I received this free eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

This has been on my TBR pile for so long, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. I really enjoyed the storyline and seeing the characters change throughout the story was a great character development. The plot was great and kept my attention. I'm glad I got the chance to read this and will be on the lookout for more in the future!

According to the author, this is an "alt-world historical fantasy based on Berlin in 1927" and inspired by the film Metropolis, but with a zombie twist (what if the workers in the city were actually dead?). While this certainly make this different to other zombie stories, and there is a glittering between-the-wars feel to the world-building, I felt there was a depth lacking to the world-building and the story. An enjoyable read, but not as engrossing as I hoped by the invoked zombie twist.

If it is zombie I will read it. Sure, I've been burnt in the past but zombies have always been one of my favourite subgenre's of horror and I will happily devourer any book featuring them that comes my way. I quite enjoyed Dark Metropolis. I thought the historical setting was well developed and found the whole world Jaclyn Dolamore built very interesting. The story does take a little while to get going an it is a bit tedious in the beginning but it soon settled into an entertaining read. I did struggle to get on board with some of the more magical aspects of the story. It didn't quite work for me but all in all this was an enjoyable and interesting read.

Dark Metropolis is a world full of magic and regulations against the use of magic. Thea is young, beautiful, and responsible for keeping her family afloat. Her parents voluntarily entered into a magic pact where they can sense each other until death. When her father mysteriously disappears, Thea's mother is afflicted with a sickness, she hallucinates and cannot rest, thinking about her lost husband.

Thea tries to hide the truth of her mother's situation to prevent the authorities from placing her "under care". To make ends meet, Thea works at a nightclub where she meets a mysterious white haired young man, Freddy. Freddy has the ability to raise the dead and it is this unique power that has taken him from his home to live under the supervision and protection of a wealthy and powerful politician. Freddy is responsible for "giving life" to hundreds of missing people, but knows little of what happens to the resurrected.

Thea's friend Nan is among the resurrected but she is unique in that she doesn't require special medicine to stay alive. Nan is trapped in the underworld with the other resurrected, working manual labor, waiting for a chance to escape and return to her old life.

Thea and Freddy investigate what it means for him to bring people back to life and this leads to all sorts of danger and chaos.