This may be the 2019 Booker Prize Winner but it did not win any awards from us. Unusually, four of the seven in our group had not made it to the end of the book. Telling the stories of 12 women, it feels more like a collection of short stories and, whilst there are some overlaps and connections between some, we did not feel a compelling urge to read on.
“Some nice, feisty characters but it feels like a ticklist of stereotypes. Lack of capital letters and full stops feels contrived and pointless. Had to read it in big chunks.”
“I really enjoyed it. I tuned in to the style after a while but I did feel it was too long and I found the shopping list approach was annoying.”
“Lack of full punctuation annoying to start with but stopped noticing after a while. Made it feel conversational but wasn’t really necessary. Read large sections at a time but found it easy to put down. Not plot-driven so no real compulsion to carry on.Some character were easier to read than others but all quite extreme so difficult to identify or empathise with any of them”
“Lack of punctuation drove me mad and I lost interest.”
“Felt that the style didn’t really fit all the characters as they are so different. Too many characters – you don’t get to really know any of them well and it’s difficult to keep track.”
“Didn’t enjoy the short story style and found it hard to engage. Lack of punctuation really annoying.”
“No really positive representations of men in the book which is irritating.”
Overall score – 4.2
Range 3 – 8
