A review by jarvvis
The City & The City by China Miéville

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

(Important note: it took me forever to read this and so I did not have the best experience. I was very busy, forgot and skimmed portions of this, so that was a big contributor to my feelings on this book. Take this with a grain of salt, I was incredibly distracted.)

• Too coy with information in the beginning, drags in the middle, good ending. 
• The cultural differences between Besźel and Ul Qoma never really landed with me, they’re very vague about what the whole this person “looks like they’re from this city” or this guy “looks like they’re from neither city. I didn’t get a sense for what that actually meant, in reality
• “Unseeing” is likely a metaphor for something, presumably the uncomfortable facts of our society that we all ignore and live with, but it’s so metaphorical that it loses all meaning and becomes untethered from itself.
• The reasons for a city/two cities deciding to live this way are easily the most interesting part of this pitch and the answer is “because we’ve just always done it this way no one knows why??” 

Probably a better novel if you’re not mid exam prep.