I was stunned to find this a few days ago. I went down a little rabbit hole after watching an unrelated youtube video. I found this book seven years after originally reading it. I had been searching for it, and had made peace with the fact that I would never find it again. So it was an enormous surprise to actually find it, to the point that the first few pages awed me. Because it turns out, this book existed after all!

The phrase "tell the wind and fire" is repeated so often in this book that I started thinking it was a song lyric, which reveals my fanfiction roots. No, I looked it up and it's a declaration from "A Tale of Two Cities," upon which this book is based. I can't gauge how good a retelling it is. I've never read the book, let alone enough times to draw comparisons. But you know what I have read enough times that I feel confident in drawing comparisons?
This book is jammed with references to "The Hunger Games" book series specifically. I am not accusing the author of plagiarism. It's evident she reads the books regularly. The references are at first unsettling because the series they originated in does them better. The references quickly became distracting and annoying, as this is a book set against two cities and has nothing to do with kids being forced to fight to the death as a result of a fatal government lottery system. This is a character study about the class and cultural differences between two cities in the future. The author tries hard to write a plot. She does. I wanted to find a plot.There's uh, an evil twin and um blood is actually drugs and uh uh a revolt happens!! Nooo really a revolt look look it's a plot truly.

I remembered Aunt Lila as a cool character. She's mentioned several times, ostensibly to cast a long shadow and have huge buildup on the page before she shows up. She doesn't show up, however, until page a hundred in the edition I was reading. And I was annoyed with her. Grumble. Ethan should have been cut entirely from the book. This story is about his doppleganger, whose name begins with C and I cannot recall except that it's unusual. He was a jerk, Ethan was boring and had only a whisper of a spine, and I never bought at -all- that the main character had a crush on Ethan, let alone date him for so long. No, this book should have just had the jerk in it. The main character drooled and panted after him the whole time. A decent plot could have been wrung out of their romance and class differences, with him pushing social boundaries around class and curfew just enough. "I thought I saw a doppleganger!" a stranger could say. "Were you somehow with one?" and rumors could spread, and finally the two leads are caught, and -then- the big sad ending could take place and actually get a reaction out of me. That is not what the author wrote. There's not even a "who will I choose?" element, the doppleganger is just suddenly there and takes over the whole book from the beginning.

For whatever whiny reason, the main character finally breaks down and cries over multiple useless people she hasn't seen in years, or that have been dead for years, forty pages from the end of the book. The cry fest is not convincing and goes on much longer than necessary. The cages didn't seem to have a purpose beyond shock value, really. They needed to be written about in a different manner in order for me to understand them and their place in the book. I understood their "Hunger Games" counterpart right away, though, if that's what the author of this book was intending.

I wasn't the intended audience for this. ( )

I flew through this book so fast. I loved that i think it is standalone. I also really loved the characters and just the world that was created. It took the best parts of magic and dystoia and made awesome story. It was a darker story the her previous series and with a lot of grit. I really loved the characters. I was surprised at how neatly the story ended and it to me was a good and effective standalone. I love the concept of it being that she was telling us this long story! I love the tie back to tale of two cities because it was so obvious now that that was here Inspiration. If you like red queen but wanted a more unique world check out this book. ( )

I flew through this book so fast. I loved that i think it is standalone. I also really loved the characters and just the world that was created. It took the best parts of magic and dystoia and made awesome story. It was a darker story the her previous series and with a lot of grit. I really loved the characters. I was surprised at how neatly the story ended and it to me was a good and effective standalone. I love the concept of it being that she was telling us this long story! I love the tie back to tale of two cities because it was so obvious now that that was here Inspiration. If you like red queen but wanted a more unique world check out this book. ( )

Actual rating: 4.5/5

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

I really enjoyed reading this book! I loved how the author managed to tackle serious themes like equality, minority rights and social change by seamlessly including them in a fantasy retelling of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities (which I really want to read now, btw).

At first, I struggled a bit to connect with Lucie as a character. I guess I just couldn't figure her out. Which in the end, I realised, was exactly the right reaction for me to have. Lucie is a girl who has witnessed so much darkness in her life, that it has marked her forever, even if she eventually manages to move to the Light part of the city, which is where all the wealthiest and most powerful people live. But even though she is relatively secure in her new status, Lucie knows everything could be taken from her in the blink of an eye, and she and everyone she loves would be back in the Dark - or worse. This constant conflict between the Lucie who has suffered and clings onto her safety, and the one who doesn't forget her humanity and fights until the end for those she loves, was what made it difficult for me to completely understand her at first, and also what made me love her so much as a character by the end of the book.

Several things happen throughout the book, including numerous murders, abductions and a revolution, so I guess you could focus on the action-y part of the story and get lost in it, and that would be perfectly fine. It's a good storyline, with enough action and suspence to keep you glued to the pages. But, for me, this book was about a lot more than just its plot. It was a delicate-yet-gut-wrenching critique of society, of just how easy it is sometimes to get lost in propaganda, to unload all the world's troubles on a single group, forgetting our common status as humans.

This book definitely gave me a lot to think about, both through the storyline and through the individual characters. Lucie is definitely the one that will stick with me the most, because she is probably the one that most represents all of us throughout her development: moving from blind acceptance because she fears losing everything she has worked for up to her fierce determination in fighting an unjust system to protect her loved ones and the weakest who have no one else to fight for them, Lucie is a remarkable example of character development.

Definitely a highly recommended book, and one I will gladly re-read as soon as I get a chance!

For this and more reviews, visit Book for Thought. ( )

I'm a little torn on this book. I like the concept of the Tale of Two Cities (although, since I haven't read the original, it was lost on me). I'm not 100% sold on the realities of the world she creates here -- too black and white, too extreme and the logic for the divide is not all that convincing, but there is a fine and fierce young woman narrator, a certain amount of sarcastic and delightful dialogue, and a pleasantly convoluted plot. I enjoyed it.

Advanced reader copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )