Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
All City cover art

All City

By: Alex DiFrancesco
Narrated by: Eboni Flowers, Eileen Stevens, Jayme Mattler, Timothy Andrés Pabon
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £13.99

Buy Now for £13.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World cover art
Boys, Beasts & Men cover art
Casting Shadows Everywhere cover art
Top of Mason cover art
Anyone? cover art
The Dove in the Belly cover art
Point B cover art
Spooky Stories: Vol. 1 cover art
Never Be Alone cover art
Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror cover art
Every Other Weekend cover art
Little Fish cover art
Unapologetically Me cover art
Lost in Ghost Town cover art
Once Perfect cover art
Dragon of Ash & Stars cover art

Summary

All City is more than a novel, it's a foreshadowing of a world to come.

In a near-future New York City ravaged by climate change and economic inequality, a superstorm hits, leaving behind only those who had nowhere else to go and no way to get out. Among those who remain are 24-year-old Makayla, who works in the city's most ubiquitous convenience store chain, and Jesse, an 18-year-old, genderqueer anarchist living in an abandoned IRT station in the Bronx. In the aftermath of the storm, Jesse joins Makayla's group of remainders in an abandoned luxury condo building, carving out a small sanctuary in the midst of a destroyed city. 

Meanwhile, mysterious, colorful murals begin to appear throughout NYC, bringing hope to the forsaken and left-behind. But the storm's castaways aren't the only ones who find beauty in the art: the media, having long abandoned the supposedly hopeless metropolis, "discovers" the emergence of the murals. When one appears on Makayla and Jesse's repurposed luxury condo, it is only a matter of time before the landlord class comes back to claim the city for themselves.

©2019 Alex DiFrancesco (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

More from the same

What listeners say about All City

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A good thought experiment

This is a good book for thinking through different approaches to the wealth gap and the pitfalls of power, and how we might try to balance art and culture with physical needs.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I Really Needed This Bleakly Beautiful Book

CW: Self Harm, Sexual Assault, Police Brutality and Murder, Queer and Transphobia (Slurs and Violence)

I am left absolutely rocked by the book. I went from enjoying it to loving it to having some sketchy feelings about one aspect back to loving it. This book is a lot, both in the content, though none of it is sensationalised or gratuitous, the nihilistic presence, embers of hope, and the bleak, soul crushing reflection of what is happening now and will be exacerbated in the near future.

All City follows the perspective of a handful of people who come together to squat in a block of luxury apartments during the fallout and abandonment of their neighbourhood in New York. They are all very different people with disperate experiences before the storm and in their respective journeys to the apartments. Each character feels whole and human with a level of human imperfection that lead them in very different directions, some of which are truly uncomfortable and heartbreaking to witness. I've seen reviews talk about how awful at least one of the characters are, and, like, they do become awful, but it is a tragedy of their situation, events on their journey, and how everything comes together to traumatise them to the point their pain creates a vicious downward spiral. But it feels very real and genuinely tragic.

This isn't your feckless 'live, laugh, love' of 'hopepunk'. It's the near future dystopia we're all but living in already. Grimdark with glisters of hope. Like how 'The Fire Fades' is the good ending of every Dark Souls game. In the nightmare world we find ourselves in joy and unity are fleeting, but immensely beautiful and important things that seem ultimately doomed, yet in this ephemerality and the conscious effort we need to grasp them only adds to their wonder... That's this book. (I want to be clear that I'm not romanticising moments of light in the dark and more light and less awfulness in the real world would obviously be better than bespoke good)

I need fiction like this. I'm Queer, trans, disabled, neurodivergent, and other intersections of all sorts of being destroyed by the way the world is and feels about folx like me. As bleak as this book is in many ways, being fiction and not just being the constant news of how awful everything is (despite by a mirror of this), it gives me a way to feel a little something without getting further washed away into depressive abyss. There are also many aspects of this book that are positive that I need equally as much, if not more. Positive, real portrayal of trans and Genderqueer characters, non-caricature anarchist crust punks, and the transitory hope and harmony that occurs when people come together in solidarity.

The one issue I did have was regarding a romance in the book that seemed to skim over some complicated issues, initially with someone declaring their feelings at what seems to me as a wholly inappropriate and scary time, and a sexual assault survivor being interested in and able to have sex no more than a few days later. The first point becomes a non issue as it is not necessarily unwelcome, but not having a nod to how the situation is nine times out of ten going to be scary and very bad. The second I feel conflicted about. This is not something I have experienced and have no real grounds to speak on, especially with the knowledge that the author is a sexual assault survivor themself. All I can say is that comments about other media with similar situations by other survivors have been very critical. Of course survivors aren't a monolith and people's experiences after a trauma are very different. I will just say that I was seriously taken aback and had to take a pause before I carried on.

Ultimately, I adore this bleak tale of people broken by the system, marbled with the glory of solidarity. Sad Genderqueer recognises sad Genderqueer and I am so happy I read and stuck with this. I really needed it.

The various narrators are phenomenal and create such a perfect tone for their characters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Dreadful

Really boring. I can’t tolerate this so going to return it. Gave it a fair go!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

what a great story

what a story what it means to be who we and what we stand for, yeah this is a legend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Weird and not in a good way.

it's not often that I don't finish a book but this is was one of those occasions and, to be honest, I was glad that it was over when I hit stop. If I had wasted a credit on it I would be asking for a refund.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

All City

I absolutely loved this. I thought the characters were well drawn out. there were no 'silly' voices I read/listen post apocalyptic books by the heaps. so a little gem really

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!