elementarymydear's Reviews (967)

 What a brilliant read!

I don’t know a huge amount about Emily Dickinson, but this book gave me an insight into her early adulthood. There were highs and lows, friendships and romances, and we see her start to explore her talents as a poet. The author explores not only Emily’s perspective but the perspectives of her closest friends, particularly Susan Gilbert.

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I was drawn into the story from the very start, immersed in the setting and invested in the characters. I read the whole book in one sitting and I felt transported to 19th Century Amherst.

The romance between Emily and Susan was beautifully written, with big sweeping romance and little moments that just made me feel so much for them. The journey they went on, figuring out their feelings and a way to be together, was incredibly moving and made for a very emotional read.

This is a most-read for any fans of queer historical fiction, full of atmosphere and romance. It was beautifully written and I can’t wait to see what the author writes next!

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own. 

 This book transported me back in time over a decade, when I would devour books like The Maze Runner and Stormbreaker, and they would become my entire personality for a good few months after reading them!

HappyHead starts from a place of positivity and ends in a place of corruption. Set in what is billed as a wellness retreat, it explores how even the most well-meaning of things can be turned into something evil.

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All of the characters were so vividly depicted, and portrayed in a very layered and nuanced way. The way all of the characters, but especially the main character Sebastian, were revealed to us slowly over the course of the book was masterful.

I also really liked how queerness was explored in this book. As a book about happiness, secrecy and authenticity it really lends itself to that and I thought it was a great way to explore the characters’ experiences.

There were some very dark themes explored as well, particularly ideas of eugenics, and I’m intrigued as to how that is going to end. That’s one theme I would have loved to have delved deeper into, so hopefully it’s something that will be much more central to the second book. It makes for such an interesting motive for a villain, and I definitely want to go further into her mindset!

I’m really glad the sequel to this book has already been confirmed, because this is a story that deserves to take its time being told. There is so much more to delve into, and there isn’t going to be an easy solution, so I’m really excited to see where it heads next.

The audiobook narration was also excellent. All the characters were brought to life excellently, sometimes uncannily so, and it was just an all-around great listening experience. 

 

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own. 

 What a powerful and impactful book!

The Low Road follows the life of Hannah Tyrell, a young woman born to an unmarried woman in the early 19th Century. We follow her turbulent childhood, the hardships of her youth, and eventually the stability she finds as an adult.

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Quarmby doesn’t shy away from the injustices Hannah faces, and the way society actively shuns her just because of her circumstances. Her story could be the story of so many women at this time, which makes it all the more heartbreaking.

As much as the story is about hardship, Hannah’s tenacity and determination balance the dark side of this story. She’s a great perspective to read from, as we witness the world through her eyes. I particularly enjoyed seeing how her perception of others – and other people’s treatment of her – changed across the course of the book.

I also thought this was a great depiction of the lives of queer woman in this era. Women’s sexuality is often written out of history, and this felt like a very honest portrayal of a woman following her heart in a world that has no words for it.

This is a beautifully written triumph of a book, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I hope we get more historical fiction from Quarmby, because the world is better for it.

I was given a free copy for review. All opinions are my own. 

There is plenty to like in Brittle, the first instalment in a new series. It’s an escapist fantasy and a gripping page-turner, that keeps you hooked until the last moment. I thought the way the fae world intersected with our own was really interesting too and added a nice dimension to the main character’s arc.

The main character, Verve, is caught between two fae men, and I found her interactions with Fenn particularly compelling. Even though they are very manipulative of each other, it made for an engrossing and engaging read.

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There were some things, however, that didn’t work so well for me. Apart from a couple of small moments, I found the story pretty formulaic, and the intense misogyny of the fae world felt unimaginative to me. If anything, it felt like a missed opportunity to create a really interesting society that was substantially different from our own, rather than just ‘the real world but worse’. If SJM is anything to go by that does seem to be a bit of an emerging trend of the subgenre, but it would have been a much more enjoyable read for me if there was more nuance.

While this one wasn’t a hit for me, I’m sure many fans of ACOTAR and similar books will enjoy this new series.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

 

I absolutely loved the first book in this series, Windfall, and the sequel did not disappoint!

We jump right back into the action with Liana, and it felt like I’d never left! Shawna Barnett writes such an immersive world, that you can’t help but feel like you’re right there in the middle of the action.

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I really liked how the characters’ pasts were explored in this book. More than one secret is revealed which causes plenty of tension and drama! And of course, there are romantic developments too, which I was particularly invested in.

What I really appreciated in this book is how it explored power dynamics in relationships, particularly relationships with age gaps, and how that can affect someone long after the relationship has ended. It not only grounded the story but also shone a light on something a lot of people, especially women, go through.

This was such an exciting return to the world of Liana and Rhian, and safe to say that cliffhanger ending has left me wanting more!

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

 

 It took me a little while to get into the story, but once I was hooked I was completely in it until the end!

It starts off as an unassuming story about a scrapyard worker who unintentionally becomes the guardian for a mysterious boy in his early teens. As the book goes on, though, we find out that they are each in their own way looking for their lost family, and they manage to help each other.

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The author doesn’t shy away from the difficult things in life, and all of the characters are presented with all of the complexities of real people. I was surprised by how much of the book was about mental health, but that was a perfect reflection of reality, where we never really know what another person is experiencing unless they choose to share it with us. The characters opened up to each other and, by extension, the reader, over the course of the book, which made for a very emotionally charged read at times.

I also loved seeing all these different characters, from all walks of life, be thrown together in unexpected ways. I think it can make for the most interesting stories, and in this case that is definitely true! The characters may not have been natural friends or allies, but they still created a family of a kind.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own. 

This book has – if you’ll pardon the pun – so much heart!

Jesse Spark is the lovable lead, a teenage film-maker who finds out he needs to have open heart surgery. He sets out to make the zombie movie of his dreams, despite growing tensions between his best friends, and a complete lack of budget or equipment.

We join the friends on the adventure as they pull together a cast, locations, make-up artists, and everything they need for the film. It was laugh-out-loud funny, the mishaps they got themselves into, but they always managed to pull it off despite the odds.

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I will admit that, at the start of the book, I thought I knew exactly where the story was going, and I was still fully committed to the ride. Over the course of the book, though, the story changes direction ever so slightly, until we see just before Jesse does what the true ending will be. It kept me on the edge of my seat and very emotionally invested!

One of the big themes of the book is that of body image. Jesse knows that gay men are often held to incredibly high standards when it comes to their appearance, and he’s afraid that once he has the operation – and a scar on his chest – he won’t be considered datable. One of his best friends, Morgan, has felt insecure about how she looked her whole life, and while Jesse and their other friend Cas do their best to help her, she sees doesn’t find any validation in what they say. I thought these issues and storylines were handled really well. I also appreciated that the author didn’t go into the specifics of Morgan’s appearance, such as her exact weight or clothes size, because these insecurities can plague someone no matter their appearance (and also avoids giving a number to ‘too big’ or ‘small enough’).

There was also excellent narration from Chris Nelson, who brought all the characters to life so vividly.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

 

 This is an incredibly powerful coming-of-age story about two teenage girls, Bethany and Phoebe, told from Phoebe’s perspective. They’ve been friends their whole lives, but as teenagers they start to face events and decisions bigger than those they’ve ever faced before. Throughout the course of the novel, Phoebe comes to see the world, and the people in it, more complexly than she has before, and Bethany learns that she is much stronger than she ever thought she was. 

While the first half of the book was fairly slow-paced, at around the half-way mark it really picked up and I couldn’t put it down! And all of the smaller plot points in the first half had nice endings and full-circle moments in the second, giving the book a great sense of both closure and new beginnings at the end. 

I loved how Phoebe’s autism was presented as something neutral. There were times it made things harder, but there were also times that it made her better equipped to deal with something. It was a part of her, just like any other aspect of someone’s personality, but not something that she needed to overcome. Equally, the events that happen in the book don’t happen because she’s autistic, or are made harder or easier by her autism. 

I also thought the choice to set the book on Lindisfarne was a brilliant one. I’ve visited a few times and as lovely as it is, I’m very glad I don’t live there! As you can only get on and off the island at low tide. As well as just being an unusual setting, it also worked really for a coming-of-age story. Sometimes the characters could travel on and off the island as much as they pleased, sometimes they were stuck on the island, sometimes they were stuck on the mainland. They alternated between having loads of freedom and being stuck in a community of 150 people you’ve known your whole life, which added a great dynamic to the characters’ journeys. 

This is a really fantastic book for teenagers, and one that will be a staple in school libraries for many years to come. That being said, I think there is something to take from this book at any age, which is a testament to the quality of this book. 

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.