“It's not the world that's the stage - it's social media, where you're trying to put on a show. The rest of your life is rehearsals, prepping in the wings to be fabulous online.” Well, hmm. I'm not sure what to say.On the one hand, Beukes once again reminds me what a great writer she is and also reminds me why I insist on checking out all her latest releases. I'm sure I'll continue to do so. This book is packed full of characters that are complex, well-developed, flawed, and realistic

Yup. Five stars.Actually, by the half-way mark I was simply enjoying the novel for how much depth and detail all the characters got. The mystery and the murder and the mayhem hadn't even really begun yet. I just got to revel in the characterizations. I didn't mind that there were a handful of them, from the cop, her daughter, the killer, the blogger, to the heroic ex-addict ex-murderer ex-slumlord.True, at some points I wanted the story to go ahead and commence, but by the point where I was actu...

Detective Gabriella Versado is called to the scene of a brutal murder. A boy who had recently been declared missing is found chopped in half, his lifeless torso sewn to the lower half of a deer carcass. The crime, albeit an exceptionally grizzly one, is yet another statistic within the husk of the once powerful city of Detroit and it’s not long before the person believed to be responsible for the murder kills again. With a serial killer on the loose, can Gabi track down and put an end to the ram...

I wasn't super hopping crazy for Beukes's The Shining Girls, but with Broken Monsters this woman has now got my full attention. I'm here to tell you the lady's got mad skills. It helped a lot I think that I picked this book up at the exact right time. I was ready. I was primed if you will. That kind of timing doesn't always work out. But I'd just come off my binge listening, over analyzing obsession with Sarah Koenig's Serial podcast where I lost countless hours pondering motives, cell phone...

”Shakespeare would have it wrong these days. It’s not the world that’s the stage – it’s social media, where you’re trying to put on a show. The rest of your life is rehearsals, prepping in the wings for the fabulous online.”It all begins with a body, a corpse, but not just any corpse... part boy part deer. The upper part of the boy is attached to the back half of the deer. Artistic insanity or a sadistic killer with a sense of humor? Detective Gabriella Versado knows this is one of those dividin...

4.0 StarsThis is a horror novel that reads like a thriller, until it clearly becomes a horror novel. Told over multiple perspectives it took awhile before the various plots intertwined. I was personally most invested in the perspective of the tough, female detective. I actually would have preferred if the entire story was written solely through her voice. I appreciated the choice of setting the novel in Detroit. The background of a decaying city added a rich layer of depth and interest to the na...

Everyone lives three versions of themselves, a public life, a private life and a secret lifeanother stunner from beukes. another book that sucked me in immediately, giving me multiple storylines full of interesting characters that i believed in, even if i didn't like them all. another series of unique murders whose horrific imagery will stay with me for a long time. another commentary on crime and modern life that transcends your typical mystery novel and elevates it from a serial killer beach r...

I come to you with my bona fides as a horror movie fan to say: this book is TERRIFYING. Like, turn on the light, double check the lock kind of scary. I don't think I've been so freaked out by a book since my parents let me read Salem's Lot when I was 11. The novel begins with the police discovering a dead boy, well, the top half of a dead boy, sewn to the bottom half of a fawn. And it just gets weirder and creepier from there. If you've read Beukes' The Shining Girls this book has similarities,

NetGalley sent me an 'invitation' to read this book from an author I'd never heard of. The blurb didn't necessarily make the book sound like it was my kind of thing... but I decided to give it a try. I LOVED IT.If you're someone who's missed Kathe Koja's early writing (Strange Angels, Skin, Bad Brains, etc.) you HAVE GOT to get yourself a copy of 'Broken Monsters' ASAP. It's not that similar in actual writing style, but the content and themes are very similar: Beukes explores the fuzzy line betw...

Lauren Beukes is an interesting author. I didn't care for her book The Shining Girls at all. I felt bad though because several of my friends loved it. I think her books are going to fall that way-you either love them or hate them.She redeemed herself for me in this one. This woman can flipping write. I thought my husband was going to super glue my lips closed because I kept wanting to quote him passages from it. I also wanted to spam status updates to my friends on GR. Oh wait, I did do that som...

"The body. The-body-the-body-the-body, she thinks. Words lose their meaning when you repeat them. So do bodies, even in all their variations. Dead is dead. It's only the hows and the whys that vary. Tick them off: Exposure. Gunshot. Stabbing. Bludgeoning with a blunt instrument, sharp instrument, no instrument at all when bare knuckles will do. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. It's Murder Bingo! But even violence has its creative limits." You would think...In Broken Monsters, Detective Gabi Versa

If I'm ever asked, "Name an otherwise sane novel that went completely bug fuck nuts for you in the end," I can now answer, Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes.I do not want to write a bad review of this book. I can put it off for a while because for 374 pages, this is a terrific police procedural and thriller, with well-drawn characters, solid dialogue and strong atmosphere. Published in 2014 on the heels of The Shining Girls, Beukes cuts glass with her research once again. The acknowledgments read...

Ok.So.Here's how this played out for me.I was listening along - there are four different narrators in this audiobook, by the way - and enjoying the story immensely. It was standard Homicide detective vs Mad serial killer fare only there were cool little twists like the serial killer wasn't even trying to stay one step ahead of the police, wasn't leaving bodies to be found in order to taunt authorities. He wasn't trying to not get caught, the cops weren't even on his radar. No, he was doing ART!

Audio..5 stars Story 2.5...chaotic, confusing, convoluted starsI think, but I can't be sure, that the message was...if you believe in something, you give it life. 🤷🏽‍♀️

The Hook - I needed an audio book. I read and enjoyed The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes and thought why not try another.The Line - Leila’s got herself into a sewage plant’s worth of the brown stuff.“If you’re wondering why this line appeals to me, my husband worked in a Waste Water Treatment Plant for many years. The Sinker - What the hey was that? After listening for approximately an hour my first thought was “naw, this isn’t for me” but I was enjoying the multicast narration so much that I d...

In a blighted industrial area of Detroit, a ten year old boy has been found, his body redesigned by a madman. The youngster is dead, of course, as is the fawn whose hindquarters have been grafted onto the boy's torso. This launches a police hunt for a deranged killer who is creating his "art" in the hope of changing the world, and he's just getting started. So messed up, so creepy. Beware the chalk-drawn doors blending in with the graffiti, vaguely disguising dreaming places where the walls are

This was pretty lame all around.Lame mystery - you know the perpetrator from the get-go and there is hardly any suspense. No police work either. The whole thing culminates in some dream sequence. Lame narrators - a teen girl (with some usual teen drama ripped from the pages of US papers); a noble black homeless man; a pathetic wannabe writer/blogger; a female detective with very poor investigating skills.Finally, a setting - Detroit - portrayed in a lame way too.Which brings me to this - why wou...

This review can also be found at Carole's Random LifeI received an advance reader edition of this book from Mulholland Books via Net Galley for the purpose of providing an honest review.2.5 StarsI really think that this is one of those books that will either click in the readers mind....or not. I wanted to love this book. I saw so many good reviews for this book, many that said that this book was scary, before I sat down to read this novel. I wanted to love this book just as much as all of those...

4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.com/2014/10/31/b...It’s been a while since I read a good horror novel. Broken Monsters proved to be just the thing I needed, turning out to be a cross-genre piece with mystery and thriller elements as well. Also, high time I read something from Lauren Beukes, and looks like I’ve been missing out all this time.Of course, the best part is the paranormal elements. I’m a big fan of the supernatural or the otherworldly in my horror; to me they ma...

Wow, what happened!?!?!What a weird mystery - I guess some of my review may be spoilerish, so proceed with caution.It started out like a normal serial killer mystery, but then things just got weird. You start to wonder what's real, whats a hallucination, and what might really be dark magic/demonic possession.I think the main point the author is trying to get across are the dangers of social media. It is a strong theme throughout the book - characters craving attention, paying the price for over