Novel by N. K. Jemisin
The City We Became  First edition |
| Author | N. K. Jemisin |
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| Country | United States |
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| Language | English |
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| Series | Great Cities series |
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| Genre | Urban fantasy |
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| Publisher | Orbit Books |
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Publication date | March 24, 2020 |
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| Media type | Print, e-book, audio book |
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| Pages | 488 |
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| Followed by | The World We Make |
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The City We Became is a 2020 urban fantasy novel by N. K. Jemisin.[1] It was developed from her short story "The City Born Great", first published in her collection How Long 'til Black Future Month?[2] It is her first novel since her triple Hugo Award-winning Broken Earth series[3] and the first in her Great Cities series,[4] followed by The World We Make, released in November 2022.[5]
Plot
The City We Became takes place in New York City, in a version of the world in which major cities become sentient through human avatars. After the avatar of New York falls into a supernatural coma and vanishes, a group of five new avatars representing the five boroughs come together to fight their common Enemy.
A homeless black graffiti artist who inhabits rooftops is told that he is the avatar of New York City by Sao Paulo, the avatar of the Brazilian city, who warns that avatars face a great enemy. The avatar is chased through the streets by shape-shifting creatures attempting to take over the city; he defeats them but is wounded and destroys the Williamsburg Bridge in the process.
A black gay graduate student who just moved to the city gets off the train and is struck with amnesia; realizing that he is the avatar of Manhattan, he takes the name Manny. He encounters white tendrils on FDR Drive and destroys them by channeling the power of the city. He encounters the Woman in White in a park, and defeats her with the help of Brooklyn Thomason, a black woman who is the avatar of Brooklyn. They sense the manifestation of another borough's avatar and head to Queens to find them.
On Staten Island, the borough's avatar Aislyn, a white librarian in her thirties, is approached by the Woman in White, who offers to protect Aislyn from the avatar of New York City; they bond over racist humor. Bronca Siwanoy, a Lenape woman who is the avatar of the Bronx, is threatened by the Woman in White, who vanishes during the confrontation; Bronca as the oldest borough receives the historical knowledge of living cities and their enemy. Manny and Brooklyn search the Internet and sense the avatars of the Bronx and Queens, an Indian PhD student named Padmini.
At the Center, Bronca reviews a painting titled "dangerous mental machines" (a term coined by H.P. Lovecraft in a racist letter to refer to Asian New Yorkers) by the "Alt Artistes", an alt-right group controlled by the Woman in White. The painting turns out to be an interdimensional portal and the Center's staff kick out the Artistes. Manny and Brooklyn arrive in Padmini's magically protected apartment and stay the night. Soon after, Bronca is offered 23 million dollars to exhibit the Alt Artistes' work by the Woman in White, who appears as Dr. White of the "Better New York Foundation". After Bronca turns her down, the Alt Artistes doxx her and her friend and co-worker from Jersey City Veneza.
In Staten Island, Aislyn's father invites a neo-Nazi to stay with them; he sexually harasses Aislyn before she uses her powers to stop him and leaves the house. Sao Paulo meets her and tries to get her to join the other avatars, only for her to hurt him with an energy wave due to being told by the Woman in White that the cities are assaulting her home. At the center, Manny, Brooklyn, Padmini, and Bronca enter "cityspace" together to find the avatar of New York City. Bronca explains parallel dimensions are real and that cities puncture the walls between them at their birth, destroying nearby dimensions. As they exit cityspace, Hong Kong enters carrying the heavily injured Sao Paulo. The group researches and finds that the Woman in White is using non-profits like the Foundation to weaken cities before their birth.
Manny and Sao Paulo find the avatar of New York City in the old City Hall Station but cannot awaken him. Bronca, Brooklyn, Padmini, and Hong travel to Staten Island and discover the Woman in White is R'lyeh, a city from another dimension. Aislyn sides with the Woman in White, who is holding Veneza hostage, and blasts them away with an energy wave that deposits the avatars of the boroughs and Veneza in Wall Street. Veneza transforms into the avatar of Jersey City, and together with the borough avatars, awakens the avatar of New York City. The avatars burn away the Woman in White, restricting her to Staten Island. Weeks later, the avatars celebrate on the Coney Island boardwalk. Hong Kong summons the living cities to a summit in Paris to discuss the Woman in White's hold over Staten Island, and the avatar of the New York City joins the celebrating avatars of the boroughs.
Reception
The New York Times review stated, "In the face of current events, The City We Became takes a broad-shouldered stand on the side of sanctuary, family and love. It’s a joyful shout, a reclamation and a call to arms."[7] NPR wrote that the novel is "a love letter, a celebration and an expression of hope and belief that a city and its people can and will stand up to darkness, will stand up to fear, and will, when called to, stand up for each other."[8] A review in Slate said, "The city she sings fizzes so joyously through the veins of this novel that anyone mourning the New York before COVID-19 will likely find The City We Became equally sustaining and elegiac, a tribute to a city that may never fully return to us."[9]
