elysephone_escapes's reviews
191 reviews

<b> <i> Finally Reading The Books I Bought Randomly in Charity Shops Years Ago and Then Never Read: #6 </i> </b>

Really was fighting myself trying to finish this one. I started it about three times before finally getting through it.
That sounds like I'm about to absolutely slam this book, but honestly I'm not. It's mid. Ally Carter is obviously a skilled wordsmith for a teenage audience and as someone who read her Gallagher Girls series at the intended age and enjoyed them enough to apparently buy the whole series (don't ask me a single thing about them though, I honestly don't remember a wink), she's earned a place in the nostalgia section of any Waterstones. 
I do have genuine dislikes about this book: the love interest/s and a last minute triangle tease was unnecessary for me but considering what book I'm reading it's basically par for the course. Gabrielle was annoying as heck because her entire existence was just to be "the hot girl" and a foil to Kat so we can have some classic Im-not-like-other-girls material that we of course all miss very fondly from our 2000-2010s teen lit.

What genuinely INFURIATED me though was the blatant sexualisation of mainly Gab, but then also Kat, was just sprinkled in, like they're not literal minors. And before you get all "Woke Police" on me, yes I know you I'm reading this as a 22 year old and that teen books always seem to want to remind us that teen = starting to be aware of body and attraction and all that jazz, but like seriously? You had a whole section of the male characters gawking at Kat's boobs because they "suddenly realised she had them" because Gabrielle fixed up her clothes for a costume - MAKING HER HAVE A WHOLE NOT-LIKE-OTHER-GIRLS GIRL SUDDENLY MAKES MEN REALISE SHE'S ATTRACTIVE WAS ALSO COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY BECAUSE THE "COSTUME" IS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT?? Literally wanted to throw the book down when Simon commented on her boobs A SECOND TIME just for laughs. Like seriously, what the heck? I literally can only think of negative effects of this, like teenage girls could just read this and think "I guess boys opening commenting on and obsessing over the existence of my boobs is normal boy behaviour and code for me being attractive" GIRL NO, THAT IS GROSS BEHAVIOUR. 

Other than this glaring uncomfortable inclusion though, anything else that I wasn't thrilled by I was just willing to chalk up to standard 2010s teen lit shenanigans. I can forgive it for being cheesy at points. If I had read this as a teen I could see myself possibly enjoying it more as at the end of the day it's a decent, globe-trotting heist plot centered around smart kids that provides little more than to be fun for teen girls who also want female-driven action novels and not just horses and fashion plots (not that there's anything inherently wrong with that ofc). The characters are interesting enough and the plot is thrilling if you're a teenager obsessed with Bond or Oceans 11 and want something like that but with characters closer to your age. Reading it today though, it was exhaustingly mid and I really was just reading it to make the £1.75 I paid for it however-many-years ago not a complete waste of pennies.

Was too slow with this one and had to return it to the library, so its going on the DNF shelf for now. Hopefully I will return to it though because Wilkerson is clearly a skilled writer with lots of intelligent things to say!" 

Finally Reading The Books I Bought Randomly in Charity Shops Years Ago and Then Never Read: #5

Blog post on this one coming soon! 

Read from a different edition: Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell (Kindle Edition: published 2012 by Digireads.com). Reread.

Not the correct edition (was no where near 200 pages but was the translated version from a set of Kallas stories).

Was sitting around a 3.75 or solid 4, but the genuine feeling and warmth I felt in the last group of chapters meant I had to bump it up. A few things I wanted to query, but maybe the hyper-critical part of my brain should take a backseat sometimes and not let it judge my entire opinion. Would still recommend.

I read this in one sitting, if you count one sitting being from 9pm to 2am..
One of those books that was WAY too good to be mediocre but not good enough to be fantastic. I feel like it's a debut: the writing is amazing but there are cracks in the story that might cause you pause. There are not many authors though who I say I look forward to future novels by them as I think the more she publishes, only better she will become until all the little bugs are ironed out and we're left with a shining diamond.
HEAVY Knives Out influence I feel. If the author isn't a fan of the two movies, I'd eat my Monokuma plushie.

 An unexpected favourite considering I got this using one of my free credits on Audiobook.com. One of those "this was written for me" books, blending folklore and reflective real-world narratives in a subtle and fantastic way. A gentle magical realism that doesn't distract from the core personal story happening, and set against the rich natural world of costal Wales.
Rebecca Trehearn had a beautiful voice for this and I'm already planning on buying a physical copy for my shelves so I can re-read it more in-depth in the future.