The City of Dusk

• Author: Tara Sim
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: March 22, 2022
• Publisher: Orbit
• Series: The Dark Gods #1

Thank you to Orbit and Angela Man for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: violence, blood, death, suicide, gore, murder, grief, self-mutilation

For every realm, there is a god.

For every god, there is an heir.

For every heir, there is a price.

Enter a world of bone and shadow magic, of vengeful gods and defiant chosen ones, in The City of Dusk—the first book in the Dark Gods trilogy from a stunning new voice in epic fantasy.

The Four Realms—Life, Death, Light, and Darkness—all converge on the City of Dusk. But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once thriving and vibrant metropolis. And without it, all the realms are dying.

Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs to diving power—Angelica, an elementals with her eyes set on the throne; Risha, a necromancer fighting to keep the peace; Nikolas, a soldier who struggles to see the light; and Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue with a reckless heart—will become reluctant allies in the quest to save their city. 

But their rebellion will cost them dearly.

This is one of those books where the stunning cover caught my attention, and then the blurb completely hooked me. Four heirs forced to work together to save their city? I loved the idea of it. So needless to say, I was thrilled to read this one.

The world building in this story was fantastic. Sim has created this entire world that is so well-rendered and so beautifully explained. There aren’t any info dumps in the story, rather Sim sneaks in bits and pieces of the background and lore and beliefs and practices where they fit naturally. Additionally, most of the characters were explicitly depicted as people of color, and characters who are LGBTQIA+ are accepted in this world without any issues. In fact, one of our main characters is bisexual. 

I liked the characters. We get to know them individually through their own POV chapters, and we learn not only what they are thinking and feeling, but also the pressures that weigh on them. As heirs of their houses and to their gods, they have responsibilities both to their houses and to the realm, including to the people of the realm. They face pressures within their families, some of which are highly dysfunctional, to the people they’ve become connected to, and as pawns in a game of political maneuvering that their parents have been involved in as the king prepares to designate his heir. 

The story took me a while to actually read it because it was a complex one. I’ve come to expect that from adult fantasy, which sometimes takes more brain power for me to absorb. But I took my time with this one and really enjoyed the layered and complex plot with multiple threads that got closer to tying up as this book closed, the multifaceted characters who grew and changed over the course of the book, and the plot twists that surprised me and were unpredictable, making this an exciting and riveting read. I’m absolutely looking forward to the next book coming out this summer.

People who have sat around with me while I’m reading, especially when there’s a surprising reveal, a shocking plot twist, or an unexpected event often look up in alarm when I gasp audibly. The gasp factor is directly related to the number of times I audibly gasp during a reading, and there isn’t an upper limit.

Gasp Factor: 27