#104 City of Brass

City of Brass by SA Chakraborty

City of Brass is a borderline YA/adult fantasy trilogy. Ive heard it described as both adult and YA so im really not sure. It read to me as YA. The book is sent in 18th century Cairo. It follows two main perspectives, Nahri is a con artist who is pretty no nonsense, she comes from nothing but educates herself in the field of medicine and is known as a local healer. Nahri also has the ability to heal herself but keeps this a secret.  Nahri is a thief and a swindler, she is trying to survive on the mean streets of Cairo. Nahri uses her abilities to take advantage of people for money. One day she accidentally summons a djinn. (i hope im spelling everything right as i listened to the audio book and dont have a physical copy) who tells her of this other worldly city called Daevabad and tells her that she is likely to find answers about her elusive past if she travels there. When she summoned this djinn it alerted some not so nice people to her existence and she has to go on the run to get to the city safely. The second perspective is that of the Ali who is the prince of the kingdom of Daevabad. Ali's main story line is the second son of the king so hes not the heir to the throne but there is so much political tension. Ali goes behind his fathers back and uses money from the treasury for things his father wouldnt approve of. His motive in life is trying to provide for those who are less fortunate. Ali struggles with doing the right thing and also being loyal to his family. I must admit i preferred Ali's perspective as it was so much more interesting to read.

This book is difficult to both rate and review. It was a strange read, the first half was so info-dumpy. The build up to the story is so so slow.

Ok, things i liked... The world building was so wonderful, i would say this was the best thing about the book and the thing that really kept me going. The writing is so so rich, i must commend the author on that, it was just stunning. The writing was pretty straight to the point, it was descriptive but not flowery. That alone made me want to pick up the second book. The book is quite political which i usually enjoy, in this book it was quite confusing but so interesting and well laid out. I loved the middle eastern culture and setting to it, ive never read anything like that before.

Things i didnt like as much... The characters were a little generic, Nahri and Ali were pretty one dimensional. Their decision making, influences and motives were very stereotypical YA. This was the main reason why i could rate this higher than 3 stars. I couldnt relate to them and i really didnt care about them whatsoever which is such a shame. There wasnt too much character development throughout (in my opinion). I think the main drive that got me through to the end was the political intrigue, i enjoyed how conflicted Nahri was about both sides and how she was discovering the world, the culture and the people along with the reader. You really dont know who to trust.

I feel so weird writing this review as im making it sound like i didnt like it but i really did. I do want to continue on the series and will be following SA Chakraborty for anything else she writes. I really want to go back and read this physically as i found it was too easy to miss details during the audio book. I want to read all those little details very slowly. If you like Strange the Dreamer i think you would really enjoy this book too, they both have a slow build up but have a great ending.