Book Review: The Shining Girls By Lauren Beukes

The Girl Who Wouldn't Die. Kirby is lucky she survived the attack. She is sure there are other victims less fortunate, but the evidence she finds is...impossible. Hunting a serial killer who shouldn't exist.
Harper stalks his shining girls through the years- and cuts the spark out of them. But what if the one that got away came back for him?

I completely loved this book even though it terrified me! Kirby survives a horrific attack as a teenager; she is lucky to be alive but she cannot settle until she has found the man who intended to end her life in a viscous and carefully planned manner.
Harper is a serial killer, he's not particularly smart but his sole focus is to kill the shining girls as he calls them. He takes something from each victim and leaves it with another of his prey.
Kirby begins to investigate but the evidence is baffling. It appears that Harper has been killing women for more than 60 years, but how would be do
that? How would an older man be inflicting such physical violence acts on people much younger than him?
The Shining Girls kept me away at night; Harper is one of the scariest characters that I have ever come across. He is just relentless, there are no discerning features to him, he is pure evil.
This book has split opinion and I think that it mainly due to some of its fantastical elements. These made the book for me. Lauren Beukes delivers a completely original type of psychological thriller of which I am sure there will be many poor imitations.
The Shining Girls is gripping, terrifying and thought-provoking. It is definitely not one to read late at night but it is also not be to missed.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 5/5

Publisher: Harper

Pages: 416

Book Review: Heart Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne

When Archway Young Offenders Institution is closed down, a notebook is found in one of the rooms.
'I have to start by saying that this isn't an apology. I'm not sorry. I'm not.'
This is that notebook.
'They say I'm evil and everyone believes it. Including you. But you don't know.'
It's pages reveal the dark and troubled mind of Emily Koll, Archway's most notorious inmate.
'Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever shake off my mistakes or if I'll just carry them round with me forever like a bunch of red balloons.'

This book is extraordinary, I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it.
The book is effectively diary excerpts, so we get everything from Emily's perspective and she does not hold back at any point. Tanya Byrne uses Emily's character to explore revenge, its limits and its consequences. I felt extremely confused as I read the book as I seriously liked Emily but I felt as though I shouldn't. I think you feel as though you should sympathise with the victim but in this book I felt more empathy for the villain.
Heart Shaped Bruise is one of the most tense books that I have ever read. It is so clever, the reader knows that Emily has done something awful; we know she has been imprisoned for it but we do not find out right until the very end, exactly what it is. I made several guesses as the story unravelled but I honestly was not prepared for the ending.
Heart Shaped Bruise is a complex psychological thriller that will easily cross over from YA to adult fiction. I cannot recommend this book enough, Tanya Byrne is fantastic and I can't wait to see what she does next.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 5/5

Many thanks to Headline for sending me a copy of this book to review, Heart Shaped Bruise is out now!