City We Became (Jemisin) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
The book is rich and generous…. The Enemy is white supremacy, police brutality, gentrification, but the book doesn’t waste time arguing that those things are evil…. Instead, its main project is one of bridge-building, knitting communities togethet…. While the whole project is enjoyably looser, faster, jokier than Jemisin’s other novels, [some] passages… make it feel less disciplined or anchored in its rhetoric than her fantasy worlds…. Mostly, though, my experience of this book was of a white-knuckled grip…. It’s a joyful shout, a reclamation and a call to arms.
Amal El-Mohtar - New York Times Book Review

[S]heer moxie and sly humor…. The City We Became ends on a high note, but it makes no concession that the fight for a more equitable world is over. In both fiction and reality, it’s barely started.
Elizabeth Hand - Washington Post


What is most remarkable, given the pulp energy of this classic struggle against eldritch evils, is that The City We Became is also an astute interrogation of the realities of New York life.… Jemison’s characters are far more than allegories, although each rather cleverly reflects their respective boroughs…. [The novel] is meticulously grounded in the familiar, but is just as wildly imaginative and thought-provoking and a lot of fun along the way.
Gary K. Wollfe - Chicago Tribune


The City We Became… is, in a way, a metaphor for Jemisin's success… at redefining the science fiction and fantasy genre—a genre that has long been defined by the tastes and stories of mostly white men…. My only real issue with the book is that it comes to a relatively abrupt end. I want to binge on the entire series right now, which is the ultimate magic and allure of Jemisin's work. She pulls you into her world and makes you want more; she makes you want to stay there forever.
Steve Mullis - NPR


(Starred review) [S]staggering contemporary fantasy…. Blending the concept of the multiverse with New York City arcana, this novel works as both a wry adventure and an incisive look at a changing city. Readers will be thrilled.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review) Jemisin writes a harsh love story to one of America's most famous places. As raw and vibrant as the city itself, the prose pushes the boundaries of fantasy and brings home what residents already know—their city is alive. —Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton
Library Journal


(Starred review) Some of the most exciting and powerful fantasy writing of today... Jemisin's latest will attract ... even those who don't typically read genre fiction.
Booklist


(Starred review) This extremely urban fantasy… The novel is a bold calling out of the racial tensions dividing not only New York City, but the U.S. as a whole…. Although the story is a fantasy, many aspects of the plot draw on contemporary incidents.… Fierce, poetic, uncompromising.
Kirkus Reviews