Saturday 26 March 2016

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

June 4th 2013 by Mulholland Books




Second novel I read by that author and I find The Shining Girls better than  Broken Monsters which end was a little disappointing  for me because it was a bit too easy.

Again, I find back with pleasure the writing style of Lauren Beukes, fluid and nervous at the same time.

This time, the author takes us from one year to another, from one character to another, from one victim to another, in a constant coming and going neither obvious nor easy to follow, it's a hurly-burly!

It's a story that asks us to take the time to read it not to lose ourselves in it. It is also a novel in which time, or should I say times, are passing at breakneck speed. No time to be bored or to linger, we are lead by the nose.

Here, a serial killer striking in several decades without aging, because time does not pass for him, he travels in it. Here, a young girl, a survivor of the killer, who seeks to understand why, who try to find her murderer, who seeks the truth but the truth is not easy to accept.

Cleverly written characters, victims who do not just die, you get to know them even slightly. We discover brilliant women, dedicated, full of boldness and courage, whose life is shattered because of these qualities.

An end a little fuzzy, leaving an unfinished feeling. Maybe, ending isn't Lauren Beukes strength? But, over all, a gripping story, thrilling, to which one must cling, certainly, but worth it!

The blurb

In Depression-era Chicago, Harper Curtis finds a key to a house that opens on to other times. But it comes at a cost. He has to kill the shining girls: bright young women, burning with potential. He stalks them through their lives across different eras until, in 1989, one of his victims, Kirby Mazrachi, survives and starts hunting him back. Working with an ex-homicide reporter who is falling for her, Kirby has to unravel an impossible mystery.

In a nutshell

In short, a novel that is best read in one sitting not to lose the thread. A time vortex for a murderer traveler, this is a 4/5 for me.
 






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