Red City by Marie Lu

ARC Disclosure: This book was received free of charge from Macmillan Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

At a Glance: Crime, Struggle, and Magic

Red City is a true breakout story for Marie Lu into the adult fantasy genre, it’s equal parts thrilling, adventurous, and just an incredibly fun read. Two childhood friends who end up on opposite sides of magical crime syndicates that sell a magical drug called salt—which lets anyone who takes it become the perfect version of themselves—and perform different types of alchemy, who eventually find themselves torn between loyalty to their crime families, real families, and each other in this fresh take on Urban Fantasy.

Set in Angel City, which is this worlds version of Los Angeles, where alchemy is used in the shadows and very rarely seen or understood by the public. In the cities underworld there are multiple magical crime syndicates that are fighting for position in the salt trade while recruiting those they can find and leverage to further their goals. Caught in the middle of all of this are Ari and Sam, immigrants who these syndicates recruit with lofty promises and boat loads of cash, but it all comes with an incredibly steep cost.

Lu has created such an incredible and fresh magic system while giving slight nods to the established magics of fantasy, and managed to make multiple parallels that really show what people are willing to sacrifice for their families, the consistent need to belong, and the societal pressures of perfection.

Red City: Reimagined City of Dreams

Red City shares a lot of the similar characteristics of the Los Angeles today, where the American dream is still sold, but requires people to be the most perfect versions of themselves. Reimagined by Marie Lu to make it still feel new enough, but should resonate with anyone familiar with those feelings of moving to California and trying to “make it”.

Alchemy is one of the coolest elements of this book, and is only practiced by the organized crime syndicates throughout the city and the world, with focus on the two major syndicates Grand Central under the leadership of Diamond Taylor, and Lumines lead by Alexander Reed.

All syndicates deal “sand” which is a drug created from the philosophers stone and when taken enhances those who take it to make them a more perfect version of themselves by making them more beautiful, charismatic, confident, and so on. Lu uses this to show how obsessive society is with perfection in a way that doesn’t feel heavy handed but certainly lands.

The magic system consist of 5 different magical disciplines:

• Bioalchemy: Transmutation of organic matter
• Philosophy: Study and creation of sand
• Polemy: Alchemical warfare and combat
• Elementalism: Manipulation of the elements
• Alchiatry: Alchemical medicine and healing

What is cool about the magic system is it’s cost, each use of alchemy consumes a piece of the users soul, and will eventually lead to the death of the user. Some practices will drain and kill a user faster than others. Alchemy can be used to manipulate emotions by flooding the person it’s used on with different hormones, transmute items into weapons, convert the water molecules in a persons skin and turn it to ice, and so many other ways Lu has used magic in such a new and interesting way.

Character Motivations: Complicated and Deep Development

Red City focuses on two main points of view, while strategically using a few chapters to give the POV of side characters to help enhance the plot and give an interesting and different perspective to our main protagonists.

Samantha (Sam) Lang is one of our main protagonist, daughter of a single mother who immigrated from China when Sam was a child, she grew up poor and watched her mother struggle. She is recruited by Grand Central because of her photographic memory and ability to blend into any situation as if she is invisible. Sam struggles with the way her mother raised her, and has a consistent want to be seen and accepted, which motivates her and sometimes clouds her decisions in favor of her ambitions.

Ari is our other protagonist, who is taken from his family in India at a young age by the Lumines syndicate because they recognize how everyone notices and is drawn to him. Ari is manipulated by Lumines to learn alchemy and strives to excel to ensure that his family is compensated for his participation. Ari is dedicated to the syndicate and rises through the ranks quickly due to his ability to draw in anyone around him with his preternatural charisma.

Sam and Ari meet as children during their public school and become close friends even though they go years without ever sharing anything personal about their lives or family. They both clearly desire to share more, but both are struggling with the fear of being the first to push the relationship past the platonic which causes them to disconnect for years as they both become embroiled in their respective syndicates without knowing they are on opposite sides of the sand.

The side characters in this all feel like they have their own voice and different amounts of depth, with their own motivations, pasts, and involvement with the syndicates. We do get a few glimpses of their POVs during specific chapters, but they are never truly the focus.

Three Parts: Build Up to Action

Red City is told in 3 distinct acts, the first as to be expected is a lot of setup to introduce the reader into the world and it’s different elements. Unlike some setups I’ve read, Lu manages to keep the information flowing in interesting ways that don’t make it feel like it’s dragging. Character relationships are established, the syndicates are showcased lightly, and we get the more intimate introduction to our protagonists. While part 1 is arguably the slowest part of the book, it never felt like a slog for me, but I can see where some readers might find it a bit tougher to get through.

In part 2 we start to see the real underbelly of Red City and it’s syndicates that are running everything behind the scenes, this is where Red City enters the much darker themes. This is highlighted by how much more involved Ari and Sam become in the syndicates, and we start to see the real cost of alchemy not just on them personally, but what it’s doing to society as it’s used to ultimately make money for the syndicates at any cost. This is where the tension becomes palpable as we can see the escalation of violence as Grand Central and Lumines both are maneuvering to try and become the only prominent supplier of sand in the area.

Part 3 we is where Red City really takes off and shines, it’s action packed, full of magical battles, hugely impactful character moments, and some of the highest emotional moments of the book. Everything comes to a head between the two syndicates, and the amount of twists packed into the last about 25% of this book made it impossible for me to stop once I started.

Between the Sheets: Emotion and Spice Blended Perfectly

Marie Lu has clearly moved out of the YA realm in a lot of different parts of this book, but where it becomes really apparent is in the spicy scenes of this book, which are tastefully done and manage to blend the emotional notes, alchemy elements, and passion earning this one a 🌶️🌶️🌶️(3) on our spice scale.

I appreciated how Red City handled the spice, it managed to keep it tasteful, but avoided using some of the weird descriptions of anatomy we sometimes see in the Romantasy genre. What was done really well was the slow burn of Ari and Sam in this, from passing notes, sharing quiet moments, and then unknowingly ending up on different sides added so much emotional depth to their relationship. Getting to see them both struggle with the mistrust and old feelings really made this one feel authentic.

Bro Reading Comfort: Alchemy Forward

While Red City certainly has some spicy scenes, it’s very much not the focus of this one, and the plot and characters are the stars here, so I don’t think this one is too bad for the coffee shop earning it a 😳😳(2) on our comfort scale.

The cover art on this is really cool but nothing about it would have a passer by realizing you’re reading anything with adult scenes in it, while the spice is done well in my opinion, it’s not at the erotica level by any means, it’s not frequent, and is placed in specific places to further the character development and plot.

Darkness Factor: The Cost of Power

Marie Lu doens’t shy away from the realities of society in Red City, and it’s very clear that parallels can be made to todays world, exploring themes of poverty, torture, murder, and psychological manipulation, but is never heavy handed or gratuitous earning this one a 💀💀(2.5) on our darkness scale.

While not exactly a Grimdark fantasy, there are a lot of deep themes explored here, especially around the struggles of trying to fit into a society that values perfection and money over everything else. It also explores the exploitation of those in poverty with promises of a better life and money for their families as the syndicates consistently hold the threat of withholding payments to their family or even violence against the ones they love to get them to do what they want.

Book Battlefield: Graduation From YA

On a personal note, I read the Legend series by Marie Lu a long time ago, and while I don’t remember a ton of detail, I remember I really loved it and flew through that series. Red City gave me that same feeling as an adult, part of the reason I don’t go back and read the books I enjoyed when I was younger is I don’t want to find out if it was nostalgia keeping those books fond in my mind, so this was an instant read for me because of that, and Marie Lu didn’t disappoint.

The prose in this one is great and I think will resonate with a lot of readers who enjoy any Fantasy, but especially Urban fantasy. While I admittedly am not well read in the subgenre, this book has certainly made me move some things like Green Bone Saga up on my lists. I did some “market research” after I finished, and I have seen this compared to that series in terms of it’s action in several reviews, and I think this is well positioned to be a very popular entry to that sub genre.

Should You Bother?

For fans of Urban Fantasy: While I don’t have a ton of experience here, I really did enjoy the familiar elements mixed with this “new world”.

For those looking for a new approach: This is kind of a double meaning, one it’s Marie Lu’s first entry into adult fantasy, but also the alchemy being tied to only crime syndicates was a super interesting direction.

For Marie Lu fans: This was such a fun experience as someone who read a lot of her YA series, getting to see her prose in the adult realm was something really enjoyable.

For fans of deep themes: I think Red City does an amazing job at drawing parallels to todays society and struggles without feeling heavy handed or “on the nose”.

Final BroMantasy Verdict

Red City was something I’ve been keeping my eye on for a while just because I was such a huge fan of Marie Lu’s YA works, and the idea of crime families leveraging alchemy to maintain their power and push their magic drug sand really piqued my interest and Red City didn’t disappoint. This book has a lot of things I love, a new and unique magic system, a very cool world, deep character development, authentic relationships, and a consistent plot which earns this a 4.25/5.

Marie Lu manages to create some very interesting parallels for those paying attention, but doesn’t do it in a way that makes it feel like the book is solely focused on those subjects. What I really loved was getting to see how Sam and Ari both ended up involved in Alchemy in different but similar ways, and how their past relationship as close friends and almost more plays a huge role when they find themselves on different sides of the magical city.

Alchemy and the sand created from the philosophers stone used to fuel the criminal elements of this story was one of the coolest uses of a magic system I’ve read and the fact that it has a cost that was easy to understand really helped it land for me, but I did find myself not fully clear on how much one action or another truly costs the wielder. Also being able to use alchemy to flood a brain with hormones to get people to feel certain ways and bend to your will, and blending the magic into the spice scenes, it was such a different take on magic systems that just worked.

This had some awesome action scenes where the alchemy is leveraged in such a cool way to manifest weapons from every day objects, change the air around people to make it poisonous, and being able to transmute peoples physical forms into different materials to trap them in place.