⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

City of Glass is a beautifully written story that immerses readers in the world of Azril, a city shaped and loved by the demon Vitrine for over 300 years, only to be destroyed by angels. Vitrine’s grief and anger fuel the story as she curses one of the angels, embedding a piece of herself in him, which leads him to follow her in her quest to rebuild her city. Over the course of 400 years, readers follow Vitrine’s journey of loss, remembrance, and healing, with the city of Azril itself feeling as much a character as any of the living beings.

The book offers more of an emotional and atmospheric experience rather than a plot-driven narrative. In this sense, City of Glass shares qualities with the slice-of-life subgenre, especially the Japanese concept of iyashikei, which focuses on soothing and healing by immersing the reader in small, intimate moments. Vitrine’s slow and reflective process of grief, and her complex relationship with the cursed angel, evoke a quiet introspection about the passage of time and the pain of rebuilding from destruction.

Nghi Vo’s prose shines in this short novel. It’s poetic, richly detailed, and deeply emotional. At times, it reminded me of This Is How You Lose the Time War in its language and structure. The passages that shift between Vitrine’s past and the present add layers to the world of Azril, and her devotion to the city is palpable. However, the slow pace and the lack of traditional plot development may be off-putting to some readers.

Where the book stumbles is in its depiction of the relationship between Vitrine and the angel. The supposed great love between them feels underdeveloped and distant, making it hard to buy into their bond beyond the sheer longevity of their connection. The true heart of the book is Vitrine’s love for her city, and it’s here that Vo’s storytelling shines brightest. Her portrayal of grief and the passage of centuries resonates deeply.

This audiobook, narrated by Susan Dalian, is an absolute delight. Her voice perfectly complements the dreamlike quality of the novel, making it an excellent choice for listeners. While the shifting timelines were sometimes confusing, the narration brought a much-needed clarity and rhythm to the story.

Overall, City of Glass is a quiet, reflective book. It’s perfect for readers who appreciate beautiful prose, slow-burn character development, and a focus on themes of grief, loss, and the passage of time. If you’re looking for an action-packed fantasy with a strong romantic element, this might not be the book for you. However, for those who enjoy a more contemplative journey, City of Glass has much to offer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the ARC!

I really loved this! It's very light on plot, but that's because it focuses on characters and relationships amid building a fascinating world for them to live in. It reminded me of This Is How You Lose the Time War thanks to the beautiful writing and soothing narration (they found perfect narrator for this story). Definitely a book I'll revisit at some point.

The demon Vitrine has loved and shaped the city of Azril for 300 years when it is suddenly destroyed by angels. In her rage and grief, she strikes one of the angels with a curse - a piece of herself embedded into his essence. Unable to return home with his brethren, the angel follows Vitrine as she attempts to rebuild her beloved city. Over 400 more years, we watch her struggle with her grief and slowly come to terms with the fact that things will never be the same again.

I think the <300 page novel is where Nghi Vo shines. Having that extra 100+ pages over a novella really allows her to dig into the feelings she's trying to express. This story made me think of both Witch King by Martha Wells and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. We have an immortal demon protagonist who keenly feels grief and is perfectly capable of sitting for two seasons to watch a plant grow. Demons are interesting in this world; each one has an empty glass case at their core that they can fill with different things. Vitrine fills hers with a book, in which she has recorded everything about her beloved city. This allows us to flip between the present and the past as she recalls its prior inhabitants in detail, including entire imagined conversations with them. We don't really learn what angels are in this story, but the cursed angel's attempts to appease Vitrine and understand what it is about the city she loves highlight how alien angels are.

This book is a series of vignettes and reminiscences about Azril when it was still standing, and then the new city that is born from the ashes. As such, it doesn't have a "plot" in the traditional sense. The marketing around the book really struggles with this, as you can tell from the synopsis, which both tries to sell it as a grand love story and also talks about a plot detail that doesn't occur until 94% into the book (I checked!).

Hello marketing department, here's some words for you: "slice-of-life" and "iyashikei." Iyashikei (meaning "healing") is a Japanese subgenre of slice-of-life fiction where the focus is on small details of the world the characters inhabit in order to create a sense of calm and peace in the audience. These stories are often "plotless", where the point is for us to feel like we're experiencing life alongside the characters. I once saw someone describe it as "finding meaning in fleeting moments of time," and that fits this book to a T. The book invites is to mourn and grieve alongside Vitrine, and find catharsis in her acceptance of change.

This book is not a romantasy, and it is the "epic love story" where my main problems lie. I do not understand what the angel sees in Vitrine at all. I don't buy their feelings for each other beyond "it's hard to be tied to someone for 400 years and not care about them." But there's supposed to be this great passionate love between them and it left me totally cold. I found myself being invested in the rebirth of Azril; I didn't care about or understand this nameless angel at all.

Overall, if you want to go on a journey of grief alongside a fictional character, you should read this. If you're looking for a fabulous romance set against a background of war, try another book.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing for giving me this ARC to review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The City in Glass is an interesting fantasy novel with lovely prose that many fantasy fans will enjoy.

This one was a fascinating read, but it was not for me. Despite being a short book, it was slow, and I found it difficult to connect to the characters. I enjoyed how the novel spanned multiple years and included a variety of characters. The love story was fun and well-written, and I admired the flavor and characteristics Nghi blended into the city; it sometimes felt as though the city was sentient and a character itself. Overall, the pacing of this story let me down, but it has lots of fun aspects that I think many readers will enjoy.

Susan Dalian was a great narrator for this one. Her voice and tones fit the story and feel of the novel well, and I enjoyed the accents and energy she brought to the story.

Thank you to the publisher for the free ALC!

Beautiful. And short enough that I am just left wanting more. Vitrine's grief feels so real and left my heart aching at times. Time felt only how I would expect time to feel for immortals. And the end. Oh my gosh I will be thinking about that ending for a long long time.

The beautiful prose and captivating story in this book are only enhanced by Susan Dalain's narration. A high quality and excellent production.

Nghi Vo excels at novellas, and this one was no different. This slow-paced, dreamy audiobook was a joy to listen to. I couldn't help feeling sympathy for the angel in the face of Vitrine's cruelty, despite what he had done to her.

Thank you Macmillan audio and NetGalley for the ALC!

This was a masterpiece. Reading about the rise and fall, and rise again of the city of Azril through Vitrine's perspective was breathtaking. The way a city shapes and changes around an eternal being was a story I didn't know I needed.

While the book focuses on a demon, the city that is so ferociously hers and the angel that took it all away, the timelessness of it all makes it feel like a greater scope story. While I adored the slowly-evolving relationship between Vitrine and the Angel, the love story between Vitrine and her city was no less. Whatever Vitrine loved, she loved fierecely, as only a demon could.

The prose is sublime, as I'd always come to expect from Nghi Vo, Some descriptions were stunningly beautiful, and the many parallels between old and new Azril made my heart ache.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

“I love you so. I love you best.”

The story of Vitrine, the demon with a fierce love for her city, Azril, is both heartbreaking and endearing. Being taken along her journey through the grief over the loss of her beloved city had me feeling everything she was feeling and rationalizing her behaviors. The contrast between angel and demon, light and dark and love and hate was beautifully done showing that most things in this world are a perfect blend of the two.

The writing is stunning, and the world-building is rich with history and emotion. It’s a unique blend of fantasy and romance that explores themes of loss, redemption, and the complexities of love. Vitrine's relationship with the angel is such a compelling storyline—it's like a slow burn of rage and attraction that keeps you hooked and ends beautifully and poetically.

Not only was this a beautiful love story between Vitrine and The Angel, it was even more impactful because of the love Vitrine has with her city.

The narrator for this audiobook was incredible. She kept me engaged and hanging on every word through the journey and was clear and concise.

The only drawback I found was that I would get confused through the changes in timelines so I do wish I read the physical copy first.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley and Nghi Vo for the ARC. All opinions are solely my own.

What I would not give for this book to have been in first person.

I loved the pace of this, the narrator has such a soothing and fitting voice for this story. The setting was so vivid. Also, Nghi Vo has some of the most stunning lyrical writing. I really enjoyed this and I am eager to get my hands on a finished copy to annotate everything I wrote down.

It didn't take too long for me to realize that this one isn't for me. It focuses on Virtine, a demon, who sort of supernaturally oversees and influences the city of Azril. Then she's threatened, and things change.

My issue with the story is the narrative style of it. It feels like a fable or a myth. I do enjoy that kind of setting/plot if it's told with a more modern voice and characterization. But this book hearkens back to fable/myth type of storytelling. The dialogue is more stilted and classical and the character mood is told to you. I think that will work wonderfully for readers who appreciate that style, but it's not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This author has been a must read for me for a while, and I'm grateful that NetGalley let me listen to this audiobook. The narrator does an amazing job with the beautiful prose, and it felt almost dream like. The story was fascinating, because I couldn't relate at first to the main character, who was a demon, but then she broke my heart. This is pure fantasy, and the only thing I didn't like was the romance.

There were some beautiful passages - especially in the beginning - as we wove through the streets and got to see our demon loving her city as she did best. Overall, though, it felt kind of distant, with the passage of time and everyone but the demon and angel falling through our fingers like water and fading inevitably into nothing much.

All throughout, I was kind of like “what was the point?” I suppose the demon did grow over time, but she never quite let go of her need to possess things and people and her city. And with fire and death on the horizon, she seems to just… abandon it? Is that supposed to be love?

Though I did like the metaphor of the glass cage in her heart and the burning of pages from her book/her memory.

I had a blast reading this, but the end had me a bit underwhelmed. I was hoping for more elements to connect meaningfully and for the romantic component to take up a bit more space. The plot itself meandered quite a bit and that got old. The prose is decadent and atmospheric, but some of the phrasing was confusing for me. That said, the journey was fun and I love the overall idea.

Thank you Nghi Vo and Tordotcom for my gifted copy. My opinions are my own.

Plot - 3
Writing and Editing - 3
Character Development - 3
Narration - 5
Personal Bias - 3
Final Score - 3.4

What a beautifully written story! I really enjoyed Vo's prose and imagery. This is the quiet history of the city of Azril and the demon that loves it over centuries of time. Vitrine and her angel have a brutal relationship but there is something so powerful in how their hatred of each other's species turns into love for each other over the course of time as they begin to see each other as more than just a demon and an angel. I particularly enjoyed the moments where Vitrine recalls humans from generations past longing for versions of Azril that will never be again.

While the trope of an angel and a demon falling in love is nothing new, I really appreciated Vo's take on it. THE CITY IN GLASS is a quick read but it is not lacking depth or character development. This isn't a flashy, action-filled book, but it will encourage readers to think about what the history of a place means in the bigger picture of life.

Susan Dalian does a great job with the audiobook narration and Vo's writing style lends really well to experiencing this book audibly.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.