Wren
Forever sorry for what they will do to each other. Forever bound to do it again.
Well, hello, main contender for my favorite book of 2026! Maybe it’s just all the fresh feels from finishing it, but right now I can’t see how anything can top it. I just want to get my hands on the second book ASAP. What do you mean I have to wait until freaking late April 2027?! Rude.
The characters and their relationships are definitely the main draw here. I initially got hooked by the promise of my favorite somewhat niche trope: friends to enemies to lovers. I love that shift in dynamics it provide, the history, the what-if’s, the might-have-been’s, the second chance vibes during the reconnection except the break-up never happened. Red City definitely delivers on that front, but there’s also an extra web of characters sand connections around Sam and Ari that are all extremely compelling in their own right.
My first introduction to Marie Lu as an author was her Young Elites YA series 10 years ago or so, and even then I greatly admired how she handled morally grey characters. Red City takes that to a whole new level. I love how she made me literally cry for utterly reprehensible fictional people, never absolving them from their guilt and responsibility, but showing me a glimpse of humanity hidden in the dark. That “what-if” and “might-have-been” vibe definitely spreads far beyond the limits of the central relationship.
I also love the POV work here, although technically, I don’t know if the POV switches can be called such, given that there’s definitely an omniscient narrator standing between the characters and the reader at all times. It’s just that they reveal their omniscience one character at a time. But anyway, I loved the chapters that focused on the secondary and tertiary characters, inserting tidbits of information that aren’t known to either Ari or Sam. That helps inject so much dramatic irony into the plot and often actually ramps up the tension. You know the protagonist would have made a different choice if they had all the information you had, but they don’t have it, and you can’t slip it to them from beyond the page.
My one semi-complaint is tangentially related to the POV switches, though. Sam and Ari get a roughly similar amount of “screentime” and are equally important to the plot, just as the plot is equally important to their development. However, most of the time this felt to me like Sam’s story, even when I was reading some of Ari’s chapters. Even though the book often tells us Ari is incredibly charismatic and has a strong soul, this doesn’t always come across on the page. I feel like the problem here is that outside of a few specific moments that are all connected to Sam, he doesn’t have much of an agenda. The story happens *to* him. Sam, on the other hand, retains an agenda even when her agency is taken away from her. She has a purpose, she makes decision, she’s always moving forward. Where Ari was plucked out of obscurity by another character, Sam seeks out the world of alchemy on her own.
I wouldn’t call it a flaw as such; it seems more like a deliberate contrast (it’s also interesting how Ari, with his tendency to go where the currents push him, is the shy but charismatic people magnet, and the special thing about Sam, the driven decision-maker, is how forgettable and easily overlooked she is). But it definitely made me sliiiiiiightly less invested in Ari’s chapters. I can’t help it, I like the characters with a purpose more.
I’d be, of course, remiss not to mention the awesomely dark setting. The whole thing with magic mafia syndicates and the underground wars they wage against each other for the sake of power? The noir vibes? The drug that makes everyone better and worse at the same time? How alchemy is depicted with an almost sci-fi vibe? The price people pay for wielding it? The way every fight between alchemists was so unbelievably badass and inventive? I loved it all.
Oh, and a random thing that absolutely broke me: the relationship between Sam and her mother. Just that entire arc. I didn’t give the book a permission to hurt me like that, damn it.
Forever sorry for what they will do to each other. Forever bound to do it again.
Well, hello, main contender for my favorite book of 2026! Maybe it’s just all the fresh feels from finishing it, but right now I can’t see how anything can top it. I just want to get my hands on the second book ASAP. What do you mean I have to wait until freaking late April 2027?! Rude.
The characters and their relationships are definitely the main draw here. I initially got hooked by the promise of my favorite somewhat niche trope: friends to enemies to lovers. I love that shift in dynamics it provide, the history, the what-if’s, the might-have-been’s, the second chance vibes during the reconnection except the break-up never happened. Red City definitely delivers on that front, but there’s also an extra web of characters sand connections around Sam and Ari that are all extremely compelling in their own right.
My first introduction to Marie Lu as an author was her Young Elites YA series 10 years ago or so, and even then I greatly admired how she handled morally grey characters. Red City takes that to a whole new level. I love how she made me literally cry for utterly reprehensible fictional people, never absolving them from their guilt and responsibility, but showing me a glimpse of humanity hidden in the dark. That “what-if” and “might-have-been” vibe definitely spreads far beyond the limits of the central relationship.
I also love the POV work here, although technically, I don’t know if the POV switches can be called such, given that there’s definitely an omniscient narrator standing between the characters and the reader at all times. It’s just that they reveal their omniscience one character at a time. But anyway, I loved the chapters that focused on the secondary and tertiary characters, inserting tidbits of information that aren’t known to either Ari or Sam. That helps inject so much dramatic irony into the plot and often actually ramps up the tension. You know the protagonist would have made a different choice if they had all the information you had, but they don’t have it, and you can’t slip it to them from beyond the page.
My one semi-complaint is tangentially related to the POV switches, though. Sam and Ari get a roughly similar amount of “screentime” and are equally important to the plot, just as the plot is equally important to their development. However, most of the time this felt to me like Sam’s story, even when I was reading some of Ari’s chapters. Even though the book often tells us Ari is incredibly charismatic and has a strong soul, this doesn’t always come across on the page. I feel like the problem here is that outside of a few specific moments that are all connected to Sam, he doesn’t have much of an agenda. The story happens *to* him. Sam, on the other hand, retains an agenda even when her agency is taken away from her. She has a purpose, she makes decision, she’s always moving forward. Where Ari was plucked out of obscurity by another character, Sam seeks out the world of alchemy on her own.
I wouldn’t call it a flaw as such; it seems more like a deliberate contrast (it’s also interesting how Ari, with his tendency to go where the currents push him, is the shy but charismatic people magnet, and the special thing about Sam, the driven decision-maker, is how forgettable and easily overlooked she is). But it definitely made me sliiiiiiightly less invested in Ari’s chapters. I can’t help it, I like the characters with a purpose more.
I’d be, of course, remiss not to mention the awesomely dark setting. The whole thing with magic mafia syndicates and the underground wars they wage against each other for the sake of power? The noir vibes? The drug that makes everyone better and worse at the same time? How alchemy is depicted with an almost sci-fi vibe? The price people pay for wielding it? The way every fight between alchemists was so unbelievably badass and inventive? I loved it all.
Oh, and a random thing that absolutely broke me: the relationship between Sam and her mother. Just that entire arc. I didn’t give the book a permission to hurt me like that, damn it.