I love Kate Atkinson’s novels, but am not really a fan of short stories, as I like to lose myself in a novel. I was, unfortunately, hospitalised around when I received this book, and then forgot that I had it, so found it had been archived before I remembered to read it. I did however, read it subsequently, and, of course, it had all the spark and ingenuity of all Kate’s writing. A little too much fantasy for my taste, though, of course, what was Life after life, but fantasy, and I love that. Despite my prejudices, I still enjoyed this collection, and Kate Atkinson remains one of my favourite authors.

The warning "Normal rules don't apply" is given in Spellbound, one of the more obviously fairytale-like of the stories in this book, but it could well apply to any of them. Talking dogs (and horses), a virgin birth (not, as I'm afraid it's described, an Immaculate Conception...), an observant ghost, a catastrophe that strikes anybody (and anything) caught outside when it comes - these stories are filled with the fantastical, the unlikely and the menacing.

They're also filled with the down to earth, the familiar and even the touching. Take Franklin, for example, a character who appears in three or four of the stories. Despite the limited space available, Atkinson gives a vivid picture of his rackety life - his mother, notorious for her role in a sex scandal; his absent father and flailing career history (until he gets lucky and lands a job with hit soap Greenacres - which also features in several of the takes). Franklin is a channel to the mysterious, encountering said talking horse (and dog), a deeply strange family, and finally an escapee from another story - but he is himself as normal, as ordinary, as anyone else would be trying to live down a minor celebrity of a parent.

Like other characters here, Franklin doesn't invite the weird, it just happens to him and he has to cope with it - just as later in the book, Pamela, an undistinguished former teacher faced with an extraordinary event, grits her teeth and tells herself it's her time to shine. I liked Pamela, feeling she very much approaches life as, I hope, I would. Or take Mandy, that observant ghost, who uses her apparent ability post-death to perceive what's still going on to track down the facts behind her death. In the course of this Mandy tells her life story, which is shrewdly set out, very ordinary, but truly fascinating. (Mandy gets her happy ending, and even the company of a dog - there are many of them in this book!)

And sometimes, the weird just... wanders in. As you read this collection you'll spot, perhaps, situations and individuals you've already seen. Connections will spark and you'll know - sometimes with delight, sometimes with horror - what is going to happen next (perhaps). It's emphatically not one story but themes recur, alternate paths may be being explored and unlikely links are made. The atmosphere is at times something like Atkinson's Life After Life and A God in Ruins, though without quite the same space for exploration and development of characters.

There is an explanation, sort of, for the coincidences and links, lending a distinctly metaphysical touch to the book. It adds its own charm but the rest of the stories still very much stand in their own terms, every one of them. My favourite would, though, I think be Existential Marginalisation, a rather dark take on Toy Story.

The stories are all great fun, and if, as I did, you read the excellent audiobook version narrated by Paterson Joseph, I think you'll agree that it's just a perfect listening experience.

This is my first introduction to Kate Atkinson and I’m now co side ring reading her backlist!
A stunning collection of short stories with a mix of real life and fairytale, there’s really nothing to dislike about this book! A delightful and sometimes surprising collection of short stories, it will make you cry, laugh and think about life in a new way, definitely one to grab!

"There were no happy endings, just endings. And then more endings. And that was if you were lucky and there was no final ending."

Kate Atkinson's latest book is probably the best collection of short stories I've read. It's rather different from her other work (except maybe 'Life After Life'), in that it has sci-fi, fairytale and magic realism elements to it. The eleven interlinked stories stand on their own but some overlap by having common events or characters in them.

In 'The Void' people randomly begin to drop dead at the same time every year. The story follows an old man and his dog as they navigate this new life. It's a beautiful narrative in which the man looks back on his life.

In 'Dogs in Jeopardy', a man, Franklin bets on a racehorse no one else is willing to, simply because he likes the animal's colour and because he believes it spoke to him. Franklin also appears in 'The Indiscreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie', in which he almost inadvertently and accidentally becomes engaged to a woman from a wealthy family. He also features in 'Classic Quest 17 – Crime and Punishment'.

'Blithe Spirit' is a paranormal story in which the spirit of a dead woman wanders around familiar places in her life. She cannot remember how she died though this is revealed to her at the end.

'Spellbound' jumps between two stories: a fairytale in which a childless queen makes a deal with a crone, to her own detriment; and a contemporary narrative in which the mother of six children gave up her academic career studying fairytales exactly like this one. The two threads come together unexpectedly. 'Existential Marginalization' sees a bunch of soft toys commiserating about their owner, a little terrorising girl called Tilly.

And in 'Genesis', the sister of (a) god, who works at an ad agency, tries to create a perfect world after her brother fails to do so. She's pretty confident she can do it. Yet, humanity continues to surprise her with its supreme talent for destructiveness.

Many of these stories are about endings and beginnings, as well as how ordinary or innocuous or seemingly inconsequential events can have a major impact on people's lives (something covered partially in 'Life After Life') with many of the plots being stories about stories. Even the ones that can't directly be classified as fairytales are cautionary: if you wish for too much you'll get more than you want.

I'm not usually a short story person – I prefer to sink my teeth into novels but the way these stories all come together is stunning. I enjoyed it immensely and it's one of my books of the year.

A fascinating book of interlinked short stories, I loved that I was getting a look at so many different Kate Atkinson stories all in one place. The stories themselves were well written (obviously), weird and magical in places. Another triumph IMO.

Normal Rules Don’t Apply is a collection of eleven interconnected short stories by award-winning, best-selling British author, Kate Atkinson. While the connections are sometimes quite vague or tenuous, and readers may be scratching their heads as to how the story of the middle-aged dispirited divorcée whose bloated stomach turns out to be an immaculate conception, or the tale of the angst-ridden toys in the sadistic child’s playroom, or the story of the soap opera star who falls in love with a Prince, fit into the scheme of things, the way other stories mesh in becomes much clearer towards the end.

Certainly, the first story, The Void, which features what seems to be a Universe Reset that takes a lot of lives, both animal and human, and occurs with alarming regularity, will likely leave readers puzzled until they read the penultimate story.

Characters (or iterations of them), names, objects and themes appear in each other’s stories, so F Franklin Fletcher, a would-be writer with a fascination for the myriad of possible paths in life and a plan “to recreate the fractal in fictive form – an endlessly bifurcating narrative, based not on making a choice but on making all possible choices”, features in five of the stories.

Initially, he makes a tidy sum betting on a horse race at the grey horse’s suggestion (a bit-player in a different tale has less luck with a talking horse), then finds himself in a relationship with a beautiful daughter in the wealthy Kingshott family, celebrates a lightning-fast engagement before things take an adverse turn. When “He would swim in the Kingshott gene pool like a happy, sun-kissed otter” he later decides “Perhaps he wouldn’t be such a happy otter if Connie’s sisters were in the gene pool with him, circling like sharks.”

Meanwhile, the ghost of the personal assistant to a Kingshott sibling floats around observing what happens in the aftermath of her murder. The story that a vicar’s teenaged daughter describes about the disappearance of the family’s baby son is interspersed and entwined with the plot of a folk tale from an old book found in the attic: The Stolen Child, that involves a Queen desperate for a child, a witch in a forest cottage, a loyal hound and a cursed princess.

In another thread, Franklin narrowly escapes hooking up with the Kingshott daughter, makes a fortune in a different way, meets the cursed princess with hound, and learns the fate of the baby son. The stories feature faithful dogs, some of which talk; horses that talk; violets; strawberry smoothies; a talking fox; a golden ring inside a fish; and the sister of god, working in an advertising agency, getting a chance to do a better job of genesis than her spoilt younger brother has done so far.

All this, wrapped in some marvellous descriptive prose: “He had become reconciled to the fact that no matter how many times the wheel of fortune turned, he would always find himself stuck on the underside, like gum on a shoe”, and even if the reader isn’t quite sure, by the final chapters, of just what, exactly, has occurred, the journey to this point is, nonetheless, a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable one; with Kate Atkinson writing, how could it be otherwise?
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Random House UK Transworld.

I loved this book of interconnected short stories: really cleverly done. It combines wit and humour with real insight, and the subtle links are so well done.

Loosely linked short stories, very well written, and keep you reading the entire collections.

Recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and Transworld Digital for an ARC.

A lovely, quirky selection of short stories that interlink. These contain elements of Folklore and fantasy, and at times leave you wondering what's happening, in the best way. Quite magical.

Normal Rules Don’t Apply is a book of interconnected short stories. As usual with all Kate Atkinson’s writing, the characters are instantly fascinating and the storylines engaging. There are elements of humour, tragedy and fairytales as well as narratives that cause the reader to become invested.
Highly recommended.

These are interlinked short stories with some characters cropping up in various stories. I am not inclined generally to read many short stories, but it's Kate Atkinson and I will happily devour anything she writes. I would urge other readers to do the same.

Once again we have the laugh out loud pithy one liners counterbalance by her "dark materials" Literary fiction can often make the reader "work" rather than just "entertain". Atkinson is skilled at leaving readers to make connections and see the water below the "iceberg" that she gives us. You are left to find your own way through and forge your own relationship with the text. in this spirit I won't outline the themes that I thought were in the stories.

Hope she is writing the next one soon !

I’m not usually a reader of short stories but Kate Atkinson’s collection of lovely link stories delights and amazes in equal measures. Covering a range of genres she introduces well drawn characters and magical realism to show her masterful storytelling.

A series of short stories mostly interconnected through settings and characters. Good writing, good stories that mostly work as a whole. I say mostly, it does feel there are gaps and the connections feel slighty of random interests rather than an attempt to make a cohesive, fully complete picture. They also for me work best when based on the characters and interactions both within and through stories. Some of stories SF/fantasy aspects did not always feel quite as convincing.

But still, very good read. 4.5 stars.

It's been a while since I read any of Kate Atkinson's novels, so I was intrigued by this new collection of short stories. Subtle connections between them keep the reader on their toes, Superbly written, the stories don't offer easy or neat solutions, and that is its joy. An intelligent and challenging read, these stories showcase Atkinson as one of our great writers. 4.5 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

This book was too clever for me. I’d have given up only it was a short read. Perhaps I’d feel different if I read it at another time. It’s a series of essays about a group of characters, who I’d read were loosely connected, but I couldn’t see the connection. At times I was wondering if some of the characters were people or animals. I did enjoy some of the vignettes of some of the characters, like the actress who meets the prince who is a “Spare”, or describing somebody’s dress “as if she’d been involved in a terrible accident in a fabric mill”.

I'm not usually a big short story reader as it always feels a bit diluted to me but wow this is a brilliant collection and by interlinking the stories through some really clever devices Kate Atkinson has written an absolute treasure of a book. I think she is one of the most exciting voices in fiction at the moment and I can't wait to see what she does next.

I love Kate Atkinson’s writing so this quirky collection of short stories was a good way to tide me over until her next novel. These interlinked short stories have her trademark wit and many are set in Yorkshire. She takes a dark look at fairy tales, families and society, with several interesting twists - including talking animals, betrayals, and an apocalyptic event. Her characters range from a recently deceased woman, a child’s toys to a woman with the power to create the world anew (more difficult than one might think). The main recurring character, Franklin, receives a racing tip from a surprising source as he reminisces about his difficult childhood and goes on to meet his new girlfriend’s family. I enjoyed these intelligent, original stories that often left me questioning what I’d just read.

This latest offering from Kate Atkinson is a collection of eleven slightly off-beat short stories. They range from an oddly quiet end of the world apocalypse to a fairy tale in which a queen bargains for her daughter's life, and are interconnected as locations and similar, if not identical, characters pop up in more than one story - they might make their fortune by listening to a talking horse, they might find themselves framed for murder.

A whimsical collection like this ought to have right up my street, and normally I love Kate Atkinson's work, but somehow I quickly found it failing to engage me. I almost didn't finish.

An odd thought, but one which might prove helpful, is that I felt I disliked it in the way I dislike Pratchett/Gaiman's Good Omens. Maybe they share something in style or substance

This is a lovely collection of short stories, reminding me that I don't read short stories enough, and what a clever genre they are! Subtly connected by characters or story threads, this collection is an eclectic mix that will amuse. The characters are fascinating and the stories succinct and clever.

You can always rely on Kate Atkinson to deliver, and she does just this in her latest short story collection, Every story is a work of art, I especially enjoyed the chilling opening tale- The Void - encompassing every end-of-the-world fear imaginable, and yet so simply told. Kate Atkinson's stories are an expert study in how to write perfectly rounded characters in just a few pages, impactful scenes with the minimum of words, and deliver powerful emotional messages from the simplest premise. Wonderful stuff.