nelliereads

[nelliereads]

Life updates

This has never been much of a personal blog, but it's time to take a turn babeyyy :)

I last edited this blog as a fresh faced 18 year old stuck in secondary school in rural Scotland using books as a form of escapism and writing as her only way of escaping the confines of her town.

Now I am studying in the university of my dreams, away from the town I felt trapped in, with a whole community of people who I don't need to hide from and who I didn't find between the pages of my favourite novels. While life got better, some other things, like this blog, slipped away.

This feels important to note for several reasons; it is why my public writing fell to the wayside, and the way that I read has changed dramatically.

I study English at one of the top Universities in the UK and this involves a lot of reading. I am a slow reader in near permanent burnout, permanently struggling to keep up with my assigned reading (which is often 2 novels per week). The guilt of reading for fun, when I should be reading for my academic life is overwhelming so I've found that it's only really over the summers that I get a chance to read for fun. I have also only finished a handful of books in my 3 years here, despite the hundreds that I have been assigned, because there simply hasn't been the time for me to read and learn and live my life, so on paper, I haven't read a lot. In actual fact, I've started hundreds of books and left them largely unfinished.

I have thoughts on life and academics which I would like to share here, but because of the nature of my life these days, the posts won't look the same as they once did. But I am 3 years older and not even I look the same as I did when I last pressed 'post' so I guess that this is to be expected.

I'm glad to be back, I do hope that I stick around here.

Nellie xoxo

[nelliereads]

I haven't stopped reading but I haven't finished a book in a week? and I haven't reviewed a book in monthsssss SO, I'm posting this to hold myself accountable and read and review more soon!!!

Future Nellie, don't you dare show me up 😡

Enjoy Kaz Brekker in the meantime :))

[nelliereads]

forever impressed by people who when they're hyperfixating on a media or character come up with complex headcanons and analysis and make up scenarios with them. all my brain does is this for days on end

[nelliereads]

Continuing my reviews pt 4

The Cruel Prince:

Author: Holly Black

Star review: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (5/5)

Summary: A young girl and her sisters are kidnapped by their parents’ murderer who raises them as his own daughters in the land of the folk. Jude and her twin are mortals navigating their way through the scheming, fickle world of the folk whilst they also deal with constant harassment and threats to their lives. One member of the stunning yet cruel folk in particular stands out to Jude more than the rest and she’ll soon find that he is much more important than she could have ever truly imagined.

Review: Even just writing a summary of this novel was so hard, the plot of this book was both beautifully complex and yet easy to understand, enthralling you in its complexities. The characters are fully established, multifaceted people all containing multitudes! The relationships between characters and the world building was fascinating to me and helped me fall in love with each character in a very individual way - though honourable mentions to Cardan, Oak and Heather who own my heart. It is so hard to choose a favourite instalment from the The Folk of the Air Series because each book is so well written without any character or plot point feeling neglected at all and this novel sets up the rest of the series perfectly. I love the slow-burn enemies to lovers fantasy politics and... the knife scene!!!!! Overall, just read it. Read this series, please.

Representation: wlw side-character relationship, indications of the secondary character being bi, background character is black, generally quite a difficult book to speak of with regards to representation due to there only being 3 main human characters and the rest being folk with their own features and ideas of what stands out

[nelliereads]

three important things to remember right now:

1. do not share ANY information about the place, the state, and the members of Ukrainian army. don't like it, don't reblog it, don't even write about it.

2. if you want to get information, do not look for carrds or twt threads. turn on your tv, read a newspaper, look for journalists and officials. do not trust random internet users and do not spread the disinformation and propaganda that is already circulating around here. double check every account you see talking about what's happening before deciding to share it further.

3. listen to Ukrainians.

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Had this song on the brain, had to draw Them :)

(Grid stuff inspired by nadiabeeart!! Check them out, their art is super pretty!)

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Selfie time!!

Instagram | Ko-fi | Redbubble | Patreon

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And just like that my actual dissertations go right out the window....

(For legal reasons this is a joke)

the sea, in Leigh Bardugo’s books, symbolizes change. This is seen in Inej’s trip to ketterdam, kidnapped by slavers; in Wylan’s swim through the canals, realizing his fate; and most prominently, in nine year old Kaz’s transformation to a talented thief and a barrel boss. In this essay I will…

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Whatever do you mean? He's Wylan Van Sunshine! /s

I’m gonna need to ask you to leave me and my son alone, thank you

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An ✨investment✨ if you will

jesper: you have a crush on inej

kaz: i don't have a crush on her. she's just someone i stare at and like and when she's not here, it ruins my day

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Wesper in 2016

I can seriously imagine Wylan and Jesper both being really into fidget spinners (I mean especially because they're both definitely ND but anyway) HOWEVER, I see this panning out differently for both of them.

Jesper likes to collect the brightly coloured ones and see how fast he can spin the metal ones which annoys the heck out of Kaz

Wylan always has at least one complicated one in his pocket so that whenever he's bored he can take it apart and try to find a more effective way of rebuilding it - as a bonus, he definitely gives the ones he makes to Jesper and fixes all of the spinners Jesper breaks while trying to spin them really fast

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Jude and Cardan - The Cruel Prince

Artist: @giannyfili

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Continuing my reviews pt 3

The Love Hypothesis:

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Star review: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (4/5)

Summary: A young woman called Olive,working on her phd and a mysterious, moody science professor fake a relationship to prove to Olive’s best friend that she is over her ex and moving on and prove to thr university that Adam (the professor) is not a flight risk so his funds will be unfrozen.

Review: I read this book sooo fast and loved it so much. I feel that with time I may have forgotten some of the elements that stopped me from making this a five star review but honestly a really good cheesy romance! That being said, it does cover some really heavy topics such as sexual harassment, the treatment of women in STEM AND the treatment of BIPOC women in STEM which I must admit I did enjoy. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone under 15 because it does get a little spicy 😏 and check the trigger warnings before reading BUT if you like a nice light-hearted fake-dating, office(?) romance definitely give it a go!

Representation: women in stem, queer sc, grayace/demisexual mc, BIPOC sc

[nelliereads]

Continuing my reviews pt 2

Heartstopper vol 1:

Author: Alice Oseman

Star review: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (4/5)

Summary: A graphic novel about two young boys who grow to become friends and then (spoiler alert/hj) lovers. Just a really sweet and heartfelt book about british teenagers fumbling their way through queerness and secondary school.

Review: I kind of summed up my thoughts within the summary but this was just a genuinely lovely depiction of awkward teenagers growing to realise their attraction and queerness in a beautifully drawn graphic novel. The only reason I didn’t give this instalment 5 stars is because it doesn’t have much gritty plot HOWEVER, this is not to say that I didn’t love it and fear not! 5 star reviews for other volumes in this series are coming right up!

Representation: gay mc, bisexual mc, mlm relationship, wlw relationship, Chinese side character, Black side character

As with all reviews that I give, do check trigger warnings before reading :)

Let's ignore that the top two books are upside down...

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cardan: can you ask jude if she likes me?

vivi: you're married

cardan:.. yeah but can you just a-

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Me, to me 😭

“i have too many books on my tbr” my brother in christ, you’re the one who put them there

[nelliereads]

Because I haven't been reviewing the books I've read recently, here are some short reviews for all of those I've missed:

Pt 1

Iron Widow:

Author: Xiran Jay Zhao

Star review: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

Summary: Based on Ancient Chinese history, a young woman, Wu Zetian, is fated to become a concubine and serve the male pilots fighting the war against the Hundun invaders and in doing so, face her certain death. But what if she is more powerful than anyone could have imagined? What if the system they have been raised to believe in is founded on lies and hundreds of women are being killed because of this?

Review: I really loved this premise and the beautiful worldbuilding! The ending had me desperate for a sequel and I have already reccomended this book so many times. It is only 4 stars though because for me there were times where I struggled to follow plot that hadn't been made clear from the outset - often plot points in this book make sense much later on - which generally wasn't bad, but I did struggle a little at times.

Representation: bisexual, polyamorous, south east asian/chinese protagonists, disabled, wheelchair user