I had not read any other books by this author, but this was such a great book. I am hoping to track down more of Vo's books to read soon. This book does remind me a lot of Good Omens, with demons and angels, and humans caught in between, only in this book a demon has been caring for a vibrant city for centuries when a group of angels show up to visit judgement on the city and destroy it completely. In the aftermath of their attack, one angel is wounded in a way that connects it to the city as the demon begins to rebuild from the rubble.

Throughout the novella we see Vitrine, a demon, rebuild a city torn down by angels and through her we experience the lore incorporated for the generations of people who lived and died in the city.

The early chapters were whimsically violent then moves to a slower pace in the middle where interesting plot pieces were few and far between. (Reminiscent of Circe by Madeline Miller in terms of pacing, setting, and trait of the main character). What was particularly interesting about this book is the setting is the character (she is the constant with little development) and the character is the setting (ever growing and changing)

I don’t know where this author has been all my life because her prose were so angelic that it broke the writing style scale: it had rhythm, varying vocabulary, show don’t tell imagery, easy to follow dialogue and narration, and it incorporated so many poetic elements that weren’t just a simple use of similes. (Juxtaposition, allusions, anaphoras, symbolism, assonance, personification)

The purpose of this story was to reveal themes of grief, resurrection, and love not just for people but for life. Vitrine teaches us to hold on to things that are worthwhile because permanence is non existent.

However there were questions I never got answers to and for a long time I didn’t know where this narrative going. I personally wasn’t satisfied with how this concluded.

Things I wish it had:

There was no rationale for the causation of destruction of the city. My biggest question is WHY and it never got answered.

Why this angel cares deeply for this demon(?) also never got answered. I do like the juxtapositioning of the angel and demon where opposites seem to attract but this romantic subplot is very one-sided. Vitrine obviously cares more for her city than the angel.

The Angel- I wanted a bigger character arc. He is the only other immortal character in this story and yet over the millennia that I saw him there was very little character development.

Nghi Vo never disappoints. After Siren Queen, I was so excited to hear of The City in Glass, and it exceeded all my expectations.

The lyrical writing style captured the essence of Vitrine and Azril so well. The city and its demon held such grief and yet always hope.

After demon Vitrine’s city is demolished by angels, this book follows her path to rebuilding, reluctantly helped by an angel. We follow the patterns of grief, resistance to change, and eventually acceptance of that change. There is fear of abandonment. And the ending is not what I was thinking it would be. However, after reading it, I can’t imagine it any other way. Such is the power of the stories Nghi Vo can write.

If you need fast pacing and constant action, this is not the book for you. It is more a lyrical ballad, a poetic representation of grief and hope, twisting black and white notions of good and evil. There is no huge plot or major conflict. It’s just beautiful writing.

I absolutely loved it and need to thank both NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this one. I can’t wait for the release day to read and annotate a physical copy of it.

Big thanks to NetGalley for an earky read of this book!

I love Nghi Vo's writing. Her writing has the beauty and resonance of poetry, bu the storytelling of prose. Very quotable, very well written, you could smell the ocean, you could feel the mud underfoot. There was a beauty in the city and the short lives of the humans, and we got to walk Vitrine's many millenia and understand the quick movement of time, the love of people, and the eternity it can take when itncomes to anger.

"She was a thing that had been pared down by pain until there was only a sliver ofbher left,nand everything she hadnregained l, from the top of her dark head to her gleaming black eyes, to her sharp white teeth to her brown skin hectic with a madder blush, she had made herself."

Vitrine is a force. If you have read Nghi Vo's other works and enjoyed them, I think you will love this one too.

If you have never, be ready to ride along with fierce, strong Vitrine for a few hundred years and watch what she builds.

I want the entirety of this book tattooed directly onto my forehead. I want it tattooed backwards so I can stand in a mirror and reread it whenever I want. I want it permanently on my body because it has permanently impacted me in ways I will never get over. But I'll settle for a hard copy when this gets published in October.

This was GORGEOUS. I'm in awe of how utterly BEAUTIFUL this writing was. It sent chills down my spine. I want to feel the devoted love that Vitrine felt for her city. I have never felt so TOUCHED before. Guys, I'm really not ok. It was so gorgeous.

I was disappointed by Vo's The Chosen and The Beautiful but I just knew in my heart that it wasn't a good representation of her writing. AND I WAS RIGHT. I have never FELT such... emotion before.

Nghi Vo continues to be one of my favorite authors. While this book had beautiful writing, I found that it was hard to get through due to the pacing. Now this is not to be confused with how Vo manipulated time throughout this story. I loved the way generations could pass over the course of a page. It put into perspective the reality of immortality in a way that is hard to get across to us mere mortals. I wish the flashbacks to the beginning of Vitrine's time in Azril had continued throughout the entire story. The plot itself sometimes felt lacking and the relationship between Vitrine and the angel ultimately didn't resolve in a satisfying way for me.

All this being said, Vo's descriptive writing in this story was stunning. Her use of language to describe the bustling, or dead, life of a city brought Azril to life (and death). This was almost a book that was consumed by the world building. While this was not my favorite of Vo's recent work, I still recognize her incredible talent and cannot wait for what comes next.

Many thanks to Tor for letting me read an ARC of this stunning book!

The primary thing that The City in Glass absolutely excels in is scope. In Vitrine, Vo created a demonic main character whose immortality and capriciousness decidedly sets her apart from any humanoid protagonist you could envision. Seasons pass in the blink of an eye, a century is barely any time at all - and yet, every second can prove to be deliciously precious.
In the glass cage inside her chest, there is a book, and inside that book, there are names and the stories associated with them. Names of criminals hanged at the gallows, of pirates turned merchants, of little girls standing to inherit fame - of all the people that made up the city that Vitrine calls hers. Understandably, when the angels come and utterly demolish it, she's anything but delighted. That's why she puts the curse of sharing a part of her on one of them, after all.

We get to accompany Vitrine on her journey of rebuilding her city, coming to terms with the changes that time brings while reminiscing about the lives of the people in her book, the fabric of what her city used to be. I absolutely loved the contrast of these snippets of average human lives and the greater story of Vitrine coming to love her new town and the utterly infatuated angel, too. And wow, what a relationship that it! Absolutely ethereal and inhuman, it was an absolute joy to read and such a unique and fun portrayal of what love can look like in characters so unlike us.

To conclude: If Nghi Vo has zero fans, I'm dead.

To try to describe this story would be like trying to define grief. Vitrine is an demon who has adopted a city as her own, watching it grow from the seed of a city into something great. Until the powers of heaven burn it all down. Among the rubble and rust of her beloved city she vows to bring it back, and curses one of the angels who destroyed her home.

The City in Glass...oh my. What can I say about this work of art? Reading this beautiful novella is pain, pain and overwhelming grief. It is a book about a mourning that can not be quantified with real world content. Its the story of a city being born, dying, and being reborn again. You follow Vitrine through multiple glimpses into the lives of human beings in the city who are somewhat, almost dreamily aware of her presence. You also follow her trying to put her city back together.

This novella is often non linear, but always comes back to the demon Vitrine in her city of dust, and the angel who won't leave her to mourn alone.

There are two central romances in this story, between Vitrine and her beautiful city, and between her and the man who destroyed it. Never named and simply known as The Angel, he comes in and out of her life through her grief and the two develop a tenuous and complex understanding. While this is NOT strictly a love story, its truly one of the most beautiful enemies to lovers stories i've ever read. much like a city rises from the ashes, a love can be born of the greatest hate imaginable.

The gravitational pull Vitrine and her angel have ripped me apart just as much as the beautiful relationship she had with the thousands of citizens that he murdered. Ive never read a romance framed with such an apocalyptic bleak optimism.

I truly love a good angel and demon story and this is one of the best i've ever read in my life, if not the best.

The City In Glass may not be for everyone because of this. Its a painful and sorrowful read structured like a eulogy and so hard to put into words.

I recommend this book for anyone who loved A Dowry of Blood, The Lies of Ajungo, and This is How You Lose the Time War. If experimental, emotional stories about cities, worlds and pain are your thing, this book is for you.
8 likes

This is a book of beauty: elegant prose captures the sadness and inevitability of death as a part of life. It's an inventive book: it captures and makes relatable motivations that are fundamentally inhuman, and looks at the death of civilisations in what felt like a novel way. I have complained about Vo's novellas that they don't have enough plot to hook me, and this book did a notably better job of that, of capturing my attention and convincing me that I should continue to give it.

Nonetheless, I think I would have liked some more. The biggest character arc to me seemed to be the one experienced by the angel, and yet he didn't have the page space to explore how that came to be. I wanted maybe 10% more time with him (and with the worldbuilding of the angels and why they do what they do) to flesh that out.

I am, at heart, a city kid, and I found this a particularly lovely exhortation of the joy and beauty of cities in general. I thought it a wonderful meditation on grief and forgiveness. I loved the inventiveness of the characterisation and the viewpoints. I respect the book for taking on some difficult ideas and executing them so well.

YES, YES, and yes!
Shew! from the beginning, this will SNATCH you. I fell in love with these characters to the point I was thinking about them long after I finished. I keep forgetting it does not release for a while, but that doesn't stop me from telling everyone I know! I'm so glad this writing style, trope, etc has become popular! BRAVO!! If youre looking for fast paced adventure, this it it!

I absolutely loved reading this book! It sounded really fantastic, and I've really enjoyed her previous books. I had such a great time getting to know these characters and the world that they inhabit, and following along with this story!

This was such a beautiful and atmospheric book, with such well done writing of this story. I really enjoyed following along Vitrine and her angel, and this city that she loves so much. It hurt when the city was destroyed, it was great watching them rebuilt, and it was tense when it was threatened, and I loved reading it!

Vitrine was an interesting character, and how much she came to inhabit Azril, to basically make it a part of her identity. And then there's the angel, who Vitrine injured, and thus can't go home, and they're basically stuck together, and I loved there interactions and dynamic, especially since it started off with the destruction of Azril!

Oh, but that ending? That was so strange and weird, and I'm still not sure what to make of it, but it definitely fit with the oddness of the whole book. It's not a happy ending in the average sense, but it's a happy ending for these characters.

Loved reading this book and I can't wait to read more by Nghi Vo!

This was a stunning read! Going into this one I knew I would probably like it, since 'The Singing Hills Cycle' is one of my favorite series. As I suspected I did enjoy this one! It was what I expected from Nghi Vo and then some.

Nghi Vo, is so good at writing atmospheric stories, that evoke a a wide range of emotions depending on what is on the page. I would argue that this might be one of my favorite reads this, or at least in the top ten. This is a solid fantasy novel, that has a little extra something to make it not cliché. Highly, highly recommend

(I'm definitely going to be hyping this up at my library! Please say a small prayer for my coworkers as I might be insufferable about this one!)

5/5

The City in Glass is a very powerful book, emotionally speaking and the writing is magnificent and evocative.
Azril is a city built by a demon and destroyed by angels.
Vitrine is left with nothing, she doesn't even have a body, when the angels leave.
She wants to rebuild everything and we follow her mourning process, her anger, while she regains her power.
A story of loss and mourn, love and anger, a demon in all her humanity, set in a magical and atmospheric city, magnifically crafted.
For those who miss Strange the Dreamer, and wanted it obscure.

While reading Nghi Vo’s beautifully crafted and deeply imaginative The City in Glass, I kept wondering where the story was going, even what it was for. Don’t get me wrong, this short novel is completely enjoyable and brilliantly written, but I was missing something that was hard to pin down. On one level it is a love story between a demon and her adopted city of Azril. Much of the narration brings to life a great rogue’s gallery of its people and the structures she creates as well as the festivals she brings to liven the place up. The story also reveals itself over the centuries it covers as a strange relationship between a vengeful demon and a wounded angel, as forbidden a pair as can be imagined. It reminds me just a little of the friendship between Aziraphale and Crowley in Good Omens. Except different, very different.

Vitrine, a demon whose essential form is a glass case enclosed in whatever body she chooses to build for herself, presides over the city of Azril. It is a thriving city in the shadow of a mountain by the sea that rocks with its share of wealth, poverty, corruption, thievery and dancing, especially Vitrine’s favorite, the ganli. The first chapter sets the tone of Vitrine’s discovery and cultivation of the city and the huge task that faces her.

When she first arrived in the city, it seemed a dour, colorless place. The first people she can relate to are three corpses hanging from a gallows in a town square. One of them starts talking to her, the others join in, and before long Vitrine is dancing with them on the scaffold. Thereafter, she exerts her influence to nudge humans toward riches or disaster as she or their human foibles determine, all the while pushing the city to expand, building higher towers, bringing in festivals. It takes her 300 years to get Azril to the thriving state she wants, and it is just then that disaster strikes.

One day, while Vitrine is admiring her handiwork, four powerful winged angels arise out of the harbor like pillars of light and set about undoing all she has built. Vitrine sinks her claws into one of the angels, but as that one staggers upright again and rejoins the others, they proceed to mount a fearsome column of flame over the city, like an atomic bomb, that destroys everything. That wounded angel can’t go home until he gets the part of Vitrine now sunk into a deep wound completely out of his body. With nowhere else to go, he sticks around and begins a long and fraught relationship with Vitrine.

................

Most of the story is devoted to Vitrine’s reconstruction of the city and also her remembrance of what it used to be. She understands that love can be a destructive thing as well as her motive for building. And I think in the end, Vitrine is not so much attached to the physical form of the city, which has gone through its cycles of prosperity, plague, war and rebuilding. Rather she is most in love with the city as she writes about it in the book she keeps in her glass case. The City in Glass becomes a kind of love story about Vitrine and the written city that is her book, comprising all her most treasured memories.

But circling back to where I started, I took a while to see what it was I was missing in this beautiful novel. It’s really something in the nature of demons. They may go through a lot of physical changes, have their fits of rage and vengeance, and even do something constructive, like build a city. But they don’t exactly develop as characters. We learn more about Vitrine as the story of her single-minded city-building unfolds, but she doesn’t really change. The angel, by contrast, does have his ups and downs and definitely is transformed from the beginning of the book to the end. The City in Glass hits a strong and beautiful melody from the outset and plays hundreds of variations in its rich composition, but, enjoyable as it is, I missed something of the dramatic power I’ve had from other Nghi Vo stories. I’ve rarely felt this way about a book, so enamored of its style and imaginative power yet still missing that essential experience of dramatic change.

I really loved the premise of The City in Glass and Vo's prose was as lyrical and beautiful as always. I certainly didn't dislike this story, but neither did I love it, and I think that is because I struggled to connect on more than a surface level with the characters. Vitrine received a little more character development, but I felt we never properly got to know the angel, so their relationship was hard to embrace and it was thus harder to care about their feelings and intentions. Perhaps a slightly longer word count, to really explore the characters to a greater extent, would have made this work better for me. I am still giving it three stars, though, as it was a great idea and an atmospheric read.

The world doesn’t deserve Nghi Vo’s beautiful writing, but we’re so lucky to have it. Her fans will be ecstatic, easy 3-4 stars and 5 for the right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC.

The City in Glass is such an amazing book. I recommend everyone to read this book asap If you can. It has everything a good fantasy book needs.

Beautiful, lyrical and utterly captivating. It will end up in my top 10 of 2024 for sure, although I think the style in which this book is written won't be for everyone. After loving "Siren Queen" from Nghi Vo I had quite high hopes for this one and it surpassed them. I loved seeing the world from the perspective of eternal beings, what love, hate, devotion and time means to them... The ending was beautiful and even though I hoped for a different direction, I fully recognize that it wouldn't have been right for this particular story (it was just my wishful thinking). I'm exiting this tale with awe and a broken heart. Thank you, Nghi Vo!