a little of the parallels since I read a book about Solstice around Christmas time. And the way in history to hide truths and other religions they have stolen their symbols and used them to take away their importance. But also in the passage of time no one knows except those still practicing.
This book is multiple POVs, following the heirs as they seek the truth. I really enjoyed all the characters. I love going from one to the other inner thoughts especially when they are working towards a goal or are seeking. So we can see the full picture of the city and how we are doing in this war. They were all fleshed out and there was representation for LGBTQ. The detail and worldbuilding was great. I enjoyed this world that was sealed by a Sealing. Such an interesting concept.
This book was constant activity, the usual abuse of power at the top, the young asking questions and finding out so much as their parents have been assimilated into the history they’ve been taught.
Can’t wait to see where this series goes!


Thank you Orbit for the gifted ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

i know that people really love this book and i wanted to, but the plot felt disjointed, it was too slow in some parts but felt rushed in others. the overall flow of the book was strange, but i loved the world and the society set in this dark world of darker magic.

The City of Dusk follows four heirs of four houses with powers gifted from the gods. Taesia (and her brother, Dante) have shadow magic. Rishi is a necromancer. Angelica is an elementalist (my least favorite of the POV characters), and Nikolas is a soldier with light magic. We also get an additional POV character later in the book, who is my favorite of the five. The four heirs are friends who are also competitors vying for the throne. They are attempting to work together to perform a ritual that will restore power to the houses.

I’m very conflicted on my thoughts for this book. I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but I never wanted to pick it up. I ended up not finishing my e-arc in time, so I listened to the last 50% on audio. The plot felt very slow to me. I’ve seen a lot of complaints that this book read more YA than adult. I don’t read many YA books, but this one did not feel like other YA books I have read. It was too long, detailed, and slow for YA. It also didn’t quite feel like an adult book. I’m unsure at this point of whether or not I will continue the series.

3.5 stars

Thanks Netgalley and to the publisher! All thoughts are my own.

I'm always a huge fan, and get sucked into anything that has characters revolving around a different element or symbol. This was no different! Life, Death, Light, and Darkness. I was instantly drawn to the characters and the world building. The prose is beautiful, and full of sensory imagery that I can never get enough of in my books. I loved all the secrets, and morally gray characters. I can't wait to read more!

An absolutely wonderful work of fantasy! Sim's did a beautiful job creating the world, characters I cared about and an intricate political system that is on the edge of disaster. I devoured this book in it's entirety. From start to finish I was engrossed in this story.

Four Gods
Four Realms
Four Heirs
Their Rebellion

The gods have sealed off the Realm of Vitae for the last 500 years. The city of Nexus has been perishing in their absences. The four houses of the gods, Mardova; elementalists, Cyr; Lumin, Lastrider;Sahdes and Vakara;Necormancy, stick to law set out by the King.

But without a way to commune with the other 3 realms anarchists called conjurers begin using old forbidden magics to try and open the seal to each of the other realms.

Not wanting to watch their city die, the four heirs, Taesia a shade with no mercy, Nikolas a solider who has lost connection with his god, Risha a sassy af necromancer, and Angelica an elementalist with a fiery heart. Come together to defy their parents and the king to find a way to save their Realm.

The book feels like a good blend of Adult and young adult fantasy, because it did have a few sex scene, but they were ftb, but it does discus and have very dark themes.

This is the first book in the the Dark Gods Trilogy.. I CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE!! Taesia and Risha are my sassy messy MC's and I could not get enough of them. I love how everyone was pretty much a morally grey character and you weren't sure what they were going to do next or where their allegiance really lied. Tara wrote this so well and really captured a sense of what is going on in the United States government (inequality, poverty, etc) and put all those issues into her book. Is it April 2023 yet?

Rep:
LGBTQ across the spectrum (trans younger sister of Risha)
Bipoc

CT/TW
Blood magic
War
Violence

Well, it might be weird to say but I've been sucker punched and I liked it and I'll probably come back for more. City of Dusk was slow to start. It came out of the gate a bit sluggishly. It appeared to be unassuming, and quiet frankly it ended up being a bit tedious at first BUT when it all started coming together, and built up momentum, I couldn't look away. It's a shame that that point didn't come until ~ the 70% mark but it did happen so there's that. I then noticed at around the 90% mark that it had a lot to answer for and very little real estate to do it in.... a bad omen that usually indicates we're about to be dangled off a dramatically steep cliff. BUT even though this one took quite some time to get through, I wasn't too upset with the slight cliffhanger ending. I usually loathe first installments where the entire book is one looooong intro to set up the next book BUT City Of Dusk did answer quite a lot in the end, all while setting up book #2... good save!

There was a lot to admire in this book. The writing was well executed, especially when comparing it to a bunch of other recent reads. I know, it might not be fair to compare differing book's attributes but it is hard not to. Interesting to note, this read ultimately came to rest firmly towards the top of the heap with respect to the writing style and the character development.

The world building, slow yet detailed, was another accolade for City of Dusk. It had a lot of information that needed to be conveyed and it managed to skirt the all too easy pitfall of mass info dumping... a fact that yours truly fervently appreciated.

The characters, on the otherhand, were the stars of the show in my opinion, each was distinct and multifaceted. They were relateable even though it is sometimes a difficult accomplishment in a book that has a Magically Realistic premise. I am sure each reader will have their own favorite but personally... I loved them all... another accolade.

Overall:
This read was truly enjoyable. It had an extremely diverse, rich, and relateable cast of multihued characters... a surefire way to get me to gush lovingly. The writing was solid and even though it was a tad slow for a good portion of the book, the pace picked up later on and once it did it bloomed exponentially. SO if you are having trouble getting into it fully and are questioning if you should chuck it into the DNF pile, my 2 cents are that you should keep at it, it's worth the time and emotional investment in the end.

~ Enjoy

*** I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. ***

This is the first installment in a high fantasy series and I see a lot of potential here. This story is filled with magic, bloodthirsty families, betrayal, love, power, zombies, and cannibalistic gods. It has a lot of room to grow from where it is and I think it could be a new player in the high fantasy genre.

This is a multiple pov story set in the Kingdom of Vaega, in the City of Dusk. The story is mainly told from the heirs of the four magic wielding families. Each family has a certain bloodline that allows them to use magic, these gifts were given from their respective god.

Taesia Lastrider (shade)
Dante Lastrider (shade)
Nikolas Cyr (light)
Angelica Mardova (elements)
Risha Vakara (necromancy)
Julian Luca

As with most fantasy stories there is a king, Ferdinand Accardi who appears to be bad news. Taesia and Dante set out with the help of Prelate Lezzaro and their aunt Camilla to stop Conjuration from happening. It’s a type of black magic that brings demons into their realm who cause lots of death and destruction in their wake. Not everything is as it seems and friendships and built and destroyed over the course of the book. (This is a very basic synopsis but the good stuff is all in the meat).

Taesia is the type of female character I need more of in my life. She’s not afraid to be herself and do what needs to get done in order for her to meet her goals. I loved her progression as a character and her completely unrepentant personality. Tae is there to get stuff done and I loved how completely unapologetic she was in the way she made her moves. There needs to be more characters like this in fantasy, especially females. She was a divine character and I can’t wait to see more of her.

Dante could have received a bit more time in my opinion. I never really bonded with him so it’s hard to have an opinion about a character who spent more time off page than on page.

Nikolas was clearly a man in love with a hard family life at the beginning of the story. He has a father who is harsh towards him and Nikolas is put in a position of power from the king and it still doesn’t truly appease his father. There’s a lot of dynamics there and it’ll be interesting to see what his relationship with Fin will develop into with future books.

Angelica is someone I don’t think the reader is supposed to like as much. She can be mean and sometimes brutal to others. Initially I figured she was just the quintessential “mean girl” that every story needs but my opinion for her changed with *that scene* IYKYK. And I loved her all the more after that. Talk about a totally dynamic switch and a power play. As much as that scene grossed me out I absolutely loved it and how the author was not afraid to cross boundaries.

Risha was definitely more of a lukewarm character for me. I felt similarly towards her as I did toward Dante. She definitely had more time on the page but she didn’t have that *umph* factor that Angelica and Tae did. I did love her ending of the book and I can’t wait to see what comes next from that plot point.

Lastly there was Julian. He was a delightful addition later in the book and I liked his inclusion. He felt like a very well written three dimensional character. I liked the way he had his presence in many peoples lives and their outcomes. His dynamic with Tae is so gratifying and I want more of them in the next book!

Overall this book was entertaining and unique. I loved most of the characters and hopefully the others will get more attention in future books and they can be given a better rounding out. The start of this book was slow going but once it started rolling it just kept going. One of the twists at the end I guessed but the other two surprised me. At this point I would definitely be inclined to pick up the sequel when it inevitably comes out. This author isn’t afraid to go there and do things that are completely unexpected. This is a book that felt like it was written for new adults. The bloodthirsty nature and mature content was there, but it was written more in depth than most YA fantasies.

Was sold about a page into Taesia's POV. (can't be smug if I admit it!)

"The City of Dusk" by Tara Sim takes place in a world that is dying. The residents used to have access to four, Life, Death Light, and Darkness but they have been sealed away by the gods. And each god has descendants on this realm. And they aren't super keen on letting the place die off. But, they also are jostling for the crown with each other. And then it gets weird.

Reasons to read:
-Dark queer fantasy in a setting where that isn't an issue.
-There is a POV for everyone
-I totally get why people would be religious when you can go say "what up" to a divinity and maybe they give you cool magic
-Taesia, I support her rights and her wrongs
-I am here for bone ambiance and architecture
-When stuff hits the fan it does it with gusto
-Big morally grey choices

Cons:
-When it gets hectic and the POV is switching in chapter it was a little disorienting
-The ending was abrupt, I thought I missed a page

The City of Dusk
By Tara Sim
A review by Jamilla, from LandsAwayBooks @ Wordpress

I really thought I was going to adore this one.

It had so many things I love!
-a gorgeous cover, immediately letting you know what the mood of it will be: dark, foreboding.
-absent gods
-high stakes as four heirs of ancient magic attempt to save a dying city while scrambling for the throne
-several mysteries and an unknown voice who’s motives were unfathomable
-LGBTQIA+ main and side characters!
-necromancy and spirts; elemental magic?!?!
-celestial weapons

But even with all of these things that I thought I would excite me, it just didn’t rise to the occasion.
-I didn’t get adult fantasy vibes from it at all.
-The pacing was slow to death (no pun intended) not helped by it being almost 500 pages?
-So many characters , and I couldn’t connect to them at all, I don’t mind a lot of characters in a book, especially if we’re getting their POVs, but I remained numb to these characters from beginning to 500 page end.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

*Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for a copy in exchange for an honest review*

The City of Dusk was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022, and it did not disappoint. I was obsessed straight from the beginning.

Four Realms- Light, Death, Life, Darkness - converge in the City of Dusk. Each Realm has an Heir. The gods have withdrawn their favour, and the Realms are dying because of it. Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs - Angelica, an Elementalist with her eyes on the throne; Risha, a necromancer fighting to keep the peace; Nikolas, a soldier who struggles to see the light; and Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue with a reckless heart - will become allies in their quest to save the city. But their rebellion will cost them dearly.

Tara Sim out here writing the best diverse fantasies. This book is filled with LGBTQ+ characters, including bisexuals, a transgender girl (younger sister of Risha), and BIPOC characters. I always love Tara Sim writing more than just cishet characters, and this book is no different.

The world in this book is so cool. Tara Sim is able to weave world-building in so well without being overwhelmed. She did it in her Scavenge the Stars YA duology, and in The City of Dusk, it's so well done.

I've seen reviewers say this is a more juvenile adult fantasy, but I have to disagree. Reading Tara Sim's other books before this one makes it very clear this is adult. It's so different than her YA series, and I love it. I love all her other books (5 stars each), and this one is no different.

I will forever be thinking about this book.

My goodness, this was a roller coaster of a ride in such a good way! The book opens with a really creepy scene of a boy piling bodies one on top of each other and from then on this doesn’t really slow down.

The first in a trilogy that follows the four heirs of four noble houses, each gifted with divine power, as they form a tenuous alliance to keep their kingdom from descending into a realm-shattering war. The four realms are Life, Death, Light, and Darkness, and each realm there is a god and for each god an heir. All of the realms converge of the city of dusk. But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once thriving city, and without the gods the realms are dying. Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs will sacrifice everything to save the city. But their defiance will cost them dearly.

Angelica is the heir for House Mardova. She’s an elementalist who can only use her powers when she’s playing music, which her mother absolutely forbids. When she can’t play music, therefore can’t release her powers, she acts like a junkie coming of a high. The language and power with Angelica and her mother really reminded me of the Avatar: The Last Airbender. I also really loved the representation with Angelica being bisexual or a lesbian. We only see her have romantic or sexual thoughts towards women but nothing is outright said. Also, Angelica’s mom is bisexual, married to a man who died and in the book is now married to a woman.

Nikolas is the heir for House Cyr. The power of House Cyr is light, a powerful, godlike light. But Nik just wants to be a soldier. He’s been abused his whole life by his father, especially once his little brother, Rian, died. Rian was supposed to be the heir because Waren favored him over Nik, but once Rian died, that wasn’t possible anymore. Nik has a ton of self-confidence issues throughout the novel that he’s trying to deal with.

Risha is the heir for House Vakara. Their power is necromancy. She’s struggling to keep the peace in the city while also trying to figure out how to get the realm open to let the dead go over and be in peace. Risha was a great character if a bit judgmental. Her whole “I know what’s right” shtick got a bit old after a while.

Taesia is the new heir for House Lastrider. When the book opens, the prelate Lezzaro is murdered and Taesia’s brother, Dante, is believed to be the murderer. So, now the girl who only wanted freedom is more tied to the nobility she’s born into than ever before. Taesia was probably my favorite character, either her or Angelica. Taesia is such a morally grey character as she tries to be the heir or house needs while also trying to prove that her brother wasn’t a murderer. It doesn’t help that her brother, and now her and the other heirs, are trying to reopen the realms to restore balance and the natural flow to the universe.

There’s a lot to understand and take in when first starting to read this book with all the world-building; however, after the first few chapters, I was completely soaked in the world and these characters. There are still many questions I have for what’s going on, as do the heirs, but this was a great start to a fantasy series. I’m going to leave it here because while I can talk about the characters for ages, I don’t want to talk too much and reveal spoilers.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for this eARC copy.

Full review to come once I collect my thoughts. This was an enjoyable read, although for a significant portion it seemed to feel more upper YA than Adult fantasy. The writing was excellent and immersive, and the world building was pretty unique as well.

The City of Dusk is a fantastic new fantasy debut from Tara Sim. In a rapidly dying city, four heirs fight to save it. All have a connection to a god, but the gods no longer speak to them. The pressure mounts and it becomes clear that the realms will die, trapping them, unless a forbidden ritual is attempted. The City of Dusk must be saved by the four unlikely heirs who can succeed only by working together and combining their powers.

Taesia, Nik, Risha, and Angelica are all competing for power and peace. I loved the characters and was interested in the compelling magic system. Risha was my favorite character; she had to balance her power with her love for her family and their traditional practices. She was very kind and had to make difficult choices about how far to go to protect her family and friends. One of my favorite parts of the story was how the four heirs were always working together as they unravelled the secrets behind the forbidden ritual. All four have a long history together, which was interesting to see play out in the present. They also all have very different magical abilities and struggle with them in some way.

The prose is very beautiful, painting vivid sensory pictures. The worldbuilding feels immersive and extensive, including: different religions, gods, powers, and politics. I did struggle a bit with the pacing of this book, which at times felt slow. I’m looking forward to the sequel, especially now that world-building has been established. I can’t wait to see what happens next after that ending! I would recommend this for fans of high fantasy who enjoy incredible worldbuilding and a great magic system. I would also recommend this for fans of The Mask of Mirrors and All of Us Villains. The City of Dusk is available now. Thank you to Tara Sim, Orbit Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was super excited to jump into this one after receiving the ARC, but unfortunately this book was not for me. The synopsis had me intrigued, I just ended up finding the story did not live up to my expectations. The world-building was pretty extensive which made the beginning kind of drag. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters; some of them read more like teenagers than young adults and were lacking personality. Maybe this is due to all the POV jumping - this usually doesn’t bother me. And if I’m being honest the only POV I even remotely enjoyed was Taesia’s. There were also parts of the storyline that didn’t make sense to me - I mean why did it take 500yrs for the world to start perishing and why are only these 4 people trying to do anything about it?? Ugh!