The Shambling Guides is a series of two books by Mur Lafferty:
1. The Shambling Guide to New York City
2. Ghost Train to New Orleans
Contains the following tropes:
- Alien Catnip:
- Some air sprites get addicted to perfume.
- Formaldehyde shuts down the higher brain functions of zombies who eat it.
- Alternate Landmark History: The Statue of Liberty is actually the sarcophagus of a gigantic demon, originally erected as a warning to coterie to stay away from America.
- Bar Full of Aliens: Not aliens, but there are bars, restaurants, and clubs catering to all sorts of coterie.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Mary Quinn Sullivan
, one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art, was a dragon. - Beneath Suspicion: Public Works has homeless people as agents and informants all over the city. If they try to break The Masquerade, they'll just be dismissed as Crazy Homeless People.
- Brain Food: Zombies eat brains, and have arrangements with morgues to get a steady supply.
- Cannibalism Superpower: Undead who eat a zoëtist temporarily gain their power.
- Creating Life: Zoëtists are humans who can create living things, like zombies, golems or constructs.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: Morgen the water sprite can transform into water and back again, clothes and all.
- Encyclopedia Exposita: Each chapter is followed by an excerpt from the In-Universe Shambling Guide to New York (in the first book) or New Orleans (in the second).
- Fantastic Racism: One of the Shambling Guide excerpts notes that after the Septermber 11 attacks, all coterie with Arab and Muslim connections like djinn and ifrits were hunted down, with Public Works permanently disappearing many of them.
- Fantastic Slurs: "Monster" is derogatory, so supernatural beings prefer to be called "coterie".
- Foreshadowing: The epigraphs from the In-Universe Shambling Guide mention Granny Good Mae making a Heroic Sacrifice, long before she does so in the book, and vague references to "the events of 12/8/15". By the end of the book you understand what it's referring to.
- Fun with Acronyms: Zoë realizes that Bakery Under Starlight's initials are "BUS", as in "incubus", which she's just learned the owner is.
- Gender-Restricted Ability: Almost all zoëtists are female, since women are "naturally better" at Creating Life. Benjamin is a notable exception.
- Genius Loci: Cities have spirits, and some people, like Granny Good Mae and Zoë can hear them.
- Golem: Benjamin is a zoëtist who can create golems. He makes them the traditional way, out of mud.
- Horror Hunger: When zombies run out of brains, they become more primal, eating living humans to get their fix.
- Improvised Golems: Lucy creates golems from a desk and chairs at LaGuardia airport, then an entire plane and some trucks, and finally attempts to turn the entire city into a golem.
- Inhuman Resources: Wesley, the head of CR (coterie resources) for Underground Publishing, is a complete Jerkass who has it out for Zoë specifically. And he's a construct whose head is her ex-boyfriend's. It turns out Lucy created him to mess with Zoë.
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Public Works' approach to coterie who break the peace and attack humans. They sometimes contract Granny Good Mae to do the assassinations.
- Living Aphrodisiac: Succubi and Incubi have this effect on people of a compatible sexuality.
- Magical Homeless Person: Granny Good Mae, a (seemingly) homeless woman who's an expert fighter, assassin, and monster hunter.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: At the end of the first book, Granny Good Mae is absorbed into the heart of the city-golem, and Zoë isn't sure if she can even be considered alive or dead.
- Milkman Conspiracy: Public Works is the agency that upholds The Masquerade, and hunts down any coterie who hunt and kill humans. They also take care of the city's sewer, water, and electrical systems, which is all the Muggles know about them.
- Mole in Charge: Fanny, the head of Public Works, is herself coterie. Though she is loyal to the organization, her subordinates probably wouldn't be happy to find out her real identity.
- Next Sunday A.D.: The first book was published in 2013, but takes place in 2015.
- Old Master: Granny Good Mae is an apparently-homeless old woman who's secretly a master monster hunter and assassin. She trains Zoë to survive and deal with all kinds of coterie.
- Psychopomp: Gwen is a Welsh death goddess who guides souls to the underworld, but she hasn't had much work doing that since Wales became Christian, so she got a new job at Underground Publishing.
- Sleeping with the Boss: In Zoë's past, she had an affair with Godfrey, her boss at her old job. He neglected to mention he was married...to a cop. Who then showed up at Zoë's apartment and trashed the place. And because Lucy's a cop, Zoë had no legal recourse.
- Special Person, Normal Name: Almost everyone has ordinary names, like Phil the vampire or John the incubus. Even Gwen, who's an actual death goddess, is pretty normal.
- Spiked Blood: At one point, Phil drinks hobo blood, explaining to Zoë that the high alcohol content in it is the closest vampires can get to being drunk.
- Succubi and Incubi:
- John, one of the employees of Underground Publishing, is an incubus. He can drive women wild with pheromones, and appears more attractive the hungrier he is. When he's just fed, he looks like a slightly overweight, not very attractive guy.
- Carl is revealed to also be an incubus, but has no effect on Zoë because he's gay. He feeds on the love his customers have for the food he bakes.
- Supernatural Martial Arts: A group of monks taught Granny Good Mae sĭshén lièrén, a martial art created expressly to fight coterie.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Zoe and Phil discover that someone has been poisoning the zombies' condiments with formaldehyde, which makes them become mindless Horror Hunger monsters even if they've just fed.
- Vampires Are Rich: Phil claims that vampires invented compounded interest, when Zoë asks how he can afford to pay all his employees when they still haven't put out a book.
- Vegetarian Vampire: Enforced by Public Works, which will summarily kill any coterie they catch hunting humans. There is a system set up with the Red Cross, blood banks, and morgues for vampires and zombies to get blood and brains, but it's not perfect.
- Weird Currency: Zoë is paid in regular human money, but also hell notes, blood tokens, and occult favors.