Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

5 reviews

katewhite77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A Glorious Crime Caper

Set in the ceady under world of 1920s Soho night life. Missing girls., bent coppers, straight coppers, an assortment of loveable rouges with some plain old rouges thrown in. Oh and did I mention and did I mention a fiesty librarian on the lookout for adventure. All woven together in a beautifully crafted narrative. 

This is the definition of Darkly Comic and is easily one of my favourite books of the year so far. I would like to particularly recommend the audiobook as the narrator does the humour in this novel an incredible amount of justice. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Medical content, Child death, Grief, Suicide, Murder, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Death, Drug abuse, and Drug use

bedtimesandbooks's review

dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Trafficking, Abortion, Gun violence, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Drug use, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Rape, Child death, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

ssmylie's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I loved a few characters and wanted to see them win or get to a bring resolution... but it landed flat at the end for me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, War, Sexual assault, Sexism, Addiction, Death, and Alcoholism

mrslsmith's review

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Abortion

chelsaat's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

“Justice should be swift, not slow. It should be a knife in the heart.”

I adore Kate Atkinson, I adore 1920s glitter and gossip. Can’t go wrong with a crime family, too. So overall I mostly adored this.

My main issue is that there are a LOT of characters, and it takes this book a while to get going because Atkinson introduces you to everyone’s backstory before really taking off with the plot. But once the plot and mysteries finally revealed themselves, I was all in.

The ending was a little TOO devastating for my personal tastes, but I can’t deny it all came together quite deftly. Don’t mess with Ma Coker. At least until the next war begins.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Trafficking

Moderate: Violence and Abortion

Minor: Fatphobia