The City in Glass begins with three vengeful angels razing the city of Azril to the ground in fire and fury. Our protagonist—a demon named Vitrine who has spent generations of human lives creating the city by influencing and inspiring its people—dies along with the citizens of Azril. But demons are not welcome in the afterlife, and Vitrine returns to pick up the pieces of herself and her shattered city.

This dreamlike book follows Vitrine as she starts over, rebuilding her Azril piece by piece and person by person. The narrative jumps back and forth between the original Azril and the new Azril, and we get to see Vitrine realize that, although she can use the infinite time afforded to an immortal to grow a city from the ruins of the old, it will never be the original city. Some things are lost forever.

Grief and resilience are major themes in this book. Of course, the perspective of an immortal demon guiding a city into existence over a millennium may not be relatable to most of us. But the emotion of stark loss is, and Vo’s writing brings this mercilessly home. Vitrine, reeling, takes stock of her ruined works and wonders how the world can keep going on as if nothing has changed:

"The sky is still blue," Vitrine thought, looking up. "I am not sure that the sky should still be allowed to be blue."

The prose is stunning throughout this book: beautiful and raw and honest. Many of us have experienced grief in the form of the loss of a loved one, through death or separation. Although Vitrine’s loss is of a city and its history and people, it is also the loss of the time spent developing and cherishing that city. The realization that all she has left of it are memories, and that there is no future to dream of with those people, is the same crushing realization that brings the raw grief in all of us.

Despite the impression that you may have at this point, this is not a book that will make you sad! I loved reading this book, and Vo’s biblical “and it was so” way of describing this fantasy world of demons and angels. As Vitrine sets about developing a new city, I was reminded of the mechanics of a civilization-building strategy game. She influences the course of history by encouraging this person to study astronomy, and that person to study commerce. She selects those people who show initiative and guides them into positions of power. She teaches her people to dance, and to read, and to have ambitions and goals. With a few exceptions though, Vitrine is not attached to the people. She is immortal and they are brief, and her project and passion is the city itself.

I could not put this book down and I highly recommend it.