This book was fun - a good choice for a beach or plane read.
The protagonist is a witch living in a city that is an enclave within a bigger city. The bigger city constructed the wall surrounding the smaller one to contain monsters, and those who were within the enclave now have to just live with the monsters as the wall cannot be crossed easily. A visitor from the outside world persuades her to give him her shadow in exchange for passage, which she agrees to because her ex (the “Tsar of Monsters”) is hunting her. But having no shadow means she has no power, and is going to become a wraith. Recognizing that she was coerced, she seeks to reclaim her shadow, accompanied by a police officer of the outer city.
The blurb said it was for fans of Naomi Novik and the Witcher - Novik because of the Slavic inspiration, and the Witcher because of all the monsters running around. I’d throw in a comparison to China Miéville’s The City and the City, for obvious reasons to anyone who’s read that one.
But I call it a beach read because it was fun, but not a book I’m going to be thinking about when my mind wanders. It felt like the author couldn’t quite decide if she wanted to make it a modern urban fantasy or something more Medieval/Renaissance-ish, and ended up sort of splitting the difference in a way that kind of gave me expectations-whiplash. The dialogue felt stilted, at times, and the characters weren’t as developed as they could have been (a LOT of things happened because the protagonist and/or the cop picked up the idiot ball).
The best done parts were the parts with the “Tsar of Monsters.” Not only was he a good and interesting antagonist, but the author did a great job of writing about the difficulties of escaping an abusive relationship when your abuser is a literal monster. It was well done enough that I find myself hoping that Dimova wasn’t writing from experience too much, and if she was, good for her for escaping.
Comes out on June 25.
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