Elizabeth Richards

BLACK CITY by Elizabeth Richards is one of those books that drags you into a world and doesn’t let you go until you’ve turned the last page – and even then, you’re wishing for the sequel right now.

BLACK CITY is told through a dual point of view – our main characters Natalie and Ash, a human and a Darkling (think interesting type of vampire). This really allows you to get a good feel for both characters, but I have to admit, Ash’s chapters were my favourite. Ash is that mysterious show more bad boy who’s smart, kind, but can be quick to anger and oh yes, is a drug dealer (mind you, he doesn’t do it for kicks. He needs the money for himself and his father to buy food, clothes, etc.). Natalie on the other hand is independent, fairly level headed and strong, a bit prone to jealousy, but loves fiercely and will do what’s right. Ash and Natalie have this forbidden-love going on. And while I rate the book an overall 5, because I did love it and couldn’t put it down, Natalie and Ash’s romance is probably the only blip in the experience. At the beginning, it’s wonderful. No insta-love, but an insta-crush (which is fine by me!) and they snark, fight, get butterflies, all that good stuff. Until halfway through the book – boom. Blood mates. Meant-to-be! So yes, kind of wishing Elizabeth Richards had kept to the “it’s my choice” relationship, but she did manage to mesh the two concepts well in the end. Especially after a huge twist!

The beginning of the book drops the reader right into this gritty world of Black City, and the drama/horrors just continue: drugs, genocide, torture, murder, poverty, experimentation…war. The world’s history is sprinkled throughout the narrative rather than in huge info dumps, which is wonderful. I don’t need to know every little bit of backstory in order to be involved and enjoy the plot and characters. BLACK CITY is not a sunshine and puppies love story. The world that Ash and Natalie live in is pretty bleak. Ash’s people, the Darklings (he’s half) are kept segregated behind a wall, in a Ghetto. The head of their government and church rules with an iron fist as a dictator – dissenters and law breakers are not just executed, they’re crucified, and his word is law. The corruption and fear running through Black City, the government and the history of BLACK CITY‘s world is staggering. The end of the book is heartbreaking and the scenes are intense.

BLACK CITY by Elizabeth Richards is a captivating debut novel. Parallels to real world history are present in the events that are taking place and it’s crushing. There are so many glimpses of hope and future happiness only to have them overshadowed by the despair of the living conditions in Black City and the knowledge that the Darklings are still, and all-too likely will remain, segregated. With amazing descriptions, vivid imagery and emotion and characters that you can’t help but root for, BLACK CITY is a promising start to a series, and I am highly anticipating the sequel! show less

TW: coded racism; coded anti-Semitism; drug use; cheating; victim-blaming; child abuse; child death; murder.

I was enthralled by this when I first read it. It was around the time it first came out. Over the years, I remembered only specific details. When goodreads administrators found it, I was ecstatic and wanted to be just as eager the first time.

The first thing that hit me was the thinly veiled racism. "Nipper" is a derogatory adjective used the same way as a similar racist epithet is used show more in modern-day society. Fears of race-mixing are huge in this novel, which calls it "human and Darkling mixing." Frequent references to the Civil Rights movement in the United States are made, only in this book, it's futuristic but they happened ten years ago. Several Darklings literally turn into monsters and are infected with a fast-acting disease. There's some references to AIDS. There's blatant references to anti-Semitism towards the Darklings, too, in regards to rhetoric used about Jewish people in the 1930s. Concentration camps are a subplot, and named as such. "Work will set you free" is said, and I flipped. In the book, scientific experimentation on the Darklings mirror that of real-life experiments performed on Black individuals and Jewish individuals at points in history. There's Nazis in this, only they're called Rose-something. I had totally forgotten these details, and it was AWFUL to sit through them.
Yeah, this book is so forgettable after I read it the first time that -I forgot the mass amounts of racism and anti-Semitism that are a backdrop to this terrible romance novel.-

This has a few action-packed scenes, indeed. The plot could have easily been a YA dystopian with vampires in it, and I would have been so intrigued. The plot is in fact a melodramatic, wangsty love triangle with cheating, victim-blaming, and a child is murdered to push the heroine into sleeping with the murderer. That's why the murderer cheated on her in the first place, and now he's her bodyguard again, and oh, they're both teenagers.
NO.
The teenage bodyguard who dated the person he was supposed to be guarding, and almost coerced her into sleeping with him, becomes a Nazi. This...was very poorly done, and clearly done so the audience would root for Ash and Nat to get together. It did not work. The Nazi attempts to sexually assault Nat and this actually gets named as such. I was surprised.
So, the author transformed Seb into a cartoonishly evil villain so she could clear away the love triangle. And yet, Nat remains super racist. She drools and paws at Ash while also screaming at him for being a Darkling. This--is never done well in YA fiction, and I won't even look for it in adult fiction. I hate it. The authors clearly think they're writing the angsty romance of the ages. Instead, to quote someone more clever than me, what the authors are saying is "my character does not see this person as human until they are sexually interested in them. They don't see their sex interest's family, friends or neighbors as people, and you, the reader, shouldn't either. Just these two."
AAAAAAAGGGHHHH.

Drug use is a major theme in this novel, and I didn't care. I wished they'd stop talking about it, despite one of the characters being a drug dealer and several characters being hooked. Normally eh, it's not a big problem for me to read about. For whatever reason, here, it was a problem for me. There's a lot of the heroine thinking she's so witty because "I zing back," is a regular dialogue tag. An oft-used phrase is "my heart tugged" "my heart yanked" "my heart" blahblah when the love triangle started. I was unhappy both with the phrase and with what the heart-tugging turned out to be: a Perfect Mate thing, but it's something besides that, and ugh.
Nat heroically and unrealistically stops an execution at the last minute.
This book, with its repetitive writing, seriously problematic themes, and odd choices, won a ton of awards. EW.
I grumbled and thought the book would never fucking end. What a waste. But hey, I know now that I don't like the book on second read. show less

A refreshing take on vampires (and associated demons) - in this dystopian world they are segregated members of society living behind a wall and suffering from hunger and disease (possible metaphor for racism?). This makes for a very interesting world and the two main characters - Natalie, the daughter of high-ranking politician, and Ash, a halfbreed (or twin-blood) - struggle to navigate through their world as well as with their own personal demons. A good read for those who enjoy dystopian show more YA novels or vampire reads. show less

I don't use star ratings, so please read my review!

(Description nicked from B&N.com.)

“Weeks after his crucifixion and rebirth as Phoenix, Ash Fisher believes his troubles are far behind him. He and Natalie are engaged and life seems good. But his happiness is short-lived when he receives a threatening visit from Purian Rose, who gives Ash an ultimatum: vote in favor of Rose’s Law permanently relegating Darklings to the wrong side of the wall or Natalie will be killed.

The decision seems show more obvious to Ash; he must save Natalie. But when Ash learns about The Tenth, a new and deadly concentration camp where the Darklings would be sent, the choice doesn’t seem so simple. Unable to ignore his conscience, Ash votes against Rose’s Law, signing Natalie’s death warrant and putting a troubled nation back into the throes of bloody battle.”

This is one of those books on which I’m really torn. There were some things about it that were quite good, and some things that made me grind my teeth in frustration. Believe me, I’m not one of those reviewers that takes great glee in bashing a book, so it’s hard for me to write a review pointing out where I think an author made a serious fumble. On the other hand, I certainly don’t want to lie about how I felt about the book.

With that in mind, let me start with the positive: I think Richards excels at worldbuilding. She’s put a lot of thought into how the various parts of the country interrelate, how the government works, and how people view and treat beings like Darklings and Lupines. This novel allows the author to incorporate different locations than just Black City and to explore the wider world that exists beyond our own borders.

She’s also good at creating non-human cultures. While she doesn’t use a whole lot of page space doing this, she lays a solid foundation and gives just enough detail to give readers an idea of how other races live. In fact, I would have liked to see more time spent among the other communities.

That would probably have interfered with the exploration of the political situation sparked by Purian Rose and his cronies. It’s horrifying to see how cruel his followers can be, and that they get away with it. Even more horrifying is how plausible such scenarios are. I appreciate that Richards managed to convey a sense of evil from Purian and his cohorts without letting them descend into caricature.

Unfortunately, by the end of the book, I was so annoyed with Natalie and Ash that it overshadowed a lot of the novel’s good points. Natalie and Ash are supposed to be crazy in love with each other, and yet they spend much of the story not talking to each other and getting into the worst kinds of misunderstandings as a result. Overheard conversations are given the most destructive spin, casual glances are misinterpreted, and critical information is withheld. This happens constantly through the bulk of the novel. I got to the point of wanting to reach into the pages and shake some sense into the both of them so that they’d stop being so stupid.

And of course the dreaded love triangle happens. Someone who is attracted to Natalie and makes no secret of this fact shows up, and although Natalie does not reciprocate, she persists in hanging around this guy. Eventually things come to a crisis, Ash decides to get even, and things turn into a love… quadrangle? square?... for a few weird and stilted scenes. All of this angst and drama nearly eclipses the plot focusing on the increased sanctions on non-humans and the burgeoning rebellion in some of the human territories.

I think what this all boils down to is that Richards is trying too hard to push a romance plot with dramatic overtones instead of keeping the spotlight on the novel’s stated plot. There are enough interesting happenings to keep readers’ interest without all the weeping and wailing of Natalie and Ash’s relationship. Phoenix is not as good as Black City, but there’s enough of a story hiding in the romantic woes to make me curious about what comes next.

This review originally appeared on Owlcat Mountain on July 12, 2013.
http://www.owlcatmountain.com/phoenix/ show less