It's bizarre, twisty story- a city ruled by gray caps (strange mushroom people) whose presence rots the city with spores and mushrooms. People exist amidst shadow figures of fairy-tale kin, most corrupt, almost all under the grey cap’s command. A secretive group of rebels under the Blue Lady are still resisting. The rest of the human population are kept docile with fungal drugs, held in work camps, and some who’ve sided with the gray caps to become half-human, half-mushroom. Into this convulsed world comes a mystery in which Detective John Finch, under the grey cap’s order, must investigate a murder. It’s a mean, grim story- bitter, hard characters, high stakes and an overhanging sense of impossible odds. There’s a sense of desperate secrecy, of survival on the edge, of going on for the sake of not giving up. I confess a times the mind-bending disturbing-ness lessened my pleasure of reading. The prose is clipped, enforcing this impression of give and take, and although disturbing at times, the novel is very well written.

Final Words: Dizzying, weird in the truest sense, it’s a story that is puzzling and dark, but vividly realized in a way that sides under your skin and leaves you drifting through its landscape for days.
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Quite good. Standard noir with mushrooms. ( )

This was excellent.

After feeling slightly disconnected from Hummingbird Salamander I was so pleased to return to Ambergris and dig into this world again. Stunning and imaginative and claustrophobically under your skin. ( )

Um, yeah. Disappointed. I think I owe this one a reread before I actually call it done, though. I'm kind of hoping that rating will go up after I have time to let this percolate a bit.

(The good news is that you don't need this book to enjoy [b:City of Saints and Madmen|230852|City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris, #1)|Jeff VanderMeer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390260432s/230852.jpg|522014] and [b:Shriek: An Afterword|230855|Shriek An Afterword (Ambergris, #2)|Jeff VanderMeer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388801207s/230855.jpg|929525], the books before it in the series. And nothing in Finch tarnishes the story in those. So I still highly, highly recommend them.) ( )

First: If you want to read this book and have not yet read City of Saints and Madmen do yourself a huge favor and dont read Finch yet or for that matter Shriek, the other Ambergris book, until you read the first in the series City of Saints and Madmen. Having said this City of Saints is the entry point to either Shriek or Finch. You can read either after City of Saints but the order that makes the most sense is City of Saints, then Shriek, then Finch.

All of this out of the way FInch is set in the fantasy world where a city called Ambergris exists and is undermined by a class of (nefarious?) fungi people called the Grey Caps. This novel is so damn different from City of Saints and Shriek but echos of the weird and strange will remind you that you are reading pure Vandermeer. The novel is a hard-boiled detective story that quickly changes into a sci-fi fantasy time/world traveling hybrid. It is really good. If you at minimum read City of Saints you will be in it to the crazy finish. Finch also is just achingly sad too as the main character John Finch has to contend with his own troubled past, helping others, and of course love, one word to that effect; Sintra. Oh man, Sintra - why? Of course when you read it you will know why.

The story and pacing is also damn beautiful. Also the audiobook is a great entrance point for the book for those who have not / will not read City of Saints or Shriek. The production on the 2090/2010 Finch audiobook is freaking insane. It is insanely good and if you are finding reading the book alone to be confounding and alienating because you are not familiar with at least City of Saints do yourself a favor and companion read Finch with the audiobook.

The entire book ramps up the mystery and unease and its just unsettling and great fun. Get Finch. Read Finch. Be Finch? Ok no - dont be finch but damn... Read it. ( )