THE BLURB:
THE GIRL WHO WOULDN'T DIE HUNTS THE KILLER WHO SHOULDN'T EXIST.
The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own."
Harper Curtis is a killer who stepped out of the past. Kirby Mazrachi is the girl who was never meant to have a future.
Kirby is the last shining girl, one of the bright young women, burning with potential, whose lives Harper is destined to snuff out after he stumbles on a House in Depression-era Chicago that opens on to other times.
At the urging of the House, Harper inserts himself into the lives of the shining girls, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. He's the ultimate hunter, vanishing into another time after each murder, untraceable-until one of his victims survives.
Determined to bring her would-be killer to justice, Kirby joins the Chicago Sun-Times to work with the ex-homicide reporter, Dan Velasquez, who covered her case. Soon Kirby finds herself closing in on the impossible truth . . .
THE SHINING GIRLS is a masterful twist on the serial killer tale: a violent quantum leap featuring a memorable and appealing heroine in pursuit of a deadly criminal.
MY THOUGHTS:
The writing in this book was very good, and it tells a pretty exciting story that keeps you reading, but there were a couple things I found bothersome that kept me from giving it 5 stars.
The story is good, creepy, unsettling. Kirby is a protagonist that is easy to root for. The main thing that prevented me from loving it more than I did is the graphic violence and gore. There may have been a time in the past when a book containing these things didn't bother me so much; it's just a book, right? But at this point in my life I can't help but think about the fact that there really are screwed up people like the book's serial killer in this world, and these F'd up things actually happen to people, and it's terrible, and do we really need to turn it into entertainment?
Other than that, I mostly enjoyed the book, except that the ending left me a tad bit disappointed. I really liked the connection between Kirby and Dan, and was saddened to see that we never actually get to witness it going anywhere. We are left with the promise that it will happen ("If you want to kiss me again, then shut the fuck up and stop bleeding to death"), but I would have actually liked to see more of it myself. That, and I want to know more about the little tidbit dropped about the nature of the House at the end. The tie-in in the postscript was really smart, though.
MY RATING:
4 booksies
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