A review by rachelbohlen
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

4.0

This is a well-written, ambitious book that crosses the borders between crime thriller and horror novel. Set in Detroit, this novel tells the story of a serial killer whose trademark includes merging human bodies with animals. It's horrific, and Ms. Beukes's writing style doesn't shy away from grotesque descriptions. The book starts off at a reasonable pace (not slow - certainly not slow. It opens with the body of a boy glued onto a body of a deer), but once I hit the last third of the book, I couldn't put it down. Though most of the book stays solidly in the crime thriller genre, toward the end, it transitions into more of a supernatural horror story. What I really loved about this book is the commentary on social media and on our obsession with exhibitionism. There is a side plot with the main character's daughter that I didn't love (sure, she's an essential character, but I'm not quite what the point of her story was compared to the rest of the book), but that's my only real criticism. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of crime and/or horror novels.