Kate Atkinson returns with a collection of loosely connected short stories. They hop and skip through various genres, making them hard to categorize. For example: there's an apocalypse that occurs more or less by clockwork, a talking horse, witches, a dead woman wandering an afterlife, an actor falling for a prince, a soap opera, a man meeting his girlfriend's family, and other interesting elements that play with fairy tales, family drama and satire.

Each short is unsettling, odd, and darkly humourous, while Atkinson demonstrates narrative control with a sprinkling of whimsy. I also liked the sense of surrealism and horror all delivered in each story, leaving one in appreciation of the author's experience and wit.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Penguin Random House Canada for this ARC in exchange for my review.