The Shining Girls, Lauren Beukes

"The girl who wouldn’t die – hunting a killer who shouldn’t exist.

In Depression-era Chicago, Harper Curtis finds a key to a house that opens on to other times. But it comes at a cost. He has to kill the shining girls: bright young women, burning with potential. He stalks them through their lives across different eras, leaving anachronistic clues on their bodies, until, in 1989, one of his victims, Kirby Mazrachi, survives and turns the hunt around."

A bizarre little beauty of a book, this time travel serial killer murder mystery who-dunnit, is, as that description suggests, a mish-mash of all sorts of genres that shouldn't really work but do.

The story itself is lithely written, racing along at a solid pace. Both the heroine, Kirby, and the villain, Harper, are terrifically written, with neither given the treatment of flawlessness; Harper is a monster, but also a victim of circumstance, petty, vindictive, cruel and murderous, but also weighed down upon by the House, and his own half-created destiny. Kirby is broken, but rarely sympathetic, she's shattered into cold edges, and like Gone Girl this a story of flawed human beings who often exert little in the way of humanity.

Trotting between eras, the real skill of The Shining Girls is in picking out victims that do pull at the herat strings; Harper's task, to kill off women with something exceptional about them is horrifyingly, cruelly misogynistic and utterly readable. In choosing such an obviously 'good' group to target Beukes removes the need to make them 'good' people; their lives are testament to that, and so Kirby's own flaws mean very little compared to what she could have been. Her survival is in a world that she is out of place in, her achievements after are through a prism of her broken nature.

Really enjoyable book. Perfect thriller.

Also Try:
Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Travelers Wife
Robert Harris, Silence of the Lambs
Dean Koontz, From The Corner of His Eye

Doctor Sleep, Stephen King

"What happened to Danny Torrance, the boy at the heart of The Shining, after his terrible experience in the Overlook Hotel? The instantly riveting Doctor Sleep picks up the story of the now middle-aged Dan, working at a hospice in rural New Hampshire, and the very special twelve-year old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless - mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the 'steam' that children with the 'shining' produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him and a job at a nursing home where his remnant 'shining' power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes 'Doctor Sleep.' Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra's soul and survival ..."



Stephen King was the author I spent my teenage years reading everything I could find of. From the first time I picked up my Dad's old copies of Carrie and Firestarter, to bargain hunting for the back catalogue and obsessively purchasing new releases, I was utterly hooked. I still have all of my copies, and recently started to replace them with hardbacks (a process which moving to America may interrupt somewhat).

King gave me some of my most enduring memories of literature. I won't ever forget the bittersweet hope of the end of The Mist, or the realisation of the inevitability of the fate of those left on The Raft. Before I waited for the "great bearded glacier", George R. R. Martin, to finish writing A Song of Ice and Fire, I was desperate to know what became of The Gunslinger as he followed the man in black through the many worlds along the beam.

And for all that I think his strength is actually his short stories King has given me enough 1000 page burglar-stunners for me to know he can handle the epic.

True, post-accident there was a drop in form, and a propensity for naval gazing and introspection that marred the end of the quest for the Dark Tower and showed itself most clearly in a series of semi autobiographical leads and a merging of King's life and his stories. This slump certainly seems to have been arrested however, and his last few books (Under The Dome especially) have been, if not instant classic, certainly a response to critics who wrote the master off.

If Doctor Sleep features a little too much of the Stephen King staple template (messed up recovering alcoholic, powerful but troubled children, supernatural villains travelling through small town America) it at least reads as more of a greatest hits than an attempt to repeat former greatness.

As a story it's serviceable, but where it shines (pun unintended) is in the relationship between Danny and Abra, a tale of redemption certainly, but also a more tender story of a man who finally finds his place as a mentor and who learns to face more than just literal demons.

Characterisation is one of Kings strongpoints, alongside world building and dialogue and he creates a convincing and consistent cast with their own motivations and expectations without ever coming across as clichéd.

As good as a stand alone book as it is as a sequel to The Shining, a book I didn't feel the need to reread beforehand, this is return to near-vintage King, and therefore well worth reading.

Also Try;

Stephen King, The Dark Tower books

Stephen King, Skeleton Crew

Dean Koontz, From the Corner of His Eye

North 40, Aaron Williams and Fiona Staples

"The residents of an isolated rural area discover superhuman and supernatural power in their midst. Within the limits of the county, something ancient and malevolent stirs and new monsters arise. Wyatt, unlikely hero from the wrong side of the tracks, Sheriff Morgan and town outcast Amanda will have to combine their efforts to keep the county from imploding...or being eaten by mighty Cthulu."













North 40 was recommended to me by the staff at my (outstanding) LCS, Nostalgia and Comics, due to the Fiona Staples art and everyone's love of her work on Saga with Brian K. Vaughan. That's the kind of universally acclaimed Sci-fi that tends to gain you devotees, and so the shop was offering copies of some of her older work.

It was actually the American Vampire and The Wake on my pull-list that earned me a recommend, as although I am enjoying Saga, I'm trade waiting rather than doing a monthly pull, something I'm perfectly happy with as I am apparently the only comic reader in the world who thinks it's pretty slight work.

So, instead I end up with a low-key horror trade, of Staples' art on a Lovecraftian epic, set in small town America where opening the wrong elder tome has led to the majority of the town developing the kind of eldritch talents that in a straight cape book would be called superpowers. Riffing on the horrific nature of giving people these abilities, and the terrifying amount of misuse they can be put to, whilst also dealing with vampires, zombies, giant robots, evil ghosts and, yes, Cthulhu, the story isn't deep and doesn't try to tell us anything new but works as a set up for the kind of monster mash-up that few horror stories really sell well.

The characterisation is choppy, the story bulging but shallow, but the art, the art! The art is lovely. Much looser than her Saga work (and apparently that's a trend as her earlier work on Done to Death supposedly is looser to the point of indifference), but with an easy slackness that fits the small town Americana vibe. It's complimented but some excellent colouring, a washed out palate that gives it a 50s, picture house vibe, all low washes and scrap book heart. It's fantastic.

Next I've been recommended Done to Death, so I'll pick that up and feedback.

Also Try:
Scott Snyder, American Vampire/ The Wake
Brian K. Vaughan, Saga
H. P. Lovecraft, Necromicon

Zoo, James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

"All over the world, brutal animal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the impending violence becomes terrifyingly clear.

With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide."

I am going to differ from probably everyone else on this book, because whilst the world seemed to hate it, I thought it was wonderful. Now, part of that may be down to the fact that the story (animals turn on humanity, go on the rampage) is exactly the kind of thing I enjoy most, or it may be down to the fact that the writers clearly are enjoying themselves way too much to care about things like facts, science or consistency.

And Boy, do they not care. Going on the basis that pheromones are things that exist, the book posits that a new pheromone could change the behaviour of every single male animal worldwide, causing them to attack humans. In packs. The real victim isn't humanity though, it's continuity, as the authors introduce important plot lines (like only male animals attack people) having forgotten that the very first attack they describe is from a lioness. And when characters disappear halfway through a chapter and never reappear again. This is all pretty normal.

But there's still a real joy to it all, whether descriptions of massive dog packs occupying major citites, or descriptions of special forces units against bears. Even when it doesn't make sense (which is every few pages), or when the science is bad (I mean, really bad - like Michael Crichton bad) it's carried along by the fact that another idea will be introduced by the next chapter and everyone will forget exactly what the problem was.

Also, the REAL villains are entitled rich people, and I think we can all get on board with that.

Also Try:

James Patterson, Maximum Ride

Michael Crichton, Next, Congo

The Spear, James Herbert

"When Steadman agreed to investigate the disappearance of a young Mossad agent, he had no idea he would be drawn into a malevolent conspiracy of neo-Nazi cultists bent on unleashing an age-old unholy power on an unsuspecting world -- power rising out of a demonic relic from man's dark primal past to threaten humanity with horror from beyond any nightmare"














James Herbert has written a lot of books, and some of them are even passably good fiction, although there's a lot of his ouevre that's perennial charity shop fare, and is as indifferently similar as to count as a single story. These are the stories that as a young teenagers I thrilled to, because they contain lashings of violence, sex and the kind of stupid plotlines that would make most writers wince. At his best, and even in his worst books, Herbert can pack a punch, he creates a crude homonculus of disgust. It's never deep, and it's rarely psychological, but it still has a thrill to it.

Of his better books, I have exceptionally fond memories of '48, a book which has probably been helped by the fact I've never revisited it, even though I have a well thumbed copy. From memory, it features a post-apocalyptic London decimated by Nazi superweapons (this may or may not have included Zombies). Hoping for something similar from a book which promises undead Himmler on the back cover I picked this up cheap in Hay-on-Wye.

Frankly, whichever reviewer picked out undead Himmler as a highlight was probably reading a different book to me. Himmler isn't especially resurrected, so much as his (possessed?) corpse shambles around for the final few pages before collapsing when stabbed with the spear of Longinus. All of this is played out as part of a reworking of Parsifal. To say it's confused is to do it a disservice, it's tightly focussed, but the focus isn't very interesting. Usually a NAZI secret society controlling all levels of British Government to fight Israel with biblical weaponery would be enough, without bringing in Wagnerian Opera sideplots, but here neither the motivational plots of the hero, villains or side characters seem to match the up at all.

Apparently a court ruled that James Herbert based most of this on work from another author (The Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft). So now you know.

Also Try:
Trevor Ravenscroft, The Spear of Destiny (only seems fair)
James Herbert, The Rats, The Fog, '48
Stephen King, Different Seasons

Blockade Billy, Stephen King

"Even the most die-hard baseball fans don’t know the true story of William “Blockade Billy” Blakely. He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first--and only--player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game’s history.

Every effort was made to erase any evidence that William Blakely played professional baseball, and with good reason. Blockade Billy had a secret darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today. His secret was much, much worse... and only Stephen King, the most gifted storyteller of our age, can reveal the truth to the world, once and for all."

I managed to pull this from a chance visit to Waconia Library in Minnesota, and figured that at a hundred pages or so I could read it in an evening. It actually took a little less time, as it turned out that the book is actually two short stories, rather than a single piece.

Blockade Billy is the story of a historically significant, minor league baseball player with a dark secret. King's key strength has always been the way he can evoke character in just a few lines of dialogue, and the telling of this tale (by an old man, to Stephen King, in a bar) is an excellent way for him to immediately invest a truthfulness to the story which gives it a real shine. It helps that King writes about baseball so effectively that even when I had no clue what was being spoken about, I still felt invested. The pacing of the story, unlike baseball as a game, is relentless.

The second story, a much shorter piece called Morality, is a little harder to describe, but basically boils down to what impact does an evil deed done for money have on the life of two otherwise ordinary people. Whilst King is usually known for his more exuberantly supernatural tales (The Mist, The Shining, IT, Carrie) he also has a fairly firm line in psychological and suspense led horror - real life tales, essentially (think Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Clayborne, or Geralds Game).

Morality is one of these - a corrosive tale that's more impactful than Blockade Billy for it's simplicity. Told in flat, short prose, it sets up its idea and then lets it run its course. By making the reader implicit in the action, it turns the sedentary voyeurism of the act committed around, and places the weight as much on the reader as the characters.

Also Try:
Stephen King, The Dark Tower Series, any short story collection
Michael Chabon, Summerlands
Michael Lewis, Moneyball