rnbhargava's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Grief, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Stalking, Violence, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Xenophobia
How hard these triggers hit will vary person to person, hence why I put all of them in moderate, not that they were all moderate to me. Nothing kept me from wanting to read the rest of the book. I can’t wait to get to the next 2.lizsurber's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Xenophobia, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Islamophobia, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Cancer, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Deportation, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Abortion, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Classism, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, and Rape
harpoonholly's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I'll also get the sequel because NK Jemisin is an amazing writer. I'm fascinated in the personification of concepts and to personify cities is to maximize adds greater complexity because of course it has to. I also like how she goes about acknowledging Lovecraft's literary contributions (northeastern U.S. sublime, dread, and monsters) and shining a scalding light over his overt bigotry that was startling even for his time.
10/10, would recommend, especially the audiobook.
Graphic: Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Homophobia, Racism, and Body horror
Moderate: Misogyny, Police brutality, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Addiction, and Alcoholism
stormeno's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Classism, and Cursing
Minor: Lesbophobia, Alcoholism, Cancer, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Abortion, Sexism, and Sexual content
aamna_theinkslinger's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I never expected to feel such a range of emotions from such a seemingly small book. The City We Became's paperback edition looks a very tame, innocent size, but the gut punch that it packs in those 448 pages is mind-blowing.
It is a book that will make you laugh and chuckle with its humor and widen your eyes with its bizarre and unique magic and make you bristle at the uncomfortable yet realistic depiction of xenophobia in our world.
New York City and its boroughs feel like characters in themselves (and not just because they are actual characters), but because the author talks about them with intimacy and fondness, with the awareness of their flaws and history and streets and alleys and its people.
I won't reveal anything about the characters, since I think that would spoil the fun of discovering them as you go. We have 5 main characters, and sometimes we get to be in the head of the villain too. We get chapters from all of their third-person perspectives. You can trust me when I say that all 5 of them were incredibly unique and diverse and lovable.
“This is the lesson: Great cities are like any other living things, being born and maturing and wearying and dying in their turn.”
It covers a wide array of them themes- from racism to homophobia to microaggressions and capitalism. It is bold and to the point when it tackles those issues. It doesn't hold back- yet somehow manages to make its delivery very digestible. Some of the scenes there were genuinely uncomfortable to read because of racism. But that's only proving how well done it was.
We have five main characters, and one of them in particular is very obviously xenophobic. She grew up in a very controlled and manipulative environment- and even though that doesn't necessarily excuse everything she says or what she does- her perspective is so well-done that you always carry this nickel of sympathy for her. She's supposed to be a little unlikeable and make you confront those ideas, but you somehow still find yourself rooting for her. That, I think, was a real feat.
Then there was the magic system, which was so unique and bizarre, and interesting. You have to suspend your disbelief a little bit because it's not a typical one with spells or runes or natural elements. It's based on the multidimensional theory, where when a city is "born", a person living in that city suddenly becomes their avatar, or basically the city in human form. And since the boroughs of New Yor city have such distinct identities, there are five avatars for each borough plus one person which is all of New York as a whole. And that's not even the beginning of the unique and bizarreness.
Graphic: Sexual assault, Racism, and Racial slurs
Minor: Alcoholism
dannythestreet's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Dementia, Homophobia, Classism, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Grief
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Cancer, Car accident, and Kidnapping
martinatan's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I could sense a lot of research and creative license went into writing this, and the concept must make it hard to really flesh out the characters, but ultimately the writing voice rubbed me the wrong way with almost all of the characterizations. Especially when
Spoiler
trying to speak to some very particular identities, I felt the author was not handling every characters’ background to the degree of sensitivity that I hoped for. There were many times that the description of East Asian characters, especially, fell short of what I feel is a culturally nuanced understanding of being from East Asian. That’s all I really can articulate about it for now, but ultimately there was a buildup of instances throughout the novel that gave me an overarching feeling of distrust in the author’s ability to inhabit characters of other cultures.Also, I felt really unbalanced by the amount of “screen time” given to each character, as some did not get many POV chapters and it left me hyperfocused on why. Even if they get more focus in future installments, I wish they had all been developed to the same degrees in the first. Additionally, the ordering and pacing of how information is revealed felt really off to me, there were times where even how a scene was established rattled my immersion in the characters’ point of view.
Slight ramble ahead. On the premise itself, what I started labeling it in my head early on was
Spoiler
weird fanfic about New York City. I’ve lived near and visited New York my whole life, and only after reading this did I realize I don’t really need “New York fanfic” in my life. Sure it’s an homage and all, but I don’t know that I can get behind the metaphor for white supremacy and colonization being a literal extraterrestrial entity. Maybe it’s because I feel sensitive to this subject, and I had hoped it might be somewhat cathartic to see it play out in a fantasy setting, but after reading this I want to say say that it actually feels kind of disrespectful to people facing actual prejudice, displacement, and hate crimes. Like when the Enemy is vanquished, the implication of how this book ends is that this alien source of white supremacy and therefore the magnitude of injustice in the world is significantly diminished. I just can’t vibe with that after all. Or maybe this is the point, for me to get uncomfortable about how racism and gentrification are still out there. Idk, it just ended up too far removed from a productive or interesting take on society that I would have appreciated.Anyway. Being someone from New Jersey who has lived close to New York City all my life, perhaps a contemporary fantasy story with this setting wasn’t the right book for me to pick up. Even though I’ve enjoyed the Broken earth trilogy in the past. Hard for me to say!
I can say overall this is somewhat worth reading if you want to explore the base concept of living cities a little, but because of the reasons above, I ultimately didn’t get too much pleasure or satisfaction out of the story.
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Racism, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Ableism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Addiction, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Transphobia, War, Cursing, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Abortion, Alcohol, and Cannibalism
breadwitchery's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Sexism, Xenophobia, Racism, Transphobia, and Homophobia
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, and Violence
Minor: Police brutality, Cursing, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Cancer, Alcoholism, and Abortion
blewballoon's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Cursing, Homophobia, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Classism, Islamophobia, Racism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Abortion
brycestevenwilley's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Sexual harassment
Minor: Antisemitism, Genocide, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Classism, and Colonisation