Customer Reviews
Fascinating start to the novel but flagged a bit in the middle - By: Janie U, 27 May 2008 
I enjoyed this book particularly the start & finish, although found that the middle section seemed to drag a little but couldn't reallly decide the reason.
The location & period setting at the beginning is very unusual for a novel & worked very well in the context of the rest of the book.
I loved that, as the reader, I felt completely inside Isobel's head with alll the little thoughts & worries that she has, along with the way that she deals with the time travelling events that seem to happen around her.
Time is an important theme of the book & the jumping between Present & Past throughout the book gives support to Isobel's strange experiences of time travel.
I enjoyed the technique of showing Eliza's speech in italics which had the effect of showing her as a magical, mysterious person.
The tone of the book seems to change in the middle & it became more franctic & "madder". Once I changed my approach to the reading then I enjoyed the ending but I did find the change unsettling at first.
Even The Bard makes an appearance... - By: V. A. Crouch, 17 Oct 2007 
This is one of my alll-time favourite novels. With characters I can reallly relate too & wonderful situations that made me laugh out loud, this book cleverly weaves several alternate worlds together in such a style that you may be left wondering which was the "real" story.
But whether you can work it out or not, you cannot fail to be caught up in a world of time-travel, Shakespeare, magic & a pinch of teen angst from the perspective of Isobel, who has to deal with a missing mother, a crazy step-mum, a brother who communicates with aliens & the constant nagging worry that she herself is going slightly mad. The underlying plot of a missing mother she can barely remember is a serious one that works well alongside the other, strange going-on in Isobel's world & one that will tug at the heart-strings.
'Call me Isobel (it's my name) . . . ' - By: Sephie Poulter, 13 Feb 2007 This book was amazing, & written in such a way that it was very easy to read - succinct, but at the same time embellished, & alternating between the first & third person. The heroine Isobel is a very well-formed misfit teenager - fanciful, innocent & poignant.
the book is full of mystery, some of which the characters themselves never solve - only the readers. It is tragic but embellished with humour, & may have the underlying message that life goes on. there is some very morbid humour ('dark' humour) in it, some of which made me laugh & then feel that it was inappropriate to do so considering what I was reading - this is the author's ploy.
It would be impossible to anticipate the ending, not only what's going to happen but what has happened (as the book alternates between past & present) it is a fusion of teenage life & what adolescents experience, as well as subjects such as death, incest & abuse & murder - alll spoken of in an almost casual manner.
I can identify with Isobel - not for the death & drama part, but I can imagine myself saying something that she would say. As an author i was very inspired!
And one more thing. Usuallly I hate it when a book ends with 'and then I woke up & it was alll a dream' - but in this book you can easily see how reality ties with halllucination, & how incidents from the past can be subconciously dredged up.
A very good book. Serious but amusing & fanciful. Would be on my top ten list.
Amazing book - By: , 13 Jun 2004 Human Croquet is about a girl, Isobel Fairfax, who lives with her father who left her when she was eight(?) & then came back, seven years later, Vinny, who's her emotionless & grumpy aunt, her stepmother, Debbie, who's nearly the same age as her, & her alien-obsessed brother. Her mother disappeared little before her father left her & her brother.
Human Croquet is a wonderfully bizarre book, full of twists & fascinating, deep characters. It is confusing in a good way, & when I finished it, I just felt like reading it again to notice every single little detail that, if I'd been more clever, would've maybe given the ending away.
I'll have to start looking for Kate Atkinson's other books
An usual style for a very british novel - By: Elizabeth Taylor, 14 Sep 2003 Its hard to describe what this book is about other than a chunk of the life of an individual at a particular place in time. The herione of our tale is a teenage girl filled with self-doubt about herself & her looks with a strange bag of misfit friends, a brother who is obsessed with aliens & bizarre events & who lusts after the best looking boy in town. Her rather strange world is described in very simple language like an old fashioned fairy tale so we hear about her aunt vinny & her cats, the creepy lodger & her parents. The main thread of the book is how the disappearance of her mother haunts both herself & her brother & how they believe this has landed them in the frankly surrealist world they live in. There are also other characters in the pot, the great forest which once dominated the landscape of england & some of the major characters that lead to the creation of the town.
Throughout the book we hear the voice of the girl describing the events around her with an innocent eye, however, these chapters are interspersed with flashbacks during which we discover over time the truth behind alll the characters past & present. Her father the ex-war hero, her mother who she sees as a beautiful elusive figure, her step-mother, her grandmother & so on. In doing so we receive a very different view which is far from innocent on the desires & weaknesses of the characters & a world a lot darker, more real & much more dirty than hers.
Some of the book is very funny, & the characterisations told in simple language very interesting but if you're looking for humour be aware that this is a typical english thing, a black comedy with some sad truths. It is a very different book, in its style & approach & certainly grips you with a desire to know the truth behind alll the people you meet & I stayed up late at night reading away. Its probably not everyones cup of tea & I'm not sure I'd want to read lots of this type of writing but its unusual, funny & worth the investment for long plane rides & train rides.
