The City of Stardust - Georgia Summers

Where is Marianne Everly? Marianne disappeared from the family home one night, just walked out and indeed literally vanished. Who wants to know? Well, her brothers for a start, Ambrose and Gabriel. Gabriel is searching for her in cities all over the world, while Ambrose remains at home with Violet, the daughter his sister abandoned when she vanished. The person who really wants to know however is a mysterious magical and dangerous figure known as Penelope. Children all around the world are abducted whenever she appears, leaving behind nothing more than a scent of vanilla.

Her business with the Everlys and her concern for the disappearance of Marianne however is of another matter altogether. There is a curse lying over the Everlys that has lasted generations, the reasons behind it lost in myth and fairytale, but it results nonetheless in Penelope claiming one of the Everly family every generation. She wants Marianne, but if the brothers don't manage to find her the child Violet will do instead. Penelope makes a deal, giving them ten years to find Marianne, otherwise she will come for Violet. The Everlys however are not without some magic tricks and skills of their own and are well known is certain esoteric circles. Indeed Violet may have powers or potential she is unaware of, or maybe needs to be wary of. 

Despite her better judgement, having seen him acting as Penelope's personal assistant, Violet comes to trust Aleksander, who reveals to her the existence of the city of Fidelis, a magical city in another world. It's a place of scholars who are able to use keys made from a magical 'god-metal' called reveurite to transport themselves 'elsewhere' - that place being our world - in order to bring in resources. But scholars are also interested in studying the key - literally - to entrances to many other secret worlds. Can Violet really trust Aleksander when he turns up at a coffee shop where she is working nine years later? The ten years are almost up and Violet hasn't yet found any clue to where her mother might have gone.

A City of Stardust tends towards YA romantic fantasy. There's nothing wrong with that other than it lacks any kind of originality and instead just runs with the conventional tropes and metaphors for growing up that I've read before in the likes of The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow and Liani Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. There's the uncertain parentage - Violet not quite an orphan but her mother is missing and her father is a mystery to everyone - something usually kept in reserve for a big surprise reveal later. There are keys to mystical worlds and a young handsome boy who befriends her and promises to open up secrets of a would she knows little about.

There has to be some kind of adherence to genre principles of course, but you would hope The City of Stardust can find a character of its own. And indeed once we get past the predictably and familiarity of the set up, there are some new ideas and a darker direction followed, if nothing too surprising. As long as you don't question too deeply how Violet spends a year travelling the world looking for her mother on presumably no income other than tips while working in a coffee shop, and how she manages to keep out of the clutches of those looking for her, despite having a mobile phone. They might have magic powers but presumably not access to phone records. Compared to how the real world issues are skimmed over, the bit about magical cities, legends and curses is slightly more credible.

What is good about The City of Stardust is that at least it isn't bloated fantasy, or extended out into a trilogy (although it seems to me that some of the questions and mysteries I mentioned earlier remain not fully answered). It works to some basic principles and it makes best use of them. Georgia Summers' writing is clear in its descriptions and good in dialogue and exchanges, and she can turn on the fireworks when needed. One scene below a church in Prague is simply explosive, and evidently that builds towards the conclusion, so author has a firm grip of the material and the dynamic she aims to achieve. The heroic/romantic tone takes over from the dark fantasy however, which considerably lessened the final impact for me, but I would expect that the target audience for this might like it that way more than I did.

Reading notes: The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers is published by Hodder & Stoughton on the 25th January 2024. I received a preview eBook copy from NetGalley. The reviews there confirm that this is a very popular new title and that it's likely to appeal to a predominately female readership.