Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

10 reviews

hphipps's review

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Rape, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Drug use, Murder, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Abortion and Domestic abuse

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

zara89's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Trafficking, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

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

nialiversuch's review

dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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

academic_mama's review

adventurous challenging dark tense

4.0

I love Kate Atkinson. The atmosphere of this book is incredible, as is her writing generally. 

This isn’t my favorite of hers, though…I prefer a little more straightforward writing without unnecessary mysteries (this comes from my film classes many years ago and learning about suspense—it’s not as powerful for me when the narrator is clearly withholding information). 

It was a really slow read for some reason and hard for me to get into. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Rape

zosiablue's review

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense 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

4.5

One of those books that felt like I was watching real life casually unfold. Just effortless rolling from scene to scene as if it was happening in real time. I don't know how Kate Atkinson does it. And at first, I read this as just a moment in time without a driving point - a look into 1920s gangster cocktail club glitterati London. But then she pulled a Six Feet Under finale at the end and I realized the Moment in Time WAS the point. These wild things happen and then they're just history. So tart in the moment and then gone. The algia in nostalgia. Dang. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: War and Fire/Fire injury

kktaylor11's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

I’m a huge Kate Atkinson fan, and I loved 3/4 of this one- but the ending fizzled for me.

The ending literally came out of nowhere. It’s like she got tired of writing and just decided “let’s kill them all off.” WTH? The scene where Nellie shoots A? I could almost look past that (even though it came out of nowhere) but then to just run down the list of characters? To leave Nivin and Ms Nelling “frozen in space” for all time was literally a lazy cop out. Looking back at that point made me realize how many other parts of the novel were just left unwoven. Why was Quinn killed? Who killed him? Who was the mummy? How did Ramsey steal the book so easily? How did Oakes get caught?

. So much of the last 1/3 of the book just felt completely lazy. It was disappointing. I gave the book 4 starts for the first 2/3 which I really enjoyed!! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Homophobia

geekmom's review

dark funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I will read anything that Kate Atkinson writes, and this was certainly well-written, but I'm not sure it worked for me. That's okay, though, it was interesting and enjoyable and not every book has to be 5 stars. 
..Maybe I just really want more Jackson Brodie and am just sad that this book isn't that? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Addiction

Moderate: Torture, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia

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