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Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
Apr. 29th, 2012 12:12 amThe Blurb On The Back:
Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job – missing persons.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Lauren Beukes’s second novel is a whip-smart, original urban fantasy that mashes the darkest elements of Africa’s supernatural culture with the worst excesses of western avarice. The mystery element frays too much in the final quarter and the way a supernatural sub-plot gets closed out made little sense, but the strong world-building and stronger first person voice of Zinzi. The fact that stories from African countries are so under-represented in genre fiction is a good enough reason on its own to check this novel out.
Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job – missing persons.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Lauren Beukes’s second novel is a whip-smart, original urban fantasy that mashes the darkest elements of Africa’s supernatural culture with the worst excesses of western avarice. The mystery element frays too much in the final quarter and the way a supernatural sub-plot gets closed out made little sense, but the strong world-building and stronger first person voice of Zinzi. The fact that stories from African countries are so under-represented in genre fiction is a good enough reason on its own to check this novel out.
