Monkey Around

by Jadie Jang

Overview

The debut novel from Jadie Jang is an action-packed urban fantasy delivering a bold new take on the Monkey King in San Francisco - complete with murder and mayhem!

San Francisco has a Monkey King — and she's freaking out.

Barista, activist, and were-monkey Maya McQueen was well on her way to figuring herself out. Well, part of the way. 25% of the way. If you squint.

But now the Bay Area is being shaken up. Occupy Wall Street has come home to roost; and on the supernatural side there’s disappearances, shapeshifter murders, and the city’s spirit trying to find its guardian.

Maya doesn’t have a lot of time before chaos turns up at her door, and she needs to solve all of her problems. Well, most of them. The urgent ones, anyhow.

But who says the solutions have to be neat? Because Monkey is always out for mischief.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781089200
Publisher:	Solaris
Publication date:	08/03/2021
Pages:	405
Sales rank:	1,094,329
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Claire Light (writing as Jadie Jang) is almost as organizy as her characters. She started a magazine (Hyphen) and an arts festival (APAture) with a cast of Asian Pacific Americans even more magical, if less supernatural, than the ones she writes about. She also got an MFA, went to Clarion West, and compromised between the two by publishing a collection of “literary” sci-fi short stories (Slightly Behind and to the Left) that maybe 100 people read. After wrangling arts and social justice nonprofits for 17 years, her already autoimmune-disease-addled body threw a seven-year-long tantrum, leading our then-house-bound heroine into an urban fantasy addiction. A few years, and a dozen Euro-centric-mythology-dominated urban fantasy series later, Claire sat up and said “I can do this!” and Jadie Jang, the part of her brain that writes snarky-fun genre romps, was born. She posts about monkeys every Monday under @seelight on Twitter.

Editorial Reviews

05/10/2021

Chock-full of mythological characters from a multitude of cultures, Jang’s fun if slightly overcrowded debut puts a modern urban fantasy spin on the classic Chinese tale “Monkey King.” Maya MacQueen is a supernatural living in San Francisco, but even she doesn’t know what kind she is; her range of abilities and the magnitude of her powers far surpass any other “supernat” she’s come across. She runs an activist magazine and organizes rallies in the Occupy Wall Street era of 2011, while working as a barista at a café/supernat-sanctuary owned by Ayo—for whom Maya also takes on pro-bono investigations on the side. While investigating a string of shape-shifter murders, Maya discovers that the spirit of the city is seeking a guardian to maintain stability. In her default animal form of monkey, Maya pulls out all her talents to solve the mystery and save the city from chaos. The prose occasionally rambles, with a multitude of superficial secondary characters who serve to introduce myriad folkloric backstories but do little to further the plot. Still, the coexistence of a plethora of were-creatures makes for a delightful backdrop to Maya’s adventures. Fans of new takes on folklore will want to check this out. Agent: Amanda Leuck, Spencerhill Assoc. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Action-packed and inventive, Monkey Around is the magical realist detective story we've all been waiting for. Jadie Jang tells a powerful story of immigrant communities living in the space between supernatural and political worlds—and it's a hell of a lot of fun, too.” — Annalee Newitz

"Maya McQueen—activist, sleuth, shape-shifter—investigates a spate of murders and disappearances in a San Francisco lushly populated by supernatural creatures. Jadie Jang delivers a spellbinding and action-packed thriller in this brilliant twist on the legend of the Monkey King." — Lauren McLaughlin

“A glittering shapeshifter of a novel that takes you where the modern city and post-modern magic meet.“ — Terry Bisson, author of Bears Discover Fire

"Pure fun to all sentient beings and to those that aspire to be." — Ed Lin, author of David Tung Can't Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets Into an Ivy League College and Motherfuckerland

"This hilarious take on the Bay Area and the Asian American community in the 21st Century filled me with pure joy." — Naomi Hirahara, Edgar Award-winning author of the Mas Arai and Leilani Santiago mysteries

From the Publisher

Engaging characters, intriguing creatures, and thrilling action scenes.

BuzzFeed

Engaging characters, intriguing creatures, and thrilling action scenes.

B?uzzFeed

"Hooray to Jadie Jang for creating characters we’ve been waiting for! Monkey Around is action-adventure poetry." — Andrea Hairston, author of Master of Poisons

Andrea Hairston

"A glittering shapeshifter of a novel that takes you where the modern city and post-modern magic meet."

Terry Bisson

"Action-packed and inventive, Monkey Around is the magical realist detective story we've all been waiting for. Jadie Jang tells a powerful story of immigrant communities living in the space between supernatural and political worlds — and it's a hell of a lot of fun, too."

Annalee Newitz

"This hilarious take on the Bay Area and the Asian American community in the 21st Century filled me with pure joy."

Naomi Hirahara

"I can't help being obsessed with the beautifully complex world of shapeshifters and magic that Jadie Jang has created. Monkey Around thrilled me and kept me turning pages, but also left me convinced that if I just looked carefully enough, I would see ancient secrets lurking around every corner in the city. Most books are lucky to have either a fascinating world or unforgettable characters, but Monkey Around has both, in spades."

Charlie Jane Anders

"As delightful, nimble, and unpredictable as its namesake, Monkey Around is phantasmagoric in every sense of the word."

Scott Westerfeld

"Pure fun to all sentient beings and to those that aspire to be."

Ed Lin