Book Review: The World We Make

Potential Spoilers Ahead: The World We Make is the last book in the Great Cities duology. As such, the blurb for this book and the following review will inevitably have some level of spoilers for the previous book. I’ve tried to keep those spoilers to a minimum, but you have been warned.

Every great city has a soul. A human avatar that embodies their city’s heart and wields its magic. New York? She’s got six.

But all is not well in the city that never sleeps. Though Brooklyn, Manny, Bronca, Venezia, Padmini, and Neek have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading–and destroying the entire universe in the process–the mysterious capital “E” Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and “law and order” may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside. In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings, the avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in order to bring her down for good and protect their world from complete destruction.

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin is the eldritch finale to her Great Cities duology, a triumphant ode to great cities, culture and New York. It fixes some of the flaws of the first book, but the struggles have even stronger parallels in the real world than last time, which may make this a difficult read for some.