Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers, which will be published on January 30, 2024. I was really drawn in by the cover of this one, and the description sounded so magical, I just had to give it a go.

A young woman descends into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge to break her family’s curse in this spellbinding contemporary fantasy debut.

For centuries, generations of Everlys have seen their brightest and best disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor, a woman named Penelope, never ages, never grows sick – and never forgives a debt.

Violet Everly was just a child when her mother Marianne vanished on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. And when Penelope cannot find her, she issues an Violet has ten years to find Marianne, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer from the curse. Unless she can break it first.

To do so, she must descend into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. She must also contend with Penelope’s quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted – and yet whose knowledge of a world beyond her own is too valuable to avoid.

Tied to a very literal deadline, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began.

***Thank you to Redhook/Orbit Books for providing a copy of the book. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

It is hard to put my experience with The City of Stardust into words. I both loved this book and thought so many things could have been done to make it even better. I may have my qualms with certain aspects of the story, but the writing was exquisite. I was enchanted by its ethereal quality from the first page, and I loved it to the very end. The writing itself felt magical and brought this dark fairy tale to life with its haunting quality.

I enjoyed the structure of the plot in The City of Stardust, too. The entire thing was a story inside a story, and I loved the way different versions of the same fairy tale were told at the beginning of each section to provide hints and clues to the mysteries of the larger narrative. There were so many cool elements in the story, including magic, enigmatic scholars, and bloodthirsty immortals. I enjoyed putting the pieces of the mystery together, but I do wish the end had been more definitive. There were also some plot holes, and I found the final part hard to follow at times. Despite those reservations, I was hooked on the story from start to finish.

The major weakness of The City of Stardust for me was the world-building. The author created such a fascinating setting. Unfortunately, it was all just a little too nebulous. I wanted better explanations for how things worked and much greater detail on the history of the scholars and their impacts on the world. All of the ideas were there to build something great, but the execution just fell short for me.

I liked the characters in The City of Stardust and enjoyed following their stories. Violet’s quest to find her mother and end her family’s curse was a great way to introduce the reader to the world of the scholars. All she dreamed about was going on an adventure, and she definitely got one. Aleksander was interesting, too, and I really felt sorry for him. He endured a lot of trauma for the sake of the scholars and his single-minded goal of advancement among them. His relationship with Violet never really felt romantic, though. The two of them were just using each other for their own benefit, Violet to get her adventure and Aleksander to gain a boost to his career.

The only character in The City of Stardust that fell flat for me was Penelope. I never really connected with her motivations. I get that she wanted to return home and was focused on survival, but she did some awful stuff just because she felt that she was owed a debt. I think a little more detail about her origins and home may have helped strengthen a connection with her, but she just felt a little too alien for me to care about her plight. I also didn’t feel much of an emotional connection with any of the characters, even the ones I liked, because the fairy-tale writing style and POV shifts created distance between the reader and the characters.

Overall, I’ve had a hard time deciding on a rating for The City of Stardust. I enjoyed my time with it and loved the writing. If I was basing my rating on only those elements, this book would be an easy five stars. My mixed feelings about the characters and world-building did drag things down a bit to 3.5 out of 5 stars. I do recommend this book, though, especially if you want a dark fairy tale with a fascinating mystery that relies more heavily on imagery than detailed world-building.

Have you read The City of Stardust? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments! I think this is one that a lot of people will enjoy.