The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

I picked up this book because I was in the mood for a time travel story, and that's basically all I knew about it going in. The concept of a time-hopping serial killer sounded pretty promising, but unfortunately The Shining Girls doesn't do enough with it, and the various characters and time periods become jumbled.

The book is written in third person but each chapter is from a different point of view; from protagonist Kirby Mazrachi to her friend Dan the detective, to the killer named Harper Curtis, and a few inconsequential side characters, we get their name and what date the chapter takes place on. Sometimes alternating with multiple voices can be beneficial to a story, but in this case it all seemed scattered. I can say that Beukes did admirable research into the details of Chicago's different time periods, but that doesn't make the story great.

All we learn about the Depression-era drifter Harper is that he loves to slice up people with his knife. He has a list of women living in different years who he feels are destined to meet their end, but he also indiscriminately kills anyone who gets in his way, and then jumps to another time before anyone knows how the massacre occured.

Kirby is the one victim who survives Harper's attack because her dog gets in the way of his knife. So she is trying to track Harper down with Dan's help, all while a reporter from the Chicago Sun-Tribune is doing a profile about Kirby and the life-changing assault. Kirby is not a fully dimensional character either, only motivated by wanting justice to be served to the would-be murderer who left ugly scars on her belly.

I'm going to admit my mind wandered while reading this book, because the constantly shifting perspectives and decades became confusing. (This is probably why I'll never be a professional reviewer.) It didn't seem to be clearly explained how Harper was able to time travel other than using a portal somewhere, or why he has the list of victims he calls the "shining girls". (According to Wikipedia, he "must murder the 'shining girls' in order to continue his travels." I didn't pick up on that and I still don't see why continuing to time travel is a good enough reason to become a serial killer.)

So I didn't find much to recommend about The Shining Girls. It felt like it was clumsily building to some greater purpose that never came about, all elaborate table-setting with no feast.

Clariel by Garth Nix

I have read all the Old Kingdom books: Sabriel, Lirael (which I still like best of the four), Abhorsen, and now Clariel, the latest installment in the series. The eponymous 16-year-old is related both to the Abhorsen and to the King and has just been moved to the city of Belisaere despite preferring the quiet life in the forests of Estwael. Upon arriving she is immediately thrust into the politics between the existing kingdom and new ruling guilds. And she does not seem interested in any relationships, friendly or otherwise.

It has already been said, and I am going to agree, that Clariel is the weakest of the Old Kingdom books. I think that has to do with just how great Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen are as novels. What held my interest was the promise of the origin story of Chlorr of the Mask, a minor antagonist from Lirael and Abhorsen, but it did not deliver a complete origin story so I am more disappointed with it than I think I would have been going into the series cold.

Clariel is not particularly likable as a textbook adolescent. We meet her as she is moved from the forest of Estwael that she loves to the capital city of Belisaere where she is expected to attend classes to increase her marriageability. When taught Charter magic, she has no interest and so we miss something that was fun about Sabriel and Lirael in the other books. Nix replaces it with Clariel's education in berserk, an affliction that causes her to go into a fury (like Touchstone from the first trilogy), which was interesting but did not have as much lore attached to it.

I admit I didn't like it because it did not meet my high expectations and that doesn't mean it's not a good read anyway. But as a fan of the series, I didn't like it. That being said, I still plan to read more Old Kingdom books as they come. I think I'll wish for a book about Belatiel or Maderael/Ader after he finishes the Adventures of Nicholas Sayre and Lirael (what I'm calling it until the title is released). I think it is unlikely we'll get a book about Mogget/Yrael given that part of the fun is his mystery.

Visit Garth Nix's website for more information about the author and how to purchase his books.

Tent City by Kelly Van Hull

This book was brought to my attention by BookBub (deal expired).

Dani Campbell lives in the South Dakota of a United States that is barely hanging on after locusts caused famine. The book opens with Dani's family learning that the Military-now-Council plans to remove children from their homes. To avoid being taken to an undisclosed location and fate, Dani's father decides that the 17-year-old and her 5-year-old brother, Brody, will escape to their family's cabin in the woods. But when they arrive, it is occupied by run away kids and Dani has to figure out how to manage with the squatters.

So let's rip the bandaid off: I did not like this book. It is written in first person, which I usually like, but I did not like the protagonist and narrator, Dani: she comes off as unreliable as she jumps between past and present tense. I think Kelly Van Hull opted for first person to protect the reader from learning things before she was ready to reveal them. I think this could have done more effectively using a third-person limited narrator. To me, Dani does not come off as the heroine but rather someone who is just along for the ride. She was supposed to be caring for her brother but seemed to more often abandon him in the care of her friend, Kit, who is not a developed character. I hope in the sequels Dani takes an active role in driving the plot.

I think part of my disappointment with the novel is that I really wanted to like it: the plot is right up my alley. I think the series has potential but I don't currently have plans to read any of the sequels. However, that could change because the twist at the end made me think of the gang in Willow protecting Elora Danan and I love that movie.

Visit Kelly Van Hull's website for more information about the author and how to purchase her books.

Breakers by Edward W. Robertson

A couple of weeks ago I posted a review for a new book, Outlaw, that takes place in the same universe as the author's other trilogy. This is a review of the first book in the Breakers series: Breakers.

Breakers begins by introducing us to two male characters that aren't doing so well: Raymond is out of work and struggling to keep himself and his wife, Mia, afloat in California while Walt is living with Vanessa who is waiting for the right time to leave him in New York. Just like Outlaw, Robertson alternates his chapters between following Raymond and following Walt.

The conflict begins when most everyone on the planet starts to get sick and die from some mysterious illness. Vanessa is one of the first characters to bite the dust. Walt goes into a depression and decides to go to California because Vanessa always wanted to go there. And since society is breaking down with all the death, he starts walking there.

Meanwhile Raymond and Mia hide in the abandoned home of a celebrity (after the conclusion of a subplot) and try to make the most of what they think is the post-apocalyptic world. But it seems it was the calm before the storm as the aliens show up. Apparently they engineered the virus to thin out the humans (those who didn't die are Breakers). The alien purpose isn't clear but they are trying to capture and/or kill the humans.

There are other characters in the novel but Walt, Raymond, and Mia are the only ones worth mentioning, in my opinion. And only one of them survives to the end (although one of them is whisked away by the aliens and the final fate is not actually seen).

I didn't like this book. It took me a long time to force myself through it. Although it wasn't as bad as some of the books I've read. I probably won't read the others but I may read the sequels to Outlaw.

Visit Edward W. Robertson's site for more information about the author and how to purchase his books.

Double Life by S. Usher Evans

The novel Double Life by S. Usher Evans is a science fiction story that has deep space exploration, pirates, action, adventure, and potential. However, it lacks execution. The author spends too much time building the world and not enough time in the story. To me, it seems like she should've written a Silmarillion because it relies on the complexity of the world rather than compelling plot or characters.

So let’s talk about the novel: it is about a pretty, bratty girl who doesn't want help from anyone (with people inexplicably trying to help her anyway), and has a whole lot of luck on her side to balance out a lot of bad decisions. Those bad decisions are all allegedly justified due to a bad home life. Basically, our heroine is pretty unlikeable. She reminds me of Rachel Morgan from Kim Harrison's the Hollows series.

Let’s meet our 21-year-old heroine: first, she is Dr. Lyssandra Peate: a Deep Space Explorer (DSE) licensed to excavate and sell planets to the highest bidder. She is the daughter of renowned (but unpublished) scientist, Dr. Sostas Peate, who disappeared while studying Leveman’s Vortex when Lyssa was four years old. Secondly, she is Razia, the only female Bounty Hunter on the longest probation period. Her main motivation is to become Razia and delete Lyssa.

Helping out our girl is Lyssa/Razia’s personified inner monologue, Vel. Vel is her 16-year-old brother who she had not previously met until he is forced on her as a DSE intern. He is written like he should be an older mentor, not a younger mentee. The kid is always seeing right through her "tough” exterior and giving pretty good advice based on his observations. For example, it is Vel who notices Lyssa/Razia’s friend is in love with her. It’s not much of an observation, because it is straightforward that this person and Lyssa/Razia had some kind of romantic relationship previously, but it shows how even the obvious needs to be pointed out to Lyssa/Razia by Vel.

The novel is written in third person limited and vacillates between praising and berating Lyssa/Razia: complimenting her ability to find bounties, but saying she'd have an easier time if she wasn’t so unwilling to accept help. I haven’t read that many books written in third person limited that cut off the narrator, and when that happens it’s very jarring and disruptive.

The dialog and word choice of the book make me think that the author has a video in her head of what scenes look like, which she committed to paper. That would work well for a screenplay but in a novel it makes it challenging to get a full picture of what is happening and who is present. The author elects to WRITE IN ALL CAPS instead of describing the sound or tone of voice of the person speaking. It reminds me of sitting in a chat room back when AOL was a thing.

So what can S. Usher Evans do to improve on future books in the Lyssa/Razia series? I suggest introducing fewer concepts in each book. Piracy and Bounty Hunting would’ve been enough without mentioning Leveman’s Vortex and throwing all her family issues into the story. It’s a series, isn’t it? Pace yourself, Ms. Evans. This is salvageable.

Visit S. Usher Evans' blog for more information about the author and how to purchase her book(s).