In The City in Glass, a demon and an angel oversee the rebuilding of the city of Avril. (After the city had been destroyed by the angel and his brothers.) Our Protagonist is Vitrine, a demon whose hobbies involve city planning and culture engineering. She had been working on Avril for many human generations when the angels show up and completely destroy her city and everyone in it. Vitrine is not able to do do anything to stop it, though she is able to snipe one of the angels, cursing him so that he is unable to return to his brethren.
Following the city’s destruction, Vitrine tumbles into a state of grief. The angel meanwhile attempts to make reparations, in hopes that she’ll remove the curse. The reparations are extremely unsuccessful, and not just because Vitrine is extremely vengeful and also a demon: the angel is unable to understand why Vitrine is angry with him, and the reason for her grief. (Vitrine and the angel are equally alien, inhuman beings but Vitrine is more empathetic and sympathetic toward mortals. The angel on the other hand is at first unable to differentiate between a girl and a crane…and why it might be important to do so. Yes…that’s a spoiler.)
The narrative flow of The City in Glass is reminiscent of Patricia McKillip’s writing style; poetic and dreamlike, though much darker in tone. The novel is full of loving descriptions of the city, it’s history and the people Vitrine loved and influenced. Vitrine is an interesting character, as are her brothers and sisters, all of them who have a cabinet inside them where they keep things that are important to them. (Vitrine’s cabinet has a book that she writes the names of all the people she’s cared about…other relatives have stranger or more horrifying things in them.)
Vitrine slowly rebuilds her city with and without the angel’s assistance. I found their relationship to be fascinating and extremely complicated. It starts out antagonistic, but slowly becomes more empathetic as the angel slowly begins to understand Vitrine and her motivations. They grow closer and fall apart as their relationship develops, and the angel ends up influencing the city and its people as much as Vitrine does.
The City in Glass is a intricate examination of grief and revenge. (And also love, but definitely not forgiveness. Vitrine is after all a demon, and the angel did after all destroy her city.) It’s also about recovering from grief and rebuilding from the ruins. This book was an enjoyable, thoughtful story with complex characters that are both incredibly alien and inhuman, yet relatable.
This review is based on a galley received from NetGalley.
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