I acquired this book in an online trade set up at Bookcrossing. Despite the ominous sign that its previous owner had precious little to say about it, I was interested as I had read and enjoyed “Beneath the Blonde”, a lesbian detective novel by the same author.
The blurb says that a princess, perfect in every way except one, sets up home in Notting Hill and begins targeting smug, ever-so-in-love couples, deliberately splitting them apart. It’s a peculiar book: half of it is extremely well observed psychological stuff about the fragility of the couples’ relationships, the lies they tell themselves and each other. The other half of it is everything that is crap and embarrassing about magical realism, for example Princess Cushla literally has no heart.
For me, this book fell between two stools and would have been far, far better with the fairytale elements removed. I think Stella is trying to be Angela Carter and that’s not a good thing. I don’t like Angela Carter either.
The Carter-esque characteristics seem to draw attention to the wrong elements of the writing, if you know what I mean... It’s as if Stella is stood on a chair shouting, “Everyone be quiet and look at me because I’m going to do some symbolism now!”.
Get back to your crime fiction, Duffy!
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