Dispatches from Terabithia

I dunno. I've gotten kind of overdone with urban fantasy recently, to the point where I end up listening to it in the car because it's got funny moments and it's easy to tune out to, and the plot's basically the same the genre over. Gritty, broke detective-type chases supernatural thingamabobber-that's-doing-bad-stuff all over creation until in the end she defeats it by the skin of her teeth.

However. I ended up being really impressed with this book. The world building was unique -- the idea of the Church and the ghosts made me yearn for more explanation of the history and the functionality of the system. And our heroine was almost an anti-heroine; the things she does are certainly not for her own good, nor for most anyone else's, and she's the very picture of ambivalent corruption.

I also listened to this as an audio book, and I really do need to mention the linguistics. I really enjoyed the slang. I don't normally enjoy slang in books because it takes away from my understanding and makes me think about what's being said as a function of understanding rather than enjoyment. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the slang if I had read this rather than listened to it. But as it stood, the slang absolutely added to the atmosphere of the book, which is rare indeed. Kudos.