Scan barcode
boneloose's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The City We Became is a book that explores the idea of cities growing to have such cultural significance and value that they become alive-- but the birthing process into a human avatar(s) is laborous and painful, and it takes a careful process to prevent an Enemy from turning it into a stillbirth. It truly was a love letter to New York that I don't think I was able to appreciate as much as a person who has never lived there, but that I can see being so lovely to read as someone from there. This is my first N.K. Jemisin and while I can see the acclaim in the ways she wrote the action scenes, the other parts of the book were honestly pretty disappointing and didn't hold up to what I expected from all the incredible things I've heard about her work. I'll still probably give The Broken Earth trilogy a go, but I was expecting a lot more than I got from this book in terms of the non-action scenes and the pacing.
The Good:
The action scenes as I said were so incredibly well-written! I've never had an easier time playing a movie in my head of what's going on while I read. A lot of the action-based scenes also read almost like fleshed out stage directions at times (in a good way). I think a screen adaptation of this would be incredibly fun to watch and not too difficult to accurately make.
The Bad:
The prose in non-action scenes was written in a way that was so personally grating I almost DNF-ed the book. Rather than letting atmosphere and tension build by trusting the reader to understand the shown character reactions and through writing choices, a lot of it was extremely dampened by a very heavy-handed "pointing out" of what the reader was supposed to glean.
A non-spoiler-y excerpt to illustrate what I mean:
The Good:
The action scenes as I said were so incredibly well-written! I've never had an easier time playing a movie in my head of what's going on while I read. A lot of the action-based scenes also read almost like fleshed out stage directions at times (in a good way). I think a screen adaptation of this would be incredibly fun to watch and not too difficult to accurately make.
The Bad:
The prose in non-action scenes was written in a way that was so personally grating I almost DNF-ed the book. Rather than letting atmosphere and tension build by trusting the reader to understand the shown character reactions and through writing choices, a lot of it was extremely dampened by a very heavy-handed "pointing out" of what the reader was supposed to glean.
A non-spoiler-y excerpt to illustrate what I mean:
"The white things came off of that woman when I got rid of the others," Brooklyn says. She's hiding it well, but her confident facade has slipped a little at the sight of the dog. The dog makes this something insidious, and ominous.
The paragraphs leading up to this excerpt showing the characters' reactions to the dog, and the way the sighting of the dog was framed in the prose made it incredibly clear that the dog marked the situation as particularly insiduous and ominous. This kind of thing was spelled out like this several different times in non-action scenes. Even just removing that sentence overtly explaining it would have made the tone a lot more tense. It was frustrating reading a book aimed at adults that didn't trust its audience to piece together the tone we were supposed to gather. Other ways the book was particularly heavy-handed included characters pointing out in dialogue several different times that what was happening "sure seemed Lovecraftian!". Like, maybe have someone point it out once, but I think it happened at minimum 6 or 7 times.
Also, while I loved most of the action scenes, the climax disappointed me a lot. It was ramping up so much and so intensely over 100 pages or so only for the actual climactic battle to wrap up in about a page and a half. Also, the particular thing that the characters are figuring out how to do for pretty much the entire novel literally happens off screen! We flash forward in the last chapter and it's happened, but I don't understand why there would be so much intense focus on making it happen to not even depict it directly. Also, the ending was less concrete than I expected it to me, but that's on me for not realizing this was the first book in a series rather than a standalone. Even so, this type of ending felt almost worst than a cliffhanger. The tension was ramping up so much that I read the most tense 80 or so pages in that frantically page-turning way only for it to just... fizzle out with no real gratifying Final Battle. The complete 180 from "incredibly high stakes rising action" to "flash forward 3 weeks where everything was fine" with only a page or two in between of the characters Fully Fighting was really jarring and made the ending pretty unsatisfying in a way that I don't think reading the sequel would resolve.
Also, I really wasn't a fan of the at times almost out of nowhere graphic descriptions of genitalia that happened two or three different times throughout the book. I also don't think the attempted rape needed to be nearly as graphic as it was (chapter where the staten island avatar goes out to her pool/backyard and interacts with the person sleeping on the lounge chair; around page 270 in the US hardback edition). I can see how having it as an event informed the actions of the character later in the book, but definitely feel that how overtly it was described didn't lend much more than shock value to the plot.
All in all, the concept was incredibly intriguing but the overall execution left a lot to be desired for me. I think it would work really well as a movie with how vivid the imagery in the action scenes were, but I don't think it worked as well as a novel. That type of tapering off at the end is something I'm more forgiving of when there's a roughly 2 hour screen time to keep to but is a lot more frustrating when the author could have easily added another 20 or 50 or even 100 pages to flesh it out more thoroughly. Definitely won't reread it and I don't think I'll continue with the series, but I might watch a screen adaptation depending on what scenes make the final cut.
Also, while I loved most of the action scenes, the climax disappointed me a lot. It was ramping up so much and so intensely over 100 pages or so only for the actual climactic battle to wrap up in about a page and a half. Also, the particular thing that the characters are figuring out how to do for pretty much the entire novel literally happens off screen! We flash forward in the last chapter and it's happened, but I don't understand why there would be so much intense focus on making it happen to not even depict it directly. Also, the ending was less concrete than I expected it to me, but that's on me for not realizing this was the first book in a series rather than a standalone. Even so, this type of ending felt almost worst than a cliffhanger. The tension was ramping up so much that I read the most tense 80 or so pages in that frantically page-turning way only for it to just... fizzle out with no real gratifying Final Battle. The complete 180 from "incredibly high stakes rising action" to "flash forward 3 weeks where everything was fine" with only a page or two in between of the characters Fully Fighting was really jarring and made the ending pretty unsatisfying in a way that I don't think reading the sequel would resolve.
Also, I really wasn't a fan of the at times almost out of nowhere graphic descriptions of genitalia that happened two or three different times throughout the book. I also don't think the attempted rape needed to be nearly as graphic as it was (chapter where the staten island avatar goes out to her pool/backyard and interacts with the person sleeping on the lounge chair; around page 270 in the US hardback edition). I can see how having it as an event informed the actions of the character later in the book, but definitely feel that how overtly it was described didn't lend much more than shock value to the plot.
All in all, the concept was incredibly intriguing but the overall execution left a lot to be desired for me. I think it would work really well as a movie with how vivid the imagery in the action scenes were, but I don't think it worked as well as a novel. That type of tapering off at the end is something I'm more forgiving of when there's a roughly 2 hour screen time to keep to but is a lot more frustrating when the author could have easily added another 20 or 50 or even 100 pages to flesh it out more thoroughly. Definitely won't reread it and I don't think I'll continue with the series, but I might watch a screen adaptation depending on what scenes make the final cut.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Homophobia, Antisemitism, and Sexism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Addiction, and Transphobia
innerweststreetlibrarian's review
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
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? It's complicated
5.0
Such an excellent book, I’m sad it’s over but very happy to see the author has plans for two more in the series! The quality of the writing is excellent, the characters interesting and well developed, the story was unpredictable enough to keep me interested.
I really enjoyed the magical realism and it feels like a beautiful love letter to New York. So excellent!
I really enjoyed the magical realism and it feels like a beautiful love letter to New York. So excellent!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Xenophobia, and Homophobia
Minor: Abortion and Adult/minor relationship
The author credits a lot of sensitivity readers who helped review the book prior to publication.
More...