The demon Vitrine has loved the city of Azril for centuries. Shaping its walls and guiding its people, it has been built into everything she has ever desired it to be. Then the angels come, and the city burns, leaving her with nothing but memories, and the angel she cursed to wander the city he destroyed. Trying to rebuild the city from the ground up, Vitrine has to deal with her memories, as well as her hatred for the angel who has become entwined with both her and the ruins of Azril. But when war looms, will they band together or let themselves be destroyed along with the new city?
This was an incredibly surreal book that was simultaneously exactly and not at all like the blurb made it out to be. Vitrine and her angel (no name mentioned. Do angels just not have names here, or is he not important to the plot to warrant one?) are very broad-stroked, slightly alien characters. Which isn’t a bad thing, they just are bordering on concepts of people, especially the angel. Though given that Vitrine is the main character, I guess it does make sense that she is slightly more fleshed out. And half of what the book insinuates is going to happen? Either really doesn’t or is a blink-and-you’ll-almost-miss-it kind of circumstance. Flashbacks abound, and you have a lot of circuitous passages that loop back to previous pages and earlier, half-formed ideas. The book lands softly on you, lingering and both just impacting on the surface and making you think about hours later. It’s like an art-house movie, very big on words conveying feelings more then descriptions. Which I realize this review is also slightly doing, however this book just brings it out in you.
I will say, the author’s note at the end where Nghi Vo says what her inspiration was in writing this made a lot of sense and crystallized the entire plot for me.