I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes Published by Mulholland Books on September 16th 2014
Pages: 448
Genres: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
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Also by this author: The Shining Girls, Slipping: Stories, Essays, & Other Writing
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.
“…everyone will see what they are supposed to see.
They will bring all their eyeballs, and all their minds will open like doors, and then maybe they will all be free too.”
Detective Gabriella Versado’s new case takes priority over all: the top half of a young boy is found fused together with the bottom half of a young deer. This is not the only strangely mutilated body found but what is also found are doorways drawn in chalk that seems to have some connection with the deaths. Broken Monsters alternates the story-lines of Detective Versado, Layla, her 15-year-old daughter, Jonno Haim, a new to Detroit journalist, Thomas Keen “TK”, a homeless man and Clayton Broom, the man responsible for the atrocities appearing around Detroit. Each of these individuals will each play their own important role in bringing a stop to the darkness that threatens to consume the city.
Broken Monsters was one of my most anticipated of the year after The Shining Girls was a favorite of mine from 2013. Her writing style continues to impress and captivate and her ability to come up with unique (albeit twisted) stories will keep me picking up her novels. Broken Monsters easily takes your typical crime thriller beyond your preconceived notions and injects it with a horrid deformity. It’d normally be brutal enough, a story dealing with the murder of a young child, but Beukes gives her serial killer an alter-ego/dream that is consumed with the intent to change the world by making his presence known by creating these ‘monsters’. In an attempt to explain this dream, the story took an unexpected supernatural turn that inevitably provided no explanation at all leaving me unsettled and with an overabundance of questions. A horrific yet well-written crime thriller, Broken Monsters will undoubtedly leave you disturbed.
Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy
I want to read this soon! I’ve never read Lauren Beukes before but I bought a copy of Shining Girls when it came out. I’m always hesitant to read stories about child murders, but I’m sure I’ll try this anyway:-)
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Heidi
Oh Wow. I am not sure I could handle this one. The gross sounding murders creep me out. Still, I am curious. I enjoy a good thriller.
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