The Shambling Guide to New York City (The Shambling Guides)
*Starred Review* Most new hires try to negotiate a higher salary. When Zoe takes a job editing a new travel-book series for Underground Publications, she needs to decide whether to get paid in hell notes, blood tokens, occult favors, or regular dollars. In Lafferty’s entirely believable world, New York City is secretly inhabited by vampires, zombies, fay folk, and assorted monsters. Public Works not only takes care of streets and sanitation, they are also responsible for keeping the balance between humans and “coterie”—the preferred term for nonhumans. Zoe’s pretty tough, and she thinks she can handle her assignment of creating a coterie guidebook to the city. But she’s ill-prepared for what awaits her in the underworld and soon finds herself succumbing to the erotic advances of an incubus coworker, tracking down raging zombies, and ultimately getting involved in an epic battle for the (literal) soul of the city. This is a funny, thoughtfully conceived, and thoroughly entertaining romp that will be a sure bet for urban-fantasy readers—and might even surprise people who don’t think they’d enjoy a paranormal novel. --Rebecca Vnuk