I am a bit of a fan of Lauren Beukes writing (ok I am a lot of a fan). I read and enjoyed Moxyland when it came out but she really captured my attention with the Arthur C. Clarke award-winning Zoo City, it also won the Kitchies Red Tentacle Award and the 2010 BSFA Award for best artwork.
Anyway flash forward to a month ago when this arrived in my letter box:
Cue all sorts of hyperventilating and excited running around. Then I was hit with a conundrum, I had an advance reader copy of a book I had been anticipating since December did I dare read it and when the finished copy was released act like a hipster “oh I read that before it was released!”. It occurred to me that I was one: being stupid, and two: I do not even remotely resemble a hipster and three: it is a book, I am a reader and really, really wanted to read it.
As I started reading The Shining Girls I received another interesting artefact in the post:
It was a view-master, I had one when I was a child, I think my parents still have it in the family toy box but I will have to check when next I am back in Cape Town.
It had a stereoscopic reel inserted so I held it up to to the light and had a look.
The Shining Girls is being launched today in South Africa and in the UK on the 25th April. I will post my review on The Shining Girls this afternoon.