Rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Paranormal, Diverse, YA
Reasons to love it: Set during Chicago’s World’s Fair, Possessions, Great Jewish History
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on one, we may receive a small commission at no cost to you.
Stella is getting her groove back my friends.
It wasn’t until after posting the last review that I realized how much I missed putting reviews together. This time around though, I’ve got to keep things loosy goosy. Have more fun with the process. Forget about the rigid posting. (Who really cares anyway since blogging is supposedly dead.)
Any whose…
Today I’m going to talk about The City Beautiful. Another book from my book club. We all remember that little pride and joy of mine right? The place where I’ve always been the outcast until recently. Our new recruits are so much fun. I’m beginning to find my love for the group again.
Back to the book review.
The City Beautiful is about a Jewish immigrant named Alter living in Chicago during the World’s Fair. All he’s trying to do is keep his head down and earn enough money to bring the rest of his family to America. What he’s not prepared for is being possessed by his friend’s dybbuk after his friend is found dead in the fair. Led to believe that the death was no mere accident, Alter reconnects with someone from his past while searching to find who might have killed his friend.
A World’s Fair. Possessions. 1893. A Jewish protagonist not living through the Holocaust. These are the makings of a book right up my alley. And clearly I had high hopes.
Too bad I was disappointed… mildly so… not that I would recommend it to a friend… I didn’t regret giving it a read.
Sitting with the book a little longer, there’s a part of the story that’s really growing on.
So what’s the problem?
First off, it took me forever to get into the book. Probably not until they were hot on the killer's trail was I like oh… here’s the drama and excitement that I was looking for. Second, the plot points were too obvious. They go to the exorcists, but clearly, that’s not going to work. Thirdly, it was clear that Alter’s life was definitely going to fall apart before things were figured out. All of these are just the common pitfalls of a first-time author.
That all being said, I have to mention that Polydoros’s red herring was some of the best writing that I’ve ever seen. Yes, I know there were still 100 pages left in the story at that point, but I honestly believed, just like the characters, that their first lead was the killer. The back story, the setup, it was so perfectly laid out. I was completely convinced.
But then… who else could it have been because the actual killer came out of nowhere. And that wasn’t Polydoros’s threw something in the story from out of left field. It seemed to be a theme of his. Another big reason I struggled with the book. Frankie felt thrown in. Mr. White. Katz. Here were all these new characters. How does one even go from the past Alter supposedly had to him getting a job in a newspaper house?
Putting all of the bad stuff behind us, there are still some good things about the story. Like the love part. Ugh… just take my heart and pin it to the wall. I was all for the shy, scared, flush of first love. It was believable for the time, the people, and the circumstances that were laid out for the characters. My only issue was how the characters so easily broached the subject of their sexuality. We’ll call it story magic because I think for 1893, that would have been a little more difficult.
The fighting at the end was also very believable. Some people in the book club complained that it was too long. I don’t agree. Alter is a 17-year-old boy. He doesn’t have fighting experience. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time he’s ever used a gun. No kid is magically going to be able to outwit or physically outdo someone with that killer’s background. Where most writers mess up though, is by making the protagonist have superhuman abilities (not in the literal sense) that allow them to win. Not here. I could see myself even pulling off that ending.
Overall, I don’t regret reading The City Beautiful at all. I learned so much about Judaism in a way that didn’t slow the story down.
I still wouldn’t shout it from the rooftops though.
Until next time…
Kait