Disturbingly brilliant!
Broken Monsters
Lauren Beukes
Mulholland Books
Mulholland Books
ISBN: 9780316216821
Description:
A criminal mastermind creates violent tableaus in abandoned Detroit warehouses in Lauren Beukes’s new genre-bending novel of suspense.
Detective Gabriella Versado has seen a lot of bodies. But this one is unique even by Detroit’s standards: half boy, half deer, somehow fused together. As stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to a reality that is already tearing at its seams?
If you’re Detective Versado’s geeky teenage daughter, Layla, you commence a dangerous flirtation with a potential predator online. If you’re desperate freelance journalist Jonno, you do whatever it takes to get the exclusive on a horrific story. If you’re Thomas Keen, known on the street as TK, you’ll do what you can to keep your homeless family safe–and find the monster who is possessed by the dream of violently remaking the world.
If Lauren Beukes’s internationally bestselling The Shining Girls was a time-jumping thrill ride through the past, her Broken Monsters is a genre-redefining thriller about broken cities, broken dreams, and broken people trying to put themselves back together again.
My View:
I picked up this novel with some apprehension – I had made the mistake of reading a few reader reviews and the nightmare factor they alluded to (i.e. the book giving you nightmares) did put me off a little. A started reading…I stopped. The horror is immediate and penetrates your core. I let the book sit for a few months…I started reading again and did not stop until I put the book down at 2am this morning. Disturbingly brilliant!
This book zings with excitement and action; the words swoop and fly off the page, darting here and there, multiple points of views explode around you like a glittering strobe light- zing, sparkle, zap! Your senses are bombarded with action, words, fear, emotions and death, yet the descriptions of the horror are minimal – it is your own imagination that steers you way from sleep, and my imagination was ignited by this prose.
This is a novel that defies sitting quietly in a specific genre – the style of this narrative is contemporary, the language colloquial punctured with social media extracts and is also a police procedural, is a murder/mystery, it has a paranormal element, is also about relationships and about how in this world of extensive social media hype and engagement the past is never able to be completely discarded, the repercussions of what we say and do now and record on social media echo in our future.
This is a fantastic read but comes with a warning – this novel will take you out of your comfort zone. I dare you to read it.
Reading, Writing and Riesling 
Carol – This is now the, I think, third time I’ve gotten that message. This seems to be one of those powerful books that may not be for the faint of heart, but is brilliantly written and worth reading. Fascinating!
I think it is a hint Margot – you must read this.
This could be one for those nights when I’m having trouble sleeping anyway.
Pam – this is quite an amazing read…have you read any of her other works? I know The Shining Girls got rave reviews.
No, I haven’t read anything by her – I’ll keep my eyes open and she might have to be my next ‘new’ author.
Ohhhhh….. I don’t like anything TOO scary (as in horror) but am okay with the thriller kind of novel (the odd psychopath etc).
This is all about your imagination Deborah…so it could work fro you:)