A review by birdwatching
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

3.0

Conceptually intriguing, this isn't a book with much depth - it is all 'shining' images, flashes of moments and characters and diverse historical times, that are described so briefly, and left like the killer's trophies, in a Hansel & Gretel trail of memory. I liked how inventive it was, and enjoyed traipsing forward and back across the landscape of Chicago. It doesn't make light of the horror of the killer's crimes, with one truly hideous, tear-inducing, scene in particular, but it doesn't dwell on them either. I personally felt that the fact there wasn't any particular thing that seemed to draw the killer towards each of his 'shining girls' made his mission seem all the more pathetic and monstrously authentic, a true psychosis of grandeur. Interesting read, and would recommend to anyone wanting a different take on the over-saturated crime genre.