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martinatan's review
- 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 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
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
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.
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Racism, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Ableism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Addiction, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Transphobia, War, Cursing, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Abortion, Alcohol, and Cannibalism
leannanecdote's review
- 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
Graphic: Sexism, Antisemitism, Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Misogyny, Classism, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Racism, and Homophobia
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Drug use, Child abuse, and Police brutality
Minor: Miscarriage, Cancer, and Abortion
kirstenf's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Death, Police brutality, Genocide, and Racism
Moderate: Colonisation, Ableism, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Xenophobia, Sexism, Alcohol, Cursing, and Domestic abuse
toyin_'s review
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Xenophobia, Body horror, Sexual harassment, Classism, Racism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Eating disorder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Antisemitism, Police brutality, Misogyny, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism
ava_can_read's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
it has some pacing issues, it's both to slow and too fast. 'the city unborn' felt like a wholly self-contained story and was a satisfying read. and it had all the exposition needed to carry this premise for a whole series. this book says no actually it's just a prologue. and then the whole book feels like a prologue and exposition dump. it would have left me waiting for more, if the book was better.
however my main gripe is, that for a story that is so heavily about who makes up nyc (and its culture) and, very obviously cares about representation, it is missing jews and trans women. having only one minor jewish character - who is only there to be antisemiticly harrassed and threatened -and no trans femmes is just really fucking disappointing. and inaccurate. Jemisin's New York doesn't need an alien enemy (more on that in a minute), to be a distopia. It already is. A city that is so heavily influenced by jewish people and jewish culture can't be so devoid of jews in it's representatives, without some sort of antisemitic catastrophe happening before the events of the book. similiarly for trans women: all my friends who have lived in, or visited nyc, tell me how different it is compared to the other places they have been. we actually have community there. so much important trans history has happened there. but nyc in this book doesn't have any trans character, besides one british guy who just moved there. to me that kinda implies some really, really bad shit must have happened to make one of the most hypervisible groups of people – who shape so much of what new york is and means to people – completly absent from this narrative.
the next main problem i have is: i don't like the whole white tendrils/the enemy makes you more violent and racist thing. it just doesn't work as an explanation for how people will act as agents of white surpremacy, seemingly on command. taking away their agency by making them influenced by a lovecraftian evil makes it appear as if they wouldn't act exactly the same without it. which, you know, is bad.
i am disappointed because i love genius loci. the world jemisin is building is really awesome. the concepts and ideas are so strong (and cool), but the execution is lacking. one of the reasons i am writing this review, is because over 2 years after reading this book once, i still think about it. i wonder what berlin looks like in it's universe and I have almost written an unhinged fanfic about it before. but everytime i think about this i also remember how disappointing the actual novel was. and until writing this, i forgot it was supposed to be a series, even though it only exists to set up the "great citys series", or whatever.
I'll give it 3 Stars, one for the worldbuilding, one for Bronca and Veneza – who might make me pick up the next books after all – and one for the handful of memorable scenes.
ps: jemisin is still bad at writing trans people. and it's so weird. cos her trans characters feel like real people – and i actually really love Tonkee from broken earth, one of the girls of all time – but then immediatly jemisin uses some tired old trope. it's disappointing.
pps: also i really dislike the thing the primary and manny have? are gonna have? yeah. it feels forced and the power dynamics and selfcesty vibe are a big yikes.
Graphic: Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual violence, Antisemitism, Colonisation, and Homophobia
Moderate: Transphobia
keegan_leech's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
That said, I was a little disappointed by the novel. It felt a little unfinished. I understand that this is the first in a series, but it felt like to many plot threads were left hanging. And rather than feeling drawn into the sequel, I just felt unsatisfied. The novel also doesn't manage to overcome the feeling that it is a novel for New Yorkers, and not really anyone else. Which isn't a bad thing, I certainly learned a lot about New York, but I don't think it resonated as strongly as it would have if I actually knew the city.
Moderate: Racism and Sexual assault
Minor: Homophobia, Colonisation, Gaslighting, and Panic attacks/disorders
voxelbee's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Body horror, Sexual violence, Classism, Sexual assault, Sexism, Racism, Misogyny, Death, Xenophobia, Violence, Hate crime, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Blood, Cancer, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol
franklola's review
- 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
4.0
Moderate: Bullying, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Violence, Misogyny, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment
books_of_aly's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Classism, Homophobia, Colonisation, Racism, Racial slurs, and Antisemitism
sarah984's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I did like the idea behind how the antagonist’s plan worked, and using white and light colours as something dangerous. Unfortunately, the one interesting city formation concept is dropped almost immediately after it comes up and the ending didn't make any sense with what was already established.
I feel like the author could have saved me a few hours of reading time by just typing up a Tumblr post about how much she hates Staten Island and leaving it at that.
Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, and Antisemitism
Minor: Car accident, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, Islamophobia, Police brutality, Stalking, Cancer, Cannibalism, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Mental illness