N.K Jemisin is a master in writing complex mind bending books that have me in awe of her talent and imagination.

This narrative captivates the mind, with its portrayal of a vibrant, sentient city. Its brevity is deceptive, owed to both eloquent prose and a straightforward plot. Controversially, the book confronts stereotypes, questioning their authenticity in depicting New York. While these stereotypes prompt reflection amidst the backdrop of societal issues like Black Lives Matter, they risk overshadowing genuine experiences and hindering unity. Will the trilogy delve deeper into this theme? Anticipation lingers for heightened complexity in forthcoming installments.

The premise of The City We Became is wonderful... and very cleverly executed. Cities coming alive, and forces focussed on destroying them, a quest to save New York City... there was so much to love here. All the ingredients where there to make this amazing, a story akin to Neil Gaiman's American Gods which I love... and yet... it was just okay. And it's frustrating because I really wanted to love this book. The sequel is out and I will still give it a go, as history has taught me that sometimes it takes a bit more to really fall for a book... so there's a chance I revisit my rating and feelings about this novel in the near future... but for now its a 3.5 out of 5.

While this book didn't work for me, I will continue to check out any new releases from Jemisin. I've really enjoyed a few of her other books, but I really struggled to become engaged in this book. I love good world building but something about this one just seemed a little too heavy for me. Consequently it dragged for me and I didn't feel connected with the characters. Sadly, this one just wasn't for me.

'The City We Became' is one of the most hyped and talked about sci-fi/fantasy book of 2020. It is the first installment of Great Cities series. The synopsis seemed pretty interesting, the cover design is cool too and I immediately clicked the request button on NetGalley. I really wanted to loved this book. It seriously hurts when I am not able to love some hyped book (there may be some legit reason for being hyped, right?). Did I enjoy reading it?? Why did I rate it 3/5??? Well...

The City We Became is set it New York. Sorry! It's a story about New York. Not just New York as a city, but New York as a person. And five other people who are the five boroughs of New York. New York is under attack by an evil, other-worldly force/spirit/creature/monster (still not sure what it was) referred to as 'the enemy'. Will the new born city and its five boroughs be able to hold the line against it?

The concept of people who truly represent the city and its borough being born as an avatar of the city itself on reaching maturity is a wonderful, highly potential concept. The writing is quite humorous at some point. The diverse characters from different kinds of backgrounds, BIPOC and LGBTQA (hell yes!!!). I was surprised and immensely happy to see an Indian girl, that too a Tamil girl represented in this book (high-five). Her family was totally relatable (seriously, her aunt said a proverb that MY grandma used the other day). In short, great research by the author! The other characters were pretty likeable too. The map helped a lot since I had no idea about New York's topography.

Now come the bitter parts. The world building was very complex and I did not understand a thing more than the basic concept. My brain was just too tiny to absorb all that info dump, I guess. The writing was confusing and I just didn't know wth-is-going-on at some places. It was really tedious and I just wanted to get over with the book (a week). The language had slangs that I had no idea of (my bad). And the only white mc is shown in bad light too (is it racist to portray every white person to be racist? I guess so).

In short, I am not a big fan of The City We Became. But I do recommend you to give it a try and decide for yourself. I have met lots of people who have loved it and as I previously said, I feel that hyped books are hyped for a reason.

I thank Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for providing me with an advanced reader's copy. All opinions are my own.

This book made me research non-euclidian spaces! Lovecraftian Horror turned into something so much better, only the name remains.
It even has equations!

Cities have avatars, humans that embody the city and protect it.
Some cities only have one avatar, but New York has six - one for each borough.
They have never met, but can they come together to protect New York from a growing threat that could destroy their home?

I have a confession - I have never read a N.K. Jemisin book. I'd always meant to, but never gotten around to it. Until now.
The six avatars of New York were all very different people, and it was interesting to read as they interacted with each other. As someone who has never been to New York, I don't know much about the city, so I appreciated that the reader is told what attributes are associated with each borough.
While I did enjoy finding out more about the avatars, there weren't any characters that stood out for me, and I didn't really connect with any of them. However, I liked the diversity.
The concept of the avatars and cities being alive was my favourite part of the book - I found it very interesting and intriguing and wanted to learn more.
The plot was mixed for me - it was interesting at times was a little confusing at the beginning. I did get a little bored at several points as the book seemed to drag, and I felt it could have been a lot shorter. I wasn't gripped, but I did want to see what would happen in the end, so I continued reading.
While I did enjoy this overall, I didn't like it as much as I hoped I would, so I'm a bit disappointed.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read.

I've always been in love with New York City so when I saw the cover for The City We Became and then read the blurb I knew instantly this was one I wanted to read. TCWB is a powerful and entertaining piece of urban speculative fiction/ fantasy which takes multiple no holds barred punches at societies' issues leaving the reader with a lot to think about.

The world building and characterization are absolutely sensational. Jemisin's portrayal of each of the city's boroughs as humans with their own very unique personalities is absolutely spot on and so captivating and entertaining. It's hard not to be automatically drawn to some characters and then to take an immediate dislike to others. The people, culture and vibes of each individual borough are portrayed so well in their human form it's almost uncanny.

While I really enjoyed reading it and found it so hard to put it down, there were definitely sections where I did feel a little bit disconnected. Jemisin goes in hard repeatedly on so many issues such as prejudice, gentrification, racism, xenophobia and homophobia and while all her points raise fantastic questions for discussion at times due to the intensity and nature of her commentary it did become to feel a little preachy.

There's so much to unpack that think maybe would have enjoyed it more as a buddy read to have someone to bounce thoughts off of and to discuss themes with. However, overall I loved this book and its characters and cannot wait to read The World We Make.

A captivating, gritty, speculative fantasy love letter to NYC with so much to discuss and ponder.

The concept of "The City We Became" is what drew me into it at first. It's a story about New York city as people, with different areas being represented by different people. The areas all have a soul, and that is who these people are. They protect their areas, which are currently being threatened by an evil enemy.

There are multiple pov's in this book for each person, and the cast is very diverse. The pacing was good if a bit slow at times. I really like the social issues that the book discussed, they were brought up in a natural way as part of the difficulty the individuals faced in their areas.

I'm really looking forward to the next book seeing as this ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.

I really liked the concept and the world building, however I struggled to become engrossed in the plot.

Adventure to save the world. I love a good NY story. This one's about NY, how cities are born, how they are threaded into one another's existence, No big complaints as the plot is interesting but yes, sometimes i wished the story would move forward faster or that there were less things to distract from the main plot.

I heard a lot of good things about Jemisin's work, and this is my first novel written by her. Unfortunately, as much as I would like to love this book, it was underlwhelming for me.

The plot was definitely intriguing, unique, and thought-provoking. In this world, every city had a soul, and they were literally living breathing entity. There was no better choice than choosing New York City for it had variations of different characteristics of people. The five protectors must work together to protect the city from destruction as an evil spirits threatened it.

However, there were a lot of times where I got confused. I was still not sure if it was because of the multiple POVs or the unpredictable and complex narrative. The pacing and the development was also slow to my liking, but the other half was more enjoyable as well as its brilliant ending. There was less of the "showing" than "telling" narrative, too. On the other hand, the political and social commentaries were relevant, timely, and on point.

Nervertheless, The City We Became was not that bad per se since other readers found it really great. Kindly take this review with a grain of salt. Maybe this book was just not for me. Still, I will read other Jemisin's work.

This book did not stop revealing new information right up until the very end and left with a devious cliffhanger and now I'm sad that the sequel isn't a thing at the moment.

N K Jemisin has a way of giving you just enough threads to keep you invested while leaving you utterly clueless as to where it will lead. So if ambiguous stories aren't your thing then I could see why you wouldn't love this. But as a fan of her Broken Earth Trilogy I've grown accustomed to this style so I was able to enjoy the ride while connecting with the characters, trusting that Jemisin will clear it all up by the time the arc is complete.

Have patience with this one, it's worth it.

I loved Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy and went into this with some trepidation as I wasn't sure it was my target age-range (this is new-adult as opposed to adult) and I'm not so well versed in urban fantasy. The concept of an avatar with the soul of a city is a really unique one and one that Jemisin excels in exploring. This book has been oft described as "a love letter to NYC" and, having never been, I can't attest to exactly how accurate that is. Nevertheless, the prose is amazing and I can certainly see the appeal to YA/NA audiences. Not 100% my 'thing' but even so, worthy of a read.

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book and was excited to be approved for an ARC. However, this was, unfortunately, a DNF for me. I didn’t get on with the writing and I wasn’t compelled enough to want to pick it up and read more.

I haven’t shared my review on social media as I didn’t finish the book.

It's simply way too bizarre for me - I completely understand why people kept asking the characters if they were high, because that's what the book felt like. I had no idea what was happening at all at the start. These weird worm-tentacle things were there, then there was several POV changes with more of these weird events (that did feel like, in another book or genre, they'd be explained as hallucinations from drugs.) It took ages to work out what was happening, by which time I was not engaged at all because I'd spent too long being confused about what was happening and what anyone's goals were.

I never felt like these characters' goals were particularly laid bare in a way that I could understand the characters and connect to them. I could not really explain why they all decided to save the city despite their lives being on the line - or why they all just believed they were turning into embodiments of the city. Combine not understanding why the characters were following the plot with not understanding what the plot itself was doing, and it was a hard book to get through.

There are what felt to be a lot of references for people used to the city - and not just on the Easter Egg "oh, that's fun" level. The basic idea of these people's characteristics seemed defined by a borough's characteristics - and they weren't always clearly stated. As someone who's only ever seen NY in movies, that all skipped me by.

Also, the book seems to be a reaction/critique of Lovecraft. I have never read any of his stuff (I'm assuming he's a writer from the book's references?) and based on the hints about him from this have no interest in ever reading him. So I probably missed a lot of meaning there.

trigger warning
<spoiler> mention of miscarriage, mention of stillborn, mention of rape, mention of cancer, mention of loss of parents, mention of domestic abuse, mention of police brutality, mention of drug addiction and resulting death, racism, doxxing, trauma, homophobia, misogyny, sexual harrassment, xenophobia, earthquake </spoiler>

One day, suddenly, without warning, everything is different. While all the other problems these people are facing constantly remain, others appear - an enemy has come to town. And they will destroy it if nothing is done.

Prologue and epilogue are writte in first person narrator. Do not let this deterr you if you can't stand this form of narration, the main chunk of this is not written in it.

We have five main characters, plus the pov in the first person narrator. I am trying to be as vague as possible to not spoil anything. Well, those five people I mentioned don't know each other yet, but they run into some problems that have to be faced in a group, which is how they meet.

The idea of people, entities, representing an area is nothing new. In ancient Egypt, the kingdom was divided into gaue, each one represented by a figure wearing a flag, each one different. In the Rivers of London series, they're introduced as genii loci, spirits of a place, tied to their domain and drawing power from it.
In this case, it's about New York City. I've never been to North America, so I can't tell you if the vibe the city gives off is captured well, but I can tell you that this book, from characters to pacing to storytelling, is awesome. I took my time reading it, but that was due to having a physical body with certain needs and being ill. If I had it my way, I'd swallowed this whole in maybe two sittings.

The diversity in this felt effortless, natural, the way it should be. You don't have to have toke characters because if you're depicting the world as it is, you have so many different kinds of individuals. You just need to <i>look</i>.

After reading the first one in the Broken Earth trilogy, I was afraid this might be too dense for my brain to handle right now, but that didn't prove to be the case at all.
What can I say? I will read on the series. I will read more from this author apart from the series. I'd recommend it to people who like awesome storytelling, and fantasy elements in our world as we know it.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

Jemisin is such an incredible writer - I loved The Fifth Season series, and The City We Became proves that Jemisin has an amazing imagination that adds magic to books full of raw, powerful characters. Her books aren't easy reads, but they are definitely worth it.

I received this e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I got this book from NetGalley a long time ago and then life happened. I finally got round to reading it now, and my main takeaway is:

I truly expected Jemisin to do better.

The concept itself is interesting and the book is readable but the message is so simplistic and so didactic, ugh. A combination of IT'S THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD (thank you, Hamilton the musical) and RACISM IS BAD (surprise) about sums it all up.

I will probably read the next part, because it can't be worse - right?

It turned out tgat I'm not a great fan of the magical realism genre, so I am putting this down for now.