Hello friends!
I have come to the conclusion that my return to booktube is just not realistic at this point due to work/college/general life balance or lack there of,so I have decided to bite the bullet and take blogging another short because I really do miss chatting about my reading.
That being out of the way,here are all the things that I have read in the month of October (feat. all the spooks because spooks).
Three Dark Crowns
RATING: 4.75/5
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK!! To put it as simply as possible, Three Dark Crowns is the story of three sisters with magical powers who are forced to go against one another in order to win the crown. This is fully a me thing, so the book might not be for everyone, but sass,sisterhood,magic and political intrigue are some of my absolute favourite things of all time, so a book with all those things and not one,but three "unlikeable" female characters (don't you just love that term!). I gotta say that I did call the plot twist, but I had a wonderful time seeing the story get to that point anyway. This was just such a joy of a book and not only am I dying to get to the 2nd book in the series,but I am willing to pick up anything Kendare has ever written (this may or may not come into play later)
The Weight Of Water
Rating: 3.5/5
The Weight Of Water follows a young teen who moves with her mother from her Polish hometown to London in pursuit of her absentee father who dropped off the face of the planet after having left for the city. The story explores the hardships that Kasienka,our protagonist, experiences both due to regular teenage problems as well as her complicated family and experience as an immigrant.
This is such a tender,heartfelt tale about moving away and being a stranger inside your own life.Sarah Crossan does wonders when it comes to diving into the mind of a teen leaving a home as well as a past life behind and trying to readjust to new circumstances. Kasienka's story is as raw and truthful as it is tender.There is such a visceral quality to the feelings that the author slowly presents to the reader: the confusion,the restlessness,the pain,the need for something more and so much more. On top of it all,she weaves the thread of first love,friendship,complicated families,prejudice and growing up together into this grand narrative scheme that just blows you away.I hadn't had the best time reading a book of hers in the past,but after giving this a shot,I would not be opposed to diving further into her work and I can truly see the reason behind the hype around her books.
Rating: 3/5
A feminist genderbent retelling of Beowulf sounded spooky enough to me even though I had literally no knowledge whatsoever of the original Beowulf. Alas, a story following a group of young women going on an adventure and living their lives as Mercies,bringers of death, was quite alright for what I wanted it to be. Sadly, the story wasn't particularly memorable for me and felt a little bit unfinished, but I did rather enjoy it when I first read it. I did feel a strange connection to the characters and got invested in their journey and I thought the plot itself was rather compelling. I think that most than anything,I would have liked this book to either be longer or have a sequel.
I had to read this for one of my classes and found myself strangely enjoying it.Unlike,well,most other humans.Henry James most definitely has a thing for wild,run on sentences that you can easily get yourself lost into,but I think there is some charm about it.To put it simply, I love me a good ghost story and no matter what literary critics want to further read into this, I came in for a ghost story and read it as a ghost story and that is that.
American Vampire, vol. 2
Rating: 4/5
I must admit that I don't really remember much about this volume in particular as I seem to have fallen quite deeply into the American Vampire hole and made my way through quite a few of the volumes of this. The series basically follows two main characters: wanna be actress turned victim turned american vampire Pear Jones and human garbage turned cowboy turned unhinged vampire Skinner Sweet. It is a dark,wild ride and I absolutely love it.
Lair Of Dreams
Rating: infinity/5
I read and fell in love with the fist book in this series,The Diviners around this time last year and have been dying to continue on ever since.No better time for spooky excellence than spooky month, so I finally read Lair Of Dreams. I don't want to give away most of the plot since it's a sequel,so I'll say that the series is a dark 1920s New York story about teenagers with superpowers,flapper girls,evil spirits,weird museums and possibly covert governmental businesses,but that is yet to be discovered. Long story short,it is the perfect book for me. This one took everything even further and added/developed more characters that I adore,brought in more questions to haunt my days and nights and made my OTP fake date.AH! Anyway,if you haven't picked up this series just yet,I would 100% recommend you do!
It's all absolutely fine
A dark and honest,yet funny and #relatable comic memoir type thing revolved around mental health and just life being a struggle. I always feel strange rating memoirs because I feel as if I am passing judgement over people's lives and I don't quite feel right doing that,so I shan't give you a star rating for this. I will say that I did enjoy it and relate to a lot of it,but overall it didn't particularly impact me or feel too memorable.
The Haunting Of Violet Gray
Surprise,I already had a blog post all about this book as part of the blog tour celebrating its release! You can find it all here!
The Witch Doesn't Burn In This One
This is the newest collection of feminist poetry from the author of the popular The Princess Saves Herself In This One.I read Princess quite a while ago, so I was very excited to read this new one!And witches are Halloween-y!!Perfect match!! I'm very happy that I did read this and I loved quite a few of the poems as well as the concept and the themes.Amanda also included a trigger warning at the very beginning of the book,which I highly appreciated. That being said,I think a lot of this felt a little bit repetitive and I didn't really feel like it was anything new.
Pride
Rating: 5/5!!!!!!!!
A DIVERSE MODERN RETELLING OF Pride and Prejudice narrated by none other than Elizabeth Acevedo?!SIGN ME UP!!I really could not get this soon enough from the library and then I physically could not put it down as soon as I started it.SUCH A FABULOUS BOOK,Y'ALL!!
I might be slightly biased while saying it,but I do feel like there is certainly a thing about books that get hyped as Pride&Prejudice retellings that adds hype by default.I am a weak young woman who has loved Pride and Prejudice for the most part of her life,therefore if you are going to pitch anything to me as 'modern P&P' etc,then know that the stakes are high and I am ready to fight.ALAS. All that being said, not only did Pride not disappoint,but it absolutely exceeded any expectations I could have possibly had.Ibi Zoboi truly takes the timeless elements of P&P and elevates them,while also adapting them for this specific contemporary story.Pride could also perfectly stand on its own,regardless of those Austen elemets.Above all of the themes one might expect (ie: class,family,angsty romance,sisterhood,etc), the book reads like a love letter to Bushwick and small communities in areas such as Bushwick. The social commentary was also fabulous. It's quite honestly hard to pinpoint specific things about it that were outstanding to me,simply because all of it as a whole was an absolute and utter masterpiece. I urge anyone and everyone to read this book!
Anna Dressed In Blood
Rating: 4.75/5
I technically only finished this in November,but I started it on Halloween,so I am letting myself put it in this wrap-up.Fight me. I've been interested to read this book ever since it first came out ages ago and there was so much hype around it,yet I somehow never got to it.That is,until all these years later I read the first book in Kendare's latest series and finally realised that these two books were written by the same person.Lo and behold,October came around and I needed some more creepy reads,so Anna quickly found its way in my library cart. I can definitely see how this book wouldn't be for everyone and how it is ... a very specific taste,but I must say that it was absolutely perfect for me.Vague Supernatural and Buffy vibes,an eerie setting,a concerned mother,an unlikely gang of pals,a complicated dead girl,witty banter,what else could I have asked for? I also love Kendare's writing style,which made it very easy for me to get easily lost in the book and the story.I finished the book in what felt like no time at all simply because I did not want to be apart from this story and I was always dying to know what was meant to happen next.Needless to say,I have requested the next one from the library and I look forward to reading it asap!
AND SCENE.
These are all the books that I read in October!
Thanks for reading and do let me know if you have read any of these yourself
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