Reader's Review: "City Of A Thousand Dolls" by Miriam Forster

Synopsis from Amazon:

The girl with no past, and no future, may be the only one who can save their lives.

Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City of a Thousand Dolls when she was just a little girl. Now sixteen, she lives on the grounds of the isolated estate, where orphan girls apprentice as musicians, healers, courtesans, and, if the rumors are true, assassins. She makes her way as Matron's errand girl, her closest companions the mysterious cats that trail her shadow. Only when she begins a forbidden flirtation with the city's handsome young courier does she let herself imagine a life outside the walls. Until one by one, girls around her start to die.

Before she becomes the next victim, Nisha decides to uncover the secrets that surround the girls' deaths. But by getting involved, Nisha jeopardizes not only her own future in the City of a Thousand Dolls—but also her life.
>>>>>>>>>

My Review:

Hunger Games. The Selection. Divergent.

The teen novel trend of "a bunch of girls living in isolation, and their only escape is sponsorship or marriage" is a strong one, capable of being spun in many different ways--and in that respect, City of A Thousand Dolls is no different from the rest.

Nisha lives in an isolated city, a place where unwanted or orphaned girls are sent (or abandoned) to be trained in one or another of several disciplines: beauty, music, combat, healing, and the like. If a girl shows strong affinity for one or the other, she can be "claimed" by that house and commits to her training. Nisha is one of those who hasn't yet been claimed, so she's dabbled in various discipline, acting as an assistant to the Matron in charge of running the whole place, running errands and carrying messages between the houses. Her sense of freedom and independence swiftly turns when word arrives that the Emperor's councilors have decided that either a house mistress should claim her, or she will be sold to the aristocrat with the most money. Nisha doesn't seem to fit in anywhere, so it seems as though her fate has been chosen for her.

Similarities to the other stories stop there, though. The cats were a creative twist, as Nisha discovers that she has a sort of telepathic link with them, for whatever reason. They warn her of impending danger, and help her investigate when girls in the City of A Thousand Dolls start dying under mysterious circumstances and far from "accidental", as the authorities want to claim. The vast difference, too, between what Nisha knows about her past, her parents, and the way she was abandoned at the gates of the City--versus what various people reveal about what actually happened was also a nice touch that kept the story from straying too far into the cliches that normally riddle a novel of this caliber.

The one downside of books like this is that it tends to elevate and/or isolate the main character above and away from the rest. While I did feel like Nisha was a good sympathetic character, and the reader is drawn into her peril and compelled to wish her success without the narrative ever explicitly stating that we should feel thus--on the other hand, I might have liked to get to know some of these other girls with strange names as characters in their own right, rather than just random people Nisha knows. Nisha is the exclusive narrator for this book--everything is through her eyes, from her perspective. We don't get to see things from any other point of view. If she knows a name or interacts regularly with a certain person, we get to know them as far as she does. If she doesn't know someone, they don't factor very much into the narrative she tells. This both does a disservice to other characters--but it also serves its own purpose well in terms of plot twists and red herrings, as the reader is no closer to discovering the mysterious killer in the City than Nisha is at any given moment, which gives the author an opportunity to weave a complicated web that isn't necessarily included into the book unless it directly affects Nisha--which it does at key moments.

All in all, I'd say this book is a fantastic story, creative and enchanting. City of A Thousand Dolls earns itself a solid *****5 STAR***** rating in terms of construction of the premise, execution of the plot, characters and dialogue, conflict and resolution (that last plot twist was a doozy and I loved it!), and lovely, exotic world-building. I would say it also warrants an Upstream Writer Certified TOTALLY RECOMMENDED, too, if you're the sort of person who likes fun, colorful stories full of peril, intrigue, and sappy teen romance. If you're looking for a book like The Selection, but without the senseless love triangle and the "practically perfect" heroine, then City of A Thousand Dolls just might be for you!

Further Reading: (Fantasy/Strong Heroines/Engaging World-Building)

The Untamed Series--Madeline Dyer
       -Untamed 
       -Fragmented 

The Vemreaux Trilogy--Mary E. Twomey
       -The Way 
       -The Truth
       -The Lie

-The Secret King: Letháo--Dawn Chapman
The Children of Dreki--N. R. Tupper
       -TYR 
The Red Dog Conspiracy--Patricia Loofbourrow
       -The Alcatraz Coup 
       -Jacq of Spades 
       -Queen of Diamonds 
-Dreamtime Dragons--Dreamtime Fantasy Authors The Chronicles of Lorrek--Kelly Blanchard
        -Someday I'll Be Redeemed 
        -I Still Have A Soul 
        -I'm Still Alive 
        -Do You Trust Me? 
        -You Left Me No Choice 
The Fair Folk Chronicles--Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins
        -Foul is Fair 
        -Street Fair 
        -A Fair Fight 
        -All's Fair 
The Therian Way--Kimberly Rogers
       -Leopard's Heart 
       -Wolf's Path 
       -Tiger's Shadow 
Verona: The Mermaid Tale Series--Pauline Creeden
       -Submerged 
       -Salt
Spirit Knights--Lee French
       -Girls Can't Be Knights 
       -Backyard Dragons 
Lord of the Wyrde Woods--Nils Visser
     -Escape From Neverland 
     -Dance Into The Wyrd 

The Portal Prophecies--C. A. King
     -A Keeper's Destiny 
     -A Halloween's Curse 
     -Frost Bitten