Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes starts off promising, and much like the titled 'shining girls, it's promise is short lived and snuffed out too early. As a fan of murder-mystery novels with intriguing female leads AND a Chicago resident, I was so ready to like this book. The beginning had me reading right through it out of excitement, and half way through I was reading it because I wanted to get it over with... here are a few reasons. 1. Chicago- The city makes a great backdrop for travelling through time, and Laura's rendering of the city is very lifelike. At some point, the details become redundant and the city streets, monuments & esoteric Chicago references come off as almost 'name-dropping' and thrown in just to remind you 'This book takes place in Chicago!!' While it is intended to serve as an anchor to the location, it ended up pulling me out of her world. 2. The Characters- Where do I begin? None of them were really interesting or multidimensional. Kirby, the surviving Shining Girl was constantly using sarcasm to keep others at bay, unfortunately that included the reader. Dan, the supporting character, fell flat for me as well, and much of the dialogue between him and Kirby left me cringing. Some of the most interesting characters were the Shining Girls, whose time in the book was fleeting and underdeveloped. The killer himself was more interesting, but I credit that to the time-travel. 3. The Violence- It certainly was a gory, bloody affair in the Shining Girls, and I understand that you are going to get that in a murder novel. I think the violence felt wasted in this disappointing novel. It really came off more as violent torture porn. This book hooks you in an ultimately disappoints you.