A fantastic collection of subtly interconnected stories. Atkinson superbly blends the seemingly real with the seeingly unreal and interweaves mythology and pop culture in each story - wonderful and a 'must read' for any fan of her novels. ( )

I enjoyed this collection of usually entertaining and occasionally thoughtful short stories. They were lightly linked-- main characters in one tale would be peripheral characters in another, and there were repeated references to Green Acres, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Star Trek: Voyager for some reason. The tales seemed to primarily about people whose lives hadn't gone quite the way they ought, some of whom were aware of this, some of whom were not. And for some of them, it was a problem, but others were content with it. There was the occasional element of magical realism, which had mixed results-- when the magical element was intrinsic to the story, it was fine, but in some cases, it just came out of nowhere and derailed an entire story for no conceivable reason. ("Transparent Fiction" is the biggest offender in this regard; an up-until-that-point excellent story interrupted by a woman who turns to dust. Why?) My favorite was probably "Evil Doppelgängers", about a guy who finds out he has a doppelgänger living a much cooler life than him who's always landing him in trouble of various sorts. But it was a hard choice for me to make; almost all of the tales here are quite good.

I’ve read every one of Kate Atkinson’s novels and I have loved her dysfunctional characters and left-field plot diversions (even though ‘Emotionally Weird’ was very true to the title!). This is the first I have read of her short story work – which is I understand where she began her writing career.

Though each story can stand alone, they are loosely linked together by common characters - and by ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ Just about every story has a reference to ‘Buffy’ or a character who watches ‘Buffy. This was challenging for me – as I know nothing about Buffy and thus had no understanding of any of these references. It's been a while since I took Latin, so it would've been nice to have the quotes translated – another challenge. And some of the denouments and plot twists were simply beyond my capcity for belief.

In some of the stories, it seemed Atkinson had headed out with a clear direction, but lost her way and the story just fizzled out. In fact, I felt that some of these stories were ideas for novels that had yet to be fleshed out.

Reading this collection, I felt like there was an in-group that I wasn’t allowed to be part of – and Atkinson wasn’t leaving many openings that would allow me into the secret. Overall, I was disappointed and missed the warm fuzzy feeling I generally have when putting down one of her novels.

Overall, if you are a fan of Atkinson's writing, I'd say buy this. If you are approaching Atkinson for the first time, you are better starting with one of her novels. ( )

An enjoyable and intertwined collection of seemingly short stories, Not the End of the World looks at exactly that: apocalypses and minor deaths, families and friends and lovers in modern day Britain who are tangled together by myth both classical (Zeus, Artemis, Athene) and modern (Buffy). Atkinson's writing is strong enough to support echoes and reflections of classical and Egyptian myth without ever losing its subtlety. Yet everything is connected to everything else, with the final story leaving you wondering if you've been reading a book of short stories, or a novel. Really good stuff. ( )

love the cat chapter, doppelgänger chapter and just all of it ( )