#40: N.K. Jemisin, The City We Became

[kareila]

I don't know whether it's because this book is at its heart a repudiation of Lovecraft, whom I've never read and never wanted to, or whether it's because this book is on its surface a love letter to NYC and I self-identify as a Bostonian, but I did not connect with this book, at all. It's not necessarily bad, it's just not for me.

Comments

[jadelennox]

yeah I had two issues with it:

[spoilers]

• it is such a love letter to New York, which is fine, but it's an exceptionalist love letter to New York. It thinks NYC (writ large) is the most specialist and awesomest and most fucked up city in America, and it talks about that both frequently and metaphysically. And I'm willing to admit that Boston -- even though it's the city of my heart -- ain't all that. But the exceptionalism of NYC over every city in America, over Houston and LA and San Jose and Oakland and Chicago and Cleveland et al started to grate after a while.
• I didn't realize that it was in a series until I'd finished it, so in my reading, what I thought was the complete arc for Aislyn was pretty shocking to me. Like, it read realistically true, sure. It is absolutely a reasonable arc for a real person. But Aislyn isn't just fictional, she's literally a metaphorical avatar, so in the novel her arc has to follow certain paths to make it work. And for me, the "look, it doesn't matter that she's an abuse victim, this woman is still making terrible, harmful choices and needs to be rejected" just didn't have the payoff it needed. I'm fine with the arc, but I spent so much of the book expecting her to either get a redemption moment or a conscious villainy moment, because the plot was building that potential. And instead we just get a "hi, she's been victimized into lashing out, so now she's a bad guy"--like, I get the allegorical plotline, right? It's hard to miss. And I like the allegory. But the narrative was framed like a different kind of fantasy, and until near the end it was a setup for her to go full evil, become full victim, or get a redeemable moment. And switching to a completely allegorical moment without adequate buildup was a narrative twist that pulled me out.

[kareila]

I wondered if the author originally intended this book to be a standalone, then got a contract for a trilogy and rewrote the ending. Pure speculation on my part, of course, but it's exactly what she did to the previously published short story that was included here as prologue. In any event, I share your disappointment.