I was not sure where The City of Stardust would lead me. It’s a story about magic, doors and bargains made. About love, selfishness, and sacrifice. Keep reading this book review to hear my full thoughts about The City of Stardust.
Summary
For centuries, the Everlys have seen their best and brightest disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor, a woman named Penelope, never ages, never grows sick – and never forgives a debt. Violet Everly was a child when her mother left on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. When Marianne never returns, Penelope issues an Violet has ten years to find her mother, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer. Unless she can break the curse first.
Her hunt leads her into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. And into the path of Penelope’s quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted – and yet to whom she finds herself undeniably drawn. With her time running out, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
The City of Stardust begins with a curse which would never be forgiven. While I loved this premise, I think I fell even more in love with it by the ending when you unravel the whys. The beginnings of a resentment, a revenge, without answers. You just wait until the other shoe drops – I think I gasped aloud. I loved how this book evolves and twists in front of your eyes. At times it’s a book about the ways we live when we know our days our numbered.
And then it almost changes into a story about a mystery against a ticking clock. Into a generational story about running from the ringing bell, from the mistakes and bargains of our past. Family secrets that bite, that still echo and damage from years before. The City of Stardust is like a prism, refracting into a story that examines sacrifice and selfishness. Of what we would do for knowledge, for home, for love.
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Loves that become so twisted and resentful. When we aren’t sure if it ends, if it at the core of it lies wounds and hurts that we do against the ones we love. Or love that will save us, will remind us of the mistakes of our past, and the hopes of our futures. Find The City of Stardust on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, & Blackwells.