RED CITY by Marie Lu

So: this one’s straight out of LA gangland. Think The Sopranos, Goodfellas, The Godfather, even, but with magic. The story is set in Angel City – as the name may suggest, an alternate Los Angeles, the City of Angels; like today’s LA, I suspect, but with the added dimension of magic.

The city’s magic is run by two crime syndicates, Grand Central and Lumines, who have the monopoly on Alchemy, the hidden art of transmutation that has existed to a select few for centuries. The cartels market it exclusively to the world’s elite in the form of ‘sand’ – a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more.

As you might therefore expect, such a product is in high demand from those who can afford it.

The two syndicates have held an uneasy truce for years, but as you might expect this is about to change. The cause of that change is due to our two main characters. Sam is the daughter of a poor single mother who would do anything to claw her way into the ranks of Grand Central in search of a better life. By contrast, Her friend Ari begins the book as a Lumines apprentice, one of the syndicates’ brightest rising stars who was taken from his family as a boy. Both have known each other for most of their lives.

Much of the early part of the book is about Sam and Ari when young. They meet when being schooled at the mysterious “Observatory”. Obviously from two very different backgrounds, their initially shy interactions show that they have a lot in common, even when opposites – Ari gets attention by just walking into a room, Sam is rarely noticed. Ari was taken from his poor family at a young age and schooled very early, whilst Sam was only noticed by one of the big corporations when she was a teenager. This idea of the corporates using disadvantaged or migrant children is an important element in the book.

There’s a nice description of how these two are educated; part Dark Academia, part Harry Potter, there’s a love of learning entwined with all the things that are issues for teenagers and the influence of the cartels in the background. Some of the training is quite brutal, for (of course!) there is a price to be paid for all of this. As the tag-line tells us, “Power always has a price.” Transmuting is painful, especially at first. As the characters explain, it uses a little piece of your soul every time. There’s no wonder that alchemists die early or decline into dementia early in life, as the price they have to pay for their powers.

As the book progresses and our characters become adults, both of our characters are enmeshed in the mechanics of the alchemic cartels. Much of this involves the maintenance of their super drug to the rich and wealthy. The importance and the origin of ‘sand’ as a go-to drug, a life-enhancer for those who can afford it; it is deliberately reminiscent of many drugs such as heroin and cocaine. For those of a SF persuasion, its origin reminded me of Phillip Pullman’s ‘dust’ and its importance in this society of Frank Herbert’s ‘melange’.

The book sets out its stall pretty quickly and easily and it is not long before the pages start turning. As you might expect with a book based around magical gangsters, there are violent scenes, assassinations and scenes of torture involved. There are some sex scenes that may make this inappropriate for younger readers, although they are fairly chaste on the whole.

Obviously, the build-up at the beginning will mean that at some point their friendship will be tested by being in different camps, and this is what the latter part of the book is about. It’s a Battle Royale, a clash that leaves both affected; and although there is some closure, there’s also a cliffhanger at the end.

Red City is a good read; a book that begins with secret academia and then draws you in to a life of wealth and vice created by magic, with characters that are nuanced and a setting that works on the whole.  Fans of Fonda Lee’s Jade City trilogy will love this, I think, as this is similar and yet pleasingly different.

© 2025 Mark Yon

Hardback | Pan Macmillan

RED CITY by Marie Lu

October 2025 | 432 pages

ISBN: 997 8103 5079 414