The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers – Review

Published: January 30, 2024

Publisher: Redhook

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 352 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
A young woman descends into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge to break her family’s curse in this spellbinding contemporary fantasy debut.

For centuries, generations of Everlys have seen their brightest and best 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 just a child when her mother Marianne vanished on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. And when Penelope cannot find her, she issues an Violet has ten years to find Marianne, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer from the curse. Unless she can break it first.

To do so, she must descend into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. She must also contend with Penelope’s quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted – and yet whose knowledge of a world beyond her own is too valuable to avoid.

Tied to a very literal deadline, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began.

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The City of Stardust was my first read of 2024 and I can’t believe I already have a contender for the Best Books of 2024 list, which is fabulous! I’m honestly a little surprised that it doesn’t have a higher Goodreads average rating, despite having nearly 1000 ratings before the official release. Portal fantasy as a niche sub-genre is really starting to grow on me.

Violet Everly was abandoned by her mother when she was just a child and left with her uncles in the aging family manor. Her mother, Marianne, disappeared so that she couldn’t be claimed by the Everly family curse – a curse embodied by a woman named Penelope. Each generation, an Everly is owed to Penelope who takes them away into the world she hails from. The purpose is unclear at first – what could this mysterious woman who can seemingly open portals to anywhere want with this family? As the story progresses, things become clear and it’s exactly as nefarious as you might expect. Lots of bloodletting and death involved. But why, you may ask? Well, that’s the question isn’t it – I won’t spoil that part because it’s really what this book is unraveling.

Penelope comes from a world full of magic, where a mere key can turn any doorway into a portal to anywhere one might wish to go. The Everly blood is its own sort of key and the family is given 10 years to find Marianne, otherwise Violet will be taken in her stead. Rather than wait to be taken, Violet begins to search around the world for leads – a rumored sighting of Marianne, a magical map, a hint that takes her to a dark cellar in a French village. It’s really quite a scenic world tour, which I loved, and when we finally get to see this otherworld that Penelope hails from, I loved it even more. Violet occasionally meets up with Aleksander, Penelope’s assistant who has some rather dubious motives of his own. Let’s just say, Aleksander isn’t entirely to be trusted but he certainly makes things more interesting and fraught than if it were just Violet vs. Penelope.

The City of Stardust is a rich, imaginative book that really went above and beyond the expectations I had. The story isn’t all light, fluffy lyricism – it has a defined darkness that surprised and delighted me all at once. This isn’t a story of mere mortals. The divine are about and they are haunting. Just imagine broken, fallen angels who only want back what they’ve lost. This book was beautiful and while it had a somewhat slow start I ended up loving it.