Book Review #3: Black City by Elizabeth Richards

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.

Natalie Buchanan and Ash Fisher live in Black City where humans and Darklings are separated by a great wall. Darklings are vampire like beings who are a little stronger than humans, pale with dark hair and eyes, drink human blood, and have a venomous substance in their fangs, Haze, that is addictive to humans. Natalie is the Emissary’s daughter and she is forced to attend school with children of a lower class. Ash is half human; therefore, when the Darklings were moved on the other side of the wall, he was allowed to stay with his human parent. When Natalie and Ash first meet it is loathe at first sight. Ash, being half-human and half-darkling, doesn’t have a heart beat but whenever Natalie is around his heart flutters. Natalie on the other hand, feels sparks whenever she and Ash accidentally touch. Due to the gruesome way a Wrath, Darklings invested with a disease that makes them blood crazed and deadly, killed her father, Natalie hates Darklings and Ash even more because of his uncompassionate personality. Ash hates Natalie simply because she is the Emissary’s daughter and the Emissary was responsible for separating him and his family. It is only when Natalie and Ash are forced into dangerous situations that she is able to see pass the fact he is half-darkling and is really caring. They both slowly fall for each other but their feelings are a danger to both of them for it is law that humans and Darklings cannot be intimately involved; the breaking of this rule is punishable by death. Ash and Natalie must break this law because they are Blood Mates which is why Ash suddenly has a heartbeat. Together both of them uncover the Government’s dark secrets while staying under the radar.

Natalie was really entertaining. She had a logical way of thinking that I admired. Unlike most heroines, she is filled with grief over her father’s death and pain for her sister’s current state of mind. I liked the way she put aside her dislikes of Darklings and stood up for them in their time of need. In a way, Natalie was a bit naïve. She lived with the same people just about her entire life and never once expected that they were more than they seemed and she was told almost every big secret and discovery. I like my heroines intuitive and perceptive.

Ash is supposed to be incredibly beautiful but I couldn’t picture him as anything north of beautiful but a thin guy with pretty features. His dad wasn’t working and the money he got from dealing Haze was barely enough to buy blood; that being said, there’s no way he could have been muscular and smexy. I enjoyed reading from Ash’s perspective better than Natalie’s, although, there were moments when I wanted to juice his head. I thought he was a little bit of a coward; his friend Beet was fighting to get the wall down so Darklings could be integrated with the humans but Ash never tried to join the cause when his Darkling family was on the other side and he wanted to see them more than anything – I don’t know about you guys but that’s a sign of cowardice. It wasn’t until the end when he finally stood up for what he believed in.

Of course there has to be something that sets the hero and heroine back in almost every YA book. In this one it is the fact that Natalie has the heart of a twin-blod (half darkling and half human), named Evangeline, which explains why she and Ash are Blood Mates. Natalie was born with a heart problem and had to get a heart transplant; her mother kidnapped a twin-blood child and took the girl’s heart; therefore, if Natalie hadn’t gotten her heart, Evangeline and Ash would have been Blood Mates. Ash gets really confused when Evangeline asks him to choose between she and Natalie; how do you choose between someone who makes your heart beat, even though that heart belongs to another, and the person you’re meant to be with? You’ll have to read and find out.

There were many other characters that I liked: Beet and Day – though Day got on my nerves a couple of times. Some characters like Sebastian and Evangeline I absolutely could not stand. When Natalie found out the kind of person Sebastian really was, I was not surprised. No one character bugged me as much as Evangeline. Her introduction was just a BIG surprise. When Ash started to have feelings for her my head almost blew off. The girl was sneakier than Valentine Morgenstern.

Black City was just Ah-Mazing overall and I will definitely keep my eye out for the second one. The government structure was a lot like Hunger Games. The President’s name in Black City was Purian Rose, he and President Coriolanus Snow were very similar (that just made me like the book even better). So anyone looking for a Good Read should definitely look into Black City. I’m looking forward to reading more from Ash and Natalie.

 

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As always <3, GLBBB