My review of N.K. Jemisin's The City We Became was just posted at Strange Horizons. This novel is a surrealist social commentary in which the cultural icons of New York City begin manifesting as real people. It will be interesting to see the direction that Jemisin takes with future books in this series. The first paragraph of the review is below:
The City We Became is an intensely political work of speculative fiction charting two distinct storylines, with both layers of the novel's narrative producing unexpected insights and parallels as they are superimposed atop one another. By blending concepts as diverse as the true nature of social constructs, what it takes for fictional stories to become “real,” and some of the more bewildering implications of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics, Jemisin manages to explore hidden dimensions of social existence and racism.
The full review can be found here.