Broken Monsters - Lauren Beukes

Broken Monsters is Lauren Beukes' fourth novel. The first two were set in her native South Africa but for the third, The Shining Girls,  she moved to the US. She sticks to the US for this novel, moving from the city of Chicago to Detroit. Although Beukes has clearly outgrown small publisher Angry Robot, I must admit that I miss the South African setting of her first two novels a bit. The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters are fine books in their own right, in terms of writing probably a step up, but there is something about the use of language in those books, as well as the wildly inventive concepts that does not seem to have survived the crossing of the Atlantic. Of course, if you are looking for a supernatural mystery novel, you still couldn't do much better than Broken Monsters.

A monster is on the loose in Detroit. When half of a young boy is found, messily attached to half a fawn, one of the most gruesome cases in Detective Gabi Versado's career begins. In a city that is slowly dying, she has to find a killer who is obsessed with transforming the death around him into art. A race against the clock begins to find him. On top of a killer, Versado also has to contend with a teenage daughter facing her own monsters and a failed writer turned reporter who insists on bringing every gory detail of the murders to the public.

The Detroit of Broken Monsters is indeed about broken things. A failed artist trying to make a career out of the broken remains of his life, writer fleeing his own failures in New York, trying to make a name for himself, a broken family trying to make things work and above all a community of people trying to bring a broken city back to life. Detroit as described in this novel is in a sad state indeed. Bankrupt, rapidly loosing its population and even more rapidly decaying into an industrial wasteland full of ruins that were once the heart of a proud Motor City.

Beukes' mystery is not a whodunit. Early on in the novel it is already quite clear who is responsible for the murders. What Beukes is interested in is the motivation for these killings. Where many novels about serial killers would include a motivation grounded in sick ways of obtaining sexual gratification or sexual frustration as a motive for the killings, Broken Monsters takes another approach. That makes it a refreshing read for a mystery reader. There is something ironic in the way the killer tries to get attention for his 'art' but often manages to achieve exactly the opposite.

Throughout the novel Beukes draws parallels between the attempts of artists to create art out of the abandoned factories of the city and the killer's attempts to create art out of dead things. He sees his art as a way to open a door, to transform imperfect beings into something new. Where the factories do indeed turn into places where their old function transforms into something new, where a new Detroit is born from the ruins of the old, for the artist it turns out to be a bit more complicated.

A motif that Beukes takes with her from her previous novel is the presence of doors. Not the ordinary kind, but the ones that take you from one place to another. Where they involved temporal displacement in The Shining Girls, the door the killer tries to open leads to an even more frightening place. The door motif returns quite often in the street art mentioned in the book. There is even a character who makes a living by opening doors of abandoned buildings to see if there is anything worth salvaging left behind.

Information technology is another element that receives a lot of attention in this novel. Layla, detective Versado's daughter is practically stuck to her phone and lives her life as much online as in the real world. Beukes shows how each mistake shared on the web can have dramatic consequences and how, no matter where you are in the world, it will keep pursuing you. She also shows another side of all this new technology. The failed writer reinvents himself as a journalist and uses relatively cheap equipment and software to follow the murders. In the process he gets in the way of the investigation. These two story lines show both the possibilities and dangers of the Internet. Just like looking through the lens of a camera creates a psychological distance from events taking place right in front of you so does the Internet lure the characters into a false sense of anonymity and security.

As usual with Beukes' books, it is hard to categorize. You could see it as a mystery or thriller, but it also contains elements of urban fantasy and horror. Towards the end the novel becomes increasingly strange, with events for which there doesn't seem to be a rational explanation following each other rapidly leading up to the final showdown that is the climax of the novel. It's something that seems to suit Beukes but depending on what expectations the reader has before reading the novel, reactions will be mixed. The author's mix of genres is both the forte and weakness of this book depending on the reader's preference.

I enjoyed reading Broken Monsters more than I thought I would. It is a very smooth read most of the way. Only early on in the novel, when Beukes rapidly introduces a number of main characters, is the reader's patience tried. It is pleasantly different from her previous novels but also contains some elements that firmly links it to  her older work. Although, as I mentioned in the introduction, I would not mind seeing Beukes return to a South African setting, her attention to detail makes Detroit come alive on the pages. It is, in short, a novel well worth reading, even if it didn't manage to unseat Moxyland as my favourite book by this author.

Book Details
Title: Broken Monsters
Author: Lauren Beukes
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 520
Year: 2014
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-00-746459-3
First published: 2014

The Shining Girls - Lauren Beukes

South Afircan writer Lauren Beukes created quite a stir with her first two novels. They were published by Angry Robot, a publisher who likes to take on books that are a little different and don't easily fit into a category. Especially Beukes' second novel Zoo City (2011) attracted quite a bit of attention and won the Clarke Award in 2011. For her third book a bit of a bidding war between publishers ensued. The UK rights ended up going to HarperCollins, which is the edition I've read. Moxyland (2009)  and Zoo City were two very different books so I didn't quite know what to expect of her third novel. The Shining Girls turned out to be quite different from her previous novels.

In the early 1930s Chicago is something of a poverty stricken mess. Unemployment is high, crime even higher and Roosevelt's New Deal is still a few years off. Like so many, Great War veteran Harper Curtis has fallen unto hard times. On the run after pissing of some people you'd rather not meet in a dark ally, he stumbles into a house whose owner lies dead in the hallway. The man was obviously doing well for himself, money, good food and booze are all over the place. How he need up being murdered is a mystery to Harper. Soon, the house ensnares him in a web of murder and time travel. Compelling Harper to find his Shining Girls at several points in time and murder them. Harper finds this immensely satisfying, until one of the girls refuses to die.

Somehow I seem to have managed to pick up another time travel story. The Shining Girls is set in Chicago at various times between 1929 and 1993 and include a lot of social and historical developments in the city. She touches upon women's entry into the workforce during the second world war, the problematic position of gay transgender people in the 1950s, the Red Scare, the introduction of contraception and the abortion debate and a number of other interesting historical events. They are usually only briefly mentioned as the characters that experience them tend to be killed rather quickly. Only the life of Kriby, the one surviving victim of Harper, is chronicled in more detail.

Beukes did a lot of research for those brief sketches of certain time periods. The Radium dancers were a particularly interesting detail and one of the things not many readers will have heard about before. She could easily have been tempted to invest more in the shining girls' characters but the author keeps the novel moving. Chapters are brief and switch between Kriby and Harper, whit a number of secondary, most notably Kirby's mother and her journalist mentor/friend Dan. It must have taken something to keep the novel as concise as it is but I do think it was a wise choice. The tangle of time loops, as Harper thinks of them, would probably turn into one big Gordian knot if he spent too much time in the various time periods.

Kirby's side of the story is if anything even more interesting. She is faced with the challenge of finding a murderer who can travel time in a city where a lot of young women get murdered. The number of clues she has to work with are few indeed but her search becomes something of an obsession for her. Kriby is described as a scarred and in some ways vulnerable girl but also one who is determined to keep the search going when the rest of her world feels she should let go. Her character is developed way beyond what we get to see of Harper. Although I enjoyed reading Kriby, I wouldn't have minded understanding a bit more of Harper's motivation as well. He feels compelled to leave a trail of breadcrumbs through time, not unusual for serial killers, but why he does so remains a mystery.The true nature of the house and its influence on Harper is left up to the reader. This is not necessarily a bad thing but I did feel it left Harper a bit too much of a stereotypical psychopath.

Beukes previous novels were set in South Africa, which enabled her to work local influences and language into those stories. For me, that added to the reading experience as it is not a setting I'm usually exposed to. It was something I did miss in this novel. Chicago makes for an interesting backdrop, but with a lot of its history at leas superficially familiar to me, it wasn't quite as captivating as Kendra's exploits in near future Cape Town. That is a very personal preference of course and Beukes did succeed very well in portraying the city of Chicago throughout the 20th century. When picking this up don't expect another South African flavored novel though. It simply isn't.

With this science fiction/mystery hybrid, Beukes shows how versatile a writer she as. The three novels she has published so far have each been both difficult to fit into a particular genre as well as very different from each other. There is no telling if a novel like Zoo City or Moxyland will appeal to a reader who likes The Shining Girls but for the reader who likes to be surprised, Beukes' novels are simply a treat. I think I still like Moxyland best but truth be told, there is not much in it. Mostly Beukes choice of subject that makes the difference really. In short, The Shining Girls is another well-crafted and inventive novel by Beukes. There is even talk of making it into a television series. You may want to read it.

Book Details
Title: The Shining Girls
Author: Lauren Beukes
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 391
Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-00-746456-2
First published: 2013

Moxyland - Lauren Beukes

Lauren Beukes’ second novel Zoo City drew a lot of attention last year. It was nominated for a bunch of awards and raked in rave reviews by the dozen. I wasn't quite as lyrical about is as some bookbloggers but is was certainly an interesting work. Moxyland is Beukes’ first novel. It has received its share of attention in the wake of all the attention for Zoo City but I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet. It was originally published in 2008 by a South African publisher but I read the Angry Robot e-book edition. If you are considering buying a copy I suggest you go for the paper version. The epub I read had too many formatting issues for a professional publication. The text itself however, is very much worth reading.

In near future South Africa, you’re a nobody if you’re not connected. Without a connection, you can’t pay, don’t have access to public transport or numerous public places. Your cell is a wallet, passport and access to the all important virtual life all rolled into one. The providers of all this technology and entertainment are fiercely protective of their business and have seen to it that there is a huge amount of legislation backing them up. Violations of their copyrights and terms of service carry heavy penalties, including jail terms and, perhaps worse, being disconnected. Not everybody is pleased with the level of control corporations have over everyday life. Despite the repression, resistance is growing.

I must admit I had a hard time getting into this novel. Beukes employs four points of view, with chapters named after the point of view characters. They are all written in the first person and Beukes uses language to show us the circles and subcultures these characters move around it. It’s a fine piece of writing but it took me a while to get a handle on all four. Especially Toby, who uses a lot of slang, took some getting used to. I guess it didn't help he is a real prick (as more than one character points out to him over the course of the novel). Beukes is not so liberal with her use of Afrikaans and various African languages as in Zoo City though.

The four main characters are all drawn to a nasty game of deception, resistance and illegal activities. One area where Beukes succeeds gloriously is creating a sense of suspicion bordering on paranoia. The corporations may have to means and legal right to monitor just about everything, there are always ways around such security screens. Hackers are still a step ahead of the people trying to close holes in security, the arms race between corporations and hackers is still in full swing. In fact, with the fierce competition between various corporations and despite severe penalties in contracts with employees, the lines between who belongs to what faction have blurred considerably.The whole novel is saturated with a sense of Big Brother paranoia. Online it impossible to tell who is looking over you shoulder or who is hiding behind a screen name until it is too late.

Beukes' views on the development of cyberspace and information technology is one that is at the same time disturbing and in serious danger of becoming reality. As commercial interests on the Internet become more important to the economy and absolutely vital to the entertainment industry in particular, the war between those who want more control and enforcement in cyberspace, and those who would keep the Internet 'free'. The penalty of disconnection for very severe violations has been discussed in various nations. Although I don't think disconnection would be anywhere near as severe a penalty as depicted in Beukes' story, the novel does raise the question if the net is becoming a necessity.

One of the things I found very interesting about the novel is that in between all the cyberpunk themes, Beukes' also includes the story of photographer Kendra. She is one of the people who have embraced the imperfections of analogue technology. Working with traditional film and chemicals, she incorporates them in her work. The element of chance, the random imperfections that can occur at any step of the process, even at the point of reproduction, are vital to her art. It's a bit reminiscent of the situation vinyl is still around in an age where CDs are on the way out. To reinforce this contrast, Kendra shows her work at an exposition that includes a work of art created by biotechnology. It's a prime example of the ideas and twists Moxyland has to offer.

I've just scratched the surface of the many ideas Beukes has poured into this novel. There are strange, and very unethical, forms of advertising, comments on narcotics, elaborate new forms of entertainment and dubious techniques of law enforcement and crowd control. Most of it seems disturbingly plausible, and all of it technically possible. Where the cross genre novel Zoo City contains a dominant fantastical element, Moxyland is a chillingly realistic view of the possible future. One that, despite the obvious problems with it, seems to be in the direction we're taking. Moxyland is a novel that takes a lot of time for all pieces to fall into place. I was doubtful I would end up liking this novel, but as the story progressed, I grew steadily more impressed with what Beukes has created. The novel requires a bit of patience but it rewards the reader with a very strong finale as well as lots and lots of food for thought.

Book Details
Title: Moxyland
Author: Lauren Beukes
Publisher: Angry Robot
Pages: 242
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: E-book
ISBN: 978-0-85766-005-3
First published: 2008

Zoo City - Lauren Beukes

Zoo City by South-African author Lauren Beukes is one of those books that is doing well this awards season. It's nominated for the BSFA and Arthur C. Clarke. Not surprisingly, I have missed it completely when it was first published by Angry Robot. When they offered the e-book for £1 to celebrate the BSFA nomination, I decided to have a look at it. It is surely one of the more interesting books of the year. Angry Robot publishes a lot of material that defies easy classification and Zoo City is one of those works. It is somewhere between science fiction, mystery and urban fantasy. That being said, interesting is not enough to win an award. In the end I feel it is a good book, but not quite award winning material.

The story is set in an alternate Johannesburg. In the 1990s a world wide plague caused people who committed a crime to be given an animal companion and a magical talent. This highly visible sign of a criminal past stigmatizes people to such a degree that in Johannesburg at least, most of them are found in the ghetto of Zoo City. Zinzi December is one of the animalled. Her companion is a sloth and her talent consists of a knack for fining lost things. Although raised in a privileged household, Zinzi developed a bad drug habit that eventually caused her to commit a murder. After serving her time in prison she is now making a modest living finding lost objects for people. She also has a large debt with the wrong kind of people she is trying to pay off by writing scam e-mails to fleece rich people out of large sums of money. She has a real talent for it. In fact, she makes the Nigerians look like amateurs.

One line of business Zinzi usually avoids is finding missing people. Her talent isn't limited to objects but she finds the mess and risks involved in missing people cases much more trouble than it is worth. One day she is approached by a couple of animalled working for the somewhat notorious music producer Odi Huron. He wants her to find the missing half of a brother-sister pop act he is currently promoting. The girl has gone missing several days ago. Against her better judgement, Zinzi accepts the case.

I guess the greatest attraction of this book is the concept of the animalled. Apparently it is (partly) inspired by Philip Pullman's dæmons in the His Dark Materials books. I haven't read those so I must admit I missed it completely. The idea of an animal companion shows up in fantastic literature a lot after all. I thought Beukes' way of going about is was a bit ... impractical. We see all manner of companions, from relatively small and harmless creatures like a butterfly or a hedgehog to big cats and even six meter Nile crocodile. Keeping one of those in an urban environment must be a bit of a pain. Not to mention the trouble of keeping some of the creatures with more delicate dietary requirements alive. And keeping them alive they must, having your animal die on you, or even just being separated, can cause intense pain and often death. It's an intriguing idea but there is something of a contrast between the concept of animalled and the setting that requires a large dose of suspension of disbelief. Despite the near future setting, this might put off the hard science fiction fans.

The novel is written in first person and the present tense, a technique that appears to be popular at the moment. In this case it gives the reader a vivid view into Zinzi's mind. Her past weighs on her and there is an ever present sense of guilt for her crimes, as well as a certain discomfort about the necessity of participating in an e-mail scam. She's intelligent, resourceful and very capable of taking care of herself in the harsh environment of Zoo City. Although she is no angel, Zinzi is clearly a character you can sympathize with.

Beukes' use of language is another area where opinions are going to be divided on. One of the things that struck me about the writing is the use of Afrikaans and various African languages in the novel. For someone who's native language is Dutch, Afrikaans always has a certain attraction to it. I thought the phrases themselves and the way Beukes works them into an English text very interesting. It might be a bit confusion for someone who does not have the benefit of speaking Dutch though.

A second thing that drew the attention is the way Beukes describes Zinzi's environment. Especially early on in the novel, witty descriptions of what Zinzi sees around here tend to be overwhelmingly present in the text. To give an example from the first chapter of the novel:

The apartment had been Art Deco in a former lifetime, but it had been subjected to one ill-conceived refurbishment too many. But then, so had Mrs Luditsky. Her skin had the transparent shine of glycerine soap, and her eyes bulged ever so slightly, possibly from the effort of trying to emote when every associated muscle had been pumped full of botulinum or lasered into submission. Her thinning orange hair was gelled into a hard pompadour, like the crust on crème brûlée.
The tea tasted like stale horse piss drained through a homeless guy's sock, but I drank it anyway, if only because Sloth hissed at me when I tried to turf it surreptitiously into the exotic plastic orchid next to the couch.
Zinzi meeting with a client - Chapter 1

It is entertaining is a way but the clever descriptions and witty metaphors are not going to be universally loved. Personally, I think she overuses it a bit in some sections of the novel.

Rereading Angry Robot's mission statement I think this book is the embodiment of what they are looking for:

Traditional SF and fantasy has been ploughing an entertaining furrow for many decades, but to our way of thinking much of it is missing a trick. To the new generations of readers reared on Dr Who and Battlestar Galactica, graphic novels and Gears of War 2, old school can mean staid, stuck in a rut. “Crossover” is increasingly the way forward and you’ll find plenty of it here, without batting an eyelid. New heroes and new settings, or maybe just reinventing the wheel, we’re not fussed – if there’s an energy in a book that gets us jumping up and down, we’re all over it.

Zoo City is certainly not traditional, it contains elements of many genres. It's unusual in many ways. The writing, the setting, the themes are all elements that will generate debate. The novel challenges preconceptions of the genre, it made me think about fantasy, science fiction and its many sub-genres in a much wider sense than just this story. It's a novel that is sure to gather a wide range of opinions about it. I don't always like the choices the author has made, I think there are people who are going to thoroughly dislike this novel for all the genre fusion Beukes put into it, but I've seen a number of rave reviews as well. Personally, I think it is worth reading just for the discussion this book could generate alone. An intriguing novel. If you are looking for something out of the rut, as Angry Robot puts it, you could do worse than Zoo City.

Book Details
Title: Zoo City
Author: Lauren Beukes
Publisher: Angry Robot
Pages: 296
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: E-book
ISBN: 978-0-85766-056-5
First published: 2010