The City of Dusk
by Tara Sim
Fantasy
#ARC #NetGalley

Four young people born from the bloodlines of gods, they each are gifted with powers from their 'birth' gods: a necromancer, an elementalist, a shadow, and a soldier of light. These heirs, while each in line for the throne of the city that connects the four realms, (but is now cut off from them due to their gods' wrath and war between each other,) they forge an alliance to save their city from a destructive magic and to reopen the gateways to the four different Realms so to stop their city's slow death caused by the closure of the gates.

My description matches the writing, a circular smorgasbord of words that circle around and around and doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Each chapter is about one of the four MCs, along with introducing other characters that may or may not be really important to the story, but sadly with all of the words, all of the characters blend in with each other, and there was only a couple of these characters that stood out enough for me to recognize, but the writing was so circular that I fell asleep countless times while reading this story. There wasn't enough action or 'life' in the story or the characters to keep me awake.

But the storyline, once I finished reading the book, was good, but it was too much work to get to the end so it wasn't enjoyable at all to get to the end. It was interesting but poorly presented. There were too many extras, but not enough details or life in the characters, setting, or tone for it to live up to how good the story could have been.

And sadly, this is the first book of a series.

I was given an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

2 stars

This is my first time reading anything by Tara Sim and let me tell you, it did not disappoint!!

The City of Dusk follows four main houses, each having their own respective powers. There are conjurations occurring and nobody seems to know why when conjuring has been outlawed for many years. The houses vie over who is to become heir for King Ferdinand - who's without an heir to the throne. Those same houses try to deal with conjurations, being heirs, and their own power in this fantasy.

~I thought the beginning build up of information took a long time, especially with it taking up 20% of the book, but it paid off well for the ending. I thought I knew what was going to happen and sometimes it rang true, but then something else would pop up and flip it on its head. There is heavy amounts of detail according to each house and power, so if you're not one to like that sort of writing or fantasy then - be warned.

~My god I was on the edge of my seat the last half of the book. Things kept coming and never stopped coming. Once I thought I had something figured out, it turned into something completely else. The fight scenes oh my god. I wish I could see it animated or on television cause oh my god. It gets pretty gruesome in this book and I loved it!!

I'd definitely recommend this if you like:
~ political intrigue
~ plot twists
~ heavy detail oriented writing
~ wrathful women and cinnamon roll men
~ lgbtq+ representation and south asian representation
~ multi pov
~ powers of the gods granted to mortals
~ grim/gruesome scenes with elements of body horror

I'll be waiting for the next one, it will be most anticipated cause I need to know what's going to happen after that ending man.

Disclaimer: I received The City of Dusk as an ARC through NetGalley and I'm voluntarily leaving this review.

I absolutely loved the character development and interactions between the main characters. The plot twists added much to the overall story, making this a fun, well balanced book. This book had me hooked from the first couple of chapters and I have not put it down since then.

I love a good epic/high fantasy, and the description of this book sounded so good. And like something that I would really enjoy. As anyone knows, adult fantasy often comes with a lot of worldbuilding. It's got the time for it, and the need for it. From the first moment we are thrown into a vibrant world, wherein not too much is explained. In this you sort of must figure things out for yourself.

Compared to other fantasy books the beginning of this was quite intense, and it was the setup of the characters and their future. We dove right on it. However, once we get past the beginning the pace of the book slows down. And I felt a lot of it wasn’t necessary to be honest.

We have multiple POV characters (which I thought overall was done well), and I felt that the characters were all individualistic which is nice. They all had personalities even if I didn’t always like them. Characters don’t have to be likeable after all. I enjoyed the family relationships some of the characters had as well, such as Dante and Taesia.

The one thing I wished is that she had stuck with the same POVs throughout the entire book, and not added or dropped any at random parts. It was a lot of POVs and it did work; because it was bringing together what was to happen at the end.

We get to about 35% and the pace does pick up a little bit. We start to see more of the plot come together (and then some of the plot fall apart...and not be picked up at all the rest of the book). But the overall plot was solid, and it was quite epic.

I found certain aspects of the book frustrating. (The parts with Dante, because he and Taesia are pretty much my favorite characters).

I think this is a good start to the series, I’m still not totally sure what to make of it. Like, I liked it. I did! But at the same time I didn’t love it, and I cannot put my finger on what that dividing line is.

Yes, the ending was epic. But some of the buildup just wasn’t there for me the way I wanted it to.

I really enjoyed the writing in this book; I think it was superb, and I think Sim is a great storyteller. I just don’t know if I just wasn’t vibing with this book...or something else. Either way, I think this is a great start to a series that I think I will pick up more of as they come out.

I am torn with this one. The balance scale of my review is solidly in balance here–neither loved it or hated it–I merely liked it. On one hand, this book has some great world building, charismatic and likable characters, and the way it grabbed my interest right out the gate was perfectly done. Yet, on the other hand...mid-book it was as if someone put on the brakes. Or to use another comparison, reading this book was like running a mile. You start out strong, only to struggle mid-way through before seeing the end and plow towards the finish line. That said, I still liked the overall plot, imagery, and characters in this book. I may be giving it a 3 star, BUT its more like a 3.75 star. I will most definitely be reading the next. A BIG thank you to Orbit publishing and NetGalley for the eARC copy.

Besides the fact that I think Tara Sim has a fantastically unique story here and she has a fabulous writing style, I just enjoyed the journey. Even at the moments that I became frustrated with Dante, I was pulled in by the family ties between he and Taesia. I wasn't a fan of the absurd number of POV's this book accumulates. I am a minimum of 4 kind of reader and this one had like seven, I think. It was, at times, hard to overcome the feeling of being pulled in too many direction.

A great start to an epic story.

It's stories like "The City of Dusk" that truly make me re-fall in love with fantasy as a genre.

You ever read the synopsis of a book and immediately know you’re going to love everything about it? Yeah, that was me when I first heard of City of Dusk by Tara Sim - and I was freaking right! This was exactly the sort of adult fantasy book I’ve been craving for a while now with characters that I instantly fell in love with. I’m talking I loved every single POV which is a rarity for me. Of course, I had some I loved more than others (charming Dante, terrifying Taesia, and sweet boy Nik being my top 3) but I was never bored with any character and each one played an equal role in the story.

And the story! The world-building! I honestly cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy just to look at the map of this massive world the author created. Let me just sing the praises for the different sections corresponding with each god; the Houses and their political squabbling for power; the Heirs and their desires, their fears, their dreams. I didn’t see certain twists coming, leaving me gasping in shock, and giving me a healthy dose of fear for certain characters (PLEASE DON’T BREAK MY HEART TARA SIM PLEASE). I loved the diversity with the characters so so so much. Like I said, this was exactly the fantasy novel I had been dying for for a while now and I’m so so glad it delivered everything I wanted and more.

City of Dusk is absolutely a new favorite book for me (not just for 2022 but in general) and I am shaking with excitement (and FEAR) for what comes next in the sequel. This will be the book I spend the rest of the year pushing into the hands of my friends and sisters to read.

Get ready.

This is my first review of an ARC. I really enjoyed this book, although it took me a little while to get acquainted with the characters and places (which is true with any true fantasy novel!)
This reminds me of a grown up version of Tamora Pierce's Emelan series, so if you enjoy that feel it's an excellent choice. A couple of big twists that I did NOT see coming!!

Highly enjoyable read and definitely recommend for fantasy readers!

Revised review. This book had so much potential but the writing style didn’t work for me at all. I found it to be too young adult. This is perfectly fine, but I just felt that the characters were lacking and I didn’t like any of them. Unfortunately not my favourite book, might work for someone else though.

To begin with, before going into the actual review, I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me an e-arc copy of this book.

Now, without further due, the review of Tara Sim's The City of Dusk (The Dark Gods book 1).

This epic fantasy series takes place in the Four Realms, a world that was separated into fragments and abandoned by the Gods that created it. In this story, we follow characters that are heirs to the magical Houses: Taesia the shadow mage, Risha the necromancer, Angelica the elementalist, and Nik the light magician.

And, may I say, they have their scenes in the book that shows what kind of characters they are plus how the world works from the politics to the magic. (OMG, the magic scenes are great).

From a series of crimes to trying to stop the world from going to Hell, from both the gods and the people, this first book in the series by the author of Scavage the Stars will give fans the much-needed Game of Thrones fill until the next book comes out...if ever lol.

Before I finish the review, I have seen people comment that this is YA Fantasy and not adult...to be honest with you guys, this feels like New Adult Fantasy which is fine with me, especially with the plot and the cool worldbuilding.

5/5 stars, a 🐉, and a 👑.

Absolutely enjoyed every line in this book! The characters, the world building... Every thing was done so well I couldn’t stop reading!! Taesia was my favorite, I need more of her POV! I also loved the diversity in our characters, so many shades and colours ❤️ it truly made my heart happy! The banter had me laughing out loud, the romance was sweet and the stakes so stressful! All in all, I really enjoyed it 😁

DNF @ 14%

I wanted to give Tara Sim another chance despite my having DNF'd Scavenge the Stars, but Sim's writing style just doesn't seem to work for me. I was also somewhat overwhelmed by the vastness of the worldbuilding and the constant POV changes.

A more accurate synopsis: classic epic fantasy of dying realm with competing magics is reimagined for queer older teenagers who have spent time on tumblr in the past.

The characters:
- Taesia: technically there's no one main character, but it's clear that she's the author's favorite. Disaster bisexual, full of anger, controls shadows.
- Dante: Taesia's brother, really just trying his best. Deserved better.
- Angelica: regal and stuck-up fire elementalist who has all the internal struggles.
- Risha: team mom, very not-dark necromancer
- Nikolas: sadboi with family issues and imposter syndrome. Probably will be popular, although I didn't have a strong opinion on him.
- Julian: outsider POV. The others are all nobles, and he's just a middle-class hunter of beasts. Confused.

What I liked:
- Main characters are all different, but easy to understand. They make sense.
- The characters mostly know each other before the story starts! Like would make sense in a small-ish kingdom.
- There's some romance but it doesn't overshadow the plot.
- Literally nonstop action in the second half.

What I didn't like:
- The synopsis only mentions four main characters, but there are at least six. Really doing Dante and Julian dirty.
- There's not a ton of innovation - I've seen most of these tropes before done in the same way. Some might be bored by this book, but I will gladly read the same thing over and over again, so it was fine with me.
- So much happened. A little too much for my smooth brain. Long book for the first in a series, especially since it feels more YA than adult.
- I don't really feel the need to read the next book :(. Like I liked this, but don't need more.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Tara Sim wrapped me up in a big gay goth book-shaped burrito with the City of Dusk. I feel like I need to dress in all black, gorgeous extravagance just to match up to the absolute magnificent goth vibes in this book. It made me eager to finish work just so I get sink into this good book. If you’ve ever wanted an Adult Percy Jackson with morally grey (and entirely sexy) gay goths with godly powers and set in an epic pre-Raphelite inspired fantasy world this is it. Words are limited, but that is what I’m going with.

The City of Dusk provides a fun and exciting world for readers to read. It pushes you into a slow burn of intimate plots, characterization, and into a world of gothic architecture, dons, living gods, their divine descendants, occult, grimoires, and fancy heirs galavanting in their sexy villas. I’ve missed being able to dive into a fun world, where I really get to spend time knowing and getting a feel for morally grey characters. It follows various characters, the heirs of their houses – Taesia, Nikolas, Risha, Angelica. As their world dies, the young god-touched heirs get wrapped up in the court politics and scandals (other than their own).

Tara Sim made me mourn with Nikolas, and the loss of his brother, the pride of his father, and related the fact that all he wanted from life was a dog. I felt the burning rage of Taesia, as it ripped through the entire novel. I looked in awe as Angelica’s music lit up the scene. Risha and her correct opinion that bones are always in fashion. I’m devastatingly interested in the guard meets heir trope, where character A shoves character B against the wall with a knive, competely resisting the hots they have for each other. I will just leave you hanging with that tempting bit of information. So many of the characters are fascinating. The rich gay heirs secretly sleeping with their sexy golden kissed friends will get me every time.

Dig into this for murderous gods, slow burns, secret lovers, celestial weapons, necromancy, the villa lifestyle, messy gay heirs, and the descendants of gods. If you’re like me and you miss those fashionable girlies, those big tomed epics, definitely pick up City of Dusk.

Honestly, I think me and this book have a hate-love relationship. When I started reading it I expected to finish it really quickly because the premise was so good and I thought I was gonna fall in love with the story and the characters. To my disappointment none of that occurred.

The fact that it took me around two months to finish this book speaks volumes. The writing and the characters were kinda bland and I just couldn’t get myself to enjoy this book for more than a couple chapters.

The City of Dusk didn’t lack mystery, romance or shocking betrayals but it was missing the wow factor.

There were obviously some good parts like the magic system which was interesting to learn about but it was also not original or something never seen before. I think that a lot of the side characters like Jas and Julian were probably more likeable and better established than the main ones. I hated all of the main characters expect for Taesia but to be honest even she got one my nerves a lot.

Giving it this rating for those small moments when this book was what I wanted it to be. Hopefully the next book will reach the expectations that I set for this series!

The City of Dusk was incredibly solid for an entry in the fantasy genre. The world-building holds so many layers, with an interesting religious pantheon and various political systems at odds. The magic held interesting concepts and character studies for our leads and just, the character and setting aesthetics slap!

The LGBTQ+ rep was beautiful, I am personally a huge fan of fantasies where it is part of the world without any sort of in-world homophobia either.

Plot-wise, I personally held issue with the pacing. This was a thick read, it was a slow-build to the absolute chaos of the last part and yet, the revelations and action still lacked a certain satisfaction. I am not usually huge for action sequences either, but the combat is objectively very well written and epic, it felt very cinematic.

Maybe I have read a bit too much fantasy lately that I am not sure how memorable these characters and this plot will be for me. On paper, I love the concepts of our point-of-view characters. They were each unique with distinct voices, I could pinpoint what I liked about them in theory, but I think an investment in them as people was missing for me.

I think Tara Sim writes their dynamics incredibly well balanced though. They all walk this fine and complex line of childhood friends, vague romantic interests, to enemies at the snap of a finger and various betrayals. There is just something fascinating about people who care for each other with actual opposing political motivations that may set them at odds.

Overall, this is a series I will consider picking up again because oh, that ending! I think now that the world is established the rest of the entries will run a bit smoother, would definitely suggest fantasy fans to pick this up!

Frankly, this book was wonderful and everything that I wanted it to be. It promised a grim world with dark gods, shadow magic, an empire on the brink of war, and some LGBT rep and it DELIVERED.

I’ve been a fan of Sim’s work since reading Scavenge the Stars and I was ecstatic to hear that she was coming out with a dark adult fantasy book. I am so thankful to have gotten an early copy, because I want to yell at everyone to read it!

Time and time again I will reiterate that I am primarily a character driven reader, and this book gave me four different wonderful POV’s and then some. Sim truly knows how to show difficult relationships and tensions both romantically and in friendships, and it’s a huge strength in this book.

The worldbuilding is gloriously dark and gives you a slightly creepy/melancholy feel as you learn more and more about it, and I still feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface in this series. There are four realms, Life Death, Light, and Darkness that have gods associated with them, and heirs who more or less belong to those gods. The gods have basically given up on the city, and the heirs must form some misshapen alliance to keep everything from falling to pieces.

There is no lack of action or tension either, and I truly have no bones to pick with anything in this book. Sim creates a creeping tension that sneaks up on you as you uncover mysteries and are shocked at the delicious plot twists alongside the characters, and the book culminates in an explosive ending that will leave you desperate for the sequel.

TLDR: If you’re a fan of dark magic, heirs of gods, incredibly character work and worldbuilding, then I highly recommend this book to you. I cannot wait to buy a finished copy and yell at all my friends to read this book.

Thank you so much to Orbit for sending me a copy, I’m so grateful for the opportunity to read and review!

The City of Dusk is three parts slog to one part absolute chaos.

There was so much world-building shoved into the beginning of this book that I nearly gave up because it was almost hard to keep track of it. This was also due to the fact that the story is constantly jumping around to different narrators. Mostly every chapter, but sometimes twice in one chapter near the end parts.

There are two 'sex' scenes in the book, but they came off as mechanical and served no real purpose. Other than to maybe establish a particular character as being LGBTQ+. But that is honestly done in a much better manner near the end of the book in a very nice fade to black kind of situation that I preferred much more. You could take the sex out of the book and no one would ever know.

The characters are all very three-dimensional if grating at some points. And I really did enjoy the cultural diversity of the characters and the different factions as well. But I am not sure I will continue on with the series after this first book.

It is hard not to give away details as it goes pretty quickly. I think a lot of people who are interested will enjoy this one overall. I would say it is a YA Dusk Until Dawn for a new Era.

Wow, this was quite the ride! This is my first from the author and I definitely will be picking up whatever else she writes. This was so much fun and so gritty and wonderful to read. I was on the edge of my seat! My only con is that it's the first book in a series and I need the next book like right now. Like right this instant.
The magic system was so cool and the characters! Amazing and wonderful. This is like the perfect blend of dark fantasy in the adult age range. I really loved it!

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The City of Dusk definitely gave me shadow and bone vibes. Yes, every character that you meet screamed found family to me. Well, okay, not all of the characters because the evil ones needed to go. From the interesting and dark prologue to meeting all the characters, I was completely hooked and just wanted to know more. Mostly about their powers and the ritual that they wanted to perform.

With each twist, turn, and betrayal this book was a complete page turner. It was honestly so hard to put down because I just need to know what was going to happen next. Especially when we got to some pretty awesome fight/battle scenes. If this ever turns into a show or movie, I will totally watch it and expect greatness on my screens.

Other than that, the entire pace was amazing throughout this book. Seriously, I didn't expect half of what went down to actually happen already. Which, yes, made the entire ending of this book emotionally crazy and chaotically good. Not sure if that really makes sense but that's how I feel right now.

I'm definitely happy that I got the chance to dive into this wonderful world and I'm so excited for the sequel.