Reviews with content warning for Abortion - The City We Became

I've always been in love with New York City so when I saw the cover for The City We Became and then read the blurb I knew instantly this was one I wanted to read. TCWB is a powerful and entertaining piece of urban speculative fiction/fantasy which takes multiple no holds barred punches at societies' issues leaving the reader with a lot to think about.

The world building and characterization are absolutely sensational. Jemisin's portrayal of each of the city's boroughs as humans with their own very unique personalities is absolutely spot on and so captivating and entertaining. It's hard not to be automatically drawn to some characters and then to take an immediate dislike to others. The people, culture and vibes of each individual borough are portrayed so well in their human form it's almost uncanny.

While I really enjoyed reading it and found it so hard to put it down, there were definitely sections where I did feel a little bit disconnected. Jemisin goes in hard repeatedly on so many issues such as prejudice, gentrification, racism, xenophobia and homophobia and while all her points raise fantastic questions for discussion at times due to the intensity and nature of her commentary it did become to feel a little preachy.

There's so much to unpack that I think maybe I would have enjoyed it more as a buddy read to have someone to bounce thoughts off of and to discuss themes with. However, overall I loved this book and its characters and I cannot to read The World We Make.

A captivating, gritty, speculative fantasy love letter to NYC with so much to discuss and ponder.

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martinatan's review

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adventurous lighthearted tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

I was intrigued by the premise but the execution was not entirely satisfying. I was mainly surprised by the conclusion of this book (the first of an upcoming trilogy), but it didn’t really delight me—I thought it was mildly clever.

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

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

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.

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leannanecdote's review

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adventurous challenging emotional 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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breadwitchery'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

4.0

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blewballoon's review

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funny inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

I read this with a couple friends as a sort of impromptu mini book club. I would recommend it for a book club as there are a lot of interesting concepts in terms of the fantasy and social commentary. As one of my friends put it, this book definitely goes by the idea that "subtlety is for cowards" and most of the social commentary is completely overt. Our group was mixed in how much they liked how heavy handed it was. Some found it refreshing, others found it broke immersion in the story. One of the characters, to me, was especially unbearable and I would groan when I got to her chapters. The fantasy aspect of the human avatars of cities was amazing and I loved the concept of using constructs to channel their power.

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laurenkimoto's review against another edition

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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? Yes

4.25

As per usual some disjointed thoughts about this book

Amazing cover: the matte city scape with the shiny tentacles and colour detailing ties in so nicely to the story *chef kiss* The person who designed the cover deserves an award
Chapter titles really should make a comeback
We love some reluctant heroes who really just want to say to hell with saving the world just let me live my life in peace
I am a fool I did not realize this was part of a series and now I’m sitting here waiting for the next book :(
The petty book hill I will die on is that short chapters are superior to long chapters
This is different than other fantasy books partially because it’s urban fantasy but also because the first half of the book the characters don’t know what’s going on so you don’t know what’s going on. Jemisin doesn’t info dump or use a naive character at the start to explain this world but rather you learn as the characters learn which I find is a fresh take.
This book has the most diverse set of characters I have ever come across and it does so without any “token” characters because their identity and diversity is tied in to who/what they are. With this comes addressing so many timely and everlasting issues and Jemisin does so without sacrificing plot, pacing or anything else.

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gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging inspiring tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I will admit I wasn't sure I was going to like this book, and with the first couple of chapters leaving me lost and confused, I was really not confident. I am pleased to be wrong about this.

This book will catch you right away with such a rich and unique cast, not only in design, but also in personalities, goals, fears, and struggles. I love how each character has a unique power to fight the "Woman in White". Each of them embody not only the borough they represent but also different minorities that can be over looked and harassed as the book touches on with each character. Each of them the boroughs are funny and loveable (well mainly) to read, the car scene in chapter 14 made me laugh.

As I was reading I thought this was a standalone book, when I learnt it wasn't I was so relieved as I has way too many questions. I want to know more about this world and its lore, how does everything work? What happened to Stranton Island? Both the island and the avatar? Will we see a redemption arc?
What are the other cities like? Do cities get a second chance? I just want to see more of these characters and I cannot wait.

I will say this book does take a couple of chapters to get into, so keep that in mind if you are wanting to read it. Once you do get past the confusing beginning, it is really easy to get sucked into the story and love the characters as they are introduced. You also get the appreciate how much the first couple of chapters have set up. I think the magical realism and soft sci-fi is also good for those readers that want to get into the sci-fi fantasy genres but are intimidated by what is out there already and are unsure if they will like it.

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Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

stormeno's review

immovabletype's review

jjstallone's review

travelseatsreads's review against another edition

martinatan's review

leannanecdote's review

breadwitchery's review

blewballoon's review

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition