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The Shambling Guide to New York City
Written by Mur Lafferty
Published By Orbit Books (5/28/2013)
ISBN-13: 9780316221177
342 Pages

Book Review

Just when I think I’ve seen everything under the sun in urban fantasy someone like Mur Lafferty comes along with an idea that gives the genre a fresh jolt of life. Her idea in The Shambling Guide to New York City is so good I wish I’d thought of it; if zombies, demons and vampires live among us, then they might just have their own guide books.

The protagonist Zoe starts the story in a bad place. Forced out of her old job and her old town after finding out that her boyfriend also had a wife he hadn’t mentioned, Zoe is looking for a fresh start in New York, preferably as an editor. After visiting the world’s least pleasant second hand bookstore, Zoe ends up getting a job interview to write a travel guide with a difference. She finds out that everyone needs to know a good place to eat and the best places to stay; even if what’s for dinner is brains and accommodation requirements involve staying out of the sunlight.

Lafferty has done an excellent job constructing an organic feeling world. The different races feel distinct from each other and I got the feeling that a lot of work had been put into the back story of this world. I particularly liked the pages taken from the Shambling Guide itself that that feature at the start of each chapter. This simple device provides extra glimpses of the New York that normal humans don’t often get to see.

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Zoe’s new world contains a wide variety of creatures including a water fae, a death goddess, several zombies and a sex incubus named John. I loved all of these side characters, but it’s Zoe’s vampire boss Phil that really stood out for me. Phil is not Edward Cullen. Turned while he was a slightly dumpy middle aged dude, Lafferty uses Phil’s ordinariness to add to his inherent scariness and as such Phil comes across as a truly dangerous creature rather than a cold, pointy sex object.

The monsters (referred to as coterie) in general have a well thought out place in the story. Again, I got the feeling that there was a great deal of work put into the backstory and traits of the creatures without it ever actually being outright stated to the reader. It bodes well for future books in the series that the world feels this well built so early on. Finding out more about the hidden world and how Zoe fits into it is one of the highlights of reading The Shambling Guide to New York City.

The book isn’t perfect; I would have liked to have seen a lot more of the training that Zoe receives from the mysterious Granny Good-Mae. As it stands, that part of the book feels rushed. That may just be my pet peeve though because I love training scenes.

Reviewed By Andrew Jack

Overall The Shambling Guide was a smart, funny urban fantasy that effortlessly expressed its setting through its characters. A fantastic idea well executed that left me hanging out for the next book in Mur Lafferty’s series.

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Andrew Jack

Andrew Jack

Andrew Jack lives with his wife in Christchurch New Zealand and has been misusing the written word for most of his life. He even got his first rejection letter from Random House at the age of four, who kindly suggested he learn to read and write before resubmitting. A life long martial arts enthusiast, Andrew spends his time getting beaten up by his friends, writing like he’ll starve if he doesn’t and trying to stop his cats from destroying his house.