I saw this book recommended everywhere, and it was totally worth it. N.K. Jemison has such a way with word, the descriptions were so vivid. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND listening to the audiobook, it's not just a read it has sound effects, music, and more. Made the descriptions amd story really come to life.

I was intrigued by the premise but the execution was not entirely satisfying. I was mainly surprised by the conclusion of this book (the first of an upcoming trilogy), but it didn’t really delight me—I thought it was mildly clever.

I could sense a lot of research and creative license went into writing this, and the concept must make it hard to really flesh out the characters, but ultimately the writing voice rubbed me the wrong way with almost all of the characterizations. Especially when

trying to speak to some very particular identities, I felt the author was not handling every characters’ background to the degree of sensitivity that I hoped for. There were many times that the description of East Asian characters, especially, fell short of what I feel is a culturally nuanced understanding of being from East Asian. That’s all I really can articulate about it for now, but ultimately there was a buildup of instances throughout the novel that gave me an overarching feeling of distrust in the author’s ability to inhabit characters of other cultures.

Also, I felt really unbalanced by the amount of “screen time” given to each character, as some did not get many POV chapters and it left me hyperfocused on why. Even if they get more focus in future installments, I wish they had all been developed to the same degrees in the first. Additionally, the ordering and pacing of how information is revealed felt really off to me, there were times where even how a scene was established rattled my immersion in the characters’ point of view.

Slight ramble ahead. On the premise itself, what I started labeling it in my head early on was

weird fanfic about New York City. I’ve lived near and visited New York my whole life, and only after reading this did I realize I don’t really need “New York fanfic” in my life. Sure it’s an homage and all, but I don’t know that I can get behind the metaphor for white supremacy and colonization being a literal extraterrestrial entity. Maybe it’s because I feel sensitive to this subject, and I had hoped it might be somewhat cathartic to see it play out in a fantasy setting, but after reading this I want to say say that it actually feels kind of disrespectful to people facing actual prejudice, displacement, and hate crimes. Like when the Enemy is vanquished, the implication of how this book ends is that this alien source of white supremacy and therefore the magnitude of injustice in the world is significantly diminished. I just can’t vibe with that after all. Or maybe this is the point, for me to get uncomfortable about how racism and gentrification are still out there. Idk, it just ended up too far removed from a productive or interesting take on society that I would have appreciated.

Anyway. Being someone from New Jersey who has lived close to New York City all my life, perhaps a contemporary fantasy story with this setting wasn’t the right book for me to pick up. Even though I’ve enjoyed the Broken earth trilogy in the past. Hard for me to say!

I can say overall this is somewhat worth reading if you want to explore the base concept of living cities a little, but because of the reasons above, I ultimately didn’t get too much pleasure or satisfaction out of the story.

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. 

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. 

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 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. 

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.