The City We Became Review
Title: The City We Became
Author: N.K. Jemisin
Date Purchased: 9/1/2020
Price Paid: $4.23
Date Finished: 4/15/2022
Rating: 5/5
Before I dig too deeply into this review, I will warn the reader that there are going to be some spoilers. Nothing massive in the grand scheme of things, but there is one thing I absolutely NEED to talk about and I can’t do that without some spoilers. Don’t worry. I’ll give you fair warning.
When I purchased The City We Became I was in the middle of my first of N.K. Jemisin’s other works, The Broken Earth trilogy, and could already see that her writing was amazing. If I hadn’t started this project I probably would have read this a couple years ago, but here we are. I can say that it was 100% worth the wait.
The premise here is an interesting one: every city has a soul, and when that city is “born” an avatar is chosen to represent everything embodied in that city…but, you know, in human form. This is set in New York City, so the representation is broken into six people. One for each of the five boroughs and a sixth to represent the city as a whole.
Opening on these avatars discovering who they are and what they mean to the city as a whole, the group learns of an immense threat from The Enemy and has to band together to keep the city from being destroyed. There’s a lot more that goes into the plot, obviously, but I’m trying to keep it vague for now.
Personally I have an interesting relationship with cities. I grew up in rural Vermont and live outside of our largest “city”, with the greater area having a population of 200,000 individuals or so. As a result, I am typically more at ease when surrounded by trees and dirt than I am buildings and cement. But this book gave me a different outlook on why I’m ill at ease while in a city.
Years ago I spent a lot of time in Boston. I was there almost every other weekend, and sometimes stayed for longer spans of time. While I absolutely love the city of Boston, and feel fairly comfortable there as a New England resident, something always felt…off. It was like everything moved in a rhythm that was both familiar and yet alien to me all at the same time.
Now I know that a lot of that could be explained by population density, noise levels, heat or cold, and all of those normal things. But what if it was more than that? The concept of a city feeling alive is nothing new to most people, and this is frequently what they are talking about. But what if the city truly has a soul, and whatever my existence relies on for comfort and support is different from what Boston offers? Could it be that the city felt as uncomfortable with me there as I often felt while being there?
Look, I’ve been cooped up in a house for a couple years so cut me some slack here. My mind sometimes goes to odd places.
Regardless, I think this was a fantastic concept and was amazingly well executed. Whenever an author attempts to mix the modern day with something more fantastic? It can go horribly awry. Jemisin was able to weave a tale which was believable and enthralling without losing me in the thought of “that seems too far fetched”.
As promised, here’s your warning: spoilers are ahead. Leave now if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing.
Okay. If you’re still here, let’s chat about one aspect of the book that really struck me.
Last chance to leave…
Outside of reading, my primary hobby is playing board games. My wife and I have a significant collection and would get together with friends all the time to play games pre-pandemic. I bring this up because it’s a great segue into the thing the gave me the most pause with this book: H.P. Lovecraft. Lately, and by this I mean in the last 15 years or so, board games that have a theme related to Lovecraft seem to pop up every other week. I have problems with this for two reasons:
- I am not fan of the overall “feel” of Lovecraftian horror. When you look at any of the stories, and subsequently the games, the main plot is all versions of the same thing: Cthulhu, or some other “Great Old One” is coming to the Earth to destroy humanity. The kicker is that there’s absolutely nothing anyone can do about except try to delay the inevitable. So the main theme is hopelessness. That’s just not my bag.
- H.P. Lovecraft was an awful human being. His racist beliefs were not a secret when he was alive, and you can see them very heavily represented in his work. Even if point one above wasn’t a thing, this alone would keep me from reading his bullshit.
So as I was reading The City We Became and kept getting a strong Lovecraftian vibe from The Enemy, I figured that it was just how I’ve been conditioned to view occult horror. As I neared the conclusion of the book and The Enemy speaks her name, this vibe proved to be dead on as she reveals herself to be the city of R’lyeh…which is a fictional city created by Lovecraft.
At first I was confused and conflicted about this…why would she bring his creation into this novel? Hell, earlier in the book two of the characters have a discussion about Lovecraft’s feelings towards those who didn’t share his skin color. But as I read on it became clear what she was doing, as we watch a group of characters that would all horrify Lovecraft with their diversity get the upper hand and defeat his creation.
Now this was the first book in a duology, so who knows what will happen in the next installment, but for now we’ve got a pretty clear score with Lovecraft on the losing side. And I’m pretty good with that. This book had me hooked from the onset and never disappointed. Perhaps the best book I’ve read in a long time.
Final Thoughts: Wow. What a fantastic book. I highly recommend this to anyone who is even the slightest bit interested in science fiction or fantasy.