What book do you get when you cross the genres of noir detective and magic realism? Since you are reading this review, you can probably hazard a pretty accurate guess. "The City and the City" pulls together some of the most engaging elements of those genres to create something truly unique. The setting of the "The City and the City" is fantastical, with two cities imposed on top of one another but where travel between them is heavily policed. Unfortunately, Miéville has to go to great lengths throughout the novel to justify how such a geographical situation can reach a long-term equilibrium because, in reality, the concept of "breach" would not last. The action and suspense building, along with fleshed-out political structure, makes the novel a joy to read. My main issues with the novel are that the main antagonist never has their motivations fully realised, the ending results in no real political change to how the two cities interact, and the protagonist cop just becomes a super cop through coercion and a dull sense of "why the hell not? There is nothing else better to do now". It appears Miéville lost his intellectual steam in the last 20% of the book and struggled to tie it all perfectly together. Regardless of these criticisms, "The City and the City" is a must read for all speculative fiction (and many crime thriller) lovers.