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elementarymydear's reviews
967 reviews
If I Loved You Less by Aamna Qureshi
3.0
This was a fun and light-hearted romance, inspired by one of my favourite Jane Austen books, Emma. As soon as I saw the title I knew that this was one I had to read! And I had loads of fun along the way.
Similar to Bride and Prejudice, the transition works so well because, as the main character Humaira points out, there are a lot of similarities between courting in Regency England and in modern-day Desi communities. One of the hardest parts of adapting Emma is making the main character unlikeable and frustrating but still lovable, and Humaira fit the bill perfectly.
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At times I felt like the story stuck too closely to Emma, and in particular the latest film version. Some scenes felt lifted line-for-line and while it meant we got to keep all the swoon-worthy Knightley lines, I don’t know if the characters really got to break outside the Austen mould.
Occasionally the writing got bogged down in the details, but overall this was an enjoyable read and a great addition to the world of Jane Austen retellings.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
Similar to Bride and Prejudice, the transition works so well because, as the main character Humaira points out, there are a lot of similarities between courting in Regency England and in modern-day Desi communities. One of the hardest parts of adapting Emma is making the main character unlikeable and frustrating but still lovable, and Humaira fit the bill perfectly.
📚Blog📖YouTube📖Instagram📚
At times I felt like the story stuck too closely to Emma, and in particular the latest film version. Some scenes felt lifted line-for-line and while it meant we got to keep all the swoon-worthy Knightley lines, I don’t know if the characters really got to break outside the Austen mould.
Occasionally the writing got bogged down in the details, but overall this was an enjoyable read and a great addition to the world of Jane Austen retellings.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
Life Lessons from Historical Women by Eleanor Morton
5.0
This audiobook delivered on every level. It was a fascinating listen about different women throughout history that was both fascinating and hilarious (while knowing when to be serious and poignant).
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There’s a really good selection of women discussed, including women from all around the world, and also featuring trans and gender non-conforming women. There were some that I’d heard of, and some that I hadn’t. I really appreciated that Morton started each chapter with a chatty, personal anecdote that led into each woman’s life story. It worked particularly well in audiobook form, and was a good reminder that these women have impacted our lives in ways we often don’t know.
I was also really impressed by the level of research, especially into women where not much is known about their lives. It’s clear how much work has gone into each chapter, and while all of these women achieved extraordinary things, the message of the book rings true for each one: that they are still ordinary women who we can draw inspiration from.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
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There’s a really good selection of women discussed, including women from all around the world, and also featuring trans and gender non-conforming women. There were some that I’d heard of, and some that I hadn’t. I really appreciated that Morton started each chapter with a chatty, personal anecdote that led into each woman’s life story. It worked particularly well in audiobook form, and was a good reminder that these women have impacted our lives in ways we often don’t know.
I was also really impressed by the level of research, especially into women where not much is known about their lives. It’s clear how much work has gone into each chapter, and while all of these women achieved extraordinary things, the message of the book rings true for each one: that they are still ordinary women who we can draw inspiration from.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
Death and the Maiden by Apinuch Petcharapiracht
5.0
This is a book that defies genre categories, and takes a whole other direction than anyone would ever predict.
The book starts off as an eerie fantasy, set at the boundary of the living and the dead. The main character is a mysterious child named Stella, and the mystery surrounding their life (and death) is what fuels much of the novel.
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It’s a very short book, coming in at less than 170 pages, but the story still manages to have enormous scope and depth. We’re transported from the shadowy afterlife to a modern metropolis to the terror and fear of a repressive cult. Even with all this the story never feels rushed, and the emotional impact of each reveal is as powerful as the last.
While the urban fantasy is the hook, we’re treated to an incredibly layered story that explores trauma, grief, and what it is to truly embrace who you are despite all of the categories put upon you. In the end, I would describe this book as very, very weird – but very, very good.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
The book starts off as an eerie fantasy, set at the boundary of the living and the dead. The main character is a mysterious child named Stella, and the mystery surrounding their life (and death) is what fuels much of the novel.
📚Blog📖YouTube📖Instagram📚
It’s a very short book, coming in at less than 170 pages, but the story still manages to have enormous scope and depth. We’re transported from the shadowy afterlife to a modern metropolis to the terror and fear of a repressive cult. Even with all this the story never feels rushed, and the emotional impact of each reveal is as powerful as the last.
While the urban fantasy is the hook, we’re treated to an incredibly layered story that explores trauma, grief, and what it is to truly embrace who you are despite all of the categories put upon you. In the end, I would describe this book as very, very weird – but very, very good.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
What's Her Name: A History of the World in 80 Lost Women by Olivia Meikle, Katie Nelson
4.0
The ‘women’s history listicle’ is a strangely specific book category, but there have been more and more examples in recent years. It’s a solid concept for a book: write a number of short essays on various female historical figures, stick them in chronological order, voila! I’ve read many of these books, and I’m confident in saying that this is one of the best.
Rather than presenting the various women included as unrelated figures, this book tells a narrative of the whole of human history through the eyes of these women. You can visualise the camera zooming in and out of different parts of the world as we travel through history via 80 different case studies.
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With that in mind, I was particularly impressed by the diversity of the women featured. A very clear effort was made to explore all corners of the globe, and examine how life and expectations for women around the world varied.
In many cases not much was known about the women featured, and I really liked how the authors embraced speculation and the unknown. It was always clear where the evidence for each woman’s life ran dry, and the various fates speculated varied from the likely to the absurd, often with a tongue-in-cheek outlook on history. The tone was often light-hearted, and reminded me a lot of Horrible Histories – just for adults!
This is a welcome addition to any women’s history shelf, celebrating the ordinary and the extraordinary in equal measure.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
Rather than presenting the various women included as unrelated figures, this book tells a narrative of the whole of human history through the eyes of these women. You can visualise the camera zooming in and out of different parts of the world as we travel through history via 80 different case studies.
📚Blog📖YouTube📖Instagram📚
With that in mind, I was particularly impressed by the diversity of the women featured. A very clear effort was made to explore all corners of the globe, and examine how life and expectations for women around the world varied.
In many cases not much was known about the women featured, and I really liked how the authors embraced speculation and the unknown. It was always clear where the evidence for each woman’s life ran dry, and the various fates speculated varied from the likely to the absurd, often with a tongue-in-cheek outlook on history. The tone was often light-hearted, and reminded me a lot of Horrible Histories – just for adults!
This is a welcome addition to any women’s history shelf, celebrating the ordinary and the extraordinary in equal measure.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
Northern Boy: A Big Bollywood Dream. a Small-Town Chance. by IQBAL. HUSSAIN
5.0
What a beautiful and powerful story this is!
We follow Rafi, a young boy of Pakistani heritage who is clearly destined for a life in showbiz.
The story is split into three parts, with the largest part being the telling of his childhood, interspersed with his journey from his new homeland of Australia back to Blackburn for a friend’s wedding. All of the characters leap from the page, they’re so vividly imagined. My heart couldn’t help but go out to Rafi as he fights for his chance to pursue his dreams, and there was a horrible pit in my stomach at the moments where I understood what was going on more than Rafi did. It was heartbreaking to see the way adult Rafi had to hide himself away, and how that affected his own life, happiness, and relationship.
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I thought it was particularly powerful how Rafi’s relationship with performing was depicted. It wasn’t that he wanted to be on the stage; he needed it. It became a metaphor for his sexuality, and how he would only be able to thrive when he was given the space and the environment to do so.
All of this set-up led to an incredible final few chapters. I couldn’t put the book down, I was desperate to know what happened, and how Rafi reconciled the two aspects of his life. The story takes us almost to modern-day, and the changes that have happened in Rafi’s life, in his community, and in the world at large. It was a powerful and uplifting finale, as we saw the puzzle pieces of Rafi’s life finally fall into place.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
We follow Rafi, a young boy of Pakistani heritage who is clearly destined for a life in showbiz.
The story is split into three parts, with the largest part being the telling of his childhood, interspersed with his journey from his new homeland of Australia back to Blackburn for a friend’s wedding. All of the characters leap from the page, they’re so vividly imagined. My heart couldn’t help but go out to Rafi as he fights for his chance to pursue his dreams, and there was a horrible pit in my stomach at the moments where I understood what was going on more than Rafi did. It was heartbreaking to see the way adult Rafi had to hide himself away, and how that affected his own life, happiness, and relationship.
📚Blog📖YouTube📖Instagram📚
I thought it was particularly powerful how Rafi’s relationship with performing was depicted. It wasn’t that he wanted to be on the stage; he needed it. It became a metaphor for his sexuality, and how he would only be able to thrive when he was given the space and the environment to do so.
All of this set-up led to an incredible final few chapters. I couldn’t put the book down, I was desperate to know what happened, and how Rafi reconciled the two aspects of his life. The story takes us almost to modern-day, and the changes that have happened in Rafi’s life, in his community, and in the world at large. It was a powerful and uplifting finale, as we saw the puzzle pieces of Rafi’s life finally fall into place.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
Daughters of the Nile by Zahra Barri
5.0
Multi-generational story about radical activism, feminism, religion, self-identity and queerness? Yes yes and yes again!!
The book follows three women in different generations of the same family. For most of the book, Nadia – the youngest of the three – felt quite separate from the stories of her aunt and her grandmother, and as the story went on it became clear why that was. Both Fatiha and Yasminah are activists, campaigning for women’s rights and gay rights respectively in the Middle East. They each came up against their own struggles, both in their personal and their public lives, as they put themselves in increasingly vulnerable positions to fight for equality.
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I will admit that, for the first half of the book, I was getting increasingly frustrated by Nadia’s storyline. She comes from this line of strong-willed, tenacious feminists, and it felt at the start like she took her own position in the world for granted as she drifted through life. I’m glad I stuck with it though because it made her growth in the second half of the book all the better! I was cheering her on as she made her first major steps in fixing the wrongs she saw in the world, and my heart went out to her as she confronted her own trauma.
In the end, she starts to reframe how she sees the people around her, reassessing the assumptions she had made about her family and making discoveries about herself she never anticipated. There was a one-year-on epilogue which was the perfect way to show how far Nadia especially had come, and bring together the threads of the different characters.
The story constantly jumps between different times and places, and while this is something that I often find frustrating, in this book it felt like being given the different pieces of the puzzle out of order. By the end everything started to fall into place, as we got a very full picture of these characters’ lives.
As much as I knew I would enjoy this book, it went way beyond what I expected. Zahra Barri is a writer to watch, and I hope this book gets all the flowers it deserves!
I received a free copy for an honest review.
The book follows three women in different generations of the same family. For most of the book, Nadia – the youngest of the three – felt quite separate from the stories of her aunt and her grandmother, and as the story went on it became clear why that was. Both Fatiha and Yasminah are activists, campaigning for women’s rights and gay rights respectively in the Middle East. They each came up against their own struggles, both in their personal and their public lives, as they put themselves in increasingly vulnerable positions to fight for equality.
📚Blog📖YouTube📖Instagram📚
I will admit that, for the first half of the book, I was getting increasingly frustrated by Nadia’s storyline. She comes from this line of strong-willed, tenacious feminists, and it felt at the start like she took her own position in the world for granted as she drifted through life. I’m glad I stuck with it though because it made her growth in the second half of the book all the better! I was cheering her on as she made her first major steps in fixing the wrongs she saw in the world, and my heart went out to her as she confronted her own trauma.
In the end, she starts to reframe how she sees the people around her, reassessing the assumptions she had made about her family and making discoveries about herself she never anticipated. There was a one-year-on epilogue which was the perfect way to show how far Nadia especially had come, and bring together the threads of the different characters.
The story constantly jumps between different times and places, and while this is something that I often find frustrating, in this book it felt like being given the different pieces of the puzzle out of order. By the end everything started to fall into place, as we got a very full picture of these characters’ lives.
As much as I knew I would enjoy this book, it went way beyond what I expected. Zahra Barri is a writer to watch, and I hope this book gets all the flowers it deserves!
I received a free copy for an honest review.
Furious by Rebecca Podos, Jamie Pacton
3.0
I have a theory about this book.
The whole time I was reading it, there was something familiar about it that I couldn’t put my finger on. It was sweet, it was funny, the writing was mostly good (although it occasionally made me cringe). But there was something that I couldn’t quite describe that felt nostalgic and somehow also routine about it.
And then I realised.
This is a horse girl book.
The second I realised, it all made sense! If you substitute cars and bikes for horses, F1 racing for horse racing, the garage for stables, and so on, it’s a horse girl book but about sapphic car racing. And I love that! All the horse girl book tropes were there – the dead mom and the father who won’t let his daughter drive/ride because it’s how her mother died, for a start – and I love that it worked. It fully delivered the vibes, with an added dollop of sapphic romance on the side.
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I really liked how unapologetically queer this book is, including queer people from different generations. While the main romance was a little bit too insta-love and whirlwind for my liking, it did make sense as two teenage girls who have their first serious relationship to have all those intense feelings very quickly.
And while I’m still holding out for the sapphic horse girl book of my dreams, for now this has filled the void, and will provide a much needed escapist adventure for many a reader.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
The whole time I was reading it, there was something familiar about it that I couldn’t put my finger on. It was sweet, it was funny, the writing was mostly good (although it occasionally made me cringe). But there was something that I couldn’t quite describe that felt nostalgic and somehow also routine about it.
And then I realised.
This is a horse girl book.
The second I realised, it all made sense! If you substitute cars and bikes for horses, F1 racing for horse racing, the garage for stables, and so on, it’s a horse girl book but about sapphic car racing. And I love that! All the horse girl book tropes were there – the dead mom and the father who won’t let his daughter drive/ride because it’s how her mother died, for a start – and I love that it worked. It fully delivered the vibes, with an added dollop of sapphic romance on the side.
📚Blog📖YouTube📖Instagram📚
I really liked how unapologetically queer this book is, including queer people from different generations. While the main romance was a little bit too insta-love and whirlwind for my liking, it did make sense as two teenage girls who have their first serious relationship to have all those intense feelings very quickly.
And while I’m still holding out for the sapphic horse girl book of my dreams, for now this has filled the void, and will provide a much needed escapist adventure for many a reader.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
For Real by Alexis Hall
5.0
I’m a simple gal: Alexis Hall has a book coming out (or in this case, being re-released), so of course I do everything I can to get my hands on it!
I went into this book knowing next to nothing about it, and soon realised that this was a lot spicier* than I expected. But does Alexis Hall write just for the spice? Of course not! Because it’s all about character dynamics, and relationship dynamics (of every kind), and how they influence each other, and how the different expectations put on us based on our place in society affect those things. Through the lens of this raunchy romance, he brilliantly explores what happens if we break down the boxes we put ourselves and others in. He challenges our expectations of these characters time and time again, in a way that I think would make any reader look at their own romantic life differently.
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Every time I write a review of one of Hall’s books I feel like I repeat myself, but it’s always true. The main characters were brilliantly flawed, well-rounded, and equal parts lovable and frustrating. I was rooting for them but there were also times I wanted to take them by the shoulders and give them a good talking to. They feel so real and present, and by the end of the first chapter I was fully invested.
As with the other re-releases in this series, there is bonus material including author annotations at the back of the book. I especially enjoyed the annotations; they don’t intrude on the text at all, but they gave a really nice insight into the writing process, and sometimes gave me a chuckle too!
Needless to say, this is another winner from Alexis Hall, and I’m excited to read the final book in the series when it gets its re-release!
I received a free copy from the publisher for an honest review.
*I really don’t like that this has become a popular bookish term but in this context it is very useful shorthand!
I went into this book knowing next to nothing about it, and soon realised that this was a lot spicier* than I expected. But does Alexis Hall write just for the spice? Of course not! Because it’s all about character dynamics, and relationship dynamics (of every kind), and how they influence each other, and how the different expectations put on us based on our place in society affect those things. Through the lens of this raunchy romance, he brilliantly explores what happens if we break down the boxes we put ourselves and others in. He challenges our expectations of these characters time and time again, in a way that I think would make any reader look at their own romantic life differently.
📚Blog📖YouTube📖Instagram📚
Every time I write a review of one of Hall’s books I feel like I repeat myself, but it’s always true. The main characters were brilliantly flawed, well-rounded, and equal parts lovable and frustrating. I was rooting for them but there were also times I wanted to take them by the shoulders and give them a good talking to. They feel so real and present, and by the end of the first chapter I was fully invested.
As with the other re-releases in this series, there is bonus material including author annotations at the back of the book. I especially enjoyed the annotations; they don’t intrude on the text at all, but they gave a really nice insight into the writing process, and sometimes gave me a chuckle too!
Needless to say, this is another winner from Alexis Hall, and I’m excited to read the final book in the series when it gets its re-release!
I received a free copy from the publisher for an honest review.
*I really don’t like that this has become a popular bookish term but in this context it is very useful shorthand!
Don't Be a Drag by Skye Quinlan
4.0
Firstly, a book about drag kings?! Yes please!! I love that we’re getting more and more books – especially YA books that depict the less mainstream aspects of the LGBTQ+ community, and in this case the queer performing arts scene.
Skye Quinlan does a great job of depicting the joy that drag can bring, and what it can mean to both performers and audience members alike. We got to see a really wide range of drag performers – kings, queens, artists, drag mothers, newbies, and everything in between. The book really felt like a love letter to drag culture.
📚Blog📖YouTube📖Instagram📚
Just as much as the story depicts the highs of the performing life, it also looks at the mental health struggles that are a reality for so many queer people. It’s a difficult topic to cover but I thought it was sensitively done, and balanced well with the other themes and storylines.
The friendships in this book were so lovely to read, and a reminder of the importance of found family – even though, in this case, Briar’s family were really supportive of her. Having multiple generations of queer people as well is something that we so rarely see in fiction, but is so important to real-life queer communities.
Overall, this was a moving and uplifting story that has a strong emotional truth behind it.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
Skye Quinlan does a great job of depicting the joy that drag can bring, and what it can mean to both performers and audience members alike. We got to see a really wide range of drag performers – kings, queens, artists, drag mothers, newbies, and everything in between. The book really felt like a love letter to drag culture.
📚Blog📖YouTube📖Instagram📚
Just as much as the story depicts the highs of the performing life, it also looks at the mental health struggles that are a reality for so many queer people. It’s a difficult topic to cover but I thought it was sensitively done, and balanced well with the other themes and storylines.
The friendships in this book were so lovely to read, and a reminder of the importance of found family – even though, in this case, Briar’s family were really supportive of her. Having multiple generations of queer people as well is something that we so rarely see in fiction, but is so important to real-life queer communities.
Overall, this was a moving and uplifting story that has a strong emotional truth behind it.
I received a free copy for an honest review.