Reviews tagging 'Death'

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

16 reviews

kathleencoughlin's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I generally like N.K. Jemisin's work. Like her other series, The City We Became is a mature speculative fiction story with diverse characters who are used interestingly rather than as tokens. I will say this isn't my favorite work of hers. I feel like, even at the end, I still don't really understand how the whole instantiation thing works. Regardless, I enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, and Misogyny

Minor: Sexual assault and Colonisation

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

5.0

Jemisin does it again! As a New Yorker, this pleased me greatly, but even objectively this is an enjoyable as hell read. Everything you love about Jemisin’s work is here: genuinely innovative fantasy, an extremely lovable and interesting ensemble cast, fantastic worldbuilding, pump-your-first-in-the-air awesome moments, and more! I’m eager for the next installments in this series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Body horror, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

Moderate: Sexual content and Violence

troisha's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia

Moderate: Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Body horror

Minor: Ableism, Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Violence

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny informative tense slow-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

This book was really inventive and interesting. I read the short story that formed the base of this novel, and I like the way it was expanded. I have never read a book with a Lenape character, and  it is so important that one was included. This was beautifully diverse and funny overall.

It was also super intense. The white supremacist groups and individuals mobilized by the enemy hit very close to home. I also observe that the book was clearly in conversation with Lovecraft. The ending was

definitely a deus ex machina, but I still liked it. I just hope there isn’t a contingent trying to have a redemption arc for Aislyn but I mean cmon there probably is one isn’t there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Antisemitism, Xenophobia, Transphobia, and Body horror

Moderate: Genocide

Minor: Sexual violence, Rape, Ableism, Miscarriage, Abortion, and Slavery

katie_the_librarian's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Murder, and Car accident

Minor: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Slavery, and Xenophobia

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The City We Became fits a lot of sff into a place big enough to handle it. I loved the boroughs as people and the conclusion left me wanting more. It makes NYC feel ordinary and epic at the same time; a glimpse of how much someone loves this place I've never seen. 

I don't have great sense of place or home but this book made me feel how much someone can care for a space, for a city. I loved that experience, this book felt really good to read. The characters are vibrant and distinct from one another, and I was really engaged with the story once it got going. As I neared the end, though, I kept checking to see if there were really that few pages left. This is book one of a trilogy, and some really cool things happen in the resolution of this part of the story, but my main complaint is that book two isn't here already. 

As for pacing, it starts out kind of slow; there's a lot of characters to introduce and so when the large cast was combined with an air of mystery (for some of them) it took me a little bit to get into it. I connected with one of them right away and then used that to slowly get the whole picture. At least part of that feeling is I've never been to New York, and so when some of the initial characterization is built on how much different characters embody parts of the city it meant I was learning the boroughs and the people instead of just learning new characters. That being said, I read the last 60% of the book in an afternoon, once I got into it I didn't want to put it down. Books don't have to create that urgency in order to be good, but I like how this one pulled me in. 

I feel very invested in this world and I definitely want to know what happens next. This is a story that needs to be continued, so it's very good that it's the start of a trilogy.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Racism

CW for discussion of large-scale disasters, racism, xenophobia, death.