I'll keep it short as I didn't finish the book.
This is wrongly marketed as an adult novel, when it's definitely young adult and too long at that.

Unfortunately, this didn't hit the mark for me. I usually love Tara Sim's works and binge them with ease, but I wasn't compelled sadly. None of the characters offered enough depth or personality for me to truly engage with their stories.

The premise of this was interesting, but I couldn’t connect with the characters, nor keep everything clear in my head.

I’ve read a lot of fantasy, and this seemed to be inspired by other books, rummaging them together until I was just confused. Also the use of modern swearing and slang clashed jarringly with the fantasy settings.

I’m sure fans of this author will enjoy, but not for me. DNF.

This was a hard book to read - it’s been ongoing for a year….

I like the plot: undoing the sealing so they can reconnect with the gods in order that souls can move on and magic works properly but also so contact with other ‘realms’ reopens. But, wow! It did feel slow at times. It’s super long too, maybe too long for a YA, that said, I’m not sure how it’s being marketed.

The sealing happened 500 years ago, isolating the city- I’m still unclear on why they can’t travel within their own realm, for instance to the out of town lake… Maybe they can in which case why can’t they grow food and more resources? Also if the sealing was 500 years ago, why are they only now having issues? We’re also told that family members from four generations ago remember life before the sealing. I’m clueless on this - maybe I just missed it?

The plot is also centred around vanishing landmarks - the lake, a statue. Conjurors are to blame, as they are for the dead rising. One character is a necromancer so is able to deal with this but I’m not sure why some magic is acceptable and others not.

The main characters are the scions of four powerful families with a bloodline descended from the four gods: light, shadow, death and the elements (of life). There are scores of other characters too. I’d guess over 80% are young and they are very similar. They’re all in their early twenties but feel very young and all incompetent in some way.

For instance, one who can’t connect to his power is placed in charge of the conjuror problem and army. He’s been hidden away by his family, is 20-ish with no life experience. Another can’t use her magic without tools - gasp! She also likes brothels and drugs. Another is essentially good but then works with the conjurors. Another has killed. You get the idea. I wondered why the scions were given this responsibility while jostling for the throne. Surely there are older, competent staff? Also why aren’t their parents being considered for the throne or in charge?

There are other ‘types’ of people from the other realms but you don’t find out much about them. One lot have horns! There are strange beasts too from the other realms.

I bought the audio as I had more listening time available and needed to finish the book. I enjoyed it but pronunciation did alter at times.

Will I read book two, this did end on a cliffhanger! I don’t know, maybe that one will be tighter.

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for the e-arc- all opinions are my own. I bought the audio myself.

I swear, I tried.
The premise was captivating and I had great expectations for this book. But I found it difficult to connect with the characters and struggled with the worldbuilding and the excruciatingly slow pace.
Such a pity, because The City Of Dusk has lots of potential.

I am so so sorry for such a late review for this one but I finally found myself wanting to pick it up and ran with it!

The City of Dusk is such an intriguing and gripping story with amazing characters at it's forefront. Whilst I was unsure about having five different povs, I found myself quickly figuring out each character's personalities and liked getting to know them each individually.

I will say that this book did drag in parts and think that if it had been at least 100 pages shorter then I think it would have got a 5 star rating from me.

Overall I throughly enjoyed this one and I'm interested to see what happens in the next one!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I tried so hard to read this and I picked it up to read a few times...never getting much past 20/25%...Maybe I will try again one day but although this started off right in the action I just found it be really long winded and that I couldn't get the 4 houses / realms / gods all clear. I may see if I can read an actual book rather than ebook and see if I can refer back to the who's who as it were but this YA fantasy was just not for me.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

I definitely feel this has been mislabelled as adult instead of YA which might be why some readers feel a bit let down. This is a solid, queer, dark fantasy though, and worth reading.

Please note that this book is not for me - I have read the book, However I had to DNF and because i do not like to give negative reviews I will not review this book fully - there is no specific reason for not liking this book. I found it a struggle to read and did not enjoy trying to force myself to read this book.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused and thank you for the opportunity to read this book

While the premise sounded cool, the worldbuilding is overly complicated and the characters were not interesting enough for me to keeo reading.

A story of unlikely alliances, high stakes, dark secrets, and heirs to houses that represent their specific gods. The immensely detailed world easily pulls in and the elemental magic impresses without overwhelming. Four characters with distinct personalities and separate motivations —a diverse cast in their early twenties— find themselves in a series of events, stuck between a forbidden magic and familial duty. Despite a slow pace at the start, the story flies through intriguing twists. The romantic subplots were a little underdeveloped but the positives outrun.

This arc was provided by Orbit, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

TW: child abuse, parental neglect and abuse, suicidal ideation, self-harm, blood, gore, cannibalism

The City of Dusk is set in a fantastical world where each god is represented by a house and an heir. We follow four heirs to four noble hours, and each heir has divine powers blessed by their gods.

House Lastrider for Nyx, the shadows.
House Cyr for Phos, the light.
House Vakara for Thana, death.
House Mardova for Deia, life.

However, the gods have sealed the realms and withdrawn their favor from their people. In order to save their world, the heirs must come together and find a solution, even if it means their demise.

As a fantasy reader, sometimes it's important to have patience to see how the story will unfold. Fantasy is an intricate and wonderful genre but sometimes there's no instant gratification, sometimes it works as a whole (with all the books in the series) or when we reach the end.

Fantasy requires patience. I know it's not fair to ask that of a reader when the first book should immediately captivate our attention but I see so much potential in The City of Dusk.
The ideas were interesting with the four realms being sealed for centuries, however the execution was underwhelming.

The plot kept going in circles, sometimes with unnecessary scenes or information. Regardless, I will be giving the sequel a chance as I know that a writer's skill keeps improving with each story that is written.

I wouldn't say this was a bad or mediocre read, I will say it could have been much better and I think there is potential.

I'm very proud of myself for finishing this book, but full disclosure: I could not give you a summary of what happened. I enjoyed certain scenes well enough, but most of the story was impossible for me to follow, especially in the second half. Maybe I should have DNFd this, but it was a buddy read and I didn't want to let my reading buddy down. I just struggle a lot with epic fantasy and this one was decidedly not for me.

I was really looking forward to this book as I loved the premise and I'm a massive fantasy fan however unfortunately it didn't grab me and I didn't end up finishing the book.
It is a book that I may come back to later once it is published as I still like the sound of it.

Finally! I did it! It only took me what, 6 months? I wanted to love this, really, truly. The premise sounds amazing, but I struggled from the start with the setting. We get told about this city, and realms that this world was once connected to, but then it’s not really consistent how long they have been Sealed off from them – one page it may be many centuries, but in the next they talk as if it’s been decades instead? This book also features one of my personal pet peeves, which is the appearances of items, customs and powers out of nowhere when they are needed for the plot. There were a ton of reveals near the end that came out of nowhere, characters that seemed to be nothing more than a footnote were suddenly story-twisting important? This is supposed to be an adult fantasy, but our characters – while in their early twenties – feel much younger in the way they act. The dialogue is all over the place as well, sometimes extremely dramatic, other times very cliche. There is a very obvious main character even though we follow all the heirs, and they get a lot more interesting screen time – and I didn’t like them very much so that wasn’t fun for me. This seemed to want to do too much, and as such we lost some beats that could have hinted a bit more at what was going to happen, and it wouldn’t mean one of our characters doing something really horrific and it never getting mentioned again?!

A beautifully written book. Really enjoyed reading this. Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read.

This started out strong, with a set up that is both intriguing and unique. A dark adult fantasy centered about four realms and four gods, vying for the crown. However this strong start soon fizzled out as the plot gets too bogged down in exposition and too many characters, with writing that just doesn't feel particularly 'adult' at all.

I think the main issue is that this just feels too long, allowing for the plot to drag out unnecessarily. Cutting out 200 pages could have given the plot room to breath while still picking up the pace, making this punchier and less of a slog. I really could have done with some world building too, as often I felt confused as to the type of world this is set in. The technology is varied - with musical instruments and restaurants, but the setting at times felt a lot older than this would allow.

At times a confusing story, that doesn't quite know what it wants to achieve. This could have done with some tighter editing, and perhaps to be marketed as YA, for it really to come into its own.

I like some of it and dislike some other bit. Overall the book as a strong world building but to many charaters. Some were interesting to follow like Taesia or Nik but other were quite boring like Risha.
Globally I think it could be a bit shorter and action pack.

Sadly, I ended up DNF'ing this book at around 30%.
I liked some things, but I don't think this book is for me.

Four noble houses – Lastrider, Vakara, Mordova, and Cyr – are gifted with divine power from their gods. Even with this power they watch as their city, Nexus, crumbles after the gods sealed away their realm. A plague of Conjuration magic spikes in the city as the dead walk and the threat of demon-summoning lingers on the horizon. Despite the danger, Conjuration magic might be their saviour. Taesia and her brother Dante uncover a plan to use the magic to save their city, but they’ll need to bring all the houses together.

The worldbuilding in The City of Dusk was fantastic; it was complex, well-developed and immersive. Despite the necromancy, the threat of death, shadow magic, and murder this doesn’t slip into grimdark, which gives it a lighter voice that offers a YA-crossover appeal. Some readers might be disappointed by the new adult atmosphere, but it helps make this long, detail-heavy book more readable and compelling. At the same time, the large cast does significantly slow down the pace of this read. If you enjoy the characters, this is great – if you don’t, you’re going to struggle. The characters were complex, and their development was interesting, but they aren’t always the most compelling. Occasionally it felt like The City of Dusk was doing too much, and it would have benefited from more depth and less breadth in its people and world. This was an enjoyable read that slowly unravels into an intriguing ending; it wasn’t perfect, but I know I’ll be picking up the next book in the series.