The Shining Girls

The Shining Girls

Company type	Novel
Industry	Publishing
Founded	2013-04-15
Founder	Lauren Beukes
Products	Science fiction thriller novel
Parent	Random House Struik (South Africa), HarperCollins (UK), Mulholland Books (US)

The Shining Girls is a science fiction thriller novel authored by South African writer Lauren Beukes. The narrative centers on a mysterious drifter who murders the so-called "shining girls" and details the determined efforts of one survivor to bring him to justice.

Initially published on 15 April 2013 by Random House Struik's Umuzi imprint in South Africa, the book saw subsequent releases by HarperCollins in the UK on 25 April 2013 and by Mulholland Books in the US on 4 June 2013. The international publishing rights were acquired by HarperCollins following an intense bidding competition.

Departing from Beukes' previous novels set in South Africa, The Shining Girls takes place in Chicago. This setting was deliberately chosen to prevent the narrative from being dominated by Apartheid-related themes, even though issues of race frequently appear in her work.

The novel earned a shortlist nomination for the UK Crime Writers' Association 2013 Goldsboro Gold Dagger award and secured the British Fantasy Society's August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel in 2014.

Plot

Set against Depression-era Chicago, The Shining Girls follows Harper Curtis, a murderer who discovers a key on one of his victims that grants access to a mysterious house. Inside this house lies a room filled with artifacts connected to women known as the Shining Girls—whom he feels compelled to kill over a span of 60 years. By carrying both the key and an object linked to a victim, Harper can travel through time between 1929 and 1993.

Harper embarks on his killing spree by visiting each girl during her childhood to leave a token before killing her years later, often placing another victim’s token at the crime scene. His routine is disrupted when he attacks Kirby Mizrachi in 1989; she survives and begins hunting him four years afterward.

Kirby teams up with Dan Velazquez, a journalist from the Chicago Sun-Times who reported on her case. She theorizes that Harper has been murdering women across Chicago for six decades, using tokens as clues. Her own token—a My Little Pony figurine from 1985 given in 1976—exhibits time anomalies, prompting Dan to assist in investigating its background.

After reading Kirby’s 1993 article, Harper targets her once more. When alerted to this threat, Kirby tracks Harper to the mysterious house. Unable to persuade police about its existence, she enlists Dan’s help to break inside. While Dan confronts Harper in 1929, Kirby destroys the tokens. Although Harper injures Dan, he arrives too late to prevent Kirby from setting fire to the house. The story concludes with Kirby shooting Harper and escaping alongside Dan.

Criticism and review

The Shining Girls garnered mostly favorable to mixed critical responses.

Alan Cheuse of NPR hailed it as "a triumph," praising Beukes’s meticulous research into Chicago’s history and describing the plot as "a well-made, though complex temporal creation." The National Post called it "a thoroughly satisfying thriller," emphasizing Kirby’s engaging character and likening Harper to the notorious 1890s Chicago serial killer H. H. Holmes.

Julia Keller from the Chicago Tribune valued the novel’s refusal to glamorize its killer, depicting Harper as "greedy and seedy" rather than charismatic. She acknowledged that while the time-travel element challenges credibility, Beukes’s inventive storytelling transforms horror into "delicate and redemptive magic."

Simmy Richman of The Independent found the narrative uneven due to its complicated temporal shifts but commended Beukes's portrayal of the victims; however, he considered Harper underdeveloped. Charles Finch writing for USA Today shared similar sentiments, labeling it "not entirely successful" but predicting commercial success because of Beukes’s ability to blend wit, darkness, and emotion effectively.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times credited Beukes with elevating the novel beyond conventional serial-killer tales through creative twists and emotional resonance but criticized limited insight into Harper’s character and unexplained aspects of the House. Alison Flood from The Guardian defended these omissions, arguing that they enhance mystery. She praised Beukes’s vivid depiction of victims and described Kirby as "one of the sarkiest, most resilient heroines" of that year.

Adaptations

In May 2013, television rights for The Shining Girls were secured by MRC in collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way. Later, in July 2020, Apple commissioned a direct-to-series adaptation for Apple TV+, featuring Elisabeth Moss as both lead actress and executive producer. By February 2021, Wagner Moura joined the cast alongside Moss. Filming commenced in Chicago in May 2021, with the series debuting on April 29, 2022.

Awards

• 2013 – UJ Prize recognizing South African Writing in English
• 2013 – RT Thriller of the Year Award
• 2013 – Readers Choice Award from Exclusive Books
• 2014 – The Strand Magazine’s Critic's Best Novel Award
• 2014 – August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel from the British Fantasy Society