The City Beautiful

The City Beautiful takes place at the backdrop of The 1893 Chicago. The White City. Alter Rosen, a Romanian Jewish guy has lived in the US close to 3 years now working at a low paying job to have his mother and little sisters brought over to escaping oppression in Europe. This is an amazing book about Jewish immigrant life in the US with a gothic horror core. A friend found dead possesses him to act revenge. Yakov ‘s Dybbuk is angry, antagonistic and yet you feel sympathy for this lost soul. You get to experience horror filled imagery which is full of Jewish lore and mythology. But the real life horrors are more terrifying: the exploiting of workers, the reasoning of killer, how discrimination is systemic and chilling how individuals see others as filth. A warning , the anti-Semitism is intense 80% into the book, it is mentioned in the dialog of two chapters.

I loved how Jewish this book, the customs, the food , faith and everyday life. The City Beautiful is a part thriller and murder mystery with but seeing Jewish life is really special. WW2 novels are important but I'm glad that publishing pushed out more non WW Jewish fiction. The action scenes and character building moments were well paced. The plot has a medium paced and it will be a disservice to you and the story heading in for the action. The action is intense but the characters matter more. Every page was needed to tell this story.

I adored Alter, Frankie and Raizel so much. I'd would love to be in their company. Each had a great arch but Alter has to be my favorite, embracing himself fully as a person and being queer , dealing with survivors guilt and not losing his kindness after the much needed self defense. Alter and Frankie are have faults, have messy feelings, are angry, have violent moments and are not desexualized gay guys. I'm so happy that they don't fit in the squeaky clean mold that popular YA media portrays. They showed love, passion and lust as much possible in a YA novel. Frankie is the ‘bad boy' from Alter's past. Frankie has a lot of trauma and it's respectfully written and mentioned. If I would label attach a trope to their romance it would be rekindled friends to lovers.

Aden Polydoros is 100% an autobuy author of mine after finishing The City Beautiful. Gah, I hope people read it. They are totally different but i had the same joy after finishing it I had with cemetery boys. I can't wait for the Bone Weaver next year, the MG the year after that and many others in years to come, I speak it into existence. READ THE CITY BEAUTIFUL for well researched historical life in Jewish ghettos, a well plotted story, a sweet romance that gradually builds , great rounded characters and a male lead that you want to hug immediately.

Death lurks around every corner in this unforgettable Jewish historical fantasy about a city, a boy, and the shadows of the past that bind them both together.

What an absolute delight of a book.
Set with the backdrop of the Chicago World Fair Polydoros gives us queer horror in such a fantastic way. Besides the horror of having his body taken over by his friends dybbuk - Alter is also having to face the trauma of his own past to discover how to save his future.

The main cast of characters are so great and have such a great dynamic with one another. I can't wait to see what else Polydoros does!