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elusivity's review
The attempts at humor detract much from the headlong-into-an-oncoming-train attraction of the Matthew Swift series. Creepy shadows, blood, gods in pain, things-alive-that-should-not-be, are far less affecting when held against the backdrop of light comedy. The whole thing collapses on a heap of its own frivolity. And why does everyone either cannot ever say what they mean, or talk in breathless spiels?
Could not finish.
Could not finish.
carol26388's review
5.0
Absolutely perfect for a two-airplane flight–I noticed nothing but the book, making it a five-star read. But after all, that was an airplane, so I thought it deserved a more balanced impression, one not colored by the background noise of jet engines and willingness to suspend disbelief. You know what? Still satisfying. It feels like Griffin has found the perfect vehicle for her voice; the well-intentioned, actualizing Sharon, shaman of the city and coordinator of a support group for magicals. Sharon, who “exuded the brightness of a firefly, the confidence of a double-decker bus, the optimism of a hedgehog and the tact of a small thermonuclear missile.” Sharon’s been seeking advice from self-help books, and doing her best to bring their approach into her life, but not everyone around her agrees:
“‘Don’t try your self-help crap on me!’ shrilled the goblin. ‘I’m the second greatest frickin’ shaman to ever walk the earth!’
‘Self-help would be you realising that you’ve got a problem with your social skills and trying to fix it,’ she sighed. ‘This is an intervention.’ In reply, Sammy kicked her shins again. ‘See,’ she went on wearily, barely noticing the pain. ‘That’s just so hostile.’“
Unfortunately, the current Midnight Mayor has gone missing. As the entity in charge of defending the city of London against magical destruction, it’s crucial he be returned to the position. That is, if he is really missing:
“‘Usually when he disappears it’s to blow things up, or engage in nefarious acts with dark forces, but this time there’s been none of that, and I’m a little concerned.’
‘You’re concerned that things aren’t blowing up?’
‘You have met him,’ Kelly pointed out.”
Until he returns, Sharon has been deputized, so any temporary inclinations she might have towards avoiding the responsibility are effectively thwarted.
Many of the group first introduced in Stray Souls make an appearance here, including Kevin, the germaphobe vampire, (“Sharon, then Rhys, seized the raised edge of the metal, while Kevin lurked behind them with a cry of, ‘So I’ll just, like, keep watch?’“), Greta the troll, Sally the banshee and Mr. Roding the necromancer. Several more ominous creatures are introduced, but Sharon tries to enlighten the Alders about monster discrimination:
“‘Amazing!’ said Kelly. ‘You know, I hadn’t even thought about it. Now that you point it out, the idea of having tea with a creature capable of rending me limb from limb had been something that bothered me. But now that I think about it, that’s just a social stereotype, isn’t it?’”
There’s shades of Douglas Adams in Griffin’s writing, the mocking social commentary that goes beyond party lines and makes fun of convention: “A potted plant in its reception area assured visitors that no matter how bleak, functional and cold this place might seem, they were, in fact, welcome guests in a dynamic environment.” Yet Griffin sneaks in the poetry of a city as well, in moments that just lead me to say, ‘Ah. Perfect.’ For instance, when Sharon is using her shaman skills to investigate:
“Every part of the city, every corner, was, she knew, infused with a kind of life. No necessarily sentient, not always something that would come out of the walls and secret places and tell her its secrets face to face, although that too, could happen… but a life which left its scars on the very stones and which, if you knew how to use it, could be a kind of magic.”
Overall, it kept me engrossed every time I read it. There’s a wide variety of characters that generally transcend social stereotype, particularly the urban fantasy kind of werewolves, witches and vampires. Including the group from Magicals Anonymous, the Alders, and various contacts they make while investigating, there’s a wide variety of people that help make the world feel populated with more than just one little power pocket of magicals. While depth in these surrounding characters is somewhat sacrificed for Sharon’s growth, Griffin does give some complexity to the secondary characters. I particularly enjoyed the times Sharon strayed from her optimistic pep-rally, the kind of friend you like that much more after catching her cursing under her breath.
The plot is fast moving, and if the search for Swift is relatively straightforward, at least it doesn’t dally with exposition and portentous dialogue. Narrative is largely third-person and focused on Sharon, although it does slip into first person for a couple of brief sections, providing some insight into other characters. It works better than the prior book, which had the tendency to be somewhat staccato, even including characters were only plot points. I’m looking forward to the next book Griffin puts out, and hoping that Sharon puts in an appearance.
Update 1/16/16: Read again, part of welcoming a new book into my home. Remains entertaining, although I'm not sure it's quite five stars.
Update 2/04/17: Still delicious.
Great moments in detecting:
"Sharon paused, irritating at having her flow interrupted... "Look, I'd give you the full story, but I kinda feel like I'm here doing the deductive bit and you're supposed to be doing the helpful bit so can we just focus on that?"
A lovely explanation of prejudice:
"You guys are so prejudiced! I mean, the worst part is, you don't even know how prejudiced you are, and that makes you, like even more prejudiced, because you're not even thinking about it. But I know you mean well, and once you guys have noticed the problem, I know you'll all try and deal with it, in your own groovy way."
“‘Don’t try your self-help crap on me!’ shrilled the goblin. ‘I’m the second greatest frickin’ shaman to ever walk the earth!’
‘Self-help would be you realising that you’ve got a problem with your social skills and trying to fix it,’ she sighed. ‘This is an intervention.’ In reply, Sammy kicked her shins again. ‘See,’ she went on wearily, barely noticing the pain. ‘That’s just so hostile.’“
Unfortunately, the current Midnight Mayor has gone missing. As the entity in charge of defending the city of London against magical destruction, it’s crucial he be returned to the position. That is, if he is really missing:
“‘Usually when he disappears it’s to blow things up, or engage in nefarious acts with dark forces, but this time there’s been none of that, and I’m a little concerned.’
‘You’re concerned that things aren’t blowing up?’
‘You have met him,’ Kelly pointed out.”
Until he returns, Sharon has been deputized, so any temporary inclinations she might have towards avoiding the responsibility are effectively thwarted.
Many of the group first introduced in Stray Souls make an appearance here, including Kevin, the germaphobe vampire, (“Sharon, then Rhys, seized the raised edge of the metal, while Kevin lurked behind them with a cry of, ‘So I’ll just, like, keep watch?’“), Greta the troll, Sally the banshee and Mr. Roding the necromancer. Several more ominous creatures are introduced, but Sharon tries to enlighten the Alders about monster discrimination:
“‘Amazing!’ said Kelly. ‘You know, I hadn’t even thought about it. Now that you point it out, the idea of having tea with a creature capable of rending me limb from limb had been something that bothered me. But now that I think about it, that’s just a social stereotype, isn’t it?’”
There’s shades of Douglas Adams in Griffin’s writing, the mocking social commentary that goes beyond party lines and makes fun of convention: “A potted plant in its reception area assured visitors that no matter how bleak, functional and cold this place might seem, they were, in fact, welcome guests in a dynamic environment.” Yet Griffin sneaks in the poetry of a city as well, in moments that just lead me to say, ‘Ah. Perfect.’ For instance, when Sharon is using her shaman skills to investigate:
“Every part of the city, every corner, was, she knew, infused with a kind of life. No necessarily sentient, not always something that would come out of the walls and secret places and tell her its secrets face to face, although that too, could happen… but a life which left its scars on the very stones and which, if you knew how to use it, could be a kind of magic.”
Overall, it kept me engrossed every time I read it. There’s a wide variety of characters that generally transcend social stereotype, particularly the urban fantasy kind of werewolves, witches and vampires. Including the group from Magicals Anonymous, the Alders, and various contacts they make while investigating, there’s a wide variety of people that help make the world feel populated with more than just one little power pocket of magicals. While depth in these surrounding characters is somewhat sacrificed for Sharon’s growth, Griffin does give some complexity to the secondary characters. I particularly enjoyed the times Sharon strayed from her optimistic pep-rally, the kind of friend you like that much more after catching her cursing under her breath.
The plot is fast moving, and if the search for Swift is relatively straightforward, at least it doesn’t dally with exposition and portentous dialogue. Narrative is largely third-person and focused on Sharon, although it does slip into first person for a couple of brief sections, providing some insight into other characters. It works better than the prior book, which had the tendency to be somewhat staccato, even including characters were only plot points. I’m looking forward to the next book Griffin puts out, and hoping that Sharon puts in an appearance.
Update 1/16/16: Read again, part of welcoming a new book into my home. Remains entertaining, although I'm not sure it's quite five stars.
Update 2/04/17: Still delicious.
Great moments in detecting:
"Sharon paused, irritating at having her flow interrupted... "Look, I'd give you the full story, but I kinda feel like I'm here doing the deductive bit and you're supposed to be doing the helpful bit so can we just focus on that?"
A lovely explanation of prejudice:
"You guys are so prejudiced! I mean, the worst part is, you don't even know how prejudiced you are, and that makes you, like even more prejudiced, because you're not even thinking about it. But I know you mean well, and once you guys have noticed the problem, I know you'll all try and deal with it, in your own groovy way."
rhodered's review
4.0
Lovely, lovely, lovely. 4.5 really, but maybe I'm just on a high from finishing it not one minute ago. Combines what I felt were the best elements of the Matthew Swift books with those from the first Sharon Li book in this series. ( gosh I hope it's a series.). So much fun to see how Sharon disarms some of the toughest people Matthew ever dealt with, just by being her polite and politically correct self. There are three interconnected mysteries to be solved, a good solid epic battle, and the evolution of Matthew's marvelous P.A. Kelly. Great read. Will make whatever I read next seem a bit thin I'm afraid.
stgts's review
3.0
I'm drawn in by Kate Griffin's writing again and again even though I know that somehow I'm going to leave just a little unsatisfied and uncomfortable. I'll come back to this review at a later date, now that I've read everything in the Midnight Mayor universe, but let me say this: I admire Griffin's dedication to populating her world with dynamic, diverse women, even in side roles, but it feels like a direct result of this that a lot of dynamic, interesting female characters go on to die brutally and pointlessly, and it can be hard to stomach.
friendlymilk's review
4.0
I don't know if it's because I read all of the Matthew Swift books between the first Magicals Anonymous and this one, but I liked The Glass God way more than Stray Souls.
Sharon's really grown on me. At first I found her self-help buzzwords annoying and kind of overly cute, but now I realize that they are the tools she uses to (attempt to) organize the world into manageable bits and guide her responses to challenging situations in which she would otherwise feel quite lost. It's really impressive what she can do with a positive attitude and the threat of death and bubonic plague and stinking streets hanging over her head.
Though I still don't understand why they had to find the exactphone that Matthew was uploaded from, or even how that whole declaw-but-still-keep-the-Midnight-Mayor-alive thing was supposed to work out, if this was it going wrong.
Overall, awesome book, yey and whatnot!
Sharon's really grown on me. At first I found her self-help buzzwords annoying and kind of overly cute, but now I realize that they are the tools she uses to (attempt to) organize the world into manageable bits and guide her responses to challenging situations in which she would otherwise feel quite lost. It's really impressive what she can do with a positive attitude and the threat of death and bubonic plague and stinking streets hanging over her head.
Though I still don't understand why they had to find the exact
Overall, awesome book, yey and whatnot!
kjcharles's review
5.0
Kate Griffin gets better and better. Sharon Li is a brilliant creation - allowing the author to continue the marvellous Matthew Swift London series now Swift has got so powerful he's unbalancing his own books. This was funny, involving, scary, well plotted, compelling. Hugely enjoyable.
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