Book Log #9: Unshapely Things, by Mark Del Franco

[annathepiper]

I have to admit that these days it is a refreshing change of pace to read an urban fantasy in which the protagonist is male; such thing are few and far between. I also have to admit that while male-protagonist urban fantasies have to work really, really hard for me to compete with the Dresden Files, Mark Del Franco's Unshapely Things gave it a good college try.

The book didn't entirely work for me. It's got issues with pacing and with what needs to get shown to the reader and what doesn't; for example, I could have done without long stretches of our hero, Connor Grey, looking stuff up on his computer. The dialogue didn't work for me entirely either; parts of it felt stiff and forced.

Yet the story was interesting enough to keep me going to the end, and I will give it points for coming together fairly well at the end. I'll probably be checking out book 2, which is about to come out. Three stars.

ETA 7:22pm: Oops, my bad, Unquiet Dreams is already out! I shall have to pick it up some time soon.

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

hey, my werewolf novel had a male protagonist!

(i didn't really think about this being unusual until reading your post...)

[annathepiper]

It did! One of the many things that made it nifty and unusual.

And yeah, male-protag urban fantasies are apparently rare enough birds right now that if the comments I've seen on agent blogs are to be believed (I've seen this twice recently), editors are actively looking for them.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

good to know! if either of the agents come to mind (and you think they'd care for the werewolf novel) please to point me?

[annathepiper]

Sure. :) One of them is Kristin Nelson, the woman to whom I queried Lament last year. Here is her blog post where she mentions the editor who was looking for male-protag urban fantasy.

I can say that querying her was a very positive experience; she had a super-quick turnaround time, and even though she turned me down, she was also very encouraging about sending her other work. I also approve highly of her blog in general. Hers is my favorite of the agent blogs I've been following for a while, since she's consistently most informative.

I think the other reference I'm thinking of was raleva31 posting here--about, it turns out, Book 2 that goes with the book this very post is about. Looks like Del Franco is her client. ;) I've queried her before but don't have much of a feel for her yet; her LJ is very non-personal and information-heavy.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

thanks! now i just have to find your previously-archived advice on sending query letters to agents ;)

[annathepiper]

Very welcome. Also, both of these agents are ones that do email queries, which takes a lot of the headache out of the process since you don't have to print stuff off and mail it.

Ms. Nelson's agency page is here, and raleva31 is Rachel Vater (her submission instructions are on that page).