Book Review: The City of Dusk (The Dark Gods #1) (arc)

The City of Dusk (2022) by Tara Sim

Fiction | Fantasy | LGBTQ | Adult

Disclaimer: In every review that I complete, I try my best to avoid spoilers of any kind and include spoiler warnings when necessary.

About the book (from Goodreads)

Set in a gorgeous world of bone and shadow magic, of vengeful gods and defiant chosen ones, The City of Dusk is the first in a dark epic fantasy trilogy that follows the four heirs of four noble houses—each gifted with a divine power—as they form a tenuous alliance to keep their kingdom from descending into a realm-shattering war.

The Four Realms—Life, Death, Light, and Darkness—all converge on the city of dusk. For each realm, there is a god, and for each god, there is an heir.

But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once vibrant and thriving city. And without it, all the realms are dying.

Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs—Risha, a necromancer struggling to keep the peace; Angelica, an elementalist with her eyes set on the throne; Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue with rebellion in her heart; and Nik, a soldier who struggles to see the light— will sacrifice everything to save the city.

But their defiance will cost them dearly.

Note: Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me access to this arc! :)

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My Review

City of Dusk is my first book by Tara Sim, and I am pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it! I've even added a few of her other reads to my tbr list, and I am looking forward to reading them.

In City of Dusk, the world-building is fantastic, the characters are all vastly different yet in-depth and relatable, and the world-building is immersive and creative. I especially love the use of Sim's fantasy version of religion and gods in this story, which shape the fantasy touches spectacularly.

On top of the story being great, the author is a skilled writer, and the book has very few noticeable grammatical errors and flows well.

The Good Things

1. The story is well-written and devoid of grammatical errors.

2. The fantasy world Sim creates is terrific, and I found myself entirely immersed in it.

3. The four noble houses are diverse and exciting.

4. Angelica and Taesia are my favorite characters. They both came alive on the page.

The Bad Things

1. The first 15% of the book was hard to push through, but once I got at around chapter VI, I found myself starting to get more and more interested.

2. This was a much more intense read than I thought it would be! Not necessarily a bad thing, but I was NOT prepared for it. Add it to your tbr list right now, and be prepared! :)

My Final Rating:

☆☆☆☆ (Goodreads)

☆☆☆☆ (Amazon - will leave this review once the book is released)

☆☆☆☆ (Blog)

Pre-order this from Amazon by clicking here!

If you have access to this ARC, please feel free to leave comments concerning how you liked -or didn't like, no judgment here- it! If you don't have access, let me know if this is on your tbr! I would love to hear your thoughts!