elerireads's reviews
389 reviews

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I enjoyed this! Fun concept and reasoably well executed. Honestly though I felt quite a lot less invested in the actual plot than I did in the world that was built for it. Given that the characters basically were the world in this case, I was a bit annoyed they were getting killed off before we got to know them properly. In general, I'd rather fantasy novelists erred on this side, and didn't have hundreds of pages of world buiding in which nothing actually happens, but still Ithink in this case I could have done with another 50 pages. I do feel motivated to read the next ones in the series though!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder

The Meister of Decimen City by Brenna Raney

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Absolutely deranged in a hilarious and very enjoyable. I listened to Wicked whilst reading it and the vibes were similar - misunderstood 'villain' backstory etc. I loved the dinosaurs. Absolutely hated Viv

Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World by Simon Winchester

informative reflective slow-paced

2.5

Very interesting topic. I enjoyed the first half and then it sort of seemed to lose direction and became a bit of a random sprawling meander through land-related topics. I really started to lose interest in the last quarter - I was listening to the audiobook and zoned out so much while it was on that this should probably be a DNF. I think some portion of that is more to do with me just being in a bit of a reading rut in general rather than a problem with the book. But I can only go off my experience of it.

Side note: the audiobook was narrated by the author, who had an *ahem* interesting pronunciation of coelicum. If you're pretentious enough to put latin in your book, might be worth checking how to pronounce it before recording the audiobook 😅

The Dragon of Ynys by Minerva Cerridwen

hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.75

Hmm honestly not sure what to make of this. I don't quite know who it's aimed at but I assume kids, i.e. not me. It was kind of sweet but super simply written and the story wasn't very engaging. Essentially it felt like it was trying so hard to be diverse and inclusive that all the other components of what makes a good book suffered. It was readable but I just didn't feel invested in it at all.

I liked the parallel of literal spider webs representing the power of the internet to connect people who are different/isolated/marginalised and make them feel less alone.

I was a bit unnerved by the Welsh in the title with no other reference to Wales (other than featuring a dragon), welshness or what it meant. I don't think the author is Welsh?

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir from Within by Rory Stewart

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

Engaging and not shying away from complexity, whilst still written in simple and easy to read language. Personally I didn't think there was anything groundbreaking in the content - whilst a lot of the things he was talking about were dreadful, unfortunately none of them was particularly surprising to me. What it did well though was bringing together a lot of the problems and absurdities of different facets of British politics and illustrating them through one person's experience. Made more compelling by the emotional journey from naïve optimism through shock, disbelief and disillusionment to despair after exhausting every possible avenue and being thwarted at every turn.

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This was a bit creepier than books I would normally read - reading it late at night was definitely a bad call! But that means it was pretty darn effective at doing what it intended. The whole creepy-island-claustrophobia thing is possibly a bit cliché but it's a cliché because it works - same goes for sinister creature preying on beautiful girls. Mostly I felt like it was pretty well written, possibly with the exception of the clunky insertions of basic, bland, feminist points. In contrast, the ace rep was much better done - openly discussed but not overly so and with some nuance.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I felt slightly misled by all the people saying this was a fun book, because at least the first 150 pages were basically non stop trauma. But it was gripping and i did come to appreciate the kind of dark humour in the second half of the book. Quite a satisfying ending and I liked the more general point with the cooking show about how you can make serious impacts and get serious points across with something that's not necessarily where you would expect to find those things. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Le mage du Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli

informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Not the most novel-like of novels. More that the author was using fiction as a vehicle to explain how Putin came to be where and what he is today (as da Empoli sees it at least!). For those of us who are fairly ignorant about recent Russian political history it was an interesting and engaging read - although it wasn't the most compelling plot it didn't feel clumsy or overly dense. However, I'm fairly sure more knowledgeable readers would find it a bit dull and/or frustratingly oversimplified. The only real gripe I had was with that random ranty chapter about technology stuck in at the end. Added nothing of value whatsoever, didn't fit with the rest of the book, and there was no real attempt even to disguise it as anything but a pretentious essay.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Nothing special and definitely more vibes than plot, but nonetheless quite sweet. A nice little book for winding down before bed.

How to Share a Cat and Other Life Lessons by Evelyn Fenn

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

A very sweet and gently enjoyable book. I thought Moira in particular was an excellent character - still deeply affected by a complicated past from decades previous, shallowness of friendships harshly exposed by the pandemic, open to learning new things about the world and herself. Of course, it was also great to have her as an older asexual character when a lot of the existing representation is teenagers/young adults. It was also a good demonstration of the importance of access to resources/information/community.

Nessa and Meg felt like quite accurate representation of well-meaning but hasty and occasionally callous teenagers. When Poppy was introduced though, it felt like Nessa was super quick to judge her and for a while I was expecting there to be some kind of lesson there about not being so hasty to write people off? But then it turned into Poppy actually being completely horrible. I thought her suddenly being expelled for drug dealing was kind of bizarre though - it slightly got my back up in a vaguely 'drugs are immoral' kind of way.

The writing was a bit clunky and overly preachy in places. But for the most part it was very readable.