The City Beautiful is the kind of book I wouldn’t have picked up on my own because I’m not a historical thriller fan by any means. However, if you give me a queer Jewish history thriller with the kind of premise and cover that The City Beautiful has, I am one hundred percent up for the ride—and I’m so grateful that I took the plunge. The City Beautiful takes readers back to Chicago in 1893, where Alter Rosen, a gay Jewish boy has immigrated to to escape Romania’s oppression. When Alter’s best friend, Yakov becomes the latest victim in a long line of mysterious disappearances and murders of Jewish boys, Alter finds himself in a new kind of nightmare: possessed by Yakov’s dybbuk, he is plunged into a world of corruption and faces a boy from his past, a boy who could ruin everything. Together, the two of them face the challenge of finding the murderer before Alter’s body is completely taken over by dark forces.
What drew me in to Polydoros’ writing from the get-go was the way he painted this immersive vision of Chicago. Following Alter’s immigrant experience was so real—I could picture his room that he shared with many others, could picture the smells and sounds of the world around him. For someone who is living in Chicago, seeing it as this place of opportunity (the American Dream, my friends), and working his hardest to save up money to bring his sister and mother to him to get them away from the oppression of Romania, it must be such a betrayal to find himself haunted by corruption and misfortune in the land of the ostensibly free. Polydoros really hunkered down on this aspect and it entranced me.
We also have the childhood best friends to enemies to lovers trope which is so hard to get right but I think this book did it justice. I loved how the romance was interspersed—we have discussions around homosexuality and the self-hatred that comes with having to suppress your true feelings in an age and place that would not look kindly upon anything that isn’t the norm. Especially with the religion component explored in this book, we see how being gay was (and, well, still is) considered to be a sin and how that impacts Alter and the people around him. Having this Jewish, gay protagonist and following Alter as he deals with anti-Semitism as an immigrant in Chicago and not wanting to hide in the shadows resonated a lot with me and though I can’t speak for the representation since I’m not Jewish, I would wager that it’s a really authentic depiction of the rites and values of the community.
And of course, we have the mystery aspect to this book. While I focused more on the dark and twisty vibes of this story, the mystery did keep me flipping those pages. The only thing I will have to say is that sometimes, the pacing was a bit off—at moments the descriptions were dragged out so much that I was getting antsy and at others, things felt almost rushed—but that’s somewhat made up for by the twists that keep you invested in Alter’s fate.
All in all, The City Beautiful is an immersive and chilling mystery thriller—with an entrancing main character, complex depictions of queerness and community and transportive prose, Polydoros delivers an uncanny and sinister story that will keep readers guessing to the very end.
The City Beautiful is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of October 5th 2021.
Will you be picking up The City Beautiful? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
Chicago, 1893. For Alter Rosen, this is the land of opportunity, and he dreams of the day he’ll have enough money to bring his mother and sisters to America, freeing them from the oppression they face in his native Romania.
But when Alter’s best friend, Yakov, becomes the latest victim in a long line of murdered Jewish boys, his dream begins to slip away. While the rest of the city is busy celebrating the World’s Fair, Alter is now living a nightmare: possessed by Yakov’s dybbuk, he is plunged into a world of corruption and deceit, and thrown back into the arms of a dangerous boy from his past. A boy who means more to Alter than anyone knows.
Now, with only days to spare until the dybbuk takes over Alter’s body completely, the two boys must race to track down the killer—before the killer claims them next.
