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breadwitchery's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Xenophobia, Racism, Transphobia, and Homophobia
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, and Violence
Minor: Police brutality, Cursing, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Cancer, Alcoholism, and Abortion
artemisg's review against another edition
adventurous
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? No
3.5
Ok, this is a hot take, and I need you to hear me out, but this book would’ve been better as a tv show or movie. I know, a borderline blasphemous opinion, but I just think this would’ve worked better as a visual medium - still a good book but not my favourite of Jemisin’s works.
This book follows five New Yorkers as they transform into human manifestations of the boroughs of New York. The city of New York is being born - like thousands of cities before it- but something is different this time, and it’s not just the five avatars to the average city’s one. The Enemy is more powerful, the people are more problematic, and the rag-tag group of New Yorkers need to work together, despite their biases against one another, etc. Now, I love a rag-tag group forced together because of a common goal, this goal was just really confusing, and none of the group members were particularly loveable.
Everything was a bit too on the nose for me, and I found a typo. Please, put your books through several rounds of editing before publishing them without a necessary quotation mark. I will admit that one typo does not make a book drop several stars, but it made me wonder how thoroughly this book was vetted before publishing.
Jemisin is a great writer, but this book didn’t quite hit the spot for me. Maybe that’s because I’m from New Zealand and have literally no connections to New York City (let alone any influential city). Maybe, the world just wasn’t built out enough for me. A lot of the lore was confusing and wishy-washy, and I think Jemisin tried to add that to the story (having the characters not know wanting alongside the readers). However, even once a character got info dumped on, I still struggled to understand some of the history and lore. It’s a wonderful idea and has the potential to be a great world, but I think it just needed some refining.
Also, not a fan of the Uncensored Use of Slurs that Jemisin cannot reclaim (ch*nk).
((As an aside, maybe the bar for Magical Avatars of New York City has just been placed really high due to my love of The Unsleeping City, everyone go watch that.))
This book follows five New Yorkers as they transform into human manifestations of the boroughs of New York. The city of New York is being born - like thousands of cities before it- but something is different this time, and it’s not just the five avatars to the average city’s one. The Enemy is more powerful, the people are more problematic, and the rag-tag group of New Yorkers need to work together, despite their biases against one another, etc. Now, I love a rag-tag group forced together because of a common goal, this goal was just really confusing, and none of the group members were particularly loveable.
Everything was a bit too on the nose for me, and I found a typo. Please, put your books through several rounds of editing before publishing them without a necessary quotation mark. I will admit that one typo does not make a book drop several stars, but it made me wonder how thoroughly this book was vetted before publishing.
Jemisin is a great writer, but this book didn’t quite hit the spot for me. Maybe that’s because I’m from New Zealand and have literally no connections to New York City (let alone any influential city). Maybe, the world just wasn’t built out enough for me. A lot of the lore was confusing and wishy-washy, and I think Jemisin tried to add that to the story (having the characters not know wanting alongside the readers). However, even once a character got info dumped on, I still struggled to understand some of the history and lore. It’s a wonderful idea and has the potential to be a great world, but I think it just needed some refining.
Also, not a fan of the Uncensored Use of Slurs that Jemisin cannot reclaim (ch*nk).
((As an aside, maybe the bar for Magical Avatars of New York City has just been placed really high due to my love of The Unsleeping City, everyone go watch that.))
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
Moderate: Transphobia, Xenophobia, Homophobia, and Racism
madelinedalton's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I am not a huge fan of fantasy—my favorite genres are contemporary fiction, literary fiction, and romance—but I decided to challenge myself and try something new. This book appealed to me because the fantasy is rooted in the real world. I live in NYC and love it here, so I figured this would pull me in. I was right—the concept did pull me in and I didn’t hate the fantasy elements! This book also has excellent representation on every single front. I am very glad this book exists and think it sets a really high standard that other authors need to strive to meet.
HOWEVER, I was not a fan of the pacing and structure of this book. Maybe this is because fantasy novels need more exposition and tend to be long; I’m not sure. The first 200 pages felt like almost entirely exposition to me and I was really wondering where the story was headed. By the time the action started to rise, I didn’t care enough about what was happening and felt like I had to slog through the book.
I was on board with most of the suspension of disbelief and convenience that some of the fantastical elements required, but sometimes it seemed like a bit of a cop-out to make the story move along. There were also loose threads that didn’t get tied up (I’m assuming they’ll be addressed in book #2).
HOWEVER, I was not a fan of the pacing and structure of this book. Maybe this is because fantasy novels need more exposition and tend to be long; I’m not sure. The first 200 pages felt like almost entirely exposition to me and I was really wondering where the story was headed. By the time the action started to rise, I didn’t care enough about what was happening and felt like I had to slog through the book.
I was on board with most of the suspension of disbelief and convenience that some of the fantastical elements required, but sometimes it seemed like a bit of a cop-out to make the story move along. There were also loose threads that didn’t get tied up (I’m assuming they’ll be addressed in book #2).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia
ava_can_read's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- 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
i really wanted to like this book. i enjoyed the short story that eventualy became the prologue. and i loved the 'broken earth', even with its flaws. and 'how long till black future month' is one of my favourite short story collections by a single author. 'the city we became' is actually one of the only books –that isnt part of an established series– which i was anticipating for months and got right on release. and then i read it in under a week. you would think that means i liked it, but i know i'm not gonna be re-reading it (normally i always read books i like atleast three times). and i probably wont be reading the next books in the series.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual violence, Antisemitism, Colonisation, and Homophobia
Moderate: Transphobia
boneloose's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The City We Became is a book that explores the idea of cities growing to have such cultural significance and value that they become alive-- but the birthing process into a human avatar(s) is laborous and painful, and it takes a careful process to prevent an Enemy from turning it into a stillbirth. It truly was a love letter to New York that I don't think I was able to appreciate as much as a person who has never lived there, but that I can see being so lovely to read as someone from there. This is my first N.K. Jemisin and while I can see the acclaim in the ways she wrote the action scenes, the other parts of the book were honestly pretty disappointing and didn't hold up to what I expected from all the incredible things I've heard about her work. I'll still probably give The Broken Earth trilogy a go, but I was expecting a lot more than I got from this book in terms of the non-action scenes and the pacing.
The Good:
The action scenes as I said were so incredibly well-written! I've never had an easier time playing a movie in my head of what's going on while I read. A lot of the action-based scenes also read almost like fleshed out stage directions at times (in a good way). I think a screen adaptation of this would be incredibly fun to watch and not too difficult to accurately make.
The Bad:
The prose in non-action scenes was written in a way that was so personally grating I almost DNF-ed the book. Rather than letting atmosphere and tension build by trusting the reader to understand the shown character reactions and through writing choices, a lot of it was extremely dampened by a very heavy-handed "pointing out" of what the reader was supposed to glean.
A non-spoiler-y excerpt to illustrate what I mean:
The Good:
The action scenes as I said were so incredibly well-written! I've never had an easier time playing a movie in my head of what's going on while I read. A lot of the action-based scenes also read almost like fleshed out stage directions at times (in a good way). I think a screen adaptation of this would be incredibly fun to watch and not too difficult to accurately make.
The Bad:
The prose in non-action scenes was written in a way that was so personally grating I almost DNF-ed the book. Rather than letting atmosphere and tension build by trusting the reader to understand the shown character reactions and through writing choices, a lot of it was extremely dampened by a very heavy-handed "pointing out" of what the reader was supposed to glean.
A non-spoiler-y excerpt to illustrate what I mean:
"The white things came off of that woman when I got rid of the others," Brooklyn says. She's hiding it well, but her confident facade has slipped a little at the sight of the dog. The dog makes this something insidious, and ominous.
The paragraphs leading up to this excerpt showing the characters' reactions to the dog, and the way the sighting of the dog was framed in the prose made it incredibly clear that the dog marked the situation as particularly insiduous and ominous. This kind of thing was spelled out like this several different times in non-action scenes. Even just removing that sentence overtly explaining it would have made the tone a lot more tense. It was frustrating reading a book aimed at adults that didn't trust its audience to piece together the tone we were supposed to gather. Other ways the book was particularly heavy-handed included characters pointing out in dialogue several different times that what was happening "sure seemed Lovecraftian!". Like, maybe have someone point it out once, but I think it happened at minimum 6 or 7 times.
Also, while I loved most of the action scenes, the climax disappointed me a lot. It was ramping up so much and so intensely over 100 pages or so only for the actual climactic battle to wrap up in about a page and a half. Also, the particular thing that the characters are figuring out how to do for pretty much the entire novel literally happens off screen! We flash forward in the last chapter and it's happened, but I don't understand why there would be so much intense focus on making it happen to not even depict it directly. Also, the ending was less concrete than I expected it to me, but that's on me for not realizing this was the first book in a series rather than a standalone. Even so, this type of ending felt almost worst than a cliffhanger. The tension was ramping up so much that I read the most tense 80 or so pages in that frantically page-turning way only for it to just... fizzle out with no real gratifying Final Battle. The complete 180 from "incredibly high stakes rising action" to "flash forward 3 weeks where everything was fine" with only a page or two in between of the characters Fully Fighting was really jarring and made the ending pretty unsatisfying in a way that I don't think reading the sequel would resolve.
Also, I really wasn't a fan of the at times almost out of nowhere graphic descriptions of genitalia that happened two or three different times throughout the book. I also don't think the attempted rape needed to be nearly as graphic as it was (chapter where the staten island avatar goes out to her pool/backyard and interacts with the person sleeping on the lounge chair; around page 270 in the US hardback edition). I can see how having it as an event informed the actions of the character later in the book, but definitely feel that how overtly it was described didn't lend much more than shock value to the plot.
All in all, the concept was incredibly intriguing but the overall execution left a lot to be desired for me. I think it would work really well as a movie with how vivid the imagery in the action scenes were, but I don't think it worked as well as a novel. That type of tapering off at the end is something I'm more forgiving of when there's a roughly 2 hour screen time to keep to but is a lot more frustrating when the author could have easily added another 20 or 50 or even 100 pages to flesh it out more thoroughly. Definitely won't reread it and I don't think I'll continue with the series, but I might watch a screen adaptation depending on what scenes make the final cut.
Also, while I loved most of the action scenes, the climax disappointed me a lot. It was ramping up so much and so intensely over 100 pages or so only for the actual climactic battle to wrap up in about a page and a half. Also, the particular thing that the characters are figuring out how to do for pretty much the entire novel literally happens off screen! We flash forward in the last chapter and it's happened, but I don't understand why there would be so much intense focus on making it happen to not even depict it directly. Also, the ending was less concrete than I expected it to me, but that's on me for not realizing this was the first book in a series rather than a standalone. Even so, this type of ending felt almost worst than a cliffhanger. The tension was ramping up so much that I read the most tense 80 or so pages in that frantically page-turning way only for it to just... fizzle out with no real gratifying Final Battle. The complete 180 from "incredibly high stakes rising action" to "flash forward 3 weeks where everything was fine" with only a page or two in between of the characters Fully Fighting was really jarring and made the ending pretty unsatisfying in a way that I don't think reading the sequel would resolve.
Also, I really wasn't a fan of the at times almost out of nowhere graphic descriptions of genitalia that happened two or three different times throughout the book. I also don't think the attempted rape needed to be nearly as graphic as it was (chapter where the staten island avatar goes out to her pool/backyard and interacts with the person sleeping on the lounge chair; around page 270 in the US hardback edition). I can see how having it as an event informed the actions of the character later in the book, but definitely feel that how overtly it was described didn't lend much more than shock value to the plot.
All in all, the concept was incredibly intriguing but the overall execution left a lot to be desired for me. I think it would work really well as a movie with how vivid the imagery in the action scenes were, but I don't think it worked as well as a novel. That type of tapering off at the end is something I'm more forgiving of when there's a roughly 2 hour screen time to keep to but is a lot more frustrating when the author could have easily added another 20 or 50 or even 100 pages to flesh it out more thoroughly. Definitely won't reread it and I don't think I'll continue with the series, but I might watch a screen adaptation depending on what scenes make the final cut.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Homophobia, Antisemitism, and Sexism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Addiction, and Transphobia
voxelbee's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
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
jazhandz's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Cursing, and Racism
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Racial slurs
Minor: Lesbophobia and Transphobia
laurenkimoto's review
adventurous
mysterious
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
4.25
As per usual some disjointed thoughts about this book
- Amazing cover: the matte city scape with the shiny tentacles and colour detailing ties in so nicely to the story *chef kiss* The person who designed the cover deserves an award
- Chapter titles really should make a comeback
- We love some reluctant heroes who really just want to say to hell with saving the world just let me live my life in peace
- I am a fool I did not realize this was part of a series and now I’m sitting here waiting for the next book :(
- The petty book hill I will die on is that short chapters are superior to long chapters
- This is different than other fantasy books partially because it’s urban fantasy but also because the first half of the book the characters don’t know what’s going on so you don’t know what’s going on. Jemisin doesn’t info dump or use a naive character at the start to explain this world but rather you learn as the characters learn which I find is a fresh take.
- This book has the most diverse set of characters I have ever come across and it does so without any “token” characters because their identity and diversity is tied in to who/what they are. With this comes addressing so many timely and everlasting issues and Jemisin does so without sacrificing plot, pacing or anything else.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Racism, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Abortion, Body shaming, Addiction, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Rape, Transphobia, Bullying, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Biphobia, Classism, and Violence
thebakerbookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
5.0
It's been a while since I've read a fantasy book that felt so unique and creative and imaginative—but that's exactly what this book was. The world that the author has created here looks a lot like our world, but expanded, and I loved it.
Our characters are introduced to us slowly and without much explanation; we figure out what's happening to them at the same time they do. So there's a fair amount of confusion at the beginning but things start to become clear and we do know more than the characters in that we know they are the embodiment of each of the boroughs—but that's about all we know at first. I loved all of the word play happening in this book—from the character names to the chapter titles, it was making me smile the whole time.
The plot was also intriguing. From the prologue, it moves at a steady pace, and an imminent threat and danger is clear. The ending doesn't end on a cliffhanger but things are definitely not resolved, and I am very anxious for book two!
This book is very New York and if you have any love for the city, you'll enjoy reading it. If you've lived in NYC at all, you'll recognize a lot more references in this book than I probably did. I can't wait to see where this story goes, because honestly the things you could do with the concept of cities as people...I just love a unique fantasy story!
Our characters are introduced to us slowly and without much explanation; we figure out what's happening to them at the same time they do. So there's a fair amount of confusion at the beginning but things start to become clear and we do know more than the characters in that we know they are the embodiment of each of the boroughs—but that's about all we know at first. I loved all of the word play happening in this book—from the character names to the chapter titles, it was making me smile the whole time.
The plot was also intriguing. From the prologue, it moves at a steady pace, and an imminent threat and danger is clear. The ending doesn't end on a cliffhanger but things are definitely not resolved, and I am very anxious for book two!
This book is very New York and if you have any love for the city, you'll enjoy reading it. If you've lived in NYC at all, you'll recognize a lot more references in this book than I probably did. I can't wait to see where this story goes, because honestly the things you could do with the concept of cities as people...I just love a unique fantasy story!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing and Racism
Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Sexual assault
Minor: Cancer, Transphobia, and Abortion
annayareads's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Lesbophobia
Minor: Rape, Antisemitism, and Transphobia