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The City We Became, by N. K. Jemisin

Two things right off the bat: I love this book so it's going on my keep forever shelf, and I have a major gripe in how the story in this book unfolded. It might not make sense, but they are both true for me.

But let's start with a bit of background first;

The City We Became is an urban fantasy novel that follows the avatars of New York City, people who become imbued with the identities of the different boroughs that make New York New York. They are ripped from their ordinary lives to fend of an evil that was supposed to already be defeated--but it wasn't. And it's here. And they're here. And a battle will happen whether they want it to or not.

Now: I saw a recommendation for this book online. It wasn't recommended to me, but I got hooked by the urban fantasy description. So I looked into the book, bought it, read it, and here we are now with me about to complain about it.

Here's the thing-- My problem with the book is coming from a place of love. Because I really did enjoy reading the book. I liked the story, the characters… All the parts of the book, really. My issue is the fact that a huge chunk of the middle felt like it was setting up a second book before this novel is even done. Things just kept escalating and rising and getting more complicated (but still quite easy to follow)…and yet the pages left kept dwindling.

The ending is good. It makes sense and there's no big unwieldy loose thread left by the time the novel ends. Yes, it is also open-ended to leave room for a sequel. No, it did not need all the escalation bits. All of that could've been left for the sequel. When the writer and the publishers would be more aware if whether or not the series is going to have a built-in audience. Not when they're still in the middle of starting a possible saga/trilogy.

Other than that, I think the book is very solid. It has a really good point of view, and I want to see where the story takes us.

If you're a fan of Dimension 20's The Unsleeping City seasons…this book is for you. The characters from the actual-play show will not feel out of place in this book, and vice-versa.

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god bless rolling stone for having this article prepared in advance but even more so for publishing so quickly they didn’t even remove the placeholders

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Genz 4 meme (chatGPT) explains:

“lol, ok so check it – this tweet is like a mood. when midge says they're gonna need "extra strength mashed potatoes this year," it's a whole vibe. they're playin’ off those ads for extra strength meds, right? but instead of popping an advil or somethin', midge is like, "nah, imma cope with the chaos by doubling down on comfort food." it's lowkey a relatable clapback at life's messiness, ya feel? like when things get too real, sometimes you just gotta carb load and power through. it's funny 'cause it's so extra, but also 'cause we've all been there. it's giving "food is my therapy" and "let's get through this one bite at a time," period.”

That’s kind of beautiful.

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*Rocky theme*

GONNA FLY NOW

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Daily Cephalopod #109

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Snap! This southern ground hornbill opens and closes his beak to eat a locust in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES

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Black-billed Mountain Toucan

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Naruto, his arms behind.

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Yellow Warbler with a drone fly snack! Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 6

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Who has two thumbs and two seasonal vaccines?

The people ahead of me elected to take one shot in each arm but that strikes me as madness.

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Lesser Flamingo

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All Rapture predictions have been correct.

I subscribe to a loose version of Discworld-type theology where belief makes the god. The difficulty for Christians is that they all believe in different Jesuses so there’s gotta be this giant motley crowd of Christs milling about the spectral plane. Sometimes one of them has a Rapture and all of the people that applies to are judged and Raptured accordingly. As a result, nothing changes because it was a small and weak Jesus in charge of this event and also none of his believers made the standards they invented anyway.

So happy Rapture to whichever tiny Christ is having his day and good luck to his supplicants.

I shall bake a cake in your honor.

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Achemom sphinx moth, Eumorpha achemom, Sphingidae

Found throughout North America.

Photo 1 by brendanboyd, 2 by sandy317, 3 by dwelch477, 4-5 by joannerusso, 6 by wordswild, and 7-9 by kneubaue

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Allen's Hummingbird

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Guys:

Gif of me feeding Breadsticks the Crow some cat kibbles from this morning.

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Did you know you should pay attention when cooking food