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A review by songwind
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
4.0
This is the story of a time-travelling serial killer and his victims.
Harper jumps forward and back through time with the help of a strange house. In it he finds the names of women, the "Shining Girls" and artifacts to give to or take from them.
From the Great Depression to the 90s, he visits the Shining Girls as children and gives them a gift, then comes back later to take it back.
Kirby is the only one that survived the encounter.
Positives
The story is very solid. It's enjoyable, and tense. The mix of POVs between the victims, Harper, Kirby, and her reporting partner Dan keep things fresh and offer varying takes. The shifts in timeline due to the aspect of time travel are mostly handled quite well.
Negatives
The most persistent annoyance for me was the use of South African/British terminology for the internal thoughts and the dialogue of the all-American cast. "Bank notes" instead of "bills," "punters" instead of.. audience? rubes? "Holdups" instead of thigh-highs. That kind of thing. It was jarring, and interrupted the flow of the story.
There are a couple of POV shifts that seem pointless in retrospect.
All in all, a very enjoyable read.
Harper jumps forward and back through time with the help of a strange house. In it he finds the names of women, the "Shining Girls" and artifacts to give to or take from them.
From the Great Depression to the 90s, he visits the Shining Girls as children and gives them a gift, then comes back later to take it back.
Kirby is the only one that survived the encounter.
Positives
The story is very solid. It's enjoyable, and tense. The mix of POVs between the victims, Harper, Kirby, and her reporting partner Dan keep things fresh and offer varying takes. The shifts in timeline due to the aspect of time travel are mostly handled quite well.
Negatives
The most persistent annoyance for me was the use of South African/British terminology for the internal thoughts and the dialogue of the all-American cast. "Bank notes" instead of "bills," "punters" instead of.. audience? rubes? "Holdups" instead of thigh-highs. That kind of thing. It was jarring, and interrupted the flow of the story.
There are a couple of POV shifts that seem pointless in retrospect.
All in all, a very enjoyable read.