Started Early, Took My Dog, Kate Atkinson

Read for a reading challenge, and that’s the only reason I stuck with it. At all. The prompt for this one was “set in your hometown”, and Leeds was the closest I found. So I knew the Merrion Centre, where part of it was set, etc. I wasn’t impressed, though; the narration was really meandering, not always on point at all, and it takes ages to really get started. I kind of have difficulty with the idea of Tracy buying a prostitute’s daughter in this casual way, and I roooooolled my eyes at all the stereotypes about her being fat, a battle-axe, looks like a lesbian, etc, etc. And the stereotypical elderly lady, starting to succumb to dementia.

So I started off on a bad foot with this book, and stayed on it. I didn’t settle into the style at all — the book nearly hit the wall at some points, I found it so frustrating.

Very much not for me, in any sense. I hesitate to say it’s a bad book, because there’s no accounting for taste and all that, but it really wasn’t something I’d recommend.

Rating: 1/5