History Literature / TheCityWeBecame

''The City We Became'' is a 2020 novel by Creator/NKJemisin. It is the first volume of the UrbanFantasy duology ''Literature/TheGreatCities''. It takes place in a world where great cities acquire sentience through human avatars. In New York City, a group of [[AnthropomorphicPersonification avatars]] of New York, each representing their respective five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island) as well as of the whole city New York City as a whole emerges to face a supernatural threat.

''The City We Became'' is a 2020 novel by Creator/NKJemisin. It is the first volume of the UrbanFantasy duology ''Great Cities''. It takes place in a world where great cities acquire sentience through human avatars. In New York City, a group of [[AnthropomorphicPersonification avatars]] of New York, each representing their respective five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island) as well as of the whole city New York City as a whole emerges to face a supernatural threat.

* AwfulTruth: New York is actually the second city to have multiple avatars--the first was London, and something terrible happened when it incarnated, which has all the other cities on edge about New York. [[spoiler: London Prime somehow ''ate'' her other avatars, and is still incredibly traumatized. Hong Kong believes this is a feature of having multiple avatars, and tells the boroughs with little fanfare that they'll probably get subsumed. Ultimately, however, they avoid this fate.]] There's also how the birth of a city [[spoiler: destroys many universes,]] which Padmini is horrified by.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The last section of any audiobook tends to have the information about the author, the narrator, the production and copyright etc read by the narrator in a more removed tone of voice, different from their 'narration voice' or any of the character voices they take on. In The City We Became that section is read in the Woman In White's voice, dripping with insincere warmth and sarcasm. Then she laughs.

* LineOfSightName: Manny, having forgotten his original name, names himself after seeing the word Manhattan on a subway.

* GoodIsNotNice: Bronca is rather abrasive but ultimately heroic, with her harshness largely coming from having fought oppression her whole life.

* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:The Woman in White]] intends to create a class X-5 with [[spoiler:her city imposing on New York destroying this universe and several others connecting to it]]. A class X-5 also happens [[spoiler:every time a city is born.]]

* ExpendableAlternateUniverse: Thousands of alternate universes are destroyed when a city is born. While the main characters had no way of preventing this from happening with the birth of New York, they still decide pretty quickly that it's worth it and make no attempt to prevent it from happening again.

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: The Enemy initially says she wants to stop cities from becoming alive and destroying multiple inhabited universes each time. If she has to exploit human bigotries and cause smaller massacres in the process, and cripple humanity's social development, so be it. By the endgame, [[BrutalHonesty she makes it clear]] that she simply [[FantasticRacism considers humans and their cities to be abominations]], and she intends to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy not just the universe where the story is taking place, but every universe connected to it]].

* ExpendableAlternateUniverses: Thousands of alternate universes are destroyed when a city is born. While the main characters had no way of preventing this from happening with the birth of New York, they still decide pretty quickly that it's worth it and make no attempt to prevent it from happening again.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Invoked; Manny does in fact have a specific ethnicity, but everyone who looks at him assumes he shares their heritage somewhere along the line, as part of his power subtly influencing people to trust him.
* AmnesiacHero: Manny loses his memories of his past life upon arriving in New York, in what's implied to be the city taking away everything from him except what would be useful.
* AmnesiacResonance: Manny finds it easy to intimidate people with threats of violence, and has a vague feeling this was because he was violent and intimidating before he lost his memories.

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: The third act really kicks off after the Woman in White [[spoiler:destroys the Bronx Arts Center.]]
* AwfulTruth: New York is actually the second city to have multiple avatars--the first was London, and something terrible happened when it incarnated, which has all the other cities on edge about New York. [[spoiler: London Prime somehow ''ate'' her other avatars, and is still incredibly traumatized. Hong Kong believes this is a feature of having multiple avatars, and tells the boroughs with little fanfare that they'll probably get subsumed. Ultimately, however, they avoid this fate.]]

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Hurricane Katrina and the botching of the government response were influenced, if not caused by, the Woman in White, as a way to make it easier to kill New Orleans. The same goes for the 2010 Haiti Earthquake and the birth of Port-au-Prince.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Enemy wants to stop cities from becoming alive and destroying multiple inhabited universes each time. If she has to exploit human bigotries and cause smaller massacres in the process, and cripple humanity's social development, so be it.
** At least, she presents herself as this at first. By the endgame, [[BrutalHonesty she makes it clear]] that she simply [[FantasticRacism considers humans and their cities to be abominations]], and she intends to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy not just the universe where the story is taking place, but every universe connected to it]].

** Lampshaded when Hong addresses Manny upon first meeting the avatars, assuming that the only man among them must be the leader.

* VillainousGentrification: A tool of the Woman in White. [[spoiler: Becomes very literal near the climax when a race to Staten Island must go through a gauntlet of Starbucks franchises-turned-[[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]].]]

''The City We Became'' is a 2020 novel by Creator/NKJemisin. It is the first volume of the UrbanFantasy series ''The City''. It takes place in a world where great cities acquire sentience through human avatars. In New York City, a group of [[AnthropomorphicPersonification avatars]] of New York, each representing their respective five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island) as well as of the whole city New York City as a whole emerges to face a supernatural threat.

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: When the boroughs learn that [[spoiler:they may have to die to awaken New York Prime, they're not happy about it, but they all eventually agree. Five lives against millions isn't a choice at all.]]

* MySignificantSenseIsTingling: The avatars are able to sense each other's locations. Despite having entire boroughs to search, they find each other pretty quickly.