Our Discussion of The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

The City We Became (Great Cities #1) by N.K. Jemisin

Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city.

Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all. Goodreads

Below are a sampling of our comments:

• The Audible audiobook was very good and even had sound effects
• The book could stand on its own but is being marketed as a series
• I enjoyed the story, but there were so many plot threads that weren’t followed up on, like the roommate, Brooklyn’s house, etc.
• I had a hard time getting into it, but enjoyed it
• The enemy wanted to kill off New York to take over our reality – the enemy had all the terrible characteristics – racist, homophobia, etc.
• Staten Island was isolated, but craved belonging - it seemed that how terrible she was might have been a form of payback from the author to all the villainous portrayals of Black characters throughout history
• I was hoping for an “ah ha” moment for Staten Island when she would realize she was wrong, but it never came
• The author made a point to refute a stereotype about New Yorkers by having them help Manhattan when he was disoriented at the train station
• This book was feminist, antiracist, inclusive, and women were fully human – sometimes more than human!

Please add any additional thoughts or comments you have about The City We Became. We gave this title the codes LEL, FEM, HRO, NFW, CTY, INC, and an average rating of 4.0.