ARC Review: Broken Monsters

Title: Broken Monsters
Author: Lauren Beukes
Category/Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Horror
Expected Release: September 16th

See it at Goodreads


New York Times bestselling author Lauren Beukes returns with her next smash crossover thriller.
Detective Gabriella Versado has seen a lot of bodies. But this one is unique even by Detroit's standards; half-boy, half-deer, somehow fused. The cops nickname him "Bambi," but as stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to a reality that is already tearing at its seams?

If you're Detective Versado's over-achieving teenage daughter, Layla, you commence a dangerous flirtation with a potential predator online. If you are the disgraced journalist, Jonno, you do whatever it takes to investigate what may become the most heinous crime story in memory. If you're Thomas Keen, you'll do what you can to keep clean, keep your head down, and try to help the broken and possibly visionary artist obsessed with setting loose The Dream, tearing reality, assembling the city anew.

If Lauren Beukes' internationally bestselling The Shining Girls was a time-jumping thrill ride through the past, her BROKEN MONSTERS is the genre-redefining thriller about the horror of our city's future.


It was hard marking this review. I’d started off really quite loving it so wonderfully, and to be completely honest by the end, there wasn’t anything in the writing itself to say that it was terrible or off the charts great. I’m sure many people will love this book. It’s just… I have a bit of a weak stomach when it comes to animal death/descriptives and details of any animal violence. I can handle it to an extent for a majority of titles I read, because it’s usually not so detailed or abundant in the reading, but this title does get quite descriptive within the first hundred pages. I had to keep setting it down and that was just unfortunate…I did enjoy the words and found the characters unusually interesting during other times. There are many characters introduced in the beginning, which can get mildly confusing until you get them all in order. I won’t lie-- after I finally picked it back up, I skimmed the last half for the most part and final few pages so I could spoil the outcome (so I’d know the answer to the mystery at least). That could tell you that it really wasn’t attention-grabbing at times, but still, it was worth me knowing the answer so I didn‘t want to just NOT finish it completely… I just couldn’t risk reading anymore possible animal violence in future pages. Maybe I’ll try re-reading for a more thorough, slow read in the future. But I would count this as well-enough read to rate it now because I read well over half, know the characters, story, plot, ending, etc.

Broken Monsters will keep you up, too. It’s not light on the senses, having been a read full of scary things and wow Beukes… In a strange and unusual way, I found it quotable and artistic at the same time despite some of the ugliness that was happening to the characters. It was beautiful and crafty. I did enjoy many parts to it. And characters and their interactions. Just certain areas I couldn’t get past as I already mentioned. Ha.

This having been my first Lauren Beukes novel though didn’t turn me off from wanting to read more of her work. Her writing is beautiful and full of wonderful imagery and heart-pounding emotion. I’d love to pick up more titles with this author’s name.

Sad that I couldn’t find myself more immersed in this one due to some unfortunate problem--but we all have our reading preferences I know. At least I’m pretty certain this is going to be one awesome read for many others.

(Hey… I would give it a 5 for that cover alone. One of the best covers I’ve ever seen.)