theelliad's Reviews (291)

The Truants is a dark academia (adjacent) novel set between Norfolk (East Anglia) and a hideaway in Italy following Jess’s study of Agatha Christie, whose fiction and mystery structures the peice. While I am an absolute sucker for an academic based mystery fiction, this fell a little flat for me. The characters felt as though they lacked development, it was easy to consider them characters rather than humans, and the plot twists weren’t overly surprising. While passages of this book were breathtaking and immersive, I on the whole felt elements I wanted to know were glossed over! I also think Nick was such a slept on character- I know that’s partially the point but i wanted to know about him and the romanticised descriptions of Lorna and Alec became old quickly! That said, I think there is much to be said about meeting your idols, friendship and betrayal, and the politics of learning from this book (also perhaps the lack of safeguarding- for real why are these tutors at uni parties?) and I enjoyed these elements! This was an enjoyable early new year read and despite its flaws, I can’t fault it TOO much overall for the pleasant distraction from my essay it offered! 

Final read of 2023 complete! This is a dark thriller read with a little witchcraft and magic sprinkled in. The narrative seems to weirdly flit between graphic descriptions and narratives that felt aimed at younger audiences? That said it had an interesting subplot of systemic racism and the complicity of those supposed to protect people from it! Overall it was a pretty average book

If anyone needed assurance that these books aren’t just kids books anymore (or that kids books can still be dark and heartbreaking; or that i’m weak hearted) this exists…

I enjoyed this one significantly more than the previous one! While Fry does still seem somewhat selective in the versions of parts of this myth he tells, namely his sympathetic approach to Iphigenias sacrifice, I think it was overall handled very well! I especially enjoyed the use of the fall of troy as a generalisation to genocide in the modern world as i think it’s a poetic warning of our own shortcomings. I wish there was more exploration of the trojan side (characters like Cassandra are glossed over and I think it would have added a lot) but this is such a nice narrative retelling yippeee

This one is even darker and I LOVE it! very much a caryl churchill fan after today (thanks caryl for getting me through this shift <3)

i actually very much enjoyed this! Perhaps it was helped by the fact that I read it during my very boring shift, but I found it so easy to read and very unique and clever in its style! It captures the essence of urban alienation, self obsession and seemingly inconsequentiality in a creative and engaging manner, and I think exploring connections between scene titles and the scenes themselves will be a challenging yet interesting pursuit. I won't say much more for fear of this review being longer than some of the scenes, but overall i am very much looking forward to the lecture on it! 

I wanted so badly to rip into James’ fiction after having to read ‘The Art of Fiction’ so many times, however, as it turns out this book was quite good. That said i did manage to rewind it a good chunk of time and then not notice for about 10 mins so i guess that says something about how repetitive parts of the narrative were? I liked the ghosties 

Me and ed slayed that performance so this has gone up in my estimations, however it’s certainly problematic and not a lot happens :/

Yes Yes Yes- Dark and mysterious and everything I love about this genre, the storyline is both easy to follow and the time jumps keep the narrative moving! More importantly the characters are so hateable and it makes me so happy