The number of “favorite books” I’ve read this year continues to grow with this extremely addictive and fun read. The Shining Girls is my first experience with Lauren Beukes, an author who has gone on to win several awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the August Derleth Award for Best Horror, and the Strand Critics Choice Award for Best Mystery Novel. With so many accolades over several genres, it may come as no surprise that this novel is an ingenious blend of thriller, horror, and science fiction. I adore a writer who manages to innovate a genre into something incredibly original, and Beukes absolutely nails it with this story about a time-travelling serial killer and the victim that managed to survive.
The novel takes place in Chicago and begins during the Great Depression. The primary character is a man named Harper Curtis, a down on his luck drifter who is not afraid to do whatever it takes to survive. While being hunted by an angry mob, Harper encounters an old woman on the street and steals her coat. Inside one of the pockets is a key that draws him to a ramshackle house in a bad neighborhood. Harper cannot explain why, but he feels the house silently calling to him, and upon entering it, he discovers luxurious accommodations completely at odds with the outside appearance. This house contains several mysteries, including a dead body on the staircase and a shrine in the upstairs bedroom containing the names of several women along with several random objects from different time periods. Harper feels this bizarre mosaic calling to him, and at that point, he realizes that his destiny is to seek out these “shining girls” and murder them. The house has a kind of interdimensional travel ability for the person with the key. Harper can think up a time, open the front door, and walk out into that time period. The house wants Harper to complete a circle of killings and leave a memento from a different time, and different murder, on each body.
The second protagonist is Kirby Mazrachi, a young woman who was once brutally attacked i the 1980’s while out walking her dog. Her assailant was never found, and she has made it her obsession to hunt him down. As a student of journalism, Kirby takes an internship at a Chicago newspaper in order to work with the reporter who originally investigated her case. Her attacker is Harper, who met her when she was a little girl, then again about two decades later. Unlike his other victims, Kirby is the one who survived, thus leaving the circle incomplete. Once he discovers that she is alive, Harper will stop at nothing to finish the murder and end the hold the house has on him.
“And the smile more than makes up for the brackwater brown eyes, because now he can see the spark behind them. It gives him that falling away feeling in his chest. And he’s sorry he ever dounted the House. She’s the one. One of the ones. His shining girls.”
The idea of a time-travelling serial killer could have come across as completely ridiculous, but Beukes manages to create a compelling and grisly thrill ride from beginning to end. This novel feels like a delicious blend of both Stephen King and Gillian Flynn. Throughout the book, we observe Chicago in several different time periods, and each one feels quite authentic. While there is a lot of jumping around in time and through different characters, it never feels confusing.
Another positive was in the character development. Harper Curtis is one of the scariest villains I’ve encountered in a novel. While we get a few glimpses into his past, much of him is a blank slate. This is a character with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He is truly a monster, who entire purpose and pleasure in life is to murder. The chapters that focus on his point-of-view will make you feel sick, and Beukes does not shy away from the gore. While there are brief moments when he questions completing these killings, he is for the most part completely focused and relentless. I felt Kirby was a fully fleshed character, whose every waking thought was focused on finding her attacker. While the other “shining girls” appear briefly, I thought they all felt real and original.
What does happen when the circle is complete? Harper desperately wants to know, as he’s driven to madness in completing the killings to ease the house’s invasion of his mind. While the story opens with a lot of questions, Beukes manages to close the circle and provide one answer after another. The Shining Girls hits the accelerator from the beginning and doesn’t stop. I’m planning on continuing the works of Lauren Beukes with Broken Monsters next month.
I Would Rather Be Reading 
I had very positive feelings about actually reading this thriller until you said Harper Curtis was one of the scariest villains you had read! No way (but then it sounds so good. . . )
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