I’m so mad Goodreads didn’t tell me this sequel by N.K. Jemisin had been released! I’ve come to rely on Goodreads to give me a heads up when books by authors I’ve read are released, but apparently I can’t do that anymore. I waited three years for this book, and in the end, I had to stumble across it on my own.
While I read a hard copy of the prequel, I decided to get this one on audio from the library and I’m so glad I did! The narrator is amazing and the audiobook includes sound effects, and even suspenseful music in a few parts. I loved it!
The story picks up a few months after the prequel left off. The Woman in White has taken Staten Island and most of the protagonists call her Squiggle Bitch, and I love that, so that’s how I’ll be referring to her in this review.
Manny is apparently loaded. He doesn’t quite know where all his endless funds are coming from, but he senses it’s best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. So he bought a giant penthouse in Manhattan where everyone can hang out. Mostly New York City (who now goes by NYC) stays there because he doesn’t have anywhere else to stay, but the others have the option of staying there as well when they need to, and it acts as a kind of headquarters for all the avatars.
Brooklyn is still living in her brownstone for the time being, but has to go to court to get the deeds back. Fortunately for her, Squiggle Bitch possesses the attorney for the other side right when he’s making his closing arguments and says everything a judge does not want to hear, so the judge rules in Brooklyn’s favor and she gets to keep her house.
Things are not going as well for Queens who is still a full-time student while working overtime for a finance firm in the hope that they’ll give her a job so she can stay in the country. They don’t give her a job because, even though she’s better than everyone else there, they say she’s not a good “fit.” She can’t help herself from throwing a bit of a temper tantrum on her way out because it’s all just so unfair. She ruins her prospects of getting a recommendation, which she’ll need if she has any hope of another firm paying for her visa so she can work for them and stay in the country.
As if that weren’t bad enough, Queens is on her way home when she gets attacked by Squiggle Bitch possessing a racist xenophobe and Queens the borough dies for a few minutes. The avatar can’t sense the borough, which means she doesn’t have access to the power of the borough. Did I mention she’s under attack?
Fortunately, the borough flares to life just in time and Queens manages to summon enough power to get Squiggle Bitch off her back and get to safety.
Meanwhile, a full-on riot breaks out in Brooklyn when a bunch of racists stop traffic and start shooting paint balls that have been frozen, so they do real damage. The cops just sit there and watch, so Brooklyn summons her power to kick everyone out of her borough. At the end of it all, she decides she’s running for mayor of New York.
That turns out to be just what Queens needed because Brooklyn can hire her to analyze data for her campaign. And if she wins, she can hire Queens full time, and then she’ll be able to stay in the country for as long as Brooklyn is in office.
While all this is going on Aislyn is getting used to living on an island that is fully possessed by Squiggle Bitch. Her parents are nicer to her, but they aren’t really her parents anymore and she misses them. Everyone around her is different, and then the food starts changing, and that’s where she draws the line. Apparently she didn’t realize that making a deal with the devil would mean sucking everything out of Staten Island that makes it Staten Island.
Veneza meets up with Aislyn and tries to talk some sense into her at some point, but Aislyn is too stubborn and/or deluded to change her ways, even when the ferry they’re on gets attacked by Squiggle Bitch, meaning Squiggle Bitch is just as willing to kill Aislyn as any of the other avatars.
Meanwhile, Manny is travelling all over the world, meeting with different cities trying to alert them to the gravity of the situation in New York, but none of them want to listen. They say they all managed to fight off Squiggle Bitch on their own and New York should be able to do the same.
Finally, Manny manages to convince enough of the elder cities to call a summit that they agree to call a summit. That means all the city avatars meet up in the lost city of Atlantis to discuss the problem and whether or not the other cities are going to help out New York.
Most of the other avatars would rather see America suffer, even when it means their own eventual demise. Fortunately for New York, Squiggle Bitch attacks them all during the summit. They manage to fight her off, but just barely. That’s when the elder cities finally see for themselves what Manny has been trying to tell them. They realize America was not just being dramatic, and agree to help.
There’s a giant showdown in New York City that’s so big even civilians can see what’s happening. At some point, Squiggle Bitch’s creators decide to pull her out of the fight, but all of New York’s avatars (including Aislyn, who has finally seen the light) end up getting sucked into her other dimension with her.
That’s when Queen’s does her math thing and realizes that Squiggle Bitch’s creators have been destroying all the cities they don’t like, but that has just led to the cities that do get born getting stronger and more creative. The more cities Squiggle Bitch destroys, the stronger and more creative they get, leading to an endless cycle.
Once Queens is able to make Squiggle Bitch and her creators see that they are the problem, they agree (grudgingly) to stop.
But of course it’s not a happy ending until someone kisses. Manny and NYC, who have been circling each other (and their feelings for each other) finally get together. Manny had been getting ready to leave the city for reasons I won’t get into, but he agrees to stay with NYC because love conquers all!