Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

99 reviews

keen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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?

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katie_the_librarian's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0


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nullandvoidlibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really liked most the characters and their characterizations, I loved how alive the writing felt, and the concept is really cool that felt very fleshed out. There was an element of the story that could have gone a certain way that I think (at least in my experience) is common for stories that have this element, but I was really surprised and delighted to see this book do the opposite. The first thing I thought when I finished this book was that I need more now, and I will eagerly await the sequel.

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for_esme_with_love's review against another edition

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adventurous funny 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? Yes

4.5

I loved Jemisin's short story collection How Long 'Till Black Futures Month, and was so excited to hear that she expanded the first story into a full book! The City We Became follows the avatars of five different NYC boroughs as they attempt to combat an evil force that uses police, real estate, and neonazi groups to wage war against the city. Chock-full of insider New York jokes and cheeky symbolism, it is a exciting adventure that does not bother to disguise its larger commentary. At its heart, The City We Became is a love letter and a challenge to a vibrant, frustrating, magical city. 

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lisacanteven's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is a couple of things that I have had trouble finding in a book: unique and abstract. I loved the plot of this book and the use of personification. As unique as it was, I never had trouble understanding. Jeminison writes so beautifully and clearly. I have lined up some of her other books to read this year.

The only reason I took off a star is because the pacing seemed a bit off. For 3/4 of the book they are going in circles and having the same conversations over and over for pages and pages at a time. It felt very slow and very redundant. The last 1/4 of the book was a punch in the gut and a great setup for sequels.

I finished the last 50 pages on audio because I was just struggling to keep going. It was very enjoyable on audio, and if I ever reread for the sequels I will do so on audio. The audiobook is a production and more than a reading. I definitely recommend the audio. 

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deau's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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leannj's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Amazing. Showstopping. Wonderful. Highly recommend the audiobook, because while there was like one choice the narrator made that I disagreed with, the sheer production quality of the audiobook was impeccable.

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dulcinea's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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snslayer's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Huge fan of Jemisin's other work but this one took me a really long time to get into. If you don't have any prior knowledge of or interest in New York City, you have to wait through half a book of conceptual introduction to get to any amount of characterization. I enjoyed it by the end but if I didn't already love and trust Jemisin there is no way I would have finished this. I prefer more character-driven to plot-driven stories and this was not that. Would recommend to people who love NYC and/or plot-driven modern fantasy. It's well-written but not my thing.

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