Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Shining Girls

I enjoyed reading this book but it wasn't a good book. It was funny where it should have been tense.

The shining girls suffers from the author being unable to choose what type of story she wants to tell. Instead of picking a narrative or theme or genra to use it uses a huge mix and doesn't really succeed with any of them.

The author as well has an obsession of telling us about every single character's sex life, even when it doesn't have any effect on the plot. It feels almost like a sexual grocery list when reading. I don't mind sex being in books or important to narrtives but it feels more like it's trying to sexualise murder victims than it does add anything to the story.

Another issue I have is that while the book has a diverse array of characters almost all the diversity is in the characters who are brutally murdered and only appear for one or two short chapters over the whole book. On top of that the author leans heavily into sterotypes for them, making it feel more like the diversity was placed in to add to the 'shock' value that it relys on heavily.

This isn't helped by the three main white protagonists being very unlikeable and boring. Kirby and Dan have a creepy romance that feels like padding through book, which doesn't get resolved by the end of the book. Harper (the serial killer) has the best sections to read but only because he is the worst serial killer ever, he gets caught and beaten up constantly.

My last note is that the book doesn't read like a well crafted narrative. It feels like you are slapped in the face with 'important' plot constantly but most elements get dropped or don't actually go anywhere. Even major plot points have this issue, by the end of the book there are no sastifying anwsers.

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mrremi's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Holy crap. My book club picked this book for our month's theme of "villain" and damn did this book fit this perfectly. It's almost creepy how well the villain is written in this book. I feel like I have a whole new understanding of how a villain might think. Though it is very creepy, and has some pretty graphic descriptions, I really enjoyed this book.

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co2lreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was a crazy puzzle. The time travel elements were fascinating, and the characters were interesting. This book is not for the faint of heart (check the content warnings) but the descriptions of violence didn't feel gratuitous. Beukes did a great job making the other victims seem real, even in just a couple short chapters each. I do wish more time was spent on where things went wrong as Harper started making mistakes, but otherwise The Shining Girls is definitely something to read if you like thrillers.

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unicorndave's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The killing scenes are particularly brutal, as they are told from the victims' perspectives.

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tennilles's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Very interesting plot, but I didn’t enjoy the execution. That said, I am looking forward to watching the adaptation when it comes out later this year.

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rachal_e's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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kelseak96's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Really good! I struggle finding thrillers that aren’t cliche, where I’m actually invested in the characters, and that keep me guessing, and this book did a great job of that! Like others have said, there’s a lot about the universe, the House, the characters’ backstories that isn’t explained, but I think it’s done in a way which makes it feel like we’ve just met these characters or stumbled upon the House like any other stranger. Would absolutely recommend!

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purecomedy's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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