November is nearly over and I'm just getting to posting these Sept. and Oct. reviews now! Honestly, these have been in my drafts for a while and I just never get around to actually posting them (apparently I have 40?! drafts that I have half-typed and never got around to posting...most likely because I didn't feel like they were good enough).
Gaiman is known for his fantastical, otherworldly writing, but for some reason I still wasn't expecting the absurdity of this short story (which was the first thing I ever read by him, by the way). I thought this was going to be a reflection on the complications of being a shy guy wanting to talk to girls, and...well, it is, but it is so much stranger than that! I'm pretty sure it's all a metaphor or something, but I didn't particularly love it.
I was pretty hyped about this, which was my bad because it ended up raising my expectations too high. I'm so glad a middle-grade graphic novel with an interracial queer couple exists, but I just never felt like I got to know the characters. Truly, that is my only complaint. We are thrown right into the story and there isn't enough time to flesh out characters or actually have any sort of plot. Still, big points for representation and adorable illustrations!
Oh, hey, look! A novel! I honestly never thought I'd pick this trilogy up, but I spotted the new covers at Barnes & Noble and I started reading it and thought, why the heck not? Especially since I really want to read the Six of Crows duology. I enjoyed this enough to pick up the other two books (which I will be reading when my mind is completely preoccupied and unable to fully absorb the Grishaverse), but I found that I made it harder and less enjoyable by trying to find similarities to books like The Hunger Games and ACOTAR instead of accepting the characters as they are. I'm hoping less distractions will prove for more engaged reading that will help me separate all of these books and appreciate Bardugo's world for what it is and not what I expect it to be.
Of the few books I've read about eating disorders, this was probably the lightest read. 16 year old Elizabeth is in treatment for anorexia and though she doesn't initially want to be there, she is slowly trying to regain both her physical and mental strength. Though the book doesn't go into dark places, it still delves into the inner workings of the illness, as well as the short and long-term medical repercussions of eating disorders (from lanugo to osteoporosis) and I found that very informative.
My failed foray into the S&B trilogy put me in a bit of a rut and made it hard to settle on a book since there was nothing I was desperate to read. This book was a spur-of-the-moment Kindle purchase when it was on sale and I opened it and just started reading away. The format, which is meant to read like an oral history presentation, made the story super easy to read. It's hard to grasp at first, I feel, because it's almost like a script without the actions. Strohm still did a great job of fleshing out the characters, though, because I felt like I knew everyone and still got warm fuzzies over cute moments. It was also genuinely funny! A nice surprise!
Middle-Grade graphic novels are a nice cure for book ruts, and this one fit the bill nicely. It's about Imogene, an 11 YO girl going to 6th grade and experiencing the ins and outs of school for the first time (she had been home-schooled up until this point and made the decision herself to go to school). Unfortunately, it's a lot harder than she expected. To top it off, her family works for the Renaissance Faire and, while Imogene loves this part of her life, she feels like she has to hide it to keep from becoming unpopular or bullied. It's a sweet story about being true to yourself and doing what is right, not what's cool.
I've apparently had this book on my Goodreads TBR for 4 years and only just read it now...oops! If you're looking for a John Green readalike, this book is for you. It also reminded me a lot of Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland, so you might enjoy this if you enjoyed that. There were times that I felt the story was going nowhere, and yet I felt compelled to continue reading. I didn't love this, but I do feel like I could get into Schneider's future works, and I've heard good things about Extraordinary Means (from people who didn't like this book!), so I'm definitely gonna give that a go.
This is one of those books that I was interested in reading, got super cheap on Kindle, and let it slip through the cracks, so I'm really glad I didn't let it sit any longer. This was a sweet and funny story about something pretty serious: the reappearance of a childhood friend nearly a decade after he was kidnapped by his father. Oliver's story is incredibly complex and nuanced, so rather than having Emmy tell the story first-person, I would've liked to get duel-narration or perhaps third-person so that we could truly know what Oliver was going through. That said, I still think it was a strong contemporary with moments of humor, romance, and heartache.
This book was exactly what I needed after weeks without reading time and then time when I couldn't get myself to actually read. This small book is a collection of letters written by the author (who is a librarian) to all of the books that have affected her in some way. It reminded me how much I love reading and how powerful books can be. It also made me want to write love letters to some of my favorite books, but I don't want to be a copycat.
This is one of those books with subtle rumblings of hype, something that could potentially be a big thing, and so I was immediately curious about reading it. I made the mistake of starting it 5 days before my wedding and barely made it through half before I was completely distracted. I finished it almost two weeks later, and that's why I feel like my review suffers. To say much about this book would be to spoil it, but I do feel that it was a really honest and beautiful portrayal of how people deal with grief. Unfortunately, I disliked the basketball portions of the book (mostly because I'm not a sports gal and the action just doesn't excite me), and they made up a decent chunk of the story, so I was bored.
November is shaping up to be a much better reading month for me, and I can't wait to share those reviews with you very soon! Missing from the above list is Without Merit, Colleen Hoover's latest book, which I have reviewed in a separate post!
November is shaping up to be a much better reading month for me, and I can't wait to share those reviews with you very soon! Missing from the above list is Without Merit, Colleen Hoover's latest book, which I have reviewed in a separate post!
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