Hello, hello everyone. Thanks again so much for being here today, and for checking out my blog. Today I’m sharing my review and 15 thoughts while reading CITY OF SHATTERED LIGHT by Claire Winn! Isn’t that cover freaking beautiful? Click on the banner for the rest of the schedule and more information. Y’all know the drill by now; you’re probably tired of hearing me repeat myself. I gotcha, I gotcha.
Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to TBR & Beyond Tours, Claire Winn, Netgalley, and Flux for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.
Give me all the sapphic feels, am I right? It feels like the more well-written sapphic novels there are out there, the happier the lot of us are. I can attest to this, and I was happy to have the chance to read this one.
Could you imagine having to save your sister’s mind from being reprogrammed because of the actions of your father? I really love stories where siblings do whatever it takes to save one another. In this case, Asa needs to make sure that her sister’s mind doesn’t get reprogrammed because their father somehow uploads her sister’s mind into an experimental brain. Talk about one of the scariest things to think about in the not-so distant future. I adore sci-fi novels like this.
Now, comparing what Asa has to go through with what Riven has to go through, it’s interesting that they were able to work with one another throughout the novel. Sure, they may seem like a match not made in heaven, and Riven may having some ulterior motives since she’s trying to make a name for herself in Requiem’s underworld as a smuggler, but stranger things have happened before.
As always, the interactions and dynamics between our main characters is super important to me, and can really make or break a story for me. Luckily for me, it made the story quite enjoyable.
- That cover though, am I right?
- Give me all the sapphic stories.
- I don’t know how I feel about having my mind being uploaded into some other brain.
- Why is the dad being like this?
- Do I really want to partner up with a smuggler?
- Do I even KNOW what will happen?
- Scrappy little nobodies.
- Lots of action.
- Is this going to be part of a series?
- It should be.
- Oh wow I really want to read more about these characters.
- Would I want to live in Requiem?
- Possibly.
- Am I Team Riven?
- Yes, yes I am.
City of Shattered Light
by Claire Winn
Publisher: Flux
Release Date: October 19, 2021
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Length: 400 pages
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | TBD | IndieBound
Content Warnings: violence, death, blood, mild gore, emotional abuse/manipulation, mild body horror (cybernetics), references to suicide, terminal illness, drug and alcohol references
As darkness closes in on the city of shattered light, an heiress and an outlaw must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other.
As heiress to a powerful tech empire, seventeen-year-old Asa Almeida strives to prove she’s more than her manipulative father’s shadow. But when he uploads her rebellious sister’s mind to an experimental brain, Asa will do anything to save her sister from reprogramming—including fleeing her predetermined future with her sister’s digitized mind in tow. With a bounty on her head and a rogue A.I. hunting her, Asa’s getaway ship crash-lands in the worst possible place: the neon-drenched outlaw paradise, Requiem.
Gun-slinging smuggler Riven Hawthorne is determined to claw her way up Requiem’s underworld hierarchy. A runaway rich girl is exactly the bounty Riven needs—until a nasty computer virus spreads in Asa’s wake, causing a citywide blackout and tech quarantine. To get the payout for Asa and save Requiem from the monster in its circuits, Riven must team up with her captive.
Riven breaks skulls the way Asa breaks circuits, but their opponent is unlike anything they’ve ever seen. The A.I. exploits the girls’ darkest memories and deepest secrets, threatening to shatter the fragile alliance they’re both depending on. As one of Requiem’s 154-hour nights grows darker, the girls must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other before Riven’s city and Asa’s sister are snuffed out forever.
Claire Winn spends her time immersed in other worlds—through LARP, video games, books, nerd conventions, and her own stories. Since graduating from Northwestern University, she’s worked as a legal writer and freelance editor. Aside from writing, she builds cosplay props and armor, tears up dance floors, and battles with boffer swords. City of Shattered Light is her first novel.
Sometimes Leelynn Reads 