The City We Became is a love song to New York and all its messy parts. I imagine (hope) that part of NK Jemisin’s writing process for this book was wandering around all the different boroughs of the city, watching and listening to people. It is the first book of a “Great Cities” trilogy, but since according to her bio Jemisin actually lives and works in Brooklyn I am curious if her other books are going to have this level of adoration for the cities they are set in. I mean, she is a genius writer, so probably? Sidebar, go read The Fifth Season trilogy immediately if you haven’t yet.
Ok back to the book in question. This is a bit of a spoiler, but becomes revealed relatively early in the book. The City We Became is based on the idea that if cities last long enough, get messy enough, and have all the right ingredients they become personified into living breathing avatars that are superpowered and psychically connected to the city they embody. Very cool. But New York being a messy bitch she is embodied by not one, but six people. One for each borough and one “super avatar” that can connect all of them. The tricky part about this is that there is also some Lovecraftian monster that likes to eat these baby cities before they come into their full power so this birthing process is not a cakewalk.
Jemisin’s books are always juicy writing with delicious layers of cultural commentary and the end result is a yummy treat. The City We Became is no exception. My only caveat is that sometimes it seems a little on the nose in terms of how each borough is personified. Also as a non-New Yorker the amount of New York love was a little over the top for me, but maybe I just need to live there for a while and then it would all make perfect sense.