The City of Stardust

No thanks. This book is a slow start with key elements of the story left out. I suppose this meant for the reader to be as lost as the protagonist, but they keep her in the dark for way too long. I was well into the second half of the book before I had enough parts to piece together what everyone's Not saying.

I was intrigued with the story teasers and the lore within the book was good. But the family dynamic's and how the information unfolded wasn't for me.

Is this to be the start of a series? Because there's a lot of questions for the "main" story to be over.

This is not a feel good story, you will not have a since of completion. You will be left with many questions and unpleasant truths that you waited too long to find out.

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I show more struggles with the star rating, wanted to give it 3 stars because I finished the book and I don't continue with books that aren't worth my time anymore. But in reality, I listened to it on Libby and while doing other things that I love (drawing, walking).

Spoiler Alert Review:

This book is a slow start with key elements of the story left out. I suppose this meant for the reader to be as lost as the protagonist, but they keep her in the dark for way too long. I was well into the second half of the book before I had enough parts to piece together what everyone's not saying.
Yes, I was intrigued by the storyline, I just think we could've spent more time on her travels or if her uncles had taught her as she grew instead of lying to her.

I mean really? She's homeschooled by her uncle, hidden from the world, no internet. Yet after working in a local cafe for a year, she can run away from home and travel the world by herself with great efficiency from departure. And with what money? They don't keep the house in good shape at all, makes you think they are barely able to afford what they do.

Is this to be the start of a series? Because there's a lot of questions for the "main" story.
Why did the mother (Marianne) offer and give her hand to go through the door? Why did she abandon her family knowing they (at least one) would all be killed for this?
Yeah, Marianne is not found at all, just leaves enough crumbs for her family to think she's still alive.
Ever is a bastard, hiding for centuries to let his blood line suffer for his selfishness.
The minute he found out what was happening, he should have sacrificed himself for His mistake, not let a teenager die for him.
"Everly's fight for each other" is said many times in the book yet I see no evidence of that. The closest is the uncles hiding Violet.

Lying uncles, deadbeat mom, and an ancestor who is so selfish he has been hiding in a cage (of his own making) for centuries and doesn't own up to his actions. Shitty family all around. Why would you continue the bloodline knowing what will happen every generation? Condemning your child to death?! Selfish people.

I have finished this book and it ranks up there with Maggie Stiefvater and T. Kingfisher for the offbeat "fairytale" story. You are left feeling icky with the characters and with questions and unpleasant truths. show less

Welcome to The City of Stardust, a debut novel by Georgia Summers, whose fairytale/fantasy is not a frothy Disney concoction, but one with retribution, evil, and revenge placing it definitely in the Grimm wheelhouse.

Meet the bad guy or, in this case, gal, Penelope, who flexes her blood-lust most indiscriminately and wantonly. Meet her facilitators, the privileged and interchangeable scholars, who both fear and envy her.

Meet Aleksander who is Penelope's blade (as in threatening everyone), who tries half-heartedly to escape his bondage in order to save the novel's beautiful hero, Violet, a girl dreaming of adventure, who doesn't understand the walled, protective life her uncles wish her to live.

For this reviewer, The City of Stardust show more was a strangely compelling read. The pace was quick, the characters complex, the vision of one world harvesting leech-like from another believable. Several threads were left dangling at the end of the novel, which cry out for further exploration by the author. show less

In a Nutshell: A dark portal fantasy with a magical but dangerous underworld. Amazing potential, average execution. The first half was still okay but the second half went haywire.

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Plot Preview:

All young Violet Everly knows is that her mother Marianne left when she was two, and her maternal uncles Ambrose and Gabriel have taken care of her ever since. Only fourteen years later does she learn the truth. The Everly family has been cursed since centuries, and in every generation, the best and brightest Everly is taken away by a woman named Penelope, about whom no one knows anything except that she doesn’t seem to age. Marianne left on a personal mission to break the curse, but hasn’t been heard of since.

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Violet is the last of the Everly line. So she will be the last to suffer, unless she can break the curse herself. Thus begins her quest that takes her across the globe, encountering many new people and facts. Along the way, she must deal with Penelope’s assistant Aleksander, though she isn’t sure if he can be trusted.
The story comes to us from the third-person perspectives of several characters.

Bookish Yays: show less

The story left a lot of loose ends for me, throughout the whole thing, not just at the end. Not that everything needs a neat little bow, but it felt more like the author just forgot about stuff. There was A LOT going on. The climax was somewhat satisfying, but came in a rush. I had to listen to it twice to make sure I understood what was going on. Then the falling action was like an afterthought and completely unsatisfying. If there was a second book, I probably wouldn't listen to it. I did like the narrator.

This had potential but it did not deliver.
It reminds me of the mortal instruments series.
But the pacing is trash, it could have done with editing and removal of a lot of scenes.
The romance is crap and then the ending is just unsatisfying - and the whole thing with Marianne - what was the point?