I really enjoyed this! I loved the writing and the way the characters were depicted. I thought that the writing served the plot well, too---it was lyrical without being overly flowery or slowing the pacing down. Sydney was such a compelling and well-realized character. I found myself really eager to know what would happen next, but also how Sydney would change through out the story. Overall, a really solid and enjoyable read.

Rating: 4/5

Narration: 4/5
Nathaniel Priestley does an excellent job with the narration. He captures the tone and voice of each character and brings emotional depth to the story without overdoing it.

Pacing: 3/5
The pacing is on the slower side, but the story kept me engaged with its beautiful language and atmosphere. It reminded me of Piranesi or The Night Circus, where the focus is on imagery, mood, and reflection rather than fast-moving plot.

World-Building and Language: 4/5
The imagery and language are beautifully crafted. The fae world is really disturbing and mirrors the human world in its politics and power struggles. It feels both magical and dangerous. The fae are not romanticized here. They are dark, complex creatures, just like humans. Parry does a good job showing this without turning them into caricatures.

Plot 3.5/5
I went into this book knowing nothing about it, and I haven't read A Tale of Two Cities, so this was all new to me. I love Historical Fiction Fantasy, and this delivered, even though there were some slow spots.

Characters 3.5/5-Mr. Colton has a clear and compelling arc & Rosemary and Thorne are strong supporting characters. Toward the end of the book, when the full web of revenge & deceit plots and relationships are revealed, I found myself wishing for a family tree or visual guide. Since I was listening, I kept having to rewind, thinking—wait? what? who? Even side characters turn out to be deeply connected. The drama went deep, my friends.

Themes 5/5
Parry weaves themes of human nature throughout: greed, power, revenge, and war. And the French Revolution, like all wars, showed our worst sides. I am always left wondering how so many risk their lives (are forced to) in pursuit of someone else's quest for power.

I feel I am in the minority here, as I have not read A Tale of Two Cities, so I lacked the understanding of the connection to it as a retelling of sorts. I typically do enjoy retellings, so I believe if I had read it first, I would have enjoyed this more.

I did enjoy Sydney as a character - flawed and with a desire for revenge, the ability to get creative in completing assignments, yet he is conflicted by his role in the same events that stole his own life.

This was a unique perspective of the changeling concept, and I loved the idea of seeking revenge. I am always eager to see how bargains with fea will be twisted and turned against humans.

Unfortunately, this didn't pull me in and make me curse the late hour, or make me eager to pick it back up. The writing is beautiful, I am just eager for faster pacing and more action. I was excited for this one as I heard it was a bit darker than other books by Parry. This is my second adult book from Parry, and both have felt a bit more YA than adult to me (perhaps I've been reading too many gory stories lately). I started with the eARC and hopped into the audio ARC, which did help me, as the narrator did a fantastic job.

If you have read A Tale of Two Cities and enjoy retellings, historical fiction with a dash of fantasy, you may enjoy this one.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and listen to this one.

Thank you so much Tor Books for the e-arc. I thoroughly enjoyed this read! I read the e-arc for A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry. I read this was a mash up of A Tale of Two Cities and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and I think the description absolutely fits. I love JS & MN! The writing and the characters and the story are really well done here. If you like historical fantasy, Dickens, or JS & MN then you need to read this book. The bitterness of Sydney for his life and his servitude, and his story is really well done and highly recommend this read.

Thank you Net Galley and Tor Books for my e-arc!

Look, I’ve never read A Tale of Two Cities. I know there’s a guillotine, some twins, maybe knitting? That’s about where I’m at. So I went into this book with pure vibes, and honestly, it worked. The pacing is slower, especially at the start. It takes a good 30% to stop feeling like you’re wading through dark Paris streets. And honestly, I kind of liked that about it. It’s clever, atmospheric, and more complicated than my relationship with cardio. H.G. Parry knows how to build a world that feels both beautiful and slightly rotten underneath.

The fairy lore here is creepy, weird, and original. These aren’t glittery little forest pixies or even hunky Faes, these are ancient and awful entities using humans as pawns and tools.

Sydney Carton was such an epic character. He is just over here being the human embodiment of a sigh. Bitter, tired, done with faeries and humanity, and honestly? Same. But the magic system is so cool. Thorne was my favorite part of this whole story and if you read it, you will know why.

It’s not light reading. It’s clever, it’s complicated, and sometimes it makes you feel like you should’ve taken notes. But it’s worth it. I don’t regret a single confusing moment. I would definitely recommended if you like your fantasy tragic, your faeries feral and unhinged, and your main characters emotionally broken.

The magic of Parry's writing is she so seamlessly combines magic and history creating worlds where wonder truly exists around every corner! I told a friend Parry's books are for all of us who find ourselves most cozily in books, heavily mirrred in them. This time Parry takes us to the French Revolution and it is RIVETING! Gorgeously written and thoroughly researched!

This book had a lot going on. It was easy, early in the story, to get confused. What people's motivations were, or who they were in relation to each other sometimes evaded my memory. However, the way it all came together in the end was extremely satisfying and made the whole book make way more sense. This was definitely a "trust the process" situation, but I'm so glad I did.

A Far Better Thing is a slow, sorrowful reimagining of A Tale of Two Cities, woven through with changelings, fae bargains, and the ghosts of lives not lived. H.G. Parry doesn’t just retell Dickens—she reframes it, grounding her story in loss, identity, and sacrifice while introducing an entirely new mythological layer.

Sydney Carton is at the center of it all—broken, bitter, and tied to the faerie world in a way that makes his self-destruction feel inevitable. He’s not always likable, but he’s fully realized, and his grief and anger make sense in a world where he was stolen as a child and left to serve powers beyond his control. The character work here is careful and deliberate, and I appreciated how Parry lets the emotional beats breathe, even when the plot moves slowly.

The pacing is quiet and often heavy, more in line with cozy or literary fantasy than anything fast or action-driven. At times, the stakes feel distant, but the writing is consistently strong, and Parry’s attention to historical atmosphere—the chaos of revolutionary Paris, the weight of old London—grounds the more surreal elements.

There’s something deeply sad and strangely beautiful about this novel. It asks big questions but doesn’t overreach. It doesn’t try to resolve all the tragedy. The final chapters in particular left a lasting impression. I received a physical and audio ARC of this book and while I enjoyed the story both ways - the audio really is excellent. The narrator’s accents and tone really bring the story to life. Thanks so much to Tor, Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley

4 stars. Thoughtful, layered, and quietly devastating. Worth the time it takes to settle into.

4.5 stars rounded up.

A fantastical retelling of A Tale of Two Cities, A Far Better Thing is the story of The French Revolution and the Reign of Terror told with the added twist of the background machinations of the Faery Realm. This book is, quite literally, asking the question of "What if Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay didn't just look alike - but Darnay was actually Carton's unknowing changeling replacement?" While I'd argue it isn't necessary to have read the original Dickens novel to understand what is happening here, it indeed does add something to the experience to have that knowledge in the back of your head to put the pieces together as you go! And it's so much fun to see how Parry has twisted the original novel into something new and altogether different.

"Every revolution, however it ends, begins with a flicker of hope."

Sydney Carton was stolen from his family as a young child and made into a mortal servant of the Faerie Realm. Now, years later, a chance (or not-so-chance) encounter with the changeling who was left in his stead, Charles Darnay, has given him the chance he's dreamed of to have his revenge. But Darnay is not the only changeling he finds; the beautiful Lucie is the spitting image of his childhood best friend, Ivy, who died in the Faerie Realm. So Sydney can have his revenge. But he also has to survive the machinations of the Fae, who have their own schemes occurring behind the scenes, while the revolution in France is turning more and more bloody by the day.

Genuinely, I just adored everything about this book. I wasn't quite sold on it for the first 25% of so because there was so much being thrown at me so quickly, between the original plot of A Tale of Two Cities PLUS all of the extra plot that has to be built in for the faerie lore. I found myself almost overwhelmed by it all. But then it all started to come together, especially once we travel to France for the second half of the book and the French Revolution and everything kicks into high gear. Parry managed to take a book that was, admittedly, not one of my favorite classics (I found it clunky and meandering, with too many side characters that got lost in the telling) and turn it into something downright beautiful.
These characters are still the characters we know from A Tale of Two Cities, mostly, but MORE. Sydney Carton is a damaged young man - a lawyer with a drinking problem and a deeply traumatic past that haunts him and leads him down odd paths, but eventually to the correct ending. The entire story hinges on his search for meaning and control after a lifetime of being a mortal servant to the fae. His agency, and the agency of other servants like him, is the entire focal point of the book, and it's a beautiful one.
I listened to the last two chapters of this with teary eyes at work. It was such a hopeful ending for all that it was a sad one, and I adored it.

I adore H.G. Parry so much. Her Dickensian style, her thoughtfully created characters, her propulsive plots. I couldn't have imagined I could like one of her books more than I already had but A Far Better Thing takes everything I love about her work and intertwines it with a moment in history, in this case, The French Revolution.

There's a solid bit of world building in the first part of the book, but ultimately it all came together. Atmospheric, exciting, and truly original, A Far Better Thing is one of my favorite reads of the year.

I really enjoyed this one! A Far Better Thing is a richly imagined, darkly magical retelling of A Tale of Two Cities, but you absolutely don’t need to have read Dickens to appreciate it (I hadn't, and only looked up the original afterward). The novel stands on its own as an atmospheric blend of historical fantasy and emotional character work.

Parry’s version of the fae is exactly what I love - strange, feral, and otherworldly, with a menace that feels both beautiful and brutal. The setting moves between revolutionary Paris and the shadows of London, and the writing captures this dreamlike historical tone that completely drew me in. The characters are complex and compelling, especially Sydney Carton, whose internal struggle and sense of injustice give the story its emotional weight.

My only hesitation is that it takes a little time to find its rhythm—the first quarter was slow for me - but once I hit that 25% mark, I couldn’t put it down. I stayed up way too late finishing it.

If you enjoy historical fantasy, morally complicated protagonists, and fae stories that lean eerie rather than whimsical, this one’s worth your time.

I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I think unfortunately this book may have found me at the wrong time, I definitely find the premise of a fae retelling of a classic to be very intriguing and I have been interested in Perry's work for some time, It just wasn't really holding my attention and i found myself struggling to read more than a chapter at a time. To be honest I did genuinely love Perry's writing style but perhaps this just wasn't the story for me right now and I did DNF around 25% but I truly hope to come back to this book eventually in a better mindset because again i think that the writing and premise are super intriguing.

A Far Better Thing riffs as a fairy reimagining of A Tale of Two Cities, which I’d be delighted to discuss as an adaptation but for the fact I have never read the latter and so can provide no commentary in that quarter. What I can say is that this book is a fun puzzle of fairy law, a sopping wet and pathetic bisexual, and inherited revenge. Sidney Carton meets his changeling—the man who as a baby was exchanged for him by the fey—in a stuffy courtroom in London. This is highly atypical, and Carton recognizes the changeling of his long-dead childhood friend in that same courtroom. Thus follows a back-and-forth between London and Paris on fairy business, meetings with a stage magician obsessed with the Unseen World, and efforts toward secrecy and survival in navigating both the fairy court and the Reign of Terror.

I was surprised by the way A Far Better Thing collected momentum. The first third of the novel meandered, in my view, but again: I’ve no Tale of Two Cities foundation on which to set my expectations. Around the point when Carton intends to cut ties with Lucie Manette, I felt the prose and pacing found its footing—the unspoken proposal scene seemed like a switch flipping toward action and voice. The temporal pacing stretches and zips by in turn: some scenes have weeks or months or years between them, while others compress a week’s worth of events into two days. This vacillation, in my view, echoes the movement of the characters between London and Paris, between the mortal realm and the fairy Realm, between Carton’s hope for his mortal future and longing for his lost Fairy past, between the sins of the generation past and the revenges taken in the present. A Far Better Thing takes the two cities of its source and turns them into two realms, both in political upheaval, and making individual lives responsible for revolutions. The historical element was gritty and grounded; the fairy element smacked of The Prestige (a compliment). Relatedly, Addison Thorne was far and away my favorite character, and if I were the type to beg for sequels, his would be it. Three-quarters of the way through I found myself flipping back chapters for the specifics of a fairy deal, and realized that thank god Sidney Carton is a lawyer, for only someone trained in loopholes and technicalities could be fit to navigate fairy rules.

I’d recommend A Far Better Thing to readers seeking chewy historical fantasy, irreverent Dickens enjoyers, and those looking for The Prestige but with real fairy magicks. Thank you to Tor for providing an advance copy of this book via NetGalley. As ever, all opinions are my own.

A Tale of Two Cities with a fantasy twist! I really enjoyed the concept of this novel and found the characters well written and I was rooting for them throughout. However, I wish the magical elements had been more fleshed out. I occasionally found the rules of the magic system unclear. Still, this was an engaging and well-paced standalone that I’d recommend to fantasy fans wanting something with a historical edge to it!! Thank you TOR and NetGalley!!

H.G. Parry has become an auto-read/buy author for me. As soon as I saw she had a new book coming out, I immediately added it to my TBR. I went into this one blind, and that might have hurt me a little. I didn’t realize it was a retelling of A Tale of Two Cities with fae magic. I haven’t read A Tale of Two Cities before. You don’t need to read it first, but it could definitely help!

I made it about 60% through the book before learning it was a retelling. Parry's writing is incredibly detailed, and her prose is gorgeous. It immediately enchanted me, and I didn’t want to put it down. The way she blends the French Revolution with the fae world was well done. One thing to note about Parry: her books tend to be slower paced. You need to take your time with her words, because it’s easy to get lost if you try to rush. At times, the pacing was a bit slower than I normally prefer. Still, she captured many aspects of the period authentically, including bloody guillotines. I do wish she had delved a bit deeper into the fae world.

The characters in this book are really complex. I enjoyed all the moving parts and how things eventually connected. That said, I did have trouble keeping track of some of the supporting characters, since there are quite a few, and it was easy to lose track of them in the plot. However, the main characters were fantastic, each with so much to lose or sacrifice. Of course, we see the most character growth from Carton.

I enjoyed my time with Parry's retelling. I haven't read the original so I'm sure that would have helped me out a bit. I still didn't feel like I was missing enough that it took away from the overall book. I love Parry's writing and I truly think you need to appreciate her writing style going in. I cannot wait to read what she comes out with next!

Thank you, Tor, for the physical arc! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

As someone who has not read "A Tale of Two Cities" and whose first introduction to H. G. Parry this was, I must say this was an excellent read. Parry is a generational talent whose voice and eye for detail make for a captivating story.

The faeries stole Sydney Carton as a child and left a changeling, Charles Darnay, in his place. Now bound to serve the Faery Realm as a mortal servant in the Human Realm, Sydney finds himself defending Darnay in court – and watching helplessly as his changeling unwittingly lives the life that should have been his.

Set during the French Revolution, A Far Better Thing blends historical fantasy with a retelling of the Dickens classic A Tale of Two Cities. It follows Sydney’s dangerous double life, moving between London and Paris with magic, espionage, and slow-burn vengeance. His path – haunted by faerie cruelty and driven by regret – leads him to a heartbreaking choice in the shadow of the guillotine.

I read A Far Better Thing without realizing it was a retelling of A Tale of Two Cities – a novel of which my knowledge is limited to the opening line and NOTHING ELSE – and I don't think it negatively impacted my reading experience. If anything, maybe the opposite? There was something delightfully disorienting about being dropped into a world of faeries, French revolutionaries, and slow-burning revenge, only to have the literary scaffolding click into place at the end.

Told entirely from Carton’s perspective, the story simmers with quiet desperation, wry wit, and moral ambiguity. He's a perfect narrator for this version of the story: weary, clever, and deeply human in a world that often isn’t. His arc is beautifully realized and devastating by design – especially once you recognize where it’s heading.

I also loved Addison Thorne, a wealthy, faery-obsessed magician whose fascination starts as garden-variety eccentricity and slowly becomes something much more dangerous. Parry threads real-world history and fae lore so intricately that the book can sometimes feel more dense than immersive – especially during the revenge plots – but if you’ve got a working knowledge of Dickens (or just Google), the payoff is layered and clever.

A Far Better Thing is a literary, layered, and emotional fantasy retelling – perfect for fans of historical fantasy, tragic heroes, or unique faery lore.

I was not certain what to expect when I picked up this book. I did read that there were to be fae and perhaps changelings but I tried not to spoil much more than that. I also knew after reading "The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door", I wanted to read more of H.G. Parry's writings. She has a particular style that resonates well with me.

Sydney Carton knows he was stolen from his bed when he was a child by the fae, He also knows that the only reason he is able to walk around in the mortal world is as their servant. Though he has been working as a lawyer in London, he is sometimes visited by a particular fae named Shadow who gives Sydney tasks to complete. The fae are mischievous but are unable to meddle in affairs without the aid of other mortals. They use their power to try and get their way and change the tides of fate to the way they want it to go.

Sydney finds himself face to face with the changeling who took his place when he was stolen, as well as the changeling who took the place of his childhood best friend, Ivy. However, this book is not as fantastical as I thought it would be it is much more dramatic and emotional and about the relationships between people, the suffering during the French Revolution, and some heart breaking choices which have to be made or accepted. I wish I could give partial stars because I want to give it 4.25*

This is a very interesting book. Creating a world where humans who have been stolen by the fae come upon their changeling counterpart is just unique. Sydney’s character once meeting his changeling counterpart sees an opportunity to get back at the fairies who have been controlling his life since he was taken. He finds ways to circumvent their strict rules and their abilities all in hopes that one day he might be free. Overall, this book is okay. It wasn’t one of my favorite books. I feel like the voice and pacing just didn’t grab me as a reader. I did enjoy that the faerie world was mixed in with real world events. It made the plot, even though mystical, a bit more believable.
Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

I am definitely that nerd who loved a Tale of Two Cities when I read it in high school, so I was quick to request this. The high emotions of the original with the even heavier and more tragic weight of fae magic and mischief had this feeling both familiar and brand new.

This is seriously tragic though, taking the backstories of Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay even deeper, expanding Lucie Manette to be more than a kind woman with a pretty face, and giving deviousness and cruelty to characters in multiple realms. While I must admit I still prefer the original, I think this is the kind of retellings I want more of - don't give me fairy tales, give me history with the addition of fae.

I cannot overstate the intellect and dedication writing something like this must take, and think that we are going to see exciting things from HG Parry as they continue publishing. Creativity with homage is a hard line to walk, and this is done so well.