I enjoyed reading this! I haven't read much "weird fiction" before (the only one to mind is The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories, which I found rather boring); I appreciated this book's take on "weird" fiction and the modernization of it.
The cI enjoyed reading this! I haven't read much "weird fiction" before (the only one to mind is The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories, which I found rather boring); I appreciated this book's take on "weird" fiction and the modernization of it.
The concept of cities as people / living entities resonates. I am originally from a very small town and moved to Chicago when young, and cities certainly have an individualized energy to them that I have always enjoyed. While I'm not familiar with Staten Island, Jemisin's description of a more rural-like, "simple" life and beliefs rings true. The power of fear in these communities, particularly, rings true.
I like that Jemisin doesn't bog us down with long, technical explanations of how things work. Even Bronca, our link to this world's knowledge, doesn't bother us with that. We're expected to accept magic at face value because it's magic. I do have some quibbles with powers being inconsistently used, but I think for the most part this can be excused as our heroes don't really know how to use their powers.
The elevation of different cultures and ways of thinking elevated the story and provided some A-plus social commentary, without devolving into tweets. I think that's been my #1 criticism of recent speculative fiction I've read - the commentary comes tweet-sized and shaped. Not so for Jemisin's work, where the thoughts are more nuanced, more deeply integrated into the story and characters, and shine the truer for it.
I'll talk about more specifics in the spoiler section below - but two things stick out to me in the book that I'm not super satisfied with. I think things come very easily to our characters, all the way through. At almost no point do I see consequences for anyone in the story - what are the stakes? The problem with the main stake in the story being the end of the world is that it is intangible. There are two plot points that go against this, but one of them is rather lost, and the other quite short-lived.
Secondly, the pacing of the final third or quarter of the book felt a little rushed. The ending in particular, came all at once and resolved in a really unexpected and bizarre (even for weird fiction) way, that I don't think works very well. I do wonder if the story was more complete at some point before the decision was made to write a sequel. Perhaps the sequel addresses some of my concerns.
SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE BOOK FOLLOW: (view spoiler)[I have a lot of mixed feelings about Staten Island's character. We get a lot of good backstory for SI, but the story paints them as irredeemable. I was really surprised that the redemption of SI's character was not the major plot point of the final parts of the book - this would seem natural to me. Instead, Jemisin seems to say that the Island has dissolved itself of the City and is a lost cause. Why would we connect a character who we know lives in an abusive household, who does long for more, who is nearly the victim of attempted rape in this story - does it track that our story would abandon this person? Is the message here that the programming this person has gone through is impossible to reverse? So much of Staten Island's fear, insecurity, and false facades ring true to rural, more conservative-leaning life. And yet, maybe because I know so many people like this, I don't believe that SI is a lost cause. Her father? Yes. Her? No. (hide spoiler)]
(view spoiler)[To add to the above, it seems really strange and totally out of nowhere that Jersey City suddenly appears as a new borough at the end of the story. I guess the commentary here is that what something says on a map doesn't matter, because a City is a concept more similar to a nation - a collection of thought and culture - rather than lines on a map (like a State). Fair enough, but it seemed to me more like the writer making a rapid adjustment to bring the book to a rapid close than something well thought out. (hide spoiler)]...more