★ ellis is reading (intro) ★
★ some bookish stuff about me: ★
I’ll read pretty much anything. I would say my favorite genre is horror, but you'll see reviews for books that fall into lots of different categories on this blog. I predominantly read fiction but nonfic makes its way into my hands too. I read multiple books at a time so at any given moment assume I have 3-4 books underway and probably none of them go together thematically.
Pretty much every book I read is from the library. The books I do own and have intentions to read just kind of sit there. Watching. Waiting.
The TBR is unruly and has taken on a life of its own. My goodreads is private to avoid judgement of it’s heinous size. (Whatever number you’re thinking, add a zero.)
I don’t do bookish photography, but I think the graphics people make to compliment their book reviews are cute and I’d like to do something like that. Will I make them for every book I read including books I hate? Remains to be seen but I like spending time in ibisPaint so yeah, I might.
Some books I’ll write entirely too much for and some books I just won’t review at all, but I’ll still include those in my monthly wrap-up posts (which I might revamp? IDK, if I’m going to the trouble to devise a new review format for this blog then I might as well just refresh everything at once to make it all look cohesive right? Right?)
Not all reviews I post will be for current/recent reads. I have reviews I’ve posted previously in wrap-ups that I’d like to single out and make graphics for, plus there are some old reviews that just got stuck in my drafts and need to see the light of day.
Mainly this blog is for me to have fun with but I also want to start articulating my thoughts about what I read. My reactions/ratings make sense to me but if someone asked me why I liked a book or why I rated it the way I did I’d like to be able to respond coherently.
★ my star rating scale: ★
So we all have some idea of why I rate things the way I do, this is my star scale and some of the books I’ve given these ratings, just to give you a vibe for how I operate. I do not do half-star ratings.
1 ★ - I didn’t like this book and I’m definitely going to complain to you about it. Poorly executed, would not recommend. Dry writing, not even a couple of good lines to make me consider bumping the rating up to a two. Sometimes these are books that had everything going for them but completely dropped the ball with their endings. All-around not worth my time but I finished it anyway out of spite. I have questions for the people who did enjoy these books because what do you see in them???
Books I’ve given a one-star rating include Polybius by Collin Armstrong, Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw, The Hunting Wives by May Cobb, Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas, and Gothikana by RuNyx (The loathing I have for this book, I swear. If I was writing reviews back then I would have gone on such a rant. You know how Natalie from Weirdo Book Club feels about HD Carlton’s books? That is how I feel about Gothikana.)
2 ★ - Two-star land is a limbo of sorts. Like, it wasn’t great and I didn’t particularly enjoy it, but it had its moments of brilliance that kept it from being damned to one-star hell. I’d give these authors a second chance because it’s obvious they can write or that they have interesting ideas but these books just were not working for me.
Books I’ve given a two-star rating include Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, The Wonder State by Sara Flannery Murphy, Gallant by VE Schwab, Foster by Claire Keegan, and Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.
3 ★ - This is where the books that had a lot going for them but were just missing something get ranked. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either; solidly meh. It pretty much accomplishes what it was trying to do. I’d still recommend it to the right person. Very middle of the road, very ambivalent, these are the hardest reviews to write.
Books I’ve given a three-star rating include I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti, The Only One Left by Riley Sager, The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch, and Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid.
4 ★ - These are books that I’d give my seal of approval to (for whatever that may be worth to you, lol). They’re well executed, they’re enjoyable, they check all the boxes. If you were on the fence about reading one of these, I’d tell you to go ahead and do it because you’ll probably have a great time.
Books I’ve given a four-star rating include We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, Dead Ringer by Heidi Belleau, All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater, and Wolfsong by TJ Klune.
5 ★ - Books I loved. Books I hard-related to and feel like no one can fully appreciate but me. Books I’ll go out and buy. Books I’ll still think about years later. Books that I’d be insane not to give a five-star rating to. Or sometimes books that just bring me a lot of joy and revive the dying embers of my fangirl days. (I miss when I got wildly involved in a book’s fandom and it took up all the space in my head.) There was something about the book that made me go “This. This is to be shouted about from the rooftops.”
Books I’ve given a five-star rating include A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow, Still Life With Tornado by A.S. King, In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, Mister Magic by Kiersten White, Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay, and of course the All For the Game series by Nora Sakavic. It would be blasphemous not to on this AFTG-loving site. (Kevin is my favorite and I will be unwell when his books come out.)
★ my tags: ★
Any post that I wrote will be tagged with 'ellis is reading.' Reblogs will be appropriately tagged with 'reblog.' In addition, I'll use 'reading wrap up,' the title and author of a book, and the year I read it. I might tag genres and the star rating too but IDK for sure yet. Would that be helpful?