The Shining Girls

this book was so good. it reminded me that woman are all beautiful.

Lauren Beukes first came to my attention thanks to William Gibson or maybe Cory Doctorow. Some great author who recommended her on Twitter. I picked up her first two books, Moxyland and Zoo City, and read Moxyland a few years ago. I liked it, but it definitely felt like Gibson’s sensibility filtered through a South African setting. On the other hand, The Shining Girls, her third novel and first for Mulholland Books, reads like Beukes striking out on her own and making a name for herself. The result is stunning, harrowing and immensely readable. The Shining Girls follows the interlocking lives of two characters: Curtis Harper, who discovers a mysterious house that lets him travel in time as long as he murders the “shining girls” mapped out on the bedroom wall, and Kirby Mazrachi, one of Harper’s attempted murder victims who manages to survive and devotes her life to tracking him down. We are also treated to heartbreaking vignettes of the women Harper kills throughout the 20th century; every woman he murders is full of endless potential that he snuffs out by torturing them to death and mutilating their bodies. Although time travel is part of the narrative, The Shining Girls feels more like a crime thriller than a scifi story. It helps that the story all takes part in the past – Kirby’s “present day” is the early nineties. The speculative elements exist mostly as plot devices and a way to build tension, and Beukes doesn’t spend much time explaining how Harper is able to do what he does. Beukes has a background in journalism, and it’s clear that a lot of research went into this novel. The women we meet throughout the story span multiple social classes, decades and races, and each one is carefully drawn in the short moments before she dies terribly. My only criticism of the novel is that it feels like Kirby discovers the truth very late in the story, and after that point everything kicks into high gear until the ending. I would have liked to see a bit more of Kirby exploring the strange world of the house and its dangerous inhabitant. If nothing else, Beukes left me wanting more at the end, which is definitely a positive thing. My hope is that The Shining Girls is just the first of Beukes’ forays into crime/thriller writing. It’s a genre that suits her well.

I really wanted to like this book. I was looking for a good, easy pot boiler type summer novel and I really enjoyed Gone Girl, which this has been compared to. This book just didn't come together for me. I didn't really care about or believe in the characters and I just didn't feel connected to what happened. I was ready for the book to end, but it just seemed to fold up very quickly and neatly - like the story ran out of steam instead of actually ending. I also found the violence a bit pornographic. I know it's a book about a serial killer and I don't mind violence when it feels like it's an important part of telling the story, but in this case it just felt a bit gross. Overall, this book was pretty disappointing.

I zipped through this book pretty quickly. It's definitely got page-turner appeal. But when I was done, I was vaguely dissatisfied. Kirby, the main character, seemed a little sketched-in to me, I think. Very nice outline, but lacking in detail somehow. Same with Dan, her mentor, and Rachel, her mom. The most interesting thing to me was following the thread of the story through time. I felt like I needed to grab a pencil and paper to keep track of WHEN I was in the story. It kept me turning pages and worrying over the characters, though, so 4 stars.

The Shining Girls is as gritty as the darker parts of the world we always try to hide from. It's violent and brutal at times but it also portrays courage and kindness. It's a fast-paced read and it's very hard to put down. Prepare to be out of commission for a bit whilst reading it.

This book was so well written! This is one of those books that I am going to want to go back a reread to see how everything connects, and the ending was so unexpected but so good in that it made everything a full circle.

This was 19 levels of messed up and I highly enjoyed it. Beukes writes off the wall serial murderer books that just make me want more. This one had intriguing characters, cool premise, and just the right amount of twisted-ness. High recommend for those that like murder stuff.

I read good things about this book and when it got picked up for a series, I thought I would check it out. This book is very disappointing. It feels like half the story is missing. It feels disjointed and it does not feel resolved at all. There is no explanation for what is occurring and most of the characters except for Kirby are bland or just names on the page. There is no reason given to care for any of the victims or explanation as to why they are the victims. Hopefully a TV series can take what is on the page and expand it into a story that makes sense, at least to me.

The Shining Girls started off kind of rocky, got better, then falls apart. It takes a little bit to understand what is going on with Harper because the book explains it in a vague sentence early on. He goes back in time and kills women because the house he is in tells him to. Yep. A lot going on that just gets messy. The characters are great though so that makes the book more interesting and able to stand the time traveling serial killer scenario. The book just goes to hell at the end when Kirby kind of figures out what is going on. No real reaction just a need to stop him. Ok. And what happens when she does stop him? The book ends. I was really hoping Kirby and Dan would try to explain it and prove what Harper was, but nah.