Okay so to start off let me begin by saying that Lucy Wood is probably one of my OG YouTube subscriptions from back in her sugarscape days. So, when she started branching out to bookish content I was overjoyed because like hello some of my favourite things combined? Amazing! Then watching her (at the time) most recent video, to be or not TBR? I came up with this idea as soon as I saw the first book she lifted up because it had been on my shelf for over a year now, I started wondering if our reading tastes were aligned and if I could give her automatic review trust and so I ordered the three books I didn’t own immediately and this was born… And six months later I have finally got around to publishing it, oops!
Now a couple of days later she uploaded a part two which featured many books I have read so bare with as I might try to write that one up later. This has honestly really made me miss creating my own booktube videos because I feel this would be so much easier as a reading video but oh well! We’ll have to just make do. So, here are my thoughts on the books that Lucy mentioned…
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
I adored this book, it is definitely among the top two that I read from this selection. The Mercies focuses on a small village in Norway and the women who live there, recovering from a disaster that claimed the lives of all the men in the village. As they try to rebuild, eyes turn towards them, eyes that do not appreciate women doing what is considered the work of men and they find themselves in danger of men who fear independent women. Hargrave weaves this tale together perfectly, the story of independent women, fear and sexuality.
I loved the writing in this book, written in such a beautiful and compelling way that steadily drives the plot forward through a strong atmosphere. I really enjoyed the wisdom of the writing as well, how over 400 years later we can still face the same issues so you could relate to the writing and the wisdom shown through it. The relationships are also crafted so well, and Lucy said there is a tenderness to it, with which I completely agree. It is the perfect term to describe the relationship that develops across the novel, something fragile and precious, it was just beautiful.
Lucy called it her best book of 2021, and I can without a doubt see why. It was one of three books I read in May and it just blew me away, I didn’t have the highest expectations but it completely took me by surprise. I found it quite a calm but also intense book, it is an odd one to describe. I’m honestly not entirely sure how to describe it, there’s this sense throughout of impending doom that was done incredibly well. Like Lucy, even months later I cannot get this book out of my head. Millwood Hargrave is a new author to me but one I will definitely be returning to, her writing was just beautifully crafted. This is honestly a perfect autumn read, my only regret being that I read it in May and not around November! Ultimately I gave it 4 out of 5 stars but I would say it is possibly a 4.5 (damn goodreads for not having that as an option).
Beautiful world, where are you by Sally Rooney
When I saw Lucy hol this up my heart sank a little as I realised I would have to force myself through a Rooney novel again. Now… I honestly wanted to go in without bias, because I really didn’t get the love and hype for Normal People or Sally Rooney’s writing in general, but sadly pages in I just found myself hating this one too. I just really don’t love the way that Rooney writes, I know the characters are all supposed to be somewhat awful and that they’re not meant to communicate, that they’re meant to reflect real relationships… But I just don’t find that true, in my personal experience I haven’t had that kind of miscommunication and obtuseness that Rooney puts her characters through and so I just don’t get the appeal. I struggle to find any depth in her characters, anything redeemable about them because they just seem so one-dimensional and I really struggle with that.
I honestly couldn’t tell you the plot of this book if I tried, so I’ve had to google the plot to give you some kind of insight into what it is actually about but the blurbs aren’t necessarily all that helpful. So we start with Alice, who meets a man called Felix and asks him to travel to Rome with her while we are also told the story of Eileen and Simon, who have been in a flirting cycle since childhood. Ultimately, not a lot actually happens, all the characters are stuck in this cycle of miscommunication that Rooney is fond of and they get together, break up and repeat.
Another thing I struggled with was the way that she describes everything, in detail. It becomes so mundane, there was one moment when a character getting keys out of her bag was described and I just couldn’t see the need for it, it took me out of the story and though it’s a tiny thing it just frustrates me. Just like the fact that she never uses speech marks. That I genuinely struggle with as it becomes hard to follow who is speaking at points and to realise that someone has started to speak and is not just thinking.
There were good moments, though if I’m being honest they were tinged with parts I didn’t like. I liked the introduction of the emails which broke up the chapters as I found them easier to follow than the story, although I did think they were incredibly pretentious at times and really struggled not to roll my eyes, though they did provide some interesting thoughts and insights. It can’t be denied that Rooney is a good writer, her writing just really isn’t to my taste, and I can’t see myself ever picking up one of her books again.
Lucy talks about Rooney’s ability to write sentences that just punch you in the gut with relatability etc, which I do recognise… But I just don’t personally love forcing myself through a book for a handful of good sentences. Don’t hate me! I think Rooney does have moments of beautiful and relatable writing, but the rest frustrates me so much that I can’t stand it. I struggle with it because I relate to the uncertainty and anxieties they go through because it is realistic for people in their 20s-30s but I just don’t relate to the way they deal with them, and at the times I do I just don’t want to read about it. I rated it 2 out of 5 stars which I do think was a bit generous, but I did like the emails (minus the pretentious parts).
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Now it’s been a long time since I read this, as I read it in one day on my birthday in 2020. But I remember it being about Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet. We read about the inspiration for the play Hamlet, and the struggles that faced this famous man. It follows the story of Shakespeare’s wife mainly as we see through her eyes, and the eyes of the children, the Bard himself is actually quite removed which I really liked. It would have been so easy to write a Shakespeare-centric tale but O’Farrell made the focus on those lesser known around him, and in doing so actually bought more depth to the tale.
I think it was a bold move, to have a book focused on the family of Shakespeare and pretty much neglect the man himself - incredibly bold. Especially when everywhere I saw it marketed there were so many references to Shakespeare, but you don’t come away from reading it disappointed at that. She writes it so well, that more Shakespeare would take away from the story itself. Which is a hell of an accomplishment.
I remember that I loved the atmosphere, that it was heavy, slow-moving and beautifully written. I remember loving the way that she wrote about loss too, that she managed to make it feel so raw and real, that it weaved throughout the book tying everything together. The themes were done so well and really drew you into the characters, with incredibly moving passages.
Like Lucy, I did very much struggle with the pace of the book, it is a very slow-moving prose and I think I did read it too quickly, which didn’t help me with the pace. Because again, I did also find myself struggling through areas and wanting to get to the next chapter etc. It was a bit of a shame, but I did still enjoy it, it just wasn’t entirely what I had expected. I think it is one I would like to reread one year, in the Autumn while it is raining. Lucy started to discuss the flea chapter, and when I first watched the video it made me laugh out loud because I had completely forgotten about it until that point. But I completely agree with her, it is a captivating chapter that did completely change the pace of the novel and although odd at first it was so well done. Overall, I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars.
If I had your face by Frances Cha
If I had your face had been on my TBR for a criminally long time before I finally got around to it, and I’m gutted I didn’t pick it up before now! If I had your face is about a group of young women in South Korea who are struggling to survive among the ruthless world of plastic surgery and unattainable beauty. While it would be easy to reduce this book to being about plastic surgery, it is so much more than that. It is about the culture that pushes women down, makes them push each other down, about beauty and wealth and how far people will go for success.
I found myself really enjoying this book, it was beautifully written and easy to follow, with some really dark moments. I liked how it was split up between the different characters as well, which provided moments of relief from one storyline to move to the next. While I didn’t exactly love the characters, they did grow on me the more I read the book and I mainly found myself feeling sorry for them. For the social mobility expectations especially, it was heartbreaking to read some of the stories that centered around social mobility and how far they would go to try and climb.
It was a really interesting story and it made me reflect a lot on the beauty standards of my own culture, and how they can also influence me. Not as dramatically as the women written by Cha, but it was interesting to reflect and see the similarities and differences between the South Korean culture she gives an insight into and my own British culture. I also liked how subtly woven into the normal society it was, because to me it was truly shocking that two characters would be having a conversation and then offhandedly reference getting a surgery that would have a severe impact upon their physical health, but in this society it is so normalised that it isn’t out of place, like people in Britain offhandedly commenting about weight/diets.
Like Lucy, I found it really interesting, and was able to draw comparisons between South Korean culture and my own. And again, I was also glad that it didn’t try to fix everything by the end, it was a grim and realistic book that looked at the flaws within this society, but didn’t leave it completely hopeless, but also didn’t wave a magic wand and take all of the issues away. I ended up giving it 4 out of 5 stars!
The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins:
This was the final book I read for this list, and I put it off for a while and I’m honestly not sure why. I think partly because I didn’t really want to read much historical fiction at the time, another reason why it took me a while to get into The Mercies. But once I picked this up properly I was glad I did, and I read it basically in one day and it completely blew me away.
The Confessions of Frannie Langton follows our main character Frannie, a Jamaican plantation-born slave who is on trial for the murder of her master and mistress. We follow as she desperately tries to remember the events of that night, haunted by the question of whether she could have murdered the only person that she ever loved. Frannie’s story is incredibly powerful and haunting, beautifully written, and compelling.
We follow the story through Frannie’s writing as she is in her cell, waiting for her trial, recalling how it all began back on the plantation as she is desperate to tell her full story, not just the story of that night. Then we move towards London, where she is given away to become a maid, and then the chapters are interspersed with accounts from the trial, witnesses on the stand and diary entries that look to damn Frannie. It makes the sense of dread only deepen as you see the picture they paint against her.
I found this slow-moving to start but when it picked up, boy did it pick up. I became so invested in finding out what had happened and making my own theories, and a lot of the time I was right because the story was fairly predictable but it was so well written and revealed that I wasn’t annoyed. Because Collins had dropped the hints all along so you have this sense of dread filling within you until Frannie learns the truth of things and the penny drops for her. At times it truly made my heart ache for her, how one woman could go through so much.
I also loved the way that Collins wrote, and I have so many lines tabbed because they were just full of wisdom, especially from the voice of Phibbah, another enslaved woman on the Jamaican plantation. Phibbah was such a powerful character who had so much wisdom and I found myself frustrated at times, begging for Frannie to listen to her.
I don’t think I have ever read a book like it, a perfect mix between historical fiction and murder mystery, that leaves you with a whole host of wisdom and a deep ache in your chest. I felt deeply uncomfortable at times with how Frannie was treated, what was written about her and the language used, but it was all-important in telling the tale, and it is one that will stay with me for a long time. The kind of book that you ruminate on and cleaves itself a space in your mind for a long time.
Again, like The Mercies, this does that looming dread very well. There was a lot going on, but it was well told and I enjoyed the journey the book took me on, despite all the terribleness of the situations. Overall I gave it four out of five stars!
Ultimately, I would say that Lucy has great taste, and that I will definitely be following her recommendations in the future. I just might turn a blind eye when it comes to Sally Rooney… But I am totally here for the historical fiction recommendations and enjoy making these blog posts so I hope you have enjoyed reading this! Overall, out of the five my favourite was without a doubt The Mercies because of the beautiful storytelling, though The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a close second! If you have read any of these please tell me what you think, or who your favourite booktuber is or someone you’ve followed for a while that you would love to make bookish content!
You can check out Lucy's to be or not TBR? video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSjPMFIhpC4&ab_channel=LucyWood and I would recommend checking out the rest too, because she has released a few more now! 🥰
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