Review: Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody

Book Blurb:

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, and 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 of her loved ones disappear.

Find out more about the book on Goodreads

My Review:

3.5 Out Of 5 Stars

Genre: Another-World, Mystery, Romance, Supernatural, Teen--

William is the Proprietor of Gomorrah and Sorina is his adopted daughter. Sorina is unique herself, with no eyes or spot for eyes and the ability to bring illusions to life. And that is how Sorina created herself a family as well as performers for her freak show- by creating them from her illusions. But when one of her beloved illusions was found murdered, she is shocked and horrified. When nobody else seems to care or what to discover the truth, Sorina takes it upon herself to find the killer. But this is just the beginning.

​Gomorrah was the coolest part of the story, it was the setting as well as almost a character itself. Gomorrah is a traveling city full of performers and oddities, they just pick up their caravans and move to the next city for shows, yet the city is burning (or appears to be so- the how I was not certain of, but still a cool concept). Yet Gomorrah has both an uphill and a downhill, and where you live indicates the persons class and status in the city, which I found very interesting with a traveling city that is not stationary or set they still establish boundaries. Boundary still exist in a world where they are all basically "freaks" of some kind, with gifts and skills outside the range of normal people.

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​I did have a logistical question- how can a girl with no eye holes cry? How can she see? At the beginning of the book it said that Sorina is deformed and has no spot for eyes and she used her illusions to see, but she can she see and cry even when her illusions are not around so it was odd.​ Sorina completely lacks people skills and knowledge of most people, only comfortable with her illusion family members. She hides behind her eyeless masks as well as the moth illusion she projects over herself to blend in and not be noticed since she is scared of what others will think about her. She has never been in a relationship before due to her lack of outside interaction and deformity, but dreams equally about men and women romantically. She did experience a lot of growth as a character through the book and was able to look inside herself and see her strengths, making her so much more confident, which was really nice to see (and went along with the authors comments about the book and the power of Sorina).

​Luca is the mysterious boy who has been helping Sorina with her investigation, he is an UpMountainer (aka wealthy outsider) who has become more a part of the underbelly of Gomorrah that Sorina has ever been. Luca is known as a Poison-Worker who performs a show where people are allowed to murder him and he always comes back to life, and he also calls himself a Gossip Worker- he knows and researches the secrets that everyone keeps. I will admit that he was the most interesting part of the story to me with his truths, insights, quirks and dry wit- every interaction with him made me so excited and blow through those pages (I could 100% relate to his curiosity about people and that he just liked to know stuff). Definitely my favorite character.

This was as much a murder mystery as a political intrigue? Was the murder a personal vendetta, an accident or machinations of political unrest? I liked that there were so many possibilities to the plot that I was kept guessing as to the direction the story would take next. I did like how this entire plot wrapped up in a single book so I don't have to wait for more to come. This was my first book by Amanda and I am really impressed with her ability to create this dark, twisty world, with dimension and personality, unlike anything I have encountered before. This book was 100% unique and interesting, even when it was not pretty (except the cover, the cover was always gorgeous and I lurv it!).

As a side note, I started this book on audio and it was ok, and then I read parts as an ebook which was ok as well but I highly recommend this as a physical book since there are some really cool and interesting illustrations included in the pages about the illusions. I am a visual person and really liked to see what the illusions looked like as well as the killer's comments scribbled on the top- the aubiobook read the illustrations but did not do them justice (in my opinion).