I am relatively new to Nghi Vo and now I want to read pretty much everything she has ever written.

There is so much that is enchanting about this book.

I love the idea of an immortal being having a long-term connection to, basically a relationship with, a particular place and group of people. What that looks like over a long period of time is a key part of what Vo is looking at here. I think connection to place is something that we don't talk about enough.

And then there's the fact that the main protagonist is called a demon, while the antagonist is an angel... nice work on the challenging expectations and flipping conventions, Vo.

The writing itself is also just a delight. This was such an easy book to read - it was so easy to just KEEP reading, to be sucked into the world and desperately need to know what was going to happen. This is always a good sign.

I remain delighted to have read this.

A demon has been the watcher and creator of a small city, until angels come to destroy it.
The demon cursed one of the angels who was then doomed to stick around the city as the demon rebuilds it.

This book just did not do it for me. The writing was odd and just surface level.

The writing for this novella is so magical, but I did get lost at some points with the plot, especially in the romance aspect. Overall, this is a good story, however it could be twitched and polished a bit more.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan/Tor for an advanced reader's copy of the book. I love Nghi Vo's writing and I was super excited to read a new release for her. Her latest, The City in Glass, is a novella that explores themes of creation, destruction, grief, and the history that we create. Follow two main characters, an unnamed Angel and the demon Virtrine as the city of Azril rise and fall through generations. Vo's writing is beautiful, but this book was a miss for me. The lack of an actual plot made the short read a bit hard to concentrate. This book was too existential for me, but it might work for other readers. While this particular release didn't work for me, I still do enjoy Vo's writing and I look forward to reading to her future releases.

This might have been the slowest book I’ve ever read. And it’s not that it wasn’t good, it’s just this slow, sort of meandering story, very melancholy and full of grief.

So, this is the story of Vitrine, a demon, and the city of Azril, which she helped to build over hundreds of years. Until the angels come and completely destroy it. In her grief and anger she curses one of the angels and because of this he is not allowed to returned to his brethren anymore. So, he sort of hangs around and helps Vitrine to rebuild Azril.

Throughout most of the book, probably the first 75% or so, it’s mostly Vitrine grieving for what she’s lost and trying to figure out how to recreate it. There are many flashbacks to the past when Azril was thriving, with Vitrine looking at all of the people she’s loved and lost.

I feel like this book is saying a lot, but I wasn’t necessarily understanding it all. There are the obvious themes of grief, and of family, as well as all different kinds of love. Though I think the main thing that I got from the book is that, regardless of how difficult it can be to let go of something you love, it’s important to remember how it was, to remember the love and the joy, but that it can never be the same again. And that even if it’s not the same, that doesn’t mean it’s not as good or important, it’s just different, and that’s okay.

The way that Vitrine was written was really interesting; not at all how you would expect a demon to behave in some things, but then absolutely demonic in others.

I had a really difficult time understanding the relationship between Vitrine and the angel. And I did not understand the ending at all, so if someone would like to explain what exactly happened, that would be great. 😅

If it weren’t for the ending, this likely would have been a 5 star read. Maybe as I sit with it, and turn it around in my mind, it will make sense and I’ll change the rating, but for now, this is a really solid 4 star read.

There's a strange and savage beauty to all of Nghi Vo's books and for me, it's always a delight to get lost in her stories spun from magic. There's just really no other explanation for it.

I think it will be heard to sell people on a story about a demon who fled from her city, founded a new one, watched that one get burned down by angels, and still persevered and grew to love yet another city. To explain how her grief and love and wonder makes this one of the strangest and saddest and most beautiful things you will read this year. But please try.

This standalone novel by Hugo-winning author Nghi Vo charts the history of a city through the angel and demon who make it. She spins a tale of love, death and change as we follow the demon Vitrine as she attempts to nurture the city of Azril in her own way.
The writing was beautiful and this lyrical tale was truly original.
A recommended read for fans of This is How You Lose The Time War, Ursula LeGuin, and characters who do not conform to human expectations.

the first half tempted me to dnf multiple times, but vo’s writing style kept me hoping for more. after about 55-60% the book pushed into a beautiful, complex narrative web and i’m still glad i picked it up. maybe this has more to do with my lack of patience required for millennia of slow change (i would make a terrible eternal being like vitrine or her angel).

many thanks to tor publishing group and netgalley for the advance reader copy.

I really enjoyed this book! I was worried that it wasn't going to pack the same punch as a standard length fantasy novel but it really did. Nghi Vo's writing style was so fantastic that I was immediately immersed in Vitrine's world. The writing was lyrical and flowing and it was an amazing element to the story. I always love a story about angels and demons and I feel like Vo had a fresh twist on the typical demon mythology.

Personally, I did not enjoy this book purely because I believe the writing style was aiming to be something it wasn’t. I really enjoyed the idea of the book as well as the love she had for her city but the writing style really threw me off throughout the entire book.

I’ve only recently discovered this author, and my first introduction was to jump in to the middle of an ongoing series of novellas. Which, objectively, was probably a foolish decision. But it does serve as a testament to the skills of the author that I still found myself fully drawn in and enjoying my read, even as I met these characters and this world for the first time! That being the case, however, I was excited when I saw that she was releasing a new stand-alone fantasy novella! Perfect for a relative newbie like me!

The very premise of this book sounded like it was right up my alley! I love second-world fantasy stories like this, the sort that require elaborate and detailed world-building on the author’s part to weave together a landscape completely foreign to our own. Add on top of that the rather classic angel/demon enemies-to-lovers storyline, and I was in! These expectations, based on the short summary we were given, were both perfectly on point for what this book has to offer and a bit misleading.

The concept was just as described, but there’s no emphasizing enough the powerful writing that went into describing the unique relationship between the city and the chaotic demon, Vitrine. She’s a demon in the truest sense, in that she’s passionate but unpredictable, as much a patron to her city as she is a force similar to the weather, capricious and destructive. But what really sells the heart of this story, is the tragedy that follows. The loss of her city and then the endless battle she finds herself in with the angel that wrought it.

I think I have certain expectations (whether good or bad, who knows) about what enemies-to-lovers stories look like. And, if you’re a fan of that sort of romance, you probably do too. Well, I’m here to say that this isn’t that! This is a devastating exploration of two beings destined to hate one another who cautiously become intrigued and then slowly beguiled by the other. However, none of these feelings undo the massive tragedy that came before, and a sense of darkness looms throughout. The ending is also not a “romance” ending, if you know what I mean. Instead, it was as strange, beautiful, and tragic as everything that came before in this book.

For all that I loved about this book (beautiful writing, creative world-building, complicated characters), I would have a hard time saying that I “enjoyed” this read. It’s not that kind of book. Beach read, this is not. However, readers who enjoy this author or who are looking for a lyrical, more complicated, approach to the oh-so-popular enemies-to-lovers storyline should definitely check this one out!

Rating 8: Beautiful and tragic, this book explores themes of loss and re-birth all through the lens of two fantastic characters, an angel and a demon.

Link will go live on October 2 on The Library Ladies blog

Wow, wow, wow; to put it simply, this was amazing 🤩

The City in Glass was a remarkable story - Ms Vi’s writing is lyrical, gorgeous, and compelling. The city, the grief, the love. FFS!!!!! This pulled me in immediately and I found this story poignant, moving and I absolutely loved it.

This was my first time reading the author - I’ve already borrowed some back titles from my library and can’t wait to read more!



Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for the DRC

Following a posessive and malicous demon and the angel of a famous city bring many thoughts of duality and the chaos that is brought with duality.

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo follows a demon named Vitrine and a city called Azril and how the two of them are interconnected.

This is one of those books that could best be described as not much plot, all vibes. Like the other books I have read by this author, this book just scratched something in my brain. The prose is lyrical and luscious and the story that is woven is captivating.

This story is also one of those “trust the process” books. The beginning is kind of confusing but the more you read, the more it makes sense and you begin to form an attachment to the characters.

I cannot wait to reread this and annotate it. There were some lines that really hit deep and the overall story was so beautiful.

I have never read a book with such beautifully written prose before. At the beginning I actually thought to myself that maybe this book isn’t for me, maybe I’m too “simple” of a reader and I won’t be able to understand it. I kept reading despite that, and I’m very glad I did, because seeing the world (more specifically, the city of Azril) from the demon Vitrine’s point of view was hauntingly captivating. To see the way humanity looks from the mind of a demon, and at points an angel, is to see things from an entirely different perspective of your own.
I, like many others, struggle with the concept of time. Have I wasted too much of it? Do I have enough time left? What am I doing with my time now? But to see time pass by from the eyes of someone on the outside made me reflect upon it differently. Humanity has its purpose and we go through seasons and generations and while our time passes slowly in our eyes, it may also by quickly in relation to our whole universe. It’s interesting to see Vitrine’s perspective on the way 10, 50, 100, even 300 years passes in her beloved city.
I’m just rambling now and may have an existential crisis about this later, but I still encourage others to read and reflect and fall in love with Vitrine and Azril like I did.
I’m very thankful to Tor and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Is it odd to give a book 4 stars before I'm even sure I liked it?

CITY IN GLASS was a fascinating read. I split this book in two halves -- one I read up through midnight, and one I woke up an hour before my alarm to finish out (and that is practically a miracle). I've always been fascinated by stories of this nature: Pompeii, Atlantis, Martin's Doom of Valyria, Critical Role's Fall of Avalir -- stories centered around the destruction of a civilization. In most stories, we don't learn what comes after -- the survivors, if there are any, flee and begin life somewhere else. In CITY OF GLASS, we stay with the city as the demon Vitrine tries to breathe life back into the city she loved so much.

I truly couldn't say if I enjoyed the plot of this book, but the setting, the lush details of Virtine's memories of Azril in its prime, its humble beginnings, and the people she loved and favored to bring the city to greatness felt like reading a folktale. I wrote on Fable that the early part of this book feels like a eulogy, but now that I've reached the end, I think this book reads like the mythos of some lost civilization.

Will everyone like this book? I don't know - I constantly recommend Nghi Vo to people who wind up not enjoying their work. There's just something about Vo's writing that clicks with my reading tastes so deeply, so please note that I am incredibly biased when I say that this was a stunning book.

Demon Vitrine loves her city of Azril, but then the horde of angels come and burns it to the ground. Vitrine manages to nail one of the them with a curse, which lodges in his chest....and ends up tying him to Vitrine and Azril. A beautiful, meandering contemplation of love and grief.

Gorgeous prose, enchanting and haunting story. This is a kind of "no plot just vibes" love letter from a demon to a city she has raised, watched fall, raised again. It was interesting to get Vitrine, an immortal demon's POV and see how much time she could so easily "waste" doing anything and nothing, because when you have forever, a year, even 50 years is so negligible to you. The angel was not as prevalent in the book as I expected based on the blurb, but wow that part of the story was captivating, dark, and deep. The slow pace of this made it feel a bit longer than it is to me. Really enjoyed it overall!

i recently read the city in glass and i thoroughly enjoyed my experience. the book follows vitrine, a demon as she rebuilds her city after it was destroyed by angels. the writing was very lyrical and poetic and i enjoyed the way the story flowed. there weren't very many plot points it was more so just vibes but they were fantastic and i didn't mind this point. the dynamic between the angel and vitrine was very interesting in the way they interacted with each other. overall i really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any fantasy readers.

Anyone who wants to put out any short-form content should be taking notes from Nghi Vo—her ability to put out consistently well-written and captivating stories at around the two-hundred-page mark. You might naively think that shorter books are easier to write than longer books, and I would think you are wrong. It takes extreme focus and clarity of vision to deliver a story in a shorter space and Nghi Vo seems to kill it almost every time. Today’s tale, The City in Glass, is one of divine architecture; about a demon who makes it her passion to build a city of wonder.

The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves her dazzling city of Azril. She has existed behind the curtain, wandering the streets, mothering its people and culture for generations. She has built it in her own image into a place of joy, desire, revelry, and riot. Then some asshole angels come along and completely level it with no warning or explanation.

Vitrine is left with nothing but ruins and an ever-burning hatred and tenacity. She decides that she will rebuild the city, no matter how long it takes and the obstacles in her way. In her heart, she carries a book containing the names of those she has lost. She will use this book and the new city to make a monument to what was lost, and perhaps something new. Amongst all the wreckage, Vitrine finds that one of the angels has elected to remain after their work is finished. Initially connected by a deep hatred, these two soon find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.

The City in Glass is a fascinating look at grief, hatred, and tenacity. It dissects how these forces can change a person (or demon, or angel) and it examines how small forces can wreak huge change given enough time. Vo places emotional streams in the bedrock of our characters and we watch as they wear a new path through the foundation of who they are until you can behold an incredible canyon a millennia later.

I really liked her take on angels and demons, evolving their traditional literary roles to be anchored in common perception but leaning towards something more morally grey. Vitrine is a selfish entity, but her innate desire is to build something and see it flourish. She will not blink at cruelty in the name of her ambitions, but her ambition seems to be to make something beautiful and worth beholding. Her passion infects the rogue angel like a virus and we see him slowly move away from impartial observer to emotional investor. I loved both of these divine characters and their relationship was captivating and otherworldly.

I also had a lot of fun watching Vo essentially map out first what makes a city tick at the beginning of the book, and then how to build a city from the ground up after it gets leveled. Vo’s attention to detail and ability to extrapolate the future from small present choices is a delight. My one slight hitch is I thought the ending was a bit abrupt. It is so because the focus is more on an examination of the attachment of the divine beings to the city more than the fate of the city itself. Yet, Vo is so convincing with her arguments in the story that I became deeply invested in the city as well and I wish we got to see more of its fate.

The City in Glass is yet another arrow in Vo’s quiver of absolutely killing it in short-form fiction and definitely worth your time. The tale’s themes are executed so well that I found myself a third member of this angel/demon couple struggling with the same concepts that they were. Incredible execution, great theme, fabulous story.

Rating: The City in Glass – 8.5/10
-Andrew