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hfrancesh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Murder and Xenophobia
Moderate: Violence and Police brutality
beanusminimus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Gun violence
evakonic's review against another edition
- 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? No
5.0
Minor: Murder, Violence, and War
lynxpardinus's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Police brutality, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Confinement, Cursing, Violence, Deportation, and Gun violence
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Car accident, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, War, Mass/school shootings, Blood, and Gaslighting
Minor: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Antisemitism, and Drug use
lowercasenospaces's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
analyticali's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Cursing and Violence
Moderate: Murder
ameliebir's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moderate: Violence
booksthatburn's review
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I love the immersive world-building in THE CITY & THE CITY. This was my second time reading it, and I caught the little hints that I didn't know how to place or didn't understand the importance of the first time I read it. The interplay between the city and the city is too interesting of a thing to spoil here, suffice it to say that there is a definite sense of place in the book. I appreciated the finicky bureaucracy and red tape bound up in this premise. It has a singular focus on the MC and his understanding of events as he tries to solve a woman's murder in his city. My one quibble is that it feels like the book shifts away from trying to solve her murder and becomes focused on the circumstances in a way that felt like it decreased the importance of her death. It was easy to forget by the end that this was a murder mystery and not just a story of political intricacies and border crossings. Part of that is because her death isn't the central mystery, really, she's a catalyst for the real story of this guy and his place in the cities. The MC cares about her death the whole time, to be clear, he just has to deal with a lot of other stuff. Between that and the choices over who dies and lives in the confrontation at the end, it did leave a bit of a sour taste for me in how the secondary characters were treated.
Moderate: Xenophobia, Gun violence, Violence, and Death
Minor: Racism, Antisemitism, and Drug use
CW for racism (minor), antisemitism (minor), drug use (not depicted), assault (not depicted), xenophobia, gun violence, violence, major character death, death.