April Reads
I'm back with another round up! This month was hectic; I finally put my health first and started to relax. I haven't read much in 2021, and that's okay, but in the process of trying to manage my health, I've been reading a lot more. So here we go.
As always, if you read any of these books - please let me know!
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
My sister has been begging me to start reading Elena Ferrante's novels, and so I figured the best way to dive in would be with this book, released last year. This novel is about a young girl whose eyes are opened to her family affairs, after spending her entire childhood being told one version of events. The book then delves into her teen years, and how she matures with the new perspective on her family.
Prior to reading this, I had heard ... varying things about it. And for what its worth, I enjoyed the premise. I know firsthand what it's like to realise the adults you spend your childhood looking up to... are just as messed up as everyone else. And I do think this book has explored that in a very interesting way, and that it has done so very well. I enjoyed the interesting power dynamics; ones you wouldn't really see before, and the development of the relationships between the characters. But I don't think I enjoyed the ending, which seemed out of place to me. Am I missing something? I'm not sure. I felt that some (okay, one!) family in particular felt out of place and almost like they didn't quite belong in the book, though they played a central part in it.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
This is the first novel of four, and this is also the book my sister has been begging me to read. My Brilliant Friend is about 2 girls, Elena and Lila, who are... best friends sometimes, and sometimes not even friends. They're in a constant competition with one another, but there's a clear wealth and family divide between them; for example, Elena can just about afford to go to school, Lila cannot - and thus the interesting competition begins. The book has a lot of detail and a lot of characters. Ferrante is excellent at painting interesting relationships and drawing out so many distinguishing qualities in different people.
So what did I enjoy about this book? I love books about the relationship between people, and this book gave me everything I wanted. I really love diverse and complex characters, and these were it! And even though there isn't a plot so-so, the natural development of the characters drives the book forwards. I genuinely enjoyed this and read it within maybe a day? despite the length and small text - all because I wanted to see what happened next.
That being said - it's clunky. And it's long. Some paragraphs are useless. And it is really hard to get into in the beginning. My first thought whilst reading was - 'Who the hell is Don Achilles and why does this matter?'. If you can get through the reflective part at the beginning, I think the book gets a lot better. The writing style doesn't change though, and the characters can be confusing (you even get a key at the beginning of the book to help you understand who is who). I've seen a lot of criticism for this book because people don't know whether to continue reading or if it ever picks up its pace. I would say.... The pace is slow and it doesn't really pick up. But if you love reading about people and don't need an exceptional plot, then you might well enjoy this.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Girl A by Abigail Dean
I went into this not knowing a lot about it - I literally picked it off the shelf at Waterstones in a lockdown-restriction-lifting kind of euphoria. Lexi and her siblings grew up isolated, in a physically and mentally abusive house. There are plenty of trigger warnings for the kinds of things she and her siblings suffered, and I won't go into them - but it was pretty bad. Lexi, however, is Girl A - the girl that escaped. The premise of the book is that their mother, sentenced to prison, has died, and Lexi needs to deal with the remainders of her estate, including the house she escaped.
This was an interesting book. I felt that I had to re-read several paragraphs because things weren't clear, or they were deliberately ambiguous. I enjoyed the flip between past and present. I enjoyed that each sibling had their own dedicated moment where we saw where they had ended up and what had happened to them. I loved that Lexi had obvious flaws - not enough for you to not like her, but enough for you remember that she's human too. There were certain things I loved that would be spoilers to reveal - but I would recommend this book to anyone who wouldn't be upset by the contents.
Rating: ★★★★☆
People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd
Have you ever wondered what it's like to be.... an Instamum? Like, an Instagram Mum? Yeah, me neither. But this book follows Emmy Jackson, an Instagram mum, navigating her way through social media. This book gave me such an insight to using Instagram as a business tool. I naively assume all content is natural (and not posed!) but now I can pick out what is and isn't deliberately crafted.
However, the problem with being Instagram famous and having a large following is the social responsibility that comes with it. This book details a) literally how exhausting it is to be Instagram famous, and b) that even if you're careful, you can easily pick out the details of peoples lives to create the whole picture. This was thrilling, and the ending left me very unsettled. I found both main characters unlikeable, though this was deliberate, and honestly, I wished there was more to this book.
However, the style of writing, and switching between the "victim" and "aggressor" meant that there was very little thrill left. You were able to figure the plot out quite easily, aside from a few details, which meant that I wasn't racing to finish this as much as I thought.
Rating: ★★★★☆
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
I've been trying to finish this for... Almost a year. And I won't say it's not good, it's just long.City of Girls follows Vivian Morris, a young girl, who lives with her aunt in a theatre. She gets swept up in the life of show business, and New York - making mistakes, having fun. The book also has themes of change and loss - it takes place right in the middle of World War 2.
At the heart of this book, it is well written and gripping and you do truly feel as if you're reading from another time. But the book could've ended 100 pages earlier and I wouldn't have felt a difference. At times, it dragged, at others the pace was remarkably quick and I felt I needed to reread the last few paragraphs to understand. I would still recommend this, because when it gets to a certain point, it becomes interesting, funny and something you wouldn't want to put down. After that point, I think the book is still enjoyable, but loses something.
This book has a lot of feel-good vibes, and I think I would read it again only for the sake of re-reading.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
So this book is... to put it simply, about a girl in college who's 'mentored' (in the loosest definition) by a trailblazing feminist icon. (It hurts to write those words). Greer Kadetsky is quiet, shy, at a college she hates due to an administrative error, when she's the victim of a sexual assault. By chance, she meets Faith Frank, a feminist. The 2 characters don't meet again for years, but when they do - everything changes. The book leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth - for me, at least, I have issues with contemporary feminism and this book reminded me of those reasons. But it was that exploration of contemporary feminism and the criticism of it that makes this book as good as it is.
I went into this book very sceptical. I've read Wolitzer's stuff before and wasn't... entirely convinced about the hype. But this book delivered. It's not amazing, I'll say that much. I think the plot, if there really is one, is kind of weak. There's too much focus on characters I was not interested in, though they did provide a backstory. But the writing itself was excellent. Wolitzer writes and builds the relationship and history between characters so excellently, that it was this that kept me reading. I finished this book in less than 24 hours, and honestly, if I hadn't had work the next day, I probably would've finished it in 5 or 6.
Rating: ★★★★☆