Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

155 reviews

kendal_reads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

it ended with a semi bow that was a little too perfect, i love everything else tho
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sundayfever's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-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

4.5

Not my favorite plot, but still a really cool concept. Anything by NK Jemisin is a must-read to see firsthand how important POC voices are in sci-fi and fantasy. 
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kemrick19's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.25

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bergha1998's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny 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? No

3.25

I think the unraveling of the how the world works wasn’t done in a pace I like. It was just confusing, so even great characters and discussions on xenophobia couldn’t save the book completely for me. 

Fantasy, Found Family, Lovecraftian

“Nothing human beings do is set in stone—and even stone changes, anyway. We can change, too, anything about ourselves that we want to. We just have to want to.” She shrugs. “People who say change is impossible are usually pretty happy with things just as they are.”
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aprilpamyl's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.25

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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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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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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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