elementarymydear's reviews
967 reviews

This was such a fun read! While I enjoyed some of the stories more than others, I still had a great time with each one, and it was so much fun to see the different approaches the authors took to ‘remixing’ a classic tale.

The book starts out strong with a sci-fi version of Pride and Prejudice, called ‘Shame and Social Media’, that is concerned with the housing inequality on the world’s first long haul space flights. I thought this was such a great start to the book, not just because we all know I’m partial to P&P, but also because it was a good example of taking one theme from a longer novel and turning it into a short story.

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My personal favourites though were ‘Evermore’ (based on ‘The Raven’) and ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Away From Me’ (based on – you guessed it – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea). Both of these stories were so creative, but also incredibly moving reads. They both used their source materials in really interesting ways that I really enjoyed.

Overall this is a great collection that puts a spin on many well-known stories.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

 

What a truly wonderful book!

This was one of those books that I was taking every possible opportunity to listen to. It’s set during that one, epic summer holiday that happens between your A levels and freshers week, and we follow Elsie across these summer months. She has big plans, but of course plans can change!

This book had so much in it – family secrets, long-lost loves, long distance crushes, queer friendships, and more. I felt so emotionally invested every step of the way, and I really felt the ups and downs that Elsie went on.

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I loved the relationships between the different queer characters in this book. I thought it was a really good depiction of not just romantic relationships but also the friendships and kinships between queer people, and I really felt that sense of belonging that Elsie found.

I also really liked the way the book explored how queerness is seen in different cultures. Many of the characters in this book, Elsie included, have a range of cultural influences in their lives, and I loved how the author included these themes. It was also fascinating to see how these different influences affected the characters, and how it helped them shape a sense of their own identity.

The inclusion of queer people from different generations was also a great touch. I remember very vividly how it felt when I first started interacting with the queer community outside of my own peer group, and it’s such a fulfilling moment that was vividly captured.

There was also excellent narration from Siu-see Hung, who didn’t just perform the text in an immersive and engaging way, but also nailed an astounding range of accents!

I received a free copy for an honest review.

 

One of my favourite things about historical fiction is its ability to shine a light on the people that the history books have, intentionally or otherwise, forgotten. That’s what this book achieves. It highlights the presence and the contribution of Chinese workers to the First World War, specifically in Britain and France.

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Against this backdrop, Janie Chang tells us the story of two women. For much of the book they are apart and do not know each other, but as certain characters start to connect them we get a growing sense for what they have in common. Pauline is escaping an arranged marriage, and Camille is escaping an abusive one, so when their paths do cross it feels like they have a natural kinship as they help each other.

The story was told with a lot of nuance, exploring all different aspects of life as an immigrant in the early 20th Century. It felt very true to life, both the way that characters like Pauline move in society, but also the clashes that can come across generations when reconciling two cultures.

Overall this was a very eye-opening read to an often-forgotten part of history. Certainly in the UK, fiction set in the world wars is incredibly popular, and I hope this book goes a long way to expanding people’s understanding of that time period.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

 

I had the BEST time reading this book. I was picking it up at every opportunity, desperate for any chance to read a few pages. When I got to the end, though, I just wanted so much more!

The story takes its premise from Jane Eyre, repositioning Mr. Rochester as a villainous figure who uses and discards people – particularly women – for his own gain. It’s not too much of a stretch from the original, and I really enjoyed this approach! He does literally keep a secret wife locked in the attic in JE, so it felt like a really natural and interesting progression.

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I also really liked that the author makes it clear that this story happens in an alternate world/timeline. There are enough differences from real life – a fictional monarch, for example – that it’s clearly established as a different world. I loved that this gave us a nice separation from the original, and also allowed for some historical tweaks, such as a Bridgerton-esque approach to race.

There were some points I wished it were closer to the original. I think everyone who has read JE vividly remembers their shock at That Reveal (I know I do!) and it felt odd not to have some sort of nod to it. There was also no point at which anyone suggested Bertha might be imprisoned because of her madness, whether true or not. I was a bit disappointed by this as this is one of the themes I was really hoping would be explored: how madness, or ‘hysteria’, is used to discredit women.

I just would have loved for it all to be fleshed out a little bit more. The romance was a little bit insta-love, there weren’t any significant subplots, and it was gasping for an epilogue at the end. I would have loved to see how Jane and Bertha rebuilt their lives after escaping, and I just felt slightly deflated at the end.

This was an enjoyable read, that offered a fun twist on Jane Eyre. In the end, though, I couldn’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

 

This was a very quick read, but swept me up from the first page to the very last!

Nardeen is a very compelling main character. Subjected to unimaginable heartbreak and trauma at a young age, we see her find her own strength as she becomes determined to avenge her family. She’s intelligent and stubborn, but she has her flaws too.

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There are lots of different genres at play in this book, and I thought they were woven together really well. It’s a historical fiction, set in Baghdad during the Golden Age, with a strong mystery aspect and a sprinkling of fantasy thrown in there too. I find that sometimes it can be hard to slip a little bit of fantasy into a book, but it was done really well here. The setting and the fantasy aspect blended together seamlessly, and it worked really well.

The writing style also had a fantastical, whimsical quality to it, which really helped the fantasy elements blend in. It’s to the credit of both author and the translator that it worked so well!

This was a really enjoyable read that transported me to another place and time. It’s a great addition to anyone’s collection of translated fiction!

I received a free copy for an honest review.

 

What a delightful read!

I’ll admit, I had never heard of the Silver Moon bookshop before this book. In my defence, I was 5 years old when it closed! But it is clear from this book how much of an impact it had on feminism, LGBTQ rights, and the book industry at large.

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Jane Cholmeley vividly recreates the highs and lows of Silver Moon, and I really appreciated how she acknowledged the struggles and difficulties alongside the achievements and celebrations, especially when that included reflecting on her own shortcomings. She proves that even when you make mistakes or come up against immense challenges it is possible to overcome them and succeed.

One thing that really struck me in this book was how feminism butted heads with capitalism. A lot of radical second-wave feminism was very anti-capitalist, and I found it fascinating to read about how Jane and her colleagues balanced their different ideals with the reality of running a business in a capitalist society. I think it’s useful reading for any of us who move in progressive spaces.

I really got a sense for what life was like for queer women at that time, the struggles under Thatcherism balanced with the excitement of a new endeavour and a burgeoning feminism movement. More importantly, it made me even more grateful for Jane and the other women like her. It is thanks to their efforts that I have the rights that I do today, and it’s a timely reminder not to take them for granted.

Above all, I got a real sense of the community that Silver Moon fostered, and while I am sad that I will never be able to visit in person, I’m glad that for a few hours I was able to be transported there through this book.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

 

I wanted to enjoy this book, I really, really did, and to start with I did. Aside from a couple of odd metaphors that made me go “huh?” the writing was lyrical and the setting immersive.

I’m actually going to start at the end with this review. At the end of the audiobook there was an interview with the author, and as I listened to it everything started to make sense. Of course this book was written by an adult who read Romeo and Juliet as an adult for the first time, and was scandalised by the violence and hedonistic behaviour of the characters.

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I was coming into this book from a completely different angle. Not only is it entirely possible that my school and teachers taught R&J from a more critical angle, I also spent a fair chunk of the early 2010s on tumblr, which is the best way to get a critical and/or feminist reading of literally any classic text. I’m not saying the author should have in fact done an internet deep dive on what teenagers of a decade ago are saying about Shakespeare, but it’s not exactly a new idea that the play is violent, or that Juliet is incredibly young, or that Romeo falls easily in and out of love.

In this book, all these ideas are turned up to the max. Romeo is a love addict, wooing and discarding women left right and centre. He’s almost sociopathic, the detachment he has to any of these women. He’s so coarse and callous that he is barely believable, as a villain, as a love interest, or even as a person. I actually think a more empathetic version of this character would have been more realistic and, therefore, more chilling.

This is where we get the domino effect. If Romeo is a known villain, why does the Friar marry him and Juliet? Because the Friar is, for reasons never explained, Romeo’s enabler. Why does the Friar set up the scheme of Juliet faking her own death? Because he was going to actually poison her, of course! And what about the countless other women Romeo has ruined? Of course the Friar will quietly get rid of them for him!

Which finally takes us to the titular character, Rosaline. An off-stage character in the original, who Romeo has a crush on, here she has plans to elope with Romeo before he sets eyes on Juliet. I did really like her as a character (although a part of me curled up and cringed every time she and Juliet referred to each other as “cuz”). She was strong-willed, independent, but not without her flaws.

I have a new least-favourite trope, which I’m calling “the time-travelling feminist”. It appears exclusively in historical fiction, and happens when the main character, who is inexplicably well-versed in modern feminism, is the lone figure who can see the injustice around her (such as Lessons in Chemistry, for example). Rosaline is a prime example. Only she can see that Romeo (who’s age is undefined but we’re lead to believe he’s older than he acts) has no business seducing the thirteen-year-old Juliet. Regardless of the fact that Juliet is being primed for marriage to someone else, or the fact that 13 was, at the time, considered young but an acceptable marriage age. Her constant outrage at Juliet’s youth was just another reminder that this is a 400-year-old story seen through modern eyes. That’s not to say that this isn’t a theme worth exploring, but the author’s own shock at the story really shone through here.

You would be mistaken for thinking, given everything I’ve said so far, that all of the women are either fiercely feminist or tragic victims, and that all of the men are villainous misogynists. I was delighted in the depiction of Tybalt – of a slightly lost but ultimately good-hearted best friend and cousin to Rosaline. Their friendship was my favourite thing about this novel. Obviously I knew Tybalt’s fate, but it was ruined much earlier than that when – surprise surprise – he was in love with her! Because, as we all know, boys and girls can’t just be friends, even when they’re cousins.

Credit where it’s due to the narrator, Sheila Atim. An experienced Shakespeare actor, she was a huge part of making the audiobook the absorbing, immersive experience it was, and I take my hat off to her!

I was so excited for this book. I’d been wanting to read it for so long, and I was gutted that it didn’t live up to my expectations.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

 

I had such high hopes for this book! Sistersong was an instant favourite for me, and this was an eagerly anticipated second novel, but ultimately it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Firstly, the things I liked! I really loved the relationships between the main characters, particularly between Æthulburg and her husband Ine. While they often felt estranged they also deeply cared about each other, and I found their relationship – especially when they embraced unconventionality – very tender and compelling.

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Throughout the whole book, there was such an interesting exploration of queerness; of different sexualities, genders, and how those are expressed in this time period. I thought the depiction of asexuality was particularly noteworthy, as its an identity that is often looked over, but was explored here in a very truthful and heartfelt way.

There were also a couple of call-backs to Sistersong, just occasionally reminding us that they exist in the same universe even if the stories are not interlinked. I always love an Easter egg and so this was something I really appreciated!

As much as I enjoyed these aspects of the book, I just found it so difficult to get stuck into the story. I never felt particularly immersed in the world or invested in the plot, and I felt a lot like I was going through the motions reading it. So while I did like the main characters (I wasn’t fussed about the minor characters) and some of the themes, the actual reading experience was fairly average for me.

I received a free copy for an honest review.