Red City

Red City is a dark contemporary fantasy set in an alternate Los Angeles called Angel City, a place of gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills. Alchemy, the hidden art of transformation, is the exclusive property of crime syndicates. They sell it to the world's elite as sand, a drug that makes those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more.

Two rival syndicates, Grand Central and Lumines, control alchemy in the city. For years they have hovered between polite negotiation and open violence. That balance is upset when two childhood friends enter the picture, and both the city and their own lives are changed for good.

Sam is the daughter of a poor single mother, and she will do whatever it takes to fight her way into Grand Central and a better life. Ari was taken from his family as a boy to train as a Lumines apprentice and is now one of the syndicate's most promising rising stars. They may once have loved each other, but now they stand on opposite sides of an escalating conflict, where ambition turns into power and loyalty into lies. Neither may be able to transform perfectly enough to survive the coming war.

The novel deals with magical warfare, star-crossed ambition and the pursuit of perfection at any cost. It is Marie Lu's first novel for adults, after her young adult books such as Legend and Warcross.