The City We Became

The City We Became

Company type	Novel
Industry	Publishing
Founded	2020
Founder	N. K. Jemisin
Products	Urban fantasy novel

The City We Became is an urban fantasy novel released in 2020 by American author N. K. Jemisin. Originating from her short story "The City Born Great," this book serves as the inaugural installment in her Great Cities duology and marks her first work following the conclusion of the Broken Earth trilogy.

Plot

Taking place in New York City, the narrative envisions major metropolitan areas as living entities embodied through human representatives. When New York's main avatar falls into a supernatural coma, five new avatars—each symbolizing one of the city's boroughs—come together to face a common adversary.

A homeless Black graffiti artist is recognized as New York’s avatar by São Paulo, the avatar of the Brazilian metropolis, who warns him of an approaching menace. As he is chased by shape-shifting attackers, he defends the city but sustains injuries, resulting in the destruction of the Williamsburg Bridge.

Manny, a Black gay graduate student and the newly appointed avatar for Manhattan, experiences memory loss but soon accepts his responsibilities. He battles white tendrils along FDR Drive and, with assistance from Brooklyn Thomason—the avatar of Brooklyn—defeats the Woman in White. Together, they embark on a mission to find other borough avatars.

In Staten Island, librarian Aislyn encounters the Woman in White, who offers her protection from New York City's avatar and bonds with her over shared racist humor. Meanwhile, in the Bronx, Bronca Siwanoy, a Lenape woman, confronts the Woman in White and acquires insight into living cities and their foes. Manny and Brooklyn locate Padmini, who represents Queens.

Bronca examines a contentious painting created by the alt-right group "Alt Artistes," which functions as an interdimensional gateway. After expelling them from the Center, Manny and Brooklyn take refuge in Padmini’s magically safeguarded apartment. The Woman in White, disguised as Dr. White from the "Better New York Foundation," offers Bronca $23 million to display Alt Artistes’ work; she declines and is subsequently doxxed.

On Staten Island, Aislyn’s father hosts a neo-Nazi who harasses her; she uses her abilities to drive him away and leaves home. São Paulo attempts to recruit Aislyn but is rejected when she senses danger to her home. At the Center, Manny, Brooklyn, Padmini, and Bronca enter "cityspace" searching for New York City's avatar. Bronca explains that cities rupture barriers between parallel dimensions at their birth, destroying nearby worlds. Hong Kong arrives with an injured São Paulo; they discover that the Woman in White exploits nonprofits to weaken cities before their birth.

Manny and São Paulo locate New York City's avatar in the abandoned City Hall Station but fail to awaken it. Meanwhile, Bronca and others uncover that the Woman in White is actually R'lyeh, a city from another dimension. Aislyn initially sides with her but later helps free hostages at Wall Street where Veneza becomes Jersey City's avatar. Together with all borough avatars, they awaken New York City's avatar who banishes the Woman in White to Staten Island.

Several weeks later, the avatars gather on the boardwalk at Coney Island to celebrate. Hong Kong summons living cities to a summit in Paris to address Staten Island’s continuing threat as New York City's avatar joins the borough avatars in their festivities.

The Avatars

• The Primary: represents New York City. He is a young, queer Black man experiencing homelessness, who is also a graffiti artist and hustler.
• Manny: embodies Manhattan. A queer Black man in his late twenties, he suffers significant memory loss of his previous life as a newly enrolled PhD student, symbolizing his emergence as a New Yorker. He possesses the ability to reveal the Enemy to non-avatar residents when necessary. As a shrewd tactician, he personifies Manhattan’s ruthless financial dominance. Manny harbors romantic feelings for the Primary and acts protectively toward him.
• Brooklyn "MC Free" Thomason: serves as the avatar of Brooklyn. A middle-aged Black woman, formerly a rapper, lawyer, and city council member, she balances family responsibilities including a child and an ill father. Her abilities revolve around music, enabling her to attack and perceive urban sounds as musical elements.
• Bronca Siwanoy: represents The Bronx. A lesbian Lenape woman in her sixties with a doctorate, known for her fiery temper and having a son; she is employed at the Bronx Art Center. As the eldest avatar, she carries the city’s collective knowledge and channels her power through steel-toed boots used in previous battles.
• Padmini Prakash: the avatar of Queens. A 25-year-old Tamil immigrant pursuing graduate studies; her name translates to "she who sits on the lotus." She manipulates physical reality through mathematical creativity.
• Aislyn Houlihan: embodies Staten Island. A 30-year-old Irish-American woman living under abusive parental conditions. Her father, a racist police officer, dubs her "Apple," while her given name means "dream." She has the power to become invisible.
• Veneza: represents Jersey City. A young Black-Portuguese woman collaborating with Bronca at the Bronx Art Center.

Additional Characters

• São Paulo: avatar of his namesake city. Raised in a favela during Brazil’s military dictatorship, he has brown skin, a lean frame, and smokes cigarettes whose smoke acts against the Enemy. As the youngest active city avatar, he played a role in New York’s creation.
• Hong Kong: avatar of his city, appointed during the Opium Wars era. He speaks with a British accent influenced by Chinese intonation.
• R'lyeh (also known as "The Enemy"): an alien, infectious entity aiming to conquer New York. It manifests in various forms such as the Woman in White, Dr. White, mind-controlling fungal tendrils, and spider-like creatures. N. K. Jemisin has remarked that these antagonists often symbolize gentrification.

Reception

In The New York Times, Amal El-Mohtar lauded The City We Became as an exuberant proclamation—a reclaiming and rallying cry—that highlights themes of sanctuary, family bonds, and love amidst modern struggles. She pointed out how the novel intertwines everyday difficulties with supernatural menaces and expands upon Jemisin’s 2016 short story "The City Born Great," explicitly inviting readers unfamiliar with New York. El-Mohtar praised its depth and generosity, noting its inventive subversion of H. P. Lovecraft’s racist mythology by positioning gentrification, police violence, and white supremacy as central antagonists while underscoring community solidarity despite existing biases.

Steve Mullis of NPR characterized the work as "a love letter, a celebration and an expression of hope," signifying a departure from Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy by situating the narrative within a vibrant contemporary New York City. Mullis emphasized Jemisin’s compelling depiction of evil as a tangible force mirroring real-world experiences of xenophobia and racism faced by the author.

Laura Miller, writing for Slate, described the novel as a "valentine" and an energetic tribute to New York City—especially resonant for those nostalgic for pre-COVID-19 days. She interpreted Jemisin’s work as responding to "the Trump regime," anticipating tensions brought by the pandemic. However, Miller critiqued the storyline as somewhat clichéd and superhero-esque with an awkward genre fusion. She suggested that the book functions more effectively as an urban fairy tale than traditional epic fantasy or science fiction and proposed that reducing detail could have enhanced its metaphorical resonance by engaging readers’ imaginations more fully.

Awards and honors

Year	Award	Category	Outcome	Ref.
2020	BSFA Award	Best Novel	Template:Won
	Kitschies	Best Novel (Red Tentacle)	Template:Sho
	Kitschies	Best Cover Art (Inky Tentacle)	Template:Sho
	Nebula Award	Best Novel	Template:Sho
2021	British Fantasy Award	Fantasy Novel (Robert Holdstock Award)	Template:Sho
	Hugo Award	Best Novel	Template:Sho
	Ignyte	Adult Novel	Template:Sho
	Locus Award	Best Fantasy Novel	Template:Won