The City of Brass

For the first 75% or so of this book, I thought it was a fairly standard “first book in a YA trilogy” novel. You have the young heroine who is more powerful than she believes herself to be, the brooding love interest with the mysterious past, the oppressive society that mistreats people similar to the heroine. The supernatural elements, and the society of daevas/djinn, were fairly unique and definitely interesting, but by themselves they didn't feel like enough to carry the story. It felt not bad, just fairly uneventful. Then, at around that 75% mark, the book takes a sharp right turn away from your expectations and it makes it so much stronger. You realize that Chakraborty has done a great job of leading the reader in a certain direction, while also setting up the surprise twist so that it still feels earned. It will be interesting to see where she goes next with this story.