review: daughter of the burning city by amanda foody

Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody
Harlequin Teen, 384 pp.
Published July 25, 2017

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.

Amanda Foody first came to my attention with the release of the first book in her new series, Ace of Shades (you can read my review here!). After enjoying it so much I picked up a copy of Daughter of the Burning City, her debut novel that hints at many of the themes, images, and character types that she would later include in Ace. Its carnival setting invites a surprising, but welcome, level of darkness and an indulgence in the macabre.

Sorina, the young illusion-worker at the center of this mystery, should feel relatable to imaginative readers immediately. Her power enables her to create walking, talking illusions that, while still connected to her, exist as distinct and autonomous entities in the real world. In short, she can bring her imaginary friends to life. Although she earns a living putting on a show with these illusions each night in Gomorrah, her real motivation for creating them was a need for family. An orphan taken in by the proprietor of Gomorroah, with a strange physical appearance that many find disturbing, Sorina struggles with loneliness and a need to belong. When she resolves to discover and punish the person responsible for killing them—a feat that should be impossible since they aren't technically alive—both her anguish and anger radiate off the page.

She can be inconsistent throughout the story, though. While feelings and motivations may change as a mystery deepens, Sorina vacillates between her father and her love interest, Luca, at whiplash-inducing speed. It makes her feel inconstant and indecisive, rather than analytical. Each of her illusions has a unique personality and role within the "family", although they can be difficult to keep track of in the opening chapters. None of them are involved enough for their deaths to really affect the reader; instead, it's the effect of their loss on Sorina that has the most impact.

The travelling festival of Gomorrah is a creative, dark take on the circus theme that's gained some recent popularity in YA fiction. It certainly favors the "adult" side of the genre, with mentions of prostitution, and assassins made in the same breath as caramel corn and cider. This contrast between the more conventional entertainments at the front of Gomorrah and the increasingly dangerous amusements in the back serves as added fuel for conflicts within and beyond its borders.

All of the excellent world-building gets set on wobbly ground in the final act, when Foody seems to have conceived of a mystery more tangled than she can unravel cleanly. Details get muddled and big plot points are hand-waved away unsatisfactorily. The magic system—specifically the types of "workers", how they get their powers, and how the abnormalities within those powers come to be—never warrants a full explanation. Expositional dumps rarely help a story, but these large gaps of knowledge hinder it almost as much.

Having read Ace of Shades prior to picking up this, Foody's debut novel, it felt as though she was still fine-tuning the plotting and style that works to such great effect in her second book. While I wasn't quite as absorbed in the schemes of Gomorrah as I was in New Reynes, readers who need something to tide them over during the interminable wait for King of Fools would do well to pick up Burning City. It showcases the dark imagination and creativity of its author, both of which shine through any hiccups in the details.

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