Blurb: (From Book 1) The DFZ, the metropolis formerly known as Detroit, is the world’s most magical city with a population of nine million and zero public safety laws. That’s a lot of mages, cybernetically enhanced chrome heads, and mythical beasties who die, get into debt, and otherwise fail to pay their rent. When they can’t pay their bills, their stuff gets sold to the highest bidder to cover the tab.
That’s when they call me. My name is Opal Yong-ae, and I’m a Cleaner: a freelance mage with an art history degree who’s employed by the DFZ to sort through the mountains of magical junk people leave behind. It’s not a pretty job, or a safe one—there’s a reason I wear bite-proof gloves—but when you’re deep in debt in a lawless city where gods are real, dragons are traffic hazards, and buildings move around on their own, you don’t get to be picky about where your money comes from. You just have to make it work, even when the only thing of value in your latest repossessed apartment is the dead body of the mage who used to live there.
Review: This is a stand-alone follow-up series to the Heartstrikers series. The major overlap is just the world
it takes place in, especially the DFZ. So I liked this series. Genuinely love the concept of cleaners and
how they operate in a sentient city with minimal regulations. I found myself enjoying the books less over time though, as the story took a bit of a turn into deeper introspection between relationships at the cost of a more contrived plot. This cost toppled over a bit into the predictability of the characters too.
That's not saying it's bad of course, just that the magic of exploration in the first book wasn't as
heavy in the follow-ups. The main character, Opal, is absolutely dope, and I like the cast surrounding her. All in all, imperfect series with a great setting and a main character who's story I enjoyed following,
and I will 100% be reading any future series based in the DFZ.