Closer to 4.5. A beautifully woven, quiet, thoughtful YA novel. I loved the main character and her astute reflections on her life, relationships, and community. I loved how her art was incorporated as a theme. I loved how unafraid the author was in portraying the discomfort of discussing race and class issues. The whole novel just felt so unreservedly true, in the deepest sense of the word.

While I didn’t love this as much as any book in The Broken Earth trilogy, I still very much enjoyed being in this world and can not WAIT to dive into book two. There are so many directions she could take the story and so many characters that can be further developed. Really the whole thing is just bursting with potential, especially in our current moment, and I’m so excited to watch her brilliant mind work it out. I would say the main difference between this and her other work, aside from being set in a present day, very familiar world, is the tone. The tone in The City We Became is much more playful and light than her previous works. It really feels like she is having a whole lot of fun and I’m here for it, especially right now. Also the main twist of the story genuinely surprised and delighted me. I was afraid my expectations might be too high for this one but I’m happy to say they were met and surpassed, just not in the ways I expected.