Zoo City

Jan 30, 2012 Tatiana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Tatiana by: Guardian

Shelves: 2012, urban-fantasy, foreign-lands, b

As seen on The Readventurer

Just when I think there is no urban fantasy in existence which breaks away from the formulaic and same-old-same-old, I come across this gem, thanks to Guardian book podcast. Hurray!

As with most of inventive and unorthodox genre deviations, describing Zoo City is a pain. I'm tempted to just call it a Paolo Bacigalupi/The Golden Compass mix and leave it at that, but I'm afraid I'll scare the readers away.

So, Zoo city. What is it? It's a sort of ghetto area in modern day...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, 52-in-2011, dystopia, sci-fi-fantasy, familiars, lolcats

One of the things I loved the most about Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series was his rather brilliant twist on the concept of a witch's familiar: that in that world, each person's soul manifests as a companion animal that is their other half. It's not only because it's a cool idea; it also is an interesting reflection of our ongoing weird relationship with nature -- the connection we feel to the creatures of the earth, though most of us live far removed from it in cities and suburbs. And,...more One of the things I loved the most about Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series was his rather brilliant twist on the concept of a witch's familiar: that in that world, each person's soul manifests as a companion animal that is their other half. It's not only because it's a cool idea; it also is an interesting reflection of our ongoing weird relationship with nature -- the connection we feel to the creatures of the earth, though most of us live far removed from it in cities and suburbs. And, you know, the idea of a little talking cat following me around is just fun. Provided, of course, you get a good animal like a cat, since you can't pick. According to the online daemon matcher they had on the Golden Compass movie website before it came out and failed, I would get a spider. I would not appreciate that. Other animals I would be happy with: Penguin. Welsh Corgie. Red-eyed Tree Frog.

Lauren Beukes' Zoo City has a similar conceit, which is why I wanted to read it even though I'm not typically drawn to Urban Fantasy as a genre. Check it out: Set in 2011, in a world that is basically our own, except sometime around the mid-Aughts, a strange plague descended upon humanity -- suddenly, people who commit murder (or are even responsible for a death through indirect means) find themselves marked for all the world to see by the sudden appearance of their own companion animals. I imagine this would make criminal cases really easy to prosecute ("Can you point out the perpetrator?" "Yes, that's him there, with the Red Panda in his lap.") They aren't quite the talking creatures of Pullman, but they do seem smarter than the average bear (no, really, someone gets a bear), and they do become your devoted friend for life.

Other than the whole "everyone knows you killed someone and therefore shuns you and you have to live in slums like the titular, crime-ridden Zoo City" angle, this doesn't sound that bad to me. i think a companion animal would be really fun! Did I mention they also grant their bearers useful magical powers? Hmmm, but then there is this downside where if your animal dies before you do, a black cloud of existential dread or something floats by to drag you directly to hell. So, also a negative.

So as you can probably tell, this is potentially a pretty dorky premise, but Beukes pulls it off with aplomb thanks to a strong central character, a well-chosen setting and creative world-building that pieces out an explanation for the funky backstory through occasional non-plot chapters consisting of emails, news articles, and even an IMDb page for a documentary on "Animalism" (complete with a nice nod to Pullman: "If you enjoyed this, you'll like Steering by the Golden Compass: Pullman's fantasy in the context of the ontological shift;" I see what you did there, Beukes).

Zinzi is a former journalist (and junkie) who lives in the slums of Zoo City, shunned because of her Sloth (which she has because of her Dark Past that is revealed slowly, and I must say the way the animals are doled out in this world seems slightly unfair at times). She's deep in debt to her former dealer and scrapes a living drawing in marks for 419 email scams (I told you it was just like our world) and using her special magical ability: finding lost things. Zinzi is a fun narrator -- clearly damaged, a sarcastic smartass hip to pop culture (she references lolcats! I'm going to need a shelf!) and highly capable on the job. Plus her companion animal is a sloth, so you know she's good people. Um, except for the murdery past.

The plot is ever-so-slightly incidental, as it mostly exists in order to provide a method to reveal the range of ways in which the phenomenon of Animalism (aka Acquired Aposymbiotic Familiarism) has changed what is otherwise clearly our world (I mean, they have email scams and Britney Spears, so it's gotta be us). That's not to say it isn't an interesting mystery: Zinzi is roped into tracking down the missing half of a Bieber-eqsue pop group; not surprisingly, murder, mayhem, and a nefarious record producer are involved. For a while, it almost feels like it could be YA, but there's a violent undercurrent that never really goes away; Beukes doesn't want you to forget that our likeable heroine has a Sloth friend for a reason, and that it is a very bad reason. I may have mentioned that the climax is intense; it's not just gory but profoundly sad, and I don't want to tread into spoilers but the unspoken themes that form the backbone of the entire thing, about the burdens carried by people who have done bad things -- very very bad things, yes -- but have to learn to go on living in a society that doesn't want them around, are surprisingly affecting for a book with a cartoon sloth on the cover. (less)

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Aug 17, 2012 Melissa Proffitt rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, dystopian, near-future, alternate-history

I hate it when I read a book that's beautifully written, but has a clumsy plot. I was seduced by the writing while I was reading it, and it wasn't until after I finished that I started realizing how many problems I had with it. In this alternate history/SF world, people's guilt over their mistakes or crimes manifests as animals that are emotionally or psychically attached to them, sort of like having an albatross hung around your neck, except living and not so corpsey. This was interesting to me...more I hate it when I read a book that's beautifully written, but has a clumsy plot. I was seduced by the writing while I was reading it, and it wasn't until after I finished that I started realizing how many problems I had with it. In this alternate history/SF world, people's guilt over their mistakes or crimes manifests as animals that are emotionally or psychically attached to them, sort of like having an albatross hung around your neck, except living and not so corpsey. This was interesting to me, since becoming a Zoo is all about feeling guilt and not about whether you're really culpable of whatever you feel guilty about. Zinzi gained her Sloth because her brother died over something she did, which makes sense (her whole background makes sense, even). But she went to prison for it, convicted either of murder or manslaughter, and that doesn't fit at all with her memories of the event. It bugged me that this was never explained, because it made her prison time (an important part of how she's treated in the book) seem irrational.

Mostly I felt like I wasn't getting the right kind of clues about where the story was going. The book starts with one of Zinzi's clients (she specializes in finding lost things) being gruesomely murdered, and because the crime scene is described in such detail, and Zinzi herself is temporarily suspected of doing it, it seems like finding the murderer, or finding out why the woman was killed, is what the plot will be about. But it isn't. The story immediately veers away into a missing-persons' investigation, and then *that's* derailed by a return to the murder, which is important after all. But the murder thing is just a distraction from the missing-person story, which is still the important one, except that it's really a cover for something else. The whole plot felt like it was there to give the beautiful writing a framework to hang on.

And boy, is this beautiful. Beukes is amazing at describing places and characterizing people. Even when I didn't like her characters, and even when I thought their motivations were unrealistic, I was still impressed by how easy it was to envision everything that was going on. One of the most elegant and horrifying moments is when Zinzi and her supplier/employer/loan shark pull an email scam on a sweet, generous couple. Zinzi's job is normally to write the emails, but if a potential victim insists on meeting the orphan/rape victim/lost tribal princess, she has to play that role in person. It was sickening and infuriating not only for what it was, but because Beukes did an amazing job in showing how easy it was for Zinzi and her boss to take advantage of innocents.

Once again I'm not sure how to rate a book like this. I know I gave it way more credit, and stuck with it to the end, because I'm a sucker for really good writing. But that's the same as saying I didn't like the plot. So I'd give it 2.5 stars if I could, but I'll mark it up rather than down.(less)

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Nov 05, 2012 Josh rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, own, urban_fantasy, read_2012

I like ZOO CITY more for the concept than actual story that is until the darker side of key players comes to light. Beukes creates a world teaming with real world comparisons separated by unique twists of the fantastical. The plot, once established, is pretty straight forward and conforms to the typical PI case format comprising a series of interviews, background digging, violent encounters etc as the protagonist, Zinzi December, and her sloth source the target.

Having previously used her talent...more I like ZOO CITY more for the concept than actual story that is until the darker side of key players comes to light. Beukes creates a world teaming with real world comparisons separated by unique twists of the fantastical. The plot, once established, is pretty straight forward and conforms to the typical PI case format comprising a series of interviews, background digging, violent encounters etc as the protagonist, Zinzi December, and her sloth source the target.

Having previously used her talents on trinkets or minor items of significance to their owners, the PI gig is a step into the unknown. Odi Huron, by way of an eccentric couple who specialise in ‘procurement’, hires Zinzi to locate a missing female musician, Songweza, seen as a good girl idol for the youth – using non-traditional techniques (PI’s, cops) to keep the disappearance out of the tabloids.

One of the best scenes is separate to the core investigation itself, rather Zinzi’s battle against some thugs in the Johannesburg storm drains. It’s dark, wet and brimming with tensions and an overwhelming sense of foreboding. More of this would’ve added a much grittier undertone to the novel.

The later stages of the novel uncover sinister motives and the drafting of magic concoctions formulated by macabre means that shocks and infuriates Zinzi (and all Animalled sympathisers alike). Linked to her investigation, she winds up in the jaws of death as the case takes a turn for the worse. The fusion of PI theatrics and wild animal rage results in a truly epic conclusion which for the most part is the novel’s highlight.

The intermissions provide a glimpse at the fantastical world and the concept of the ‘Animalled’ and the alternate universe of Beukes’ creation. These deviations from the story are greatly beneficial in establishing context to the environment and enhance the overall believability of the concept.

ZOO CITY is an interesting concept, a semi sleuth with a sloth attached to her…anyone who commits a crime is forced to ‘partner-up’ with an animal which cannot leave their side. It is set in South Africa but the place setting is very much inner city American ghetto. Living in Zoo City, a kind of quarantine for the destitute criminal accompanies all the vices typical in an urban ghetto-like sprawl in prostitution, gang activity, scams (though these are run by Zinzi herself), violence, and corruption. I thought Beukes did a great job at merging reality with fiction – nothing felt forced or entirely unbelievable.

In summary: Was a little hard to get into, but worth persisting - 3.5 stars.
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Mar 16, 2013 Colin Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, sci-fi

Zoo City is set in South Africa in the present day, with Zinzi December our guide through this unsettlingly familiar world, quite literally. Lauren Beukes has created a vivid, sun-bleached Johannesburg inhabited by hustlers, addicts, prostitutes, criminal, street dwellers, pop bands, music moguls and animals, the latter belonging to those who've been affected by a otherworldly force called the Undertow. This force seems to exact a kind of moral sentencing of those who've done wrong, sending an a...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Justin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011, noir, award-winner, 2011-release, no-clear-subgenre, angry-robot

http://staffersmusings.blogspot.com/2...

Lauren Beukes is the Queen of Metaphors. I capitalized and underlined it so it must be true. I'll go into why this is an awesome novel in a second, but first let me treat everyone to one of Beukes' metaphors:

"I haven't drive in three years and the car handles like a shopping trolley on Rohypnol."

I don't highlight much when I read, if at all, but I found myself marking sentence after sentence reading Zoo City. Beukes writes with a rare vividness that would...more

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Aug 22, 2011 ambyr rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: acquiredㅡlibrary, authorㅡfemale, genreㅡfantasyㅡcontemporary, ownㅡnever, protagonistㅡfemale, stand-alone-novel

Before I read this, I would have said there was nothing new you could do with the magical companion animals trope. I would have been wrong.

I enjoyed this--for the concept, for the characters, for the setting. I was all set to give it four stars. And then the ending happened.

(view spoiler)...more Before I read this, I would have said there was nothing new you could do with the magical companion animals trope. I would have been wrong.

I enjoyed this--for the concept, for the characters, for the setting. I was all set to give it four stars. And then the ending happened.

(view spoiler)

As a side note, this (the MM edition) had the worst typesetting job I've ever seen in a professionally published book. Lots of random line breaks and mistaken indents, plus some unfortunate hyphenation. Maybe it's ignorable if you're not a typesetter yourself, but eesh. If I read any other Angry Robot books, I think I'd stick to the original TP edition--and hope it was cleaner.(less)

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Jan 04, 2012 Cathy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook-library-available, fantasy, people-of-color, mystery, great-cover, read-in-2011, urban, favorites

4.5 stars. This book drew me in from the very first page. Zinzi has such a clear voice, and every detail of the scene was so detailed and vivid, while still being effortless to read, that it made me feel like I disappeared into the story. Some books are just a bit smarter, with ideas that are more creative and clever, than others. When you add a great deal of interesting real-world issues to give the story a lot of depth, it makes a book very special. From the unique magical elements of the anim...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Aubrey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 3-star, reviewed, reality-check

3.5/5
Well. I won't deny the fact that I didn't expect to love it. It may be that the recent trend of reading classics has left me suspicious of anything modern. Unfair, I know. But my reasons for this particular rating are sound enough for me. The writing was pretty typical: caustic wit, descriptive passages, hints at the unknown until they are dragged into the light. You know. (view spoiler)...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Suna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This story is packed with good ideas, but is over all too soon.

I slightly resented the ending for being more of a gore-ridden squelch fest, it overbalanced the magic/crime combination too much.
The story wrapped up too swiftly as a whole as well: Suddenly, after seriously heavy trouble, Zinzi's in her car, about to do what she's about to do...Can't give that away, now, can I?

However, what a wonderfully gritty homage to Philip Pullman's concept of daemons.
The nod to His Dark Materials is cleverly...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Aliette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Set in a world where guilt is made manifest, in the shape of animals which grant special powers to their owners. Zinzi December became animalled after she killed her brother; she's a former drug addict, a finder of lost things, and a writer of spam emails for her slimy boss Vuyo. But, when her latest customer is brutally murdered, she had to take on a job she hates--finding a missing pop star. The worldbuilding is awesome, and Beukes packs a punch around the city of Johannesburg. Zinzi is smart...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Haralambi Markov rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: uf-pnr

Zoo City' the novel for the adrenaline junkie. Gripping from page one, it rockets through a rollercoaster plot. Beukes never stops the action and delivers a page-turner seemingly without a fault. Substance, setting, characterization. It's all there. You can't go wrong with this one.

To see the pages and pages I wrote before I came to this conclusion, click here for [Part1] and [Part2]

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Sep 28, 2012 Tonya rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book, it was weird and completely different. The 419 scam angle held within the zoo that is Jozi coupled with the concept of criminals being branded with animals was mind blowing. A must read!

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May 12, 2013 Grace rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy

Zoo City takes place in present day South Africa in an alternate universe not too unlike our own, except for the fact that in the ‘80s murderers, junkies, and other felons started getting magically bonded to Animals. Once Animaled, people are stuck with creatures that they are unable to part from without experiencing extreme pain. Fortunately the Animals grant them special powers. The protagonist, Zinzi December, an ex-junkie responsible for her brother’s death, can find people’s lost things due...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery, noir, fantasy, science-fiction

Lots of innovation in this melding of noir detective, cyberpunk, and urban fantasy genres. She doesn’t go overboard with any one of this triad. It was a fun ride mixed with a lot of disturbing elements. Having a likeable female hero helped me accommodate the widespread despair in the contemporary Johannesburg setting. But I am led to render a 3.5 star rating because of personal displeasure with the shocking and implausible dénouement to the tale. But then maybe horror is the 4th genre in the ble...more Lots of innovation in this melding of noir detective, cyberpunk, and urban fantasy genres. She doesn’t go overboard with any one of this triad. It was a fun ride mixed with a lot of disturbing elements. Having a likeable female hero helped me accommodate the widespread despair in the contemporary Johannesburg setting. But I am led to render a 3.5 star rating because of personal displeasure with the shocking and implausible dénouement to the tale. But then maybe horror is the 4th genre in the blend, which is not such a draw for me.

The story is set in South Africa in the approximate present, with technology and the local and global social structures recognizably current. What is different is the emergence of a class of people who are “Aposymbiont” with an animal (“zoo” people in slang). Somewhat similar to the people in Pullman’s series that began with “The Golden Compass”, these individuals have an emotional dependence and telepathic relationship with a specific animal. For our hero, black thirty-something Zinzi December, her critter is a sloth; that for her boyfriend Benoit is a mongoose. These folks are downtrodden, tend to live in slums (“Zoo City”), and, though protected by civil rights laws, they are subject to much discrimination and tend to suffer stigma as a consequence. On the plus side, each has a special semi-magical talent. For Zinzi, her power lies in getting mental pictures of things that people have lost, a skill she harnesses to make a living.

At first, the premise for the zoo people sounds silly. But having a close animal buddy wasn’t that hard to put under my wing. And the first-person perspective employed by Beukes drew me quickly into Zinzi’s case, which is finding a missing ring in the sewer system. The magical element for her character is easy to take, not much more than psionic skills claimed by many in the “real” world. When her elderly client turns up murdered, her financial straits force her to take on a less preferred type of case, that of a missing person. A wealthy, reclusive music producer contracts her to find a missing teen Afro-pop star. Using traditional gumshoe methods, she works up the usual range of subjects posing as a journalist, giving us a tour of the music scene and the lifestyles of the haves and have nots. When dangers and threats emerge from rocks she turns over, she uses her wits to survive more than the overused kickass toughness. The sloth helps watch her back in some cases, but largely is along for the ride.

The detective work in an exotic city is satisfying. As with typical noir heroes, Zinzi has a good heart, but is jaded and compromised from past mistakes. The whole bit about how and why she, and others, are cursed with the animal symbiosis is the elephant in the room. From the beginning, all we know is that for her it has something to do with her recovery from addiction, which feels like some kind of Faustian bargain. The negative attitudes that the larger society places on the zoo people feels like some kind of metaphor for the aftermath of apartheid. In other ways, the burden of the animal link has religious overtones, like a Christian cross to bear for sins committed, some kind of voodoo punishment, or a twist on Hindu reincarnation. There is meat in the rest of the book for the reader to explore and dwell on these possibilities.

Perhaps if I could digest a little better the shocking climax in the light of these questions, I would see a way to up my rating. I am impressed enough to read the other book by this talented writer, her debut dystopic novel Moxyland.
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Feb 26, 2013 Matija rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-modern, humble-bundle, kindle, urban-fiction

I have to admit that I struggled with this one, despite the fact that it's not long at all. This is a shame, since both the setting of the story and the main fantasy twist are actually refreshingly different.

The setting is the South African city of Johannesburg, a welcome relief from more common venues such as London or New York, though in the end the African flavor doesn't seem to come through enough to matter much, unfortunately. More specifically, the setting is a Jo'burg ghetto called Zoo Ci...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Mutlu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Zinzi December, bir keş, eski bir gazeteci ve kardeş katilidir, Johannesburg'da yaşamaktadır. İyi halden erken salınan Zinzi,tüm canavarlar gibi bir hayvana sahiptir. Günahların tezahürü olduğu düşünülen hayvanlar toplumu 2 ye bölmüş silinmeyecek damgalar olarak insanları mimlemiştir. Zinzi'nin hayvanı bir tembel hayvandır, Zinzi'nin yeteneği ise kayıp eşyaları bulmak. Yaşlı bir bayanın yüzüğünü geri getiren Zinzi, müşterisinin öldürüldüğünü öğrenir. Bu andan itibaren hiç istemediği bir işi kabu...more Zinzi December, bir keş, eski bir gazeteci ve kardeş katilidir, Johannesburg'da yaşamaktadır. İyi halden erken salınan Zinzi,tüm canavarlar gibi bir hayvana sahiptir. Günahların tezahürü olduğu düşünülen hayvanlar toplumu 2 ye bölmüş silinmeyecek damgalar olarak insanları mimlemiştir. Zinzi'nin hayvanı bir tembel hayvandır, Zinzi'nin yeteneği ise kayıp eşyaları bulmak. Yaşlı bir bayanın yüzüğünü geri getiren Zinzi, müşterisinin öldürüldüğünü öğrenir. Bu andan itibaren hiç istemediği bir işi kabul etmek zorunda kalacaktır. Mafyaya olan borcunu ödemek için yapacağı son şeyi kayıp bir pop yıldızını, 15 yaşındaki bir kızı arama görevini üstlenir...

Sıradışı benzetmeleri, akıcı ve samimi anlatı tarzını 1. tekilden kurgulamış olan yazar, sosyal dinamikleri çok güçlü işlemiş. Karanlık bir Johannesburg anlatmış olan yazar, sokağa yansıyan şiddet, ayrımcılık ve duyarsızlığı okurun yüzüne sıvamadan gazetecilik yaptığı dönemden paylaştığı anekdotlarla sunmuş. Çoğu kırık hayatı hayvanlarla damgalayan yazar, ara pasajlarda gündelik göndermelerle son derece inandırıcı bir atmosfer yaratmış. Toplum ve medya eleştirileri, şiddet dolu ve değişken Afrika ortamında vermiş olan yazarın en güçlü yanı inandırıcı atmosferi. Büyücü doktorlar, kara büyüler, parazit hayvanlar olmasına rağmen bir "urban noir" romandan ziyade "dark fantasy" olarak algılayabilir okuru. Kara edebiyat öğrelerini de ustaca kullanmış olan yazar, dolandırıcılıklar, çocuk askerler, insan kaçakçılığı, keş dünyası gibi son derece sert bir dünya kurgulamış.

Kurgu bir yerden sonra tatlı bir kurgu oyunuyla kayıp vakasından seri cinayet araştırmasına dönüyor. Polisiye unsurlarını son derece ustaca kullanmış olan Beukes, sıradışı karakterinin öyküsünü bir vahşet senfonisiyle kapatmış.Yazarın kelime seçimleri, tasvirleri ve akıcı dili kitabın büyük artıları. (less)

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Jan 14, 2013 Melanie Lamaga rated it 5 of 5 stars

A Noir Detective Pagan Cyberpunk Novel

Zoo City is a ghetto in Johannesburg, populated by outcasts. Each person there is marked by the wild animal that appears just after they kill someone (intentionally or not). Animal and human become extensions of one another, and any “Zoo” unfortunate enough to lose her animal gets a visit from the Undertow, an existential black cloud that grinds its victims into oblivion.

The narrator of this hip, fast-paced urban fantasy (winner of an Arthur C. Clarke award)...more A Noir Detective Pagan Cyberpunk Novel

Zoo City is a ghetto in Johannesburg, populated by outcasts. Each person there is marked by the wild animal that appears just after they kill someone (intentionally or not). Animal and human become extensions of one another, and any “Zoo” unfortunate enough to lose her animal gets a visit from the Undertow, an existential black cloud that grinds its victims into oblivion.

The narrator of this hip, fast-paced urban fantasy (winner of an Arthur C. Clarke award) is Zinzi: former journalist and junkie with a tragic past, now forced to work for a company that runs internet scams in order to pay her drug debt and ever-mounting interest.

Along with a wild animal, each Zoo acquires a shavy, a special ability. Zinzi’s animal is a sloth that she wears slung across her back. Her shavi is finding lost things. In fact, she can sense all the things everyone has lost whether she wants to or not, hovering around them like ghosts, some wispy, others thick as chains.

Although Zinzi despises missing person cases, when things start to get ugly with the loan sharks, she takes a gamble on a job searching for a missing teen hip hop star that could earn her enough money to buy her freedom.

Despite the aforementioned fantastic elements, Zoo City has a gritty, contemporary realism that adds gravitas: the refugees from the Congo, the details of Johannesburg locations, life in the ghetto, and the constant, low hum of guilt and desperation of an ex-con who has all but accepted her station in life.

In the front story we follow Zinzi in her attempts to find the missing teen star, extricate herself from her unsavory employers (both the scammers and the ones who’ve hired her to find the singer), navigate the perils of the Zoo, and reconcile herself to the immanent departure of Benoit, her boyfriend who has just learned that his long-missing wife and children have been located in a refuge camp.

The political and emotional subtext of this character and her world elevates Zoo City beyond the standard urban fantasy fare, and in fact, the realism of Johannesburg seemed nearly as exotic as the fantastic elements. This entertaining novel has got all the style of a noir thriller, magical animal familiars, and the edgy cool of cyberpunk.(less)

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Jan 03, 2013 Nathan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Zoo city took me a few pages to get into, interested me and ultimately let me down. The main character is a litany of mistakes. She's a former journalist who did something bad and as a consequence got magical powers and an animal companion she has to carry around. She's an addict that owes money and as a result she abandons her actual career in favour of writing 419 scam letters. The saddest part of this is that her journalist skills appear to actually be in demand. All this however can be forgi...more Zoo city took me a few pages to get into, interested me and ultimately let me down. The main character is a litany of mistakes. She's a former journalist who did something bad and as a consequence got magical powers and an animal companion she has to carry around. She's an addict that owes money and as a result she abandons her actual career in favour of writing 419 scam letters. The saddest part of this is that her journalist skills appear to actually be in demand. All this however can be forgiven. After all we all screw up in life and I can still enjoy a main character who another describes as not caring about anyone else.
This however is the turning point in the novel. The second part is flat out labelled as such and when you look at the page count you can't help but be concerned knowing the first part is twice the size of the second. At first it appears the character is trying to change their life but only a few pages in it becomes clear that the author has no energy for this. Rather than writing an article the character, whose profession was writing, needs someone else to write it. The self improvement thread ends as abruptly as it began and morphs into a mission to "defeat the bad guys". The main character is already established as not being too bright so she grabs a friend and attacks the bad guys head on with one basin between the two of them. Given that she knows there are at least three bad guys and maybe more and that she knows these people have killed many people and have guns this seems like a really bad idea. It turns out that yes this is a bad idea. Most off the bad guys get away. The innocents get killed and the friend gets killed as well. The novel ends with the main character running away to another country using counterfeit bills. I can't help but feel let down. It's as if any time the character was in danger of making progress the author reached for the reset button.
At this point the only saving grace would be beautiful writing. Unfortunately the writing is disputed by jumps in consciousness that skip through the story leaving the reader to scramble to figure out what is going on. It's as if whole pages are missing. I even considered that I may have gotten a bad download. Is the "humble" version missing large chunks?
At the end I really wanted to like the story. The general voice of the author is quite good but cannot overcome the problems inherent to the story.(less)

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Dec 09, 2012 Rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, fantasy

I loved the premise of this book, as well as the setting, if only because it's so different than anything I've seen before. Oh, we have the damaged-goods narrator with a tragic past and a heart of gold despite herself, who tries to solve what looks like a simple mystery and ends up with the authorities as well as the criminals on her tail. There's a shadowy conspiracy, a problematic romatic entanglement, and an old flame with questionable motives. But setting the noirish story in Beukes' home ci...more I loved the premise of this book, as well as the setting, if only because it's so different than anything I've seen before. Oh, we have the damaged-goods narrator with a tragic past and a heart of gold despite herself, who tries to solve what looks like a simple mystery and ends up with the authorities as well as the criminals on her tail. There's a shadowy conspiracy, a problematic romatic entanglement, and an old flame with questionable motives. But setting the noirish story in Beukes' home city of Johannesburg breathes new life into a tired genre. And inventing a new, well-thought-out, and fascinating mythology instead of playing around with the same tired vampire-and-werewolf cliches--sign me up.

The characters are never quite sure of what their animal companions mean, or how they work. We learn what knowledge they do have gradually, through a variety of sources. And you know what? It works. We understand quickly the basics; only slowly the implications. Animals appear after someone commits a monumental crime--most of what we see is murder, but it's left open as to where the exact boundaries fall. They grant their humans magical talents, but cannot be separated from them, and if the animal dies, the human is quickly dissolved in painful and horrific black cloud. No one knows why this started happening, no one's actually sure what it means, but everyone has a theory. We never actually get an answer, but it doesn't actually matter. Like so much of life, there isn't necessarily a reason why this happens; we just have to find a way to deal with it.

The story is very dark, but with flashes of black humor, and the ending is ultimately satisfying even if not a complete victory. For Zinzi to win completely, in her situation, would be implausible.

There are a couple loose threads I never managed to figure out--I'm not sure if some of the early encounters were as random as they seemed, or if I just never understood how the author connected them. Either way, it seems a bit of a flaw. Most of the bits do come together in the end, however, leading to a brilliant, creative, and fast-paced read.(less)

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Nov 10, 2012 Christine Blachford rated it 5 of 5 stars

I stumbled across this book in a HumbleBundle so had absolutely no preconceptions of what it was about or what it would be like. I really enjoyed it! It has a great style, particularly as the story is about magic but it reigns it in. Rather than being of the Harry Potter style of all-out fantasy, this has heaps more realism, tied in with quite a lot of violence.

It's hard to know where to place your allegiences, because none of the characters are particularly friendly, and all of them are flawed...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Cora rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, urban-fantasy, fantasy, south-africa, africa

Zoo City is an urban fantasy book set in Johannesburg, South Africa. In Beurkes world, anyone guilty of a serious crime automatically acquires an animal. When the animal dies, so does the person and it is physically painful to be separated from the animal. Along with the animal comes a unique ability. Zinzi December becomes animaled when she is responsible for the death of her brother. She has a sloth that will always identify her as someone undesirable to polite society. Zinzi also has the abil...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Eliza Victoria rated it 5 of 5 stars

In Lauren Beukes’s alternate world, a person gets paired with an animal (mashavi) after he or she commits murder, and is also endowed with a corresponding magical ability. While the animals, or familiars, represent a person’s soul in Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, in the brilliantly imagined Zoo City, the animals (according to one theory) are the external manifestations of a person’s guilt or sin – a bright scarlet letter that breathes and feeds and lives. Imagine being an “animalled” in t...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Cécile Cristofari rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction-fantasy, science-fiction-sf

Original urban fantasy (or SF... or something in between), that follows the codes of the genre (badass heroin with a sharp tongue, a tumultuous sentimental life and at least a foot in the shadow-world/underworld, magical creatures and the occasional gangster), with its own original voice.

The plot is rather complicated, but its one of those cases when you're not supposed to follow everything that's going on, I suspect, and for a good reason: the heroin herself does not always follow what happens...more

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May 28, 2012 Charles Dee Mitchell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-sf

In this near-future South Africa, those guilty of crimes find themselves with unwanted animal companions who will never leave them and who stigmatize them as zoo people to the rest of society. Beukes heroine, Zinzi December (possibly the best name since Modesty Blaise), comes from an upper-middle-class background, is well educated, but fell into a life of drug addiction that resulted in the death of her brother. She lives with a sloth clinging to her. Her boyfriend has a mongoose. Others have Ma...more In this near-future South Africa, those guilty of crimes find themselves with unwanted animal companions who will never leave them and who stigmatize them as zoo people to the rest of society. Beukes heroine, Zinzi December (possibly the best name since Modesty Blaise), comes from an upper-middle-class background, is well educated, but fell into a life of drug addiction that resulted in the death of her brother. She lives with a sloth clinging to her. Her boyfriend has a mongoose. Others have Maltese terriers, black scorpions, rabbits -- there is an entire menagerie of possibilities. Since leaving prison, Zinzi makes her living finding lost objects, a feat she accomplishes by employing a mystical power whose origin is never explained. Zinzi, by the way, tells her own story.

Johannisberg is crime ridden but life goes on. Its lively music scene provides much of the novel's background. Class structure is firmly in place, but there is also black magic and raids on malls conducted by zoo people who have lions as their animal companions. And there is the Undertow, an mysterious and deadly force that arises when an animal companion dies before its human cohort.

Zinzi's finds that the elderly lady who first employs her in the novel has been savagely murdered just before Zinzi can collect her fee. At the crime scene she meets up with an unpleasant couple who want to enlist her on a missing persons case. Zinzi says she doesn't do people, just things, but she needs the money. This leads her into the world of South African pop music production. The female half of the pop duo iJusi has gone missing. Things start to get very bad.

Zoo City is short, heavy on atmosphere, and occasionally sets off on an action set piece. Zinzi is so at home in her world that she feels no need to explain much of anything. Readers must keep up. The more atmospheric sections fill in the social setting for Beukes' fantasy. She inserts a couple of sidebars from either documentaries or academic conferences to provide historical detail. In the acknowledgements she credits the professionals who helped her create this supporting evidence. One entry in a bibliography is her witty rejoinder to readers who cannot help but think of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials as soon as the sloth makes its appearance. She recommends a book titled Steering by the Golden Compass: Pullman's Fantasy in the context of the ontological shift, (2005)

The fantastically bloody conclusion reminds us that for the previous 300 pages we have been visiting a world populated by characters who range from the dodgy to the malevolent.

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May 22, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

In January our little sci-fi book club reviewed Zoo City, an "urban fantasy" by a relatively new South African author, Lauren Beukes. The story is set in an alternate version of the South African city of Johannesburg, in which people who have committed a crime are magically attached to an animal familiar, being known then as "animalled". This animal can vary from a sparrow to an alligator, and the link brings both a benefit and a drawback. The drawback is in being visibly branded with your guilt...more In January our little sci-fi book club reviewed Zoo City, an "urban fantasy" by a relatively new South African author, Lauren Beukes. The story is set in an alternate version of the South African city of Johannesburg, in which people who have committed a crime are magically attached to an animal familiar, being known then as "animalled". This animal can vary from a sparrow to an alligator, and the link brings both a benefit and a drawback. The drawback is in being visibly branded with your guilt for all to see, and being then forced then to live, as a second class citizen, in the ghetto of Zoo City. This link lasts for the criminals life too, since more than a few dozen feet separation causes painful withdrawal symptoms for them. Plus, the premature death of the animal results in the owner being torn to shreds by some mysterious dark force - possibly the source of the magical powers too. On the plus side is the addition of a physic power. For our heroine, Zizi December, carrying a sloth on her back, this power is the ability to see and follow the links to people's lost things. She exploits this talent for a modest income to help pay off her drug dealer, an income she supplements by writing 419 fraud emails. The story focuses on an unusual assignment for her - find the missing girl from a young pop star duo.
We enjoyed this book, with it's alternate reality fantasy, rich description, and some clever twists of a phrase. The author added in colloquial language from both the South African and pop music cultures. While a glossary would have helped, usually the context gave us enough clues. This addition also showed us how the "animalled" felt, forced to adapt to the subculture of Zoo City. In places we found the description almost too rich, as if the author had gone back in several times and added more layers. This slowed the story at times, but since this was an 'assignment' we all kept going, and were glad of it. Contrariwise, in other places we would have liked more detail, especially relating to the magical abilities. The author, in an interview, said this was deliberate, to let people fill in the details from the myth and magic of their own culture.
The ending seem to come up a little fast, with most of the bad guys getting away relatively free, and Zizi's successes mostly short term – she and Sloth are now sneaking across borders on a quest to find her ex-lover's family. We would liked to have learned more about the animals and the links to them, maybe all will be in a sequel. Or in the movie, as Beukes has just sold the film rights.
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Mar 13, 2012 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a pretty fine little sci-fi detective fantasy mash-up. It's kind of funny that the book has this weirdly punctuated blurb from William Gibson on the cover, but this is definitely in that school of contemporary sci-fi: kind of cynical and hip, but also aggressively international in scope and language; really, the level of South African slang here is actually a little forbidding-- I'd turn to google to look up one word or phrase, and the next thing you know, I'm thirty minutes down a rabbi...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Christal rated it 3 of 5 stars

Do you know the best thing about this book? It is ACTUAL urban fantasy. it's not paranormal or supernatural harlequinn romance masquerading under the banner so they can sell more books to unknowing fantasy fans, it truly is the genre it claims to be.

Now, having said that, the book was mediocre. The ideas were great, big time, and the setting in Africa and the African female protagonist were somewhat believable, however Beukes did not strike me as a great storyteller at all. Which for me is much...more Do you know the best thing about this book? It is ACTUAL urban fantasy. it's not paranormal or supernatural harlequinn romance masquerading under the banner so they can sell more books to unknowing fantasy fans, it truly is the genre it claims to be.

Now, having said that, the book was mediocre. The ideas were great, big time, and the setting in Africa and the African female protagonist were somewhat believable, however Beukes did not strike me as a great storyteller at all. Which for me is much more important-- the ability to grab my attention and make me care about the characters, to go through the emotions and become attached to them. Zoo City is set in Johannesburg's slums where Zinzi December squats with her neighbors of the dubious persuasion but are all humans in their own right. Zinzi, who came from a family with money, has been disowned and outcasted as she is animalled. She was a party to her brother's murder when she got caught up with the wrong people and carries the guilt in Sloth form with her wherever she goes.

Zinzi is still dealing in the scamming business trying to pay back her drug debt to keep herself and her boyfriend at the time alive, and her mashavi (the magical ability given to her once she was animalled) to find lost things winds her up on a job to find a missing person, a missing teen that is from a high profile teen pop act in Africa that is worth 1.5 million to her producer/owner Odi Huron. What follows is a gritty story through the dregs of the slums, the foulest behavior of the human species, and the ability for redemption. We also see the more humanitarian side to outcasts that we as a society normally turn a blind eye too, people that are scoffed at as 'unclean' as if they were not humans at all. But not too much, this book is not a full redemption or good vs evil triumph story.

I will say that I am torn with how the writer presents the story and characters. On one hand I have to give it to her, Beukes had the Moxy to get down and gritty and follow through with the ending. It isn't pretty, but she made a decision on the path she set her story and allowed it to come to a conclusion that made sense, even if it meant the death of 2 teenagers quite gruesomely, the injuring of a good hearted character, and the protagonist on the run from the cops and in search of righting a wrong that she has committed while hitting rock bottom.

But I do have a slight problem, and it comes with trying to figure out why I didn't connect with the characters like I should have. The writing wasn't bad, it was interesting (though not great), and the setting was believable and always see-able in my mind as I read. But something never clicked, something that was always off and I wonder if it has to do with the writer herself. She is South African, a journalist that has no doubt reported in the ghetto/slums of Johannesburg or elsewhere while first starting out. But she is a white, middle or upper middle class woman. She's not lived the life her characters have and I think that may be what makes them unrelatable... because they aren't fully believable. But this is also the same that goes for writing about a main character who was supposedly a junkie, who is paying off her drug debt while trying to stay clean. And yet Zinzi's character glosses over the drugs. She is quick to point out when she can easily spot the dealers, but she never deals with the temptation of being a former addict until the very end when suddenly she hits 'rock bottom.' It just wasn't believable that she could easily stay sober when assaulted with the easy access she had to drugs, never swaying, and then at the end basically doing a 'oh well I need her to go past the edge so I guess I'll have her finally fall of the wagon' moment. Which also brings me to the alcohol. Supposedly she was in rehab for it as well as the drugs, yet she easily takes a drink once or twice saying she has 'earned it' with no repercussions just like any non addict would have. Alcoholics don't do that, they can't just have a casual drink every now and then, otherwise they wouldn't have been an alcoholic in the first place. They fight with the temptation just as drug addicts do, and can easily go back into old habit with just one drink. But the writer most likely has never had these problems, or had a close friend or family member that had one that she became privy to their demons to see what happens. So it's mostly glossed over -- shiny. Makes a great backstory to help shape the personality, but without the experience to give it some heft it's basically a shallow ghost of what could have been, and hard to really become attached too and believe. And I think that's what is missing from the characters, a credibility. Beukes may like to throw herself into her work, who knows maybe she interviewed people from the ghetto, maybe she 'went native' for a few days to see how the poor live, but it seems through her writing like she's never had to live like that with no hope of ever going above that type of lifestyle. I'm not saying that no author could ever credibly write about it without having experienced it first hand, but that is a very, very hard feat to accomplish and for me Beukes certainly did not hit the mark.

Still, all in all a good book, def recommend worth reading as it is different from your normal NYT bestseller doorstop. And while not totally authentic there is *enough* to get a very decent picture of that type of life and a snapshot of an African city torn between being civilized and yet still caught in the old ways of magic and mystery. (less)

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Feb 15, 2012 Russ Meier rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of urban fantasy

Recommended to Russ by: Jason Kennedy

Shelves: science-fiction, urban-fantasy

I really enjoyed this gritty urban fantasy written by South African Lauren Beukes. It was the February selection in my Science Fiction book club. The story is told from the perspective of Zinzi December, a recovering drug addict whose former life was journalism, the story takes us deep into the underworld of a fantasy Johannesburg. In this Johannesburg, people who commit murder are met by an animal that attaches to them for what we can only presume is the rest of their lives. The animals serve t...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Donovan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller, fantasy

This is a pleasant break from the usual 'who done it' with a nice blend of fantasy and thriller set in an alternative universe (South Africa). It's an easy read that I completed in 2 days while in hospital.

Plot ***Spoilers***
Zoo City is set in an alternate version of the South African city of Johannesburg, in which people who have committed a crime are magically attached to an animal familiar – those who receive such punishment are said to be "animalled". The novel's chief protagonist, Zinzi Dec...more

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