A Love Letter to NYC: A Review of The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

The jump from High Fantasy to Urban Fantasy is not a jump every writer can make, but Jemisin clears it with no problem. I recently read The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. I will admit that I haven’t been this nervously anxious for a book since A Memory of Light by Jordan/Sanderson. I really wanted this book to do well, I wanted it to exceed my expectations, and I was worried it couldn’t. Have you ever really wanted to see someone do good, wanted to see them excel but you were afraid that your own lofty expectations would leave you inevitably disappointed? I mean, that’s what pedestals are for, to showcase pretty things before they fall. I’m a fan of Jemisin, I like her writing style, I like her unique perspective on magic systems, I like that she often brings something new to the table. I didn’t want to see her stumble here and I was unsure of what kind of story she was going to tell. The jump from High Fantasy to Urban Fantasy is not a jump every writer can make. In high fantasy, you are usually constructing a world no one knows anything about. That gives you a bit of an advantage from a storytelling point of view. There can be 4 moons, there can be weird syntax, weirder customs, physics can be malleable.   When you make the jump to urban fantasy you are now dealing with worlds, environments, places, landmarks that people already have background knowledge on. Jemisin didn’t aim low either, she didn’t pick a random city like Metropolis or Gotham, she didn’t even pick a small…