ellaellaellaetc's Reviews (494)

this is a story told in two timelines, one in the early 2000s and one in 2017 about a high school girl who gets into a relationship with her english teacher. this is a really upsetting but multifaceted look at child sexual abuse and it's affects :(( I don't really think I have anything to say anything new about this book, it's just really good! I was a bit sceptical going into this book because types these relationships tend to get glorified in stories but I think this was a very deep and respectful take on this issue. highly recommend! 4.5 stars

this is how you lose the time war? MORE LIKE THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE ELOISE KLASSEN!!! girllll!!!! this lost me!!! actually more like it never had me!!!!!! I have been meaning to read this book for LITERALLY YEARS and have heard nothing but glowing reviews! jacinta got it for their birthday last year (and also gave a glowing review) and then lent their copy to me and sir. guys. i genuinely thought that this was gonna put me into a mental spiral of obsession (in a good way) and that it was gonna be a new favourite but like this is me rn😐🫤😐😕😐. like that's actually my face. 

this is about two agents who work for rivalling agencies who travel across time/parallel universes changing both small and large things that have run on consequences. they start sending each other extremely poetic letters and fall in love but it's like forbidden and stuff. now, is this pretty language? well yes!! now, does this book make sense? now.... that's another thing all together. while I thought that a lot of observations made by the characters were quite sweet and romantic and it was interesting to see how each agency ran, girl idk wtf happened in this book! it was so confusing for literally no reason! 

I was down for the strangeness but it wasn't even like confusing in terms of plot, i just could not picture what was happening in my head because the writing was just so confusing! they would leave these secret letters for each other and when they described how they would leave the letters i was like well that's a cool idea ig but how did this actually happen??? one of the letters she leaves in like tea or something and the tea leaves form the words of the letter and every time she stirs it it becomes a different word or something and in another letter one of the girls carves the letter into the rings of a tree over the course of decades so that when the other girl chops down the tree she reads it in the rings. now, that is very romantic but idk how tf this happened. i cannot picture this at all. 

the way that the chapters were set up is that you would be in the mind of one character and you would see her doing her mission or whatever and then you would see her find the letter at then at the end of the chapter you would read the letter. the letters were really beautiful and poetic and i would find myself enjoying them and then the next chapter would roll around and i would be scratching my head wondering wtf is happening. anyway, i unfortunately didn't really like this one which i'm actually really upset about 😭😭 if you liked this i would love it if you could please explain and also pls explain how these letters work cause i'm still confused and everyone else seems to get it. 2.5 stars

i think what i've notived at this point in my ~journey with feminist discourse~ is that while purely or mostly anecdotal/memoir type books are not really my cup of tea anymore. i already know that it sucks to be a woman for many reasons because i live as one. while they are important and a great gateway, they tend to leave me with wanting more/not have learnt anything new. especially when i'm reading a book, i want to read something more academic/research backed and this definitely came through! i loved the amount of references and this is a great for people looking for a more intersectional look at sexual assault/rape for both the victims and the accused. i learnt a lot from this because i previously looked at the lack of convictions for sexual assault/rape cases and the disproportionate incarceration of black and brown men as two completely different issues. looking back now i'm disappointed in myself that that's something i'd never really thought about! I'd really love it if people could recommend more feminist non-fiction written by poc women especially if they have a focus on intersectionality within feminism :) 4.5 stars! 

wow what a great (but depressing) book! this is about an unnamed narrator who burns out in her 3rd year of her chem PhD and almost aggressively in the genre I have aptly termed "depressed girl does nothing". ngl this one hit close to home for me🥲🥲 for those who don't know, chemistry is actually my ex gf. we were best friends in high school and then dated in uni for two years from 2021-2022. unfortunately, over time, things got complicated and I was finding it harder to understand her. I stopped priotising her in my life and we slowly fell out of love. while it was the right decision to let her go, I still think of her fondly and I miss when she was a big part of my life. I wish I had given her more attention when I had her but I know that she has good people taking care of her now🫶🫶 (um... why did I literally cry writing that😭😭 anyway...). this was a truly excellent book. the writing style perfectly depicts how it feels to be depressed and stuck in limbo deciding what to do with your life (not that I would know anything about that ://) and ahhh!!! I love the way the main character's mind works and I loved unpacking her relationship with her parents. it was so complex and I loved her feelings of disconnection to her culture. ugh guys. this was excellent. the only thing i would be wary of is the very detached writing style, i personally really enjoyed it but i know that some people find it hard to connect with. anyway, loved this! it was definitely a right book at the right time kind of situation :) 4.75 stars p.s. what a great pic oml I cooked with this one

my grandma gifted me this for my birthday and it's actually about our ancestor!! this is about the daughter of notoriously stick up his ass mean naval captain and later governor of nsw, william bligh. i've heard stories of this guy before because my grandpa lovesss history but it was very interesting to hear the story through the eyes of his daughter! however, my main problem with this is that is historical fiction based on a real life person and I think the author got bogged down by real life events. home girl did not need to include literally everything that was ever documented about these people but she did! and not in a good way! there were certain times where she would basically do a time skip for like 1 year or 5 years while she did this time skip she would basically list (what i'm assuming is) literally every single thing that was documented to have happened during this time. like "this happened to the grain harvest and father dealt with this disupte and then this happened and then that happened" and i'm just like oh my god that doesn't matter!!!! shut up!!!! i think that because this was based on real life people the author felt pressure to get every single fact straight but that doesn't really make for an interesting fiction book and i think the book would have been more enjoyable for me if she created new characters based off of the existing people in history or even if she just left out some of the random nonsense that does not contribute to the story at all 😭😭also it's kind of impossible to write a story about colonial australia and leave out the indigenous australians and i think that this story did not do a very good job at it. yes it mentioned them but always in an off-handed way that made it clear that the main characters were not awful people who wanted to kill natives but it didn't really go further than that which i would say was disappointing but tbh i did not really expect it to address it at all :// 3 stars

cute! this is about floralinda who has been taken by a witch in a 40 storey tower that has a new creature you have to defeat on each level. however, the witch puts her hardest beast to defeat on the first floor so all the princes that go to save her just get killed by a dragon before they can get anywhere and slowly, people stop coming to save her. a very antagonistic garden fairy flies through her window and (against the fairies will) together, they try to free floralinda by going down each flight and fighting the beasts themselves! the audiobook for this was like 3 hours and it was such a delight! it was a really fun spin on fairytales and I loved floralinda and the fairy's dynamic! the book is also told by a narrator whose tone I really loved; I highly recommend this as a palette cleanser book if you're looking for something short and fun :) 4.5 stars

omg🤭🤭 um🤭🤭 sexy!!!!! this is um🤭🤭🙈 oh my🤭🤭🤭 I liked this🤭🤭 this about two strangers who meet on an app to fuck but things end up getting derailed on their "date" and they end up just hanging out but there is a very deep connection and she gives him her number (something she never does!! she never sees people more than once!). the next day main girl rocks up to work and her boss (who is also her really good friend) is like omg this is so annoying this firm is trying to take us over, ew here they come now and then she turns around AND IT'S FHE GUY SHE ALMOST FUCKED LAST NIGHT!!!😱😱😱 they then embark on this journey where they're sleeping together but it's secret and it's really emotional but also not and they're in love but also not and it's just all very intense. these two characters both have quite dark back stories and this is very different to your usual romcom story. however, I would also set this book apart from pure erotica though because the sex is more of a vehicle of the story/their relationship vs being the reason for the story/their relationship. does this make sense????? anyway, this was actually really stunning and the character arcs are wonderful and these people just understand each other so much in a way that doesn't make sense but also does. anyway, not sure if this makes sense but I really loved this! I would highly recommend this for people who love their romance books are a bit more intense and love some good smut cause let me tell you this had me giggling and putting the book down for a sec to say "oh my🤭🤭" before continuing. 4.75 stars

omg 😭😭😭😭😭😭 another rare instance where I liked the movie more but still really really good! this is about tween margaret who moves from nyc to the new jersey suburbs and it's about her making friends, growing up and understanding the world around her🥺🥺 her mum is christian and her dad is jewish and they didn't raise her with a religion and the story is centered around her choosing religion as the topic for her semester long project. I really loved this. this book really just shows that all girls went through the same things😭😭 this really took me back and I felt all of the things I experienced 10 years ago. I think this is the perfect book for kids but also for adults who want to revisit that time of their life. while I did enjoy this though, I watched the movie beforehand and tbh I was a bit more moved by it than the book. would still recommend both though! 3.75 stars

nobody moved..... this is one of those books where you finish it and you just go "okay cool now I'm gonna move on with my life" and then you never think about it again. this is about 5 insomniacs who always meet up at the cemetery at night to smoke and they see a fresh grave and then they all go their separate ways to work out what's happening. I was very disappointed by this as if we were villains, the authors debut book, lowkey ruined my life (in a good way) and I was so so ready to love this! but unfortunately I found my self just tuning everything out (I was listening to the audiobook) and tbh I have barely thought about this since finishing it like a month ago! not offensively terrible but just plain boring and unremarkable which is maybe worse. idk. 2.25 stars.

oh😳😳😳 yes it's good😳😳 this is a very well known short story about a woman who is suffering from what we would now call post-partum depression. her doctor (who is also her husband!!) forces her to stay in her room with no entertainment which was the people irl though was the cure for depressed women back in the day. the story is told in her secret diary entries as she slowly loses her mind and becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper. this is a really effective and eerie story! this actually happened to the author (locking her in her room as a depression "cure", not the wallpaper aspects, or not that I'm aware of) and she wrote this to spread awareness of the actual insane craziness of this! this is perfect if you're looking to get unsettled in short amount of time but also something that will really make you think! I'm very glad we are no longer doing this to women😅😅 sbout out to charlotte perkins gilman!!! 4.75 stars