Zoo City is a fantasy story set in a fictional version of Africa. If you kill somebody, an animal will randomly show up and be magically bonded to you, and you’ll also gain some special ability. This book focuses on Zinzi, a young woman who is bonded to a sloth and has the ability to find things people have lost. She’s gotten herself tangled up into some trouble, mostly of her own making, and she gets herself into even more trouble trying to get out of that trouble.

I had very mixed feelings about this one. I liked the premise and the world-building. I liked Zinzi, the main character. She had depth and nuance. I liked the sloth. I liked her boyfriend, although we didn’t see that much of him. The story started out interesting, but the plot could have been more coherent than it was, and I thought things grew less and less clear as the book progressed. Toward the end, it was often unclear to me why Zinzi chose to go certain places and do certain things. It all kind of fell together at the end, but I never bought into how Zinzi drew her conclusions. I think the author tried too hard to keep the reader in suspense, but neglected to give us a chance to figure things out on our own so that the explanations we finally got at the end didn't really feel earned.

I grew less and less happy with the direction the story went in, and I was very unsatisfied by the way it ended. Spoilers about the end: I was exasperated that nothing Zinzi did managed to help anybody or make anything at all better. The kids she was trying to help all died, her boyfriend may or may not die, the people who were primarily responsible for all the death and mayhem in the book are on the loose, and Zinzi herself is on the run with counterfeit money, apparently off to exploit the connections of her boyfriend’s lost wife and kids, and we have no idea how things will turn out for her. I prefer that a book end with, at the very least, some sense that something positive has been accomplished, so there was pretty much nothing I liked about the end of this book. And it never made sense to me, even in the context of the fantasy, how or why Zinzi was getting cryptic e-mails from the murder victims.

This is the second book I’ve read by the author. I read Broken Monsters 4.5 years ago, rated it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on Goodreads, and I remember almost nothing about it. I think I’m likely to remember this one better, although I may prove to be wrong, but I’m rating it lower at a plain 3 stars. I was thinking 4 stars for the first half, but the closer it got to the end, the less I liked it. I would love to read a different type of story with a similar setting though. ( )

Hard to know what to say -- the short comment would be too egregiously violent for me. The long answer would ask a question -- how did a book this violent win the Arthur C. Clarke award? I know the answer. The setting is Johannesburg and the premise is truly excellent: people who have murdered acquire an animal familiar and a magical ability (just one, and some are very small). The novel is also well put together and solidly written. But toward the end chaotic violence that doesn't quite feel authentically grown out of the story erupts and I didn't really even speed read what was there, just kind of checked who died, who survived and called it a day. Of interest is that Beukes does not specifically call this or that person white or black or asian, a bit of info, a description of some feature, some little tidbit clues you in. In the area of the city where the 'zoo' folks live with their familiars what matters is surviving and that transcends human fixation with skin color. *** (difficult, not that fun, but interesting) ( )

I loved this! Zinzi December, protagonist of "Zoo City," is a 21st-century Travis McGee, but without the racism and without the white skin. She helps people find things that have been lost. She's animalled--witness her sloth companion--which is what happens if you've murdered someone, or been an accessory to a murder. You get an animal companion, which you can never get rid of, and if anyone kills your animal, the Undertow will come after you.

There's not enough POC sci-fi to go around. This author's imagination will knock your socks off, and keep you turning pages until you're done. ( )

A wonderfully unique and inventive science fiction in a setting often neglected in the genre, Zoo City is a hard-hitting and humanistic thriller. Everybody has made mistakes, and having the ability to pretend you haven't stripped away from you would be devastating. Zinzi is a realistic (though maybe not relatable) protagonist - scarred and angry and bitter but also trying to move on and make a new life. Though we never find out what exactly caused Sloth to attach to her, we get enough hints and enough of a sense of her guilt to build a picture. All the supporting characters were great and believably sleazy (The Marabou and the Maltese in particular were great "villains" and had a clear sense of purpose throughout), and the true-to-life fast-paced and shocking end was both unpredictable and fitting. ( )

Others have said it better than me in the reviews below, but this wasn't Beukes' strongest offering. Again, like [b:Moxyland|13632079|Moxyland|Lauren Beukes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1336032670s/13632079.jpg|3533237], all the ingredients are there, but it didn't quite gel for me.

What is this book? It's a like Donny and Marie with their little bit country and a little bit rock 'n roll deal. This is a little bit SF, a little bit horror, a little bit urban fantasy, and a little bit mystery.

It's certainly well written and the world is lovingly realized. It's just missing...something. I can't quite put my finger on it.

The good news is, whatever it was that was missing, holy hell, did she ever find it for [b:The Shining Girls|16131077|The Shining Girls|Lauren Beukes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352227705s/16131077.jpg|21956898] and [b:Broken Monsters|20706269|Broken Monsters|Lauren Beukes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394562848s/20706269.jpg|27869457]. ( )