Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

13 reviews

its_van_vulpen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Murder, Police brutality, and Sexual assault

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Confinement, and Genocide

chalkletters's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.0

I’ve heard a huge amount about N K Jemisin, so I was interested to finally read some of her writing. ‘What if cities were personified as people’ was intriguing, but didn’t give much of an idea what the plot was going to be, so I really didn’t know what to expect. 

I hadn’t realised that the city-people would have been normal people first, which was a really unexpected spin on things. I enjoyed reading about Padmini and Bronca and Brooklyn and Aislyn because they all had normal people lives, they didn’t just come into being as personification of New York’s four boroughs. Character is always the most important part of any book for me, and these characters felt alive and vibrant, even the ones who were standing in the way of what the others wanted to achieve. 

That said, the actual plot wasn’t really my cup of tea. I wasn’t expecting a multi-dimensional war, or Lovecraftian horrors, and neither is something I particularly look for in a book. I did enjoy the characters coming to work together, figuring out how to get to their goal, but the antagonist and the stakes were a little bigger and higher than I could appreciate. 

I enjoyed reading The City We Became, and it certainly made me think about things, so I’m looking forward to book club’s discussion. But I don’t know that I’ll seek out more books by N K Jemisin unless I encounter something where the premise seems more up my alley.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Bullying, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia

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