Chilling and dark…. If you're looking for a dark fantasy world filled with morally grey characters, monsters that also come in the form of humans, and a world built from the ground up with the undeniable talent of the author - you're going to want to pre-order this one immediately. (Not to mention, a touch of romance).⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I knew as I dived into this book that this is dark fantasy. I mean the title and cover speak for themselves. However, I did read the novella, A Pale Box on the Distant Shore, for which the story was told from a different protagonist who was a little more upbeat. While he is present in this book, his is not the main point of view. He is merely a minor character here. I missed him!!

Instead we have Dust-Caste slave Thora for whom everything is a struggle. Primarily because she has to squeeze herself into a tiny little ball when she really wanted just to be herself; all in a bid to survive a world in which she cannot escape. This makes the read really frustrating a lot of the time and sometimes, depressing. I think you'd have to be in the right headspace to read this book.

As much as I was fascinated with this very red & extremely brutal world, the ending was a little bit disappointing. Yes, it sounds true to the reality of that universe but it's FICTION! I wanted something more; something that made the struggle through the story worthwhile. I'm not sure if I'm keen to know what Thora will get up to next; we'll see.

My thanks to Small Heart Press for ecopy of book via NetGalley in exchange of my honest thoughts

Unfortunately I was not able to finish this one. I love epic fantasy, it's my jam but the voabulary and semantics used on this book is not something I jive with. It makes it difficult to follow along the storyline and for the first 200 pages, I felt just lost more than ever

I went into this book completely blind, but only a few pages in and I realized that this book would just click for me on every single level. These days, it’s rare for me to get so sucked into a story that I simply lose track of time, but Dream of Death City accomplished exactly that and completely entranced me from the very first page.

the author painted the world of The Red Kingdom as dark, elusive, and vast. It goes beyond simple descriptions so it is integrated into every sentence of the page to make it feel real and alive, even with all its death.

What a book full of twists and surprises, truly a breath of fresh air! Cannot wait to read more from the author.

It was quite an interesting read, with pretty good world building. Some of the characters felt flat to me, however they were enjoyable overall. It was a bit slow to start, but got quite gripping towards the middle. Very good!

The cover art is pretty, but the plot was lacking. I couldn’t even finish this one, honestly. The author didn’t do so well with the world building, I definitely struggled trying to imagine it!

Beautiful dark fantasy novel that will send you into a truly different world, with its very peculiar culture, and terribly unforgiving rules. The heroes are very flawed, but do the best they can with what they are given as investigators trying to solve the disappearance of a ruling-class daughter.
The pace is slow and heavy and creepy, a little like trudging in mud, and the atmosphere is incredible. I think I preferred the short story that came before the novel, but this is still very good, like nothing else and it definitely feels like there is soooo much more to explore in this world, and so much space for continued growth in our characters.
Will definitely be waiting for the next one and highly recommend to people who liked the manga Attack on Titan, or the TV series True Detective but with a fantasy lense.

This is such a gripping Nordic noir with a fantasy setting.

In the oppressive Red Kingdom, society is organized along strict caste lines, and Thora knows her place: at the bottom. As a Dust Caste slave belonging to Investigation House, she can expect her days to be filled with laundry, cleaning floors, chopping vegetables, and similar chores. But Thora knows she is capable of much more and when she’s chosen to accompany an investigator looking into the disappearance of a Sun Noble girl, she’s determined to use this opportunity to prove herself, no matter the cost, even as it becomes clear that there is far more wrong in Death City than a single girl gone missing.

The world building and writing on the society within the Red Kingdom was so brilliantly done, and Thora is such a great main character. She's very relatable as she makes mistakes, but you still find yourself rooting for her

Received arc from Small Heart Press and Netgalley for honest read and review,this review is my own.
I am beginning to really like Poppy's work and this first book in Red Kingdom was utterly absorbing,the characters are all flawed in some way , but make the story more enjoyable.The wording and interaction between the characters is amazing and this helps this big story along.It was also quite hard sometimes to figure where story was heading.
Centering around Diem and Thora as the investigate some goings on in another land.
This is a big book and it took me a while to get through it.

DNF 20%. I really liked the premise of the book, the idea that a religion surrounding death controls all aspects of life and two investigators trying to solve a crime under these circumstances. But the world building just made it all confusing before the plot even began. A reader shouldn't be spoon fed world building and should discover as they read, but the initial building just made me really uninterested in finding out more.

Oh gosh, the world building in this novel was incredible!! Like seriously!! The author built this richly detailed world with so much depth, and I feel like we only scratched the surface of what’s coming. It can be hard sometimes to translate an author’s vision for a world into the reader experience, but this was so well done that I had no problem imagining the world the story took place in.

I loved the characters and was either excited or anxious about what would happen to them next! I found turned the pages and holding on for the ride. They all had real and flawed personalities and they interacted in realistic and relatable ways.

The plot itself was engaging and all the puzzle pieces slotted into place as I made my way through the novel. I can’t wait to see where the series goes next! Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author, for a chance to read and review this novel.

Okay, so I really wanted to like this book. And I did... kinda

The storyline and characters were good, but I did get a little confused at times. maybe it was me, but idk.

2.5/5 stars

thank you NetGalley for the arc

Dreams of Death City has some incredible things going for it. The world itself, the magic system, the use of themes, colors and cast of characters are richly detailed and vibrant. Its the execution that I find the most fault in.
The writing is so repetitive that I struggled to not DNF this on many occasions and actually dreaded picking it up. The way the characters are described (goals, motives) do not seem to match the way they’re presented. For me there was a disconnect in the conflict of the story. The characters don't seem to have any sense of urgency for all that were told they’re running on borrowed time. While I get that there is a particular reader that will very much enjoy this, I was not one of them.

I dnf'd this book at less than 1/3. I just was not engaged at all and consistently dreaded picking it up. I hesitate to give a star rating at all since it was a dnf, but its required here.

There's a lot of potential, a lov of intriguing aspects and I loved them. I could have a higher rate but I also found it quite slow.
Be patient and you'll be rewarded.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Many Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the digital review copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
This, this right here! I absolutely loved this book, there is so much going on, it’s brutal, and compassionate, with a strong class divide, female empowerment, and a simmering romance, on top of mysteries unsolved and a string of murders.
The characters have so much depth, flawed with dark pasts, in a place where nearly everything is punishable by death, they dream of something better in a better place. The setting is brutal, I felt cold just reading it, but it had such a good pace that I devoured it in a few days. There are so many unanswered questions in the book that I can’t wait to see if there are more from this world.

(Thank you to NetGalley and Small Heart Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review)

Marketed as a dark fantasy mixed with a Sherlock Homes-style mystery, Dream Of Death City had me invested from the beginning. The world has so much depth and lore including unique speech patterns, a religion focused on death and all the political intrigue you could want. The fantasy aspects were really interesting to learn and read about, as well as the history of the Red Kingdom. You can tell the author has put so much thought into every single aspect of the world which has resulted in a rich yet dark and strange setting. The writing style is also brilliant and everything is described so vividly that it feels as though you are exploring Death City alongside Thora and Diem.

Speaking of, the characters are well written and Thora and Diem were really interesting main characters to follow. They weren’t your typical heroes but instead were compelling characters with flaws and dark pasts just trying to survive. I was rooting for them from the beginning and admired their courage to dream of a better life in a tough world where even dreaming is punishable. The mystery aspect worked really well and was the perfect fit for this type of setting. There were lots of twists and turns and I also appreciated how the ending wasn’t rushed at all, as this is often a flaw many mystery novels suffer with.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The dark and strange setting mixed with a great mystery and immersive writing resulted in a fantastic read

I guess it is time to face the music… DNF at 80%

I believe I stopped reading this weeks ago but I thought if I could just push myself to read it, I could finish it. I turned out to be wrong. A disclaimer though, this book did not work for me. I believe it will be loved by many, it just wasn't my cup of tea. (I know it sounds like that classic “You will make someone very happy one day, it’s just not me.” break-up line but bear with me.)

To start on a more positive note, this book had an amazing world with its unique magic system. I’ve never read anything quite like this and I almost only read fantasy so kudos to the author for being able to surprise me. The writing style was hard to get into at first but once you get used to it, it flows pretty easily. I can count so many good things about this book so why didn’t it work for me? Well, let's get right into it.

First things first, the rhythm of the story. More like the lack of it. It started off pretty slow. Way too slow. So slow that even though I found the world to be intriguing, I fell asleep a few times trying to get through it. Don’t let the prequel chapter fool you, the rest is definitely not like that. Once you get to the 60% mark, it picks up and you finally get into the exciting part. Only for that part to end at 80% mark hence why I DNF’ed there.

It also failed to meet my expectations with many things. The biggest of them being the magic system. It was and I can’t stress this enough, very original but the author failed to use it. It was hardly a part of the main plot and it wasn’t executed very well. I honestly would like to know more about the crooked beat just not in this book.

I also thought the traumatic event Thora apparently went through would be important and not something that gets mentioned in a few chapters without affecting the way Thora feels or reacts. She didn’t care, so as the reader I could not care which made the constant mention of it without proper explanation annoying.

And the final thing that didn’t work for me was, and this could be a minor spoiler, Thora and Diem’s love. Throughout the book, I always felt like they had this brother/sister kind of relationship instead of a romantic one so once they got together, it was extremely weird for me. I honestly couldn’t support them or even read their romance without cringing. I think it was the biggest letdown for me.

To finish this review off, I’d say you all should give this one a chance and judge for yourself.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What a fab fantasy. I loved the way the writing style goes hand in hand with the story and world- building, and I always enjoy character-focused novels. It was great to see such a variety of characters with different paths and agendas, facing challenges and tough choices every day. What particularly resonated for me was a storyline of women fighting for more for themselves. Great novel for all fantasy-lovers and beyond!

It is a tale of ambitious spies entangled on a journey of hardships, betrayals, and adventure. I like how the story opened with an ambush to another great house and I was totally immersed by how the story pulled me into a cinematic experience. There are some parts where I find it slow and dragging, but the detailed and luscious writing kept me in the loop.

Massive thank you to Netgalley and Small Heart Press for approving me of this eARC!