Reviews

I wanna be an avatar for my city too...... seriously, this book has one of the best concepts I've ever read and THE best audiobook narration I've ever heard!! I'm giving it 3.5 stars mainly because I thought the story was very repetitive with the process of meeting each burough and having them fight the enemy individually.. it took so long for them to come together that honestly it grew a bit tiresome. But this book is soo fascinating!! AND I LOVE YOU SÃO PAULO I LOVE YOUUUUU

stephaniesteen73's review against another edition

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5.0

Fantasy is never my genre of choice, which makes my glowing endorsement of this book all the more supportive! Such an interesting concept, very readable, with strong, complex and powerful non-white lead characters. A love letter to New York City.

elizabethfisher's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm in awe of the complex and compelling story that Jemisin was able to construct in this book. While I had trouble staying focused on the story while reading (probably more my own issue than the book's), I still think this was a great read full of intrigue. Jemisin also flawlessly weaves in deeper social issues while also keeping the plot moving forward at an impressive pace.

dreaming_ace's review against another edition

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5.0

This is rich, juicy, story of a city finding its way and becoming a living creature. A story about the importance of heritage and history and roots. A story, about what it means to be a city. I really enjoyed this book, and look forward to future volumes, and found even I who never really liked NYC (I like some of the people and Broadway etc. but the times I have visited it has always been too NYC, I did not have the needed decoder ring, and I was never there long enough to get one) to feel the power and purpose of the city.

destinyandpaper's review against another edition

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4.5

The characters were gorgeously written, flawed and in depth. The author does anger and passion really well and showed it in each character, the "caring for their city more than everything, and would burn down everything else for it" vibe.

The world building was intricately written, but still made easy to understand. I found it really interesting how the avatars ended up inhabiting certain parts of the whole of the city.

(eg. Hating Stalen Island, having the personalities of the cities)

I loved the plot, and this book made me yearn to travel.

I enjoyed reading about Staten Island/Aislyn and felt the most connected to her, surprisingly.

Her actions might have been horrible and xenophobic as hell, but I also felt sorry for her? I'm mainly disappointed in her because I wanted so much for her to be better and push back against the ideals she was taught. But...she didn't.

The ending felt anti-climatic, however. I was looking forward to this big dramatic fight, and it ended up lasting a single page. The plot twist was interesting but I wasn't attached too much.

The prose was fantastic, and it let me fully connect with the story. Every time I picked this up, it felt like I was in a different world. There was one thing that drew me out, which might have just been a printing error on page 389.

"...you make an ass of u and me."

It was most likely a printing error, but I was so confused about it.

prettypious's review against another edition

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5.0

It was even better the second time around because I missed a lot from the first read. 10/5/22-10/7/22

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