5 Stars for The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes shines. The plot twist the typical serial killer story into a web of time traveling, creepy madness. The killer, Harper, travels through time to murder girls who have glimmering potential. However, one girl, Kirby, survives a vicious attack and becomes the hunter. Kirby and the rest of the shining girls are characterized splendidly, unfolding like a well-constructed origami butterfly colored in shades of yellow and gold.

With each girl, I died a little with them. But for all the characterization given to Kirby and the shining girls, Harper remained bland like a paper doll, completely non-dynamic and static. I am sure Beukes intended him to be this way, because he foiled against the girls making them shine even brighter and causing me to root against him. Harper's reasons to kill did not follow logic.

The reasons followed that of a deranged one-dimensional monster who only wanted to snuff out the life of those who were born three-dimensional meant to add to the world around them rather than take from it. Harper seemed lost in finding something shiny in himself and this black hole inside him seemed to grow larger and more persistent sucking him in a void of nothingness.

With this in mind, I didn't need a scientific explanation for his time travel nor did I need rational from the mind of a monster on why he murdered. The story unfolded throughout time and reason and became a need to survive. The story traveled through time in darkness and in light and ended up on one of those sides. No spoilers, but I highly suggest reading it.