Review by Booklist Review
*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.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Surviving in New York City is tricky even if one doesn't encounter paranormal entities, but Lafferty's charming debut offers a helping hand for coterie ("monster is pejorative") and humans alike. Desperate for work after a disastrous affair sends her back from Raleigh, N.C., to New York, guidebook expert Zoe Norris applies for a gig with Underground Publishing and lands an interview with a company rep who turns out to be a vampire. Undeterred, she quickly takes to her job as managing editor for a coterie guidebook to New York. She becomes fast friends with a water sprite and a death goddess, has to fend off the attentions of an incubus, and starts self-defense training with Granny Good Mae, a homeless assassin with connections to the government anticoterie department called Public Works. Zoe's romance with a Public Works agent lacks credibility, but excerpts from the guide and adventures at coterie hangouts make the novel an enjoyable tour of the city's supernatural side. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This entertaining urban fantasy is populated with fantastical beings who narrow the gap between the human and supernatural worlds. It seems that what supernatural creatures really want is a tourists' guide to the Big Apple-one written for the out-of-town monster, or coterie, as they prefer to be called. And that's what Underworld Publishing has hired Zoe Norris, a native (and human) New Yorker, to do. Zoe has returned to the city after a nasty experience with her former publisher/boyfriend and is desperate for a job, even if it means her new boss and coworkers are vampires, zombies, and an irresistible incubus. Morgen, a charming and cheerful water sprite, leads Zoe on a boisterous tour of coterie hot spots. VERDICT Lafferty, a 2012 nominee for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, introduces a spirited, indomitable heroine who is bound to be a favorite of urban fantasy devotees.-Deb West, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
From the author of Playing for Keeps (2008), a comedic fantasy about monsters and New Yorkers--and, as residents will be unsurprised to learn, monsters who are New Yorkers. Fresh from the North Carolina train wreck that was her previous job--she was seduced by her boss, and his wife, a cop, found out--Zo Norris hopes for a gig as a travel book editor in New York. She finds what seems to be the ideal job, but business owner Phillip Rand proves extremely reluctant to hire her despite her excellent credentials. Why? Well--she's human. Phil, it turns out, is a vampire, and among the other employees are an incubus, a water sprite, a death goddess and several zombies who keep a supply of brains in the office refrigerator--they're a little slow but OK unless they get hungry. Zo can't help but wonder what other "coterie" are out there. Werewolves? Ghosts? "Banshees? Now everything about Britney Spears made sense." Not to mention Granny Good Mae, a homeless bag lady who for some reason terrifies the coterie. Then Phil hires a construct (a Frankenstein's monster) as head of CR (that's Coterie Resources, Zo being the sole human). What Zo finds horrible and suspicious is that the new guy wears the head of an old college boyfriend. As things rapidly get out of hand, Zo will learn just how hard it is to resist a hungry incubus and the pivotal role played by the employees of the city's Public Works department--you will never look at those figures in reflective vests and hard hats emerging from mysterious dark apertures in the same way again. The hip, knowing and sometimes hysterically funny narrative, interspersed with excerpts from the guide of the title, lurches along in splendid fashion. Combine wit, style and acute observation: The result is irresistible.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
