Thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read and review!

I DNF'd around 20% in.

The prologue was interesting and it did hook me. There was an intriguing murder mystery and some good foundations to build the world up from (although I will say, I found the sentient Magic extremely annoying). Unfortunately, that all fell apart pretty much as soon as the main character Esme's POV took over.

Esme is a Wraith, one of seven old, magical beings bound in service to the city's ruler and forced to terrorize and murder on behalf of the crown. But Esme's characterization is so inconsistent it's hard to take anything seriously. We're supposed to be horrified by her bloody work, but she jokes about it with her wife; she rides around on a shadow horse terrorizing people for fun, but is then upset when they don't like her; we're supposed to believe the Wraiths are ancient, enslaved people, but they banter like they're in a college AU fanfic. And while it's nice that the author made her Wraiths diverse, the long info-dumping on all of their physical features and past romantic entanglements is both an awkward way to do it and a bit meaningless without in-world context for their cultures and histories. The result was that they were all completely unmemorable and I could not tell any of them apart.

Which brings me to the worldbuilding, which is similarly flimsy. The author tries really hard have her society emulate American capitalism (even though there is monarchical rule?) and she does this by constantly making reference to what are real-world injustices transplanted into her fantasy city. However, there are no in-world explanations for any of these issues, or why Esme knows or cares about them, or what any of it has to do with the plot. The result is that it all feels wildly out of place, and the novel has nothing to actually say about the people it keeps bringing up.

Altogether, this has an interesting setup but imo needed a LOT more revising before getting picked up for publication.