Book Review: Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

Paperback, 464 pages

Published June 2015 by Mulholland Books (first published July 31st 2014)

Shirley Jackson Award Nominee for Novel (2014)

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Horror (2014)

This is Horror Award Nominee for Novel (2014)

Barry Ronge Fiction Prize Nominee for Longlist (2015)

ITW Award Nominee for Best Novel (2015)

It is funny when I picked up this book at the bookstore I had mistaken this author for someone else. It was not the book I intended to get and in a funny stroke of luck the day after I finished it a great interview with the author came across my podcast feed. That would be the This is Horror podcast. I recommend that interview by the way.

So I picked up Broken Monsters by mistake but this supernatural horror crime thriller set in Detroit was right up my alley. Lauren Beukes is a South African novelist and perhaps the most impressive thing here is I would have thought she was from Detroit. I mean my experience with the city is confined mostly to visiting for hardcore shows when I lived in Indiana but it seemed like she knew the city well. It is clear that besides her storytelling and prose chops that she is a detail-oriented author who does intense research.

The best way I describe this novel is feeling a little like a season of True Detective meets James Ellroy in the sense that it feels like the novel is putting a magnifying glass on a moment of urban decadence. Ellory tends to highlight how criminals buzz LA like flies on shit, this novel does the same for the post-automotive Detroit that in a bizarre moment of urban flight. You can be assured that this a fascinating setting for a serial killer novel with hints of the supernatural.

Broken Monsters has two main point of view characters in Detective Gabriella Versado and her daughter Layla. While the majority of the novel centers on then there is a full cast of characters who get their third person narrative moments woven excellently into the plot. Characters like journalist turned Vlogger Jonno and his younger DJ hook-up turned girlfriend and recovery addict TK. These may sound like side characters but TK and Jonno are richly drawn enough characters that they could've carried a novel to themselves. Maybe not this novel but they play important roles.

The story centers around the discovery of a dead boy whose corpse was sown or glued to the body of a dead deer. Detective Verado has to deal with the demands of the investigation while her daughter gets into trouble that of course is tied to the overall story. The story is interesting but in the end, I didn't find it to be that compelling. We have seen this kind of mystery many times before. What makes the book work is the voice of the author and the strength of the characters.

It is well paced with plenty of reveals to keep you interested in the details. There are plenty of cringe-worthy moments of suspense through-out but those were less appealing to me than the setting. I was very impressed and think I will have to read all the other novels Beukes has written and in that sense, I can't give a higher compliment.

Was it perfect? No hardly. I found Junno as a character had a weird arc and by the end of the book, he was behaving in a way that didn't make sense with the character I met in the early pages. TK was introduced with a very effective chapter that introduced him trying to track down his homeless Ex who was raising their child in a car. I felt this thread was introduced and forgotten.

Those are minor problems and weighed against the good moments I found Broken Monsters to be a revelation. I read quickly because the voice was so strong. Lauren Beukes is a talented story teller and I feel glad I accidentally picked up her book. Oh yeah here is the This Is Horror interview:

https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/tih-284-lauren-beukes-on-crime-and-horror-fiction-south-africa-and-creative-writing-ma/