This was such a good book! Great world building and character development and a unique story. I was invested from the start and finished it in less than a day.

Thank you to Net Galley and Clarion Books for the ARC. I loved the Not Even Bones series so I was really excited to be approved for this ARC. Unfortunately I was too busy with school so I was unable to properly enjoy the story.

Overall, I loved the creativity and the humor in this story!

I really enjoyed the first half of the book. It started off fun and hella weird. I liked the characters for the most part and thought the author did a great job conveying Ness’ anxiety and fear. What didn’t work for me was the second half of the book. There were several plot points that I didn’t enjoy and kind of ruined the story for me.

One of my issues with this book is simply that there is SO much focus on breakneck plotting that we hardly get any character development or proper world building, something I look forward to when reading books that are fantasy or paranormal centric.

This book was kind of all over the place. It could be really good if it was reworked a bit but as it is it fell a little flat.

City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer delivers a thrilling and darkly whimsical narrative, where a young woman confronts a world where nightmares turn into terrifying reality, blending sharp humor with chilling adventure.

What even was the point? Well, I guess it was setup for the sequel but still. Nothing happens in this book except crappy romance. Will I read the second book? Ehhhh.......

Ness spends her life terrified- not of the crime ridden, corrupt city she lives in... no that's just her everyday life... but of the literal Nightmares that it's citizens could become. And they could become anything... a man eating spider, like her sister became, a dinosaur, a vampire.... anything.
Some Nightmares retain their humanity and some simply destroy those around them and all terrify Ness so she hides out at the Friends of the Restful Soul, maybe a cult... maybe not.
But Ness' time at her cult is coming to an end, as a simple errand she is sent on ends in the explosion of a boat, a new (possible) friendship) and the need to find out who was trying to use the boat to assassinate some it's passengers.

Overall, a fun, fast read. I really enjoyed Ness and Cy and some of their dialogue. They were charming and sweet. And I really enjoyed the world Schaffer built, and especially Ness' attitude towards Newham.

Was it quite as good as her Market of Monsters trilogy? No. But this has a fun campy, aspect where the trilogy was darker and a bit meaner. Both enjoyable, but in different ways.

This just wasn't for me. I absolutely loved the concept, but I found it to be rather lacking.
Like, come on. This book is set in a Gotham city type world with people who fall asleep as humans and wake up as monsters. How much cooler can you get?
However, the characters bored and frustrated me. They always made the worst decisions. I have never read anything but this by this author before so I am unfamiliar with their writing, but I found it to be cringey.

This book had me as soon as I read that it was similar to Strange the Dreamer. It was a beautiful read.

This is a dark fantasy about a woman whose job it is to hunt down and kill the nightmares that have come to life, although her trauma from seeing her sister turn into a nightmare and eat her father has left her unable to do the job.

Such fantastically novel world-building. I can't wait for the next in this series. This is my first Rebecca Schaeffer read, but I will definitely be reading her backlists.

While I enjoyed this enough, it isn't a new favorite. It was strange and silly in spots but almost horror in other parts. There were things with the nightmares that just didn't make sense but I don't think it was supposed it. I really did like the relationships between the friend group in this book though and I am interested enough to read the 2nd book. This one left me with a lot of questions so my curiosity is there but it is almost like it tried to be and do TOO many things.

3/5 stars

I have some mixed feelings about this book. The positives, I really loved the idea and thought behind this book. I've always loved books that include or have a plot that deals with dreams and nightmares. The middle point was the chaos. I both loved and hated the chaos and the weirdness of this book. That weirdness was also the biggest negative for me. I think I could've adored this book but some of the descriptions and the nightmares were too much for me. It was a big turn-off and I had to put down the book every time it happened just to prepare myself. Again this was more of a personal issue. I think if the nightmares themselves didn't give me the creeps I would've adored this book. I would totally recommend giving it a try.

I loved the world and the idea of people turning into their nightmares. It’s an intriguing idea that I think was super creative and fit into the “Gotham inspired” city that the story takes place in. I think the main character has a lot of fear stemming from watching a family member turn into a monster, I would be just as terrified too, which is why I think her fears are valid and realistic. It’s inspiring to see that character slowly fight her fears throughout the book. The action packed moments are good and the side characters have a lot of fun personalities. I can’t wait to read more in book 2!

After absolutely loving the Market of Monsters series from this author, I was so excited to read this new duology. Then I started seeing reviews from friends and got worried. Where this author shines is in her writing of relationships be it familial, friendship, romantic, adversary. In this book the worldbuilding was interesting but lacking. I stayed kind of confused about it most of the time. Ness is also a bit hard to tolerate in the beginning because her thoughts are on a loop for the first like 5/6 chapters and I heard no less than 4 times in the first like 2 chapters that her sister turned into a nightmare. I got that the first time she said it and since we get a lot of flashbacks to that scene it felt like overkill (no pun intended) to bring it up that much in the beginning. Once the story really started to get going around the 30/40% mark I was more into it and was flying through the book. That's one thing, even though we get flashbacks and dreams, the story has a pretty swift pace, maybe a little too swift once we got the end of the book. I felt like the reader was kept in the dark and then Ness ran around doing a bunch of things we didn't see but heard about later on, which is not my favorite kind of resolution. I am intrigued enough to read book 2 especially since this is just a duology. I am hopeful that we get some more worldbuilding or at least more explanation. Cy is great and lovely bean, like Kovit in a way. Priya is a riot and I loved her. Hopefully we will get to see some friend trio action in book 2.

I really liked this book! I think the comparison to Gotham was spot on. The author did a great job at world building and creating some unique warlords!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

What a wild ride! Fans of Schwab’s This Savage Song duology or Marissa Meyer’s Renegades trilogy will find much to love here. In a corrupt city where gangsters reign and people transform into their own nightmares, our cowardly protagonist must face her past and her deepest fears.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 out of 4 stars.

Ness used to have a family - a father and a sister. Then her sister fell asleep and became a Nightmare - a gigantic spider that Ness listened to eat their father, crunching his bones, slurping his blood. Then her sister went and ate the postman.

Nowadays, Ness is living with the Friends of the Restful Soul - a place that provides therapy to those effected by Nightmares. Everyone else calls them "that cult." Ness loves it there - she has a place to stay, she gets to eat, she has her own little closet-size room where she feels safe. Her best friend, Priya, also works and lives there, but she is not afraid of the Nightmares. At least, not like Ness is. Priya is working to become one of the Nightmare Defense soldiers - the ones that hunt the violent Nightmares.

But not all people to fall asleep and come back as Nightmares come back monstrous. Some come back looking like lizards or whatever they are afraid of, but then they go on about their lives.

Ness...doesn't care. She is terrified of them all. Then she is running the mail, and the boat she is on to deliver the mail explodes. Right as she is trying to escape a scary vampire who is going to drain her blood.

But then the vampire saves her, and she reluctantly acknowledges that he might not be a monster after all. As one of the only two survivors, and the only one anyone knows about, Ness is suddenly famous, and not necessarily in a good way. In a corrupt city where the Mayor has her pet pterodactyl eat those who disagree with her, and gangs run rampant, Ness has caught the attention of someone...someone who sends an assassin after her.


Whew. There was a lot going on here. Nightmares. A cult. Backstabbers everywhere. Family drama all over the place. Corrupt politicians. A boat bomb. I am trying not to give away any spoilers because there are some loops in there. But surprisingly, for the most part it worked. There were some things that I wish had been more fleshed out, but the end of the book set it up for a series, so I am hoping that we are going to see more of one character and find out the origins of how this happened - how people started not being able to dream lest they turn into their worst fears.

I felt the characters all needed a little more fleshing out. We got to know them in angles - from Ness's viewpoint, since this is a first person story. But something fell a little flat. We also get a lot of information about Newham, but I still felt like I could not see it in my head. I wished the world-building had been a little more. But all in all it was a very interesting story. I will definitely be reading part two.

4.4 stars

The writing style was not my favorite, but I did enjoy this book!

If you're a fan of mysterious, gritty urban fantasies with conspiracies, a touch of dark humor, and unique world-building, you would like this book with its fast-paced action, strong character development, an intriguing blend of supernatural elements, and the unique premise of people with the terrifying ability to physically transform into their worst nightmares when they dream!

Also, if you like character ARCs about overcoming trauma, it is easy to relate to Ness after her sister's horrifying transformation into a monstrous spider and root for her as she faces and overcomes her fears in a city filled with corruption, crime, and monstrous creatures.

You may not like this book if you don’t like nonlinear narrative style, multiple POVs, body horror, descriptions of physical transformations, violence, and themes of abuse and consent,

"City of Nightmares"'s unique premise and worldbuilding make it a very engaging read!