I made it through another eight wonderful books this month. Two of them were quite long and I blame them for not hitting that nine or ten mark this time around. But I’m still sprinting towards the fifty book goal for the year. I do want to focus on reading ebooks or paperbacks again, and I feel like I say that every month, but I really do. This last month I had a lot of personal deadlines to reach for my upcoming releases, but this month is lighter so maybe I’ll actually be able to achieve the reading goals.
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
This book is good, but not great. It’s a very often done trope with the freedom fighters, love will unite the two sides, blah blah. Which isn’t a bad thing, it just hasn’t quite made itself more unique I guess.
There’s a lot of flowery prose and repetitive thoughts, and I don’t know if I really believe Mare is the champion they need, but… I’m still going to keep reading the series.
It is entertaining, I’m just not in love with it so far. But we’ll see how it goes.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Delightfully creepy and disgusting at times. It had such a great premise and really kept me guessing. At a few points I wanted to shake Noemi by the shoulders and tell her to run, but she was too brave and wouldn’t leave her cousin behind.
A very entertaining read. I would love to see it made into a movie.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
As interesting as it was to hear the story from the POV of Klara, I feel like the story would have been more poetic, heartwrenching, special… everything really, if there’d been at lease bits from the POV of Josie or Rick or even her mother.
But it was a good story nonetheless. Just another not great. It leaves you to wonder about the disturbing world they live in for them to “lift” children, but risk killing them. And all the loneliness involved too. Another one I’d like to see as a movie.
Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
The second book in the series didn’t keep me as enthralled, but I still like it enough. I like the supporting characters and I do want to see what happens next. So, I’ll keep reading on.
But I do wish the internal monologues were a little bit less dramatic and self-centered. There is a lot of pretty prose again and overdone descriptions, but that’s easy enough to skim over. Let’s see if the third book keeps me interested.
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
So, this might sound crazy, but I had no idea this was Stephen King’s son and I had no idea what the book was about, just that it was horror.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now that I know the King relation, though, I could see the similar style on how he used descriptions. (Very long-winded, but not in a bad way.) It was creepy and graphic and had me on the edge of my seat.
I’ll be picking more of his books in the future.
Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler
I enjoyed these quick stories and I feel like they really expanded my imagination for speculative fiction. I also really like that she included afterwards with each story to give some perspective.
These stories had all the aspects of sci-fi/fantasy that I enjoy. They creeped me out, gave me chills, and pulled on my heartstrings. Will read more of her work in the future.
The Passage by Justin Cronin
This book was quite an adventure. I feel like it could have been three or four books, really, but I still enjoyed it.
It started slow and a little confusing, but picked up pace. It also had a lot of details thrown in right from the start that didn’t seem like they mattered, but then they all came together in the end. And I do love when that happens.
I’m a little unsure how there could still be two more books in this tale, but I guess I’ll keep reading to find out what crazy thing happens next.
13 Steps to Evil by Sacha Black
I really enjoyed reading this craft book. I love any book on character development and this one was no exception. I found it particularly important at this time because the book I’m currently writing has my first real ‘villain’ and I wanted to do her justice. It had great tips and examples to make sure the reader really understood what she was trying to say.
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Another month of reading wrapped up. I’m aiming for ten this month and to have at least three be paper or ereader books. I’ve got two I’m currently working on and I really hope I can find the time to finish them. As much as I love audiobooks, I do miss holding the book in my hand.
What do you feel about audiobooks vs paper/ebook?