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kendal_reads's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment
Minor: Police brutality, Abortion, and Colonisation
midnarose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
If you like N.K. Jemisin's work you will like this one
This book is a sci-fi fantasy based in New York City
in this version of Earth cities become living entities once they are old enough and have its own unique culture.
In this story we meet the guardians/avatars of the city , while the city is being born.
As someone who had recently gone to New York city and who had started the book while in the city.
that experience really added to my read , and I would definitely recommend if you like New York city you will like this book (its basically a love letter to the city but with fantasy and sci-fi elements).
I can't wait to read the second book and also hope more books are written.
i would love to learn about other cities.
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Sexual assault
sundayfever's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Minor: Abortion and Colonisation
rhi_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Colonisation
ottolee's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism
lemonflower's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Cursing
Minor: Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
brekaboujie's review against another edition
- 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? No
3.75
The premise is such an interesting idea (though I didn't realise the title wasn't a metaphor for a little while. That's on me) and the way it was written was snappy, packed full of adventure and tense scenes and all very myterious and exciting. All the characters were very unique and the author did a brilliant job of establishing their personalities really quickly. But I just had absolutely NO motivation to keep going. It wasn't even slow paced! I don't know why, but it never clicked with me at all, and I found it such a drag to get through. When I was reading it I was enjoying it and found it interesting, but then I'd put it down again and just not really care to keep going.
I'd definitely recommend it if you enjoy modern takes on fantasy! A really interesting idea that I wish grabbed me more.
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Body horror, Racism, Rape, and Violence
No rape or sexual assualt actually happens, but there is an attempt and there is a scene where they view art depicting that, and the people presenting that art are pretty awful about it.heini's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Suomennos oli hämmentävä. Ehkä ne ovat tyylikeinoja tai en vain ymmärtänyt, mutta lukukokemusta haittaa, kun jatkuvasti ilmaisut särähtävät korvaan. Puhutaan jonkun ensimmäisestä rodeosta; henkilö, jota alkuperäisteoksessa kuvaillaan ja nimitetään sanoilla 'strawberry blond man-bun' suomennetaan mansikanvaaleaksi hipster sämpyläksi; yleinen kirosana on paskapökäle ja joku on hullumpi kuin lepakonpaska (batshit crazy?).
Itse kirjasta: Seuraamme New York Cityn kaupunginosien ihmisavatareja, jotka ilmentävät suurkaupungin monimuotoisuutta.
Hahmot olivat mukavan ristiriitaisia ja oli mielenkiintoista, kuinka välillä ihmisen kauheista piirteistä tuli ominaisia ja "hyödyllisiä", osa tarvittavaa kokonaisuutta.
Tarina oli värikkäiden kertojiensa vuoksi hauska ja myös sivuhenkilöt olivat huippuja,
Valkoinen ja kirkkaus oli pahuuden ilmikuva, mikä on tietysti myös käänteinen kerrontaperinteen musta/pimeys=paha logiikalle, jota on ihonväriinkin sovellettu.
Kirjan yksi ydinkuvaus on, kuinka ennakkoluulot ja oletukset tuhoavat meitä (yksilöitä, yhteisöjä, yhteiskuntia) sisältä päin ja vain ruokkivat yhteisiä vihollisiamme.
Pelko, että ihmisyys tuhotaan kosmisessa maailmojen sodassa / pelko, joka syntyy kaikesta siitä "normaalista" tai normaaliksi hyväksystä (kauheista ja epämukavista asioista), jota arkemme ihmisinä ihmisten keskellä on.
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Gaslighting
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Rape, Abortion, and Alcohol
Spiders or spider-like creaturestakarakei's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Now could I explain the dynamics of all that happens in this book? Absolutely not, it's one of those books where you just have to accept the concepts that are being presented to you without a lot of questioning. I mean, people becoming the embodiment of cities? weird concept. You just gotta go with it! Along the way you'll get discussions of race, art, and what it means to "belong" to a place.
If you're a NYC area person I def think this is an interesting read! Very NYC-prideful. I personally am NOT from NYC or know all that much about it, so I couldn't pick up on if there were any inaccuracies in any way, but Jemisin has lived there for a long time and did a lot of research so I trust that she got it right. I really enjoyed all the little history bits of information thrown in about the city.
There's no one out there really writing SFF like Jemisin, and I am very excited to continue with this series.
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Police brutality, Abortion, and Colonisation
itsame_dio's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
- The chapters were sooo long, I listened to the audiobook and every chapter was at least an hour. It made me feel like I wasn't making any progress in the book, so it was tough for me to stick with it.
- Could be a dealbreaker for you: there's so much racism, and its VERY prominent (one of the POV characters is a racist) so if that's too much for you don't read this book. It was kinda of off-putting for me (a Black Woman), I don't feel like a lot of reviews addressed this. I don't feel like it was put in there willy nilly tho, it was very purposeful.
- Nothing really happened,
- The ending was anti-climatic
- The sound effects seemed to be thrown in at random
- The narrator has a beautiful voice but the accent she uses for some of the characters sound like the accent I do when I make fun of New Yorkers so I couldn't take it seriously lol
- It throws me off that New York would be the first city to become like this in the US, there's a lot of distinct cities in the US so if anything I would think New York would maybe the oldest or the most intense but the only??? IDK about that
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Domestic abuse and Abortion