THE CITY WE BECAME: Booksta Review

“Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths. And others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got six”

— The City We Became by N.K. Jemisen

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisen

Original Instagram posts: January 18 & June 30, 2021

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This is the face I make when I think about how damn good this book is.

Who’s the last jaw-dropping author you read? Like, “don’t leave your mouth open cause flies will get in there” jaw-dropping? N.K. Jemisen. I swear, when I read this book, I swallowed so many flies.

If you haven’t read any of Jemisen’s books, run — don’t walk — to your nearest bookstore and pick up The Broken Earth Trilogy or The City We Became. She is a fantastic sci-fi/fantasy writer, period. She is also black female author. 100% worth adding to your TBR.

Jemisin is the kind of writer who just leaves me in awe of her imagination. What she did in The City We Became was subtle and in-your-face and brilliant. The basic premise is that every great city has a soul. They are “born,” that soul stirring inside a person who will be its keeper. And New York City is finally waking up.

But something goes wrong. An insidious power interferes, one that is gaining ground and has halted the awakening of a city before. NYC still sleeps, but luckily it does not have one soul, but six. The City and its five boroughs. The boroughs' avatars must not only find each other, but protect New York City from its aggressive enemy. (An enemy that sinks its pale, white tendrils not only into the fabric of the city, but into its people. An enemy that seeks to protect itself against the awakening of a diverse and multicultural nexus.)

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I read this book last year and STILL find myself thinking about it. There’s this part where Brooklyn’s avatar, a former DJ, uses rap to subdue the tendrils trying to take over her home. I literally think about that scene once a weeks because of its ingenuity, its genius, how it’s integrated into the fabric of the world-building and so indicative of the power of what it means to be “of a place.”

This book sings of the city, a total love letter to New York and its diversity. It is not just a fantastic sci-fi imagining. This story is steeped in questions of race and who belongs, gentrification and local culture, homogeny and diversity. It was published in early 2020 and I could not stop thinking about it as the Black Lives Matter movement surged through the country after George Floyd’s murder in June. This is one of those books so relevant it feels predictive.

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If you’re looking to diversify your SFF reading this year, read this book. If you’re looking for a modern myth woven by a master storyteller, read this book. Am I selling this too hard? Just… read this book.

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