I am going through my Netgalley backlog and came across this. This was one I requested years ago (early days of my Netgalley account!) that I unfortunately never got around to reading it. I currently do now own this book, and now longer have the e-arc. If I ever come across a copy, I may pick it up, but for the moment I can't see myself getting around to it. My apologies! Thank you for your generosity in the first place for approving my request for this.

Gave up on this one at 58% mark. Found this to be quite slow, and then started going off in a direction I wasn't interested. The story changed, switching from a high fantasy murder mystery, to something a more epic high fantasy with political intrigue. While I don't normally mind this, the change in subgenre wasn't what I was expecting or wanted. And so I started losing interest, and found I didn't particularly care about the characters.

The writing was too purple prose for me, and I didn't get attached to any of the characters or manage to understand what was going on because of it. DNF at 10%

"We are putting on a show, but I had always believed that was because Gomorrah is a city of performers. Turns out, we are a city of liars"

* * *
3 / 5

Daughter of the Burning City was a bold attempt to break out into the competitive YA circus-themed novel genre. I have read and adored The Night Circus and enjoyed last year's breakout novel Caraval, so I was looking forward to seeing what fresh ideas Foody had brought to the circus. And it was definitely novel, full of weirdness, but I think it was a bit too weird for my tastes. Definitely lots to enjoy here for the right reader though!

"I am Sorina Gomorrah, daughter of this city, and this is my destiny"

Sorina is the daughter of the proprietor of the Gomorrah Festival, a moving, constantly on fire circus that is more like a city, complete with uptown and downtown areas. Sorina's a pretty unique girl - she's has no eyes but can also somehow see (I never really got this, just how I never really got how Gomorrah is always smouldering, a lot of this book is a bit unexplained) and she's also an illusion-worker, the only one in living memory, and her creations are her bizarre family. Alongside her family, Sorina runs the Festival's Freak Show. I loved her creations, they were all so unique and I felt such attachment to them. Which made it hurt all the more when they started being killed off.

So on the one hand we have emotional, gritty Sorina searching for answers about her family. Her father seems to think that this is tied up with an Up-Mountainer (are they really up a mountain? who knows!) plot to murder someone important. Her new friend Luca, a gossip-worker and man of mysterious talents, seems to think otherwise. There's a lot going on here, and it's all definitely fun and action-packed, but it never really made much sense to me. Daughter of the Burning City has such an ambitious plot and worldbuilding packed into four hundred pages, that it does seem a little light on the details.

"At what point do my requests stop being opportunities to teach me some kind of lesson?"

I did like all the ideas in this book! You've got all these imaginative illusions of Sorina, the interweaving plots, the themes of persecution and being different, of family love and duty. There's also a fair smattering of tastefully done sexual diversity - bisexuality, a lesbian, and an asexual guy. Which is always nice. I did manage to guess the murderer pretty early on, so maybe there was a bit of lack of tension at the end for me.

Overall, I loved the wholesome illusion-family aspect. That was absolutely my favourite part of the book! Maybe the plot and the background was a bit confused, but Daughter of the Burning City was fun and ambitious, and I think Foody has a lot of potential as a writer!

A fairly unusual teen fantasy novel, I appreciated the more diverse characters, world and travelling city/circus/festival setting. I just found it a little slow at times, the magic was a bit confusing and plot rather erratic, and I didn't care about the characters as much as I would have liked. I enjoyed it more than 'Caraval' though and would try reading other books by the author.

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)

This book is one that I was really hyped for. I liked the premise of the story and once I got into the story itself it was okay, the problem I had though was the I found be plot to be quite slow for the most part. I really loved the world and the magic overall which made me keep on reading. However, over all it didn’t catch my attention like I hoped it would

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ for giving me this book to review.

Daughter of the Burning City is a really interesting and unique fantasy book which really sucked me into its story. This book is built on the mystery of who is killing Sorina’s family which has lots of twists and while I guessed some, most really surprised me. This book is well written and had very descriptive and good world building, especially considering most of the book was set in Gomorrah. However, there was a plot hole in the book which did make it story feel a bit to unrealistic but it is a very big spoiler so I will not ruin it.

Sorina is determined but also has many insecurities as she feels like she is a freak and that the only people who like her are the family who she created. Luca is mysterious, sarcastic, but not in a mean way, and can come across as a bit innocent despite really understanding how the world, and more importantly people, works. He is very distinctive in many ways, from his dress sense, to his powers, to his personality. I loved Sorina’s family as they were their own people with their own wishes and fears, and after the first 20% of the book I never got them confused with each other.

This a very good book from debut author Amanda Foody and I am really looking forward to reading more of her books and any sequels to Sorina’s story. I would recommend Daughter of the Burning City to fans of unique fantasy books.

Sorina has grown up in the Gomorrah Festival, a travelling circus city filled to the brim with wonder and magic, a safe haven for jynx-workers who have been rejected by their own people for having magic. Sorina is one of those, adopted by the proprietor fo the festival, she now runs a Freak Show alongside her family. There is Nicoleta who has superhuman strength, Hawk who can fly, Gill breathes underwater, conjoined twins Unu and Du, and more. But, when they begin dying in unusual circumstances, Sorina has to race against the clock to discover who is behind the crimes before she loses them all. To make things even more complicated, Sorina’s family shouldn’t be able to die, because they’re not real. Sorina’s magic talent is the ability to create lifelike illusions, and her masterpieces are her family themselves. Each member of her family is a figment of her own imagination. On top of this, Sorina can see without having any eyes. As you can see, there is a lot of interesting magic in this book. It was a lot of fun to read about these different skills, and the characters felt new and original. One of the plots of this book is her investigation alongside newfound friend Luca to try find the murderer inside Gomorrah. They meet different jynx-workers everyday, trying to find someone with the ability to kill illusions. This plot was fun to read because of the different magic skills that Foody creates. Further, if you’re into romance, there is a sweet, if somewhat predictable, relationship that develops between Luca and Sorina to keep you entertained.



However, in my opinion, the world-building fell flat once you left Gomorrah. The second investigation that Sorina undertakes is alongside her father, who believes the murderer is outside of Gomorrah, and is trying to attack him through his daughter. The issue was that the whole story from there on out was complex, but undeveloped. There was mention of a mysterious Alliance, built of the different cities that Gomorrah travelled through, and they were plotting to start a trade war (from what I could understand). There was very little development to this story into the characters outside of Gomorrah, or the locations. In fact, they were barely mentioned in passing! It was a shame that this part of the book was so underdeveloped because it played such a vital part to the plot, and I feel like if this had been done properly, it would have really elevated the book. I love fantasy worlds with interesting structures and societies, but I would have preferred it if Foody had just left this out of the book and focused on Gomorrah. It would have been simpler, but sometimes less is more, and this story just weighed the book down.

Further, some of the logistics of the world and the plot just didn’t make sense to me. For one, I didn’t understand how Gomorrah travelled. Did everyone pack up their tent and just walk? Are there animals to pull the caravans around? How do the city walls travel with the city itself? This might not be important to the story itself, but I found it difficult to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy the story sometimes, because I kept wondering just how the city worked. Second, sometimes the plot felt a little clunky, particularly in the way that Sorina figures out the truth about who is behind the murders of her relatives. There were details that were very clunkily ‘hinted’ at, and revelations that just came too easily to Sorina. I would have preferred it if the mystery had unravelled more subtly, but I would have been able to accept this weakness of plot if the world had been better written.

Overall, Daughter of the Burning City had a lot of potential to be great but I just felt like it fell flat. I was hoping that perhaps it was the first book in a series, and maybe Amanda Foody would go on to develop the world more and salvage the first book with the second. I would have probably read a sequel to this book, because there were aspects of the world building that captured my imagination, but unfortunately it is a standalone. It’s a shame that this book didn’t impress me as much as I hoped, but there were definitely good aspects to it. It is worth giving a chance if you enjoy fantasy and mystery, and maybe you will love it more than I did!

I expected really good things from this as the book as been all over Booktube, and the premise of the story was fascinating.

I found this book to be OK but I did find it so slow going, and I really had to push myself through it, believe me I was upset about this as I really wanted to love this book

I did love the family dynamics between Sorina and the illusions, I loved Unu and Du, I thought these were great characters, and I also loved the different abilities each one of the illusions had.

I will admit that I guessed early on about Luca's heritage, but I was only part way there with what was actually going on. I hadn't fully connected all the dots by the end of the book, which I will give to it.

Overall I did like the story, it just really did not pull me in as much as I hoped it would.

Disclaimer: I received a copy free from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Gomorrah is a festival of magic and wonders. It is a travelling circus home to people deemed unusual and those known as ‘jynx-workers’. Sorina is part of this circus, she is the first illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. She is also the adopted daughter of the leader of Gomorrah. She can create illusions. Illusions that are sometimes so realistic, that others can see, feel, and touch them, and they even have their own personalities, ambitions, and dreams. Illusions that are her family. Despite how real they seem, they are still illusions. That is what Sorina thought until one of them ended up dead. But how can they die if they aren’t real in the first place?

Daughter of the Burning City was an atmospheric read with vivid imagery. There was magic, illusions, and a slow-burn hate-to-love romance. I loved the travelling circus/city setting, it was done beautifully. It was an original high fantasy read, but I do have some problems with it.

I feel like the world-building wasn’t done as well as it could have been. While a lot of work and detail went into the setting of Gomorrah, the travelling city, I feel like the world and politics outside of Gomorrah were poorly explained and was confusing at times. While I feel like the magic and illusions were explained fairly well, I don’t understand how Sorina can see perfectly without eyes. Which, in itself is problematic as there is a magical cure for blindness.

What I did like was the romance between Sorina and Luca. It was a slow-burn hate-to-love romance, which I always enjoy. I enjoyed the twists and turns in their relationship. I also appreciate the fact that Sorina in bisexual and Luca is on the ace spectrum.

I also did enjoy Sorina as a character. She was motivated, loyal, and valued family above all. I also enjoyed the murder mystery, it was suspenseful and interesting. The fact that the victims were illusions that supposedly couldn’t be killed made the mystery more suspenseful.

Overall, Daughter of the Burning City was an atmospheric high fantasy, with a suspenseful mystery and a slow burn hate-to-love romance.

Hey Guys!!
I know what am I doing back here so soon… Reading. Muhaha. Okay so that did not sound a evil as I intended but hey, I’ll practice my scary voice. I still have orders for cute and woolly animals flowing in and its really great too see. People love the animals I make. I may have to do a post on her about it. Yes, I know. It’s not a book so its not wanted…
Any who. As you can see by the lovely title, I have been reading The Daughter of the Burning City. This is.. something else entirely. It’s magic but not as we know it. It’s tragic and scary, as well as thrilling. You have your romance that is strange but lovely at the same time. And oh my gosh do not get me started on the deceit. Here’s a little summery.
Summery: A darkly irresistible new fantasy set in the infamous Gomorrah Festival, a traveling carnival of debauchery that caters to the strangest of dreams and desires
Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.
But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.
Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca. Their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all her loved ones disappear.
Damn! I even love the blurb of this book. You have mystery and magic and things that should not even be possible. And its all in one book!!! *enter fan girl scream* Right now that’s out my system lets get onto the nitty gritty.
I thought this world would be a bit like Caraval, if you’ve read that you know what I mean. For those of you who haven’t, its a place of fun where anything is possible, but once its over its all reset. This is so different. The Gomorrah world is all about your deep, dark desires as well as having some innocent fun. It’s not just for adults but for children as well. But what’s also different is its a carnival city. The city moves from place to place, never properly stopping. it’s made to entertain.
Gomorrah has a very dark side to it though, filled with assassins and secrets and murder. Did I already mention deceit? Because you are in for a massive surprise. Amanda Foody, the brilliant writer who has give us this world has spared nothing in showing us the grim side of the Gomorrah world and its people. But it also shows you and in a way teaches you the outside world is more dirty with it lack of acceptance of “Freaks”. This isn’t just happening in our book but as silly as it sound, it happens in our day to day lives. People with missing limbs either from birth or accidents and we avert the eye. At the end of the day these people are just like you and I. They didn’t want a “deformity” or to be different.
Now onto lighter notes. Amanda is very good at showing you what she wants to, she will keep a few of her strings being pulled in the background of the book and you would have no idea until it has hit you square in the face with a tree. What I love is the surprise. To many books follow the same, Boy meets girl, girl has magic, boy falls for the girl. This is more. Sorina goes through 6 weeks of hell to have to go through a life time of more. The people she loves are being murdered and the people she trusts are not who she thinks. All I can say is thank you Amanda for the work and for showing us something gruesome and brilliant.
Now if I say much else I have realised I will probably spoil it and that is not something I want to do. For those of you who have read the book. Enjoy the puns.
5 Stars.

This book was rather disappointing. The concept is cool, but the execution is poor and weird. Information is repeated at nausea and is even on the same page sometimes.

I personally found the world building to be problematic. Up-mountains are religious and unenlightened. Here I am Up-mountainer, that sure sounds like propaganda about Northern people in Europe. It hard to win these things as I don't think the author is likely to have realise this. This probably could have been solved by being more creative and more fantasy based than Up-Mountainers a.k.a. you mean the North and the main character is from the East so Asian or the middle East. It's backed with how the characters are described as look as well. Others might not read into this. On the fantasy front, it's always the ones that live in the mountains that savages and uneducated, so it just stereotype carried from others' works. Other parts of the world building were interesting such the idea of the traveling city and aspect of the magic.

This book is a murder mystery, with conspiracy, the ending of this book is dumb, but also really sad and depressing. (also, Spoiler: highlight on blog). The main character generally comes across as being sad. She has no friends her own age and spends most her time with people she made up and therefore, how much control does she actually have over them.

It's told from Sorina Point of View, she an okay protagonist. The characters are fine. I don’t care much about characters that died or were threatened.

There's some diversity with different Sexuality with lesbian and a character hinted at as Demi-sexual. A first, but you can also read into badly if wanted due to how this book ends. The Traveling city is also meant to be diverse with different people, but mostly Down-mountainers. A lot of characters have deformities, some magical and some if not for magic would be a disability. The main character has No Eyes, but can still see. I guess it fine and does talk about how Sorina is treated.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for Lamest Show in the City. This book was either going to be amazing or disappointment with the cool concept it had. Sadly, it was a disappointment for me. I didn't enjoy the reading process of that much and some of the author's choices I really didn't like. It was an okay read.

I'm really sorry, I tried to get into this book but just couldn't connect with any of the characters. I only got 10% in - should I have gone on for longer? Maybe. But I find that if I don't like a story from the start then I just can't continue.

However, many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author for the ARC.

Daughter of the Burning City was nothing like what I was expecting. For some strange reason I thought it would be similar to Caraval and The Night Circus but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Daughter is an incredibly fresh debut filled with strange wonders and creepy illusions.

The story follows sixteen year old Sorina, ‘The Girl Who Sees Without Eyes’ as she is known as. Sorina lives in Gomorrah, a travelling circus that travels far and wide showcasing all things weird and wonderful. Sorina is an illusion worker who created and stars in her own Freak Show. As stated Sorina has no eyes but is somehow able to see through her ‘jinx-work’ illusions. Ever since she was little Sorina has created illusions which ended up becoming her family, for example there’s Crown who has fingernails growing from his body were hair should be or Blister, a chubby one year old who breathes fire.

Sorina and her family of ‘freaks’ provide entertainment for the many citizens who come to see the delights of Gomorrah but her illusions are just that illusions, that it until one of them is murdered. Stricken with grief and unable to understand how a figment of her imagination can be killed Sorina enlists the help of Luca, a gossip-worker whose jinx-work is that he cannot be killed, they begin an investigation to uncover the murderer.

I was excited for a little mystery being mixed into my fantasy and was expecting to be gripped from the beginning. The pages were beautifully filled with imagination and I’m happy to say we had a diverse set of characters including POC and my personal favourite: characters who were demisexual. Definitely something I would love to see more of in YA books.

Throughout the book I found my attention wavering and a big part of this was the lack of connection I felt with the characters. I also didn’t care for the romance but that have been because I didn’t really understand Sorina. Sorina was the girl without eyes but I’m still not sure how she was able to ‘see’ using her jinx-work, it wasn’t explained very well. As well as the lack of connection with characters I found the plot lagged halfway through and I found the solution to the plot-twist at the end disappointing. Daughter of the Burning City was a book I was sure to love but I’m saddened to say that it just wasn’t the book for me.

Well, crud. What do I say about Daughter of the Burning City when I’ve already forgotten so much about it as I write this? I’ve gotta review it. Got a review copy, therefore must deliver review if possible–and it’s very possible. It’s just difficult. There’s plenty to like in Foody’s debut novel, but I have some issues too, particularly with Luca’s identity since we fall under the same queer umbrella.

The book starts out strong with its solid worldbuilding and the intrigue of how a mystery person is killing Sorina’s illusions. While she tries to figure things out, Luca the “gossip-worker” who can’t be killed decides to get involved. Whether you poison him or stab him through or what, he doesn’t die–and he’s very good at knowing everything that happens in the traveling festival city Gommorah.

The worldbuilding done as Sorina and Luca search for the killer(s) raises such intriguing questions that it’s a bit sad the novel is a standalone with no apparent plans for other novels set in this world.

That’s all the good I can squeeze out. By the time I was halfway through the book, the characters and dilemma no longer held my interest and I came up with excuse after excuse not to read it. Though I compliment the worldbuilding, I’d forgotten a great deal of it within hours of finishing the book. Half the time, I forget Sorina’s name when recalling the book!

Then there’s Luca, who Foody states on her Tumblr is “ace spectrum (somewhere around demisexual or demiromantic/asexual)” and yet his romantic/sexual identity is still such a mystery to me.

Luca himself says that he’s “always found people’s romantic lives rather baffling. Like everyone was gushing about a song [he’s] never been able to hear” (ARC, p. 252). On the next page, he adds onto it by saying he doesn’t look at someone and feel attracted to them. He has to care about the person before the attraction appears.

Seeing as there’s so little asexual and demisexual representation in all of literature, let alone in YA, it’s vital to be clear in representation, which isn’t happening with Daughter of the Burning City. The above paragraph demonstrates both demiromantic identity (the direct quote) and demisexual identity (the paraphrased quote from the next page) rather than asexual identity. But the words are never used in the book, implying that there are no such words in Foody’s novel. Other characters don’t speak kindly of his identity and lack of romantic/sexual interest in others either.

Being demi and being ace are two different things. Even if you’re demi ace or aro demi, they’re different! Don’t believe me? Go look in on the Riverdale fandom. The character Jughead is canonically aromantic asexual in the comics, but his identity was erased in the show and he gets into a relationship with Betty. Now people who are mad about the aro ace erasure are fighting with people who see him as demi and are claiming him as their representation. Both groups deserve representation and shouldn’t have to fight over who someone represents. Just make it clear in the source material!

We have a hard enough time as it is. God help you if you ever peek into the “ace discourse” tag on Tumblr because you’ll see some nasty stuff from people who exclude ace people from the queer community. We don’t need to be fighting with each other over yet another character whose identity is left unclear.

Rather than getting Word of God representation people have to search an author’s site for or otherwise look to an out-of-text source for, I’d prefer if the word and representation were clear in the text itself.

Without the cloudy state of Luca’s identity, Daughter of the Burning City is a creative, unique debut novel. With it, it’s just another reason I feel wary when a book wants to represent one of the identities under the asexual umbrella. Take it, leave it, it doesn’t make much difference to me. Reviewing this book and trying to put my issue with Luca into words made me tired.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to review this in exchange for my honest opinion.

WARNING: Potential Spoilers.

First things first, OMG I love this! This has to be one of my favourite books of the year! From the very first page I was gripped and pulled into this story. The writing is amazing and I love that you can let go of reality and completely immerse yourself in this fantastical world full of magic and illusions.
I felt that I wanted to savour the writing and didnt want to finish the book I was enjoying it that much

I am a huge fan of anything with magic and carnivals and this has just emphasised that love for me. The concept was so intriguing, a girl with no eyes but can see? - Definitely my kind of thing!
I would recommend this book to anyone and in fact I have so many times!

I loved that the main character didn't go with the convention of beauty and even called herself a freak but in a proud way. Like she was proud of the fact that she was different and I think that it something that everyone needs to be reminded of - that what you think are your flaws are what makes you amazing. I felt Sorina is the type of character that definitely amplifies that!
I loved that Sorina was a down to earth character and that finding her families killer came before the romance - effectively making the romance story line secondary and a support plot to the main one.

All her different family members amazed me, I love how Amanda Foody made you fall in love with these amazing characters and feel the emotions when they died. I was definitely close to tears more than once!
Another character I loved who has a link in with Sorina's family is Luca. I felt his character was continually intriguing and even when you thought you had figured something out about him there would be a new mystery to him. I enjoyed how he taught Sorina more about Gomorrah and showed her a different side to what she had been living before. He was such a interesting character and I loved the plot twist that involved him.

The plot twist had me up all night so that I could keep reading and find out what happened!

My only issue with it was the magic side, which while I loved that it was all different kinds of magic, I would have loved to have seen more of it and all the different kinds that were happening within Gomorrah.

The Illustrations throughout were amazing and definitely added to the novel and made the characters feel a lot more real and gave me a better understanding of them.

This is definitely a book I would recommend to anyone and everyone it is simply amazing.

I went into Daughter of the Burning City without too much knowledge of what it actually was about and I think this did me a lot of good as I was able to watch the story unfold before my very eyes.

Daughter of the Burning City is set in Gomorrah, possibly one of the darkest and most mysterious carnivals I have read about. I am a big fan of circus themed books and that was the main reason that I picked this one up. Gomorrah is full of darkness, from the stands and shows to the inhabitants itself. Everyone is hiding something and it is difficult to know who to trust. I’m not sure how much I would enjoy walking around Gomorrah, I think I’d be on edge, but it would certainly be surreal and fantastical!

Our MC is Sorina and I really adored her, I thought she was fierce, protective and incredibly loyal. Not often does she let her emotions get the better of her but when they did I just wanted to snuggle her and make her feel okay. Sorina is a ‘freak’. She has no eyes, yet she can see (I really, really wanted to know more about this and was disappointed that I didn’t!). She is able to create illusions and I loved her illusion family. They were all so different and unique in their own ways and my favourite parts of the book were reading the scenes where they were performing their freak show for the crowds.

When her illusions start getting murdered, something Sorina thought impossible, she embarks on a quest to discover who is behind the atrocities. This is when we meet precious, adorable Luca. I really liked him and thought he was very endearing, even during those moments where I was unsure of his loyalty. The plot had an excellent premise and whilst by the end we do discover who is behind the murders, I felt it took us a VERY long time to get there. Whilst I could appreciate the beauty of the writing and world-building, I would have liked the plot to be a little more exciting and driven forward at a slightly faster pace to capture my attention a little more.

It was refreshing to read a book that isn’t full of the usual tropes, however. There is no ‘strong, perfect’ female lead, Sorina is deformed in the eyes of those around her, certainly not a glamorous lead. There is no love triangle and ‘who is she going to pick’ element which I appreciated and the romance that is there is secondary to the rest of the plot and novel which worked really well. The characters are diverse in many ways including sexuality. There is a lot to praise in this book and I did enjoy reading it.

On the whole this is a dark, mysterious book with a fantastic setting and a host of interesting characters. I just wanted a bit more excitement and pace from the plot to keep me flipping the pages quickly. I’ll definitely be coming back for more from Amanda Foody when her next novel is released in 2018, her writing style is beautiful!

Daughter of the Burning City is a luscious, wicked romp through a festival of debauchery and sin – The Gomorrah Festival – a travelling city that boasts a multitude of sights and shows, full of mysterious jynx-workers, prettymen and women, The Menagerie, and Freak Show, to name but a few. Although the festival has always courted its fair share of controversy, especially amongst the religious Up-Mountainers, it finds itself in further scandal when Sorina, a rare illusion-worker, finds one of her illusions murdered. But how can someone be murdered if they aren’t fully alive? The novel follows Sorina as she delves into the seedier Downhill of the Festival to try and find out who murdered her family, and how it’s possible to murder an illusion.

At first I did wonder how I would get to know and forge a connection with all the characters. However, Sorina and her illusions – Tree, Gill, Venera, Nicoleta, Blister, Hawk, Unu and Du, and Crown – all have distinct personalities, and I found myself attached to them all, and devastated when one of them was killed. Sorina herself was an interesting protagonist – she has the power to transport a person entirely with her illusion work, and create images so vivid they could make adults run away screaming, yet she remains a realistic teenager, worried about how she looks and how others perceive her, although I imagine having flat skin where eyes usually are contributes to this. I’m glad she was unsure of herself and made mistakes, it only made her growth throughout the novel, as she tries to untangle everything that is happening in Gomorrah, more realistic. The other characters are equally as interesting – especially the mysterious and well-spoken Luca – and I love how there was always more beneath the surface, something else to them that wasn’t immediately obvious.

Daughter of the Burning City is a wonderfully twisty tale; with so many people who have unusual abilities how do you know who to trust? How do you know what is real and if your mind is truly your own? Sorina has to try and muddle through murky politics and allegiances – both within Gomorrah and the Up-Mountain cities they are touring – to try and discover who wants to murder her family and why, as well as dealing with unexpected emotions. The world of Gomorrah was amazing to discover, with a vastness that I couldn’t quite comprehend and a surprise around every corner. My only criticism is that writing sometimes felt convoluted, as if Foody was trying to use too many words to convey something. The writing was generally evocative, though, and the world of Gomorrah and its inhabitants came alive to me from the very first page. Highly recommended if you’re after a strange, murderous story where nothing is quite what it seems.

Gomorrah is a travelling circus that is so large it's practically a city in it's own right. It's a place of magic and mystery and everything about it is designed to entice the crowds to spend their money before it passes on to a new destination. Gomorrah is also a safe haven for magic users (known as jynx-workers) and misfits who aren't always accepted in normal society.

Sorina has been with the circus for as long as she can remember after being adopted by the show proprietor, Villiam, when she was a young child. Born with no eyes but able to see with the use of her magic Sorina is a master of illusions and she is in charge of running the freak show at Gomorrah. Sorina's illusions are so real that they actually become people that are capable of living their own lives, she has used her abilities to create a family for herself from the stern but caring uncle Gill who is part man and part fish and unable to breath out of water, the motherly Nicoletta whose super strength isn't a reliable gift, to her beautiful, and incredibly bendy younger sister Venera who makes a perfect acrobat and more besides. Each of Sorina's illusions has become a real person and she loves them all deeply.

No matter how happy Sorina has always been at Gomorrah things are about to change for the worse, the unrest in the world outside the circus is causing friction between the jynx-workers and the general public an there is a darkness lurking inside the circus that Sorina is only just starting to uncover. Sorina has always believed her illusions are immortal, they are connected to her in a way that she believes keeps them safe so when one of them is killed she is shocked and horrified. Now she must try to figure out what is going on before more of her family are lost, why are her illusions being targeted and how can she keep them all safe when she doesn't know where the danger is coming from?

The story was a little bit of a slow burner for me, it took me a little while to get completely sucked into this world but once it hooked it's claws into me I was totally invested in the characters and heartbroken every time Sorina lost another member of her family. I think where the book fell down a little was the world building outside of the circus, there is obviously a lot of political intrigue and things happening outside are having a huge effect on life inside Gomorrah but there were times when I struggled to connect to what was going on.

When it came to Sorina's life in the circus I thought the descriptions were wonderful, I was easily able to picture the setting and I loved the different types of magic that were mentioned. I also really fell in love with Sorina's whole family, I loved how they all had their own personality traits and how they could irritate each other like any family but that they were always there for each other no matter what. I also really enjoyed the introduction of Luca's character, he had his own jynx-worker abilities and was a bit of a mystery man so I was intrigued from the start. I liked the hint of a developing romance but was glad that it didn't overtake the rest of the story and the focus remained on Sorina trying to figure out why her family was being targeted.

Daughter of the Burning City is a great debut from Amanda Foody and I really hope we're going to get more stories set in this world, I'd love to revisit Gomorrah and spend more time getting to know the different jynx-workers we came across here. Either way I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for whatever this author publishes next. I have very high hopes for her next story!

Gomorrah is a travelling circus that is so large it's practically a city in it's own right. It's a place of magic and mystery and everything about it is designed to entice the crowds to spend their money before it passes on to a new destination. Gomorrah is also a safe haven for magic users (known as jynx-workers) and misfits who aren't always accepted in normal society.

Sorina has been with the circus for as long as she can remember after being adopted by the show proprietor, Villiam, when she was a young child. Born with no eyes but able to see with the use of her magic Sorina is a master of illusions and she is in charge of running the freak show at Gomorrah. Sorina's illusions are so real that they actually become people that are capable of living their own lives, she has used her abilities to create a family for herself from the stern but caring uncle Gill who is part man and part fish and unable to breath out of water, the motherly Nicoletta whose super strength isn't a reliable gift, to her beautiful, and incredibly bendy younger sister Venera who makes a perfect acrobat and more besides. Each of Sorina's illusions has become a real person and she loves them all deeply.

No matter how happy Sorina has always been at Gomorrah things are about to change for the worse, the unrest in the world outside the circus is causing friction between the jynx-workers and the general public an there is a darkness lurking inside the circus that Sorina is only just starting to uncover. Sorina has always believed her illusions are immortal, they are connected to her in a way that she believes keeps them safe so when one of them is killed she is shocked and horrified. Now she must try to figure out what is going on before more of her family are lost, why are her illusions being targeted and how can she keep them all safe when she doesn't know where the danger is coming from?

The story was a little bit of a slow burner for me, it took me a little while to get completely sucked into this world but once it hooked it's claws into me I was totally invested in the characters and heartbroken every time Sorina lost another member of her family. I think where the book fell down a little was the world building outside of the circus, there is obviously a lot of political intrigue and things happening outside are having a huge effect on life inside Gomorrah but there were times when I struggled to connect to what was going on.

When it came to Sorina's life in the circus I thought the descriptions were wonderful, I was easily able to picture the setting and I loved the different types of magic that were mentioned. I also really fell in love with Sorina's whole family, I loved how they all had their own personality traits and how they could irritate each other like any family but that they were always there for each other no matter what. I also really enjoyed the introduction of Luca's character, he had his own jynx-worker abilities and was a bit of a mystery man so I was intrigued from the start. I liked the hint of a developing romance but was glad that it didn't overtake the rest of the story and the focus remained on Sorina trying to figure out why her family was being targeted.

Daughter of the Burning City is a great debut from Amanda Foody and I really hope we're going to get more stories set in this world, I'd love to revisit Gomorrah and spend more time getting to know the different jynx-workers we came across here. Either way I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for whatever this author publishes next. I have very high hopes for her next story!