I subscribe to Riot Read, a monthly book subscription club from Book Riot. Each book is a new release hardcover and arrives sometime mid-month, and content surrounding the book is curated online to supplement the experience. This was October’s pick.
Title: Broken Monsters
Author: Lauren Beukes (South Africa)
Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Characters: Layla Stirling-Versado (16-yr-old girl), Gabi Versado (Layla’s mother and police detective), Cas (Layla’s best friend), Jonno (writer gone video blogger), TK (homeless ex-con), Clayton Broom (artist)
Setting: Current-day Detroit, recovering from economic crisis through start-up avant-garde artists and young entrepreneurs
Plot: The top half of a young boy’s body is found attached to the bottom half of a fawn, which initiates an investigation that develops into profiling a serial killer. Layla struggles to fit in at school and relies on her friend, Cas, who seems to have confidence in spades. This leads the two of them to catfish for a sexual predator online. While Layla is trying to keep her life and these pranks under cover, her mom is the lead detective on the murders. Meanwhile, we get an insider’s view of the Detroit art scene through Jonno, who stumbles into a relationship with a DJ who has connections to the artists and a vision for Jonno’s future as a video blogger. We find out early on who the murderer is, and we watch his mind succumb to the Dream of truly great art, of art that if given a chance and the right audience, will come to life.
Verdict: I haven’t read many thrillers outside of Stephen King, so this was a somewhat new experience for me. It was creepy enough to give me the heebie jeebies from time to time, but as usual, I tore through the book for the plot. Beukes invested a lot of time and thought into this book, though, and it offers interesting social commentary on a lot of different relevant topics, especially on social media and privacy and sexual content + minors. There was the reminder that what goes on the internet doesn’t ever really disappear (like this shitty book synopsis that I’ll one day regret), and the reinforcement that messages and posts aren’t just sent into the ether; they have consequences. It did remind me of the danger of incorporating modern technology/trends though, for at one point, Cas and Layla are using SpinChat… and I thought that was just a blip on the radar of stupid online websites people have fixated on. Maybe I’m just out of it, and everyone’s at home on SpinChat but me. I don’t feel great loss, somehow. Anyway – I say read this book, read it hard, especially if you like those trendy tv-crime dramas and serial killer crazy business but with some real backbone.
Joy Reads 