City of a Thousand Dolls is not…bad. It was my most anticipated book of the year and unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations but it certainly wasn’t terrible. When a novel is touted as high fantasy and comes with a synopsis like the one this one does, some expectations will latch themselves on to the book. If expectations were sentient beings that is. And sometimes it feels like they are but that’s just me being crazy. Caitlin, the awesome, picked up a copy for me at ALA and honestly, when I saw the length (or rather the lack of thickness) of the book, I was somewhat concerned. And with good reason.The book lacked the detailed world building that is so essential in novels of this genre. It lacked the complexity that is so important when creating a world from scratch. The characters had the potential to be emotionally rich with complicated relationships but the potential remained untapped. The names of the characters used were Indian and to some extent, the author does dip into Indian customs and traditions but then she also brings in Asian customs (or so it felt like to me) but it all needed more work for that construction of culture to work. It just felt cobbled.I needed more time with the creepy woman who wanted to possess the main character whose name is Nisha which is interesting as all heck if I were to start analyzing but I’ll restrain myself. I wanted to know why she wanted her and for what purposes? Why was Nisha so afraid of the woman, was it because of her cruelty or because she would demand from Nisha things she didn’t want to give. It would have been a fascinating look into sexuality and desire but ah well.There are talking cats but alas. The book feels really superficial. Not that it doesn’t address some more substantial themes but that it does so very superficially. There is a lack of depth, a lack of substance that interfered with my enjoyment. And okay, so I admit, I was looking for something Eona-esque in the sense that peoples’ motivations and backstories are considered and I am fully aware of how difficult it is to do such a thing but that is part of the challenge of writing.Also, the romance. When we come into the book, it is already in progress and that is a gamble I do not advice any author to take because you can get a LOT of tension from relationships that are in its nascent stages and when you plonk the reader in the middle of a relationship that seems like it’s all about the physical (which is not necessarily bad) and then do not develop it any further (heck, the love interest isn’t even present in the novel for more than ten pages) until Nisha goes “I know I love him!” it makes the reader (well…me) unhappy.So yeah, this book is okay. I probably won’t be coming back to read the second one but I might. The talking cats didn’t do it for me but I may give it another chance. We’ll see. You guys may like it better than I did. Just…lower your expectations.
