This is absolutely bonkers and I love it. I don't think it's perfect - four and a half stars rather than five, because the abrupt end kind of lets it down a bit - but the voice is just so much half-mad fun. It's as if Merricat from We Have Always Lived in the Castle wandered away from Shirley Jackson and ended up the protagonist in Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus, except communist instead of Cockney, and with horses.

That's the best description I can give. Unfortunately this is a library copy and so I have to give it back; fortunately I can get a copy for myself and keep it forever.