elementarymydear's Reviews (967)

 What a fantastic read this was! Very rarely does a book make it onto the favourites list so quickly but this one managed it.

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Sistersong, based on a British folk ballad ‘The Two Sisters’, is set in the years following Roman retreat from Britain, as the Saxons are invading across the South West. The story follows three siblings, Riva, Keyne, and Sinne, whose father is one of the last Roman kings defending his stronghold from the Saxons.

Riva and Sinne are the two sisters from the ballad; Riva, the eldest, is desperate to heal wounds from a years-old injury, while Sinne, the youngest, wants love and adventure. When Riva finds romance it sparks a jealousy in Sinne which has disastrous consequences. While this is the story of the original ballad, it is just a small part of the incredible tale Lucy Holland has woven.

The true main character is Keyne, the middle child, who is desperate to be seen as the man he knows he is, rather than the woman his family see him as. His arc is so beautifully written, incredibly powerful, and is the driving force of the story. His mentor and guide is the shape-shifting Myrdhin, who teaches Keyne the old ways of magic as well as giving him the confidence and means to present as male. I loved the depiction of Myrdhin here, not only were they a fantastic character but they added so much to the atmosphere of the book. One of the biggest conflicts in the book is that between Christianity from Rome and the traditional Pagan beliefs, and through characters like Myrdhin and Keyne we were able to explore not just the cultural changes but the moral ones, in particular Christian attitudes towards women and gender.

Speaking of atmosphere! This was a book you could get completely lost in. I would start reading, lost myself in the story, and look up an hour later wondering where the time had gone. It’s the sort of book that makes you want to go to Cornwall and become a mage on a cliff edge somewhere. It’s stunningly written and transports you right into the middle of the action.

The one minor criticism – or rather, comment – I have, is I would encourage you to read the ballad first, or at least look up the story. I came across it on the author’s twitter page and I’m glad I did, as some of the plot points that are lifted from the source material are not what you would expect and, at times, quite gruesome.

I am so glad I read this book. It was unlike anything I’ve read in a long time, but reading it felt like coming home. There were moments I couldn’t put it down, there were moments I had to put it down just to pause and take a few deep breaths. Now to resist the temptation to read it all over again... 

 It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan who has run out of Jane Austen novels must read this collection of unfinished works.

It’s true! After reading Mansfield Park last year I had completed all six Jane Austen novels and, given that she’s not likely to release a new one any time soon, I turned to the final Jane Austen book on my shelf. All three of the works featured in this book are very different, but each one gives us a little more insight into who Jane Austen was as a writer, as a person, and where her writing career may have gone next had she not died tragically young.

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Lady Susan

The first story in the collection is the only completed one. It is unusual among Jane Austen’s work in that it is told through the form of letters, rather than prose, the form which she would become so famous for and revolutionise. It reads much more like her juvenilia than one of her published novels, and it’s clear that it’s a writing style that she wasn’t quite as comfortable with. Lady Susan herself is notable for being the oldest Jane Austen heroine in her mid-thirties, and I can’t help but wonder if, following on from Anne Elliot in Persuasion, she may have written more women past their ‘first bloom of youth’ as she got older.

The Watsons

This unfinished novel, written in the middle of Jane Austen’s career, follows a young woman who, having been raised by rich relatives, returns to her more impoverished family. I did struggle to get into this one, the main reason being that I have the exact same name as one of the main characters which was quite jarring to read! Like how Lady Susan is unusual for her age, Emma and Elizabeth Watson are unusual for their relative poverty, much more like the Prices in Mansfield Park. As a result we have a much more grounded story that in many ways is much more modern. You can’t imagine Emma Woodhouse ever answering the door still wearing her curling rags, but it’s part and parcel of everyday life in this story.

Sanditon

Sanditon again stands out from the other two in that Jane Austen probably intended for it to be eventually published. Like The Watsons, from purely a reader’s perspective it was quite difficult to get stuck into the story when you know there’s very little past the exposition, but the town Jane Austen sets up is glorious and vibrant. Sanditon is also the only Austen work to include a Black character, and stands alone with Mansfield Park in beginning to explore the impact slavery and the British empire had on society, the economy, and day-to-day life.

Reading these unfinished novels is bittersweet, and offers us a glimpse into what might have been. It’s also a reminder of the genius that is Jane Austen, the keen eye with which she observed the world, and the sharp wit with which she preserved it for us. 

 I was so excited to read this book. The reimagining of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and their peers into modern-day LA is genius, and a sapphic romance between screenwriters was right up my alley. Beyond the premise, however, I really struggled with this book.

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For a romance such as this one, especially where the strength of the relationship is the driving force behind many of the characters’ (often dark and difficult) actions, you have to root for and believe in the romance, and I just couldn’t do it. From very early on the romance made me feel very uncomfortable. I found Kit to be quite predatory; it was very difficult to think of this as a healthy relationship. For example, during an intimate scene where Billie expresses reservations about what Kit would like to do, we get the line “Her lips crashed back into mine before I could question further.” I try to keep my reviews SFW so I’m not going to go into detail for some other plot points that happened that SAME DAY, but needless to say I was VERY shocked that Billie bought a ring the next day. Where is the consent? Where is the healthy communication? If you want me to root for a romance, I need to believe they’re actually good for each other.

The reimagining of Robert Greene as a Harvey Weinstein-like figure was really interesting (and enough time has passed since the real Robert Greene lived that it doesn’t feel unsettling). His looming threat was what keeps the book moving and unexpected, with twist after twist that you don’t see coming.

As the story progresses, and both Billie and Kit are on their own paths, I really liked the characters brought in for Kit’s storyline. I found Kit’s relationship with Gabe to be much more believable and poignant than her relationship with Billie, and the wider relationship with Gabe’s family was very moving. However, just as we have a properly developed relationship with one of our characters, suddenly Billie is in a poly relationship with her ex-fiancé and a woman who we NEVER MEET, it’s mentioned so briefly at first that you spend several chapters thinking “who the heck is Al?” only for it to be clarified at the end that their third partner had since left and now the two of them were back together and expecting a baby. Given that we followed Billie’s perspective for over two thirds of the book, to have so much character development happen off-screen is jarring and while I’m glad she got back together with Andy (who is clearly a much better match for her) it did come out of nowhere.

All in all, while the premise and the plot had so much potential, there was just too much in the way of me enjoying this book.

Thank you to the authors for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. 

 
Skye and her brother James are students at Comagique, a university for magical studies. When one of the classmates dies in a séance gone wrong, they take it among themselves to find out who killed her and why. They discover a plot bigger than either of them could have imagined, as well as uncovering some of their own past.

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The stand-out element of the novel is definitely the world-building. Justin Ketter has a real skill not just for creating an amazing fantasy world, but for building it in a really interesting, engaging and (most importantly) easy to follow way. I’ve read a few indie books recently where the approach to world-building was to simply throw a ton of characters and terminology at you without giving you time to get used to the world, and it was refreshing to be able to take our time to get to know the characters and the world without feeling like it dragged out.

Skye, the main character, is a really fun character to read from and it’s great having a bisexual lead written so seamlessly in fantasy. Her brother James is a really interesting character too, with lots of layers and secrets, and it was good to see those be slowly revealed as the story progressed (and I’m sure there will be more to come in future instalments of the series!).

Unfortunately, the plot didn’t quite follow through from such a great set-up. I really enjoyed the murder mystery aspect, but that was resolved about halfway through and suddenly there was a new mystery that initially seemed unrelated to the first half of the story. I’d have much preferred to have the first half a little more fleshed out as a standalone story, and then the second half as a sequel. That being said, the end did set the story up really nicely for the rest of the series.

With the great world and characters, I have no doubt that this will become a great series, reminiscent of books such as City of Bones. Thank you to the author for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. 

 An unpredictable woman is a fearsome prospect for many a man.

I had never heard of Anne Bonny before I watched Black Sails for the first time a couple of years ago, and in this novella Kate Castle has finally given Anne her own voice and story! It’s hard to believe that the real-life tale of Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Jack Rackham gets so little attention in the endless pirate stories that are created, so when I saw there was a novella about them I had to get it!

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Born of the Sea is about the romantic relationship between Anne Bonny and Mary Read. We learn about how both of them ended up sailing under the Jolly Roger, and the evolution of their relationship was very organic and tender. I just wanted it to be longer! It definitely felt like there was a novel’s worth of material in their relationship and as much as I appreciated the quick read I really wanted more.

I thought it was great how Castle built on a lot of the real-life relationship dynamics that existed among pirates. Anne’s presence on the ship, living openly as a woman, left her in a complex position that the author did a really good job of portraying that, as well as the homosexual relationships common between male pirates. It was an unsanitised portrayal of the period, without centring the violence and danger.

I’m really glad I picked this up; it was just what I needed, and I look forward to seeing what Kate Castle writes in the future! 

 I was really hoping this would be a new favourite for me, but it never quite came together for me. The premise and the world have a lot of potential, but it never felt fully realised. I spent most of the book waiting for the story to decide what it wanted to be, and that never really happened.

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The Betrayals is set in a university called Montverre which is centred around the annual grand jeu, a game in which centres round a musical composition, but also includes poetry and mathematics. (The exact nature of the game is never made clear). It reads like a dark academia fantasy setting, and it was very atmospheric, but there was no actual fantasy element and no clear location or time period for the university (I felt early twentieth century Britain/France? But I could be wrong) so it didn’t feel particularly grounded. All we know is that the land its in is run by a single political party who persecute Christians – and again, this was never really explored or explained.

We follow the story through four perspectives. The first is Claire Dryden, the first ever female Magister of Montverre. We then have Léo Martin, a disgraced politician who has essentially been exiled back to Montverre. Sometimes we read in third person from his perspective, and sometimes we read his journal from when he was a student. The journal was the most compelling of all the narratives, setting the scene for the driving force of the book: the mystery of how Léo and Claire’s stories intertwine. Finally we had the Rat, a young woman who lives in the attic of Montverre.

The Rat is the first character we meet, but her fairly limited character arc doesn’t interact with Claire and Léo’s until briefly at the very end. Even though she did have an impact on the overall plot, she still felt superfluous, and it would have been nice to have more integration of her storyline with the main characters’.

The book is driven by Claire, Léo, and Léo’s past, but even the resolution of that story felt unsatisfying. The twist at the end of the book is fairly easy to guess, but then you get so much extra information thrown at you that directly flies in the face of it that when you do get to the twist it feels a little wasted. Without spoiling anything, what should have been a very emotionally charged reunion fell flat.

The Binding was one of my favourite books I read last year, and I was really hoping that The Betrayals would be up there this year. There was so much so love: a dark academia setting, a mysterious game, two strangers who seem to have an intertwined past, a servant girl who haunts the corridors at night. Perhaps Goodreads tags have a lot to answer for: if it didn’t say ‘fantasy’ in big letters at the side perhaps I would be less disappointed, on that count at least. Either way, none of the individual elements of this story – so good in the premise – actually delivered.