Broken Monsters in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

May 19, 2014 Ami rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I come to you with my bona fides as a horror movie fan to say: this book is TERRIFYING. Like, turn on the light, double check the lock kind of scary. I don't think I've been so freaked out by a book since my parents let me read Salem's Lot when I was 11.

The novel begins with the police discovering a dead boy, well, the top half of a dead boy, sewn to the bottom half of a fawn. And it just gets weirder and creepier from there. If you've read Beukes' The Shining Girls this book has similarities, ...more

30 likes · Like · see review

Oct 07, 2014 Nadine rated it it was ok

Shelves: horror, fiction

I was disappointed in this book. The reviews I'd read described it as terrifying, but I didn't find it the least bit scary. It was more or less a crime novel with a random supernatural twist. I give it a resounding meh. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 01, 2014 Chinoiseries rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, audiobook, thriller, crime-and-mystery, paranormal

Freakish and modern. Horror in the 21st century. Remember Stephen King's Cell? Broken Monsters makes your head spin even more.
Four stars because the narrator didn't win me over. May have to re-read in print. ...more

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Feb 10, 2019 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: psych-psych-psych, detective-mystery, audio, mystery, suspense-thriller, horror, fantasy-and-sci-fi, genre-blender, all-time-favorites, f-ed-up

This book is brutal and intense. Brutally intense. Intensely brutal. This is so fucked up. This is also a mind-blowing work of art.

Beukes is a master of dialogue and clever metaphors, including gems like:

He chews on the words like tobacco, something he has to spit out.

and

They're all wired into the same circuit board of tension.

and

... she yanks her shirt out of her pants and uses it to wipe her face. "Fuck's fucking sake !"

"You done?" Boyd asks.

"Swearing? No. I still got some left ...