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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
To distract himself, he considers the Black woman and guesses, “Queens?”
She gives him such a disgusted look that he immediately amends, “Brooklyn.”
Hm! 2.5 stars rounded up, although I so desperately wanted to like this more than I did, because I'm a huge fan of N.K. Jemisin via her Broken Earth trilogy. This book seemed like it should've been up my alley: a Lovecraftian revision centered on the living personification of New York City fighting eldritch horrors. I'm categorising it on my othercities shelf alongside things like Neil Gaiman's [b:Neverwhere|14497|Neverwhere (London Below, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348747943l/14497._SX50_.jpg|16534] or China Miéville's [b:Un Lun Dun|68496|Un Lun Dun|China Miéville|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1170692699l/68496._SY75_.jpg|2959401], because although it's not exactly dark mirrorverse versions of cities, it does tap into this feeling of a secret underbelly and alternate versions of cities all around the world: cities turned anthropomorphic, living avatars and the condensed identity of its culture. I actually wanted to see so much more from the international cities, like Paris and Hong Kong and London.
The good:
• This is a love letter to New York, with lots of sweet authentic touches to the diversity and grubby scrappiness of the city itself; seen from the ground up, from the eyes of scrappy immigrants and poor students and people of colour.
• I always enjoy some modern, diverse takedowns of Lovecraft, along the lines of work by Victor LaValle or Kij Johnson or Ruthanna Emrys. (I am really, really appreciating this recentish wave of authors just going "fuck you, Lovecraft", tbh.)
• Everything about Staten Island is great. It is... maybe a little weird that the racist white character is the one I liked the best of the whole lot, but she actually had the most depth and interesting facets to her character, rather than just being a blank template on which to imprint stereotypes of the city. I felt so deeply for her upbringing, her grappling with her abusive closed-minded father, her complicated and touching relationship with her mother. I was rooting for her the most out of anyone here.
• Manhattan is probably my second-favourite character, mostly for his darker edges, his contained violence and his desire to do better and be better than his uglier sides. (And maybe, also, he reminds me a bit of Shadow in [b:American Gods|30165203|American Gods (American Gods, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1462924585l/30165203._SY75_.jpg|1970226], for his ambiguous mixed appearance that throws everyone for a loop when they see him.) And that actually ties into other American Gods-ish things I liked about this book: the talismanic power of belief, of taxi cabs and capitalism and home-cooked food.
The bad:
• The whole book feels so forced and tryhard??
At least personally, part of what being a New Yorker means is that I am also deeply embarrassed by content that is way too chest-thumping "rah rah, New York, we're the greatest fucking city in the world!!". Some parts of this book really ring true and got me in my heart, but it was the minority; most of it instead felt like... yes, we know we're awesome, but it's tacky to point that out? In terms of culture, I also just don't feel like NYC really needs this treatment. It's already glorified in pretty much every movie and TV show and song, it already occupies such a massive outsize part of pop culture — rubbing it in even further just feels a little obnoxious and unnecessary.
(Like, I know this is impossible because Jemisin has lived in NYC and not these other cities, but honestly, I'd have loved to see this sort of 'in-depth city identity' explored for Paris or New Orleans or Tokyo or something.)
• I also truly hate saying this because I appreciate more diversity in fiction, but this is the first time in Jemisin's writing that it's felt forced. Things like Bel, the sassy Asian trans roommate, who appears in one scene and then... literally never appears again, just feels like an unnecessary throwaway character. He artificially spills his life story into casual conversation to someone he's literally never met before, in a way that feels like it's just ticking off the diversity checklist without actually making this a real character.
• Relatedly, characters' speeches often didn't feel like real dialogue, but instead just overly-self-aware woke speechifying. Although a lot of people loved this book, I was relieved to see I wasn't the only one bothered by this. It's all about as subtle as a freight truck.
• Because so much of the main characters is focused on them becoming the city's 'avatars', it means that they don't really feel like real living breathing people to me. You're told things about them, but apart from Staten Island, I just never clicked with them or cared about them as people. Jemisin is juggling so much Big Picture™ stuff with the symbolism and ~meaning~ behind each borough, that I don't think she got to spend enough time on the small-picture character-building (except for, again, the aforementioned Staten Island, who did get fleshed out). Like, Queens is so desperately underdeveloped, I feel like we barely spend any time with her or hear from her at all.
• There is SO MUCH exposition and clumsy info-dumping. It's pretty much never organic: you are always getting literal magical brain-dumps of information and characters just Magically Knowing Things about the worldbuilding, and then sitting around explaining those details to the characters around them. This keeps happening over and over and over and over, which got so tiresome.
All in all, it's all just so unsubtle. Like, "Starbucks and other chain stores are a personification of Evil™" makes for a funny scene where they're fleeing various demonic Starbucks, but... it's also just not a particularly groundbreaking idea? Ha ha we all hate Starbucks!
Sigh. Anyway. I wanted to love this so much more than I did. I'll keep on with the series when the next one comes out, in the hopes that the characterisations have more time to be fleshed-out now that we've been introduced to everybody, but I'm definitely not in love with this like I was with [b:The Fifth Season|19161852|The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1)|N.K. Jemisin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386803701l/19161852._SY75_.jpg|26115977].
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
I really did enjoy this a lot and it was a very quick read for me. There is so much I always love, like urban fantasy, diverse casts, and deep science-fictiony fantasy lore. But the characters are where this book truly shines. They are amazingly well drawn out, all of them feel so real! It's a joy.
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
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
tense
fast-paced
The beginning was confusing and too much for me (I think it is a stand alone short story?). After that the book falls into a more novel-like cadence. It was full of fantasy, but reflects modern issues. Beautiful descriptive writing and very entertaining. I wish I would have waited until the subsequent books in the series were out to read this.
adventurous
mysterious
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:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Didn’t love the writing style, might try as an audiobook sometime but after looking at some reviews I’m gonna skip it and move on to the fifth season
This was an audio book I got thru libby and really enjoyed both the book and performance. Really inclusive cast of characters, from what one might expect from a metropolis and place full of people from all around the world. Anyways, their origins and lives really add to the plot and story, and personalities come alive and distinct. Tell me what y'all think!
adventurous
dark
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:
Complicated