The City and the City
An almost seamless mash-up of two seemingly disparate genres (“alternate universe” and “noirish police procedural”), The City and the City has been an absolute blast to read, even if its conclusion was a bit of a letdown (the bad guy was a surprise, but the motivations behind some of the crimes in the book seemed less weighty than I wanted them to be). The writing here is great, the plot (nicely explained in this review) is instantly gripping, and author China Mieville deserves major props for getting the reader to wholly believe in (and understand) the mind-bending two-places-in-one premise that serves as the backdrop for all of the action. I’m already telling myself to “unsee” or “unhear” things on a daily basis—read the book to see what I mean (or just read it to have a good time). I definitely recommend this to anyone with a love of detective novels or fantastic (but not too fantastic—this isn’t sci-fi by any stretch of the imagination) literature.
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