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I appreciate what Beukes was trying to do with this book, and I do think we need more books in this setting, by local authors, that aren't just kiddie safari picture books for tourists.
But I'm not sure if she got it quite right. Part One slogged - I struggled to get into it (and then gave up on getting into it and just finished the damn thing). Part Two picked up the pace... and then went too far. It felt rushed.
I didn't feel like I got to know the characters enough - not enough to care when they died. Those deaths should have been tragedies. They should have shocked me, and made me hate the baddies.
Instead, they were strangers. I had gotten to know Zinzi's car better than I knew them. I mourned the vandalism of said car more than I mourned the brutal murders. But even then, it was a skedonk so it wasn't a great tragedy either.
Even the sloth, which is supposed to be such a huge part of Zinzi, didn't quite cross the threshold where I started to care about it beyond the usual warm fuzzies I feel towards animals. I think Beukes (or her editor) could have sacrificed a few overwrought metaphors for some decent characterisation.
Basically, it was too much OMG JOBURG! OMG METAPHOR/SIMILE! and not enough story, and the characters all blended together. Meh.
But I'm not sure if she got it quite right. Part One slogged - I struggled to get into it (and then gave up on getting into it and just finished the damn thing). Part Two picked up the pace... and then went too far. It felt rushed.
I didn't feel like I got to know the characters enough - not enough to care when they died. Those deaths should have been tragedies. They should have shocked me, and made me hate the baddies.
Instead, they were strangers. I had gotten to know Zinzi's car better than I knew them. I mourned the vandalism of said car more than I mourned the brutal murders. But even then, it was a skedonk so it wasn't a great tragedy either.
Even the sloth, which is supposed to be such a huge part of Zinzi, didn't quite cross the threshold where I started to care about it beyond the usual warm fuzzies I feel towards animals. I think Beukes (or her editor) could have sacrificed a few overwrought metaphors for some decent characterisation.
Basically, it was too much OMG JOBURG! OMG METAPHOR/SIMILE! and not enough story, and the characters all blended together. Meh.