A fresh spin on Romeo & Juliette, but not fresh enough

Mystic City

Author: Theo Lawrence

Genre: YA Dystopian/Sci-fi

Rating: 3/5

Content Rating: PG (Some drug use/make-out scenes)

Cover Love: So in love

Instalove Factor: Not really

Spoiler Alert: None

Publisher’s Summary:

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place. Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city—including herself.

My Review:

There were a few pretty impressive things about Mystic City.

1. This is Theo’s debut novel
2. It’s a female progtag POV written by a male author
3. The world was pretty impressive

The idea behind the story, to me, was intriguing. I loved the idea of a Romeo and Juliet-esque story set in a dystopian/sci-fi future Manhattan. I got a very good visual sense of the Waterworld-type setting with the lower half of the city underwater and everything pretty much being built on cat walks.

I loved that Aria woke up one morning, remembering nothing, but being told she was in love with their family’s sworn enemy’s son. I loved that, while she trusted her family and what they told her, she still was unsure of a few things and wanted to pry.

But that’s where the loving stopped and reality busted in.

Do away with the prequel. Just skip it. I got the wrong idea from reading it so I had an incorrect mindset while reading the whole rest of the book. It doesn’t have any “need to know” info so just don’t bother.

The MC was pretty weak. She really didn’t take much action at all, just kind of stood there and let life (read: abusive father, overbearing mother, superficial best friend, back stabbing brother, and  lying fiancé) push and pull her around. It wasn’t until the end of the book that she actually started making her own decisions that I really got into it.

More of Tuck. There wasn’t nearly enough page time for this peripheral character. As it stands, I don’t know why he was even in the book except to act as a chauffeur when Aria needed one and no other character was available. I think he would have added A LOT to the story, so I would’ve liked to see more of him. In fact, I would have liked to see all the characters fleshed out more. They were too two dimensional.

There were too many times where I got this strong sense of déjà vu about Harry Potter while reading this. (ie - Aria’s looking for an address, but the houses skip over the number she’s looking for. She does something that triggers the “door bell” and the two houses spread apart and there appears her missing house. Order of the Phoenix, anyone?)

Ugh. It’s a series. And it’s a long book. Probably about a quarter of the book didn’t need to be included. Nothing happened. She would be at work. Or out eating with her friends. Or just filling space with text on a page. There really was a lot of filler in here. And I’m sure not invested enough to pick up the second book. Sorry.

I originally wanted to give it a 2.5 but decided to up it to a 3. Don’t ask me why. I guess because it wasn’t entirely bad. The thing that disappointed me the most was the amount of potential this book had and it didn't live up to it. But, as always, pick it up and decide for yourself, you may be thoroughly impressed.

Happy Reading!

--Me