Another jaunt into urban contemporary fantasy. Except unlike Nightlife this one was, well, good. For some reason, urban fantasy is actually like film noir (except there is no film, and there is no noir). But you have the tortured hero, the city as a character, and a past that is anything but pleasant.
This was the third of three books I picked up at the awesome Bakka-Phoenix bookstore in T.O. (they recommended all three). Two out of three were good.
The setting in UnShapely Things (not quite sure where the title came from) is a neighborhood in Boston called the Weird. Years ago, a turbulent time called the Convergence jammed together two worlds — the world of the supernatural (the fey) and the natural (humans) — and they’ve lived in uneasy times ever since.
So it’s gumshoe meets Celtic mythology (Formians, fairies, flits, elves) and of course a diabolical plot to destroy the world…
My main concern with the novel is the cast of characters — too many. Sometimes, I had to flip back several chapters to figure out who this person was. Mostly secondary characters who probably could’ve been amalgamated into one character…
This was a first novel by Mark Del Franco — and is obviously the jumping point of a series. Now with the initial setting out of the way, I have a feeling he’ll set the stage for an ever expanding plot…
I give this seven glamors out of 10.