413 pages
English language
Published Nov. 11, 2011 by Angry Robot, Distributed in the United States by Random House.
"Zinzi has a talent for finding lost things. To save herself, she has to find the hardest thing of all - the truth. Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for finding lost things. But when a client turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she's forced to take on her least favourite kind of job - missing persons. Being hired by famously reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass, marked by their animals, live in the shadow of the undertow. Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the underbelly of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she'll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives - including her own. Set in a wildly re-imagined Johannesburg, it …
"Zinzi has a talent for finding lost things. To save herself, she has to find the hardest thing of all - the truth. Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for finding lost things. But when a client turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she's forced to take on her least favourite kind of job - missing persons. Being hired by famously reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass, marked by their animals, live in the shadow of the undertow. Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the underbelly of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she'll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives - including her own. Set in a wildly re-imagined Johannesburg, it swirls refugees, crime, the music industry, African magic and the nature of sin together into a heady brew"--Bookseller's website.
I really, really liked the South African style and the matter of fact way that things were said. But less than half way through, I just found myself bored. There was no real hook that caught my attention and I decided my time would be better spent elsewhere.
Cool, dark, and gritty. Great concept, strong characterization, and uncommon setting, with potential for a series involving the same character(s). But what's the deal with glowing four-star reviews? I mean, it it's glowing, how can it possibly be any less than five stars? Yes, I can see some problems, though fairly minor (I would have expected to learn more about the Zinzi's brother's death, for example). But I'll give it five stars, if only in protest against the inexplicable practice of giving only four stars with a perfectly positive review.
