I read this with a couple friends as a sort of impromptu mini book club. I would recommend it for a book club as there are a lot of interesting concepts in terms of the fantasy and social commentary. As one of my friends put it, this book definitely goes by the idea that "subtlety is for cowards" and most of the social commentary is completely overt. Our group was mixed in how much they liked how heavy handed it was. Some found it refreshing, others found it broke immersion in the story. One of the characters, to me, was especially unbearable and I would groan when I got to her chapters. The fantasy aspect of the human avatars of cities was amazing and I loved the concept of using constructs to channel their power. 

This book was 👏🏻 not 👏🏻 the 👏🏻 vibe 👏🏻

I have a few complaints that I can voice, and many that I can’t. Here’s my “I just finished this fucking book” review.

1. I don’t like Lovecraftian horror. That’s not the book’s fault

2. There are too many POV characters for a 435 page book, and while they (mostly) have distinct voices they don’t have actual personality traits because they’re the personification of places

3. What exactly is the plot? The characters don’t know what they’re doing for 75% of the book

4. Aislyn, even as an Americanization of Aislin, would not be pronounced anything like island. It’s ASH-lyn. Ais makes an ash sound in Gaelic. 

5. Speaking of Aislyn, she’s so stupid. This woman is not in her 30s, there’s absolutely no way. She doesn’t feel like a complete adult (or a complete person)

6. There are some, I don’t know exactly what to call the parenthetical but maybe asides is the right word? Anyway there are asides in this book that made me really dislike the writing style. I also don’t like how vague the writing is. I think this book would have benefitted from being in third person instead of first person.

Okay, now on to the couple of things I did like. I really liked Aislyn’s mom. I think she was one of the most compelling characters in the whole book. Give me a piece of literary fiction about that entire family and I’d be happy. I also liked Veneza a lot, she was great. 

Note: the characters I like are all secondary characters. I have exactly no thoughts about most of the boroughs. Bronca is fine though.

Anyway, I will not be reading the sequel. I will, however, be reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms later this month. 

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.

It pains me to say it, but this was a 3 star read. There were issues with pacing and the author didn't trust the reader enough in some areas. I loved the concept, the characters, and what the story was speaking on; the execution was just a little off.

Still, Jemisin is like pizza, even when she's bad it's still pretty good. 

La premessa della storia, cioè il fatto che la città sia un'entità viva e che sia rappresentata da determinate persone che la popolano, è altamente interessante, ma lo stile dello scrittura dell'autrice, volutamente intricato, la rende troppo pesante e me l'ha fatta godere di meno. Ciò però è un problema altamente personale tra me e la prosa di questa scrittrice, visto che lo avevo riscontrato anche nell'altra opera sua che avevo letto.
Inoltre, non ho neanche quella connessione e conoscenza della città di New York per apprezzare tutti i riferimenti che vengono fatti ad essa nell'opera.

Nonostante ciò, penso che continuerò con questa storia quando usciranno i prossimi volumi, anche perché ho gradito i personaggi, la parte più scientifica dell'opera e i riferimenti ad altre culture.

It's been a while since I've read a fantasy book that felt so unique and creative and imaginative—but that's exactly what this book was. The world that the author has created here looks a lot like our world, but expanded, and I loved it.

Our characters are introduced to us slowly and without much explanation; we figure out what's happening to them at the same time they do. So there's a fair amount of confusion at the beginning but things start to become clear and we do know more than the characters in that we know they are the embodiment of each of the boroughs—but that's about all we know at first. I loved all of the word play happening in this book—from the character names to the chapter titles, it was making me smile the whole time.

The plot was also intriguing. From the prologue, it moves at a steady pace, and an imminent threat and danger is clear. The ending doesn't end on a cliffhanger but things are definitely not resolved, and I am very anxious for book two!

This book is very New York and if you have any love for the city, you'll enjoy reading it. If you've lived in NYC at all, you'll recognize a lot more references in this book than I probably did. I can't wait to see where this story goes, because honestly the things you could do with the concept of cities as people...I just love a unique fantasy story!

I really loved the concept for this book and the characterization utilized was fantastic - it really drew you in to the idea of real people embodying the different boroughs of New York City. However, I felt so lost with the magical realism used and several times had to reread passages to try to understand the multidimensional concepts being discussed.