The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
***3.5-stars rounded up***
Wow. Okay, this one was a wild ride. I barely knew what was happening MOST of the time and I do mean that literally!
The City of Lost Fortunes is a beautifully written novel that seemed a bit like a mythology textbook on steroids. I went into this book somehow thinking it was YA magical realism? Not exactly sure where that idea came from because that is NOT what this is. I think I may have heard someone talking about it on Booktube and misunderstood the synopsis. That out of the way, what is this book? It is urban fantasy, which if we are being honest, is not my favorite subgenre of fantasy to say the least, and I would call it New Adult versus YA or Adult.
The story follows Jude, who when we meet him, appears to be a simple street magician in New Orleans. In fact, he is actually a demigod…I think…we follow him into a card game where there are gods, vampires, etc., involved. They are playing with tarot cards but it sounded like poker and it is for his talents, gifts, fates, futures…I seriously don’t know. A god gets murdered and then Jude must investigate the incident to figure out whodunit so he can get his magic back? There was A LOT going on in this book. The side characters were all from different culture’s mythologies/belief systems. So, basically it was like a hodgepodge of all types of mythological beings and creatures from all around the world. This was really cool. I did enjoy it and the author did include so very interesting facts/beliefs behind all most of these beings as well. It was just hard for me to keep track of who was who and what their special powers, etc., were.
This being said, the writing in this book is absolutely beautiful. It has such a gorgeous lyrical quality to it. I really wish the plot could have been a little less hectic so that I could focus more on that incredible styling as opposed to trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Maybe it’s me? I don’t know. I am really interested to see what other readers thought of this one. I haven’t read any reviews of it thus far. Again, the concept of it was excellent, I just feel like the execution could have been a little less hectic and perhaps more concise. If that makes sense?
If there is a continuation of this story, I think it is the start to a series maybe, I would definitely check it out. Perhaps more of the pieces would fall into place for me. I did have fun reading it, I laughed a bit and there was definitely a ton of action. Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with an e-copy to read and review. I always appreciate the opportunity!
Original: I need to get my head straight on this one. I was confused the majority of the time – full review to come…stay tuned!