Jeff Vandermeer's latest is a tough one to categorize. Is it Fantasy?, New Weird?, Hardboiled Detective?, or Science Fiction? Yes. But the easiest way to describe it is "The best book you haven't read this year." Mixing genre tropes has become such a common practice among writers today, that it can become easy to overlook titles as just another Paranormal Romance, or Detective Fantasy, etc. Don't do that with Finch. This is that perfect mix. Finch is Lovecraft, Chandler, and so much more.
Finch is the last book in the Ambergris cycle, following City of Saints and Madmen and Shriek, and like its predecessors works perfectly as a stand alone, so don't feel you have to read the first 2 before Finch (but they are great too). John Finch's latest case is a double murder that looks to be unsolvable. With his inhuman Grey Cap bosses (who make Big Brother's government seem Utopian) demanding results he sets to find the truth, through the decrepit, decaying, and transforming Ambergris. Every clue found leads more questions and more enemies that each are trying to pull Finch in their direction. By turn funny, compassionate, brutal, dark, weird, and packed with beautifully crafted prose, Finch is like nothing you have read before.
Finch is that rare book that you can't wait to read, stealing every free moment you have until you are finished, and one that you can't stop recommending to friends, strangers, family. Best Book of the Year!
