The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

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 The City We Became Review ⭐☆☆☆☆ | New York’s Biggest Fan Club… and I Was Definitely Not Invited 🗽😵‍💫

I’m sorry. This book was absolutely not for me. 😭

I LOVE weird books when they’re done well, but The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin felt less like a story and more like being trapped inside an extremely aggressive “only REAL New Yorkers understand” conversation for 400+ pages.

By the end, I was exhausted, confused, and honestly kind of annoyed at how deeply this book worships New York City. 😂

Rating: ⭐☆☆☆☆ (1/5 Stars)

⚠️ Trigger Warnings

  • Racism

  • White supremacy

  • Attempted sexual assault

  • Violence

  • Xenophobia

  • Political extremism

  • Heavy social commentary

  • Body horror imagery

🚨 SPOILERS AHEAD 🚨

This review contains full spoilers, including the ending.

🗽 What Is The City We Became About?

The premise actually sounds really cool on paper.

New York City is becoming a living entity, with human avatars representing each borough:

  • Manny = Manhattan

  • Brooklyn = Brooklyn

  • Bronca = Bronx

  • Padmini = Queens

  • Aislyn = Staten Island

Together, they have to stop an interdimensional enemy known as the Woman in White from destroying the city before it fully awakens.

Unfortunately, the execution completely lost me.

😵‍💫 My Biggest Problem: This Book Feels Like One Giant Inside Joke

If you don’t already love New York City, I genuinely think this book will be a struggle.

Every chapter is packed with:

  • NYC references

  • cultural shorthand

  • stereotypes

  • “you just don’t GET New York” energy

And after a while it became exhausting. The book treats New York like the center of the universe while everyone outside of it is too uncultured to understand its greatness. 😭

I understand loving where you live, but this crossed into full-on city worship.

🗣️ The Social Commentary Was SO Heavy-Handed

I have zero issue with political themes in books. Some of my favorite novels are deeply political.

But this book doesn’t feel interested in nuance or conversation. Every character sounds like they’re delivering a lecture instead of speaking like an actual person.

The themes are repeated over and over with absolutely no subtlety:

  • racism

  • gentrification

  • privilege

  • xenophobia

  • classism

And while those are important topics, the book felt more interested in preaching than storytelling.

🐌 The Plot Moves at the Speed of Gridlocked Traffic

This book DRAGS.

Characters spend chapters talking about what they’re going to do before eventually maybe doing it several chapters later. The pacing completely killed any tension.

The story keeps insisting there’s urgency while constantly stopping for:

  • city trivia

  • speeches

  • side tangents

  • long conversations

I checked how much audiobook I had left multiple times because I could not believe how slowly this was moving. 😭

👾 The Magic System Makes No Sense

The borough avatars can basically do whatever the plot needs them to do:

  • teleportation

  • super speed

  • moving buildings

  • random convenient powers

There are barely any rules, and the Enemy’s abilities are just as confusing.

By the ending, it basically turns into:

“We need this to happen, so it happens.”

And honestly? That sums up a lot of the book.

🏙️ Ending Explained

The borough avatars eventually unite and discover New York City’s original “primary” avatar hidden beneath the city.

The Enemy attempts to overwrite New York with another city from another dimension, but at the last second Jersey City awakens as a replacement avatar because Staten Island refuses to fully join the team.

Together they awaken New York’s primary avatar and blast the Enemy away in a rushed deus ex machina ending that made huge parts of the earlier story feel pointless.

The Woman in White survives on Staten Island, setting up the sequel.

Final Thoughts 💭

I know this book works for a lot of people. And honestly, I can see why hardcore New Yorkers might adore it.

But for me? This felt:

  • preachy

  • self-indulgent

  • painfully slow

  • emotionally distant

  • more interested in glorifying NYC than telling a compelling story

This is one of the rare books where I genuinely considered DNFing halfway through.

📚 Books I’d Recommend Instead

If you want speculative fiction with stronger pacing or better character work, I’d recommend:

  • The Fifth Season — N. K. Jemisin

  • Neverwhere — Neil Gaiman

  • Babel — R. F. Kuang

  • American Gods — Neil Gaiman

Did you love this one or were you also sitting there like “please stop explaining how cool New York is” for 400 pages? 😂

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