For readers who enjoy urban fantasy, supernatural battles and deeper messaging, “The City We Became” by N.K Jemison is perfect. In a world where every major city must be born, avatars who represent the essence of their city are chosen to protect it from invisible forces that feed off its energy. Hong Kong is an overworked business man, São Paulo survives off polluted air and the newly-born New York manifests as a queer homeless boy who strengthens his city through graffitied portals.
But something went wrong with New York’s birth, the primary avatar is unconscious and the Enemy is unprecedentedly strong. The future of their city is left up to the avatars of New York’s five boroughs.
Nicknamed “The Woman in White,” the force feeding off New York is a shapeshifting woman determined to erase New York from existence. Her attacks manifest widely from racist nepo-baby artists to transformed Starbucks. Toward the end of the novel, it becomes increasingly clear that the villain killing New York and its diverse cast of avatars is a direct metaphor for the gentrification that is slowly displacing minority groups.
Characters in the novel often mention that the older cities do not understand their struggles and that The Woman in White’s attacks are unique to New York. New York is the city of immigrants, a land of hope that has welcomed people of all backgrounds for centuries. Yet in the modern day of chain stores and boutique shops, that same diverse character is slowly being erased, and if we continue to let gentrification take over New York and other cities like it, history will be lost and countless stories will go untold.
Every N.K Jemison novel I have read has become a favourite for her immersive world-building and unique use of metaphors. “The City We Became” is no exception. Through the fantastical ideas of living cities and looming metaphysical threats, powerful conduits and magical avatars, Jemison expertly explores motifs of gentrification, race and the biases that define people.