Anyone who wants to put out any short-form content should be taking notes from Nghi Vo—her ability to put out consistently well-written and captivating stories at around the two-hundred-page mark. You might naively think that shorter books are easier to write than longer books, and I would think you are wrong. It takes extreme focus and clarity of vision to deliver a story in a shorter space and Nghi Vo seems to kill it almost every time. Today’s tale, The City in Glass, is one of divine architecture; about a demon who makes it her passion to build a city of wonder.
The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves her dazzling city of Azril. She has existed behind the curtain, wandering the streets, mothering its people and culture for generations. She has built it in her own image into a place of joy, desire, revelry, and riot. Then some asshole angels come along and completely level it with no warning or explanation.
Vitrine is left with nothing but ruins and an ever-burning hatred and tenacity. She decides that she will rebuild the city, no matter how long it takes and the obstacles in her way. In her heart, she carries a book containing the names of those she has lost. She will use this book and the new city to make a monument to what was lost, and perhaps something new. Amongst all the wreckage, Vitrine finds that one of the angels has elected to remain after their work is finished. Initially connected by a deep hatred, these two soon find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.
The City in Glass is a fascinating look at grief, hatred, and tenacity. It dissects how these forces can change a person (or demon, or angel) and it examines how small forces can wreak huge change given enough time. Vo places emotional streams in the bedrock of our characters and we watch as they wear a new path through the foundation of who they are until you can behold an incredible canyon a millennia later.
I really liked her take on angels and demons, evolving their traditional literary roles to be anchored in common perception but leaning towards something more morally grey. Vitrine is a selfish entity, but her innate desire is to build something and see it flourish. She will not blink at cruelty in the name of her ambitions, but her ambition seems to be to make something beautiful and worth beholding. Her passion infects the rogue angel like a virus and we see him slowly move away from impartial observer to emotional investor. I loved both of these divine characters and their relationship was captivating and otherworldly.
I also had a lot of fun watching Vo essentially map out first what makes a city tick at the beginning of the book, and then how to build a city from the ground up after it gets leveled. Vo’s attention to detail and ability to extrapolate the future from small present choices is a delight. My one slight hitch is I thought the ending was a bit abrupt. It is so because the focus is more on an examination of the attachment of the divine beings to the city more than the fate of the city itself. Yet, Vo is so convincing with her arguments in the story that I became deeply invested in the city as well and I wish we got to see more of its fate.
The City in Glass is yet another arrow in Vo’s quiver of absolutely killing it in short-form fiction and definitely worth your time. The tale’s themes are executed so well that I found myself a third member of this angel/demon couple struggling with the same concepts that they were. Incredible execution, great theme, fabulous story.
Rating: The City in Glass – 8.5/10
-Andrew
An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.
