avaalexander 's review for:

The City & the City by China Miéville

3.75

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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i don’t know how to feel about this book. i really liked it when i first started reading it and I love the idea of two cities on top of each other— i think it’s really creative and I’ve seen it before or thought of it before. some of my five star reads are noir/crime stories and i love sci fi so that made me drawn to this book more. it definitely had some flaws though. the writing style could be weird at times. though i did like how it kind of read like a movie. the ending wasn’t completely satisfying - but at the same time i didn’t feel like anything was unanswered or anything. i was disappointed with the truth of breath and the fact that orciny wasn’t real. i had to read it for class so that definitely makes my experience different. bascialyl everyone in my discussion, including my TA hated this book so i don’t know if that makes me hate it more or be more inclined to defend it. i definitely wasn’t invested in any of the characters at all but i loved the world and thought the mystery aspect was pretty good and the reveal was unexpected.