By Lauren Beukes
[She's never hunted a killer as deadly.
Something strange is happening in Detroit. Hybrid bodies
are turning up, half-animal, half-human. For Detective
Gabi Versado, they are the work of a twisted monster
who surpasses even 'Murder City's' most brutal criminals.
And he's only just begun...
For failed artist Clayton Broom, they are his greatest
work. Life destroyed his dreams, so now he's found
new ones. The question is, can Gabi find him before the
person she loves most is drawn into his nightmare?]
I didn't actually expect to enjoy this as much as I did. Right from the start it was darkly intriguing.
At first I didn't enjoy the chapters jumping from character to character but, by the end, I saw how effective this was. It really enabled the story to be built up from all angles and for us as an audience to slowly put the pieces together of what was happening.
This wasn't a book where you have to figure out who the killer was because it's stated in the blurb for God's sake; it's what he does to his victims and the way the other character's stories are interwoven. It was beautiful.
Even though some of the characters had flaws, and major ones at that, I quite liked them all which is unusual. There's normally at least one person I detest, but not with this book.
Detective Versado was a great character, a struggling single mum who is a very good cop but is struggling to balance it all.
Jonno Haim and Clayton Broom were other interesting characters along with the Detective's daughter and her best friend.
I see now that they all had something "broken" about them, whether it be to do with something in their past or a part of their mental health. It was a very unique story.
One thing that slightly - and I mean slightly here - let it down was the ending.
I'm not going to divulge any details (although this explanation could get very confusing without them) but it all suddenly went very surreal and almost supernatural.
It was quite a confusing read in those last chapters but it also worked well for the stability for two of the characters deteriorating mental health. I'm sure that's what it was linked to, but other characters were affected as well towards the end which made me think the whole book had something supernatural to it.
It's not that supernatural is a problem, more that I didn't quite get what was fully going on. The whole art scene interwoven throughout touches on the surreal aspect and I think it's explained as to why the other characters were affected but even they didn't seem too sure in their closing statements.
A great read though and one I'd be sure to pick up again.
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