Red City

If you're looking for diverse characters, best friends to rivals, and unique magic, you'll love Red City.Red City introduces us to Sam and Ari, who form a powerful bond in childhood rooted in their shared experience as immigrants and feeling like outsiders.I'm generally not a fan of third-person POV, so that took a while to get used to, but once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It really picked up in Part Two.The characters are driven by their need to support their family and find fulfillment for themselves, and I think everyone can relate to that. The alchemical magic system was interesting and not overly complex, which I appreciated.I also found it terribly interesting that the author drew so much from her own childhood for Sam's story in Part One.Thank you so much Tor Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy.

Great book. Well written characters. I love how Sam and Ari are immediately pulled in different directions.

3 1/2 stars.I read Lu’s Legend series back in the day when the dystopian genre was big and booming, so I was surprised and excited to hear that she had finally published an adult novel. Red City felt like a long time coming. The concept of crime syndicates mixed with alchemy intrigued me enough to pick this one up.The opening chapters introduce us to a young Sam and Ari during their school years, from junior high through high school graduation. It’s during this period that they become involved with opposing syndicates: Sam joins Grand Central and Ari joins Lumines. From there, the story jumps ahead five years, and the two don’t cross paths again until a major syndicate event.It took me a little while to settle into the story. I appreciated the background, but some of the childhood scenes felt unnecessarily long and drawn out. I found myself wondering if a flashback structure might have been more effective than concentrating their entire childhood arc in one chunk of the book. However, once the narrative shifts to the present day (five years later) the pace picks up quickly. By then, Sam and Ari are fully established in their respective syndicates and have made names for themselves in the criminal underground with fitting code names.The worldbuilding was straightforward and easy to follow, but the magic system took longer to grasp, especially regarding its hierarchy and abilities. Sam’s powers, enhanced by a drug called Sand, make her hard to notice or remember, almost like invisibility, and allow her to transmute organic matter into inorganic material. Ari’s bioalchemy lets him influence molecular structures within the body. Every alchemist can transmute weapons from organic or inorganic sources; turning water into acid, pulling a blade from a brick wall, and so on but I still found certain parts of the system confusing in terms of how and why these abilities work.Despite the lengthy section dedicated to Sam and Ari’s childhood and the story centering around them as adults I didn’t connect with them as strongly as I expected. I was more drawn to the side characters, especially Sam’s mother, Connie, and Diamond’s son, Will. Given how the book ends, I’m curious to see if Will appears again in future books. Their backstories felt more compelling and tragic, and they helped me understand their motivations in a way the main characters didn’t quite achieve.Overall, Red City is a solid start to a new series. The book held my attention for most of the journey, and the fight sequences were excellent. I’ll definitely be checking out the next installment.

I really enjoyed this one. I listened to the audiobook, and the main male and female narrators were both excellent. I always like Eunice Wong’s narrations – in fact, this is my third audiobook of hers this year. The male narrator also did a great job. In particular, his East Indian accent was very convincing.The story took some time to get into, because of all of the world building and character building, but about halfway through the book, it really picked up. The relationship between Sam and Ari developed well, starting in childhood and carrying through as they became alchemists for rival syndicates. I found myself really rooting for them.The visual imagery of the city and the alchemy / magic was fantastic, and I think this would make a great movie.The concept of “sand,” a drug that increases people’s abilities yet is incredibly addicting and somewhat harmful, is very interesting. I am curious to see where the author goes with it in future books.My only critique is that the sudden appearance of different points of view / narrators at the very end of the book—after we had only heard from Sam and Ari for so many chapters—was a little bit jarring. (I don’t see any other way around it, though, because we needed those points of view.) I was fortunate enough to attend an author event with Marie Lu, and she called herself a “chaos gremlin,” so I can see how that came about.This is clearly set up to be a series, and there is definitely love triangle happening, so I look forward to the next book.Trigger warnings: violence/gore, child abuse and neglect, drug abuse/addiction, sexual content

I wish I’d cared about the characters. Just selfish and dull. Maybe the mom was OK. Would not recommend. Even fight scenes were repetitive