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alexdunnereads 's review for:
Zoo City
by Lauren Beukes
ZOO CITY has been a funny one for me to review, while I really enjoyed the book and fully believe it deserved to win the Arthur C. Clarke and World Fantasy Awards, it fell just short of totally wowing me. The reason, I think, was down to the ending.
Firstly, like all good compliment sandwiches, let me start by laying down the good stuff! One of the real highlights of Zoo City was the setting – a kind of alternate universe Johannesburg where magic exists and a person’s guilt is made manifest in the form of an animal familiar. It was so refreshing to read an urban fantasy set in Africa and Beukes absolutely brings it to life with her wonderfully descriptive and often colourful language.
The character of Zinzi December is excellent – a former journalist and recovering drug addict and gained a sloth. She is something of an anti-hero who makes her living not only through finding “lost things” (her mashavi – a magic power that apparently comes with the acquisition of an animal) but also by orchestrating online 419 scams. She’s often funny, clearly very damaged, and just generally very interesting. Her past is slowly revealed throughout the narrative, but to be honest I remained slightly confused …maybe I missed something? In any case, it was refreshing to read from the point of view of a character so obviously flawed but who doesn’t try to make herself out to be a victim.
The plot of the novel centres around Zinzi’s hunt for missing teenager Songweza – one half of an up-and-coming brother and sister pop duo iJusi. For the first two-thirds of the book I thought the plot interesting and was developing at a nice pace; however, in the last third of the book the narrative turned a corner and began throwing a lot of stuff at the reader. It was almost too much to take in.
I would have also liked more detail on Zinzi’s relationship with sloth. Clearly there must be some really complex feelings at play between them and I think it’s a shame that Beukes didn’t explore that further.
For a more complete review, visit my review blog
Firstly, like all good compliment sandwiches, let me start by laying down the good stuff! One of the real highlights of Zoo City was the setting – a kind of alternate universe Johannesburg where magic exists and a person’s guilt is made manifest in the form of an animal familiar. It was so refreshing to read an urban fantasy set in Africa and Beukes absolutely brings it to life with her wonderfully descriptive and often colourful language.
The character of Zinzi December is excellent – a former journalist and recovering drug addict
Spoiler
who killed her brotherSpoiler
on exactly how she had killed her brother – in her recollections it seems as though he was caught in the crossfire when someone was trying to shoot her (possibly her dealer?), but she’s sent to prison for his murder and manages to gain the slothThe plot of the novel centres around Zinzi’s hunt for missing teenager Songweza – one half of an up-and-coming brother and sister pop duo iJusi. For the first two-thirds of the book I thought the plot interesting and was developing at a nice pace; however, in the last third of the book the narrative turned a corner and began throwing a lot of stuff at the reader. It was almost too much to take in.
I would have also liked more detail on Zinzi’s relationship with sloth. Clearly there must be some really complex feelings at play between them and I think it’s a shame that Beukes didn’t explore that further.
For a more complete review, visit my review blog