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fkshg8465's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Death, Mental illness, Abortion, Gun violence, and Suicide
samsearle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Murder, Police brutality, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Abortion, and Drug use
katewhite77's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
- 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
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
madamelacy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The settings of the London nightclubs in the 1920s were interesting as they’re not something I knew anything about.
The story weaves together gangsters, poverty, murders, police corruption and complicated relationships.
I liked that there were several strong female characters who were controlling their own destinies, even if I didn’t especially like their life choices.
Moderate: Drug abuse, Police brutality, Abortion, and Trafficking
Minor: Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, and Mental illness
nialiversuch's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, Drug use, Murder, Police brutality, Medical content, Mental illness, Alcohol, and Grief
Moderate: Rape, Misogyny, and Sexual assault
Minor: War, Abandonment, and Abortion
amyvl93's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This novel puts us in 1920s London, and a world of underground nightclubs where the guests get to live out their hedonistic dreams after the despair of the First World War, but where organised crime is rampant and young women are the ones paying the price. The novel has a sprawling cast of characters - Nellie Coker, queen of the London nightclub scene and her six children; Frobisher, a police detective bent on shutting her down; Gwendolen, who comes to London to find some missing girls and who gets pulled into Frobisher's case and Freda, a teenager who runs away to London to find stardom.
Despite this sprawling cast, I still found myself interested in every story - if anything, there are some characters that I would have liked to know more about. Atkinson is great at developing characters in relatively few pages, and each felt distinctive (aside from those that were purposefully bland) and I think I would have happily read books about all of them. The sense of place here is also excellent, I really felt like I was in the clubs, on the streets of Soho, and there's part of me that's slightly saddened that I won't get to experience a Lyons Tea Room.
Atkinson's prose is often humorous, which is needed when much of the content is quite dark. This isn't a novel that has a neat perfect ending (far from it), and the slight time slipping that Atkinson utilises to give us slightly more information than the characters worked well for me. The focus on the the role of women in a period where they had experience independence and played key roles during the war, and the way they were seen as lesser or entirely disposable by men on their return was really interesting. There were a couple of things about the plot I wasn't wild about, for instance, I could have done without the sprinkle of romance as I didn't really feel like any of those characters really knew each other well enough for it to take up so much of their brain space.
On the whole, really enjoyed this and it feels ripe for a fun TV adaptation.
Moderate: Murder, Misogyny, Abortion, and Sexual assault
Minor: Mental illness and Drug use