Such an unusual and special book! Absolutely unlike anything else I've read. I love Nghi Vo's storytelling as well. Highly recommend

Nghi Vo tells a tale of two immortal beings, a demon and an angel. The demon,Vitrine, spent ages enjoying the city of Azril, The City in Glass (hard fromTordotcom). Then four angels come and destroy the city. She injures one of them, and he tells her she can’t return. Over the next few centuries she first cleans up the city, and then lets refugees, brought by the angel, settle. Her relationship with the angel is complex. In many ways this is a very extended love story, detailing the complex relationship between beings who never age. Recommended.

Nghi Vo is completely unique in her writing and storytelling so I'm always excited to read something new from her.

The City in Glass is about a demon, an angel, and a city they are engrossed by.

I went into this story not really understanding what it was about and I think that is the best way to dive in. It is very hard to encapsulate this story in a synopsis. It is grand as it covers human life spans. It is full of grief, love, revenge, hope and so much more.

As always, Nghi Vo's writing is stunning. This story is unlike anything I have ever read. The story is narrated by the demon Vitrine and I loved that she was not at all what I thought a demon character would be. Both Vitrine and the angel are fascinating characters. As you see the city of Azril rise and fall and then rise again, you see the magic of cities and the people who live there. I have read immortal characters many times as a fantasy reader, but this was the first time that I actually got to read what that meant. Vitrine and the angel live through so many human lifetimes and all the changes that brings which is so expansive and captivating.

This is such a unique book and I can't wait to reread it and discover even more the next time around. If you already love Nghi Vo, you will love The City in Glass. If you haven't read anything by her, this is a great entry into her storytelling. The story of a demon and an angel is intriguing enough, but if you enjoy beautiful writing and rich storytelling pick this up!

e-ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Finishing this one late because I hit a slow patch about 30% of the way through the book.

Nghi Vo’s writing is absolutely amazing. Everything she writes is lyrical! And magical! And beautiful! This one was no different from her works I’ve previously read.

This book is ostensibly a romance, and while there are certainly romantic elements to it, the strength of the book comes from its central character’s memories of the city she loves and the people who lived there. Reading through her memories of the city before it was destroyed was heartbreaking but life-affirming.

At the same time, the contrast struck by her memories interspersed with descriptions of the destruction and her efforts to rebuild was starkly effective, and pays off as the book progresses.

It’s honestly remarkable that Vo managed to fit so much depth into such a short book. 4/5.

Oh, what a book The City in Glass was. I let the comp of This Is How You Lose the Time War lure me in, and the idea of a demon and an angel fatally tied to each other and to a place made me excited for it, but I can’t say it met up all of my expectations.

While I do love strange stories made up of vibes and little world-building, and there was something so uniquely fascinating in a narrator like Vitrine, in her way of caring for her city and its people (so far from how human love and yet so similar) that emerges both from her memories of the past and the way she carefully plunk and plant in the present to make her city alive once again through the pain and the joy of it, this book left me slightly unsatisfied: I expected more action, just a little bit more plot, and if the writing wasn’t so beautiful, so poetic, I probably would have like it even way less.

Yet there was something stunningly captivating in the painful longing, in the slow, so very slow, evolution of the relationship between two immortal creatures, fated to be on different sides and yet growing up to be on the same (the side of a city that was of one, and then became of two)… and in that almost forced process, coming involuntarily close to each other. It is friendship, it is companionship, it is love – but how could love grow between two creatures who have nothing of humans and who are, at the same time, the only indestructible and everlasting thing in the lives of each other and the reason why they are so alone?
I can’t say I wouldn’t have liked a different conclusion for them, to see just a bit more of a bond centuries in the making, and yet I don't think it could have truly ended differently.

I honestly don’t know to who I would recommend a book like The City in Glass too: it’s a whimsical and strange fantasy book, and I loved it without loving it fully, but if you are looking for something that could scratch the itch This Is How You Lose the Time War left maybe this could help.

I have never read anything by Nghi Vo. So I was not sure what I was walking into.

This book is beautifully written. The author has a great way with words. However, this book fell flat for me. The plot seems to be a demon becomes devastated when angels come and destroy a city, a city that she has laid claim over. The demon is able to put a part of her into one of the angels, and a connection is formed. The story follows the demon/FMC trying to rebuild the city and for people to come back and live in it. During that time, the angel comes and goes, somehow falling in love with her. At the end... The end??? God... The ending is so frustrating, yet it fits perfectly with this book as a whole.

I could definitely see how this book is for many others. For me? It's a meh. I definitely give the author a ton of credit for their writing. It is unfortunate that I could not connect well with it over all.

Thank you Netgalley, Tor Publishing Group | Tordotcom and author for this opportunity for an honest review.

I will be posting to socials.

Beautifully written with a non-linear timelines. The writing is quite poetic. The love between the Angel and the Demon is so beautiful... I definitely wanted the story to be a bit longer, but it's Vo's writing is impactful (as usual).

I think Nghi Vo's writing is fascinating. Even though the plot of this book is meandering, jumping back and forth between the past, the destruction of the city, and the rebuilding of it over centuries, every chapter kept me interested. The relationship between the demon and the angel (neither of which are anything like expected) and the way the demon loved libraries were both fascinating themes. I've enjoyed every book I've read by this author.

This was stunning.

An absolutely wonderful read.

Nghi Vo has such an amazing ability to paint a picture with her writing. I was hooked from the very beginning. I find it quite hard to properly describe this book: it's haunting, beautiful and strange. We get to follow a demon and an angel and a city they both love.

I also think that to properly enjoy this novella, it's best going in knowing as little as possible about it. If you are a reader that appreciates world building and history, you'll probably really enjoy this novella. It truly was a fresh breath of air to read this. It isn't necessarily about the army at the gates or surviving a plague, it's about how each of those things shapes a city. We get to see Azril go from a wonderful and astounding city to a ruin, from the ruin to a ghost and then reborn to something living again.

This is less so a novel with plot, but a character study between the demon and this angel, and the history of this city across hundreds of years.

Nghi Vo absolutely stuns with The City in Glass, and I am sure that even though I loved it very much on my first read, I will adore it even more on the second one. I have heard after all that the audiobook is amazing as well.

Thank you so much for approving my request for this novella.

This was difficult to get into. I stopped and started and tried again for months, in both print and audio formats. Once I got passed the 30% mark, however, it gripped me enough to let me finish and I read the rest in a single afternoon.

The book is hard to describe. It's beautiful and terrible and haunting and strange, and Vitrine and the Angel are alternately relatable and unknowable. The language and the way the story is told are gorgeous, and the words flow like honey from the narrator's tongue. It's fascinating and unsettling and weirdly compelling.

The audiobook is phenomenally performed and I love it more for having listened to it. The narrator really brings Vitrine to life in all her strangeness and fierce love for her city.

It's the story of a city over centuries, as it rises and falls and rises again, guided and nurtured by Vitrine, a demon who loves it fiercely, and the Angel who doesn't really know how to love but tries anyway. The years flow past in fits and starts and characters come and go and age and die, only for their descendants to take up the tale.

The ending was unexpected and strange and I'm not sure how I feel about it, other than that it was haunting.

It reminds me most of Piranesi, and a little of How you Lose the Time War, and of course of Nghi Vo's other works.

It's the sort of book that leaves you questioning what it was all about and at the same time strangely moved by it and feeling subtly changed for having read it.

*Thanks to tordotcom and Macmillan Audio for providing an early copy for review.

I’ve heard really amazing things about this author,
I really wanted to love this but I think their writing style is just not my vibe. Definitely a me issue because the concept really interested me and I think at another time I would really love this so highly recommend for anyone who’s got the ability to spend time with world building and such.

I'm not quite sure what I just read. Was it beautiful, yes. Was it poetic, yes. But, what was it? I liked the love story between demon and angel and demon and city. I liked the magic. But I wish the plot had a flow to it, because I could not for the life of me get into this story, despite really wanting to.

I was incredibly excited about this book from Nghi Vo after reading many of her other novellas, notably The Singings Hills Cycle, a stunning series.

I was not disappointed. Vo has lyrical prose, which she heavily leans into with this new novella. I can appreciate that not everyone will enjoy Vo’s writing style, as it can verge on being flowery. This novella is also a character-driven story rather than a plot-driven story, which may not suit fantasy readers who seek exciting action and grand adventure in their reading material. However, this novella may suit those readers who want an introspective read that explores love, melancholy, and urban evolution.

Thank you, Vo, Tor Publishing and NetGalley, for the ARC.

This is a short, meditative novel about a demon in love with a city. She's its patron until one day a gang of angels arrives and destroys it. Over the next 300 years, she nurtures the new civilization that grows in its place. Oh, and one of those angels is cursed (?) to stay on earth, not to re-enter heaven. He also falls in love with the city, and perhaps with the demon, too...

This isn't a romance, although maybe it's a love story between two immortal beings and a place.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

DNF @ 56%

It pains my soul to have to DNF a Nghi Vo book, but unfortunately, I just don't think this one is for me, at least not right now. I suspect if I am in the mood for a no plot, vibes only book, this would've been a much more enjoyable experience, but it's just not the mood I am in right now. I also will say that this is the first book of hers that I've even vaguely felt like the prose itself is too much. I tried reading this book physically, and then on audio, and it's definitely less noticeable on audio, but the writing itself felt tedious to me in a way that no other Nghi Vo book has felt to me before. Even with The Chosen and the Beautiful, which I didn't love because I didn't really care for The Great Gatsby of it all, I loved existing in her writing and just getting lost in the pure art form that is her writing, but unfortunately I do feel like this book is a tad overwritten. Anyway, to save myself from the heartbreak of rating Nghi Vo any less than a 3.5 star, I'm just going to go ahead and DNF this one, at least for now.

City In Glass is, quite simply, stunning. I adored the writing style, the sweeping time span, and the fact that while our main character is a demon, she is so incredibly easy to relate to. This is a treatise on being human, on grief, on the astonishing ability we have to keep going in the face of great destruction.

This will be one of the stand out books of the year.

I agree with most reviewers in saying this is a beautiful story! There isn't too much plot but the beauty of the writing and vibes the author created helped make up for it.

"I love you so, I love you best [...] I will walk in you, and I will care for you, and I will bring the whole world to rejoice in you".

This book is about love, vengeance, cruelty, desctruction, humans, demons and angels. It's really a one of a kind story, original and full of plot twists and unexpected things. 😈

Since the two protagonists are immortal brings, the timeline in this story is very stretched: we can see the story of a city through the Vitrine's eye. She's a demon who loves and cares deeply for the city and puts a lot of effort in rebuilding it when the angels burn it to the ground with all its people. One of those angels is Azril, and Vitrine curses him to the point that he can't return to heaven. 🪽

There's a great representation of queer people and relationships here, and also the depiction of an absolutely unconventional and forbidden love. 🏳️‍🌈

The story is really well written and it's just like I love it: emotional, nostalgic, melancholic, weird and with a lot of beautiful scenery's descriptions. The reader grows fond of all the town's people stories and also grows attached to Vitrine passion and strong resilience and determination. 💪🏻

I really loved the book's ending too. It gives off a very philosophical and aethereal vibe, with a plot twist that totally makes sense with both the plot and the cryptical title of the book. 😲

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo is a captivating novel that blends historical fiction, fantasy, and a touch of noir. It's set in a fantastical version of San Francisco, where magic and technology coexist, and the city is divided into distinct districts based on their elemental affinities.

The story follows a young woman named Linh, who is a detective in the Fire District. Linh is tasked with investigating a series of mysterious murders, which lead her into a dangerous underworld of secret societies, ancient prophecies, and a city-wide conspiracy.

Vo's writing is both evocative and thought-provoking, creating a rich and immersive world filled with fascinating characters and intriguing plot twists. The novel explores themes of identity, belonging, and the consequences of unchecked power.

If you enjoy historical fantasy with a strong female protagonist and a complex, intriguing plot, The City in Glass is definitely worth checking out.

My jaw is still on the floor after reading this, such gorgeous writing style !
I requested this book through Netgalley because I'd heard so much about the author, I wanted to make my own opinion - now, I understand everything.
This short novel is unlike anything I've ever read, the ending was totally unexpected. It was eerie, poetic, can be awfully violent, it read like some nightmarish fairy tale. It was a beautiful, sad, engrossing story that I couldn't put down about loss, grief, perseverance, vengeance and incredible beauty. I think it's one of the best novels that I've read this year, one that will leave me a lasting memory.
Now that I know her writing style, I have to buy more of her books !