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. 

By the end of this book I really enjoyed it! For a while there it felt a little too slow and repetitive, and like I just didn't appreciate it enough because I don't know NYC at all. But it was definitely interesting and engaging overall and I'm glad I read it. I love the idea here. 

For everyone who knows Rivers of London the concept will be familiar - and yet this story is different enough from Rivers to not feel like just another version of the same coin.
I loved the concept of cities waking up and creating an avatar through the people living, working, dreaming, being in the city and all the tourists coming and going (and leaving a little somthing of them behind).

The story never gets boring and with the different characters taking center-stage for different chapters you never feel like one of them comes too short.
I am very much intreagued by the other cities and how this trilogy will continue. It is a love letter to New York that also shows the bad sides and the past that this city is built on and influenced by.

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

The City We Became is a fast-paced, imaginative, super fun urban fantasy set in New York City. As a person who lives here, I ate it up. I can’t wait to see where the series goes.

For you if: You love New York City.

FULL REVIEW:

Y’all, what a FUN book. You’ll see lots of people describe it as a love letter to NYC, and as a person who lives here, I had such a good time reading it.

The premise is really imaginative: All cities, when they reach a certain age or cultural tipping point, are born into living things. To help that process complete, there is always a human who takes on the city’s life force; a living avatar. Except New York has not one, but six avatars: one for each borough, and one for the city as a whole. But NYC’s birth gets disrupted by an ancient enemy who wants to stop it from being born, and so our six characters have to find each other to fortify and protect New York so it can finish being born and live on.

What makes this book so fun is how Jemisin infused these avatars with the culture, history, and lifeblood of their boroughs. You can tell she lives here and loves it deeply. It’s also very modern and of today, almost pop culture-ish. If you've ever lived here, you’ll recognize the city instantly through her eyes. It did occasionally feel a little TOO on the nose, but I also understand that Jemisin has to bring non-New Yorkers along for the ride too.

One thing I will say is that this is a very tough look for Staten Island, and it occasionally made me feel a little uncomfortable. The avatar, a girl named Aislyn, is a sheltered and racist daughter of a very racist and misogynistic police officer. And while it’s true that Staten Island is VERY red to the rest of NYC’s blue, it felt almost dismissive of the whole borough, like it’s a lost cause or full of bad guys, which doesn’t feel like a hopeful or helpful position. That said, I do think that Jemisin did a good job of showing how and why Aisyln became who she is, and she’s definitely got room for redemption, so I’m hoping that the next book focuses on the possible unity being hinted at.

Anyway, all told I had a lot of fun with this and I think you would too!

I was looking for a light-hearted, adventurous storyline to gallop through and this book really delivered. I haven't read any sci-fi or fantasy for a while, although I have always loved it, so this was just a joy to read. It's not high fantasy, in that it's set in our world today, but has a lot of fantastical elements which are handled both with Lovecraft-ian seriousness and plenty of humour, so that the regular human characters react in fear but also relatable incredulity to the magical parts. 

The idea here is that when a city reaches a certain, unspecified point at which its history, culture and character is so well established and defined, enlivened by a burgeoning population that calls it home and enriched by a collective culture borne of stories and individual identity, it will be 'born' as a sentient entity and personified in an unwitting human avatar. In this case, the city is New York City and its avatar is split across a diverse collection of people who represent its five boroughs. In classic quest format, the shocked and (to varying degrees) unwilling boroughs-in-human-form must learn their fates, find one another and battle an ancient enemy that, in true horrific Attenborough documentary style, preys on fledgling cities during their difficult birth and emergence into the world. 

It's a really enjoyable story, with chapters that race with action and some twists along the way. It's an imaginative plot device and one that will appeal to any city lover (this city girl was delighted), or anyone who has spent considerable time in a major city with a strong sense of self. I have only been to New York City once, but recognised most of the references to its quirks and particularities - and learned about those I didn't. It made me long for a London story! It is the start of a trilogy, but as the author is American (and clearly in love - albeit an eyes-wide-open love - with New York) I doubt that the location of the central storyline in the future instalments will be anywhere else. It's an almost endless opportunity to reference other cities though, and we meet some other 'cities' in this book. Do you need to have intimate knowledge of the cities that feature to get the most from it (including the in-jokes)? Yes, probably. I'm not sure I would have been so swept along if I had no experience of New York, though that's a minor quibble. The writing is so engaging - and some of the themes so universal, for all of the book's claims about NYC's uniqueness - that I don't think it comes off as exclusive. 

But plot is not the only driver: the characterisation is great and I found myself willing the central characters on. They made me laugh, surprised me, frustrated me - all the things full-bodied characters should do. This leads to an ending I wasn't expecting, which nevertheless felt satisfying and ripe with sequel material. There is a lot of metaphor in the shape the monsters take and the powers that each character can draw on to defeat them, which clearly shows that this isn't a reductive tale of 'good' versus 'evil'. This is a story about human society and so is layered and complex, with the multiple battles usually having an undertone (sometimes heavy-handed but not off-putting) reflective of conflicts and tensions in the world as we know it today. It's no coincidence that the boroughs are represented by people of different races, sexualities, genders and faiths and that only when they unite do they have the strength to fight off the threat. Like all good fantasy, it has something to say about our relationships with each other, with our habitat, with our myriad pasts (depending on your position and perspective) and with our future. 

Bonus points for a cool Google lens activated jacket too which animates the cover image and opens an introductory author video from the blurb. Colour me impressed. 

(Not so) Patiently waiting for the the sequel to come out and praying for a major character arc 🙏

I actually enjoyed this so much more than Jemisin’s Broken Earth series and I’m mad at myself for waiting to read it. Jemisin does an amazing job at making the characters feel distinct and have their  own voices all while writing in third person. The descriptions are amazing and really feel like New York the more you learn about the characters.