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Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City of a Thousand Dolls when she was just a child. She has very little memory of her parents. Had they ever loved her? Perhaps. She’ll never know.
In a land with a two-child law, the City raises unwanted and orphaned girls to apprentice as musicians, healers, courtesans, wives, and, if the rumors are true, assassins. At the age of 16, they have the opportunity to be spoken for.
Matron says it’s a blessing — a chance for any one of the City’s girls to become part of a higher caste — but Nisha has lived on the grounds of the isolated estate for 10 years now, and she’s not so sure. She’s nearly 16 herself, but instead of training in one of the houses, she’s made her way as Matron’s assistant. It’s an isolating task. In fact, her closest friends and companions are the mysterious cats that trail her shadow. But no matter how lucky spotted cats are supposed to be, Nisha wonders what her chances are of ever being spoken for. Secretly she hopes her forbidden flirtation with the city’s handsome young courier, Devon, will turn into something more. Maybe, one day, he’ll want to take her for his wife. It’s the first time she’s let herself imagine a life outside the walls.
But when death strikes suddenly within the City — a place that is supposed to be safe — Nisha’s life turns upside-down. The first death was labeled a suicide, but when another girl is discovered dead in the fountain, Nisha beings to wonder if the deaths are really connected.
Determined to uncover the secrets behind the murders, Nisha sets out to unravel the mystery and find the killer before she herself becomes the next victim.
I enjoyed Nisha’s exotic world with its ancient stories, traditions, and talking cats that only Nisha seems to hear (In fact, the cats — especially Jerrit — were one of my favorite parts of the book!), but I also felt that the setup for the world caused the beginning of the story to drag. It wasn’t until the halfway point that the mystery really exploded to the forefront and the tension picked up.
Overall, City of a Thousand Dolls is a slowly unraveling fantasy. It’s not a deep or complex mystery — more of a cozy, rainy-day read — but it has a somewhat nostalgic element to it. Quite simply, it is what it is. Whether a reader loves it or hates it because of this is up to them.
Rated: Mild, for one use of the “b” word and only one or two instances of mild language. A hard topic surfaces several times throughout the book in which the orphaned girls of the city are “spoken for” to become wives or apprentices. This is really just a fancy way of saying sold. In defense of the City’s methods, someone mentions how unwanted babies were dealt with or discarded before the city came to be. The City also features a house of pleasure. Nothing of what is done there is described, though it is obvious they train girls to become bedmates and concubines for nobles. There are also, obviously, quite a few deaths, but nothing too graphic. Characters kiss.
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