This second half of Jemisin's Great Cities duology (after The City We Became, which you REALLY need to read before picking up this one) finds the living avatars of New York and its boroughs struggling with being a newly alive city, one with a supernatural Lovecraftian horror still looming over Staten Island and threatening to destroy the newborn New York. In a less supernatural horror, a fearmongering mayoral candidate who aims to "Make New York Great Again" is stirring up fascists, and threatening to destroy what really makes New York great: it's diversity, creativity, and individuality.
Jemisin writes in an afterword that she intended this to be a trilogy, but when she started it, she didn't see COVID-19 on the horizon (but who did?), nor did she realize how close to home this series would hit. So two books is where this ends. But you know what? While it does hit disturbingly close to home, it's also an excellent duology, and this is a fitting end. I enjoyed it, and I loved that it had all of the Lovecraftian horror while fighting all of Lovecraft's hatred. A great duology, and I can't wait to read what Jemisin writes next.
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