elerireads's reviews
390 reviews

emotional hopeful slow-paced

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

3.0

Sweet and enjoyable - I read it really quickly - but the plot was a bit nothing-ey. I'm sure this will be important to a lot of people because of the representation, and I'm very glad it exists. But honestly I'm wracking my brain for anything specific to say about it in a review and coming up empty which isn't a brilliant sign. I liked that the people with good intentions slipped up on pronouns and stuff occasionally - it felt realistic whereas I have seen sometimes in media where the "good" characters immediately get the hang of it and it just seems more than a little bit unrealistic. Anyway it was a relatively light (apart from that beginning), easy read which was what I needed.

Content Warnings

The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett

Go to review page

funny lighthearted mysterious fast-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

3.5

Enjoyed a lot! Not much to say about it though. It was a light-hearted and silly. Infinitely better than Thursday Murder Club though. Main gripe is that I will never be able to get behind a woman letting a man take credit for her work, even if said woman is the Queen and therefore not exactly in need of any more praise...

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli

Go to review page

emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

This was YA in a way that really felt like YA, meaning at certain points I thought "I am too old to be reading this book", but mostly I really enjoyed it. There were a lot of loveable and well-written characters and I felt a strong connection to the main character (Imogen, obviously). Kind of the main plot is Imogen working out that she's bisexual so there's quite a lot of fairly repetitive inner monologue as she goes back and forth about it in her head. But honestly it was pretty funny the insane knots she tied herself up in to argue that it wasn't real, so mostly those bits didn't get too boring 😂. Interesting in that she wasn't at all homophobic and was super immersed in the queer community, so it was quite an effective illustration of just how difficult it can sometimes be to know yourself, rather than it just being about denial. There was also a lot of internalised biphobia in there - she talks about herself in a way she would never ever talk about someone else and keeps comparing herself to a massive list of bi stereotypes.

The cute little romance was lovely. Well-paced (in terms of the book) and satisfying to read. It did seem a bit bonkers fast in terms of the amount of time that was actually supposed to have passed, but not completely implausible and it's fiction after all 🤷

The plotline with Gretchen was MADDENING. Also pretty well done - started off with the impression of her as a wonderful friend who was really well tuned into how Imogen was feeling. But it slowly becomes apparent that she's actually a gatekeeping, discoursey arsehole. She's not one-dimensional though; we can totally see where it's coming from, but even so, by the end of it I absolutely loathed her and had to keep stopping reading because I needed a break from how awful she was.

Upside Down by N.R. Walker

Go to review page

emotional informative lighthearted 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? No

2.75

Ok this was definitely not a good book. One of those where I have a list a mile long of issues I had with it, but actually did enjoy reading despite all that, so decided to be generous with my rating.

Maybe I should start by saying this is mainly a cutesy, fluffy romance. I didn't feel like it was actually aspiring to any great literary heights - it was just telling a fairly simple story in quite straightforward language. So whilst I didn't think it was super well-written, there wasn't anything in the writing style that irritated me. The content however...

Ok so the "asexual support meetings" were by far the worst bits of the whole book. As far as I could tell, they were included for two reasons: (1) as a plot device to get the two protagonists to meet each other properly, and (2) so that the author could insert a bunch of long, preachy, holier-than-thou, "educational" speeches about asexuality and how hard done by asexuals are. I could be wrong, but I couldn't find any indication online that Walker identifies on the ace spectrum at all and I got strong vibes that these scenes were just ways to show off all the research she'd done. The meetings were sort of presented like group therapy sessions for some kind of deep trauma, or like AA meetings or something? Treated with this deep, somber reverence where the person leading the meeting stand up and gives a long impassioned speech (tirade) and other attendees start crying. It was so melodramatic it was kind of hilarious. But it did feel like an irritating misrepresentation. My experience of ace meetups has been that yes ok there's space for emotional DMCs but mostly it's all about connection and building a sense of community through having some fun - drinks, museum trips, karaoke, pub quizzes, etc. and many long earnest conversations about transport trivia 😅.

I also felt like it was a bit on the nose that one of the characters first heard about asexuality from his DOCTOR. Obviously it's entirely plausible, but given the ongoing battle against pathologisation of asexuality, and the fact that in general asexuals have to educate medical professionals rather than the other way round, it just felt a little insensitive and tactless.

For someone who claimed to be really good at googling, it was baffling to me that Jordan didn't try googling asexuality. I'm assuming the only reason he didn't was so the author could engineer the Big Misunderstanding. I also felt that the resolution of that situation was dreadful - it was presented as this sweeping romantic gesture but was actually multiple layers of betrayal of confidence about extremely personal things, first from Merry to Hennessy and then Hennessey talking about it in front of the whole bloody support group. I would have been mortified and furious.

In fact I thought Jordan was generally just a really juvenile character. I'll admit I was actually quite amused by his obsession with the word 'motherfucker' but I'm not sure myself why it didn't irritate the hell out of me. And the whole 'is cereal soup?' bit was so stupid and tedious.

What I did enjoy was the initial relationship development through 5 min conversations on the bus, eavesdropped on by a crowd of nosey but well-meaning busybodies. I would really have liked for all those characters to be fleshed out properly though, rather than just being a funny concept. I also quite enjoyed the twist at the end.

Random side point: when the flatmate is described as a painter I totally interpreted that as meaning an artist and it took me till the last 10% of the book to figure out it meant painter as in a decorator.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious 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

2.75

Ok clearly I enjoyed this a fair bit because it was quite long and I got through it pretty quickly, so I was at least gripped and it was easy reading. But I didn't actually think it was that good and I didn't love it.

Firstly, I found the premise and her curse so incredibly bleak and miserable that I couldn't for the life of me understand why she didn't just give in, surrender and die. Sure I can see defiance keeping you going for a while but motivation for hundreds of years of torture? No way. So fundamentally I just couldn't identify with Addie at all or understand what was really driving her.

Secondly, the premise for Henry being immune to her curse made no sense to me whatsoever. His curse altered the way other people perceived him; it didn't actually alter him. The whole realisation of how depressing it was centred on the fact that people weren't actually seeing him clearly and were just seeing what they wanted to see. So for it to be the reason that he is fundamentally different from everyone else because that's what Addie wants was nonsensical to me.

Thirdly, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is not a symphony.

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Go to review page

dark emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

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

3.75

Mostly I really enjoyed this. I'd struggle to call it a novel to be honest. The first third was a series of character portraits/introductions/short stories which were probably my favourite bit. They were pretty much all engaging, well-written and tugged on your heart strings. Excellent for dipping in and out of on the tube, BBC Proms queues, BBC Proms intervals, etc. I don't read a lot of short stories as a general rule but I felt like I could have read a whole book of those alone. All featured trees, some quite overtly and others as a more subtle background factor (though always important).

The rest of the book is a continuation of those stories as the characters' lives begin to overlap and intertwine, converging around the theme of tree/forest conservation and eco protest. All the different characters' viewpoints gave a massive opportunity to show the breadth of roles that trees can play in people's lives and the ways they can learn to understand and appreciate them. I particularly enjoyed Patricia's and Adam's stories. Adam approaching tree huggers for his psychology thesis to understand how they're deluding themselves so fervently and ending up joining them was really making the point that the people not out protesting are the delusional ones, although honestly I felt like I could have done with being hit over the head with that conclusion a bit more blatantly. And I won't spoil it but I thought the ending of Patricia's story was perfect and I did not see it coming. I also appreciated Doug's realisation that what he'd thought was helping the trees could actually be making the situation worse - very common experience for anyone attempting to do some good in our super complex globalised capitalist society. The fact that the characters' stories didn't all end up merging properly was what made it feel not really like a novel to me, but not necessarily an issue - just a different reading experience.

Now for some things I didn't like. First of all, the supernatural stuff. I'm aware that this is partly a me problem - can cope with fantasy set in a fantasy world with whatever kind of magical powers you want but magical realism I usually absolutely hate. But in this instance I genuinely think it was an issue with the book beyond just my distaste for that type of thing. For a book that was otherwise filled with the amazing biology of trees and generally succeeded in instilling awe based only on actual scientific facts, to have a character being spoken to by trees just felt silly, unnecessary and like it undermined everything else. Also the fact that she was clearly supposed to be the imaginary child of Ray and Dorothy was just bizarre. The truth is powerful enough to stand alone; why muddy it with all that mystical crap? The other issue I had was the sexism. I'm only exaggerating a little bit when I say all the female characters apart from Patricia seemed to exist mainly for the interesting male characters to lust after or fall madly in love with, and didn't really have much personality of their own. Even Adam's PhD supervisor barely featured apart from him wondering if she'd fuck him. Didn't really notice it while I was reading it but reflecting afterwards it's an issue that definitely stands out to me.

But despite all that, I think I'd still recommend this, especially if you like trees!

Content Warnings

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Go to review page

challenging funny reflective fast-paced

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

2.25

Very interesting and witty in places. In particular, some of the passages immediately after Orlando becomes a woman are really funny. And it was interesting that she seemed to assimilate into womanhood relatively quickly but class seemed more deeply ingrained and difficult to shake. But I couldn't relate to Orlando at all - the bizarre fits of passion and kind of random spontaneity. I don't believe I've ever met anyone like that so it was hard to feel like they were an actual person. And that ending, bloody hell, it was all like some giant fever dream. I had no idea what was going on any more and frankly lost the will to care. So whilst it was intellectually interesting in a lot of ways and sometimes funny, I felt completely disengaged whilst reading it so it really dragged and took me a long time to get through.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Go to review page

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

Not quite sure what to make of this and can't think of much to say. It didn't feel much like a story in a conventional sense - just recounting Elena's childhood in Naples and her friendship with Lila. I did get quite engrossed in all the characters and the details of their lives, but I wouldn't say I was gripped per se. I don't feel particularly inclined to read the next one! I was a bit taken aback by what the title ended up referring to, which I'm sure is what was intended

Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious medium-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

3.5

Pretty good. Gripping story that took some twists and turns to keep me hooked right to the end. Some solid creepiness and suspense - slightly regretted reading this at night when I was alone. Nice worldbuilding and belief system construction.

I found the gender and sexuality framework a bit confusing but I liked the idea of it - that a different society would have set up different ways of thinking about these things and terminology that reflected their belief system. But it did that classic thing of making all the characters confused and ashamed and then suddenly claiming that all these things were completely accepted and normalised, as if those feelings have nothing to do with existing in a prejudiced oppressive society.

For some reason I was really rooting for Jidras to be redeemed. Something about the way his character was built up made me feel like there was some hidden extra depth to his story that was going to be uncovered, but there never was. Bit unsatisfying because I thought there was more to be unpacked there.

Content Warnings

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown

Go to review page

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

This was very good. It was a bit rough around the edges but covered so much ground and had so many interesting things to say that I feel like I'll need to reread it. I had loads of tabs on the pages and scribbled notes (in pencil!) all over it. Having come across comphet already, compulsory sexuality seemed like a really obvious next step that I hadn't really thought about. An interesting lens through which to view the world. I particularly liked the bit about chrononormativity, partly because I just enjoy the word chrononormativity but also because it's just an important point. Fascinating discussion about construction of blackness in contrast to whiteness and the simultaneous desexualisation and hypersexualisation of black women especially. For me though I think actually some of the most interesting parts were about gender and how strongly it is influenced by compulsory sexuality.

More...

elerireads's reviews 390 reviews

elerireads's reviews
390 reviews