„What do you have against actresses?“, asked King, intruiged but not angry.“

„Nothing at all. […] It’s just that … I wouldn’t want to spend my time living out the lives of fictional characters. I would like to be in real life.“

Elfie by Gabrielle Dubois

*spoiler free review*

I really am open to reading most genres and I enjoy them all basically. There are just two genres that I struggle with sometimes or that I don’t gravitate to as much: Romance and historical fiction. Romance because it just doesn’t interest me so much and I feel like the romance part takes from the efforts of worldbuilding, strong character development and basically all the things I enjoy the most. And historical fiction because this is just a hit and miss for me. Sometimes it just doesn’t hit the mark for me in terms of realistic portrayal or it is so realistic and void of imagination that it bores me. But sometimes it captivates my attention fully and is a joy to read. I can happily say that „Elfie“ by Gabrielle Dubois falls into the latter category 😊

In „Elfie“ we follow our main character of that name and her life in Paris at the middle of the 19th century. Elfie is a young woman from a wealthy family. As such she is heavily burdened by the expectations her family sets upon her. As her father sets up a marriage Elfie does not agree to and her wishes of freedom and independence become more and more clear to her, Elfie must make a decision that will change the course of her life irrevocably and immensely.

There are two things that guarantee that I will love a book: Strong world building and a likeable and realistic character. The world building here is good, although not the primary focus as we would have in a fantasy book for example, where the world needs to be fully explained. It becomes clear though really quickly that the author has a profound knowledge of society and living circumstances of that time. There even is a little glossary with notes by the author about key aspects of 19th century society and the role of a woman at the end of the book.
Regarding the character: Elfie is portraied as a naive and young woman, which seems quite realistic given the sheltered life a woman of her social status would have grown up in. Her urge to strive towards freedom seems so understandable and I could just feel and root for her throughout the novella. We follow her struggles and challenges and see her become more and more independent and herself, which is a delight.

Elfie is a novella (under 200 pages) and therefore a quick yet enjoyable read. It is also a part of a series of 6 books so far (at least that is what my amazon research gave me). It is translated from french and was easy to read. I will probably go into more of the series in the future as I really want to know how Elfies story plays out and we were left with a thrilling cliff hanger at the end of Part 1.
One thing that I loved as well were the drawings inside the book that accompanied the story. They reminded me of the books I devoured when I started reading and gave off such a lovely vibe. They also seemed so fitting for the historical context and were just a plus on top of the lovely story.

The main topic here is womens struggle to find foot in society, here in 19th century society which imposed great hurdles to overcome. Because of that „Elfie“ is a book with a feminist accentuation, still valuable today as much.

And here we are and I indeed enjoyed this historical fiction read a lot. As I know that this is not a given for me, I will make sure to stick to that author (if you don’t want to miss that you can subscribe down below).

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars from me for an enjoyble read

Trigger Warning: Physical Violence