loved this book

not my usual type of read but decided to read as author is local to us, loved it and couldn't wait to finish it but now wish I hadn't ☺️ x

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1 person found this helpful

FANTASTIC!

Excellent narration & a great story! Wish all books were this good. Looking forward to more from this author and narrator. Highly recommended.

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Started well, seemed rushed then took a turn -ODD!

I really did not know what to make of this one.
At first it seemed light and frothy then took a turn for the dark side and left me feeling rather confused with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth
It started off tongue in cheek rather like an Agatha Raisin.
Just what I need I thought after having three disappointments in a row with my usual favoured thriller genre having returned "Reputation" by Sarah Vaughan, The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley and been so bored byl "The Curfew" by TM Logan.
But this turned out not to be the light-hearted romp it started out to be as it became increasingly difficult to listen to as the mood changed for the macabre.
Yes you could not take it seriously and yet it was all a bit disturbing and off kilter.
Narration was excellent although some of the accents were hard to listen to as reminded me a bit of a comedy sketch or the comic dark menace of some of the characters from BBC's "The League of Gentlemen".

I often wonder if book editors still exist as this was full of inconsistencies which made it feel like wither it was written by slightly defective software or the author was in one heck of a rush and wrote at the gallop without a backwards glance.

Gender seemed to be the main thing that was thrown to the wind - a male dog was given a caesarean - Clemantina was a "Ginger Tom" and Kai was a her and a him. Anna was "sorry she was wearing shorts" then minutes later in a sentence a following sequential sentence she "smoothed down her skirt" Petra had a sudden impulse to turn on the car radio and listen to music but a few sentences later someone was singing along to the radio in the car. Rather like the book itself, even allowing for the errant editor who writes like that without even reading back their own work or keeping details in their head. I can only think it was dictated rather than written.

Animal lovers may also not be keen on the way there are four separate mentions of animal deaths all casually thrown in without much relevance to the plot which add to the sort of underlying sadness of this seemingly bright and amusing book. I always find tropes like this simply lazy shorthand and indeed they just took away from a book which had a unpleasant undertones and unlikeable characters.

There is a huge amount of fat shaming as well as people who are described as fat or wrinkled and sagging, while those not criticised for being old, sweaty, fat, disabled, troll-like, ugly or with terrible hair are vain and selfish.

It seemed as if the author basically hated everyone in the book.

Then there were the oddly old fashioned and graphic references to women which seemed like it was written more likely by a misogynistic older man rather than a woman as the "Mandy Byatt" name suggests.

All in all I thought it was very well written, bar the weird mistakes and it made for good listening until about three quarters the way along when it all got a bit strange.

I think I understand the plot though it was very far fetched and super complicated with many layers however given the many glaring insignificant inconsistencies which tumbled thick and fast - I do wonder if there might have been others in the plot as it did seem hard to put all the pieces together after the reveal. More of a "Huh?" moment than an "Aha!"

I am actually quite sorry I even started this book as it really was a bit of a bitter, unwholesome centre hidden within a sweet candy shell and there were a lot of dark stories and themes lightly glazed over with complete lack of sensitivity including infertility and alcoholism. It short it just was not very likeable and I feel like I need a good long shower to get the hate filled parts out of my psyche.

Personally I enjoy a bit of dark humour like the fab Sweet Pea series by C.J. Skuse or the aforementioned League of Gentlemen and I did think this book was well written and easy to get into, unusual and intriguing - but I felt the balance was off it just wasn't as funny as it was dark and disturbing and it seemed like the author hated all the characters and indeed their pets.

Maybe it is a learning curve and Mandy Byatt's next one will be more enjoyable, better edited and with some more likeable less one dimensional characters, less fat/ugly/old shaming and no animal deaths - as she/he is certainly a very talented story teller.

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5 people found this helpful

The worst narrator ever

Melissa Woodbridge isn't good for the job as a narratoru 👎. Her enunciation in English is as bad as Eliza Doolittle 's🥴. I barely understood her and it really annoyed my ear. Seriously, it's a sin to read a book with such a bad knowledge of English language.

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1 person found this helpful

Boring

Sorry but I found it really boring, I didn’t really get into it like other books but heard it out to the end.

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