Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing City of Others by Jared Poon. Something about the cover of this one drew me in immediately, and the blurb mentioning the story followed overworked magical bureaucrats sealed the deal. Did I love this debut? Read to find out all of my thoughts!

In the sunny city of Singapore, the government takes care of everything – even the weird stuff. Benjamin Toh is a middle manager in the Department for Engagement of Unusual Stakeholders (DEUS), tasked with taking care of the supernatural occurrences and people no one else wants to deal with, from restless ghosts to immortal gods to conniving jinn. Overworked and under-resourced, he has to juggle the demands of senior management, an elderly father, and a new boyfriend, all while trying to keep his team out of trouble.

When an entire block of flats goes missing in the town of Clementi, drowned in an otherworldly wave, the information he needs to prevent another catastrophe lies in the pasar bayang – the shadow markets. But the demigod protector of the markets has neither forgotten nor forgiven their humiliation by the Singapore authorities decades ago. Ben will need to wrestle with the legacy of his government and the whispers of his own insecurities, navigating landscapes both urban and fantastical, both inside the soul and outside the real world, all so he can just do his goddamn job.

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

I had such a great time with City of Others. The characters possessed so much personality, and the setting was unique and vibrant. I was so entertained by following this middle manager bureaucrat as he navigated end of the world stakes alongside the equally difficult red tape of working within, and sometimes around, a hierarchy of government.

City of Others was a fun mix of the down-to-earth humdrum of everyday government work and utterly bizarre urban fantasy shenanigans. The contrast between the two worked surprisingly well for this story. I also really appreciated how the story balanced the positive and negatives of how government functions. It unabashedly showed the lengthy impacts of past hurtful government actions, as well as the difficulty of navigating and utilizing the unwieldy bureaucracy. However, the story also centered a wonderful team of government servants and highlighted how so many of the people keeping the agencies running do so because of a love for their people. It gave me a bit of hope in these toxic times to read about a group of public servants willing to go the extra mile because of their desire to help people, even if they were fictional.

I really loved following Ben’s growth in City of Others. Anyone who has experience as a middle manager will easily relate to him. He had a strong internal drive to take care of everyone and everything. Over the course of the story, he had to learn to delegate and let things go. His relationship with Adam was a huge part of those lessons, and I adored the two of them together. Their grumpy/sunshine pairing was perfection, and their banter was so fun to read. Ben’s relationship with his dad was a relatively small part of the story, but the scenes were incredibly heavy and emotional. The things Ben learned during the story seemed to give him fresh insight into the grief shared by him and his father, and the author did a fantastic job of illustrating those shifts in just a few scenes.

Despite enjoying the unique setting of the story in City of Others, I wanted a bit more from the world-building. I loved what we got. The visit to the market and learning its history was really interesting. The setting did lean into the culture of Singapore, which I liked a lot. I just wanted even more. The pace was also a bit too frenetic at times. The group went through several iterations of plans to save the world at breakneck speed. It just started to feel a little rushed, and I think slowing things down a bit would have helped bring a little more depth to the fantastic cast of side characters. I’m hoping that we’ll get to see more of everyone and the world in future books. So, these things didn’t diminish my enjoyment of this particular story too much.

All in all, City of Others was a fun urban fantasy debut with a great setting and a lovable cast of characters. I mean… It had undead ducklings and a “ghost” cat. How could it not be great?! lol. Overall, I rate the book 4.25 out of 5 stars.

There you have it! My thoughts on City of Others by Jared Poon. What are you waiting for? Go pick up this incredibly fun debut today! Then come back and let me know your thoughts. 🙂