I’ll level with you, I’ve never been one for urban fantasy really but this was an enjoyable start to the series. It’s not quite on par with the Broken Earth books but I’m excited to see where Jemisin takes it.

Action packed and filled with important social commentary and interesting, well developed characters. As with most first books in a series there is quite a bit of set up which has to be done so I’d imagine book 2 will be better as the stage will already be set and Jemisin won’t need to be quite as bogged down in world building.

One petty gripe, the Irish language is called Gaelic. Gaelic in Ireland is a type of indigenous football we play, not the name of our language. We normally call it Irish but the name for the language in Irish is Gaeilge. Also the one Irish American characters name has been Americanised from the Irish spelling, though to be honest, that seems very realistic based on Irish Americans I’ve met.

The first thing I would say about this book is it is super weird. It is unlike anything I have ever read before. It is this unique and weirdness that makes the book so interesting to read. It did have me confused for a lot of it but things did get cleared up a little the more I read. I loved the setting and was interesting to see and learn more about New York.

I liked how different people represented the different boroughs of New York. I also really like how diverse the characters were. We had a mixed race guy, a black women, an Indian women, a Native American and a white woman. Each of these people had the sort of personality that is a common factor for their area. They were all good characters and it was interesting to see how they all fit together.

They all had to come together to protect New York, reminded me a bit of Avengers with a whole team coming together! I also really enjoyed the sort of sci-fi aspects with multiple universes and how this worked. I really liked the ending and I'm really interested to see what the next book brings.

Overall a really weird book but really well written and 100% unique.

This is a really unique and interesting fantasy concept which in today's day and age is a rarity.
Written in N K Jemisin's usual brilliant way this story feels almost like a love letter to New York City, it did an excellent job of making me feel like i was there and once i had finished the book, I desperately wanted to visit.

The characters are diverse and really well realised and the world building even more so.

Would recommend!

No me ha convencido para nada la nueva obra de N.K. Jemisin. Tengo entendido que si el lector está familiarizado con la ciudad de Nueva York, el libro resulta mucho más absorbente y atractivo, pero como no es mi caso, me he encontrado con una novela que pretende ser reivindicativa pero que se queda en el intento.

La antropomorfización de ciudades o entidades no es nada nuevo. Sin ir más lejos, en la divertidísima The Shambling Guide to NYC, Mur Lafferty ya dio voz a la misma ciudad que ocupa el eje central de este libro. En Ríos de Londres, Ben Aaronovitch nos presenta a los avatares de los ríos de la ciudad y seguro que se os ocurren más ejemplos. Así que, al menos por esa parte, la labor de Jemisin no es totalmente original.
La obra está escrita con un lenguaje moderno y en ocasiones complicado, rozando el slang. Es una elección consciente y adecuada por parte de la autora, ya que si pretende que los avatares de cada barrio de la ciudad sean creíbles, la forma más fácil para conseguirlo es adecuar su forma de hablar y actuar al momento presente. Los riesgos que corre, sin embargo, son dos: la generalización (si eres de tal barrio te tiene que gustar tal cosa) y anclar demasiado la obra en el presente, por lo que envejecería de forma muy acusada en poco tiempo. Este segundo aspecto es menos preocupante, ya que la trama fantástica aleja la obra tanto de la realidad que no llamaría la atención este hecho.
Me gustaría que el tono reivindicativo de la obra, muy volcado en asuntos sociales y en exponer las desigualdades de la gran ciudad, así como la gentrificación y otros temas, tuvieran algo más de sustento. Aunque parecen ser el motor que ha llevado a Jemisin a escribir la obra, la envoltura fantástica con que agrupa estas críticas es demasiado endeble y frágil. Toda la estructura del nacimiento de ciudades cuando se alcanza una determinada masa crítica podría ser interesante, pero acaba quedando en nada, aludiendo en todo momento al «esto es como se ha hecho siempre» y «¿por qué habrá cambiado lo tradicional?». Además conforme avanza la lectura y especialmente en la parte final, el interés va menguando capítulo a capítulo y párrafo a párrafo. Y he descubierto que es la primera parte de una trilogía… que no tengo intención de seguir leyendo.
La obra está editada en español como La ciudad que nos unió con traducción de David Tejera.

The City We Became is a unique take on urban fantasy that reaffirms N.K. Jemisin as a brilliant author of imaginative and original fantasy fiction.

Having read Jemisin's multiple award-winning The Broken Earth trilogy, I expected that her new urban fantasy series would be quite different from the rest. And my goodness, I was not wrong. As a matter of fact, I struggled a bit at the beginning. Right off the bat, the prologue was written in the first person perspective which sometimes bordered on streams of consciousness. Not a writing style that I enjoyed reading at all. It was also a long prologue which felt quite confusing and chaotic. I wasn't exactly sure what I was reading at times. To say that the book didn't engage me immediately was an understatement, I actually thought to myself that I couldn't read on for much longer if this continued.

Fortunately, the writing became more accessible to me when I got to the first chapter as the story started to gradually introduce the five main characters, who will come to be the protectors of New York City. I would not describe any of these characters in my review simply because I view them to be at the very least minor spoilers. What I would say is that each of these characters was brilliantly written. Their personalities and ideals that they each represented were the embodiment of the spirit of the city and its well-known five boroughs. Even though it took me quite awhile (about midway of the book) to feel completely engaged with the story and its characters, I was still blown away by its genius.

The tone of the narrative also perfectly captured New York City with an authenticity that was as vibrant and gritty as the city itself. It also dawned upon me that the almost chaotic writing in the Prologue does, in its bizarre manner, aptly represent the city. I've never experienced such a form of writing that felt both immersive and jarring at the same time. There's both a harshness and beauty to its form; a rhythm and beat that was more hip hop than pop. The characters are as diverse and inclusive as the city itself. It is not uncommon to describe a city as having character, and in this case it was taken most literally. In the case for New York City, each of its five boroughs have its own.

Aside from the historical diversity of New York City, the horrors H.P. Lovecraft also featured prominently in the narrative, and I'm not merely referring to his fictional creations. Jemisin was never one to pull her punches in getting her social commentaries across, and The City We Became unremittingly trashed Lovecraft for his racism and bigotry. So if you adore Lovecraft, be aware that there are some uncomfortable issues about him being mentioned in this book.

There are a couple of other things that I would like to highlight about the writing. Firstly, it was mainly written in third person present tense, except for the prologue and epilogue which was in first person. Secondly, this is about New York City and its personification after all, and as such there were quite a lot of F-bombs and profanity. This doesn't bother me, but I thought that it might be worth mentioning.

I'm thoroughly impressed with Jemisin's inventive worldbuilding and brilliant character work. Despite my initial struggle, I was quite captivated by The City We Became by the end of the book, and look forward to its sequel.

I was so impressed by this story that I dreamt it and it was like watching a movie and seeing the characters and the atmosphere vivid and impressive.
It's a great novel and I will surely look for other books by this author.
A love letter to New York, brilliant and gripping.
I loved every moment of this book and it's hard to express your feelings when a book reached your subconscious.
An amazing world building, a great cast of characters and a writer who is a master storyteller.
An excellent read, I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Let me start by saying I loved this book. More so than ever I just found myself utterly absorbed by Jemisin's writing - it paints stunning pictures of the city and the people without getting too flowery - it's gritty descriptive writing and I just adored it. Within the first ten per cent of this book I knew this was going to be something different and something wonderful. 

I'll confess to my only experiences of New York being the following:

a trip there when I was about 13/14
television shows (including but not limited to project runway)
the song 'new york new york'

So suffice to say I wouldn't say I can speak to how 'real' the depiction of New York or the various personae within the story is. I will say that it didn't feel like Jemisin had just picked out one aspect of each 'soul' and ran with it, these were nuanced characters, there was an implied acceptance that there was no way one person could encompass every facet of that particular area, but there was also enough there to capture something special. I liked that these were real people, not just powerful entities dropped into the world, it gave the book for of a superhero vibe than I had been anticipating - I can't honestly say why but I was getting slight 'this is how I wanted Heroes to feel'  feelings. 

I went in fully anticipating a somewhat abstract, very character-driven book - and was surprised to find, instead, a detailed world, with science fiction worldbuilding and metaphysic, and a far more plot-heavy story than I ever would have anticipated.

And it is so good. 

The woman in white is an excellent villain, the kind of character that has you screaming through the page 'DON'T LISTEN TO HER', while the 'protagonist' leans into her every word. The more 'horror' aspects of the story tied to this character gave me chills (I was reading this late at night to be fair) I just thought that the antagonistic aspects of this story were superb. 

This is an incredibly visual book, I can practically see the film/tv series now. It helps that New York is such a recognisable place in the mind's eye, but again it's that exceptional writing and the feel for creating a dramatic scene that flourishes in this story. 

I'm fairly sure this is going to be a trilogy (based on the acknowledgements) and I am beyond excited to see where this goes next. Of course, we want to explore other cities and see what their avatars are like, I want to know what happened to London and just embrace all of the weird world that Jemisin has created in this book. There's so much more to find out about how all of this works and I am phenomenally excited.

Hats off to you, this was exceptional. 

My rating: 5/5 stars

I received a free digital review copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own. 

The City We Became is available now!

Overall
It's funny from page one. not LOL but "giggles and smiles" funny... Also, the world and building of the world is super well done. The characters are so typical of their boroughs even though I've never been to New York I can tell who's who, but it's not stereotypical. The author mentions in her acknowledgements how much research was involved and it shows.

The story
The story is all centred around the birth of New York. And I don't mean how it was created or anything back in the day. It's about New York becoming a different entity and being born from this earth as a separate being (or in this case 6 beings) at present. It's interdimensional.

I can't get over how original this story was to me.

The ending took me by surprise and I enjoyed reading something I hadn't foreseen.

Worldbuilding
The world is amazing. Yes, we are present day. And yes we are in today's/this realm. New York. But the author has taken something iconic (New York) and created characters from them. How Manhatten is all sleek and nasty but also caring - a newcomer to New York. How the Bronx is full of art and history and flare - born and raised there. The book turns New York into a living organism is such an amazing way.

If you don't care about the synopsis, read the book for the world alone - it's worth it!

The magic/science
It's not genre-specific, and I like that a lot. There are no incantations or words. There are no formulas or equations (unless you are Queens). There are not artificial intelligence or space ships. There is a life force that is out of this world but at the same time belong to this world. It's multidimensional and complex.

It's so well done!

The characters
There are several characters and POVs. In total there were 5 main characters along with the helper and the villain. I rarely put the villain up here in the characters. I normally do it if the villain is hiding amongst the good characters but in this book, the villain was obvious from the start and they were always there. It made the villain more human even though they are not.

LGBT+?
Yaaas Queen!

The writing
Great! Well done! As expected from an award-winning author :)

Summary
I am a new N. K. Jemesin fan!

I'll be reading the Broken Earth Trilogy any minute now!

Read this book!

N.K. Jemisin’s new one is an urban fantasy in every sense of the word. It runs along riffing on quest fantasies, superhero origin stories, Lovecraftian cosmic horror and a dozen other genre standbys. This isn’t a complaint, more an acknowledgement that this is absolutely for the right path to take for a book championing the diversity and blend of New York. It takes all these elements, chops them up, turns them around and builds them into something new, just like the best hiphop does (about half way through, a memory of the Wu Tang Clan proclaiming that they form like Voltron popped into my head and stayed there, another part of the legend of New York that suffuses this book (although, considering how Jemisin treats Staten Island, they might not quite enjoy it so much!)).

It bounces, crackles, pops and fizzes, full of the livewire energy of the city it celebrates. This couldn’t be more different in tone or setting from the author’s multi-award winning Broken Earth trilogy, but that just shows what a capable and talented author we have here, because it is just as readable and just as impactful. Bring on volume two!

A big-concept and even bigger hearted story of belonging that doesn't sugarcoat the evils of the real world.

This imaginative story where five people become the living embodiment of the Boroughs of New York is full of great descriptions, slang and imagination.

The ending was slightly rushed and I think we could've lost part of the build up for a bigger climax (that's what she said) but I'm glad we did get an ending as I was worried that we wouldn't. I will be reading the other books in this series when they come out.

Something about the voice here reminded me of China Miéville's writing - but that could just be because I don't read a lot of urban fantasy. I'm also keen to give some of Jemisin's previous novels a go as I've heard nothing but good things.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This blew me away, an absolutely fantastic story and I'm so happy that it's going to be a trilogy.
The writing shows the author's obvious love of NYC and the characters are such wonderful embodiments of the boroughs. I loved so much about this story and can't wait to read the next installment!
Think American Gods meets Lovecraft!

This is a wonderfully diverse, urban fantasy novel from the widely acknowledged master of SFF. It tells the story of New York or more specifically, the avatars of New York, because cities have souls, but New York has six.

The Positives: I thought the concept of this novel was genius (as I have come to expect from N. K. Jemisin). It was so simple and yet so deeply explored and richly realised. I loved the personifications of the city (Staten Island excepted) and thought the way in which they were drawn was so vivid and believable. There was some fantastic commentary about the nature of belonging, what makes a city, racism and prejudice, all wrapped up with a delightful dash of non-Euclidian geometry and some Lovecraft too! There is so much to unpick in this book, but the reading experience never felt heavy.

The Negatives: I thought that the beginning of the book lagged a little for me and as a result, it did take me a little while to truly get immersed in the story.

Overall, this was a really interesting book that I will definitely be recommending to people left and right for some thought-provoking urban fantasy.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Cities have souls and New York has 5 of them. These five people are the embodiment of the 5 New York's boroughs: Queens, Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island. They are New York's protectors, but first they have to awake, understand their roles and get together to save the city from a powerful enemy.

I've been a big fan of Jemisin's since I've read The Broken Earth trilogy, and I absolutely love her writing style, the way she deals with social and racial themes and obviously the amazing and unique worlds she builds and in this book, things couldn't be different.

She's able to create such unique and original concepts that's impossible not to be mesmerized by them. They way she puts all the history and culture of these boroughs into these characters' personalities is brilliant. Also once again, she has a cast of characters with a lot of racial and sexual diversity.

I thought all the characters were very well developed, especially considering their personalities being based on the boroughs - but my favorite are Bronx and Queens. They are so awesome! Besides New York's souls, we also see São Paulo e Hong Kong here.

If you are a not a fan of series and prefer standalone books, don't worry because this book's plot is over here. Of course we have more stories in other cities around the world. I'm so excited about the next city - maybe it's a spoiler, so I'll not say anything here - but it's one of my favorite cities as well.

The only I problem I had with this book it was that it took a little while to really get into it. Maybe it was personal perception, but I only got into the book completely at about 40% of it. It was not exactly boring at the beginning, however it was a bit slow.

I highly recommend it if you're a New Yorker (obviously), or simply if you're fascinated by the city, since the book it's a love letter to it. If you don't particularly love the city, I also think it's worth the read if you love original fantasy books (which nowadays it's very difficult to find)

The review will be published on my bookstagram probably on March 23rd: https://www.instagram.com/brookssuggestions/

The idea of a city being embodied by five people with superhero-like abilities to protect itself is incredible. When I heard about this book, I couldn't wait to read it!

The world building is clever and imaginative and I really love the author for that! The characters are beautifully written, each with very distinct voices.

Unfortunately though, I found this book a struggle to get through. I probably would have given up if it weren't for the fact that I really loved the idea of a living city. However, it just wasn't my style! I've seen it described as a love letter to New York, so maybe that was my problem as I've never really liked New York. I think as a result some of the impact may have been lessened. If you are particularly familiar with New York, I think you'd probably enjoy it more!

This review has been posted to Goodreads and will be sent to Amazon after release.