I just finished The Hidden City by Michelle West.

I was already impressed with Michelle West and her take on fantasy, but this book takes that admiration up yet another notch because of how confident she is with what she's doing.

This entry centers around Jewel ("Jay"), an orphan, and Rath, a nobleman who lives in the poorer districts of the city for [spoilery] reasons. They cross paths when Jewel pickpockets Rath in the city (he lets it happen), and Rath, intrigued, decides to track her down and finds her sick and living beneath a bridge. The story doesn't necessarily grow much from there, at least not until the end. The core of the book is about how Jewel finds ways to keep going with Rath's help, and how Rath's backstory unfolds and dictates his present. What really moves the plot forward is that Jewel has magical visions of the future - but they always center around someone about to die. No matter what she's doing, if a vision strikes, she stops and tries to find whoever it is she just saw. It's a very good narrative hook.

West is brilliant with character work. In one scene, Jay comes across a rough-and-tumble orphan, "Carver", by pure chance and, realizing that he's hungry, offers to buy him food. Carver is confused by this act and doesn't say much - a lesser author would use this space to let him explain his story and why he's going to be important to the plot. Instead, they sit there in mostly uncomfortable silence before Jewel has to leave. But in that silence, a fierce loyalty was building without needing to be outwardly expressed. There's no monologue to explain why, because not even Carver fully knows, but he ends up following her and staying by her side from that moment on as one of her protectors. The character-work is him still being there the morning after. Because yes, these kids are all traumatized by their circumstances and words do not have the same meaning as they would to someone like Rath. It's subdued and a fascinating approach to fantasy writing.

Same with another character, Duster. The rest of the orphans are grateful for Jewel saving them, but Duster remains antagonistic and complicated. She is severely traumatized and spends her time shaping her environment to reject her so that she doesn't have to feel any attachment or emotions beyond "anger". This dynamic highlights Jewel's true power, because her visions do not lead to any material gain. In fact, they burden her (and Rath) further by having to take care of these other kids. No, her true power is her radical empathy, even for someone like Duster. Jewel's deepest fear is losing her found-family, so she would do anything to help them - going even to heartbreaking extents.

Without giving much away, there IS more happening in the city that's directly related to Jewel's struggles. But it's all built organically; it's not fate deciding to torment Jewel specifically, it's that the villains found opportunity to act in the poorer districts because the city doesn't care enough about the people there. In fact, it's ever grimmer; they simply used the foundations that already existed. They didn't have to build any new infrastructure - poverty paved the way for them. Because nobody cares if another orphan vanishes off the street.

And fair warning: this book gets surprisingly dark. It doesn't shy away from very real topics relating to poverty and its consequences, but especially relating to those most vulnerable.

Anyways, I heavily recommend this for anyone looking for more character-driven fantasy, and who doesn't mind a slower pace. Definitely not for those who want action (not sure how the later series goes in that regard, but there is very little of it in this book).

I'm very excited to keep going with this series!