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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Absolutely fabulous story, loosely based on Kate Meyrick, the Nightclub Queen of 1920's London. A cast of characters whose lives didn't always take the path I wanted for them, and Kate Atkinson leaves a few untied strands which will keep me wondering what happened to those 'friends of mine'.
slow-paced
It’s an old fashioned book, so an old fashioned expressing seems fitting. A rollicking good yarn.
It’s lots of fun, clips along, but not a four or five star read. It’s set in the 20s, but there are intrusions of modern language that take me out of the story. It fits here, and is an example, *so* annoying. The characters are for the most part good, but the matriarch, Nellie, the owner of all the dissolute nightclubs, is a bit, meh. She runs a business that results in the death of many vulnerable young women, even before the intrigue of the novel begins. Which she greets with a shrug. Well, that makes me react to her with a shrug. People whose troubling morals are rooted in indifference are not characters I want to read about. The Protestant in me just wants to see them punished. I would’ve liked her story fleshed out a bit more, her inner workings. And if there aren’t any, then she should be a less important character.
Many of the other characters are very compelling, especially young Freda. But there are almost too many, as some remain lumps of clay. Maddox, the corrupt officer trying to take over Nellie’s empire, remains a black box. Oh, and it commits the sin of inserting a ‘hooker with a heart if gold’ perhaps the trope I loathe above all overs.
And the ending is strange. It is abrupt, and some characters fates are spelled out in great detail. Too much detail maybe. And then the most interesting question, does Gwendolyn go with Niven?, remains unanswered. I know how many children Florence had, and where Freda’s bar was, and where the newspaper boy died in WWII, but you can’t say if Gwendolyn went with Niven?
It makes no sense.
But a fun read.
It’s lots of fun, clips along, but not a four or five star read. It’s set in the 20s, but there are intrusions of modern language that take me out of the story. It fits here, and is an example, *so* annoying. The characters are for the most part good, but the matriarch, Nellie, the owner of all the dissolute nightclubs, is a bit, meh. She runs a business that results in the death of many vulnerable young women, even before the intrigue of the novel begins. Which she greets with a shrug. Well, that makes me react to her with a shrug. People whose troubling morals are rooted in indifference are not characters I want to read about. The Protestant in me just wants to see them punished. I would’ve liked her story fleshed out a bit more, her inner workings. And if there aren’t any, then she should be a less important character.
Many of the other characters are very compelling, especially young Freda. But there are almost too many, as some remain lumps of clay. Maddox, the corrupt officer trying to take over Nellie’s empire, remains a black box. Oh, and it commits the sin of inserting a ‘hooker with a heart if gold’ perhaps the trope I loathe above all overs.
And the ending is strange. It is abrupt, and some characters fates are spelled out in great detail. Too much detail maybe. And then the most interesting question, does Gwendolyn go with Niven?, remains unanswered. I know how many children Florence had, and where Freda’s bar was, and where the newspaper boy died in WWII, but you can’t say if Gwendolyn went with Niven?
It makes no sense.
But a fun read.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
This was a slow starter for me, but once I got into it, I really enjoyed it.
Until….. the end. It just felt very rushed. And one of the characters deserved a very different type of ending in my view!
Until….. the end. It just felt very rushed. And one of the characters deserved a very different type of ending in my view!
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
this is a very silly book. the plot did not entirely make sense and the characters were cardboard cutouts, with some problematic stereotypes thrown in, but it was nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable. and always fun to read about SEVERAL characters called your name!
Not particularly an era of time or setting that I found particularly interesting. Some interesting characters and story lines but I found it difficult to engage with the story
So easy to get into and stay into. My only issue was the ending was so sad and open-ended.
I didn’t like this book at first, then I liked the middle, and didn’t like the ending. All the characters were opaque in their own way, which I’m sure was the author’s intent, but that kept it from being something I really liked. The post-WWI London descriptions were lovely and I liked how she captured the trauma from the war, and how its effects were wide-ranging. But overall, it wasn’t my favorite.
This is the first Kate Atkinson I've read, and I didn't love it. Interesting setting (London, inter-war years), and interesting characters. I did find the cast of characters (many of whom are POV characters at one point or another) difficult to keep straight in the beginning, and the shifting POV kept things feeling choppy. I also didn't love the way that absolutely *everything* connected - felt a little forced to me, rather than serendipitous.