My first Kate Atkinson so I have nothing to compare this one too. I really liked how it was written. I thought the characters were interesting up to a point.

The plot... I don't know. It kept me reading, and I wanted to know what happened to everyone but it didn't feel well handled at all.

It was quite plodding, it didn't feel plodding at all until I put it down and realized I had read 74% of the thing and was still waiting for it to kick off. Lots happened but the whole thing felt like it was gearing up - various machinations being put into place. And then the whole thing fritters away to nothing and ends really abruptly, neatly summarising everything instead of just... telling the rest of the story.

The ending for Frobisher was appalling and a total waste. The ending for Gwen and Niven was stupid.

Florence's ending was just a bit like she couldn't be bothered with coming up with anything.

I've always assumed Atkinson was pretty decent, so maybe I'm being stupid and missing something clever but clever doesn't necessarily make it good so I stand by it!

I usually adore these books but this one didn't have the same pull for me. It's feeling a bit repetitive now. I still love the characters and the general world building but it feels like it needs wrapping up somehow.

Oh wow this book was amazing. Really heartwarming. I was so invested in everyone. And yeah it was all tied up a bit cheesy at the end but oh my god if it hadn't been then there would have been hell to pay.

A beautiful story about loss and grief and all sorts of other things.

Read with the children. It's a bit more repetitive than I remember but still a great classic.

I've ummed and aahhed about finishing this and giving it a chance but, fuck it, life is too short.

The main character is a misery. I can get past that with good world building and maybe a dollop of psychology to let us know why on earth he's such a sodding moaner. But no. Everyone is like it for no seeming reason.

The world building started off interesting but is increasingly dull. It's suffering from the same sort of problems I had with Patrick Rothfuss in that teenage wank bank fantasy kind of thing where everyone's utterly miserable and worried about failure despite the obvious knowledge that they are all really good at what they do. Blah blah, no time for it.

And I don't need to have it pointed out to me that women have tits every single time one appears on the page. Yes, we do. Move along with your little spell please.

I'd put off reading this as it wasn't something that I would normally pick up. I've been really pleasantly surprised.

It's a family saga, beautifully entwined with the legends and myths of Hawai'i. Themes of poverty, crime, Americanisation run through this story that, at the centre, is a tale of a family living through those things.

I know little about Hawai'i. It felt alienating to read at times and I wanted to shake all of the characters at times and stop them destroying themselves. They were all so fragmented and broken away from each other, and the way this mirrored the fragmentation of the island, and the land was glorious and hard to read.

It's not a 5* because it was pretty miserable for quite a while, and I wanted these patterns of behaviour to stop. But it is a beautifully written story and I enjoyed it immensely.

Read with the kids. They were suitably disgusted and genuinely worried that your head could shrink into your neck.

Oh another stellar one from my new favourite. I'm still mulling this one. It's a much gentler novel than the two I have already read, contains that ode to nature that he does so well. It's a very sparse novel, there are really only two characters here and both are gently explored and nuanced..I found I cared very deeply for them both by the end.

Phew this one is hard to review. It's a great book. It presents a view of motherhood that at times intensely relatable but also incredibly repulsive.

I hated Leda. She was arrogant, self-centred, selfish. Deeply flawed and damaged. Her struggle with losing herself in motherhood is one that many mothers would relate to, and I fought and fought against my instinct to berate her for leaving, for holding her, as a woman, to a higher moral code than a father.

But she turned herself into a martyr, a victim of her own desire to be the best at everything. And it was self gratification that made her leave and self gratification that made her go back to them. And then she resented them both for 'feeling her love was transient'

It's a great book, a really nuanced exploration of motherhood, of female sacrifice and the battles that remain for women who try to have it all.