A Review for Black City (Black City #1) by Elizabeth Richards

Posted by Jess
Release Date: November 13th, 2012 
Finished Date: September 6th, 2013

Publishers: G.P. Putnam's Sons BYR
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopia/Paranormal
Source: Gifted

Format: Paperback
Pages: 374

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war.

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.

When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.

The Review: I have mixed feelings when it comes to Dystopia, if it's not done right or written well with regards to world building, I get bored. I was excited to start this, not only had I fallen in love with the cover, but this was a dystopia, interspersed with a paranormal YA romance. It sounded completely new and interesting that I picked it up, and although I didn't LOVE it, I did like it a lot and I enjoyed it.

This is the first book I've read from Elizabeth Richards, and although I struggled about half way through, I ended up really enjoying it. The concept of the story was new, it's a dystopia world, with darklings, which I can only assume are some sort of vampire I'm basing this assumption on the need the darklings had for blood. I like that this was totally different, I enjoy paranormal and I liked that some paranormal was set amongst a dystopian world. 

There is a ton of world building in this, to the point where I felt there was a little too much information to take in. I understand the way the world changed, it mentions a war but it wasn't clear as to what type of war or when it started. It also wasn't overly clear on which city we were in. At first I thought we were in England, but then I was seeing too many American words interspersed with British words so it became less and less clear. This is the only issue I had. As much as the world was there, and the character development was there, it wasn't clear exactly where we were. I think if the author had maybe made a mention to a past country or something, it would have been completely cleared, but hey, maybe that was the point, it's fiction maybe it's a completely fictional city that doesn't exist today.

As far as character and story goes, it was a great read. The enjoyed the development of Ash and Natalie and how they grew to like and then eventually love each other. Naturally this book consisted of a corrupted government like all dystopia novels do, and it's explained through out the type of things they're doing, or changing, but again it's a lot of information and I honestly felt like I was swimming. Toward the end of the book, it got extremely exciting and there was a lot of betrayal. 

Overall Black City was a good read, I would definitely recommend it for dystopia/paranormal fans. There is a ton of information and you may feel like it's all going over your head, but once you get involved in the story and it's characters, it gets to be an enjoyable read. I will read book 2 and carry on with the series, I'm not going to rush, but I am not discounting it completely.