Scan barcode
A review by kuraias
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
1.0
The blurb sounded cool. A time-traveling serial killer.
I didn't enjoy this book for a variety of reasons. I stopped about halfway through because I was thoroughly not enjoying it and the same was true for the two people I was traveling with (one of them had picked the audiobook).
1. Excessive cruelty and violence against women ("girls" -- I would not apply that label to most of the characters, with the exception of Kirby). Yes, it's about a serial killer who targets women. But hearing about how much joy he takes in the whole process, and was sickening.
2. There's a lot of jumping back and forth between characters, times, and places. I probably would have coped better with it on paper than I did with the audiobook. It helped to have different narrators but it was still confusing.
3. For the most part, time travel was actually not that relevant. Great, the killer stalks his prey for longer. In Kirby's case most of her life. It makes him creepier, but I don't feel it added much to the plot (pending half a book, but from what I read in other reviews, it won't actually be all that relevant).
4. The characters are not relateable. Kirby a little bit, maybe, but for the most part I just pity her. The only reason I rooted for her was that the antagonist disgusted me.
I didn't enjoy this book for a variety of reasons. I stopped about halfway through because I was thoroughly not enjoying it and the same was true for the two people I was traveling with (one of them had picked the audiobook).
1. Excessive cruelty and violence against women ("girls" -- I would not apply that label to most of the characters, with the exception of Kirby). Yes, it's about a serial killer who targets women. But hearing about how much joy he takes in the whole process, and
Spoiler
how he decorates trees with their guts, how he treats Kirby's dog, .. the list goes on2. There's a lot of jumping back and forth between characters, times, and places. I probably would have coped better with it on paper than I did with the audiobook. It helped to have different narrators but it was still confusing.
3. For the most part, time travel was actually not that relevant. Great, the killer stalks his prey for longer. In Kirby's case most of her life. It makes him creepier, but I don't feel it added much to the plot (pending half a book, but from what I read in other reviews, it won't actually be all that relevant).
4. The characters are not relateable. Kirby a little bit, maybe, but for the most part I just pity her. The only reason I rooted for her was that the antagonist disgusted me.