Daughter of the Burning City, Amanda Foody

Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.

But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.

Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all of her loved ones disappear.

I find myself with somewhat mixed feelings about this book.

On the one hand, I loved the magic system in this book. It was super interesting and I loved seeing Sorina learn more about what she was capable of as the mystery unraveled. I thought Sorina was an interesting protagonist and I liked her story.

On the other, the side characters weren't super well-developed and it gave the mystery less urgency because the family that she's created has no real depth so it was hard to care all that much when they died. I just wanted to see more of her family as individuals separate from her.

My biggest issue with the book is related to the asexuality rep (which is why I heard about this book in the first place). The love interest, Luca, is demisexual and I was totally cool with the way he was represented until we found out he was another of her illusions and it was implied that his demisexuality was somehow part of the "freakishness" that all of her illusions manifest. Unlike the other illusions, he doesn't have any obvious physical abnormalities. He doesn't have nails in the place of hair, or two heads, or a body structure so rubbery he can flatten himself like an egg. Arguably his magic is his "freakishness" because he can't die. But because Sorina created him to be a romantic partner for her, there was the implication that his demisexuality was his abnormality instead because it would be a cruel twist of fate if the person she created to be a romantic partner wasn't actually interested. And that just didn't sit well with me at all. It just felt like asexuality was being presented as this weird unnatural thing that was supposed to be a punishment of price of some kind and that's just not what asexuality is.

Overall, a reasonably entertaining book, but had some issues that prevented me from really enjoying it.