The Shining Girls is a hard book to categorize, since it is about a serial killer who travel back in time. OK… I know some of you are already tuning out, but keep reading because this book is strangely compelling and is one of the most fascinating stories I have read in a long time.

Harper Curtis finds young girls who shine.  It is their shining quality that attracts him and when he finds them he gives them a token and tells them he will be back again later.  When he does come back he brutally kills them. He has been doing this for many years now, and he has evaded suspicion because he can go back and forth through time. The house he lives in has strange powers and he has learned its secrets and uses them to choose his girls. Everything has been going flawlessly until one day when he tries to kill one of his shining girls and is distracted and in that instant, despite her severe injuries, she runs away.

Kirby Mazrachi, was brutally attacked, but somehow through sheer gumption was able to get away from her assailant.  The man who did this to her was never found and although she has tried to move on with her life it continues to haunt her.  Now as a journalist she has the resources to investigate what happened to her all those years ago. As she reads through cases with similar MOs to hers she begins to see anomalies.  Things left behind that were not the victims; things that are in the wrong time and the wrong place. It will take all her gumption, nerve and resources to track this killer down.

Beukes has written a truly haunting and suspenseful book.  Like Stephen King she has imbued every day things with an evil that is menacing, but her writing is lyrical and compelling and in some strange way that combination makes this book less of a horror story and more of a psychological study of how evil affects our lives. Harper is one of the creepiest, malevolent serial killers since Hannibal Lector while Kirby is a determined, spunky young women who refuses to let herself become a victim.

I hope that you will give this book a chance.  I think like me, you will be surprised at the great writing, the wonderful characters, and the satisfaction you feel at the conclusion of this story.

Brenda’s Rating: **** (4 Stars out of 5)   

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy? Sure!

Read in ebook format.