Enola Holmes Book 1 - September 2020 Book of the Month

[Kadi, Creator]

[Kadi, Creator]

To celebrate the release of the new Netflix Movie Enola Holmes starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill and Helena Bonham Carter, I thought it would be fun to read the first Enola Holmes book: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer!

[Kadi, Creator]

I've just watched the trailer for the movie and it actually looks really good! Now I need to download a digital copy of the book and I'm excited to read it. In the past I have liked 1 out of the 7 Sherlock-related books I've read so I'll be interested to see whether this is another one I like or dislike...

Anyone else excited for the movie? Or has a personal rule to always read the book before watching the movie?

[grace]

I have a physical copy, so i’ll definitely be participating! I actually didn’t know it was being made into a movie, now i’m super excited 😁

[Kadi, Creator]

@Dee I’d never heard of this book either until a few months ago when I saw these paparazzi pictures of Millie Bobby Brown wearing a dress on the set of the movie and then I looked up the name and I was so surprised I’d never heard of it before because it’s apparently a very popular children’s book. The concept seems pretty solid so hopefully the book is good as well. In any case I have a feeling the movie at least will be good. The trailer looks really fun, kinda like a PG Knives Out if you’ve watched that movie it’s also a great and very fun mystery movie.

@Grace yay I’m glad you’re joining in!🎉 I need to download a copy and I think it’ll be the first book I read in September because I’m super free and finishing books left right and centre😂

[Spens]

I'll be reading Enola Holmes later on in the month since it looks pretty short and I'm about to start reading Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend, book 2 in Nevermoor. Has anyone here heard of the Nevermoor series? I've seen SO many booktubers recommend it and call it "the next Harry Potter" so I read it and gave it 4 stars. Maybe we could read it in the future unless y'all already have. The third book Hollowpox comes out in November. (Sorry if this is the wrong discussion to bring this up, I'm still trying to figure out where everything is.)

[Ilsen]

Aww no problem! I have owned Nevermoor for almost two years and everyone keeps raving about it so I would love if we can read it in the future!

[Kadi, Creator]

@Spencer great to see you’re joining reading Enola Holmes with us all! I just started reading it last night but I’m only a few pages in so I can’t tell if it’s good or not yet😂

And sure it’s fine to talk about Nevermoor here. I’ve heard of it! Pretty sure someone recommended it to me and I downloaded it a while back I think. We can definitely find a time to read it! For the last three months of the year I’ve assigned themes to them:
In October it’s all Halloween themed so that’s spooky books and horror books, November we’re doing a steampunk challenge so it’s a focus on the steampunk genre and in December it’s Christmas/holiday season so winter books and Christmas books.
Does Nevermoor fit in with any of those genres?
(We can’t do September because it’s already started)

[Spens]

Nevermoor is kinda spooky but not really. There's references to Halloween stuff but I think there are better books to classify under that. I think it's kind of a steampunk fantasy? Someone else will have to check that since I'm not sure I completely understand steampunk. If it doesn't fit I'm sure it'll fit somewhere sometime. No rush or anything.

[Kadi, Creator]

To be honest I've never really understood what steampunk meant either so I looked up a definition!
Steampunk genre includes books:
- Set in an era or world wherein steam power is still widely used (usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England)
- That have prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date.
- Can also contain (but doesn't have to) alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken".

Examples of steampunk middle grade books would be:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy
Boneshaker
The Golden Compass

Having watched the Hugo movie I can say that an easy identifier of a steampunk book is old/clockwork machinery and a Victorian setting.

I'm not sure if Nevermoor fits into the steampunk genre, if not we can read it in January next year, if that's ok with you. We can do it in a goodquiz style!

[Kadi, Creator]

@Dee it's great that you love steampunk! I'm starting to explore it too! Which reminds me of the steampunk challenge I'm need to start working on...

I started reading Enola Holmes too but I hit a minor bump in the road. The old style writing is not really appreciated by my brain (my brain kinda switches off and starts wandering away for something more exciting) but I know I can push on and read it I just have to stop getting distracted by drawing and tv shows! It's kinda slowing me down from reading a bunch of other books that I have planned to read in September as well but I don't want to DNF it without giving it a proper try so I'm going to try and read some more of it tonight and hopefully I'll start reaching the mystery part because I know mystery always draws me in!

[Spens]

I started reading last night too! I must say it's kinda weird to read middle-grade again after trying out a couple of self-help books. I'm only a chapter in so I don't have a lot of thoughts on it yet. Excited to hear what everyone thinks of it!

[Sameeksha]

Heyy... I have an e-book for this...will definitely be joining in

[Spens]

I'm about halfway through it now and I think watching the trailer for the movie made me imagine Millie Bobbie Brown narrating the entire thing in my head. LOL. That helped a lot though. It's kind of slower-moving at the start but it gets better towards the middle. If I finish early I can let y'all know non-spoiler how it was so you can determine whether or not it's worth it because I've never DNFed to save my life hahaha

[Kadi, Creator]

@Sameeksha yay great! Can’t wait for you to join in the discussion too!

@Spencer hahaha welcome to the Middle Grade reading group where we indoctrinate you into reading great Middle Grade books😂 you should get involved with the Blackthorn Key readathon if you’re looking for more MG books to read!

Also, I’m not a big Millie Bobby Brown fan but she seems to really take to this role and own Enola in the trailer so it makes sense you feel like it’s her narrating the story. I didn’t think that myself before but now I feel like I will when I read it tonight😂

And wow you’ve never DNF’ed a book before?! I’ve officially DNF’ed 101 books! I feel like I should do some kind of challenge where I force myself to finish some of them but usually the reason I DNF’ed them were because they were badly written or boring.

@Dee same! That’s why when reading the Blackthorn Key I was pretty much hooked. I need something intriguing at least in the first couple of chapters or some little hint as to where it’s going or it doesn’t seem worth it to continue reading it.

Alas, I did not read any of the book last night, I got distracted drawing! But I seriously need to get round to reading it because I have a ton of other books planned to read in September and I’m excited for those. The last time I was uninterested in a book like this it was the first I read this year and it created a book slump that lasted 2 months! But even with that book I really tried to read it and I eventually finished it.

August was actually a great month in reading for me even though I was very busy. I think creating a reading list gave me the vigour I needed to focus a lot more on reading more books.

[Spens]

I finished Enola and you can check out my brief review on my profile. (Also, feel free to add me. I'm pretty chill on Goodreads.) It was pretty bland all throughout for me although there were some cool and funny parts. I can confidently say that the film adaptation is going to be better than the book (wow, that rarely happens). It just felt like a build-up to the rest of the series, but I can understand if some of you guys would like it. I'd say this was a flat 3/5 for me.

And @Kadi yes! I'll try to catch up with Blackthorn Key. I'll be honest, I was super bummed when I joined the group towards the end of August because I missed starting book 1 before you guys jumped into book 2. Also because Blackthorn has been in my TBR for forever, but I'll definitely try catching up so I can follow along and get on the hype train hahaha.

[Kadi, Creator]

@Spencer I read your review and it was great. Really helpful and now I’ve decided to put the book on hold till the end of the month or else I’m not going to get round to reading anything else and it’ll create a big slump!

Also, I agree movies are rarely better than the book but surprisingly that might be the case when it comes to Enola Holmes! Although just because the trailer looks good doesn’t mean the movie will be too. It might end up being terrible as well so I guess I shouldn’t get my hopes up.

No worries about being a little late with the Blackthorn Key readathon! Because it spans 4 months anyway and we’re in the second month there’s tons of time to catch up and read the first book. I’m going to start the 2nd soon myself...

[Sameeksha]

Heyyy... Just finished this book
I liked it a lot actually... obviously it suffers from fort book syndrome... so we are kind of getting introduced to the characters, their relationships and the surroundings due to which the mystery part is less. But I quiet liked it

[Sameeksha]

first*

[Kadi, Creator]

@Sameeksha wow that’s good to hear! I really need to get back round to reading it before the end of the month! Doesn’t the Ebola Holmes movie come out on Netflix today? Anyone planning on watching it? I want to watch it this weekend but I should finish the book first😩

[Spens]

I'm for sure gonna watch it! It's not a terrible book but I guess it was just a little too slow for me. And yeah @Sameeksha that's what I thought, there's a lot of exposition to set up the rest of the series. Since the movie is likely going to be a standalone, they probably tweaked a few things here and there.

[Sameeksha]

yeah @Spencer...
@Kadi even I wanted to read the book first that's why I timed it like this, I think you just need 1-2 day to read this so it might still work for you if you planned to watch the movie this weekend.
So excited for the movie

[Kadi, Creator]

@Sameeksha aah if only I could stay on time. I definitely could read it in 2 days probably even 1 but the less interested I am in the book the longer it takes me to read it. It can get to point where I’ll literally do anything else other than read the book like watch tv or draw and sometimes it can create a huge book slump and I won’t read for literally a month! I’m thinking that I might just not pick the book back up.

@Spencer I watched this teaser clip last night from the movie and I’m reinvigorated. I soooo want to watch the movie now to the point that I’m excited. We should all discuss it here afterwards if you guys are going to watch it too!

[Sameeksha]

@Kadi... got you... sometimes I too go through same feelings
I am definitely watching this movie and would loooove the after discussion

[Spens]

I watched it last night and it was SOOOOO good!! I think a good comparison would be how Netflix adapted A Series of Unfortunate Events. They were pretty close to the books but added a fresh layer of emotion, excitement, and character development. Enola Holmes (the movie) was the same! I liked it SO much better than the book that now I think I'd actually be interested in reading the rest of the series. It's probably my favorite movie of 2020 so far!

[Sameeksha]

yayyy... will watch it... this weekend

[Kadi, Creator]

@Spencer It's great to hear that you loved the movie! I've watched and read some of A Series of Unfortunate Events so I get exactly what you mean about that special something that Netflix adds to it. Also it's your fave of 2020! I've got some seriously high hopes for the movie now but from the fun clips I've seen I think I'm really going to enjoy it

@Sameeksha I'm going to watch it this weekend too! Can't wait to discuss it with you here👏🏻 I think I might end up just not reading the book before I watch the movie which is sad but I've done it before😂

[Sameeksha]

@Kadi no issues... just enjoy... we will definitely discuss this here

[Sameeksha]

I watched this movie and it was good... they have added many good things... there were somethings in which I preferred book over movie but they were less... Overall I liked the movie... it was goooood... with good changes and of course great acting

[Spens]

I'm literally obsessed with the movie. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I saw it hahaha. I even made a video comparing the book and the movie. I want to watch it again but I'm scared I'll get sick of it. I think I know which parts you're talking about @Sameeksha but I'll wait before I say anything because it might spoil it for the others

[Sameeksha]

yeah... that's why I didn't highlight on those
I too feel the same like since I had watched it, it has been at the back of the mind... regularly think about it

[Kadi, Creator]

I love how the weekend has come and gone and I said I'd watch the movie but I didn't😂 I got distracted reading a book! That's probably an acceptable excuse on Goodreads only
This coming weekend then hopefully!

If you guys want to discuss the movie you can use spoiler tags to! Just type [spoiler] at the beginning of what you want to hide and type [/spoiler] at the end of what you want to hide but change all the square brackets to <>

[Kadi, Creator]

@Spencer @Sameeksha I watched the movie the other day and OH MY GOOOOSH It was really good I liked it!!
Some thoughts:
(view spoiler)[
- Every cast member was good looking. Millie looked so pretty throughout the whole thing. And the guy who played Tewksbury was so cute.
- It was way more violent than I expected like that guy fully tried to murder Enola by drowning her. I feel like this movie shouldn't really by classed as PG-13.
- I liked that the headmistress of the finishing school wasn't evil or anything. She actually just cared for the girls and wanted Enola to fit into the world around her so that she couldn't be hurt by the world
- When Enola started crying after Mycroft screamed at her in the carriage I really felt that. There was some great acting in this. And Millie Bobby Brown really had this charm about her the whole time.
- I didn't get why the mother thought blowing up a place was going to help them get the vote they needed for women's rights and equality. Like she really thought that was going to help their situation? And after all the fireworks blew up in the place where they were storing it because of Enola did they really have no backup plan? Because her mother and her group literally ended up doing nothing.
- I liked how halfway through Enola switched from looking for her mother to looking for Tewksbury because her mother pretty much didn't deserve to be found in my opinion. She really could've just told Enola that she was leaving and that she'd be back before she left instead of randomly leaving Enola ON HER BIRTHDAY. Yeah I'm mad at the mum😂
- The moment where Tewksbury got shot I genuinely thought that he was dead. That was a good moment.
- I noticed that Tewksbury was never given a name. He's just called by his title the whole time.
(hide spoiler)]

Now because I didn't read the book I gotta ask: what did they change from how it was in the book? And were all the main characters portrayed the same in the movie as they were in the book in terms of their personalities?

[Spens]

YES, YES, YES!! I agree with everything you said @Kadi. There's just so much to love about the movie and I really hope they make it a trilogy. (I probably won't be invested in more movies than that unless the next films are really good.) I guess in terms of personality, there really isn't much to say. Idk if this counts as spoilers so I'll just hide it.

(view spoiler)[
-Enola is pretty much the same but more well-developed in the film than in the movie. In my opinion, she doesn't struggle too much in the book which is why it felt really bland.
-The mother is pretty much invisible throughout the book and is much much more private than in the movie. She and Enola don't have as close a relationship as they do in the movie.
-Mycroft equally annoying in both the book and the movie.
-Sherlock is much more personable in the movie. In the book, he's only slightly less annoying than Mycroft, but reading some reviews of the film, I found out that they intentionally made this Sherlock "not Sherlock" by making him this big buff charismatic dude instead of the sarcastic and lean person we're used to seeing/reading. He's kind of a satirical Sherlock so that the viewers will be more invested in Enola.
-Tewkesbury is much more of a "useless boy" in the book. He's literally helpless for most of it, and he doesn't even appear until halfway through the book.
-Other spoilery stuff (view spoiler)[
-No romance hinted between Enola and Tewkesbury in the book as far as I can remember, and I'm not usually a sucker for romance, but it was delightful to see that in the movie. I'm literally in love with this duo!!
-No Edith in the book. We actually don't see the suffragists much.
-I don't think there was an evil grandma either, but that was a GOOD addition to the movie and yes, @Kadi, I died when Tewky was shot. I may have sobbed when it happened. (Although I don't know how one sobs while dying.)
-The villain in the book, if I remember correctly, is just the bowler hat dude who actually disguises himself as a female detective trying to steal the Tewkesbury case from Enola. It might have been Lestrade? I honestly don't remember. (hide spoiler)]
(hide spoiler)]

That was a long-winded answer, but I'm super obsessed with this movie for the same reason I always go back to middle-grade novels. They're so light-hearted, but they can be super meaningful. I'm definitely reading the rest of the series at some point. The books are pretty short anyway.

[Kadi, Creator]

@Spencer I can 1000% appreciate the movie more now thanks to your detailed comparison! What's interesting is Millie Bobby Brown and her father actually came up with the idea to make this movie because her older sister read the series and liked it when she was young. So I can appreciate how Millie Bobby Brown probably recognised the strength of the underlying ideas of the book and then built on it to enhance it for the movie which is very smart.
And I'm always careful not to give actors more credit than they're due because it's not as though they also directed or wrote the screenplay but in this case Millie Bobby Brown actually produced the movie so her ideas for it would've been somewhat influential. Plus the way she talks about certain scenes and characteristics of Enola in interviews suggests that a lot of the small things she incorporated into Enola's character were ideas she had herself.

Ok so can I just say:
(view spoiler)[YEEEESSSS Enola and Tewksbury ARE SO CUTE! It was definitely the actors' amazing acting abilities that really sold them as a romance duo for me.
To be honest I can see how Emily wouldn't be in the book. For me she was the one character that seemed unnecessary. Like there was literally no need to have her in the movie they just wanted to make a point about women's rights and have her give that whole speech to Sherlock.
There are a few other things that if you really start to think about it didn't make much sense like:
Why did Enola go to Tewksbury's house when she was trying to find him if she knew the last place he'd been was London? And she contradicted herself by going dressed as a widow but then saying Sherlock hired her. Like that was a plan that was bad from the beginning. And it kinda cracked the facade of Enola being super smart. Maybe that's what makes that scene so important then; to show that she was smart but she was still a young girl who made mistakes.
I still can't get over the fact that Enola's mother abandoning her was so unnecessary. And she didn't even carry out her plans in the end. (hide spoiler)]

Was the reason the mother disappeared in the book the same as the movie?

[Sameeksha]

Hi Kadi

(view spoiler)[Nooo this bomb and voting rights for women was not in the book --- there is no explanation as to why she disappeared it is kind of left open ended... maybe will come in later parts of the series.
the voting right part I liked it in movie but then the bomb and fireworks thing comes to nothing in the end as u said no back up plan so was kind of disappointed there (hide spoiler)]

[Sameeksha]

(view spoiler)[in book there is no romance between the characters
but one part where Enola discovers that Tewkesbury ran away all by herself in the book whereas in movie she finds him in a train... I liked the book part there
I am yet to decide on the romance part... they make a cute couple but I don't know... if I wanted a romance or just friends (hide spoiler)]

[Sameeksha]

as both you and Spencer said there were sooo many things which movie did better

[Kadi, Creator]

@Sameeksha try and use spoiler tags in case someone hasn't finished reading the book or watching the movie yet!

WAIT THERE'S (view spoiler)[NO EXPLANATION TO WHY THE MOTHER DISAPPEARS (hide spoiler)]?? That's annoying but maybe you're right and that comes up in the next few books. So Enola didn't even find or see her mother again in the book?

I thought the romance wouldn't have been in the book yeah but I definitely like that addition to the movie

[Sameeksha]

I was sooo excited that I forgot to put spoiler tags!!! Have put it now...
(view spoiler)[There is a kind of explanation or you can call it a hint about where her mother might be (hide spoiler)]

[Kadi, Creator]

I totally get that! When I watched the movie I understood why you guys were so hyped and excited to discuss it, it was very good. I am definitely hoping for a sequel but a good sequel not a bad one! Sometimes what happens after a good movie they try to make easy money by making a mediocre sequel because they know people are going to go see it now they know the name of the first movie and the fans they've acquired so hopefully that's not what happens here. So far there hasn't been any announcement of a sequel but I'll be really surprised if Netflix decides not to make a sequel considering this movie was a big success!