elerireads's reviews
390 reviews

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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

1.5

Bleugh this was so annoying. Clearly just not my kind of book. I struggle to feel any sympathy for real-life celebrities so fictional ones is a big ask, and this book did not succeed. The characters were all so whiny and self-destructive and petty; I just found it near-impossible to root for any of them.

There were some things I liked about it; the way that the different people each had a slightly different version of events, and the characters each had quite a distinctive voice which is impressive given how many there are. But mostly it was just tedious.
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The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.75

So this portrayal of anxiety made me so anxious I struggled to keep reading it in places, which I suppose means it was very good. I know it can be quite frustrating dealing with the irrational ways a person with anxiety might behave, and I felt this did a pretty good job of showing what's going on in their heads in those moments. [Although I do always find with attempts to write about anxiety and intrusive thoughts that there's an ... over verbalisation? That's probably not the right way to put it but basically anxious thoughts are written out in italics as complete sentences, which is obviously a reasonable representation in some cases but often I think it's taking the easy way out of having to attempt to express the inarticulate mess of half-formed panicky thoughts and feelings that clump together into a big ball of dread. It's not really a fair criticism to level at this book in particular, especially as it's acknowledged at the end that this was based on personal experience and not necessarily intended to be representative, but all the same it does fit into a pattern that's somewhat lacking imagination.] Adrian was a really good main character for this. His life is good by pretty much all "objective" metrics; he's a rich white man, he's physically healthy and able, he's engaged to a woman he loves, he's talented and he's driven by a sense of purpose. And yet, he's scared pretty much every waking second of his life. Although he's managing to function pretty much like everyone else, it takes him so much more effort than it does for most other people, and that's not visible to them at all. Mackenzie Lee deserves a lot of credit for this.

I enjoyed the story and although I don't normally enjoy this kind of borderline fantasy where everything is mostly realistic but there are a few supernatural elements, I quite liked the way the Flying Dutchman was handled. It's sort of real and not real at the same time and it worked well.

I was quite unimpressed with how unpleasant and cruel Monty was at the start - it was completely uncalled for and I thought he was supposed to have mellowed out into a much better person by this point. However, it did allow for a nice story arc of sibling bonding and learning to see past differences to understand that fundamentally they're very similar. I would have liked the mother to feature more heavily as an actual person, given that it's a quest driven by grief for her and she's really the common factor linking the siblings. It's a first person narrative from th PoV of a character supposedly deeply grieving the recent loss of his mother and yet I feel I know nothing about her besides the fact she was also an anxious wreck, and feel no connection to her as a real person.
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The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

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adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

This was good fun. Witty writing, adventure and lots of things to say about feminism. I liked the exploration of there not being just one way to be a strong woman, and how stern it was about feminists looking down on women who like feminine things. It was just an all-round nice character arc of some very different women learning from each other. I also liked the message about the futility of trying to make yourself good enough and acceptable enough to men to be allowed to follow a traditionally male path through a system designed by men for men, and the necessity to blaze your own trail instead. Also nice to have an ace main character who's relatively unbothered by it all and just wants to get on with exploring the world and becoming a doctor. 

One thing that did bug me a bit was that the brother comes in and saves them at the end. For a novel that's been overtly and explicitly feminist, placing massive emphasis on female autonomy, having men swoop in and save them like damsels in distress left a very bitter taste.
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The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Much like the first one, this was some quite enjoyable but not terribly well-written fantasy that felt like it was written for kids but had themes that weren't really child-friendly. Good fun though and quite gripping.
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious 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

4.75

This was so good - just a really enjoyable book! Dramatic and ridiculous adventure, delicious romance with tension drawn out over the whole book via some faintly ludicrous and catastrophic misunderstandings, a good amount of angst but enjoyable angst rather than traumatic because it's the kind of writing where you feel secure that everything is going to turn out alright in the end, and some great characters and character development - the main character is a bit of an idiotic arsehole but you know he's had a rough go of it and very quickly you realise he's got a heart of gold so start really rooting for him. Highly recommend this as a fun pick-me-up kind of read.
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The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

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challenging emotional tense 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

3.0

Unfortunately (a) I didn't really get this book, and (b) I think it's just a type/genre that I don't get on with - not quite sure how to describe it. Is it magical realism? (Erdrich apparently says not  https://jottedlines.com/the-leap-by-louise-erdrich-narrator-imagery-magical-realism/) The combination of grittiness and supernatural elements just doesn't work for me. I guess I'm too narrow-minded to suspend my disbelief and it intrudes on my ability to take the story and underlying messages as seriously as they deserve. I had the exact same problem with Beloved.

All that's to say I think this is probably actually a phenomenally good book and the writing was rich with love for the ordinary life. The main character had a whole lot of dramatic and traumatic incidents in her life but this book was mainly about her relatively normal life in the aftermath - her relationships with her husband and step-daughter, the joy of holding her (step-) grandson, dealing with the difficult customers in the bookshop she works at, her love of books. It's also very recent, so the first novel I've read that covers covid and the murder of George Floyd. It's centred on the Native American experience so there's a lot about discrimination, dealing with ignorant white people, and police brutality. Honestly I could have done without the ghost, but that was kind of the central plot... hence thinking I just didn't get it.

Anyway I can't really give more than 3 stars because I personally didn't enjoy it, but I think that's mostly on me.
We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer

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emotional informative medium-paced

2.0

Bleugh didn't really like this. There were some interesting points about climate change being something that's difficult to really grasp but honestly I've read so many better articulated discussions of psychology and climate change. There was no real structure to the book, just a bizarre kind of stream of consciousness and jumping about from topic to topic, some of which related to the topic at hand, some of which didn't at the time but then were referred back to 100 pages later, and some of which were just irritating tangents. The whole thing felt like pretentious narcissism and honestly that passage in the middle where he's having a conversation with his soul - such fake deep bs. Just wanted to tell him to get over himself and stop eating animal products already and stop whining.

Unfortunately this really suffers in comparison to Eating Animals, which I finished recently. In that, I enjoyed all the messing with form - it felt witty and carefully planned out - whereas this just felt forced.
Asexual Fairy Tales by Anna Hopkinson, Elizabeth Hopkinson

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

2.0

Not really sure what this was trying to accomplish to be honest. What it wasn't doing was just retelling well known fairy tales and shoehorning asexuality into them. It seemed to be a disparate selection of myths, fairy tales and stories that had some vague and mostly fairly insulting references or implications of asexuality, and the retelling brought them to the fore a little. So I guess the point was that it's not actually a weird newfangled concept and you can find awareness of ace people's existence deeply embedded into many different cultures etc. But honestly a 4 page essay could have accomplished that much more effectively. 

I didn't particularly enjoy any of the stories and there was nothing special about the writing. Pretty much every single one was filled with problematic clichés and attitudes (e.g. it turned out the reason characters were ace was that they weren't actually human), as well as all the classic misogyny and rapes. There's a reason we aren't that familiar with these 'fairy tales' any more; it's because they're fucking horrible.

This is scraping 2 stars because the writing wasn't terrible, the problematic nature of the original stories isn't strictly the fault of the reteller, and I'm sure there was some noble intention to do with asexual representation behind it even if the execution was so badly bungled I'm not actually sure what that intention was.
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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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

4.0

Enjoyable, gripping easy read. The writing was fine, if a bit OTT on the drama in places. Also bi representation quite well done I think.

I suspect this is one of those books I really enjoy reading and then two weeks later can barely remember anything about - I'll have to get back to you in a couple of weeks but I've already forgotten most of the husbands' names.
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Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet by George Monbiot

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.75

Wow this was so interesting and exciting to read. I constantly hear about how destructive agriculture is and the dire state our soil is in, but not a whole lot about any solutions, and this book was brimming with them! Monbiot's curiosity and enthusiasm is infectious - it's got me really wishing I had the means to start up my own experimental farming project. Such an engaging writing style which centres anecdotally on the people he met who were trying different ways to do farming better, but at the same time I am completely reassured of the thoroughness of research and depth of understanding behind it all (sometimes I am quite sceptical of books - especially by journalists - that are structured this way). The notes and references section make up about a third of the thickness of the book, which is always reassuring to me.

My copy is covered in little sticky notes, annotations and underlinings (in pencil of course!) and I expect to be revisiting this as a useful resource. 

My one tiny criticism is that it was a bit slow to get going so it took me a while to get into it properly, but I'm so glad I stuck with it.
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