Daughter of the Burning City: {Review}

Publication date: July 25th, 2017
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Series: N/A
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Source: Library
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Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.

But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.

Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all of her loved ones disappear.

Oh how I LOATHE overhyped books! They are really affecting how I am enjoying (or not enjoying) what I am reading. This was a debut that was talked about ALL over Twitter, Goodreads, and Instagram. I was SO excited to read it because it seriously sounded amazing and everyone was gushing about it. Unfortunately for me, it was only a 'meh.'

Let me start off by saying that Amanda Foody's descriptions of Gomarrah were wonderful! I could almost smell the burning city and taste all of the delicious treats that she described. It really felt like a real live place!

One of the problems I had was how descriptive she was of the Gomorrah festival, but outside of that, we barely get any information on the rest of the world around it. They stop in a few cities were conflict has been known to happen, but there's not much more than that. Considering that this was a standalone, I think there should have been way more world building.

Honestly, I didn't care for Sorina that much. I really liked how she wasn't a perfect looking character. She is considered a freak, and ugly by some of those arounds her because she doesn't have eyes. However, there was a part in the story when Sorina did something with her eyes and I was confused because she doesn't have eyes. I think that was an error on the author and publisher's part for not catching it. Her illusions were the ones I actually cared for. They were interesting and I wish that they had a bigger part in the story.

When it came to the murder mystery, I was extremely underwhelmed. I knew who it was within the first few chapters after the first murder. It was so blatantly obvious. I like my stories to have a more complex plot and not being easily figured out.

It was really hard for me to finish DotBC. I wanted to DNF it a few times but I kept pushing because I had been so excited to read it after all of these months.

So for me, it did not live up to the hype at all. Foody is coming out with another book titled Ace of Shades next year, and I will most likely read it, but I will not give in to the hype this time.