The City We Became: A Novel (The Great Cities, 1)

It’s 4 a.m. and I just finished The City We Became. I can’t remember the last time I stayed up in to the early hours of the morning to finish a book. I’ve never purposely drank an energy drink at 11 p.m. to make sure this happens, but The City We Became deserved it because it is simply one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. Let me back up and give a quick synopsis for the book before we dive in to the review: Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin. Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got five. But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all. This book excels on every front: it has characters that are simultaneously totally real and complete stereotypes of the boroughs they represent. It has such solid world building in its use of NYC, you can see the sights, smell the streets, feel the living, breathing city ooze off the pages. The plot is such a great tale of unification, a celebration of a city but also just humans as a whole, of the strength of evil and what it takes to overcome it. The writing is, of course with N.K. Jemisin, of the highest caliber. This book is a legitimate piece of art. It’s heart and soul are bared for the world to see and it absolutely shines. What has been crafted and so tightly, excellently written here is nothing short of brilliance. There have been so very few books that have left me with this feeling, I can’t even think of what the last one was. There is so so much I want to say about this book. The use of diverse, real people in a city like NYC is entirely perfect and fitting but stands out for how well written and used they are, especially when their nemesis brings out the alt-right, shitty racist cops and gentrification as a form of its evil. The evils that really face NYC and, to an extent, all big cities in real life are superbly used and fit in to the narrative effectively. There’s a sequence towards the end of the book – around the 75% mark – that by total coincidence feels oddly prescient of current conditions with Covid19. You know no one could have seen this coming but, like, how is it so scarily accurate? And it just feels wonderful to say I finally feel like someone has given Lovecraft and all his horrible racist views the justice and send off he deserves. Something small but also super awesome I wanted to point out that shows the level of care and craft Jemisin has put in to this novel – the one character from England, Bel, is so realistically written. Jemisin has him using language and slang I haven’t heard since I was a kid living in England, and it was surreal to see it so accurately used. I’ve read plenty of English authors who haven’t used slang so well. I honestly don’t know where to go with this review from here other than to say to anyone at all that may read this: please please please go buy this book. It is absolutely astonishing and wonderful and you won’t regret a second of the time you spend with it. It is one of my personal favorite books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I will be talking to anyone and everyone I can about this story for a long, long time to come.

It had some downs and ups--sometimes too weird, too boring, a bit confusing at the start--but by the end I was all in! It was also interesting to learn more about New York. It made me want to have a visit!

"The City We Became" by N.K. Jemisin is a thrilling and imaginative urban fantasy that brings to life the essence of New York City in a way that is both captivating and profound. The story follows a diverse cast of characters who embody the different boroughs of Manhattan, each awakening to their unique identities as the city itself fights against a looming supernatural threat. As a young grad student arrives in Manhattan and grapples with amnesia, he quickly senses the heartbeat of the city and its rich history, marking the beginning of his extraordinary journey. In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers beautiful graffiti that seems to call out to her, while in Brooklyn, a politician and mother is enchanted by the rhythm of her city, each step echoing its vibrant culture. As each character navigates their personal struggles and the connection to their borough, they come together to confront the idea that cities have souls—some ancient, some newly formed, but all deeply intertwined. Jemisin's novel is a masterful exploration of community, belonging, and the resilience of urban life, celebrating the extraordinary tapestry of New York and the diverse stories that compose it. "The City We Became" is a thought-provoking and dynamic read for anyone who appreciates the power and magic of cities.

“The City We Became” is a love letter to New York City. A story about the five boroughs of New York City, each being represented by a single person known as their avatar. This avatar is an embodiment of everything the borough has to offer, and their job is to protect their borough and/or city from the evil that lurks in the mean streets of the city. The premise of this book is what drew me to it. I purchased the book solely based on the description, and although I didn’t end up hating the book or disliking it in the slightest, I honestly didn’t end up loving it as much as I thought. I’ve lived in Brooklyn, NY my whole life and one of the many things this book does well is capture the city perfectly. It’s like, if you’ve never been to New York City before, read this book and you will feel like you’ve gone on a quick tour the city during this read. N.K. Jemisin did a fantastic job bringing the city to life in this novel, and that was one of the many things I loved about this book. Another thing I loved was the writing style. My goodness, this woman knows how to put words together. N.K. Jemisin is a true wordsmith in every sense of the word. It honestly felt like she was showing off at times with her expansive vocabulary. The book is very descriptive, and although this is a highlight in my opinion, there are times where it feels like the narrator is rambling -at least to me. An issue I had with this book, however, was figuring out the story. It took me forever to understand what was going on. That prologue almost gave me a headache while reading it. I was dropped right into this brand-new world and expected to understand how it works with little to no explanation and I have a feeling that was her intention, but that prologue had me sitting and wondering if I’m going to finish this book or not. Even after the prologue, I was still confused. Seeing umbrellas and credit cards being used as weapons against evil is pretty strange, even for New York City. Another issue for me was character development, or lack thereof. This book only takes place over the span of a couple of days (probably 2-3) and this was probably my biggest problem with it. The characters don’t really have much time to bond with each other. It’s like they were just forced to become allies for the sake of the plot, “I’m sorry, family. I have to leave you behind to join a group of people I met two minutes ago. Not because I want to, but because the plot demands it.” That might as well have been an excerpt from this novel. The lack of development imo is pretty unfortunate because these characters are so complex and interesting (especially Brooklyn because I’m biased towards my borough) that I would have liked to spend a little more time with them outside of the plot. It would’ve been nice to see them actually get to know each other more on a personal level, so their connection feels more genuine. A glimpse of this was shown in the epilogue, so I look forward to more scenes of these characters being human. The story picked up for me about a third of the way through and I got a better understanding of the lore, but it still managed to confuse me at times. The villain of the story was very eerie to say the least. I don’t want to speak too much on the villain because of spoilers, but yeah. I enjoyed disliking the villain. I can honestly see why it has gotten so many great reviews, and why so many people love and recommend this book to people. It’s a cool storyline with compelling characters, set in the greatest city in the world, and written by a tremendous author that I will be reading more of in the future. This book is good. It’s not bad in the slightest despite my personal problems with it. I feel like this story would be much easier to enjoy as a comic book or a TV series. I’ll be surprised if there’s no TV adaptation of this novel soon. With all of that being said, I’m definitely purchasing the sequels when they came out. I’m honestly looking forward to seeing what happens next. 3 stars! P.S. I really regret not listening to the audiobook version. I hear that is spectacular.

What good does it do to be valuable, if nobody values you? - Chapter 1 Severe, brutal, blatant commentary on society, racism, prejudice, the default nature of humanity to form cliques and to hell with those unlike you. And at the same time, full of unfettered joy and unrestrained pride and the beauty of humanity in all their flaws and triumphs. Unique in story and also so familiar in other ways that I found myself laughing out loud even as I had tears on my cheeks from the truth of the words. If you've ever been to New York, you'll feel the pulse of the city in every word of this book, and if you haven't, you'll still feel it because that pulse can be found in all cities, in all towns, in all groups of people. This book is every bit a glorious love letter to the city that never sleeps, and truly all cities and humanity itself. I've rarely read something this incredibly distinctive, with each character's voice so special in its own way. Yes, it will force you to confront your internal prejudice (and we've all got it, even you) and yes, it does not hide the message in some soft, easy metaphor. This is a clear, vibrant, loud call to arms, merciless in many ways as it shows the vitriol that minorities face, as well as the environments that foster and fuel and create that narrow minded culture that The Woman in White personified so well throughout this book. Truly a masterpiece and I'm so eager to read more by N K Jemisin now. Read this.

This is THE SINGLE BEST first chapter of a book I've ever read. What an earth-shatteringly great, poetic first chapter. The rest of the book's writing is very good, too, but, man, that first chapter's writing style makes me want to read everything this author ever writes. The parts of this book -- the characters' distinct personalities, the overall plot and the way the bad guys are fought with, are all excellent. This is a very creative idea. The plot isn't exactly fast-paced but I don't mind that since we get space to explore each "borough's" personality and difficulties -- each character gets time and space to be developed and I LOVE that. I truly could feel and hear the funky art and music and accents of New York City. The reason why this book is a 4 out of 5 for me personally: In my opinion, the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts. There's a weird American Exceptionalism here that really sort of took me out of the experience as a bigger-picture thing. The entire premise is that New York's "birth" situation is unique. But... the thing is, even though this is fantasy, when you bother to bring in other world cities as comparison -- NYC is awesome and I love it too, but MOST big world population centers have 'different neighborhoods with different art and different vibes' and, honestly, NYC isn't THAT special! Especially when in this book we bother to meet other cities like Hong Kong and Sao Paulo -- why doesn't Hong Kong get to explore its VERY-different neighborhoods with multiple avatars/etc? The answer to that question isn't really explored, so it feels like "NYC is generically special" and that's annoying. In a weird way, I think the "message about New York City's very unique state of being" would be a lot more impactful if NYC's "helpers" were... say, smaller cities in the USA that really do have "fewer boroughs" than NYC, instead of cities like Hong Kong or Sao Paulo (or the referenced Lagos or London who we don't meet) that have long histories and diverse interactions between their individual neighborhoods that aren't at all explored in this book. The message I took away from this book is: no other city in the world other than NYC has "different relationships between its different boroughs" and I just...disagree with that! I think I wish the "scope" of this story was smaller and didn't include other highly-populated, complex international cities, in order for a message like "NYC is extremely special" to work. Based on this author's gorgeous writing style, I'll definitely check out the next books in this series -- especially if future steps in the series focus more on other cities and maybe have more notes about the lore of what makes a city have different avatars/"be born" etc. There's something really creative and unique here -- this would be a 5 out of 5 series for me if there's room to explore it all!

What a trip! Far more fantasy than science fiction, suspenseful but not terrifying, and often funny, N.K. Jemisin literally embodies today's New York City in her characters. I grew up in the NYC suburbs, with frequent trips to the city to visit family and friends or enjoy plays, concerts, fireworks, and more. The city has, of course, changed over the years, but this book brought its current incarnation alive for me and made me realize how much I miss it. Except for Staten Island, where I've never had any reason to go. I won't recapitulate the plot here, as so many have done. To those who complain that everything in the book that's white is bad, I remind you that two significant "good" characters are white (Madison, the driver of the Checker cab, and Bronca's coworker Jess). The white tendrils and the clothing of the Woman in White / Dr. White strike me as representing White Supremacy, which any person of color will be all too aware of in their lives, and which does not encompass all white people. To those who complain the story lacks subtlety, I would say Jemisin simply chose to have some fun here, allowing the reader to ponder the deeper implications of the book after enjoying the ride. SPOILER ALERT: Having read only the first book of The Broken Earth trilogy because I could envision nothing but horrific events to follow in the sequels (and reality is quite horrific enough these days), I was pleased to find that I now want to read the next book in this series. My only real complaints about this one are that Jemisin assumes all her readers have read Lovecraft, which I haven't, and that Manny's roommate Bel, along with the apartment and Inwood in general, disappear after Chapter Two. Even Madison reappears before the ending, but we never find out for sure whether Manny returns to the apartment or continues with his grad school plans. Maybe it's in the next book....

please stop this racist bs of saying this book villainizes white people if you have enjoyed any nkJ books, you should know racism and subverting whiteness as bad instead of pure has always been present in her work that has always been interesting and frankly, necessary also nkJ has lived in NYC for many years and duh has a deep and realistic understanding of the city and its pulses hating this book for being too “woke” is hating the poc experiences of people in this city nothing in this is untrue and it is based in this writers actual lived experiences observing this city if you hate this book for being too “woke”, you hate poc having a voice and you hate progress there are way too many reviews of this book that have way too many upvotes that complain about white people being evil in this story guess what? white people can be evil and have a documented history of genocide and being over represented in media and usually in a flattering way when we all know white people have committed genocides, silencing, abuse and othering of poc have you seen the news? white people get away with murder while poc get life in prison for having a baggie of weed and if you’re an actual fan of nkJ you must understand her other works include commentary re racism and xenophobia and that is a part of what makes her GREAT there’s a reason she’s the most decorated hugo winner and that’s because of and not in spite of her weaving in more modern perspectives on race, ethnicity, regionalism, and religion trust the topics cause this writer is the best of all time and her 3 hugo wins are in spite of being a black femme writer and not because of

A whirlwind of a journey through New York which describes and glorifies the nuances of The City that never sleeps through the persepctive of it's most integral part it's citizens. Fiction on a next level a definite page turner and coming of as effortless yet lot of research has been put in it to strike the right balance. N.K Jemisin really brings out the magic in this book that by the end of it, you would be thinking when the next book in this series is coming out.

There are some features of the novel I might object to: the total disappearance of Italian-Americans from NYC (at least New York as represented by Jemisin), the fact that the only white character is bad (but it's a complex character which is a victim even when she acts as a villain--or an accomplice of the Arch-Villain), the presence of the occasional ideological complaint (like some comments on Gauguin and Picasso...). And yet I think this is one of the best crossover novels I've recently read... I might also talk of avant-pop, here. And having read it in two days, I want to read the other two novels of the trilogy as soon as possible, which should mean The City We Became is good stuff, after all. Moreover, I appreciated the way Jemisin plays Lovecraft against Lovecraft--though I cannot say more about that as it would be Spoiler City!

This is engaging, unexpected, smart and fun. N.K. is a master oh her art. And this is art. I want to compare to Neil Gaiman, another literary genre busting great, but they are both too unique to compare.

Really disapointing novel from Jemisin, full of clichés and boring to read. Stopped my reading at half the novel. I can't recognise the writer that make me dream with the "broken earth"...

It is a wonerful urban fantasy page turner in which major cities become sentient human avatars or flesh and blood genii locorum, with Lovecraft paradigms of cosmicism, decandance, and decline, with the strong attraction of Jemisin's composed text. It reminded me of the visual impact of Misha Green's Lovecraft's County. I am opposed passionately to Lovecraft's Anglo-Saxon worldview, a journalist turned author who dabbled in politics, I must confess all I have read of this author is The Dunwich Horror. But I digress, this viewpoint was expressed by Aislyn Houlihan of Staten Island with her reluctance to aid her fellow-avatars, lastly I enjoyed the diversity of the avatars and the dialogue between Bronca Siwanay, Brooklyn, and Veneza. If you are puzzled by my choice of Heading or Title, I will leave the last words to Frank Sinatra. These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray, right through the very heart of it, New York, New York.