In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable--they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash's long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they're caught, they'll be executed--but their feelings are too strong.
When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.
I had never heard of this book until my supervisor recommended it to me, and I'm so glad she did. I couldn't put this book down; it was interesting and it read very easily, and the characters were great and relatable. Some of the secondary characters, like Day, and even Natalie's mother, could have been developed a bit more, and I would have been interested to see a bit more into Beetle's mind/past.
The story is set in a fictional city torn apart by war, racism, and segregation of two races: humans, and vampire-like humanoids called Darklings (so, i guess it's more like segregation between intelligent species). Most of the Darklings in the city are corralled into a ghetto called The Legion, separated from the rest of the city by a huge, imposing wall and constantly monitored by Darkling guards and human Sentry, to ensure that no one crosses over the wall, human or Darkling. it is, however, commonplace for rogue Darklings with an infectious disease called Wrath to somehow cross over. The disease eats away at their minds and flesh, and they go insane, attacking any thing and anyone.
Ash is only half Darkling, and was raised human, so after the war between the two races, he was allowed to stay on the "good" side of the wall, though he often wonders about the rest of his family on the other side.
Natalie hates it in Black City, and wants nothing more than to leave -that is, of course, until she meets Ash, who at first she detests for his being a Darkling, and his piss-poor attitude, but then he grows on her through random acts of kindness and too many classes with poor seating options.
There was a decent amount of on-going mystery in this story, and just when it seemed like something was about to get boring -BAM! Someone dies because Natalie's being stalked, or BOOM! Natalie's douchebag bodyguard wants to fight Ash, or WHAM! there really ARE more half-Darkling children in the world! Or maybe not. Basically, it's full of twists, turns, conspiracy theories and not-so-theoretical conspiracies, and crazy blood bonds and love connections and laws that don't make sense.
I liked most of this story, so I'm just going to go into the things I didn't like or understand:
1. What are the general time-period laws of this place? One minute Natalie's wearing some kind of corset get-up and riding in an expensive, Sentry-grade horse drawn carriage, and the next she's glancing at her cell phone every ten seconds (which mysteriously wasn't mentioned at all for about 200 pages of the book -I had no idea phones existed in this universe until she was waiting for someone to text her halfway through the story). They need horse-drawn or steam-powered vehicles, but tanks roam the streets regularly, and the Emissary has a fully-equipped high tech laboratory in her basement, in which her own personal scientist is constantly doing DNA testing and experiments with some crazy-advanced technology.
I think I understand the feel that Richards was going for with this mix, but it just sort of confused me for a long time (like, whenever fashion or travel was mentioned).
2. What was the point of Evangeline? She was there for maybe 40 pages, kinda screwed up the relationship for like a day, and then she "left town" after making some threat to Natalie. I hope she has more of a role in the next book, because right now she's serving as not much more than an annoyance and a slight explanation for Ash's and Natalie's sudden bond.
3. I wish the "rules" of this universe had been explained a lot sooner in the book. It was about halfway through the book when we learn that there are some weird creatures in this world, like humanoid-cat things that have poison that can kill Darklings... That information would have been good to have earlier.
4. The last "trial" period of the story went by really quickly, and yet both narrators make reference to how its been about four weeks since the last action-y thing that happened. We had no sort of reference of time, or how miserable these characters must feel simply waiting to find out their futures.
Overall Impression:
Basically, all of my issues are things that should have been caught by a managing editor or even a copyeditor, but whatever.
I still really liked the way the story was narrated and set up, and I think the character of Ash in particular was especially convincing, which isn't common with female writers, so PROPS!
I think that the continuation of this story has a lot of potential, and I can't wait to start Phoenix.
Blonde Rating: 4.5/5
Amazon Rating: 4.1/5
GoodReads Rating: 3.8/5
The second book in the Black City series, Phoenix, comes out on June 4th.
That's all for now,
The Blonde
(Also, it's totally so cool that they blew up a rose to get this cover).
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