I was incredibly excited about this book from Nghi Vo after reading many of her other novellas, notably The Singings Hills Cycle, a stunning series.

I was not disappointed. Vo has lyrical prose, which she heavily leans into with this new novella. I can appreciate that not everyone will enjoy Vo’s writing style, as it can verge on being flowery. This novella is also a character-driven story rather than a plot-driven story, which may not suit fantasy readers who seek exciting action and grand adventure in their reading material. However, this novella may suit those readers who want an introspective read that explores love, melancholy, and urban evolution.

Thank you, Vo, Tor Publishing and NetGalley, for the ARC.

This is a short, meditative novel about a demon in love with a city. She's its patron until one day a gang of angels arrives and destroys it. Over the next 300 years, she nurtures the new civilization that grows in its place. Oh, and one of those angels is cursed (?) to stay on earth, not to re-enter heaven. He also falls in love with the city, and perhaps with the demon, too...

This isn't a romance, although maybe it's a love story between two immortal beings and a place.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

DNF @ 56%

It pains my soul to have to DNF a Nghi Vo book, but unfortunately, I just don't think this one is for me, at least not right now. I suspect if I am in the mood for a no plot, vibes only book, this would've been a much more enjoyable experience, but it's just not the mood I am in right now. I also will say that this is the first book of hers that I've even vaguely felt like the prose itself is too much. I tried reading this book physically, and then on audio, and it's definitely less noticeable on audio, but the writing itself felt tedious to me in a way that no other Nghi Vo book has felt to me before. Even with The Chosen and the Beautiful, which I didn't love because I didn't really care for The Great Gatsby of it all, I loved existing in her writing and just getting lost in the pure art form that is her writing, but unfortunately I do feel like this book is a tad overwritten. Anyway, to save myself from the heartbreak of rating Nghi Vo any less than a 3.5 star, I'm just going to go ahead and DNF this one, at least for now.

City In Glass is, quite simply, stunning. I adored the writing style, the sweeping time span, and the fact that while our main character is a demon, she is so incredibly easy to relate to. This is a treatise on being human, on grief, on the astonishing ability we have to keep going in the face of great destruction.

This will be one of the stand out books of the year.

I agree with most reviewers in saying this is a beautiful story! There isn't too much plot but the beauty of the writing and vibes the author created helped make up for it.

"I love you so, I love you best [...] I will walk in you, and I will care for you, and I will bring the whole world to rejoice in you".

This book is about love, vengeance, cruelty, desctruction, humans, demons and angels. It's really a one of a kind story, original and full of plot twists and unexpected things. 😈

Since the two protagonists are immortal brings, the timeline in this story is very stretched: we can see the story of a city through the Vitrine's eye. She's a demon who loves and cares deeply for the city and puts a lot of effort in rebuilding it when the angels burn it to the ground with all its people. One of those angels is Azril, and Vitrine curses him to the point that he can't return to heaven. 🪽

There's a great representation of queer people and relationships here, and also the depiction of an absolutely unconventional and forbidden love. 🏳️‍🌈

The story is really well written and it's just like I love it: emotional, nostalgic, melancholic, weird and with a lot of beautiful scenery's descriptions. The reader grows fond of all the town's people stories and also grows attached to Vitrine passion and strong resilience and determination. 💪🏻

I really loved the book's ending too. It gives off a very philosophical and aethereal vibe, with a plot twist that totally makes sense with both the plot and the cryptical title of the book. 😲

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo is a captivating novel that blends historical fiction, fantasy, and a touch of noir. It's set in a fantastical version of San Francisco, where magic and technology coexist, and the city is divided into distinct districts based on their elemental affinities.

The story follows a young woman named Linh, who is a detective in the Fire District. Linh is tasked with investigating a series of mysterious murders, which lead her into a dangerous underworld of secret societies, ancient prophecies, and a city-wide conspiracy.

Vo's writing is both evocative and thought-provoking, creating a rich and immersive world filled with fascinating characters and intriguing plot twists. The novel explores themes of identity, belonging, and the consequences of unchecked power.

If you enjoy historical fantasy with a strong female protagonist and a complex, intriguing plot, The City in Glass is definitely worth checking out.

My jaw is still on the floor after reading this, such gorgeous writing style !
I requested this book through Netgalley because I'd heard so much about the author, I wanted to make my own opinion - now, I understand everything.
This short novel is unlike anything I've ever read, the ending was totally unexpected. It was eerie, poetic, can be awfully violent, it read like some nightmarish fairy tale. It was a beautiful, sad, engrossing story that I couldn't put down about loss, grief, perseverance, vengeance and incredible beauty. I think it's one of the best novels that I've read this year, one that will leave me a lasting memory.
Now that I know her writing style, I have to buy more of her books !

This book was truly something else, the way I was immediately immersed in this world, the writing and the characters was incredible. Nghi Vo’s prose is simply just beautiful. This short story follows Vitrine, a demon who at her core, feels very deeply for her city. We are taken on a journey of her grief, and sense of despair after its gets destroyed by the angels.
As a person that really enjoys character driven stories, this was a perfect read for me. There were a lot of chapters of us going through Vitrines memories of the city, her trying to rebuild it and seeing her anger towards those who demolished it. I felt like I really understood her and all the emotions she was going through. It’s difficult to describe more, and I think it’s best to go in as blind as possible so, I will stop here, but wow… I fell in love with this story and its characters completely (It’s definitely one that I think I will appreciate even more on a reread).

Thank you Tordotcom and Netgally for the eARC.

I have truly adored everything I’ve read by Nghi Vo. She outdoes herself on the regular in the Singing Hills series. Banger after banger, frankly. So it is with the deepest sadness that I report that this one just didn’t quite do it for me. Look, the writing is lovely, as always. I just didn’t feel any pull to the characters or the actual story, which is truly sad for me. But! Please understand, I am definitely in the minority, as the Goodreads reviews are pretty strong for this one so far. And like- I’d read Nghi Vo’s shopping list, so it wasn’t a waste of time, it’s just… well, her shopping list would have probably inspired me to make some fun meals or something.

I even liked the concept and the ideas, it just almost felt like too much pretty prose and not enough substance, but I can also admit that I just may not have totally “gotten” it, since symbolism can be lost on me sometimes. That is to say, if you like Nghi Vo (which I unequivocally do) and also like more symbolic, understated stories (which I am less a fan of), this could very well be for you!

Bottom Line: I’m still here for any and all of Vo’s work and gorgeous writing, but this one just didn’t quite hit for me.

I do not think my thoughts can do this novella justice as it is so lyrical and well written that it deserves better than my words. There is a super long slow burn enemies to lovers story at the core of this with an angel and a demon that ends up truly defining devotion. Vitrine is a demon that adopted a city as her own and cared for it as her own. So when an angel came to destroy it, of course she was angry. As time wears on and she works to rebuild it, sometimes with the help of said devastating angel, she realizes how empty the world feels when the angel is absent and while they constantly get at each other and she may banish him for a bit or take his wings (oops), they find themselves drawn back to each other over and over again.

“You couldn’t portion love out in spoons or cups or slices. You could only let it grow nad nurture it if you could, cut it down if you had to.”

This story is a work of art, full of pain, love, grief, and so much more. I loved how beautiful the ending was.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.

Thank you to @tordotcompub for my ARC. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you to Tor for an eARC and finished copy of this!

4.5 stars

This was written beautifully with so many amazing quotes!! I just wish I was a little bit more connected to the characters and that we had some more worldbuilding but other than that I still LOVED this so much!!

This is a book about love. The deep and unyielding love a Vitrine has for her city, the affectionate and fond love she has for its people, and the mingled passion that is hate and love together she feels for the angel she has trapped on Earth. It’s not a book with a focused plot, captivating characters, or sermonizing on good versus evil. For all that Vitrine is a demon, she isn’t a biblical demon, or a demon out of pop culture.

Vitrine is a force of nature, purpose given shape. Her purpose, her “heart,” as it were, takes the form of a book in which she write memories of Azril, the names of the people who caught her eye, the design of streets and shops. From flowers and bees, to merchant ships and glassblowers, so long as they were part of Azril, Vitrine has loved them.

And then the angels came and took Azril away. Buildings destroyed, people dead, animals and plants birds and insects … gone. Everything she loved, everything she is, was and will be gone. And so Vitrine begins again, digging through rubble with her own hands, coaxing a river to flow back in its original path. She digs at weeds, encourages trees to grow and winds to scour away dust and ash. But Vitrine is not alone. One angel looked back at the destruction he had made and Vitrine cursed him. Now he, like her, wanders the world, heartless, soulless, and caught inexorably in Vitrine’s purpose.

She will remake Azril. She will live again.

I love Nghi Vo’s writing. It’s poetic, it’s elegant, it’s sinuous and flowing and, when it hits, it hits hard. Here, it feels quieter and more mournful. It isn’t about the big moments, but the small ones. This isn’t a book focused on character arcs and growth, even though it is, ostensibly, told through Vitrine’s eyes. Instead, it’s just a story about a city. A city that fell, and clawed its way back up, rising from the ashes not like a phoenix to spread its wings, but like a child, crawling, climbing to its knees before slowly, unsteadily finding it’s feet. Staggering, tottering, from walking to running to joy and glory … only to fall again. Because cities fall.

If you love world building and history, you’ll have a good time with this book. It isn’t about the army at the gates or surviving the plague or building a library; it’s about how each of those things shapes a city. And how the city is shaped by the people who love it. There is so much subtle world building and mythologizing as we watch Azril go from a decadent and glorious moment to a ruin, from the ruin to a ghost, and then reborn to something living again. Through Vitrine’s eyes, as she compares the current Azril, the thing she is making now, to the ghost of what it was before, we get history and stories about culture. And in seeing the new people come to Azril, born to it, we see different cultures with their own passions, hopes, and dreams come together to shape something new. It’s an interesting book, and I love it, but I can see how this might not be to everyone’s taste.

This is also a book that does immortality right. Vitrine isn’t mortal, has never been mortal. She watches generations come and go. She stands still for months, glances up and years have passed, and yet … as we see with the angel, who turns his immortal focus onto a young man for a year’s time, it’s exhausting to have to be present. To have to be aware, to narrow their attention to one living thing, rather than to allow themselves to see the entirety before them.

Vitrine feels immortal, ageless, and alien. Her love is generous and vast. From a bee to a seed to stones in the ground, and even, occasionally, people. But only so long as it’s Azril. The people in her city she loves; the people who leave it, she remembers. And to see how — as she has made Azril her heart, so too Azril has made her its.

And what of the angel? Vitrine doesn’t care. If he’s not tugging at her sleeves for attention, he’s not worth the notice. And when he’s not in her city, she thinks no more of him … but every year that passes, as she has cursed him, so too has she cursed herself. It isn’t exactly romance; it isn’t exactly not. And the resolution of what’s between them, the shape of what they are, what they are not, and what they will be … well, I liked it.

Thank you to the published and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.
A tiny book full of stories: recounted by a demon, ensared with a city she built out of love, or perhaps hunger, or something else, because Vitrine is chaos and her motives are not to be questioned. No whys in how Vitrine acts, so much sorrow when, instead, a group of angels keeps the promise of their nature and wipes away the work of Vitrine, who had cherished and encouraged the freedom that the Heavens so much despise.
The book follows the reconstruction of Azril by one desperate but strong willed Vitrine, and the effects of the curse she put inside one of the angels who destroyed her most prized possessions. She recounts the lives of those she lost, never binding them but quietly overlooking their fate, while the angel cannot seem to be away from her, due to the curse. Azril will come back to life, but different, not as Vitrine expected, and something else of unexpected nature will stir the chaos in her.
Such a good little book. Loved how it depicts non human characters by not binding them to any representation that’s already codified, making it so that readers of all faiths of none can imagine their forms and course of action. Love is the real engine of this book, in the twisted way Vitrine feels it, and it was such a pleasure to read her tales.

i love nghi vo, but i've always disliked these sort of star-crossed ill-fated romances because they feel instalovey to me. if the stakes are this high there isn't going to be like banter to be charmed by, and in fact this was mostly biting and sky fighting and throwing bits of rotten corpses at each other.

until this became a love letter to a fictional city.

i still didn't love our characters (who felt more like figures than people) or their relationship (you can keep being frenemies creating a culture together as far as i'm concerned), but i love the strange short fantastical books nghi vo keeps coming up with.

The City in Glass is my first by Nghi Vo. It won't be my last. The prose was stunning. The story was incredibly thematic and atmospheric. There is no doubt that Vo can write. I loved the characters. However, for a novella that is roughly 215 pages, it felt overly long. As the story continued, my interest waned. It felt very lit fic, and that is not a genre I love. If you loved This is How You Lose the Time War, I think you will love this. Otherwise, mileage may vary.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Publishing, and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is an incredible book. Beautifully written, atmospheric, and full of life. We watch a city get destroyed and sit in the aftermath of that destruction. We see a lonely creature find comfort in another who is so different yet so similar to herself as she struggles to rebuild and honor her grief. We see humans do human things--they live, they die, they make mistakes, start wars, and comfort one another. Nghi Vo is an amazing author and I will forever continue to read her work. If you've ever wanted to read a love letter to a city, this is your book.


I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Thank you Tor Publishing for the opportunity to read this arc!

Nghi Vo inevitably writes sentences that haunt the hollow recesses of my brain long after I have finished reading them. While I enjoy her writing, this novella was not for me. I am actually heartbroken that I didn’t love this. I did enjoy the last few chapters, so I may still try the audio version because I sometimes worry that I’m losing my ability to love a book traditionally.

This isn’t your typical burning with passion romance more one with two beings who each carry a piece of the other inside them. These two see the world and time differently, and their romance is more of an extreme slow burn. It’s not your typical I cannot stop reading this book give me it all type of read but it was a beautiful sit with you type of book.

Three words to describe this book: melancholy, lyrical & beautiful.

City in Glass by Nghi Vo
Dark fantasy/Literary Fiction

The story of a demon coming to terms with the devastation of a city she has loved, and facing the one responsible for its destruction.

Sometimes a book just really captures your heart and your imagination. I loved so many things about this-
- enemies to lovers
- lyrical prose
- setting as a character
- fascinating world building

It’s definitely a vibes over plot kind of book and was reminiscent to me of This is How You Lose the Time War and was actually similar in length also. If you enjoy character-driven stories or learning about unique and interesting worlds, this probably is a great pick for you.

Thank you Tor/Forge for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.