The City We Became (The Great Cities, #1)

by N. K. Jemisin

[nannah]

DNF @25%.

I feel so bad at not being able to finish this, but I’m just not enjoying it and I have 300+ more pages to go. Not being from NYC (or just not being a city person in general) might have a huge thing to do with it, because the book reads like a huge homage to the city. It’s full of inside jokes and references to places I don’t know, and I feel like an outsider. Maybe that’s done on purpose, because not everything is for everyone, obviously.

What I love is the diversity, the creativity, the representation of evil as white. Some of the writing is absolutely gorgeous, and some of the humor actually made me laugh. While most of the characters didn’t seem real to me (yet), because they’re just physical representations of actual boroughs and their lines and actions really seem staged and rehearsed, I’m sure they would’ve become fleshed out later. I also love that the evil latched on to people whose prejudices and hatred were already either fully formed or taking root in their minds.

But yeah, I still couldn’t go on. A major issue was that everything just “seemed to fall into place” for the protagonists. They “felt” the right thing to do, because they were cities, they just felt for the right things to say, etc. Things played out very inorganically that way. The worst was the villain (so far, just having been introduced to the Woman in White), the lovecraftian horror wreaking havoc in NYC. She was more laughable than frightening. And while I appreciate making a point about how racist Lovecraft was (I believe he “monsterized” people of color, which is the point being made? Correct me if I’m wrong), things just fell flat in this story on its own.

Maybe I’ll try it again sometime, though! I definitely will read another Jemisin novel, because I hear great things about her works.