The Stranger Times

I gobbled up this comedy thriller about a woman in the midst of a divorce who is hired as staff of the Stranger Times newspaper. In a way this was a comfort read for me.

Hannah used to be a wealthy wife, until her marriage fell apart and she kinda... went batshit on her cheating husband. Probably felt really nice at the moment, though right now she needs to start a new life, which involves getting a job.
Where? Well, at The Stranger Times, a newspaper that focuses on the paranormal and weird. They are eccentric people serving an even more eccentric reader base.

And that is really the selling point of this. The characters are just so crazy and all over the place that you end up having fun, often based on the fact that these people should not exist in the same place. They are all completely different in manners, how they deal with their issues, their work ethic. How they would normally probably murder each other...
And really, their boss is incredibly murderable in a total-asshole-why-do-you-exist, Bernard Black sort of way. Yeah, the guy is absolutely the character from Black Books, played by Dylan Moran. That show should speak to readers anyway, so it all connects there.

Talking about murder. That happens here. It focuses on the characters trying to investigate said series of murders, but it's not too depressing. Don't expect some grimdark type of a thing. This is not going to do that, the tone is overwhelmingly sarcastic, random-ish humour.
It all connects into the very real magical world in this universe. It's not extensive, I mean we are in book 1 of an urban fantasy series. On that front, this one is fairly standard. What's with humourous urban fantasy, by the way? What is with the rule that straight up fantasy needs to be serious, dark and political, meanwhile urban fantasy is goofy? Not like I minded here, it was competently done humour.

The whole thing was competent. You know, sometimes urban fantasy starts out a bit awkward, yet here it all worked just fine. I don't know how long this is going to go, though. We have seen a bit of some shadowy organization when it comes to the magical people and creatures, so there is potential to go that way, though I don't know how long you can keep that up with the characters being “just” normie human journalists who got drawn into this. Is it going to be a murder-of-the-week thing? We will see.
Some personal things connect some of them to the supernatural, but again, how long is the newspaper angle going to go? Because if things get serious with the characters embracing the weird, at some point the “type in articles, have a meeting” things are going to become frustrating. Not yet, though. I have zero idea how a newspaper works, so even that was fine.

Perfect if you want to have a fun time, relax and see the headless chickens run around and the weird shit to transpire.

This was... kind of a weird but good time? Some parts almost felt a little tedious with how completely crazy it was all the time, but tbh I still had a good time overall and wouldn't mind picking up the sequel at some point.

The humour in this one was pretty reminiscent of Terry Pratchett, if he wrote urban fantasy, except it was missing a little focus and pizzazz. Nevertheless, I do think McDonnell's a bit of a hidden gem and can't understand why this book hasn't been more shouted about. It's got pretty quirky and humourous writing, vivid characters, a fairly compelling magic system and backstory, as well as plot twists that, while not earth-shattering revelations., still give you enough of a jolt to be enjoyable.

We have a bit of a character ensemble here. I don't think we really get close enough to any one character to feel particularly attached, but I think that's okay. I enjoyed the superficial tableau of how their dynamics played out against each other. There are stakes in the story too, so it wasn't completely without tension.

Overall, would recommend to those who love urban fantasy with some strong humour!

This is one of the funniest books I've ever read, and listening to it on audio was an absolute delight!!

This is a comic urban fantasy set around a Fortean Timesalike newspaper in Manchester. It's very likeable, a fun and entertaining read, with some opening sketches for an interesting mythology should this become a series. It's not hard to spot the antecedents. The “small organisation gets involved in defeating occult plots” set up will be familiar to Ben Aaronovitch's fans, while there are also definite elements of Pratchett. McDonnell has a way to go before he can be talked of alongside him, but the camaraderie between the loveable - well, losers would be harsh, but winners is in no way accurate either - of the Stranger Times staff is reminiscent of the Watch. Either way, I wolfed it down in a day, and I'll be looking out for the next one.