The Shining Girls Didn’t Shine for me! (Book 39 for 2015)
So – have you ever zipped through a book, enjoyed it, and yet felt that you never really connected with the book? That may be the best way to describe how I feel about The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. It obviously wasn’t how Tana French felt about the book, on the cover of the book French’s quote reads…..
“Utterly original, beautifully written, and I must say, it creeped the holy bejesus out of me. This is something special”
I originally discovered this book in a post titled 10 Novels That Will Scare The Hell Out Of You written by Julie Buntin for The Huffington Post. When I found the book in the library I read the last quote on the back cover of the book…..
Imagine Poe and Steinbeck in a knife fight where Poe wins and writes Jack the Ripper’s version of :The Grapes of Wrath Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls is even scarier than that” Richard Kadrey author of Sandman Slim
Ok so I was prepared to be scared – I wasn’t.! The novel follows the exploits of the “time-traveling serial killer Harper Curtis, who discovers a depression-era house that opens to other times. Within the house are the names of the five “shining girls” that Harper knows he is supposed to kill. Harper jumps in and out of the lives of these girls until he discovers the right time to kill them. He is successful until the last shining girl Kirby Mazrachi survives Harper’s brutal attack! Teaming with Chicago Sun-Times reporter Dan Velasquez, Kirby sets out to find and stop Harper!!
First things,first I read this book very quickly and enjoyed it, BUT I was never really scared! I also never figured out why Harper wanted to kill these women other than their names were written in his handwriting on the walls of “the house” In fact I never really connected with Harper i.e I didn’t like the character or sympathize with the character. For that matter I didn’t even sympathize with his victims. Throughout the book I kept waiting for something to happen that would connect all the killings, but that never happened!
I did kinda’ like the two other main characters in The Shining Girls Kirby and Dan. Kirby was a plucky survivor with her mind and heart set on finding and settling the score with Harper. While Dan has his heart and mind set on protecting Kirby!!
Bottomline: I would give The Shining Girls three stars- I found the book ok, but I certainly didn’t find it as compelling or scary as others have found the book. For me the book just lacked something – it may have been the depth of the characters – but for me The Shining Girls just didn’t shine!! Having said that I at some point try another book from Lauren Beukes like Moxyland or Zoo City
Ok so tell me why I should have loved this book!!