John Wick meets Full Metal Alchemist in this high-octane thriller by Marie Lu, RED CITY is the gangster novel you never knew you needed.

Lyrical and lush, stirring and sweeping, with tightly woven world building and the exact correct amount of ennui dripped, like paint, into the pail of dystopian desperation. Highly recommend.

This was such an interesting spin on crime syndicates by way of alchemy. The magic system was so freaking cool, and the worldbuilding was excellent. I was so deeply invested in Ari and Sam on their respective journeys. Can't wait to see what comes next!

As a longtime fan of Marie Lu’s YA work, I was really curious to see how her voice would translate to an adult debut. Red City delivers. It’s sharp, stylish, and ambitious, blending the sleek danger of The Godfather with the magical intensity of The Magicians, all set in a glittering, corrupted alternate Los Angeles.

This world runs on sand, an alchemical drug that transforms people into the “best” versions of themselves—for a price. The rival syndicates who control it, Grand Central and Lumines, feel equal parts corporate and criminal. Watching Sam and Ari, childhood friends turned enemies, get pulled deeper into those worlds was both heartbreaking and addictive.

Lu explores power, identity, immigrant ambition, and the cost of striving toward perfection with an emotional weight I appreciated. Sam in particular is a standout, with a ruthless vulnerability that grounds the book even as the stakes escalate into betrayal and magic-fueled violence.

I wavered between four and five stars because while the setup is excellent, a few sections in the middle dragged, and I occasionally wanted more from the side characters. Still, the ending lands. It’s satisfying on its own, even if there’s more to come.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Another strong crossover into adult, as Marie Lu’s Red City crafts a magical tale of alchemy and crime, with somewhat of a Romeo and Juliet romance at the center.

Red City signals a sophisticated, thrilling, and potentially heartbreaking exploration of magic, ambition, and the ties that bind, even across battle lines.

This is definitely my top read of 2025 so far.

Sam & Ari deserve the entire world & I cannot wait for book 2.

This book was action packed — and sooo stressful. I loved every single second of it.

Did I mention I cannot wait for book 2? 😭

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!!

Having grown up with Marie Lu’s YA novels on my shelf as a preteen in the 2010s, reading her adult debut Red City felt like a weird full circle moment for me.

I’m so happy to say that I really, really loved this book. I was fully entranced while reading - it drew me in and didn’t let go until the end.

Though set in a darker, dystopian and fantastical version of our world, Red City explores themes that are still very raw and grounded.

Story
The story centers around two main characters, Ari and Sam, who we first meet as children, each facing very different challenges shaped by their respective cultural backgrounds and circumstances.

Ari, growing up in India, is recruited at a young age into the Lumines - a powerful alchemist group - after his immense magical potential is discovered. His family is facing poverty, and he’s offered a life-changing opportunity: to leave everything behind and train abroad, in exchange for steady financial support sent back to them. The cost is steep. He is forced to abandon his language, his home, and the very foundation of his identity.

Sam has grown up in Angel City (a dystopian version of LA) from infancy, as the daughter of a single mother, who immigrated from China as an adult. Her mother does everything she can to support her on limited means. Sam’s secret fascination with alchemy and a moment of desperation, leads her to seek out Grand Central, an alchemist group that rivals the Lumines. She, too, is drawn into their hidden world of power and secrets, where learning to fight and survive suddenly means stability and safety for herself and her mother.

Both attending the same school, Ari and Sam slowly build a quiet, deeply felt friendship. They share an understanding of what it means to feel out of place - both alienated by their upbringing, their burdens, and through their cultural identities. But they hide their alchemist affiliations from one another, and as they grow into adulthood, they both grapple with the difficulties of their choices and their lives as members of their respective alchemist groups.

Themes
This book hit so many themes, and it hit them hard.

Marie Lu writes the immigrant (and first-generation immigrant) experience with an honesty and emotional weight that floored me. Ari is uprooted, cut off from his family, his language, his country and placed into an environment where assimilation and excellence are expected in return for his survival. Sam, on the other hand, exists in-between: trying to navigate a fraught relationship with her mother, shaped by the pressure of trying to meet her mother’s expectations, while navigating a society that rarely sees her.

Both of them are driven by love for their families, and that love is complicated, precisely because it’s wrapped up in obligation, guilt, and the desperate need to succeed for their family’s sake. There’s a quiet heartbreak in all of it, especially in how both characters are forced to mature too quickly.

Ari and Sam often feel like outsiders - not just because of the powers they’re developing, but because of their aforementioned cultural backgrounds and their own grappling with them. Their relationship is formed through shared experiences, mutual protectiveness, and emotional understanding. It was beautiful to see it develop.

My one small gripe with this book is that I wished we had seen more of Sam and Ari together on the page, during their formative years. While I completely understand that much of their connection is built on shared circumstances, hidden lives, and emotional parallels, I did feel like their bond could have used just a bit more time to breathe. The intensity of their feelings in adulthood makes sense thematically, but I personally would’ve connected to it even more with a few extra scenes deepening that foundation between them.

Still, there is so much to unpack in this book (more than I can expand upon in a review). It’s rich, layered, deeply introspective and (to me) achingly relatable.

The Fantasy
The fantasy elements are incredibly well done. The alchemical magical system is introduced gradually and organically. We learn about the world of alchemy as Sam and Ari do, which made the immersion feel natural and never overwhelming. It struck a great balance between detailed, while still being engaging.

In turn, the fight scenes involving characters who used alchemy were sharp, creative, and grounded in the character dynamics. I loved that alchemy wasn’t just flashy magic, but a structured, complex and layered system that felt well-thought-out and intricate.

And Angel City is such an intriguing backdrop! It’s gritty, dangerous, and layered with syndicate tensions that feel just as grounded as they do fantastical. It’s the kind of world you can see and feel while reading, thanks to the author’s cinematic and immersive writing.

Final Thoughts
Red City is one of those rare fantasy books that hits on every level. It’s emotional, thematic, and just straight-up cool. It has a cinematic, high-stakes feel, but it’s also deeply personal and thoughtful in ways that surprised me.

If you’re into character-driven fantasy that isn’t afraid to dig deep - into identity, family, power, and everything in between - this one’s going to stick with you. It definitely stuck with me (and will probably stick with me for a while.)



Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Red City was a dazzling, brutal, and utterly hypnotic ride—a brilliant adult debut that delivered everything I hoped for and more. With the tension of The Godfather, the magical complexity of The Magicians, and a lyrical, razor-sharp prose style all her own, the author built a world that felt both unsettlingly familiar and wildly fantastical.
Set in a glittering yet cutthroat alternate Los Angeles, Red City was steeped in the seductive danger of alchemy—a power used not for healing or enlightenment, but for ambition, vanity, and control. The drug “sand,” which turned users into idealized versions of themselves, was a brilliant metaphor woven seamlessly into the city’s crime-laced culture. It felt decadent, deadly, and disturbingly believable.
Sam and Ari were compelling, beautifully drawn protagonists whose histories, choices, and inner battles carried the emotional weight of the story. Sam’s scrappy hunger to rise from poverty and Ari’s conflicted loyalty to a life he never truly chose made them feel like inevitable enemies and impossible soulmates. Their star-crossed tension crackled across the page, full of yearning and heartbreak.
The author didn’t shy away from darkness—this was a world of betrayals, bloodshed, and impossible choices—but every violent twist and magical reveal felt earned. The politics between Grand Central and Lumines were rich and layered, and the magic system was intricately imagined without ever dragging down the pace.
Red City was not only a gripping fantasy, but also a sharp meditation on perfection, power, and the dangerous beauty of reinvention. This was the author at her most ambitious—and in my opinion, her best yet. I’ll be thinking about Sam and Ari’s choices (and that jaw-dropping ending) for a long, long time.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Wow! Amazing! Everything I look for in a fantasy, enemies to lovers, alchemy, brutal fight scenes, immersive writing and incredible world building?! This had it all, I couldn't tear my eyes away I'm sad it's ended I might re read it right away, I really loved this and want more!

Red City will destroy you as you hang on to every single word.

I cannot express how much I loved this novel. If I could rate higher than 5 stars I would. This is a book that will forever be on my mind and I will never be able to forget.

Red City has alchemy, friends to enemies mixed with some love stories, and was written so well I didn’t find myself looking at how much time I had left until nearing the end as I didn’t want it to stop.

Marie Lu’s adult debut Red City is a really impressive adult fantasy that lays the groundwork for what looks to be a very captivating modern urban fantasy series.

Warring crime syndicate made up of alchemists (magic users) fight for power and control as two star-crossed characters come of age in this exciting novel that takes some common YA tropes (magical education, love triangles,) and matures them up a bit for an older audience.

The magic system of alchemy is well developed and intriguing , I hope Marie Lu expands upon it in future instalments.

The central romance was a bit too YA for my tastes but I think it will really do well with its target audience likely readers of Marie Lu’s earlier books who want to take the jump into reading more adult fantasy now that they’re older.

Overall, I found the plot engaging and well-paced, the criminal syndicate / organized crime elements were cool and leave lots of room to be fleshed out and expanded on in later novels and the slow world building of introducing Angel City and dropping other names and places in was well-executed and left me wanting to read more.

The protagonists are both likeable, distinct and well developed and for the most part I enjoyed the character work but would have loved a deeper dive on some of the compelling “villains” in the story.

I’m now going interested in going back and checking out the author’s earlier YA work and look forward to adding The Alchemist series to my must-read list.

4.75 ⭐️ / 5

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Oh. Em. Gee. What a fantastic start to Marie Lu's entrance to the adult fantasy world. Electric! It was everything I want to read, dark, sensual, and just absolutely decadent. It was very well developed, full of drama and intrigue. I was on the hook from the very start and cannot wait for more! Would absolutely recommend.

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

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!!

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.

What an amazing adult debut by Marie Lu!

I have loved all of her YA books that I've read, and always found her writing to be beautiful. She writes such complex, nuanced, morally grey characters, and always manages to change your perspective on what you thought you knew.

I think that both Sam and Ari were morally ambiguous characters that I was rooting for. Which was hard considering they're on opposing sides. I love that we got to see so much of them as kids and really watch their friendship develop and deepen. They had such a special bond, and I love that it was a love and devotion beyond attraction and romance. Their letters were so special!

I did think the way they just picked up kind of once they met again was a little... idk. Insta love vibes feeling, though not insta love at all LMFAO. I don't know how to describe it.

I especially loved the relationship between Sam and her mom. I thought it was fascinating. Especially since we got a bit of her mom's POV which gave us SO MUCH insight into her motivations and thoughts which Sam doesn't have. It completely changed my perspective on things.

I also thought Ari's past and how he got involved in alchemy was super interesting. I hope we do get to see a reunion with his family and see what they thought of all of this.

One of my favorite things was how Marie made it so clear that all of the characters have good and evil inside of them and it really depends on perspective and the side you're on. The knowledge that you have. 

Especially with Will. I think his character is FASCINATING. I can't wait to see what happens with him and where it goes from here because holy shit everything that we learned about him at the end.

I thought this was a fun world and I can't wait to see where it goes from here!

This book blew me away.

I have read every Marie Lu book leading up to this one, and all of them are near and dear to my heart. Her adult debut, however, is no less than life changing. From the first chapter to the last, I was absolutely enthralled by the story, characters, and plot.

Red City takes place in a dystopia LA in which there is a secret society of alchemy. Through alchemy, there are extremely powerful syndicates that are in power over more than any regular citizen could know-not too far off the mark, yeah? Initially we encounter our two main characters: Sam and Ari. At the start of the book, we get to see them as children and watch them evolve as the innocence of their childhood is washed away.

What I loved:
Everything. No, really, I have nothing negative to say about this story. But here are some of the specifics that I adored!
☆Sam's childhood. Sam grew up with a single mother who worked herself to near death to make ends meet. While this is a story many of us are familiar with, it is told in such an intricate way you feel for each and every character involved. You truly can't help but empathize with how Sam grows to resent her loneliness.
☆ Sam's growth. I don't mean this in the sense of "she got older" or "she became a better person" I truly just mean I loved seeing how her character evolved over the story. This is quite possibly one of the best examples of how an environment vs. upbringing vs. someone's very soul impacts who they become
☆ Ari: I just love Ari. There are no notes-because he really and truly is the kind of character I adore. He is loving and whole and all the best parts of the world.
☆ The family aspect. This book handles SO many different kinds families. From Ari, you grow to wonder, what is family? Is it those who birthed you? Are they still your family after (view spoiler)? Or is it those who truly see you in this world? As I mentioned, we also see a complex mother/daughter relationship from Sam and her mother.
☆ The balance of being seen/unseen in this world. I feel like everyone falls into wanting to be seen more or wanting to disappear into the crowd and this book truly highlights that aspect of society!

And I could go on and on, but one thing I really want to point out, is Marie Lu's writing in this novel. It is truly breathtaking to see how her writing is still so uniquely her, but also grows to match the intensity of this book (seriously the stakes here are so high I found myself literally holding my breath).

Quotes:
"Alchemy is about that eternal ache in us for perfection."

"What mark will you leave, so that your existence was not in vain?"

"Work hard, reach for the stars."

"Everything can be more beautiful. And because everything has the potential to be more beautiful later, everything suddenly feels less beautiful now."

"When something terrible happens, do we become the best version of ourselves?"

"Wounded hearts with something to prove are always the ones who change the world."

"You are my heart. If you die, I die."

4.5 Rounded Up! Thank you Netgalley and Tor Publishing for an eARC of this book. This book was addicting and such an engaging read! I could not put this down! Fans of Jade City would enjoy this book.

This book follows multiple point of views but it mainly follows Ari and Sam. Ari and Sam are childhood friends but each start to go their own way when they become alchemists. This book does take place in a modern time setting in the States. In this setting, alchemy is real and alchemists can transmute materials into other things, this can include changing someone’s skin into the ground when fighting. But there are also bioalchemists who can transmute feelings as well. The alchemists can accelerate their abilities through taking sand. There is a huge market in sand, therefore these alchemists have formed competitive syndicates. Unbeknownst to each other, Sam and Ari have found themselves in opposing syndicates.

People may find the beginning to be slow, and while it is the slowest part of the book, I still enjoyed the backstory of Ari and Sam’s childhood. After part 1 though, I was not able to put the book down. The action and tension was non-stop. And this book does not shy away from the ugliness of the syndicates. The author’s writing is amazing. It writing flows so smoothly and paints an exact picture of what is happening.

Sam and Ari are forced to succeed in their syndicates to protect their families, which slowly kills a part of their souls. There are scenes of assassinations, murder, fights and very descriptive sexual intimacy scenes (most scenes do not fade to black)

I loved the Jade City trilogy and I felt this book had a similar feel to it and I loved this book as well. My only complaints would mainly be related to the relationship of Ari and Sam. I did not really feel the connection between them, and I felt their personalities did not really fit together. Their personalities seemed to be different when they were around each other (which I guess the argument could be they could finally be themselves—but I did not feel this personality was the real personality). Also I was a little disappointed by the ending. If this would have ended just a little bit differently, it honestly could have been a standalone. But it does appear this is to be a series, and it ended leaving room for more. Thankfully it does not end on a cliffhanger but there are some answered questions.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I could not stop reading it. I definitely recommend if you enjoyed Jade City. Would I continue this series? Yes, because the author knows how to write an amazing story.