Mai ༊*·˚'s Reviews > Red City

4.75 ★— Having grown up with Marie Lu’s YA novels on my shelf as a preteen in the 2010s, reading her adult debut Red City felt like a weird full circle moment for me.

I’m so happy to say that I really, really loved this book. I was fully entranced while reading — it drew me in and didn’t let go until the end.

Though set in a darker, dystopian and fantastical version of our world, Red City explores themes that are still very raw and grounded.

Story
The story centers around two main characters, Ari and Sam, who we first meet as children, each facing very different challenges shaped by their respective cultural backgrounds and circumstances.

Ari, growing up in India, is recruited at a young age into the Lumines — a powerful alchemist group — after his immense magical potential is discovered. His family is facing poverty, and he’s offered a life-changing opportunity: to leave everything behind and train abroad, in exchange for steady financial support sent back to them. The cost is steep. He is forced to abandon his language, his home, and the very foundation of his identity.

Sam has grown up in Angel City (a dystopian version of LA) from infancy, as the daughter of a single mother, who immigrated from China as an adult. Her mother does everything she can to support her on limited means. Sam’s secret fascination with alchemy and a moment of desperation, leads her to seek out Grand Central, an alchemist group that rivals the Lumines. She, too, is drawn into their hidden world of power and secrets, where learning to fight and survive suddenly means stability and safety for herself and her mother.

Both attending the same school, Ari and Sam slowly build a quiet, deeply felt friendship. They share an understanding of what it means to feel out of place — both alienated by their upbringing, their burdens, and through their cultural identities. But they hide their alchemist affiliations from one another, and as they grow into adulthood, they both grapple with the difficulties of their choices and their lives as members of their respective alchemist groups.

Themes
This book hit so many themes, and it hit them hard.

Marie Lu writes the immigrant (and first-generation immigrant) experience with an honesty and emotional weight that floored me. Ari is uprooted, cut off from his family, his language, his country and placed into an environment where assimilation and excellence are expected in return for his survival. Sam, on the other hand, exists in-between: trying to navigate a fraught relationship with her mother, shaped by the pressure of trying to meet her mother’s expectations, while navigating a society that rarely sees her.

Both of them are driven by love for their families, and that love is complicated, precisely because it’s wrapped up in obligation, guilt, and the desperate need to succeed for their family’s sake. There’s a quiet heartbreak in all of it, especially in how both characters are forced to mature too quickly.

Ari and Sam often feel like outsiders — not just because of the powers they’re developing, but because of their aforementioned cultural backgrounds and their own grappling with them. Their relationship is formed through shared experiences, mutual protectiveness, and emotional understanding. It was beautiful to see it develop.

My one small gripe with this book is that I wished we had seen more of Sam and Ari together on the page, during their formative years. While I completely understand that much of their connection is built on shared circumstances, hidden lives, and emotional parallels, I did feel like their bond could have used just a bit more time to breathe. The intensity of their feelings in adulthood makes sense thematically, but I personally would’ve connected to it even more with a few extra scenes deepening that foundation between them.

Still, there is so much to unpack in this book (more than I can expand upon in a review). It’s rich, layered, deeply introspective and (to me) achingly relatable.

The Fantasy
The fantasy elements are incredibly well done. The alchemical magical system is introduced gradually and organically. We learn about the world of alchemy as Sam and Ari do, which made the immersion feel natural and never overwhelming. It struck a great balance between detailed, while still being engaging.

In turn, the fight scenes involving characters who used alchemy were sharp, creative, and grounded in the character dynamics. I loved that alchemy wasn’t just flashy magic, but a structured, complex and layered system that felt well-thought-out and intricate.

And Angel City is such an intriguing backdrop! It’s gritty, dangerous, and layered with syndicate tensions that feel just as grounded as they do fantastical. It’s the kind of world you can see and feel while reading, thanks to the author’s cinematic and immersive writing.

Final Thoughts
Red City is one of those rare fantasy books that hits on every level. It’s emotional, thematic, and just straight-up cool. It has a cinematic, high-stakes feel, but it’s also deeply personal and thoughtful in ways that surprised me.

If you’re into character-driven fantasy that isn’t afraid to dig deep — into identity, family, power, and everything in between — this one’s going to stick with you. It definitely stuck with me (and will probably stick with me for a while.)

[EDIT: Sept. 17, 2025 - I luckily got an advance copy of the audiobook courtesy of Macmillan Audio.
You can find a review of it here. It was unsurprisingly fantastic!]

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Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.