Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

233 reviews

epen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
I really struggled with this.  I love NK Jemisin, and like always, the fantastical elements of this book were well-developed and imaginative.  But I just could not buy the characters, and I think that’s more a failing of the plot setup than anything else—so often the characters felt like caricatures, which they kind of had to be because of their nature as avatars.   Which makes for a very tough read, if you ask me.  So much of the dialogue felt contrived.  And I think the choice of narration style, which didn’t really commit to any one perspective after deep dives into each, did not help.  

I had other issues—I think the plot was messy and slow—but really the big issue for me was the characters.  Having felt so invested in the characters of her other books, this was disappointing.  I would only recommend this to people who have already read something else by the author (who I think is brilliant!).  
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ottolee's review against another edition

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

5.0

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ominousspectre's review against another edition

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3.5

Mobilizing the polycule for city avatar warfare

I liked this but there was something keeping me from loving it. Possibly because I'm picky about contemporary in general. This was one of my favorite short stories in her collection, which is why I branched out. Anyways, well done but not my thing!
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briandbremer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-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? No

2.0

Knowing there's a sequel makes me like the book a little more because it gives me hope that the characters and mythology got fleshed out more. 

As it is, the whole book feels like a big nothing. The characters aren't interesting. The ending is obvious in chapter 3. Really nothing to recommend here. 
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kyra_joy's review against another edition

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

5.0

This is a hard one to rate, it’s beautifully written, like poetry in some places. The first chapter didn’t feel super narrative to me and more like spoken word, was a little worried I wasn’t going to like it, but as it goes on it gets better and better. It definitely a slower book and long so it took me a while to get through, however it feels so wholly unique and wonderful that I think anything less than 5 stars wouldn’t be fitting. So even though idk if it was generally my style I absolutely love it and will be reading the next instalment for sure.
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caseybones's review against another edition

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

5.0

Hopefully this is the first in a new trilogy or duology and not a one-off – there’s so much about this universe I want to know. And from the perspective of a fourth-generation Brooklyn native, this book was PERFECT. No notes. 

I’m not even mad that
Jersey City ends up being an honorary borough,
and of course
the Staten Island avatar is the betrayer;
how could the product of that environment be anything else? 
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nhnabass's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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lemonflower's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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libellules's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

Brilliantly written with a sure and engaging style. The characters leapt off the page and had clear voices throughout. i had to let go a bit and just go with the vibes but hoo boy did i love the ride. this felt so fresh and unique. i loved the concept and it was really interesting to see how it was developed. the ending felt a little rushed but i'm interested in checking out the second one!
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shoshin's review against another edition

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The ableism got to be too much for me.

The treatment of
the Staten Island avatar's panic attacks and abuse history
were bad, but I was willing to give Jemisin more of a chance because sometimes it takes more than one time showing a character to work through complicated issues. Then the fact that making buildings accessible makes them "not New York enough" 
so that the enemy can attack them
made me pause reading. I usually read a few reviews when I'm considering quitting a book. What I found out is that
the treatment of the Staten Island character gets even worse
. I'm not willing to invest more time in this series based on that, and I'm reconsidering whether I ever read other Jemisin books.
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