Making an effort to post a book review every Friday!

The City We Became

The City We Became by NK Jemisin (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Inheritance Trilogy) is the first of her Great Cities series in progress and it’s been a long road between it and I. I loved this book, I did, but I struggled with this book, taking longer to read than usual, and it is my own fault. I got too attached to particular characters. I more or less proved its thesis.

The City We Became begins with Sao Paulo informing the avatar of New York City that he is soon to become the embodiment of New York City Itself, under threat by an interdimensional, existential, eldritch horror—and in order to evade said threat as the city is birthed, Sao Paulo is here to act as midwife. All cities, all great Cities, eventually develop this pulse, this living embodiment, that becomes a protective factor for all of its citizens. Naturally, under cosmic threat, the birthing is not without incident. New York City, a queer black homeless young man, is incapacitated by an attack. The five Burroughs, in an attempt to save their city, in turn birth their own avatars, in the hopes of coming together to save the primary and New York itself. These five unlikely characters, each representing the spirit and character of a particular place, are forced into fighting eldritch horrors and confronting their own cultural and personal biases, examining both how the cultural make up and flavor of New York works for and against itself. This story is beautiful. 

By the end I loved each character or at least understood their perspective.

Manny I got instantaneously. Staten Island, yeah, I got right away just the sort of person she is, for better or worse. The queen of Queens, Padmini Prakash, I felt like was a love letter. I have known people like Brooklyn Tomasin and I like them. I had to reread sections with Bronca Siwanoy, the Bronx, a few times. It wasn’t that she was dense, it was that her character was the most different. This story is detailed, and those details are important to the characterization of the city itself, and I found myself not wanting to misunderstand anything. Bronca ultimately stood out to me the most. A queer Lenape woman in her 60s, Bronca  I had the hardest time visualizing her in my head. I found myself backtracking and trying to understand her better.

I’ve worked in museums and art houses. That’s not a brag. If you’ve been done it, you know it’s not a brag. I know people, technically, similar to Bronca yet I had to really consider who she was to appreciate her better.

Despite taking my time with it, I was very excited about this book. I told people about this book. I told people I was wrestling this book. It makes so many bold decisions, the best of which are to know when to excise someone toxic and elevate others in your plot. By the ending, I was very much happy with the characters who came together and how they did so. And Manny, who I was too attached to for probably person reasons I should reflect on, actually had me cheering. I don’t…I’m not a person who does that, you understand.

The narrative is broken between large chapters of each character’s perspective and the story is very much about how these characters live, their personalities, their way of handling problems, and their coming together. It is a story that culminates not just in battle with eldritch horrors but primarily in understanding between the characters.

And I’ve skirted over one of my favorite elements of this book, but because the chapters are so divided amongst characters, the most consistent presence, who you spend the most time with as a reader, is the The Enemy; the Woman in White, Dr. White, various fungal appendages, x-wing spider monsters, or whatever form she takes—she’s funny. She’s charismatic. It’s not us, it’s her; she’s just doing her job here, man.