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1.53k reviews for:

Shrines of Gaiety

Kate Atkinson

3.78 AVERAGE


Listened to the audiobook, and it was a little hard for us to keep track of the different threads of story and character. They did finally come together.

3.5 This was a terrific read, set in the 1920s, clubland craziness, dark underworld making all the glitz grubby. People scarred from the war finding their way. A librarian gleefully turns herself into a spy. Perhaps there were a few too many characters to do them all justice but I did enjoy each of the protagonists.

Unfortunately this was a book that was all build up and minimal dénouement. The characters deserved more attention than they got at the end, which was basically a quick whip round summarising their fates and which generally made it feel like everything they'd worked for in the novel was for nothing. So yeah, I loved everything about it until I got short changed at the end.

Excellent! Lots of plot twists and interesting, endearing characters.

A little slow at first, with so many characters to follow. I was fascinated though how everything intertwined together, how sometimes the characters knew things before the reader, and vice versa. It worked so well with the pacing and the writing style (both of which I loved).

However, I feel like this is a book people probably either love or hate.

3.5 Stars

Kate Atkinson, as always, paints a very vivid picture. I find I can always sink into wherever she is taking me. That said, in this book, I felt the main characters and storylines were muddied up with the addition of so many peripheral characters which kept taking me out of the story as I had to figure out "which one is this?"

Overall a good book that could have been a fantastic book with better editing.

i hate to say this about my dear kate atkinson, but this was kind of slow. the setting was fun: a post WWI london, centered around a matriarchal family that owns several nightclubs. nellie, fresh out of prison, is a mobster style figure who looks out for her 6 children, all with various responsibilities within the operation. also, young women are going missing or murdered at an alarming rate; frobisher is a policeman convinced the killings are tied to the clubs and sends a former war nurse turned librarian, gwen kelling, to do some reconnaissance for him. there's even more stuff going on than that--this book is not lost on plot--and some threads kinda petered out with no satisfying conclusion. i was never not interested in this; things just weren't as compelling as the premise seemed to promise. coulda been trimmed.

Enormously entertaining, like all of Kate Atkinson's books. Atkinson's writing is deliciously witty, studded with brutally honest observations that reveal character's inner motivations and foibles. She is fun to read, no matter what the subject or plot.

This book capture a place and age--London, 1926--with all the post-war fatigue and desperate longing to return to 'normal,' hard to do after a devastating war that killed off or damaged a generation. Everyone's looking to have a good time, because they now know that the next disaster might be just around the corner. And Nellie Coker deftly takes advantage of that. The plot is clever, as characters come together in unexpected ways, and you're not really sure who the truly bad guys are, plot-wise, until near the end, when Atkinson ties up a lot of loose ends in unexpected ways.

I spent the whole day chuckling and turning pages. The chapter titles are even part of the fun.

I didn't find this up to the authors usual standard of writing.

3 1/2 stars.

It was good but I had to make a point to keep reading rather than wanting to pick it up. The story was there, but the ending seemed a bit lacklustre.

Loved it! She's so funny and has such a way w words.