The City's Son

The City's Son by Tom Pollock

I read this wayyyy back when it first came out, and kept getting haunted by a description of one of the characters years later. I pestered one of my book buddies', and together, we figured out what my brain was desperately trying to recollect. I hadn't read the sequels, but you could say I've recently taken a vested interest in it. As in, impulse buying the entire trilogy, because you know, books.

An amazon summary, "Hidden under the surface of everyday London is a city of monsters and miracles, where wild train spirits stampede over the tracks and glass-skinned dancers with glowing veins light the streets.

When a devastating betrayal drives her from her home, graffiti artist Beth Bradley stumbles into the secret city, where she meets Filius Viae, London's ragged crown prince, just when he needs someone most. An ancient enemy has returned to the darkness under St. Paul's Cathedral, bent on reigniting a centuries-old war, and Beth and Fil find themselves in a desperate race through a bizarre urban wonderland, searching for a way to save the city they both love.
The City's Son is the first book of The Skyscraper Throne-a story about family, friends, and monsters, and how you can't always tell which is which." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

The book begins with Beth and and her best friend Pen sneaking into their high school grounds, and Beth spray painting a rather unflattering picture of one of their teachers on the asphalt. Beth thinks she does a pretty good job at hiding her spray paint, etc; but it turns out Pen has revealed that Beth is the tagger. Furious, Beth abandons home, home meaning, a father who is physically there, but not mentally; and takes off into the streets of London. She encounters a rail wraith; a sentient rail car who longs for passengers. While she's being blown away by encountering a rail wraith and the surreal-ness of it, a train car attacks them. The rail wraith and Beth are rescued by Filius Vae; a humanoid whose skin is gray and seems to draw strength from the streets he roams. He also carries around a giant iron railing, and manages to kill off the train car.

Beth is thrust into the other world of London; where creatures of the city come to life, and are desperately fighting the Crane King, Reach.

There are a few things I LOVE about this book. Beth; she's a different kind of strong female character who makes a lot of decisions with sound logic, has a good sense of humor, and is fiercely loyal. The creatures of London; they're unlike anything I've come across in other books, they all have very unique ways of interacting with the world, and they also make sense based on the book being set in London. I also loved the reveal at the end, which took my breath away.

For those of you who have read the books already, the description of Gutterglass is the character that haunted me.

I did struggle with the pacing of the book. Sometimes it seemed really slow, drawn out, and a sudden influx of background/story on a situation that I thought we were already well acquainted with. Overall, I really did enjoy this first book. We'll see about the rest of the trilogy. ;)

Happy reading!