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In brief: Zinzi December has a Sloth and a munti for finding lost things, like watches or cell phones. She also has a drug debt and an attitude. Once you add a missing pop star and a pinch of blackmail, she’s going to have a very bad week.
Thoughts: Great urban fantasy in a vivid world I want to see more of. It’s exciting, funny, and suspenseful in pretty much equal measure, and gritty without being so grimy I’m turned off. I loved the combination of South Africa and magic and real-world troubles, and the mystery, which could’ve been a pretty standard missing-persons case, ended up being very fresh and different. I also really liked that Beukes drops in-world media between some of the chapters, to really flesh the world out. Zinzi herself is wonderful—smart, snarky, stubborn, and about everything you could want in a protagonist. I wish there was a sequel.
7/10
Thoughts: Great urban fantasy in a vivid world I want to see more of. It’s exciting, funny, and suspenseful in pretty much equal measure, and gritty without being so grimy I’m turned off. I loved the combination of South Africa and magic and real-world troubles, and the mystery, which could’ve been a pretty standard missing-persons case, ended up being very fresh and different. I also really liked that Beukes drops in-world media between some of the chapters, to really flesh the world out. Zinzi herself is wonderful—smart, snarky, stubborn, and about everything you could want in a protagonist. I wish there was a sequel.
7/10