As always, I am a huge fan of Nghi Vo and her writing and will follow her down any writing path her chooses. This story was as great as her others, with a very devasting love story (not romance I would say) between a devil and an angel. Not my new favorite of Vo's, but I still had to lay on my back in the dark to process that ending.

Well, hmm. I don’t know how I feel about this one. It is a beautifully written story, as every Nghi Vo story is beautiful. I’ve also noticed many times that her books are better on a reread because knowing the broad strokes it’s easier to pick up the smaller threads, and I can The City in Glass following that pattern.

All that said, it does a lot of really interesting things regarding grief, autonomy, and community. This is a love story, but not a romance. The ending left me feeling very what the fuck and that’s a large part of why I don’t know if I enjoyed this yet, because I don’t know if the ending was worth the journey, as much as I was engrossed. I definitely recommend this, especially if you’ve enjoyed previous Nghi Vo works.

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo is an intriguing concept novella travelling through the experiences of the demon Vitrine in a very unique narrative

Definitely a novella I will revisit

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group | Tordotcom and Nghi Vo for this ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

I wasn't as immersed in 'The City in Glass' as I have been in Vo's other books ('Siren Queen' and 'The Chosen and the Beautiful'). The writing, however, is just as magical, lyrical and well-structured as always.

Based on the blurb for this book, I went in expecting something more akin to 'Angels Before Man,' but ended up with a meandering tale that I felt was missing the spark from Vo's other writing.

Vitrine, our demon, and her angel have both tender and exciting moments of banter and touching connection. But, there are also many repetitive feuds that become a tad tiresome.

This is all sounding rather critical, but I still greatly enjoyed this story. I love the concept and the writing. I am always under Vo's spell - the way she writes such fascinating fantastical worlds is utterly captivating, and this one is no different.

At the end of the day, still a magical story in Vo's trademark style, but missing a little oomf compared to her other works. I recommend for fan's of Vo, but suggest new readers start elsewhere.

Vitrine is a demon. Centuries ago she found herself in the city of Azril, where she fell in love. Not with a person, but with the city itself. For generations, she is the patron of Azril, seeding chaos but also encouraging the city to grow and flourish. Until one day the angelic host arrives to wipe Azril from the map.

Enraged, Vitrine lashes out at one angel, managing to embed a part of herself in him. No longer pure enough for heaven, this angel becomes an unwilling companion to Vitrine’s slow efforts to rebuild the city of her heart.

It doesn’t really sound like much in the way of story but that’s not the point. The focus is very much on Vitrine, but even then her obsessive building and rebuilding of the city makes that the centre, and seeing everything stripped down to nothing and then layered and re-laid – it’s fascinating, ‘world’ (well, city) building laid out from the foundations.

It’s also a great deal about these two characters, the demon and the angel. But when the latter slaughters thousands, and the former seeks to build and nourish – well, it’s not so black and white as you might assume. It’s also not going to be what you might expect, or at least nothing so simple as a love story between polar opposites. And everything, everything is dark and hard.

The City in Glass is as gorgeously written as anything I’ve tried from the author. It has a lot more sharp edges than any of the Singing Hills novellas, though – I’d go so far as to say ‘starkly beautiful’. There is, perhaps, a lot to ponder here, if you’re so inclined. And if you’re not, well, there’s no shortage of wonderful words and beautifully painted images.

A demon loves her city and the people within. While she delights in the darker parts of life, she doesn't seem to cause them. However, a band of angels destroys the city and its inhabitants because of her wickedness. She curses one angel, who sticks around, falling in love with her. Slowly the city is rebuilt and resettled.

This is an unusual story, I felt like I was waiting for it to start even though I was sucked in. It is hard to describe but I did thoroughly enjoy myself throughout the entire story!

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and Net Galley for the eARC!

This is my first Nghi Vo book and all I can say is wow. Thank you NetGalley and Tor for this e-ARC.

I have a special place in my heart for books that I would call "all vibes." There's not a lot going on here. You have a demon, Vitrine, who adores her City, Azril, a city full of beauty and revelry both. One day some angels come and destroy it. Vitrine, utterly devastated, seeks to rebuild the city from scratch. Oh and one of the angels is trapped with her because she cursed him and he's been ostracized by his own kind. And they s.l.o.w.l.y. fall in love.

And that's the whole plot, but the writing is just so lush and captivating that I really didn't need a lot going on to be immersed in the world of Azril, or I suppose New Azril. That is the only location for this book and we spend lifetimes with Vitrine and Angel as they interact with people as they live and die in Azril.

The characters were wonderfully fleshed out, the story moved me, and I now want to pick up more of Nghi Vo's books. There is really nothing else I want a book to do.

4.5 Stars

I loved every word of this novella. I read it while traveling, and so Vitrine’s love of her city and the arc of its course through history felt perfectly timed for me to appreciate it most.

The writing is gorgeous—I highlighted many lines throughout. Vitrine as a character was beautifully complex, and though I enjoyed the Angel and their arc together, it felt as if the secondary main character (or even the love interest) was more so Azril itself.

Totally unique, I’ve never read anything like it.

This was a really cool concept and I overall liked it. However, I found that the prose was often a bit too purple for my liking, and it felt like the story was a vehicle for the prose rather than the prose supporting the story. I also did not particularly care for the relationship that carried through the story - there was nothing to give me any sort of investment in it so instead it was just annoying; I was much more invested in the relationship between Vitrine and her city. The ending also didn't land well for me at all.

That being said, I think the majority of what I didn't like was entirely down to taste. I've enjoyed Vo's other work - this one just wasn't for me.

One of my absolute favorite things about Vo's Singing Hills series is the world-building. The plot of each of those books is sharp and tightly written, but the world-building always gives me the feeling of having read something broader and richer than a novella, and it's the world of Singing Hills that more than anything else has me coming back to the next book for more.

This book is like that, but on steroids. I'd say this is about 70% delightful (or tragic!) romp through the city of Azril, 20% demon/angel lore, and 10% love story. And I absolutely loved it for that. Sure, I would've like a stronger sense of difference between the Azril-that-was and the new Azril, and maybe one or two more stories of the people who had lived there (something in the vein of the artist who drew the truth, or Malabec Mercer), and like a shade more about angels (one short conversation about his home would've been great!), but those are quibbles.

If you like lore splashed all over the place and delicious world-building and a plot that's more scaffolding than forward thrust (you probably have a rough idea where all this is going from the blurb) then this is the book for you. I enjoyed this so much, and hope that Vo chooses to write more in this world - or something else with a setting that's strange and wonderful.

It’s well written. I usually prefer character driven fiction. This story is focused on the experiences of the demon (seemed like more of a demigod really) who loved her city that was destroyed by angry angels all the other characters don’t matter too much. The book is more a history of a city than the story of the demon and the humans who live and die around her. Well written and towards the literary end of the genre. Everything I’ve read by this author has been excellent so if the description of this book doesn’t quite catch you look at her other books and find one that does speak to you. She’s well worth reading.

What a beautifully written world and story. I was captivated as soon as I started to read this book. But, I felt that I needed a bit more context of a plot line. I could tell you more about the scenery.

Thank you to Nigh Vo, Tor Publishing Group, Tordotcom, and Netgalley for this free advanced reader copy of "The City in Glass" for an honest review. At this point, I will never be able to resist reaching out and seeking out the newest Nghi Vo book. I started trying them out here on Netgalley, and I have fallen forever in love with their worlds. This world is a testament to the long, slow march of time, and all that is born, glitters, rusts, dies, and is born again.

It's about a demon who loved a city so hard she mourned it with all she had within her heart, soul, and glass case. It's about an angel who was perfect as he was made, cursed for his arrogance and shortsightedness. It's about the city that grows on the ashes of those actions and those beings. It's about love and death, about growth and change. It's about genuinely examining who you were, who you are, and who you might be. It's about loving someone for who they are and not who you assumed they were or the assumptions they might be lumped into.

It's about books and time, mothering as a calling both beautiful and heart-shattering, immortals woven into the mortality of everything around them, and the importance of every tiny spec of life. It's all of this, none of this, and everything else a sky of stars can be filled with.

I really enjoyed this slow burn buildup of a demon and an angel coexisting in a toppled city.

First of all the style of writing of Vo is unsurpassed. The imagery and way of drying the reader into the story cannot be accomplished by anybody else. So much is always accomplished within her short Novellas. The character development of vitrine in particular was absolutely stellar. I related to the loneliness and heartache that she experienced throughout this short novel.

I thought the dynamic between the demon and the angel was interesting and somewhat of a flop on what is typically happening between a demon and an angel. While the angel did not seem inherently evil or bad to me in anyway he definitely was not the shining good guy that they are usually portrayed as. Vitrine had a lot of emotion and love for those in the city, which is not typical of a demon in most stories. I enjoyed that change of pace, and I thought it added a lot of complexity and richness to the story.

Overall, another stellar installment Novella from this lovely author. I will continue to cherish her work.

The setting was soooo immersive, loved how the characters relationship blossomed. I really enjoyed the passage of time.

This was not the book for me :(

The writing was beautiful and the way Nghi Vo handled themes of grief here was so well done. Unfortunately, I needed a little more in terms of world-building and character development to fully enjoy this. The romance also didn't work for me with the way it was(n't) developed.

I would definitely recommend this to people who like non-linear narrative and whimsical/fantastical vibes. If stories about angels and demons falling in love is up your alley as well, this could definitely be the book for you!

I honestly spent a chunk of this book wondering if it was an allegory, and maybe it is and I'm too literal to embrace it. Either way, I enjoyed this book, which spends as much time deep in grief as depicting divinity.

This one is hard for me to review! I had to think about it for a good while after finishing it to collect my thoughts!

First off, Nghi Vo is a master of crafting emotionally devastating minutiae. There is no detail here that isn’t profoundly impactful, and I guess that’s the point. As a reader, I felt Vitrine’s rage and grief because of all the supremely human, supremely inconsequential details this ageless being held inside her. Every crumb of the lives moving around her felt vital to the story, vital to understanding the demon at the heart of the narrative. Excellently done.

I also LOVED Vitrine and her angel. The sometimes deeply passionate and steady, sometimes mercurial and otherworldly demon immediately had my heart. Her angel, with his deep grief and rage was a compelling mirror, and I found myself holding my breath to see what would happen to the pair next as they coexisted in the city.

Both pacing and plot were strong for 80% of the book, and I found it an easy, balanced read. Toward the end, however, I feel like something didn’t quite settle in to its niche. I feel like the climactic city conflict was one that was, more or less, presented as plainly as things we as readers were expected to take in stride over the course of the narrative, so I didn’t really feel the emotional impact and devastation that I was meant to, I think. I was frankly confused by the resolution to the conflict, or why all of a sudden this powerful, capable demon needed the particular resolution she got. I needed to understand more the why of it, and I was left a little unsure.

In terms of the denouement, I…was disappointed, I think. Perhaps it was simply a matter of this being a different kind of story than I expected, but it felt hollow, somehow. As I ponder, perhaps the significance will come to me, but in the meantime I’m left feeling a little sad it ended how it did.

Anyway, I still recommend it and will happily handsell it at work!

To be quite honest, I don’t even know how to describe this book… but I know one thing… I absolutely loved it. Vo solidified their self as a favorite author of mine with The Singing Hills Cycle, but this might be my new favorite. The writing was lyrical, the world building was so unique, and I loved the non-linear timeline of these immortal beings who ended up loving each other so tenderly. This book is definitely a vibes only book, but I found that it worked really well. The characters were complex and well fleshed out. I know this won’t work for everyone but it really worked for me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first book I’ve read by Nghi Vo, and it definitely won’t be my last! "The City in Glass" is beautifully written, with incredible emotional depth and world-building.

We follow Vitrine, who grieves but refuses to give up, slowly rebuilding her beloved city. The audiobook is narrated by Susan Dalian, who perfectly captures the poetic and atmospheric tone, making it even more captivating. Though the plot is light and the timeline non-linear, the unique blend of fantasy, philosophy, and introspection, paired with lyrical prose, makes this a must-listen for fans of immersive storytelling.