The Shining Girls

Locations
Call Number: Mystery / Beukes, Lauren, Adult Book / Fiction / Thriller / General / Beukes, Lauren
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Mystery / Beukes, Lauren	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Mystery / Beukes, Lauren	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Mystery / Beukes, Lauren	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Thriller / General / Beukes, Lauren	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"A time-traveling serial killer is impossible to trace-- until one of his victims survives. In Depression-era Chicago, Harper Curtis finds a key to a house that opens on to other times. But it comes at a cost. He has to kill the shining girls: bright young women, burning with potential. He stalks them through their lives across different eras until, in 1989, one of his victims, Kirby Mazrachi, survives and starts hunting him back. Working with an ex-homicide reporter who is falling for her, Kirby has to unravel an impossible mystery"--Publisher's web site.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Creepy! submitted by hcf on July 26, 2013, 7:31pm Good read if you are looking for a good creep fest!

Fun but fluffy. I enjoyed it, but I don't expect it to win any awards. submitted by eknapp on August 12, 2013, 10:50am SPOILERS: There are one or two minor spoilers below.

A homicidal sociopath from Great Depression-era Chicago uses a magical time-traveling house to bounce around the 20th century murdering "shining girls", young women of exceptional potential. One of his intended victims survives his horrific attack and devotes herself to hunting down the killer.

Beukes's research really stood out: clothes, transportation, language and body language, characters' era-specific problems and issues, it all rang true to me. She touches on racial issues in the 30s and 40s, the Commie witch-hunts of the 50s, backroom abortions in the 70s, all without getting bogged down on one specific issue.

She writes characters well. Even bit players came to life. I could feel the ripple effects of one victim's murder on her parents, sister, friends, community.

As a time travel story, The Shining Girls falls flat. It's undeveloped. What could have been a clever, intricately woven exercise (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, for example) was simplistic. The author's sad attempts at full-circle time-travel flair (eg Bartek's presence at the snowball fight at the end of the book) were pretty much stapled on.

Worth Reading submitted by brielle on August 27, 2013, 10:19am I enjoyed this book. It changes perspective - which I normally hate, as I like one character more than the rest and want to just read his or her sections. I *almost* managed to read this entire book in order, though. Please be aware that there is some strong language in the book. SPOILER (Also there was very much unnecessary sexual tension).

Time Travel with a Twist submitted by ejidzior on June 14, 2014, 8:20am This has elements of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" as well as element of "The Time Traveler's Wife" and, of course, I couldn't avoid being reminded of how Harper is the OPPOSITE of The Doctor, time traveling instead to kill his women instead of showing them the world. Better on audio when you are in the mood for a good story or in need of something for a long car ride--we skipped some stops to finish chapters!

Time-Travelling Murder submitted by sdunav on June 16, 2014, 7:56pm Violent mash-up of Stephen King with "The Time Traveler's Wife", with a less Mary Sue-ish "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" thrown in for the main character, Kirby. Not as creepy as I thought it would be (but more gruesome), and I really enjoyed the historical glimpses of Chicago between 1929-1993.

A creepy page-turner submitted by KOH on August 12, 2017, 12:28am I liked this one. A good, scary read.