In a fantasy version of modern day Los Angeles, things are run by rival crime syndicates who controls things by controlling sand, a drug that enhances a person’s best qualities. And they control – and create – sand because these crime syndicates are comprised of alchemists, people with the ability to transform things. Forget turning lead into gold, imagine if you could turn all the water in someone’s body into something else? The power alchemists wield is awe inspiring and dangerous, which is why entry into their secret society is cutthroat and exhausting. For some, like Ari, snatched away from his family in India to join Lumines because he showed promise, it’s all he knows. Samantha, however, sees power and potential in Grand Central and seeks them out as a way to give her mother a better life. As schoolmates, Sam and Ari were drawn to each other, but as adults they are fighting on opposite sides of an escalating war. Loyalties are drawn into question and our star-crossed friends are left questioning everything from the pasts – and the present.
I wish more people would talk about this book! Urban fantasy is an underrated subgenre, and Marie Lu does the kind of world building that makes you wonder why it doesn’t get more love. There is a love story here, but it’s secondary to the sharp realities of the quest for privilege and the pain of being a weaponized.
5 out of 5 stars.
Pair with: champagne
Peaches to Apples 