@bookstodon Normal Rules Don't Apply, by #KateAtkinson, is such a satisfying read. I casually picked it up last evening and devoured the whole thing. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is an exceptional interconnected story collection. I picked it up because, Kate Atkinson, obvs. But the writing surprised me, and exceeded my already lofty expectations. It's wry, funny, twisty, dark, and very smartly written. Atkinson collides the world of folklore into the world of reality. You think you know how the stories are connected, but that's just on the surface. There's a deeper thread running through them, and it's deviously clever.
The characters all experience life as a game of chance, a "choose your own adventure" based on every decision they make, or fail to make. The effects are not just individual, but rather they snowball into cosmic consequences for everyone.
I read Iron Curtain by #VesnaGoldsworthy. A page-turner set in the 1980s. A young privileged 'red princess' from a poor unnamed central European country elopes to London in the name of love. The sense of displacement has echoes of the Patricia Engel book I read just before this. There's also enjoyable farce here even if the clichés about the UK are laid on a little thick at times. #bookToot#bookstodon#keefsreads
Took a while to get going, but very much enjoyed Shrines of Gaiety by #KateAtkinson. A tale of gangland crime set in London just after WW1. A reminder of how cheap life (particularly female life) was back then. Although the main reason to recommend it, is because you will really want to know what happens to the characters she creates. #bookstodon#BookToot#keefsreads