THE SHINING GIRLS by Lauren Beukes (book review)

Review by Erin Murphy

If you are like me, you have a genre or two you just don’t jibe with. I’ll just straight up admit it: I’m not a mystery or thriller fan. Some people I know gobble those books up, but I am uninterested. So when I read about The Shining Girls, I almost passed it over.

And then they mentioned TIME TRAVEL!

Ok, so I gave it a shot. I am so glad I did. Somehow, Lauren Beukes managed to put a new, fascinating spin on murder mysteries, and I just fell for it!

During the Great Depression, Harper finds himself in possession of a key to a house…a house that does something fantastic.

Harper can choose any date within a 70-year span, open the front door, and find himself in a new time.

So, being the creative thinker he is, Harper decides this is a great way to commit murder.

He chooses female victims, all of whom “shine”. To cultivate the darkness inside himself, Harper decides to extinguish these women’s light, but only after he plays a game of cat and mouse with them.

Using the power of the house, Harper is able to meet his victims as young girls and monitor them throughout their lives. Like other serial killers, Harper takes trophies from his victims. He also leaves a calling card. These strange calling cards keep the police from ever tying all the victims together.

Until one victim survives his attack.

Kirby, a journalism major and intern at the Chicago Sun Times, can never feel free of her attacker, since the police never found him. She decides to find him herself. She starts to see a strange and fascinating pattern develop in the murders she studies. It’s a pattern that is impossible to believe, but it is her only lead in finding the monster that haunts her.

What I liked about this book was the straight-forward language telling an impossible story. There is really no need for flashback, since time travel exists in Beukes’ world, and we can witness the events first hand. We never get an explanation of why this particular house in Chicago has this power, or how Harper came to understand its power. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s like asking why people do the things they do. They just do.

Although Kirby is the only victim we get to know in any real sense, we learn enough about the others to understand why Harper views them as such threats.

They each shine in their own way. One shines because of her glamour. Another shines because of her strong work ethic and quiet dignity. Kirby shines just because her spirit is so indomitable. That life force is what kept Kirby alive when she should have died. And let me just say: when I finally read the story of Kirby’s attack, I was left horrified. I had to put the book down until the next night so I could try to purge the images from my head. This from a woman who devoured Stephen King as a kid!

If you are looking for a quick read for the summer, this is definitely a good one to try. Murder, romance, time travel: what’s not to like?

Erin Murphy is a born-again nerd. When she’s not geeking out, you can find her working in the library of a medical facility.