The City in Glass by Nghi Vo: Review & Analysis
A larger-than-life tale of love and grief
Introduction
I was a big fan of Nghi Vo’s novella The Empress of Salt and Fortune when I read it a few years ago, so had been looking for an excuse to try some of her other, longer works of speculative fiction. My chance finally came when The City in Glass (2024) was selected for one of my book clubs in August.
The City in Glass, not to be confused with the YA Shadowhunters book half my generation read in our teens, is overall a short, imaginative, and highly enjoyable read! It reminded me foremost of This is How You Lose the Time War and Good Omens for the nature and relationship of its main characters, though it also stands firmly on its own ground as a story and work.
It’s not perfect and certainly not for everyone (for reasons I’ll get into below), but it’s charming, unique, and creative in a way I can always appreciate. Consider checking it out at your local library if it’s of interest! Without further ado, let’s get into spoilers ahead.
Angel & Demon
The City in Glass is told from the demon Vitrine’s perspective and set entirely in and around the city of Azril. She had overseen the city’s development over centuries from a small coastal settlement into a grand and bustling society, with a real sense of loving care that came from her pride and possessiveness.
Early in the novel, four angels arrive and demand she give way, admit her sins, and beg for her city. When she not-so-politely declines, they declare they’ve been sent to raze Azril, to tear it “from the tapestry of the world,” and admit that begging wouldn’t have actually helped anyway.
She tries to fight them and scorns their every action, but her attempts are ultimately futile: Azril and its people are consumed in heavenly fire, immortal Vitrine buried in the rubble, glass, and ash of her beloved city.
In a desperate act of defiance, Vitrine manages to levy a curse on the lead, demanding angel. She attaches a piece of her soul to his, infecting him with her love and empathy for the Azril that was. Her goal in the moment is simply to inflict eternal guilt and suffering; she certainly doesn’t expect him to become attached to her and the city, yet that’s what happens.
The heart (and majority of the page count) of The City in Glass sees Vitrine reflecting on memories of the Azril that was, interacting with the unnamed angel, and (sometimes grudgingly) working with him to build a new Azril. He spends fifty years in exile but returns with a population of refugees who restart the city’s human civilization and who include the ancestors of a particular family the two will watch over and hold dear for centuries to come.
(Her price for accepting the refugees is his wings, which she cuts off in a strikingly graphic scene and places within her heart alongside her book of memories.)
Eventually, a human war engulfs Azril and the city is on the verge of destruction once more, when the angel returns from another exile and gets Vitrine’s permission to unleash some divine violence on the invaders. They confess their love for one another and she molds him into a library, within which she places her book.
Love & Loss
Wait, what? A reasonable question, especially for anyone who gave The City in Glass a try on the basis that it was marketed as Romance.
I enjoyed the strange twist of the ending, because Vitrine’s bond with the angel never read as romantic to me. At worst she’s simply completing her revenge at the end, and at best he’s become another cherished possession she wants to include in her beloved city.
It remains mostly subtext throughout the novel, but I love the profoundly transformative effect Vitrine’s empathy and care have on the angel. I envision him as a pure weapon of war in his original state, with zero tolerance for moral complexity and only enough personality to want to torment what he sees as absolute evil. His awakening to the horrors of his deeds sees him diminished and helplessly devoted, but also curious and kind in ways that sometimes surpass or diverge from Vitrine.
I adored Nghi Vo’s imagination when it came to Vitrine’s book of memories in her heart and the many allusions to what sat at the hearts of her diverse siblings, especially in comparison to the (seemingly) rigid and uniform angels.
I loved the line saying that both Vitrine and the angel had to wearily put up with a ‘plague of religion’ sweeping through Azril—gorgeous commentary on how human and petty the institution can be, particularly when delivered from the mouths of a literal angel and demon.
A final wonderful highlight was Vitrine reminiscing about commissioning paintings from a human artist with an inspired eye for capturing the real Azril. It’s a powerful idea that the paintings both show Vitrine an objective view different from her own, but also so effectively illuminate her influence on the city that she can literally find her image in his later works.
While it’s again mostly subtextual, I also really appreciated the themes of frustration & grief, and love & creation that the novel explores. Vitrine loses everything to the senseless destruction of the angels and spends most of the novel processing and rebuilding from her grief: it's easy to see how these deep and difficult emotions could be mirrored in people's experiences from the pandemic, wars, or so much more that continues to impact our world.
On the other side of the coin, Vitrine and the angel act as caring and sometimes possessive parents to the new Azril and particularly members of their favourite family—going so far as to make individual bargains ensuring descendants return to visit now and then. It's also both real and revealing when Vitrine tells the angel that none of the city is his, a heartbreaking excoriation again left somewhat ambiguous: is this the true Vitrine poking through, or a moment of lashing out and saying something she doesn't mean?
Acceptance & Moving On
There's a lot left open to interpretation in my mind, in terms of Vitrine's personality, motivations, and actions. For all that we see her defined by her love for Azril, it's hard to say whether she is ultimately a force for good with her influence there—let alone in the world beyond. Of course, that's not the point: this is her personal story, so we're asked to root for her on those grounds and because we feel her adoration for her city and people.
The way the novel begins and ends with divine violence in the city seems to indicate a cyclical pattern which may not mean the happiest future for Vitrine and her pretty new library, but for the moment she's content, having rebuilt Azril and processed many of her emotions. And what else can we really ask for in this chaotic life? Hopefully the angel's found peace too, bound to statically serving her for eternity, rather than trapped in his yearning and guilt.
I will say that there are a ton of wonderful ideas and beautiful passages in The City in Glass which are lovely on their own but suffer in retrospect from being abandoned. Nothing comes of the angel dust Vitrine discovers, despite that passage dripping of foreshadowing—nor do the wings, or curse, or bees, or a dozen other small details feel quite satisfyingly concluded given the way they were introduced.
For all its emotional reflections and passing centuries, this book is actually a lot more grounded than This is How You Lose the Time War, yet somehow also feels a little messier when I step away from it. Hardly a technical term, but I'd describe both books as 'vibes-based': you're never going to understand exactly what's happening, it's about the beauty of the writing and the broad strokes rather than sharply defined actions. So it's just a little strange to come away from the even more vibey novel with fewer questions... but I've also read and thought about Time War for a lot longer, so perhaps those answers can also be found for The City in Glass.
Ultimately, like I said at the top, I recommend The City in Glass if you're up for a unique and fascinating short novel—but not if you're looking for a grounded romance, as someone in my book club sadly was. Sorry Joe!
Thanks for reading and until next time <3
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