Reviews

I adore short stories, and some of these were absolute jewels. Hilary Mantel clearly possesses a remarkable gift for concision and incisiveness of speech, and some of her turns of phrase linger in the mind long after the stories have been read. Nonetheless, this is far from an ideal collection, with some stories - especially 'Harley Street' - completely falling flat for me. Still, though, the mix of eclectic, confusing and seemingly superficial (though certainly not thoughtlessly so, nor in any pejorative fashion) writing leads me to the only metaphor I can think of, albeit one that is rather overused - that of an onion, with the reader peeling and peeling and peeling and not sure as to whether anything lies at its core.

jada's review against another edition

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4.0

I expected more margaret thatcher based on the title, but the stories really didn't disappoint.

cs4_0reads's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

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? It's complicated

3.5

ruthlessly's review against another edition

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1.0

OKAY. I only read this over like 3 days or so, but it felt like a life time.

I'm beginning to think Mantel and I just don't get on. This is the second book I've read of hers and this conclusion is irritating, because I have Wolf Hall in my bedroom to be read but!! Fundamentally, her prose doesn't grip me. I don't care about her characters, in general, and that's one of the most frustrating parts to me.

BUT I have other complaints about this collection. For one, the title alone suggests that the stories will be politicised and tbqh I find it SUPER LAZY that they aren't. Many of these are, in fact, strangely apolitical -- there are some exceptions, obviously, with the actual Assassination of Margaret Thatcher story, the first one and perhaps some hints in others but overall nope. There's a lot of alluding to and playing with the supernatural here but, honestly, it's fucking boring. It's not terribly creative. I didn't see anything new or interesting here. One of my biggest complaints, though, is where is the unifying theme??? HONESTLY. I don't like collections which are random assortments of stories, all shelved together. I don't see any common thread here, uniting everything. There's some tenuous links, but I find the lack of cohesion incredibly frustrating. I've heard people say they're linked by the supernatural, by eeriness, and I guess that could be a link -- EXCEPT not all of them are supernatural so HUGE QUESTION MARK. I also don't agree that Mantel is good with creating suspense and horror (especially here, but that was my opinion of Beyond Black as well).

Reading this was, overall, a really frustrating experience. I wanted to like it so much more than I did. I know the rating is low, but I didn't enjoy this. After a certain point, I was reading because I wanted to know with grim certainty that I was right and that this was terrible.

Of course, there were some stories I liked -- the titular one was pretty good, I liked the story about Morna fading away (warning for eating disorders though!) called The Heart Fails Without Warning. I don't think I minded the story about the author but I forget what it's called and tbh I would rather eat my own fist than go back and find out.

ainsleyiscariot's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

jemima_reads's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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