Zoo City (Angry Robot)

by Lauren Beukes

ZINZI DECEMBER FINDS PEOPLE. Even if they don't want to be found - like missing pop starlet Songweza. Trouble is, when you go turning over stones and digging up secrets it isn't long before the real truth comes to light. A truth the local crime lord, dark magician and beast master, will kill to keep hidden. In Lauren Beukes' shattered city, magic is horribly real and the criminal classes sport symbiotically linked animals. A stunningly original urban fantasy.

• ISBN10: 0857660543
• ISBN13: 9780857660541
• Publish Date: 18 August 2010 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Angry Robot
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

Zoo City was so weird, but definitely in a good way! Zinzi is a recovering addict and an ex-journalist who now writes scam e-mails when she's not using her magic to find lost items. While she's returning her latest finds, one of her clients winds up dead, she's a suspect, and someone wants to hire for a missing person (one of her no-nos!). Well, Zinzi needs the money after her payment is confiscated as "evidence" and soon she's sucked into the glamorous and dangerous music industry as she searches for a missing popstar.

What I liked best about Zoo City was the format. It is mainly told from Zinzi's first person account, but there's also some addition documents thrown in. We get an example of one of her e-mail scams which we also get to see her follow up with the in-person portion. There's movie blurbs and reviews which explain more about the Aposymbiots (people who have animals linked to them). There's some magazine articles about the singers and producer that Zinzi is working with. It all came together very well and didn't disrupt the flow of the story at all. I just wish there had been something that fully explained where these animal companions came from and how they get tied to their human.

Where Zoo City started to lose me was in the last 100 or so pages. Zinzi had already found Song, so what else is there? Sure the circumstances were quite suspicious, but I'm not sure that I cared anymore. Once Song is back home, there's suddenly more action and danger, and Zinzi just can't catch a break. It was a lot crammed in all of a sudden, and it did get to be a bit confusing in places. The ending is also quite bittersweet. I definitely can't call that a happy ending based on everything that happened. But I suppose things worked out at least for Zinzi?

In the end, I liked Zoo City. It held my attention until nearly the end. The setting and world building are quite unique and interesting. I can honestly say that I hadn't read anything quite like this before.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[wyvernfriend]

This seemed to me to be a great idea book. The author had a great idea (and the idea I liked, criminals with spirit animals is a rather cool idea, the creation of an othering by way of a visible burden of an animal, cool) but I didn't care for the characters and by the end of it didn't really care who lived or died.

There were moments where I stopped and the book made me think about a big idea or it had me think of ways I would have done things but I found that that almost got in the way of the story instead of making it flow for me. It took me a while to read the book, with a few others interrupting it, and there was a few times that I almost had to force myself to keep going.

Am I sorry I read it? No. Is it my kind of read? No. Will I be reading more by this author? I doubt it