Release Date: March 24th, 2020
Genre(s): Science Fiction / Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit
Pages: 437
Rating: 
.5
The City We Became is the first book in the new Great Cities trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. It features a world where every city has a soul, and each cities’ soul can be found in the bodies of one of its residents. New York City has five of them, one for each of its buroughs. But for each city there is not only a soul but also a dark force that threatens its cities’ protectors, and thus the city as a whole. Five New Yorkers discover their roles as the cities’ protectors, and band together against the evil forces that threaten their very home.
Before really starting this review, something I want to mention is that I’ve read so many books about New York. And even though I’m a Long Islander and not a city native, books set in New York can get old fast. In the past, I’ve set certain periods of time where I would go on a sort of “ban” from reading books in New York, because so many were set there and I wanted to do better about seeking out different settings when I read books. But after picking up The City We Became, I realized what the true issue was – most of those books weren’t the best depictions of New York. In fact, many of them used all of the places people are excited to hear about when they think of New York – Times Square, Central Park, Fifth Avenue, etc – to add intrigue to their story in place of other elements. Aside from that, these books being set in New York made virtually no difference to the story at all.
Why am I talking about other books in this review? Because The City We Became shows what New York City is really about – it’s about its own people. And if you take away its diversity, it’s just not New York City anymore.
And this is what The City We Became is all about. It’s about five people, hosts of the souls of each borough in their city, protecting it from the cities’ own ancient evil. And the choice in characters here impacts the whole of the story – it wouldn’t be the same book at all if different characters were chosen. And I know I’m in a completely different world being a Long Islander, but this book’s characters and their backstories make it the most “New York” book I’ve read so far.
That being said, I do wish we were able to spend more time with the characters individually. All of the main characters were introduced in this book, and juggling all of their backstories, plus all of the action in this book, was a lot. I feel that we did get a lot of time with Bronca, which really helped explore her values and motivations, and having at least that much time or more with the characters from this point on would be even better. I almost feel as though there wasn’t enough time to introduce all of the characters, and that some of that should have been done in book 2. There was just so much that happened in such a short span and the characters were able to find each other relatively quickly.
I found that the very fast pace of this book also had an impact on the plot progression. As I mentioned, the characters are able to find each other very quickly. And between this and all of the encounters with the Woman in White, things get very chaotic very fast. Which makes sense for what’s going on, but I do wish that this book was longer to really draw out all of these scenes.
Despite all this, the concept and execution of The City We Became is so unique. It’s about the city coming alive – literally – and shows how a city is not without its people.
I’ve heard several people say that The Fifth Season remains as Jemisin’s best work. I cannot comment on this as this is the first book I’ve read by her, but I’m certainly interested after reading The City We Became. (I should probably finish the other trilogies I’ve been working through, but this certainly adds to my motivation to do so!)
Recommending this to those that are looking for diverse fiction, urban fantasy/science fiction, and lovers of New York City.
