RaveStrange Horizons... an intensely political work of speculative fiction charting two distinct storylines, with both layers of the novel\'s narrative producing unexpected insights and parallels ... an intensely compelling science fiction story ... Once the many core characters are established and the plot is ready to progress, Jemisin is able to resume the plotline established in her opening chapter—and begin subverting the narrative expectations she has been careful up till now to set up. It\'s also at this point that Jemisin\'s unique and often off-key style of humor assumes a place of unexpected significance in this text. It’s in this latter portion of The City We Became, then, that the novel comes into its own as a half-satirical work of cosmic horror ... in part an over-the-top adventure story whose characters engage in literal rap battles with two-dimensional spider-people, fight off a giant underground worm composed of discarded subway cars, and momentarily drive off parasitic alien sea anemones by throwing money at the problem until it goes away. However, behind all of that, this is also a novel about the horrifyingly absurd nature of bigotry, and the extent to which people are forced to accept as facts things that should not be true, but somehow are.
