Mystic City (Mystic City Trilogy) [Hardcover]

Theo Lawrence (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 9, 2012 | Series: Mystic City Trilogy

For fans of Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided, a political rebellion ignited, and a love that was meant to last forever. Book One of the Mystic City Novels.

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place. Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city—including herself.  

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-In this dystopian fantasy, Aria Rose wakes up one morning missing her memories. She is told that she is engaged to Thomas Foster, son of a rival family. Theirs is a Romeo and Juliet story that has captivated New York society. Why, then, can Aria not remember any details of her romantic history? In search of answers, she travels to forbidden parts of the city, where the poor masses and the oppressed Mystics live. There, she meets Hunter, a boy who is entirely wrong for her, but who sparks her interest in ways that she is sure Thomas never has. Moreover, Hunter might be able to help her find the key to her past. What the two discover will have far-reaching consequences for their families and friends, and for the city of New York. This book marries a fast-paced plot with likable, developed characters, set in a future Manhattan that is all too believable. Readers may pick up on what has happened to Aria's memories long before she does, but the plot takes other twists and turns as the protagonist learns about the Mystics and the scope of her own family's power. Hand this book to fans of Gabrielle Zevin's All These Things I've Done (Farrar, 2011) and other urban dystopias with strong female characters.-Misti Tidman, Licking County Library, Newark, OHα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review

USA Today, "Happily Ever After" (blog), October 9, 2012:
"The characters themselves, especially Aria, are what drive this book. I love deep and complex stuff, I love the cover, I love Theo's writing and the Mystic City world...This novel is for fans of mind games, rebels, heartache and intrigue."

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2012:
"A gripping Romeo-and-Juliet exploration of deception, espionage, revolution, the greater good and love conquering all—with the aid of magical green lights and a peculiar little locket."

Publishers Weekly, September 3, 2012:
"Debut author Lawrence’s writing is assured."

School Library Journal, January 2013:
"This book marries a fast-paced plot with likable, developed characters, set in a future Manhattan that is all too believable...The plot takes other twists and turns as the protagonist learns about the Mystics and the scope of her own family’s power. Hand this book to fans of Gabrielle Zevin’s All These Things I’ve Done and other urban dystopias with strong female characters."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press (October 9, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038574160X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385741606
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 1.4 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it! October 9, 2012

By Sarah

Format:Hardcover

Aria Rose suffers from amnesia after waking up from an overdose of a drug known as Stic, it's made from the power of mystics only to discover she is engaged to a Thomas Foster, the son of the rival family who her parents hopes will unite the two families. Everyone says she's madly in love with Thomas, but she can't remember anything.
How's she to marry someone she can't even remember being in love with?

When Aria goes to visit Thomas for some answers, all she gets is more questions because before she can even arrive at the Foster's she meets a guy that saves her from a street gang. Mystics are drained of their power, to control them. He's a mystic rebel. She doesn't feel in danger while around him though, she feels just the opposite, Aria feels safe with him. She finds that she can't stop thinking about the mysterious Hunter. She soon finds the closest people around her may be the biggest betrayal of all.

In this futuristic novel the world building was great. Everything was so detailed. I liked how she incorporated global warming and it's effects in the book.

I adored Hunter! He was appealing, brave, gorgeous and intriguing, I can't say enough good things about him.

This was one of those books I couldn't hardly put down, the only time I did was because I had to go to bed. The only negative thing I would say about it is that the ending seemed kind of rushed to me, maybe it was just because I tore through the pages. I'm looking forward to reading the next book, which comes out in 2013!

Recommended for of fantasy, dystopian and romance.

Thank you to Delacorte Books for Young Readers and NetGally for this digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful! October 13, 2012

By D. Chapman

Format:Hardcover

Mystic City is a YA Dystopia that has everything you could want to read. The plot has romance and betrayal, politics and magic and so much more in a post-apocalyptic world.

Aria finds herself with missing some of her memories due to a drug overdosed. Memories like that of her secretive romance with Thomas, the son of her family's enemy. She seems a bit naďve and clueless and a little too accepting of what she is being told. Then she meets Hunter, a mystic, and she feels something for him that she shouldn't.

I was surprised at how much I hated Aria's parents at the end of the book. A few of the characters seem a bit one dimensional to me but I will say that the ending left me wondering what will happen Aria.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Predicatable Romeo & Juliet Retelling (With Lovely Word-building) November 23, 2012

By Lilian @ A Novel Toybox

Format:Kindle Edition

I need to stop being lured in by blurbs that mention The Hunger Games and sparkly covers (though it is one of most enchanting covers I've seen in a while.) A much more accurate blurb would be: a Romeo and Juliet retelling with magical people who are nowhere as cool as X-men. I didn't go into this book with high expectations, but I was expecting a lot more action (that wasn't made up of aimless running around) and a lot less love proclamations. In the end, I couldn't get past the extremely predictable plot, flat characters, and the main character's stupidity.

This Couple Has OCD Issues:
On two occasions, Aria finds these secretive letters in her house, then instead of stuffing it in her pocket or locking doors before anyone sees her reading them, SHE ORGANIZES THEM BY DATE. WHUT?
Aria's lover, Hunter isn't much better. When Aria and Hunter have minutes before the vicious, armed bodyguards barge into the room where they are having their secret rendezvous, instead of escaping, they proceed to sit around and talk...and talk...and talk some more. And then Hunter cleans up vomit. Y U NO RUN AWAY OR DEVISE SOME PLAN? They get caught. All because they were too busy talking and cleaning up vomit. *facepalm*

Extraneous Writing:
I often wonder if Lawrence forgot to remove his notes from the story since I kept coming across these jarring, filler moments.
On one occasion, Lawrence dedicates an entire paragraph to telling us how Aria takes a bunch of clothes into her room, take the letters from her missing friend's clothes, then runs back to put the clothes back. Ummmm, girl, you could've just kept the clothes in your room and said you wanted to keep some clothes in memory of your friend......or you could even say the clothes would be a great addition to your closet instead of running back and forth between rooms suspiciously. I get it, you found these top-secret letters, NOW TELL ME WHAT THEY SAY. I don't care about the itty bitty details about you covering your tracks.

On the other hand, she reads these secret letters she finds...then she eats dinner for a few paragraphs, then goes back to reading letters. No idea why that dinner scene had to be there unless, eating stewed rabbit was a major turning point.

Flat Characters:
This was the main fault of Mystic City. I just wasn't compelled by the main characters, who were all conveniently "gorgeous." (Gorgeous must be Lawrence's favorite word.) Lawrence is much more concerned with describing clothes than people (you'd be surprised how many times he talks about flowing dresses and stylish clothes). There are no shades of gray in this story; all the "evil" people were all irrevocably evil, or suspiciously treacly. Everyone in this story LOVES to over-react and be drama queens. And Aria was the most gullible person ever, she never came to her own conclusions, instead she listened to people around her for confirmation. The only character I felt mild interest to was Davida, Aria's servant, and would've preferred the story from her point of view.

They Also Don't Know How To Write Letters.
Aria happens to find these love letters in her room which sound like they are written by an insecure, over-dramatic creep. The most hilarious one reads:
I have nothing to say tonight but thank you.

If you have nothing to say, why are you writing a letter??

Or the letters are so blatantly unnatural that they made me wince. On another note, if you want to keep your letters a secret, you should burn them. If your friend can find them in less than five minutes, you probably weren't doing a good enough job hiding them.

WHY IS IT SO PREDICTABLE?:
Anyone would have guessed what happened to Aria in the first few chapters. The most frustrating part was how long it took for Aria to figure it out. Part of it was because the story is in first-person, so she's giving us all these hints that something is awry, but ironically, she's still completely oblivious. The plot twists were once again VERY PREDICTABLE. The foreshadowing basically handed us everything on a sliver platter (from who were the evil people and what those mysterious gloves are capable of.)

Action?
With X-Men, Bey Blade, and The Hunger Games in the blurb, I was expecting ACTION. And while stuff happened, it was mostly Aria running around aimlessly in dark alleys, trying to find clues to her past, but still ends up clueless...then SHE GOES TO WORK where she serves coffee and arranges files in a cubicle. *yawn* She doesn't need a job, she needs to get to school so she can learn some critical thinking.

Finally in the last few chapters, I get the action I wanted...except it suddenly turned into horror scene with decapitated people and body parts slewed around. Well that was unexpected, especially when the story was lovey-dovey up until that point.

Romance
Lawrence avoids "instalove" by maintaining the couple had a history before Aria's memory loss...but it just felt unconvincing.

Book Trailer:
One of the cheesiest things I've ever watched. Why do both guys have douchebag hair? And why do none of them look like teenagers?

World-building:
Although I felt the story was lacking, the world-building is lovely (and maybe that cover had something to do with it.) A mystical city amongst the clouds--that's some lovely stuff.

Not sure if I'm having bad luck or I turned into nitpicker, but I've been on a roll with mehhhhh reads lately. If you want a sweet romance about a girl getting amnesia and waking up to a perfect life, read Sophie Kinsella's Remember Me instead. I don't know if I will be picking up the sequel next year; while I am mildly curious about the story, I just don't care about these flat characters. Read more ›

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars YA Romeo & Juliet with a Fantasy Twist October 12, 2012

By K. Beck

Format:Hardcover

Mystic City is the young adult debut novel by Theo Lawrence. It is set in an alternate Manhattan, or Mystic City, that has been built up by magic from the mystics, who are now drained and forced to live at the flooded ground level with the poor in their own semi-quarantined zone. The story centers on Aria Rose, the daughter of one of the ruling families of Manhattan, who is suffering from memory loss due to an overdose from Stic.

As many of you may have noticed by now, I have a pretty eclectic taste in books. I don't even know when I pick one up whether or not it will be for me. I was actually a little worried about this one when I received the ARC. I liked Romeo and Juliet (I've read books comparing the two, and the comparison is made in the book itself) just fine, but Shakespeare retellings are usually gag-inducing for me. I usually don't do well with love triangles, politics, forbidden romances, and so on. However, I really loved this book, and read it in less than 12 hours.

The Writing of Mystic City is a perfect example of what I have grown to love so much about young adult literature. I never felt like I was participating in a literary triathlon by trying to follow the story, but at the same time it never felt like it was dumbed down appeal to teenage readers. (I know not all YA books do that, but there are some. Oh yes, there are some.) Many of the same themes are present in Mystic City that were also part of Romeo and Juliet (warring families, forbidden love - basically the same things I mentioned before, except for the love triangle), but the novel was not just a fleshing out of the bones of the play. I would call it more of an homage than a retelling.

Aria Rose is not the simpering, wilting Juliet that I expected from Mystic City either.... She is a socialite/celebrity, but she is not afraid to get down and dirty to get the answers she craves due to her lost memory. She may not be tough or have special powers, but she is pretty ballsy, and there is little I love more than reading about an empowered girl in YA. (Yes, she is chasing after guys, but didn't we all at that age? Let her be seventeen.) So as far as the writing goes, no complaints from me. I loved it, and I think many teens will as well. 5/5 Stars

The World-Weaving of Mystic City is very fascinating. I did not realize that this book was set in an alternate reality until probably halfway through the book. I suppose I should have gathered that from the "In this Manhattan..." from the book's summary, but I guess I didn't pay much attention to it. However, I am down for alternate reality, speculative fiction, epic fantasy - you name it. So it didn't matter much to me what was going on. In any case, Manhattan has been flooded due to global warming and the melting of ice caps and glaciers. I've only been to New York once, so I was able to buy how things were after something like that happened. The rich people lived at the tops of the skyscrapers (the Aeries) and the poor people were left on the ground. (It wasn't all flooded, but it sounds a bit Venetian from the descriptions.) Of course, the poor normal people and drained mystics were allowed to be servants in the Aeries.

My one issue with the World-Weaving is that I wish there was more history. If a book is set in an alternate universe or whatever, I would love to know what the differences are. The only thing really even mentioned was one of the presidents, and the global warming. I'm not asking for the level from Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series, but I'm a history buff, and I want some beef. Being as this is the first book in the Mystic City series, I'll cut Mr. Lawrence some slack and keep the chopping block polished for the next book. 5/5 Stars

The Pacing and Attention Span go hand-in-hand for me with this novel. The pacing was quick, and I stayed at the edge of my seat throughout Mystic City . There were betrayals, twists, and drama left and right, and I never really even had time to make guesses about things. (Yes, I had the main storyline figured out, but I don't think that was supposed to be some big huge secret.) As I said before, I read this book in approximately 12 hours, including my seven hours of sleep. Unless this is downright Not Your Thing, I can't seeing it losing your interest or attention. 5/5 Stars

Now that we've finally made it to the Extra Magic , I can't really put my finger on it exactly. The characters were likeable (even if it's only because I liked to hate them), the story was good, and Theo Lawrence did a great job of writing Mystic City . I will definitely be recommending this to my library patrons, and I hope you get around to reading Mystic City , too. 5/5 Stars

To satisfy FTC guidelines, I am disclosing that I received a review copy of this book from the publisher, which has in no way affected the outcome of my review. All opinions expressed are rambling, honest, and completely my own. Read more ›