This wasn't a book I think I'd pick up on my own but I'm glad I did for the Read in Color Book Club's February pick and stepped out of my usual reading genres. I genuinely enjoyed the weirdness and creativity of the concept of cities in the world personified, despite the story being a little slow at the start. Once we got a look into each character and their personalities I started to enjoy the book and felt compelled to know what would happen once they all came together. I love "found family" tropes, especially ones where the characters have to work to trust each other and build relationships. It was also great to see a diverse range of protagonists not just in ethnicity, but sexuality, age, and general walk of life too. The enemy in this narrative is so fascinating that it can be so foreign and alien-like yet also all too familiar in the way it uses white-supremacist and colonizer language as weapons. Overall I'm intrigued and curious to see what happens in the next installments of the series, especially when the scope gets wider and we learn more about the summit what effects a city's birth or downfall have on the rest of the world. Also, the audiobook played a huge part in my enjoyment of this one and I don't think I would have been as immersed in the story without it. The narrators were great and did a lot for the overall characterizations of the main cast, as well as great world building with the sound effects and editing.

Such an excellent book, I’m sad it’s over but very happy to see the author has plans for two more in the series! The quality of the writing is excellent, the characters interesting and well developed, the story was unpredictable enough to keep me interested. 
I really enjoyed the magical realism and it feels like a beautiful love letter to New York. So excellent! 

The avatars of New York and its boroughs find themselves awakened all at once. Yesterday, they weren't New York, just New Yorkers, and today they're facing an uncertain future, racism, gentrification, and an interdimensional being that wants them dead, all while figuring out how to be a city filled with millions of people. I absolutely loved this book, and it quickly slid onto my favorites list. 

I've never not loved a Jemisin book, but this is a new height of craft for her. I've been to New York all of once, but you still feel the place in your bones even as a despised tourist. The ramping of tension, the unfolding of worldbuilding, and the balance of fright are all masterful.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. The concept of concepts being personified is something I'll always love and feel should be explored more often. This book was an adventure from the start to finish, and even made me feel for characters who you're supposed to dislike.

As for negatives: sometimes this book got a little too preachy. I will say, I think this may be because the characters of the books are more or less personified concepts, but I don't think that entirely fixes my issue. The issue being that it feels like each character has to preach to the audience about what is good or bad. How calling a woman a "bitch" is sexist, how cutting off a woman is sexist, that racism is bad, that cops are scary, etc. I'm a black trans-masc person and will always appreciate representation, but when the only transgender man in the book is brought in for a few pages, gives some speech about the transphobia he's faced (and later has a small panic that someone found out he's trans), it gets tiring. Sometimes I just want to read a book about diverse characters without needing to be reminded that the world at large hates you.

Secondly, which I can't go into as much detail with, it feels like character development wasn't that focused on in the book. The one who got the most development in my opinion was Staten Island, and unless the sequels expand more on her, she got done the dirtiest. This isn't helped by how sudden the ending is. Everything moves so fast. Conflict sky-rockets, we're thrown into the middle of it, a few pages later, it's over and everything is happy and nice. I suspect this is so the drama the next book brings hits hard, but currently? It's just unsatisfying. I believe a book in a series, or at least the first book of a series, should be strong on its own. It's not fun to read a story, get invested, then be thrown into a brick wall until the author's finishing painting the door, leading into the next story. At least slow me down a little?

I have to say, I don't know if I would have enjoyed this book as much as I did had I not listened to the audiobook version. Robin Miles is a gift from God and you should absolutely treat yourself to one of her performances if you can. 

I am so so so curious to see how this can become a series. I really enjoyed it. I find myself logically wanting to pick at some plot points but then I have to step back and ask myself if that matters? Because was it wholly, delightfully entertaining. 

I was very pleased that Jersey got some much deserved love with a shout-out to Fuck Your Borders. Solidly pleased that no publisher forced their way into letting a white savior be had.