Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - The City & the City

This is a somewhat-good book which I deeply disliked. It's about power and control over people in a very bizarre Orwellian way: just call "Breach" a "Big Brother [Is] Watching You." (I started rooting for the unificationists and "breaching" foreigners and locals.) It's well-written, but the main themes are depressing. Without spoiling the ending with specifics, I will say the ending is unsatisfying and frustrating (to me, personally). There's little to no character development, and the protagonist stays in his box. Seeing and "unseeing" are large-scale brainwashing upon the population(s) and any visitors (who must complete "trainings" before being allowed entry to either city-state). I couldn't believe the level of acceptance and adherence to their rules or understand why it all matters, other than to control and isolate people - and, possibly, to get away with murder.

Content Warnings

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious

4.0

Content Warnings

runefactories's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

Content Warnings

booitsnathalie's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Just wrapped it up. It's a very good detective novel though I think it's political allegory sort of falls apart by the end (or at least to the wayside). Lands in a disappointing ambiguity about the role of police and borders, seeing them as both fully artificial and hostile but also necessary because the alternative is total anarchy. I maybe expected something a bit more given Mielville's clear interest in leftist politics, but it was really closer to a Dan Brown novel but

where the conspiracy is actually just a sad man with something to prove.

Content Warnings

byrdies's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

booksthatburn's review

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

THE CITY & THE CITY is a detective story in a strange but non-magical setting which manages to feel as off-kilter and wondrous as some fantasy worlds, but without the level of vivid detail that would usually imply.

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.

Content Warnings

More...