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psyencegogo 's review for:
Shrines of Gaiety
by Kate Atkinson
This was a very unique story, with a nonlinear structure, but I think that worked very well in its favor! The story revolves around Nellie Coker, the matriarch of a family a la Peaky Blinders; Detective Frobisher, very similar to Peaky Blinder's Chester Campbell without the creepiness; Gwendolen Kelling, a former librarian turned spy for the detective; and Freda, a 14 year old runaway. The story does an excellent job of weaving their narratives together to create a compelling story that keeps you guessing what happens next - is Freda going to be found dead? What role does the Coker family play in all of this? What's great though is that each narrative has such a distinct voice, it makes it easy to know when you've switched POVs, which is a rarity, and the characters are very complex and multilayered. I loved the setting of this, 1920s London, and you can tell it was very well researched, and the narrative structure brought the story up to such a head, that the ending was almost a let down in how quickly it all seemed to wrap up. But this story was excellent, and I would read it again even after all its mysteries have been revealed to me!