Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

69 reviews

judicatorypedant's review

adventurous funny medium-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed the cast of characters, and wish more time was spent having them interact with each other. The novel started slow, and had a really amazing build up to what turned out to be a disappointing climax. Some characters (Queens/Padmini in particular) feel they could have recieved more focus and development. While Jemisin's prose was high quality as usual, there were points where the modern references made the work feel dated and too on the nose, politically. That said, I enjoyed the overarching allegory and some of the attempts at incorporating contemporary politics. The book also felt somewhat confusing in the beginning, as someone who lives outside of New York.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Genocide, Police brutality, Abortion, and Colonisation

sas_lk's review

adventurous hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I don't have words. I want to be in N.K. Jemisin's brain. This novel is the definition of a masterpiece. There are literally no faults, this woman is incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Racial slurs, Rape, and Police brutality

immovabletype's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Rape, Police brutality, Abortion, Death of parent, and Colonisation

dannythestreet's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Violence, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Alcohol

fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I love the concept of this book, that cities have souls, avatars that protect them, that are them. It's something I've never read before. 
I loved the avatars of New York. They were all well-written and brought their own issues and world views to the table. It was interesting to read all their different ideas and approaches to finding themselves as the chosen ones. They needed a while to figure things out and work together, but in the end they did it because New York is their home and they will fight for it. I also enjoyed the other city avatars and I'm excited to see, who else we'll get to know in the next book in this series.
The Woman in White was a great villain. The way she used the hate people already have in them and oppressing structures that are in our world, to manipulate people and get what she wants, makes her really effective and realistic. It really drove home the points of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Emotional abuse, Police brutality, and Colonisation

ethen_rey's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Transphobia

accidentallyinspace's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

I'm definitely already biased towards N.K. Jemisin, but this was a fantastic work of urban fantasy and speculative fiction. I believe the first chapter of this book was first published in her book of short stories (or it was revealed to me in a dream, because somehow I recognized it) but the full experience was incredible and so well written. This is one of those books that starts with a concept that makes you groan a little at how corny it might be, but then turns out to be incredibly clever in ways that keep making you stop and reconsider. Or hits you with the magic and scaling system that just click into place so perfectly it's like okay, every new development just makes SENSE. Thank you, I'll have another.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, and Police brutality

catastrophic's review

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

4.75

It's like Marvel but fantasy and set very firmly in the post-2020 culture wars. It has the Marvel elements of "the city is doomed if us team of ragtag heroes don't stop the big bad" but with incredible layers of Jemisin's nuance and rich characters. So evocative and descriptive, it feels impossible that she was able to describe the visuals so clearly with words. And very contemporary in a way no other works have yet captured. Slightly too Marvel and heroic at times 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, and Police brutality

lotharith's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Police brutality

samthereader's review

emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Police brutality, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment