Reviews

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

dubikan's review against another edition

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4.0

The Time Traveler's Wife, if the Time Traveler was a serial killer. A great fantasy horror thriller. Lauren Beukes is the new Chuck Palahniuk.

brennie192's review against another edition

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3.0

I found this book hard to follow. Interesting premise, but too much jumping around for my liking.

manuscriptable's review against another edition

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5.0

Heart- and gut-wrenching. A perfect combination of genres. Exquisitely executed.

eternity21's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense

4.0

thebookishnic's review against another edition

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

3.75

cbateman's review against another edition

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5.0

I'm very rarely wowed by anything in the horror genre. Probably only once a year, if that. I assume that's because I'm most horrified by things I find most believable, by real events and real people. Despite the fact that this is a book about a time traveling serial killer, it feels real and true, and is great horror. Beukes brings the victims to life before Harper kills them, and that makes the deaths harder to take than his violence. I would have liked these women, admired them, and they're deaths make a larger mark for that.

I read it through in one sitting, and the last 20% of it I spent sitting straight up in bed, hunched over the book, my heart racing. It reminds me of being little again, and believing I could make the story go faster if I got close enough to it. I couldn't have put it down for anything, so I'm grateful the dogs slept through the last part. It seems like I should anticipated the ending, but I was so caught up in it that I couldn't stop to speculate. The ending is neither predictable nor far-fetched, and I'm glad because it was perfectly horrible.

merrryl's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

susiebee's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

simcha13's review against another edition

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2.0

This book just wasn't very well written.