December 16, 2013
Zoë Norris (introduced in The Shambling Guide to New York City) writes travel books for the coterie, America’s community of supernatural entities. Zoë is human, but her boss is a vampire, her bestie is a death goddess, and at least one of her coworkers wants to eat her. Dispatched with her team to create a guide book for exotic New Orleans, Zoë finds betrayal, disquieting revelations, power, and danger. Team members go rogue and demon dogs stalk the streets while Zoë learns more about the history of her fellow citytalkers and sleepwalks into a confrontation with one of New Orleans’s deadliest figures. Lafferty’s writing has an easy style that draws the reader in, and while many of the elements are familiar from other urban
fantasies, she manages to shape the well-worked clay in entertaining new ways.
February 15, 2014
In the first book of this series (The Shambling Guide to New York City) Zoe Norris took a job at Underground Publications editing an unusual series of books: travel guides for the zombies, vampires, and other supernatural creatures, collectively known as the "coterie." Her initiation into the secret world of the monsters living in the shadows continues as Zoe decides that the second guide they release will be for New Orleans, a haven for many coterie. The trip to the Big Easy is harder than expected as some of Zoe's coworkers are waiting for her to fail and her boyfriend is coming along to find a cure that will prevent him from turning into a zombie. Zoe is also concealing that she is one of a very rare group of human coterie that can speak to the spirit of cities, and New Orleans has been waiting for a citytalker just like her. VERDICT Funny, smart, and original, this outing, with its appealing characters and unusual take on urban fantasy tropes, is a delightful addition to the series.
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