A review by p_t_b
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

3.0

Wanted to like this more than I did. I really enjoyed Zoo City, though it dragged on too long. This was a faster and more compact read. Very imaginative central conceit (time travel, serial killer) but the killer is kind of boring, and the main character just doesn't really have all that much to do. Mostly you're just waiting for their big collision at the end, which doesn't quite satisfy. Also I am not a doctor but some people live a long time after suffering catastrophic blood loss in this book. Another quibble: This book is set in Chicago, and the author does a pretty amazing job of throwing her voice into the setting (she's South African). But there are a handful of flubs that totally clank at inopportune times. The weird thing is that they're the kind of thing a good copyeditor should have caught. Americans don't call sports fans punters and we don't call plexiglass "Perspex" and a half dozen other things. A tiny tiny thing but it really farted up the read for me.