City of Nightmares: The thrilling, surprising young adult urban fantasy

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The hall lighting sharpens her already-sharp cheekbones and adds a reddish tint to her warm brown skin. We know he enjoys one-night-stands - there was no acknowledgement on his part that of course plenty of people would rather be in a committed sexual relationship than rely on ONS, and it's perfectly understandable. Tangled up in the aftermath of an explosive assassination, now Ness and the only other survivor--a Nightmare boy who Ness suspects is planning to eat her--must find their way back to Newham and uncover the sinister truth behind the attack, even as the horrors of her past loom ominously near. Now I do think there is a conversation to be had about how the media being criticized here have some very valid critiques and how they can normalize abuse and rape culture, so I don't disagree with Schaeffer's thesis, I disagree with her arguments. Now a young adult living at the Friends of the Restless Soul compound—a charity (cough cough, cult) organization that provides "pay as you can afford" therapies to Nightmare trauma survivors—Ness is eeking away a frightened and barely there existence in the country's most dangerous city and surrounded on a daily basis by her worst fear: Nightmares.

Ness and her best friend hand out nonsense pamphlets to these families in the hope that no one turns into an eldritch horror. The development that Ness went through was amazing and I felt like it went very realistic and smoothly.No one is safe in Newham, Ness will do anything to avoid being turned into a nightmare or being killed by one. When that day rears its horrifying head, the director of the organization kicks Ness out for repeated mistakes, leaving her with no place to stay. Luckily, even though it is closer to the end, she does start to find her way and get a lot more confidence. This lore is unimportant to the plot and simply there for the characters to talk about how bad these movies are. This is a YA dystopian monster/horror book that contains our FMC (Ness) who clearly is a bit of a wimp at the start but is forced into a predicament so has to grow a backbone.

Beside me, Priya snorts and leans down to whisper in my ear, “And I thought you were a little on the irrational side about Nightmares. She spends her time thinking about folklore, mythology, lyrical sagas, and a mixture of all types of romantic legendary tales. Oh, and then there's the Nightmare that ends up in (and on) the same boat she's in, who just might turn out to be her only friend.I'm not a big fan of the very end, because the book enters the paranormal realm there more distinctly than sci-fi, but overall it works.

This book reads like one of those, but if they were unfunny and went on for almost four hundred pages. Most of whom had some rather big personalities, or eccentric quirks that made them really memorable (like keeping a pterodactyl to kidnap or eat your enemies. If you dream, you run the risk of having a nightmare, which you will MOST DEFINITELY morph into by morning. Speakeasies hide beneath the city’s secrets while Nightmare hunters fly in from the sky to slay dragons. The Nightmare shrieks, rearing back, and I take the opportunity to wriggle my way under the couch, covering my face like a small child.

Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. I LOVED the first two Market of Monsters books, but they built a romance which was totally deflated in the final book with the revelation that both characters are asexual. It was all unique and interesting and I am so excited to see what happens in the wrap up to this duology.