LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Winner of the Best Horror Novel at the British Fantasy Awards 2014.
Breathtakingly chilling, this is written so convincingly the fact that there is a time-travelling serial killer seems completely plausible. Each chapter is headed with either the killer or the victim and then the date; it throws you a little to start, jumping around in time, then you fall in, the story grabs hold and refuses to let go. The author occasionally allows an insight towards her killer, a little understanding as to what has made him choose his ‘shining girls’, she even allows a softening, perhaps a little warmth before ripping your feet from under you again. At times graphic and gruesome, each word, each sentence feels essential; perhaps best not to read this in public though, as flinches, grimaces and yelps are likely companions.
Shortlisted for the CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger 2013.
CWA judges' comment: “The quirky fusion of the sci-fi and crime genres features a time-travelling surreal serial-killer, Harper, whose story begins as a drifter in prohibition-era Chicago. When Harper "steps into sometime else", murdering along the way, he meets his match in the contemporary figures of Kirby, an engaging young journalism intern, and her unlikely sidekick Dan, a burned-out sports writer. The author plays with the abstractions of time, change, decay, memory, and imagination with great assurance and originality.”
Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2014.
One of our Books of the Year 2013.
Liz Robinson
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About
The Shining Girls Synopsis
It's not my fault. It's yours. You shouldn't shine. You shouldn't make me do this. Chicago 1931. Harper Curtis, a violent drifter, stumbles on a house with a secret as shocking as his own twisted nature - it opens onto other times. He uses it to stalk his carefully chosen 'shining girls' through the decades - and cut the spark out of them. He's the perfect killer. Unstoppable. Untraceable. He thinks...Chicago, 1992. They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Tell that to Kirby Mazrachi, whose life was shattered after a brutal attempt to murder her. Still struggling to find her attacker, her only ally is Dan, an ex-homicide reporter who covered her case and now might be falling in love with her. As Kirby investigates, she finds the other girls - the ones who didn't make it. The evidence is ...impossible. But for a girl who should be dead, impossible doesn't mean it didn't happen...
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780007464586 |
| Publication date: |
29th August 2013 |
| Author: |
Lauren Beukes |
| Publisher: |
Harper an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
416 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Thriller and Suspense
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Press Reviews
Lauren Beukes Press Reviews
'Oh my ... a glorious creation. So pleased to read a serial killer thriller that has such intelligence behind it. But what I was really thinking (along with reminding myself to BREATHE) was what a brilliant film it would be and how awesome the house was'
- Granta
'The Shining Girls is utterly original, beautifully written, and I must say, it creeped the holy bejasus out of me. This is something special'
Tana French, author of In the Woods & Broken Harbour
'A new kind of thriller. A dark, relentless, time-twisting, page-turning murder story guaranteed to give you heart palpitations. It shines
Matt Haig, author of The Radleys
'The Shining Girls is enthralling, dazzlingly inventive, and superbly executed. A huge accomplishment'
Deon Meyer, author of Seven Days and Trackers
'A tremendous work of suspense fiction... a mind-melting, heart-pounding mashup that delivers on its promise'
Cory Doctorow Praise for Zoo City:
'Beukes delivers a thrill ride that gleefully merges narrative styles and tropes, almost single-handedly pulling the urban fantasy subgenre back towards its groundbreaking roots'
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
'Lauren Beukes is very, very good. It feels effortless. Utterly accomplished'
William Gibson
Author
About Lauren Beukes
Lauren Beukes is a novelist, TV scriptwriter, documentary maker, comics writer and occasional journalist.
She won the 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award for her novel Zoo City, set in a fantastical Johannesburg where guilt manifests as spirit animal familiars. Her previous works include Moxyland, a dystopian cyberpunk thriller set in Cape Town under corporate apartheid.
She helped create South Africa’s first half-hour animated TV show, URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika, and has written kids animated shows for Disney UK and Millimages in France.
Author photo © Casey Crafford
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