The Shining Girls - Lauren Beukes

I finally finished The Shining Girls after approximately three months. I guess that is not a really good sign. The premise was just so good, a time travelling house that demands murders, that the story itself could in the end not life up to the great expectations it had created.

 

The beginning is a bit confusing as the times/places change a lot and it needs some getting used to, but afterwards I felt like it was no longer a problem. There are so many questions and (at the end) not enough answers. I'd liked to get more answers on the time travelling, are there more houses? How does it work? The story doesn't really give an explanation to this problem.

 

Kirby fitted, to me, a bit too perfect in the 'damaged main character'-profile, but not so much that it really annoyed me. Harper, on the other hand, was one of the least likeable characters I've ever met. I normally like unlikeable characters, but Harper really was an exception.

 

I think the biggest problem I had with this book is that I could put it down so easily. Every time I was actually reading it, I enjoyed doing so. But afterwards I could always pick up another book that for some reason also asked my attention and read that first. The last two hundred pages I read in one go, and I quite liked that. I've already got an ARC for Broken Monsters so my new tactic plan is not to get distracted too much while reading it...