Lauren BeukesAnmeldelser

serial killer trova portale del tempo

probabilmente merita più di 3 stelle perchè è strutturato bene e lo stile è ottimo ma non mi ha preso

Devoured this book over a single day-- being sick and on bed rest is good for something, right?

It was good company; I was intrigued, kept intrigued, at how things panned out. I really enjoyed the layers of detail, but I think we could have had some places where this got tightened. A second reading while less drugged might reveal more that I missed. But even while in my medicated state, I got a lot out of this book.

I'm hoping for another one in this world; maybe not about Zinzi herself (though I found her engaging, don't get me wrong, but I think her story is told - though I would have liked to have known more, had a clearer picture of the wrongs she's done beyond the obvious) but certainly about the world and the animals and it's strange magical systems.

The worldbuilding, magical realism layered atop a more cyberpunk thriller reminds me of the old gaming system for Shadowrun (and I would suggest this book to anyone who has played that particular game). Not 100% original, but great writers steal, not borrow! I think that the flavors she sets in with this are good, gritty and ugly and in places, hopeful. It's not your average urban fantasy, which is good, because I've got my staples for that already. This was cyberfantasy, or post-cyberpunk-fantasy, daring to touch on scenes that the average wizard/vampire/werewolf/faerie detective book won't touch. I love it for that.

Either way: an engaging, if quick read. I'll definitely be looking for Moxyland by the same author.

2024 book #23. 2013. Kirby survives her encounter with a time traveling serial killer and vows to track him down. Creepy story but kind of hard to follow due to the time hopping chapter order. The killer, Harper, is not given much depth nor an explanation of how this is happening

Lauren Beukes es la mejor. Este thriller sobre las consecuencias de una pandemia en un mundo casi apocaliptico sobre una madre protegiendo a su hijo de los extremismos y el peligro esta muy on point.

Tiene un ritmo endiablado que te mantiene enganchado, un trio protagonista que funcionan muy bien y una ambientación muy bien construida y documentada aunque sea todo ficción.

Lauren Beukes no falla i encara que no arrivi a les cotes maestres de Les Lluminoses, Zoo City demostra per què és tan bona escriptora.

Misteri, critica social i un ritme que va in crescendo, són els ingredients d’una novel•la que atrapa al lector. Si no l’he acabat abans ha estat més per una vida que no m’ho ja permés que per la qualitat de la lectura. M’alegro acabar 2022 amb algo així.

Quina meravella, un llibre rodó sobre assesinats i viatges temporals, amb una documentació impecable i uns personatges molt ben definits. Fins i tot els més secundaris.

Necesito llegir més coses de l’autora.

(2.5 Stars)

This book started off really slow... I was about 50% into it before I started getting into the story. By the end, it was good (not great), but so far out of the three books I've read by this author, this one was the best.

Good mystery- added element of time travel keeps it interesting. Glad author does not try to explain it, always find that ruins it

Well-written, interesting, exceptional at depicting extreme violence and cruelty, but ends with a whimper rather than a bang. I’d have liked closure on the House, and its existence. Harper was just a serial killer, it was the House that made him special, and we never find out why.

2024 book #11. 2023. When Bridget's mom dies of cancer, she finds that her mom was using a drug that allowed her to switch conscienceless with her double in another reality. Convinced her mother is alive somewhere, she takes the drug trying to find her. Pretty decent.

I listened to this book on an 11 hour drive and it was so helpful! the audiobook has several narrators which helped switch it up and made it easier to keep everyone straight. A great weave of a story, included modern elements of crime solving like Facebook but not in a cheesy unbelievable way. Really enjoyed this "case",

Given how quickly I listened to this, I definitely really liked it! I recently finished [b:Broken Monsters|23341578|Broken Monsters|Lauren Beukes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434675391s/23341578.jpg|27869457] so I was excited to read her other book. Overall I liked Broken Monsters a little better but I really enjoyed this book and thought it was a unique concept.

I didn’t get it. The point, I mean.

Post-apocalyptic. Not great. Almost all the men die. Mother trying to get her and son back to South Africa. Sister of mother trying to kidnap son to sell for his sperm, I guess? Unclear why mother thinks it’s so much better off of an idea to risk all instead of staying in cushy hospital/spa while scientists try to find cure. But…whatever.

I have read and enjoyed several of Beukes's books in the past but this one wasn't for me. While the concept was intriguing, I struggled to really get immersed in the story. As a consequence I found my mind drifting and found myself feeling lost and confused.

Okay people who like to be creeped out. Time to immediately get this book and start reading. This is a dark and creepy police procedural. It's told from several POVs with distinct personalities. It constantly flirts with the supernatural leaving us readers always wondering exactly what it going on. It reads like a mash up of True Detective and The X-Files.

It is beautifully written and uses the urban decay of Detroit as a brilliant setting. I found myself completely unable to put the book down for the last two hundred pages. This is easily my favorite book of the year. Now I am going to try and not have creepy nightmares.

I listened to this audiobook and love love loved it. It was one of those where I had to force myself to get out of the car and turn it off. Great plot, great narration, great ending.

I loved this. It's like Dark Matter by Blake Crouch but female and better. It's about mother daughter relationships and grief, is sci-fi and thriller and multiverse assassins, it's a mother wound. I love the writing as well, Beukes has such an interesting way of putting things, millennial but make it literary.

Bridget’s mom taught her to use dreamworm to visit alternate realities, but then Bridget grew up and decided it was fake. When her mom died, though, she found more dreamworm in her mom’s effects—and decided she had to go find her mom, who must have jumped out of her body to some other reality. Also, other people can jump realities, but they are not benign, nor are the effects of being jumped into. As with her other work, Beukes takes an idea that’s been done before but does it very differently, drawing our attention to the costs to the jumpees and the various ways in which lives can go wrong.½

An interesting mix, some of them quite odd. My favorites were "Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs and "Ghost Girl." Opinions may vary.

Well, this one was recommended to me by someone who thought that I would enjoy it.
I can understand the reasons since 1) I love time travel books 2) all those examples of brilliant women (hence the title) and 3) there is a secondary character in it with my somewhat uncommon name!

But ugh, while I did enjoy those parts of the story, a gory serial killer (and an obnoxious one to boot), who targets mainly women, was just not my cup of tea.
He had me rushing through just to get through and see him hopefully get his comeuppance.

The Shining Girls is a different and interesting novel. It features a serial killer and in some ways reads like true crime. But the fact that the killer can travel through time puts it somewhere in the sci fi/fantasy genre. There's even some baseball thrown in. Sammy Sosa & Greg Maddox and a few other Chicago Cubs make cameo apperances.But the main character, Kirby is the real star of the novel. Taking on a serial killer is hard enough, but when the killer has the ability to travel through time and yet Kirby still manages to kick his butt; well Kirby rocks ! That's for sure.