Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - The City We Became

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The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

28 reviews

azrah786's review

4.0

**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

CW: racism, racial slurs, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, sexual assault, rape threats, violence, body horror, gore, police brutality, religious bigotry, emotional abuse, doxxing, hate crime, abortion, addiction/alcoholism, attempted drowning

My first N. K. Jemisin book and I can only really describe it as wonderfully whacky.

The City We Became is more or less a story about the 5 boroughs of New York being personified to fight off an eldritch being that is hellbent on destroying the city. How cool of a concept is that?!
It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea as it is a little strange and slow going and took me a lot longer to get through that I expected but I did enjoy it.

Jemisin’s writing is absolutely fantastic. The atmosphere created immerses you right in, from the creeping elements of Eldritch/Lovecraftian horror to the rich descriptions of the life, diverse cultures and stereotypes of New York that meticulously shape both the setting and the characters that embody it. One downside though is that as someone who has never seen or experienced the city in person, I did feel like I couldn’t fully appreciate every aspect of the book.

The storyline gave me major comic book vibes – The Wicked and the Divine or Watchmen were some that came to my mind - with how it focuses on a bunch of individuals being reluctantly bestowed powers and coming together to save a city. So although the written novel form worked well to vividly portray all of this in lieu of a comic strip, I can’t help but think it could have worked even better in graphic novel form – it would have particularly helped with the pacing.

The ending was also quite abrupt and hence gave the overall feeling of a prequel novel setting up a bigger story. All that aside however, it was still an impressive work of fiction as well as an immense homage to the city of New York and I can definitely see why Jemisin is such a big name in modern sci-fi and fantasy. I look forward to the sequel and picking up her other work.
Final Rating – 4/5 Stars

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georgiakirkegard's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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aardwyrm's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

I've never not loved a Jemisin book, but this is a new height of craft for her. I've been to New York all of once, but you still feel the place in your bones even as a despised tourist. The ramping of tension, the unfolding of worldbuilding, and the balance of fright are all masterful.

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nullandvoidlibrary's review

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really liked most the characters and their characterizations, I loved how alive the writing felt, and the concept is really cool that felt very fleshed out. There was an element of the story that could have gone a certain way that I think (at least in my experience) is common for stories that have this element, but I was really surprised and delighted to see this book do the opposite. The first thing I thought when I finished this book was that I need more now, and I will eagerly await the sequel.

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malloryfitz's review

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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kenchingfox's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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leannj's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Amazing. Showstopping. Wonderful. Highly recommend the audiobook, because while there was like one choice the narrator made that I disagreed with, the sheer production quality of the audiobook was impeccable.

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snslayer's review

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adventurous fast-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Huge fan of Jemisin's other work but this one took me a really long time to get into. If you don't have any prior knowledge of or interest in New York City, you have to wait through half a book of conceptual introduction to get to any amount of characterization. I enjoyed it by the end but if I didn't already love and trust Jemisin there is no way I would have finished this. I prefer more character-driven to plot-driven stories and this was not that. Would recommend to people who love NYC and/or plot-driven modern fantasy. It's well-written but not my thing.

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