The Shining Girls
-
-
3.8 • 110 Ratings
-
-
- £4.49
-
- £4.49
Publisher Description
The jaw-dropping, page-turning, critically-acclaimed book of the year: a serial-killer thriller unlike any other from the award-winning Lauren Beukes. ‘GONE GIRL has not exactly gone. But THE SHINING GIRLS have arrived’ (The Times).
THE SHINING GIRLS is now streaming on Apple TV+, starring Elisabeth Moss and Jamie Bell
“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…
Reviews
‘A powerful thriller – imaginative, disturbing, tense, compelling reading’ The Times
‘I’m all over it’ Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl
‘Brilliant. A book about the duel of two fabulously realized characters. A triumph’ Independent
‘Clever story, smart prose’ Stephen King
‘Extremely creepy’ Mail on Sunday (‘Must Reads’)
‘Very smart, wholly original, completely kick-ass’ William Gibson
‘Engrossing as it is original, as rewarding as it is challenging. Superb – a beautifully layered work of fiction. Take the time to read this, it’s mesmerizing’ Sun
‘Utterly original, beautifully written. This is something special’ Tana French, author of In The Woods
‘Brilliant. Forget GONE GIRL, now it’s all about THE SHINING GIRLS’ Observer
‘Disturbing, smart and beautifully written’ Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus
‘This year’s must-read’ Stylist
‘A new kind of thriller. A dark, relentless, time-twisting, page-turning murder story. It shines’ Matt Haig, author of The Humans
About the author
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
South African author Beukes, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Zoo City, adds an intriguing wrinkle to the serial killer suspense novel. In the creepy opening chapter, set in 1974, sadist Harper Curtis, who's on the prowl for one of his "shining girls" ("bright young women burning with potential"), approaches six-year-old Kirby Mazrachi, as she plays alone. After an initially friendly exchange turns nasty, Harper promises that he will see Kirby when she's grown up. In 1989, he keeps that promise by savagely attacking her. Miraculously, Mazrachi survives and leverages an internship with a Chicago newspaper into a private investigation of her assailant who can travel through time. The shifting perspectives require readers to stay alert, but those who do will be rewarded. Beukes is particularly good at garnering sympathy for Harper's female victims, creating deep characterizations in only a few pages, so that they come across as more than just fodder for a psychopath's mission. 5-city author tour.
Customer Reviews
Not sure !
Without doubt the writing is very engrossing and the author has created a very different storyline. The constant jumping back and forth in time is sometimes hard to comprehend especially if you take time off reading. When nearing the end I was anticipating some rational or twist hitting me in the face and was a bit disappointed that there was no realisation of the reason things happened. Although maybe that was the point ! Expect some people will love this book whilst many simply wont get it. I'm somewhere in between.
Massively Overrated
No attempt at explanation for the House that enables time travel, no attempt at a back story for the killer, just didn’t like this at all.
Well worth a read
Lasted three days as I was hooked!