1072 ratings (3.68 avg)
1187 reviews
more photos (3)

#31 best reviewers

Elle (ellexamines on TT & Substack)

https://www.goodreads.com/ellexamines

Elle’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (6)
currently-reading‎ (3)
read‎ (990)
did-not-finish‎ (80)
tbr‎ (133)
zzzzz-coverporn-etc‎ (52)
tbz‎ (47)
short-fiction-shelf‎ (39)
on-my-shelf‎ (29)
2025-release-tbr‎ (18)
anticipated-2026‎ (9)
2026-releases-tbr‎ (8)

elle-recs-list‎ (252)
sapphic-books-shelf‎ (103)
2026reads‎ (24)
elle-buylist‎ (23)
anticipated-sequels‎ (13)
2026favs‎ (7)
elle-reviews-to-come‎ (2)
4-star‎ (383)
5-star‎ (257)
favorite-characters‎ (243)
z-read2017‎ (233)
lgbtq‎ (231)

contemporary‎ (227)
x-series‎ (225)
3-star‎ (201)
fantasy‎ (200)
via-arc‎ (195)
authors-of-color‎ (173)
z-read2016‎ (167)
mystery-suspense‎ (165)
z-read2018‎ (164)
favorite-relationships‎ (163)
author-love‎ (156)
z-read2015‎ (151)

2-star‎ (150)
x-coverporn‎ (150)
literary-fiction‎ (113)
favorite-friendships‎ (93)
theme-she-did-that‎ (93)
speculative-fic-fabulism‎ (85)
theme-trauma-abuse-recovery‎ (76)
z-read2019‎ (76)
dystopia-utopia‎ (74)
x-classwork‎ (74)
scifi-space-opera‎ (72)
nonfiction‎ (70)

Stats | More…

Elle is Currently Reading

Elle (ellexamines on TT & Substack) is currently reading

A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)

by Arkady Martine (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: anticipated-sequels, currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Dec 27, 2025 02:25PM · see review

Elle (ellexamines on TT & Substack) is currently reading

Undoing Gender

by Judith Butler

bookshelves: currently-reading, 2026reads, nonfiction

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Elle (ellexamines on TT & Substack) said: "

The human, it seems, must become strange to itself, even monstrous, to reachieve the human on another plane.

One of my favorite elements of this book is its argument that our current society devalues “kinship,” ties, devaluing bonds that f ...more "

Apr 15, 2026 02:27PM · see review

Elle (ellexamines on TT & Substack) is currently reading

Ring Shout

by P. Djèlí Clark (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading, 2026reads

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Mar 15, 2026 10:40AM · see review

“You apologise to me?” she bellowed. “You apologise to me now? You say that you’re sorry when I have spent my life destroying you? You are my whipping girl! I hurt you because it was a relief! I exist because my parents killed everyone and relegated you to a life of abject misery, and they would have killed you too and not given it a second’s goddamned thought! I have spent your life trying to make you regret that you weren’t dead, all because—I regretted I wasn’t! I ate you alive, and you have the temerity to tell me that you’re sorry?”
― Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth

17 likes

“He urged again, “Thoughts?” Gideon said, “Did you know that if you put the first three letters of your last name with the first three letters of your first name, you get ‘Sex Pal’?”
― Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth

58 likes

“But when she was scared, she was a child again, and she was more scared of being a child again than anything else in her life.”
― Tamsyn Muir, Harrow the Ninth

tags: childhood-memories, sad, trauma

18 likes

“What do Marta the Second, Naberius the Third, Jeannemary the Fourth, Magnus the Fifth, Camilla the Sixth, Protesilaus the Seventh, Colum the Eighth, and Gideon the Ninth all have in common?” You could have heard a hair flutter to the floor. Everyone stared, poker-faced, in the thick ensuing silence. Magnus looked pleased with himself. “The same middle name,” he said.”
― Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth

34 likes

“This whole thing happened because you wouldn't face up to Gideon dying.' he said, which was a stab as precise as any Nonius had managed. 'I don't blame you. But where would you be, right now, if you'd said: She is dead? You're keeping her things like a lover keeping old notes, but with her death, the stuff that made her Gideon was destroyed. That's how Lyctorhood works, isn't it? She died. She can't come back, even if you keep her stuffed away in a drawer you can't look at. You're not waiting for her resurrection; you've made yourself her mausoleum.”
― Tamsyn Muir, Harrow the Ninth

42 likes

More of Elle’s quotes…