I read and loved Marie Lu's work as a young adult, and I was so excited to see she was stepping into the adult world! Just like her previous works, Lu doesn't write a typical good vs. evil story. She writes a human story, where everything lives within the gray area.
When childhood friends Ari and Sam drift apart, it's not because of the typical reasons; new jobs/school/friends, it's because they both become involved in two separate societies that both deal with the magic form of alchemy; the ability to transmute a substance into another. On different sides of a massive chasm, they both have to figure out what they'll sacrifice in order to make more for themselves from the hand they were dealt.
The characters are what stood out to me in this story. Even the side characters have back stories and nuance that isn't often focused on in these complex worlds that have a lot to cover in a short time.
The magic system was very engaging and created a super interesting world to be explored, however I wish it could have been fleshed out deeper. There are different kinds of alchemist that are present in this book, but the names and abilities of each level are only briefly mentioned. Even the abilities of the main characters are glossed over in the technical sense and displayed only through action.
One of the things that took me out of the story were the intimate scenes experienced by both main characters. They seemed somewhat unnecessary in the way that they seemed to only be added in order to categorize this book as adult as opposed to YA. They felt mildly out of place and although the relationship that the scenes established were important, I feel as though it was already clear where those relationships stood and was already implied.

All in all, I think it was a great step into the adult world from an established YA author, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Sam and Ari meet as children, both looking for a friend and a connection. They keep many secrets from each other while still opening their hearts. When their paths diverge, each living a similar life on opposite sides of the fight, they think they’ve found what they were looking for: family, acceptance, validation. When the violence increases and their paths are forced to cross again they can’t help but think about what they’d lost and what more they may be forced to sacrifice. When it comes time to choose whether to save yourself or the one you love, what would you choose?

Marie Lu really said I’m going to write an adult fantasy and wrote a damn adult fantasy. I REALLY enjoyed this. The only thing keeping me from 5 stars is I was not completely bought into the romance. I think there needed to be a bit more yearning/connection in the beginning for me to truly feel for their pain being on either side of a gang war.

Regardless, I feel like I was hooked from page 1 (ok maybe page 20, but whatever). I think the urban fantasy nature of the story really added to the imagery. I really enjoyed the fantasy elements as well. Lu really eased you into the world with the two main characters as children learning about the magic of alchemy and sand.

If I had to compare this book to others I’ve read, I’d say it’s a combination of Jade City and The Poppy Wars. With the rival gangs and assassinations, it ended up being pretty gruesome. I relate this to The Poppy Wars, because I do think Red City leaned heavily into the exploration of a young girl who was dealt a hard lot in life and how she navigated the tough decisions she had to make in life to survive. I’m really interested in seeing where Sam goes next and the impact the events of Red City will have on her actions.

Really looking forward to book 2!

<i>Thank you to NetGalley and Tori for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!</i>

my rule when it comes to arcs is that i will never dnf them, no matter how much I might not be enjoying them. red city made me come really damn close to breaking that rule, though.

onto the positives first: the world building and the alchemy sistem are set up quite well, they're fun and interesting, though they suffer from being touched upon very superficially and quickly, considering the book is way more interested in the drama than the backbone of its sistem - which is fine, since from the very beginning sam and ari are sympathetic, interesting characters, incredibly different but so similar in their circumstances, and you immediately find yourself rooting for them. the writing is quick and engaging, and I underlined so many passages, especially from sam's chapters, the relationship with her mom has such depth and paints an extremely powerful picture of generational trauma.

now to the bad, and it's a big bad for me: this book made me so deeply uncomfortable. both the main characters are extremely sexualized from their childhood, especially ari since he is, and I quote, "charismatic" because of his talent for alchemy. but being constantly reminded that people are leering at him as a child, a message that is very much realistic and important to bring into the light, is one thing, slapping me with a 100% gratuitous smut scene as soon as he is of age is another.
same goes for sam - it's one thing for her to have sexual thoughts for her older acquaintance at fifteen, even though her thinking that being blindfolded and on her knees in front of him for her alchemy trial was alluring made my skin crawl, it's another to include a detailed smut scene of her sleeping with the man who is essentially her GROOMER years later and having him admit that he'd wanted it for a long time. excuse me???? there is not plot point or message that stands at that point, it's just icky. you can't have your cake and eat it too, either this send a message that sexualizing children is bad and disgusting, that it makes you a villain, or it has the (multiple) gratuitous smut scenes with older people who knew them as children, I feel the need to reiterate, which makes them groomers, again.

that is unfortunately the reason behind the low rating, I would have enjoyed this a lot if it wasn't for the above issues that made it an extremly uncomfortable read for me.

thank you to netgalley and tor publishing for the arc.

“You are my heart. If you die, I die.”

Alchemy is a secret art of transformation, sold as a drug called ‘sand’ that turns it’s users into idealized versions of themselves. In Angel City, two rival syndicates—Grand Central and Lumines—control the trade, locked in a fragile balance of power.
Sam, the ambitious daughter of a poor single mother, is determined to rise within Grand Central. Ari, once her closest friend, is a gifted apprentice of Lumines. As they find themselves on opposing sides of a brewing war, their shared past collides with dangerous ambitions—and the cost of perfection and power may be more than either can bear.

“Alchemy is the science of changing something into something more desirable, isn’t it? So transform yourself. Make yourself better. The rest will follow.”

I want to start by saying that this book ripped my heart out, chewed on it, spat it out, and fed it to a pack of wolves. It’s heartbreaking and painful, but also so beautifully written, and so exquisitely constructed. Although it’s fantasy, it felt so achingly real. It had themes of love and betrayal, pain and loss, divergence, the pursuit of perfection, and corruption.

Overall, I liked this book.. I wanted to sit on my review because at first I wasn't quite sure how i felt about it, because the pacing in the beginning was tough for me to get through. (It had a slow build, but PLEASE if you're interested in this don't let that turn you off) After I pushed through though, I was so engaged, and I felt myself so captivated by both Ari and Sam's stories. They're both so complex, and well executed characters that I honestly didn't want this book to ever end.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC

Marie Lu you’ve done it again! She’s such an underrated not spoken about author and I have no clue why!

This book was so good I was sucked into it from the start. Alchemy is such a cool concept and the way Marie Lu portrays it is so unique.

Sam, Will and Ari are amazing characters, I love the change in POV (although we don’t get Wills)

I definitely would recommend this book to a friend

Firstly, I love Marie Lu books! This book was no expecting, I loved it and I am obsessed! I can’t wait to be in the lines to pick up a physical copy of this book on release day!

I've never actually read any of Marie Lu's other works, despite their popularity (though they have been on my forever growing TBR), so I wasn't too sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, as I believe this is her first adult work after writing mostly YA, and it was very well done. The first chunk of the book took me a moment to really get into, but once the story got going, it really got going! I really enjoyed the characters and the world she has created and will be scrambling for the sequel when it comes out (hopefully soon because I need answers). Thank you so much for the eARC!

OH. MY. GOD. Marie Lu, you’ve done it AGAIN!! I grew up devouring her YA books, and Red City was like a dark, glittering, grown-up version of everything I’ve ever loved from her — and I was obsessed from page one!! Sam and Ari completely stole my heart — the tension, the longing, the betrayal, the aching pull of two people on opposite sides who still see each other… I was CLUTCHING my Colorsoft, squealing, gasping, and whisper-screaming the whole way through!! This world is dark, edgy, and magical, and I am already counting down the days for book two!! Marie Lu, I’m your forever fan!!

I couldn't finish this book, it had to many seat errors and sexually explicit scenes. The story seemed interesting but really dragged as well.

Okay, so my plans for today were to read a couple chapters, get some stuff done and then continue on with the paperback I started yesterday. That is not what happened. I applied for an ARC for this because the premise sounded interesting, and I loved the cover. I thought it would be an enjoyable read, but I did not expect it to blow me away the way it did.

I could not put this down. I ended up finishing the book today and it is pretty much all I focused on today. I loved the writing style and the characters and world instantly drew me in. There were a lot of great quotes that I saved, but will not be sharing due to this being an ARC copy. I will likely be sharing them once I get a copy of the book when it's published though.

Getting to switch between different POVs was really interesting, and really offered another perspective on things. There were times I didn't know who I was rooting for. The characters were morally ambiguous and I loved that. There was no obvious good side or evil side. Both had good and evil, and it really depended on whose lens you were viewing the world through. This book felt really dark, but beautiful at the same time. The world itself was dark. The violence, the threats and the bad things that happened. But the characters and the relationship between Sam and Ari was so beautiful, and the writing style really made everything feel beautiful.

The complexity and depth of the world and characters was really well done. I really loved Sam, and I really loved Ari. The side characters didn't really stand out to me, but that was probably because of how amazing the main characters were. Seeing their struggles with each other and with their decisions and lives was intriguing. Sam I found especially interesting because something you see as a negative at the beginning (her being unnoticeable) is actually something that becomes a power to her.

There were parts of this book that made me a bit squeamish, but I mean this in a good way. The wording and imagery painted was really fantastic and well done.

I don't read a lot of urban fantasy books, but I am so glad I read this one.

This book absolutely amazed me. One thing I hate about ARCs is having to wait that much longer to read the next book! But I will absolutely be watching for the release date of that one and will be immediately scooping up a copy of this one when it officially releases.

Thank you so much to Tor and NetGalley for this ARC! All thoughts in this review are my own!

Marie Lu just doesn't miss. This took me a bit longer to get into than her YA books, but once I realized where those two characters were heading I got intrigued. I hope to see more books by this author, it's fun to see her get to play with more mature themes/concepts.

As a long time reader of Marie Lu, I should have expected a heartbreaking ending and I was still unprepared. The world building and magic systems were so intricate and advanced. I loved that part of it so much. I kept waiting for the romance to come together and every scene that Ari and Sam were on the page left me pining. I know it isn’t billed as romantasy but the lover of romance in me wants their endgame.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor for the ARC.

Marie Lu flawlessly sticks the landing in her adult debut that feels like Jade City with bits of Babel.

Sam and Ari meet as children, both on opposite sides of a spectrum: Sam has very little and goes largely unnoticed by nearly everyone, whereas Ari commands attention wherever he shows up. Attending the same school, Ari notices-- and envies--Sam's ability to move through life like that.

Sam happened to catch the attention of Rudra as a child, who told him he had a very strong spirit and then spoke to his family about taking him into the world of alchemy, under the wings of Lumines, a gang that is concocting Sand, a drug that's distilled from the philosopher's stone and is said to strengthen all the qualities of a person, good or bad.

While he's learning alchemy, he forges a bond with Sam, writing her superficial but still deeply personal letters about their lives. Both feel as though the other is the only one who truly gets and sees them.

When Sam's mother is badly injured at her job at a restaurant due to a gas leak, Sam elects to take her chances and throw herself at the mercy of Diamond Taylor, a local philanthropist and patron of the arts. While trying to get a minute of Diamond's time, Sam is actually spotted in the shadows by Diamond's son, Will. As Sam overheard some crucial information and repeats it back to Diamond flawlessly, Diamond decides to take her under the wings of her syndicate, Grand Central, the gang making the most top quality sand.

And as the two navigate their new lives and identities in these gangs, they keep coming back to who they were when they met as children.

If you're familiar with Lu's other works, there are winks and nods to them here, as well as themes she's explored in her YA series. This is a delightful transition to adult; there's no missteps or awkwardness, and while Lu has treaded these themes in her YA works, she's free to explore them with a more mature lens here.

As this is the first book in the series, I look forward to seeing where our protagonists end up. I'm so excited to see the reading community, who likely grew up reading Lu's YA series, come along for this journey, and follow Sam and Ari.

I was so excited for this book and sadly it let me down a little bit. The first 25% was in my opinion the strongest. Both leaning about the character and the world was fascinating and I was super excited to see where the plot was going. After that it kind of lost some of the appeal. I still found the plot to be super entertaining and the characters interesting but so much of it is built around the tension between the leads. While I felt this in the first half there wasn’t really enough to make this tension continuously felt between the two. Felt a bit like being told they were in love rather than shown. Which was too bad cause the plot and the world were super compelling otherwise.

I really liked this book, but had a hard time getting through the beginning as it was incredibly slow - it did pick up the pace less than a quarter of the way through and then we were getting somewhere! I really love to see what sort of magic systems authors create when dealing with alchemy and this one was amazing as it intertwined with the socio-political aspects of the book. And that cliffhanger… absolutely brutal… like genuinely… wtf.

Something to note that I didn’t quite vibe with (this is a personal preference) was the third person present tense, but I powered through that to get to the amazing storyline that Marie Lu has created! Can’t wait for the second book!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

4.25⭐

Marie Lu nos ofrece una historia envuelta en una ambientación cargada de alquimia, secretos y tensiones sociales. Ambientada en Ciudad Ángel, la novela sigue a Sam Lang, una joven brillante e invisible para el mundo, que descubre un universo oculto de alquimistas, poderosos sindicatos y transformaciones imposibles.

Desde pequeña, Sam ha sido testigo del sacrificio y la fortaleza de su madre, una inmigrante que lucha cada día por mantenerlas a flote. Pero todo cambia cuando Sam presencia un acto de alquimia real y, fascinada, se adentra en una búsqueda de conocimiento prohibido que desata consecuencias dolorosas y personales.

Paralelamente conocemos a Ari, un joven reclutado desde la India por una misteriosa organización llamada Lumines. Ari lucha por estar a la altura de las expectativas de quienes lo sacaron de su hogar, al tiempo que se ve atraído por Sam, cuya inteligencia, sensibilidad y rebeldía despiertan en él algo más profundo.

A través de cartas secretas, ambos personajes desarrollan una conexión que es tan dulce como desgarradora, mientras el mundo que los rodea se vuelve cada vez más peligroso.

Lu construye una historia con un fuerte trasfondo social, explorando temas como la pobreza, la migración, el elitismo, el trauma generacional y la ambición personal. La alquimia, más allá de su componente mágico, es una poderosa metáfora del deseo de transformación: de uno mismo, del entorno, del destino.



Me encantó el libro, y no le di una calificación más alta solo porque la última parte se sintió muy apresurada. Sé que no tiene un final cerrado porque habrá una continuación, pero aun así, la forma en que se desarrollaron esos últimos capítulos fue demasiado rápida.


Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest

I absolutely loved this book! I have only read one other book by Marie Lu (despite my daughter insisting I read more), and I fell in love with her writing reading this! I could hardly put it down. Even when there was no dramatic action taking place, the writing was gripping and kept me intrigued to find out what would happen next.

I found the world building to be well done and magic system to be very original. The characters were complex, and having chapters from their own individual perspectives helps the reader to sympathize with them. I fell in love with these characters and can't wait to see where this story leads in book 2!!

I enjoyed this book. It was a combination of Alchemy, The Godfather, and star-crossed lovers. This is a fast-paced story about two gangs that recruit the best young people to perform Alchemy to defend their criminal empires. Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation. It is an exclusive power wielded by the crime syndicates in the form of sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful and charismatic.

I enjoyed the pace of the story and the characters. Sam and Ari were friends in school until their recruitment into opposite crime syndicates and Alchemy training pulled them apart. Both characters are well-developed and have a good story.

You will root for each one to cross paths again.

It can sometimes be rocky when YA authors transition to writing for adults, but Marie Lu pulled it off seamlessly! The same action-filled plotlines and fleshed-out characters that I've always loved, this time with magic and mystery.