In Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City, part of the Humble eBook Bundle, we follow Zinzi December, a girl with a knack for finding lost things, who has a sloth on her back—just like a proverbial monkey. You see, in her version of the world, when you mess up good, you get a spirit animal to remind you.
The plot involves Zinzi getting hired to find a lost teenybopper popstar, and then getting her into all kinds of trouble. It also includes a car snapping an entrance gate barrier “like a teenage heart.” I thought that was a good line.
Zoo City isn’t a book I would have sought out myself. Despite that, it was a good read.
- Book read
- Lauren Beukes — Zoo City
- First line
- Morning light the sulphur colour of the mine dumps seeps across Johannesburg’s skyline and sears through my window.