Maeghan 🦋 HIATUS on & off's Reviews > Red City

Huge thanks to NetGalley & the publishers for this ARC! I’m so excited 🥹. All thoughts are my own!

« Wounded hearts with something to prove are always the ones who change the world. »

I want to start off by saying that there’s a lot of interesting aspects about this story - and I think it will be a win for a lot of people. I saw a lot of things coming, which didn’t alter my reading experience but the major pacing issues did. I kept snapping out of it and nothing *much* was happening.

I was underwhelmed. It made me feel like a history book I was obligated to read and not reading for fun. Around the 20% mark, I went and reread the synopsis… and I think it’s really on me but something was just missing.

The relationship between Sam and her mom was incredibly well depicted. Messy, hurtful and complicated mother-daughter relationship with a lot of generational trauma woven into it. Sam felt like a multidimensional character to me but Ari was a cardboard box. He was one dimensional and I think the story could’ve went on without his POV.

I read one of Marie Lu’s duology and I had loved it - in this one… the writing felt cold. The characters went on about everything - even while terrible things were happening - as if it wasn’t a big deal. I felt as disconnected as the characters.

It’s separated in 3 parts and I wanted to DNF in the first part so badly. I briefly got hooked in the second part when we got Connie’s POV and that made me realize that I simply didn’t care about the 2 MCs. The only highlights for me were Connie’s 2 POVs and Edward’s 1 POV.

Although marketed as adult, the writing was very YA (other than the few sex scenes). The romance between Sam & Will made me highly uncomfortable. He met her when she was 15 and they have a 9 years age gap. He tells her he wanted her for a long time and sincerely… no.

I think some aspects were well done, especially the grim-dark-depressing setting. But the story was hindered by too many things for me to fully enjoy this.

« You must always try your best. Work hard and reach for the stars. If you do, even the smallest of us can find a way out. »