The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

This book came to my reading list because I was searching for the best horror-mystery novels to replenish my collection and this title came up twice. Plus the cover is eerie.

The story turned out to be more than a murder thriller than a paranormal one. Although there is one element that gives a supernatural distinction that sets it apart from the mainstream serial killer fare. The serial killer named Harper can travel through time with an aid of a house he magnificently stumbled upon in Chicago 1930’s. Harper is your typical psychotic serial killer. He kills the girls brutally while leaving relics to identify him by, which is quite egotistic on his part because with his time traveling ability, it’s one to a million that he will be caught unless he is that sloppy. He derives his kick from the gruesome acts and relishes the hunt. He feeds the house with the deaths of “shining girls”, girls who will make a difference in this world. I never quite got the explanation behind this force nor was his history uncovered. He started off as a sick serial killer and ended off as one.

He sets off killing girls in various eras, which gives the book a multitude of settings and landscapes. In some parts, you could empathize with Harper’s sense of power when he can wrong a right, visit places way before his time and witness the rise and fall of a period. One thing that centered on this story is by closing the unfinished loop when he failed to kill one girl named Kirby. Kirby, in her adult years, turned out to be this sarcastic scarred woman out to make sense and hunt her killer while working as an intern in a newspaper bureau. The two main characters, the victim and the killer, perform the confusing search dance hoping to collide with each other and close the gap.

This story is not your typical serial-murder story. At some points, the method of time traveling gives the order of the story complexity and detail. This book needs the reader’s full attention and imagination. It will also not serve answers but questions. What about this time traveling house? Why would the house need deaths of the shining girls? Why is Harper the way he is? Well, it’s best not to ask and embrace these given facts to be able to move on. It’s an interesting book, but it’s not for everybody. I might read it again sometime. It took me almost two weeks to finish it.