The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
Jul. 28th, 2013 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
But what if death came back to try again?
CHICAGO, 1931. Harper is a man out of time – yet with all the time in the world to stalk and kill his ‘shining girls’. The objects he lays by their violated bodies are more than just clues: they are the glittering threads of his obsession, a web of sick satisfaction glowing through the years.
But these things have to be right. And if a girl lived to tell the tale, well, that would have to be fixed.
CHICAGO, 1992. Kirby knows there’s something strange about the man who nearly killed her – apart from being a violent psychopath. Rejected by those who should help her, she searches for the others, the girls who didn’t make it.
What Kirby finds is … impossible. Murders scattered across the decades, accompanies by totally contradictory evidence. But for a girl who should be dead, impossible doesn’t mean it didn’t happen …
On 23rd March 1989, teenager Kirby Mazrachi is brutally attacked while out walking her dog. Although she survives her horrific knife wounds, by 1992 she’s struggling to cope with what happened. With the police investigation having gone cold, she resolves to find the perpetrator herself. Suspecting that she wasn’t the first victim, she starts to examine other unsolved femicides. She gets an internship at the Chicago Sun-Times and persuades Dan Velasquez (a burned out former homicide journalist who covered her case and now writes sports) to help her. But their investigation is stymied by the fact that Kirby’s attacker is no ordinary killer …
On 22nd November 1931 Harper Curtis, a World War I veteran suffering under the Depression, stumbles on a miraculous house that can travel through time. Inside he finds a wall covered in pictures and artefacts of girls from different time periods and with the house’s encouragement, he sets to work …
Lauren Beukes time-travelling crime thriller has created a lot of buzz with good reason. Combining horrific violence, an original hook and interesting characters, Beukes kept me turning the pages. However, it does end rather abruptly and leaves some questions unanswered, which left me unfulfilled. It’s an entertaining read and perfect for the beach, but not a perfect one.
I totally believed the obsessed, angry and clever Kirby as a victim determined to take back control of her life. Her relationship with the older Dan who’s attracted to her but worries about her mental state is skilfully depicted, as is her complicated relationship with her mother. Although Harper is also interesting, I would have liked more of an explanation for what it is specifically he sees in his victims (there’s a hint that it’s the manifestation of their potential but it remains ambiguous). I also wished Beukes had focused on his relationship with the house rather than with the manipulative nurse Etta.
The other shining girls are a mixed bag with some set up better than others (notably the secretive Alice and brassy, lesbian Willie) but Beukes conveys a strong sense of each period while the use of chapter headings made it easy to keep up with the time hops and plot strands.
Disappointingly, the ending is abrupt and built on coincidence. It also doesn’t resolve every question I had about the story. That said, I enjoyed the book and will read what Beukes writes next.
The Verdict:
Lauren Beukes time-travelling crime thriller has created a lot of buzz with good reason. Combining horrific violence, an original hook and interesting characters, Beukes kept me turning the pages. However, it does end rather abruptly and leaves some questions unanswered, which left me unfulfilled. It’s an entertaining read and perfect for the beach, but not a perfect one.
THE SHINING GIRLS was released in the United Kingdom on 9th May 2013. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
But what if death came back to try again?
CHICAGO, 1931. Harper is a man out of time – yet with all the time in the world to stalk and kill his ‘shining girls’. The objects he lays by their violated bodies are more than just clues: they are the glittering threads of his obsession, a web of sick satisfaction glowing through the years.
But these things have to be right. And if a girl lived to tell the tale, well, that would have to be fixed.
CHICAGO, 1992. Kirby knows there’s something strange about the man who nearly killed her – apart from being a violent psychopath. Rejected by those who should help her, she searches for the others, the girls who didn’t make it.
What Kirby finds is … impossible. Murders scattered across the decades, accompanies by totally contradictory evidence. But for a girl who should be dead, impossible doesn’t mean it didn’t happen …
On 23rd March 1989, teenager Kirby Mazrachi is brutally attacked while out walking her dog. Although she survives her horrific knife wounds, by 1992 she’s struggling to cope with what happened. With the police investigation having gone cold, she resolves to find the perpetrator herself. Suspecting that she wasn’t the first victim, she starts to examine other unsolved femicides. She gets an internship at the Chicago Sun-Times and persuades Dan Velasquez (a burned out former homicide journalist who covered her case and now writes sports) to help her. But their investigation is stymied by the fact that Kirby’s attacker is no ordinary killer …
On 22nd November 1931 Harper Curtis, a World War I veteran suffering under the Depression, stumbles on a miraculous house that can travel through time. Inside he finds a wall covered in pictures and artefacts of girls from different time periods and with the house’s encouragement, he sets to work …
Lauren Beukes time-travelling crime thriller has created a lot of buzz with good reason. Combining horrific violence, an original hook and interesting characters, Beukes kept me turning the pages. However, it does end rather abruptly and leaves some questions unanswered, which left me unfulfilled. It’s an entertaining read and perfect for the beach, but not a perfect one.
I totally believed the obsessed, angry and clever Kirby as a victim determined to take back control of her life. Her relationship with the older Dan who’s attracted to her but worries about her mental state is skilfully depicted, as is her complicated relationship with her mother. Although Harper is also interesting, I would have liked more of an explanation for what it is specifically he sees in his victims (there’s a hint that it’s the manifestation of their potential but it remains ambiguous). I also wished Beukes had focused on his relationship with the house rather than with the manipulative nurse Etta.
The other shining girls are a mixed bag with some set up better than others (notably the secretive Alice and brassy, lesbian Willie) but Beukes conveys a strong sense of each period while the use of chapter headings made it easy to keep up with the time hops and plot strands.
Disappointingly, the ending is abrupt and built on coincidence. It also doesn’t resolve every question I had about the story. That said, I enjoyed the book and will read what Beukes writes next.
The Verdict:
Lauren Beukes time-travelling crime thriller has created a lot of buzz with good reason. Combining horrific violence, an original hook and interesting characters, Beukes kept me turning the pages. However, it does end rather abruptly and leaves some questions unanswered, which left me unfulfilled. It’s an entertaining read and perfect for the beach, but not a perfect one.
THE SHINING GIRLS was released in the United Kingdom on 9th May 2013. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
