Cities are born when they become conscious, and New York City is finally waking up in N.K. Jemisin's urban fantasy that reimagines the five boroughs as living entities defending themselves against an otherworldly threat. The primary avatar, a young Black man, lies comatose after channeling the city's power during its birth. Five others must take up aspects of his role: a Bronx council member, a Brooklyn rapper, a Lenape gallery director from Staten Island, a queer young painter from Manhattan, and a Bangladeshi graduate student from Queens. The Woman in White, an emissary from a universe inimical to human existence, has attached herself to Staten Island, spreading gleaming white tendrils that unmake reality wherever they touch. Jemisin, the first author to win three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel, brings her mastery of worldbuilding to a contemporary setting. The magic here is urban, drawing power from subway rhythms and bodega altars and the million small allegiances that constitute city life. The novel is deeply engaged with gentrification, displacement, and who gets to claim a city as their own. The Woman in White allies with a longtime Staten Island resident who resents the changes diversity has brought. Characters discuss whether the boroughs can work together given their historical tensions. Jemisin loves New York fiercely and critically, and her love manifests in a fantasy that celebrates the city's multiplicity while acknowledging its failures.