Shadow City by Anna Mocikat is a different kind of dystopian future. It has a bit of sci-fi and fantasy mixed together. There is my favorite character, a cyborg that is a woman in a machine body. There are mutant creatures, vampires, and Dark Ones that come from some other place. The world has been destroyed but no one alive knows what happened. They call it the Glitch. This story is about a settlement of humans and a group of vampires that help protect the humans from danger. There are evil bands of humans too. One man is new, he doesn't know who he is but he is a hero already to the people. The vampires checked his thoughts and ok'd him. But the mystery is who is he? Another mystery is that of a Being taking charge of a dead body. No one knows it's not their friend they thought was dead. Who is he? It is very exciting and mysterious! The only thing I had trouble with was the jump between points of view. No warning or change of chapter. Oh well, I enjoyed it and starting the next book I got from NetGalley! ( )

This book took me a while to get through. I really liked the characters and the writing style. I think it could have been a little less complicated with action, and the different supernatural characters each in new books, rather than all in this one book. I enjoy this author and it had the feel of more of a dystopia YA book, which are my favorites. ( )

Definitely a lot of action here. I enjoyed the world building - I felt like I was in the story. Some of the transitions of the paragraphs to explain the backstory were rough. The out of left field instalove did not fit the vibe at all, but I could have liked it if handled differently. Lots of different characters and seeing both sides of the rivalry was a plus. Overall, it could play out as a mindless action movie, but as a book it lacked substance. It was fun and original, earning 3 stars from me. ( )

I was provided this book by the publisher free of charge for review purposes.

Shadow City is a dark fantasy, post apocalypse novel, the blurb sounded pretty good so I was interested, however upon starting it I found myself just not that enthused. There just seemed to be a bit too much going on too quickly, you've got some mysterious glitch that has killed most people, there's some sort of inter-dimensional portal that allows 'dark ones' to enter the city, there's vampires, there's a mysterious group with superior technology who controls/repairs/runs cyborgs, there's a dead guy who mysteriously comes back to life possessed by what appears to be a third (fourth?) side's being and as well as that there's another mysterious guy who just appears naked with no memory but has a heap of skills. Oh, and there's a rogue vampire who has split from the other vampires, who has her own motivations.

I can usually read things that aren't of great interest pretty easily if they are compelling in themselves but even armed with snacks I found I kept taking breaks from this as my thoughts would wander and would lose concentration. Around 40% in things improved a bit when I had a better feel for everything that was going on, but largely I found I just really didn't care about any of the characters. There's a decent story in there, but I felt as if the author was trying to wedge far too many themes into one book (cyborgs/robots, vampires, rogue vampires, good paranormal beings who take over bodies, dark paranormal beings, naked mystery guy that appears, weird apocalypse scenario, low tech survival society at odds with a secretive high tech society based nearby, inter-dimensional portals) in a manner that unveiled them far too quickly.

It's part of a trilogy also, so that could have contributed to the structure issue with the desire to wedge in the groundwork, but also provide some level of plot that doesn't leave the first book with an opening salvo and no resolution. I do feel however that it would have been far better to have the book twice as long with a slower introduction to the world so it didn't feel as if a bucket of themes had been poured into your lap when you begin reading.

Overall, it's alright, I've read worse, but there is a lot going on there that makes it hard to get into, perhaps it will be redeemed by the following books. ( )

Plenty of terror exists in this post apocalyptic/dystopian novel with great world building and an excellent storyline. Contains non-stop action with plenty of twists and turns. A real page turner with well developed characters. Very enjoyable read that I highly recommend. Ready for the next novel in this trilogy. ( )