Tania's Book Circus
I adore reading and have very wide and varied taste. Some of my favorite genre's include historical fiction, memoirs, fantasy and non-fiction. Some of my best-loved titles are Sandcastle girls, Poisonwood bible, Daughter of the forest, Knife of never letting go, The snow child, The glass castle and Wolf Hall. I love Juliet Marillier, Jodi Picoult, Philippa Gregory, Deon Myer and Bill Bryson. I read approximately 120 books a year, and I try to keep my reviews short and to the point, so you can spend less time reading them and more time reading the books you'll enjoy. Happy reading!
Brilliant!
He remembers doing it. He has no recollection of doing it. One of these things must be true.
Wow, this was so different. I was expecting something similar to Zoo City, which was an urban fantasy. But I should have known to expect the unexpected from Lauren Beukes. The shining girls is a SF Thriller – who else would think about writing about a time-travelling serial killer? The closest I can come to comparing it with another book is 11/22/63. There are a few big differences. Obviously the main character is evil, and I’m talking cold-hearted, killing with a smile, type of evil. So much so that I would definitely say this is not for the squeamish. Some of the scenes left me quite unsettled. To be fair it is almost like none of this is his choice, The House (which is the time-travelling portal) called him, and governs all his actions. The two things that I enjoyed most about this book is that you get to know each victim, and as they all come from different era’s, this gives you quick but powerful insight into how people’s lives change over time, and what the main issues of that period was. Mostly though, I appreciated how Lauren played with time in this novel. It folds in on itself, and almost becomes a loop. This is the first time travelling book where the protagonist also did not know/remember what he did in the future, so everything becomes a bit mixed up.
The story: Chicago, 1931. A strange house gives serial-killer Harper the power to travel through time; to hunt and kill his "shining girls". They're bright young women full of spark - until he cuts it out of them, leaving clues from different times behind to taunt fate.
