This book was excellent. It's about a woman named Zinzi who lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, who has a Sloth and can find lost things. In this world, criminals or people who have extreme guilt for bad things they've done (Zinzi is a former drug addict who accidentally got her brother killed) suddenly have an animal show up that's spiritually bound to them and they develop some kind of special power. Since Zinzi is still trying to pay off her old drug debts, she takes a missing person case, that somehow gets mixed up with the serial murder of some residents of Zoo City.
So good! Great world building, great characters, and really unique and interesting. I liked how the author incorporated other texts into the narrative, like a fake IMDB page for a documentary about the first known Zoo case or an abstract for an academic article about how psychologists should best treat Zoo patients. It really makes the world building interesting and fun without resorting to a huge info dump.
So good! Great world building, great characters, and really unique and interesting. I liked how the author incorporated other texts into the narrative, like a fake IMDB page for a documentary about the first known Zoo case or an abstract for an academic article about how psychologists should best treat Zoo patients. It really makes the world building interesting and fun without resorting to a huge info dump.
This novel was a well written specimen of the urban fantasy sub-genre. The prior reviewer wrote a good description. It does get a bit gruesome and both animals and people suffer badly, so I thought I'd mention it in case there are some readers who would rather steer clear. Otherwise, the story, the world and the main character have a lot to offer. I also enjoyed the insertion of other "source materials" throughout; it wasn't pure narrative all the way.
