Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - The City We Became

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

147 reviews

dawntin's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

This book was not for me. The book’s message was good but heavy-handed. Each character was introduced with the traits that made them special (race, ethnicity, sexuality, occupation, etc.) and they all had superpowers, due to being the avatars of major cities. There were also pop culture references and snappy dialogue. This was cool and all, but I felt like the author tried way too hard to be quirky and inadvertently ended up playing into some stereotypes in the process of making these super-quirky diverse characters. Like, did the main Indian character really need to have

math-related

superpowers? Additionally, the avatar of Hong Kong literally being named Hong Kong and his accent being described as “Chinese-inflected British English” was straight up weird. The Black characters were fine though, maybe because the author is Black herself. Pacing was weird and the book wrapped everything up in like the last 20 pages. It felt like there was so much build-up before they saved the day, and when they did, I wasn’t even sure what was happening.

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book_gremlin42's review

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adventurous 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? It's complicated

5.0

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artemis7's review

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adventurous mysterious reflective tense 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

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kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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? No

4.0

This is one of the coolest books I've ever read.

It's so unique and innovative. The way Jemisin personified each borough of NYC was brilliant. The writing is descriptive and the world building is excellent, bringing each borough and character to life in this metaphor for gentrification. Each avatar had a separate and distinct voice from one another, and it's hard to choose a favorite (although the least favorite is obvious 😂 IYKYK).

Although I've never lived in the city, it's just a train ride away, so I'm sure it helps having experience with NYC and understanding the references. But if you've never been here, you can still enjoy the book for sure. The connections to the city are just a bonus for us New Yorkers.

This was just so damn cool and N.K. Jemisin is a genius and I need to get my hands on book two immediately.

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heini's review against another edition

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dark hopeful medium-paced

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

Suomennos oli hämmentävä. Ehkä ne ovat tyylikeinoja tai en vain ymmärtänyt, mutta lukukokemusta haittaa, kun jatkuvasti ilmaisut särähtävät korvaan. Puhutaan jonkun ensimmäisestä rodeosta; henkilö, jota alkuperäisteoksessa kuvaillaan ja nimitetään sanoilla 'strawberry blond man-bun' suomennetaan mansikanvaaleaksi hipster sämpyläksi; yleinen kirosana on paskapökäle ja joku on hullumpi kuin lepakonpaska (batshit crazy?).

Itse kirjasta: Seuraamme New York Cityn kaupunginosien ihmisavatareja, jotka ilmentävät suurkaupungin monimuotoisuutta.
Hahmot olivat mukavan ristiriitaisia ja oli mielenkiintoista, kuinka välillä ihmisen kauheista piirteistä tuli ominaisia ja "hyödyllisiä", osa tarvittavaa kokonaisuutta.
Tarina oli värikkäiden kertojiensa vuoksi hauska ja myös sivuhenkilöt olivat huippuja,

(eräs lempparihahmoni oli perinteisen Checker-taksin kuljettaja Madison, tosin luultavasti siksi, että kuvittelin hänet Roundabout-pelin Georgioksi ("the worlds first revolving limousine driver"). Heillä oli samanlaista hällä-väliä ja auttamisen asennetta.

Valkoinen ja kirkkaus oli pahuuden ilmikuva, mikä on tietysti myös käänteinen kerrontaperinteen musta/pimeys=paha logiikalle, jota on ihonväriinkin sovellettu.
Kirjan yksi ydinkuvaus on, kuinka ennakkoluulot ja oletukset tuhoavat meitä (yksilöitä, yhteisöjä, yhteiskuntia) sisältä päin ja vain ruokkivat yhteisiä vihollisiamme.

Pelko, että ihmisyys tuhotaan kosmisessa maailmojen sodassa / pelko, joka syntyy kaikesta siitä "normaalista" tai normaaliksi hyväksystä (kauheista ja epämukavista asioista), jota arkemme ihmisinä ihmisten keskellä on.

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mementomoriiv's review

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Jemisin has a fascinating twist on issues of xenophobia and the recent upsurge of the alt right and men's rights movement. It's cleverly written and keeps the reader's interest throughout the text. I look forward to the sequels!

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kayberlyn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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takarakei's review

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adventurous mysterious 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

4.5

First of all - I read this in combination with the audiobook - which is FANTASTIC! Absolutely phenomenal narration AND sound design/effects, it was almost like listening to a graphic audio dramatized version! So I can't recommend the audiobook enough (especially if you are someone who listens to SFF audio). Although I will note it was helpful to be reading along at parts due to the effects.

Now could I explain the dynamics of all that happens in this book? Absolutely not, it's one of those books where you just have to accept the concepts that are being presented to you without a lot of questioning. I mean, people becoming the embodiment of cities? weird concept. You just gotta go with it! Along the way you'll get discussions of race, art, and what it means to "belong" to a place.

If you're a NYC area person I def think this is an interesting read! Very NYC-prideful. I personally am NOT from NYC or know all that much about it, so I couldn't pick up on if there were any inaccuracies in any way, but Jemisin has lived there for a long time and did a lot of research so I trust that she got it right. I really enjoyed all the little history bits of information thrown in about the city.

There's no one out there really writing SFF like Jemisin, and I am very excited to continue with this series.

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salemander's review

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5.0

i really didn’t know if i was gonna like this one but nk jemisin DOES NOT MISS !!! this was such a fun and cheesy and action packed read and the audiobook was a whole theatrical production! this gave me the same feeling as reading percy jackson and american gods did when i was a kid, on the edge of my seat half the time and laughing the other half. and the characters are just so loveable and fully formed, what’s not to love!

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itsame_dio's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

I liked it but:

- The chapters were sooo long, I listened to the audiobook and every chapter was at least an hour. It made me feel like I wasn't making any progress in the book, so it was tough for me to stick with it.

- Could be a dealbreaker for you: there's so much racism, and its VERY prominent (one of the POV characters is a racist) so if that's too much for you don't read this book. It was kinda of off-putting for me (a Black Woman), I don't feel like a lot of reviews addressed this. I don't feel like it was put in there willy nilly tho, it was very purposeful.

- Nothing really happened,

they each experience something weird happen earlier that day, half of them meet up, then the next day they meet another one, come up with a plan (that doesn't work), they meet "the heart" then they have the "final battle" and that's the end

the plot literally happens over 2 days max and it's mostly them running around confused.

- The ending was anti-climatic

- The sound effects seemed to be thrown in at random

- The narrator has a beautiful voice but the accent she uses for some of the characters sound like the accent I do when I make fun of New Yorkers so I couldn't take it seriously lol

- It throws me off that New York would be the first city to become like this in the US, there's a lot of distinct cities in the US so if anything I would think New York would maybe the oldest or the most intense but the only??? IDK about that

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