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missuskisses 's review for:
Broken Monsters
by Lauren Beukes
Review: http://bennitheblog.com/bookbiters/broken-monsters-by-lauren-beukes/
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If you tweet and no one is around to see it, WHADDYA GOTTA DO TO MAKE PEOPLE READ YOUR FEED?!
The power of attention features prominently in Broken Monsters: Wanting it, not getting it, getting it—sometimes the wrong type of attention. Is the you presented on your social media profiles who you are or what you want to be? Do you become who you pretend to be? And how much power do you really give someone when you pay them your attention?
After the Detroit police find the body of a young boy fused to deer legs, they try to keep the details out of the media. On the one hand, as the killer stalks through the city, you wonder if the revelation of details may lead to a quicker capture. On the other hand, maybe attention and a captive audience is exactly what the killer seeks.
Detective Gabriella Versado, Officer in Charge of the crimes, is what the other detectives refer to as a “threefer”—Latina, woman, and on top of that, attractive. Crimes as heinous as these require the right spin, and the department thinks Det. Versado may be the perfect face for the media. Det. Versado is not thrilled about being judged by anything other than her competence, but as all eyes are on her, she’s determined to prove what she’s capable of. Here’s Det. Versado’s initial take on the murders:
Jonno Haim, a journalist who burned all his bridges in New York, has fled to Detroit, a city with a reputation that mirrors his own loneliness and hopelessness. But he is soon inspired by his new DJ girlfriend, Jen Q, to garner attention by shooting and posting videos to the Internet. Jonno, who’s at the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time, catches wind of the crimes involving the macabre, transformed bodies. When he releases exclusive photos and information online about the crimes, he becomes an overnight sensation.
Layla, Det. Versado’s daughter, together with her gorgeous best friend Cas, fake a profile to attract the attention of online predators. But are they ready for the attention they receive? Will the killer exploit their fears in his latest project?
T.K., homeless but resourceful, knows how to operate under the radar. He knows evil when he sees it, but when he tries to alert others, will they believe a guy like him?
Detroit, a city that has lost over 60% of its population since 1950, is the perfect setting for Broken Monsters. In the book, artists and tourists reappropriate a largely abandoned city, creating “ruin porn.” By doing so, they create a kind of infinity loop, a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s a glamorization in which the killer is only too eager to participate.
The rich characters with their unique voices will draw you in. One of Ms. Beukes’s strengths is having a real ear for dialogue, which is reflected in each characters’ perspectives. Contrast the below passage from one of T.K.’s chapters with the one from Det. Versado’s above:
Broken Monsters is a slow starter, though once the momentum gets really going around the 60% mark, it only builds, and builds, and builds to one of the most horrifying climaxes in recent history.
Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls has already been optioned for television. The same needs to happen for Broken Monsters, which would be perfect for a miniseries on a premium cable channel, like HBO. Or for perhaps a broader reach, AMC. Because if Broken Monsters deserves anything, it’s all the attention in the world.
I received a digital review copy of the book via Netgalley, courtesy of Mulholland Books.
Review: http://bennitheblog.com/bookbiters/broken-monsters-by-lauren-beukes/
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If you tweet and no one is around to see it, WHADDYA GOTTA DO TO MAKE PEOPLE READ YOUR FEED?!
The power of attention features prominently in Broken Monsters: Wanting it, not getting it, getting it—sometimes the wrong type of attention. Is the you presented on your social media profiles who you are or what you want to be? Do you become who you pretend to be? And how much power do you really give someone when you pay them your attention?
After the Detroit police find the body of a young boy fused to deer legs, they try to keep the details out of the media. On the one hand, as the killer stalks through the city, you wonder if the revelation of details may lead to a quicker capture. On the other hand, maybe attention and a captive audience is exactly what the killer seeks.
Detective Gabriella Versado, Officer in Charge of the crimes, is what the other detectives refer to as a “threefer”—Latina, woman, and on top of that, attractive. Crimes as heinous as these require the right spin, and the department thinks Det. Versado may be the perfect face for the media. Det. Versado is not thrilled about being judged by anything other than her competence, but as all eyes are on her, she’s determined to prove what she’s capable of. Here’s Det. Versado’s initial take on the murders:
The-body-the-body-the-body, she thinks. Words lose their meaning when you repeat them. So do bodies, even in all their variations. Dead is dead. It’s only the hows and whys that vary. Tick them off: Exposure. Gunshot. Stabbing. Bludgeoning with a blunt instrument, sharp instrument, no instrument at all when bare knuckles will do. Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. It’s Murder Bingo! But even violence has its creative limits.
Gabriella wishes someone had told that to the sick fuck who did this. Because this one is Yoo-neeq. Which happens to be the name of a sex worker she let off with a warning last weekend. It’s most of what the DPD does these days. Hands out empty warnings in The. Most. Violent. City. In. America.Duh-duh-duh.She can just hear her daughter’s voice—the dramatic horror movie chords Layla would use to punctuate the words. All the appellations Detroit carries. Dragging its hefty symbolism behind it like tin cans behind a car marked “Just Married.” Does anyone even do that anymore, she wonders, tin cans and shaving cream? Did anyone ever? Or was it something they made up, like diamonds are forever, and Santa Claus in Coca-Cola red, and mothers and daughters bonding over fat-free frozen yoghurts. She’s found that the best conversations she has with Layla are the ones in her head.
Jonno Haim, a journalist who burned all his bridges in New York, has fled to Detroit, a city with a reputation that mirrors his own loneliness and hopelessness. But he is soon inspired by his new DJ girlfriend, Jen Q, to garner attention by shooting and posting videos to the Internet. Jonno, who’s at the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time, catches wind of the crimes involving the macabre, transformed bodies. When he releases exclusive photos and information online about the crimes, he becomes an overnight sensation.
Layla, Det. Versado’s daughter, together with her gorgeous best friend Cas, fake a profile to attract the attention of online predators. But are they ready for the attention they receive? Will the killer exploit their fears in his latest project?
T.K., homeless but resourceful, knows how to operate under the radar. He knows evil when he sees it, but when he tries to alert others, will they believe a guy like him?
Detroit, a city that has lost over 60% of its population since 1950, is the perfect setting for Broken Monsters. In the book, artists and tourists reappropriate a largely abandoned city, creating “ruin porn.” By doing so, they create a kind of infinity loop, a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s a glamorization in which the killer is only too eager to participate.
The rich characters with their unique voices will draw you in. One of Ms. Beukes’s strengths is having a real ear for dialogue, which is reflected in each characters’ perspectives. Contrast the below passage from one of T.K.’s chapters with the one from Det. Versado’s above:
They say possessions tie you down, but maybe not tightly enough, if you look at this town. The sum total of his stuff fits into a shoe box. Photos, a map of Africa, a pair of reading glasses, his AA medals, and an old sixty-minute cassette tape with his family talking on it, made before his little brother died. Cassettes wear out eventually. He knows he should get it digitized. He knows a bit about computers, he’s a self-taught man, but Reverend Alan’s promised to send him on a real course, and that’s the first thing he’s gonna ask them to show him how to do. Photographs, voices—those things are what you pull close when you’re missing connections to people, not fancy sneakers and big screen TVs.
Broken Monsters is a slow starter, though once the momentum gets really going around the 60% mark, it only builds, and builds, and builds to one of the most horrifying climaxes in recent history.
Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls has already been optioned for television. The same needs to happen for Broken Monsters, which would be perfect for a miniseries on a premium cable channel, like HBO. Or for perhaps a broader reach, AMC. Because if Broken Monsters deserves anything, it’s all the attention in the world.
I received a digital review copy of the book via Netgalley, courtesy of Mulholland Books.
Review: http://bennitheblog.com/bookbiters/broken-monsters-by-lauren-beukes/