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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s 1926. A crowd has gathered outside Holloway Prison. Ma Coker, the Queen of Clubs, is being released.
In a country still recovering from the Great War, London is the focus for a delirious nightlife. In Soho clubs, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign signatories with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.
There, Nellie Coker is a ruthless ruler, ambitious for her six children. Niven is the eldest, his enigmatic character forged in the harsh Somme. But success breeds enemies. Nellie faces threats from without and within. Beneath the gaiety lies a dark underbelly, where one may be all too easily lost.
As always, this latest novel from Kate Atkinson paints detailed, almost Dickensian, descriptions of her settings. Her command of the English language is second-to-none and her precise vocabulary depicts a huge cast of characters in such a way as to make them three-dimensional in every way.
Whilst this is a setting that has been explored before – think Peaky Blinders meets Bugsy Malone – it’s refreshing to read about the London gang scene from a female perspective.
I experienced this novel in its audiobook version, which was read by Jason Watkins. The narration was expressive and did help to bring the story to life, however I was not particularly keen on the way that Watkins read some of the female characters.
This was not my favourite of Atkinson’s novels, and I found the plot to be rather meandering at times. However, the beautifully-creating characters, evocative setting and the author’s mastery of language still made this a worthy read.
In a country still recovering from the Great War, London is the focus for a delirious nightlife. In Soho clubs, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign signatories with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.
There, Nellie Coker is a ruthless ruler, ambitious for her six children. Niven is the eldest, his enigmatic character forged in the harsh Somme. But success breeds enemies. Nellie faces threats from without and within. Beneath the gaiety lies a dark underbelly, where one may be all too easily lost.
As always, this latest novel from Kate Atkinson paints detailed, almost Dickensian, descriptions of her settings. Her command of the English language is second-to-none and her precise vocabulary depicts a huge cast of characters in such a way as to make them three-dimensional in every way.
Whilst this is a setting that has been explored before – think Peaky Blinders meets Bugsy Malone – it’s refreshing to read about the London gang scene from a female perspective.
I experienced this novel in its audiobook version, which was read by Jason Watkins. The narration was expressive and did help to bring the story to life, however I was not particularly keen on the way that Watkins read some of the female characters.
This was not my favourite of Atkinson’s novels, and I found the plot to be rather meandering at times. However, the beautifully-creating characters, evocative setting and the author’s mastery of language still made this a worthy read.
slow-paced
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I enjoyed the story line of this book. The beginning was quite slow. It took almost 100 pages for the story to start moving along. The first quarter of the book almost reads like a history book. There is a lot of information provided, but it isn't clear why the reader should care about all the stuff that is mentioned. There are a ton of characters in the book and I had a hard time remembering who some of them were. I used the Kindle x-ray feature quite a few times to figure out who characters were. The level of detail is a bit overwhelming. I skimmed several sections as there was just too much information to absorb and I didn't miss anything that was related to the story. If the book had been about 100 pages shorter, I probably would have loved it.
I'd never read a Kate Atkinson book before and now I have and can move on with my life...
More like a 3.5, but the first third really dragged it down for me. Took a long time to get going and make me invested in any of the characters, but once it got there it was pretty fun
Inspired by the life and times of mob matriarch Kate Meyrick, Kate Atkinson creates a new organized crime family headed by the formidable Nellie Coker during the Roaring Twenties in London, England. With a cast of thousands, every cultural norm of the era is explored: jazzy nightclubs, bent coppers, prostitution rings, world of theatre, "gaiety", Post WW I fallout, all treated in a very saucy manner. The story does not conclude with the solution of the spate of murders--in the final chapters we get a synopsis of every character's life story (from the news boy casually mentioned on page one to an adopted rescue dog), reminding us that the glitter and gold of the early 1920s An irreverent tale.
Spoiler
become somewhat tarnished in later decades. A little bit macabre, perhaps, and I was caught off guard...and then I laughed out loud! I was reminded of the scene in As Good As It Gets where Jack Nicklaus dumped the dog down the trash chute of his NY apartment.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Library loan expired when I was only 10% in to this one. But it hadn’t grabbed me so I don’t think I’ll return.