The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
This right here yall is Sci Fi/Fantasy at it’s ABSOLUTE FRIGGIN’ BEST.
DAMN.
Everything about this book was creative, different, interesting, entertaining and tremendous.
Straight up literary 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Let me tell yall the official summary before I get carried away:
“In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn’t remember who he is, where he’s from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power.
In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it’s as if the paint is literally calling to her.
In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels.
And they’re not the only ones.
Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She’s got six.“
When I first started reading this book, I had ZERO clue what was going on for the first couple of chapters….which honestly seems to happen to me a LOT lately 🤣
But I will say when it does, things almost always end up so very good!
My favorite kinds of books in this genre seem to all be written this way—where I’m like “WTF am I reading right now and am I EVER going to understand the plot or characters of this book?!?”
That confusion doesn’t last long and eventually it fades into comprehension and devout intrigue….once it all clicks into place, I am LEGIT blown away.
COMPLETELY happened with this book times a million.
The concept of a city becoming an ACTUAL living breathing person (well…personS actually) is SOOOOO out there…and hard to grasp or understand the ins and outs of why and how when it starts happening in the story….but then…that author yields that storytelling magic and things just start to make sense… you GET IT and you can NOT stop reading.
Have you ever heard someone (or done so yourself) describe a big city as being “alive”?
I grew up close to the city of New Orleans and I can 10,000 percent say I GET THIS DESCRIPTION.
The feeling I get deep within my soul when I’m in those streets, dancing to the music, eating the delicious food, talking with the people…it is ELECTRIC and pulsing and so hard to describe.
I can just FEEL a type of energy every time I take one step into New Orleans that is this whole entire living throbbing entity pulsing beneath every sidewalk and building. It is supernaturally amazing.
I have only been to New York City twice in my life but fell in love with it the instant I first breathed it’s air…because I felt that exact same feeling there.
I could feel it on every corner with every footstep and every taste and every smell….New York felt ALIVE to me just as New Orleans does.
That exact feeling right there is the driving concept of how the author creates her characters who literally embody the city of New York.
So hard to describe but OMG….she does it SO damn brilliantly.
Each distinct area of NYC comes alive in a different person in this story and the author reflects such rich and complex diversity in each representative character. She really did a fantastic job of personifying the individual characteristics of each area–good qualities, bad qualities, complicated qualities and everything in between—and it is SO beautiful and layered and fantastic to read.
I am not a New Yorker and have slim personal knowledge of the city and all it’s parts, but I feel like the author writes in a way where you get a true feel for each aspect of the diverse city even if you’ve never been there. I think New York natives will obviously have a deeper knowledge of the layers of each “personality trait” of the multiple buroughs which I think will only add to the enjoyment and understanding of the story.
Not only is this book an homage to the fascinating city of New York, but it is also a staunch and fierce metaphorical literary piece on current detrimental societal issues that affect big cities all over America. Racism, white supremacy, sexism, homophobia and gentrification especially are all dissected and laid bare in these pages in a brutally honest and unique literary interpretation.
The creative ways the author presents the evils of gentrification in the story are genius and the perfect visualization of the reality. There are actual WHITE TENTACLES taking over historical buildings and destroying them to make CONDOS, yall.
Also, the metaphor of assimilation to whiteness is also addressed. People in the city are slowly having single white tentacles attach to their bodies and taking over their actions and thoughts processes which in turn causes negative and detrimental effects on not just themselves, but also the community as a whole……wow. Powerful statement right there.
Mannnnnn….there is SO much to think about as you read this book….SO SO MUCH.
I love books that make me brain click into overdrive and cause me to check my own thought processes and beliefs while at the same time entertains me with an out of this world story.
To be able to master those two things at once is quite the literary talent in my opinion.
Neil Gaiman is quoted on the cover describing this book as “Glorious”.
Listen…yall know how my heart feels about Mr Gaiman and his works of art that are EVERY SINGLE ONE of his books….if this man says this book is glorious, IT IS GLORIOUS.
I stand behind his words times bagillion forever and ever amen.
I am so looking forward to the rest of the books in this trilogy and will be EAGERLY anticipating their arrival on my bookshelf!!!!
On that note, if you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman, I think you’d completely be a fan of N.K. Jemison.
If you’re a fan of sci/fi fantasy, I think you’d completely be a fan of this book.
Also, even if you aren’t a huge sci/fi fan BUT you’re a fan of New York in any way, shape or form, I think you’d completely be a fan of this book.
That covers a WHOLE lot of yall…so GO READ THIS AWESOME BOOK.