Book Riot has put together this list of must-read books about or set in Detroit, and I’m stoked to see Broken Monsters on the list. I really enjoyed researching Broken Monsters, I took a research trip to Detroit before I wrote the book, then I wrote the first draft of the book, and then I went back again to find the stuff that I’d missed. I especially loved getting to see the Detroit Police Station on Beaubien Street, which I’d read so much about.
The list also features some other super cool titles, Middlesex by Jefferey Eugenides, Matt Bell’s Scrapper, The Turner House by Angela Flournoy, and Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie Leduff.
Katie Hardy writes:
Broken Monsters was one of the buzziest books of 2014. Not quite straight detective fiction, not quite straight whodunit, the story is as hybrid as the titular monsters. Beukes dazzles with her insight into human nature. Her dead-on characterizations shine in a world that is clearly two clicks over from “normal.” One drawback: The pacing of Monsters felt slightly more jagged than her previous novel, Shining Girls. Constant shifting between characters, plot-lines, and perspectives felt fragmented instead of picking one focal point and widening the lens. Still, the grit and discernible humanity Beukes finds in even the creepiest situations redeems her version of Detroit.
Gorgeous photo taken from @book.happy‘s insta