I didn’t finish a single book in January, which is actually the first month in five years that I haven’t. 2019 in general has been a slow year for reading and blogging, but I finished seven books in February in March and some of them were pretty good! And some of them weren’t for me, so lets talk about that!
Date With Death by Julia Chapman
This was one of the few books I bought last year but I actually ended up listening to the audiobook from the library for this one! It had all the makings of a good cosy crime; a small town, a few brutal murders, a tall, dark and mysterious gentleman and a main character with an interesting job (a dating agency!) but in the end, this wasn’t for me. I just can’t quite put my finger on it, but I didn’t click with the main character and that’s a really important part of cosy crime for me.
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Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout*
This was a good YA thriller, which is not a genre that seems to excel when aimed at that age. However, the only take away I had from it was that there were a lot of opinions on therapy and mental health that didn’t feel good. In fact, there are at least six terrible takes that I noted on how embarrassed and angry the main character is when her family thinks she needs help (after she gets amnesia and her friend goes missing). I was truly surprised when I found out that this was only published five years ago because it all seemed very early-2000s. It was a shame because the actually thriller aspect was well thought out and pretty clever.
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Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
This is required reading for my university module and while I didn’t enjoy it, I can see why we’re studying it. It’s a strange mix of life-writing and fiction, and I did find the perspective of being a gay woman with a very religious upbringing quite interesting.
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
This is required reading for my university module and while I didn’t enjoy it, I can see why we’re studying it. It’s a strange mix of life-writing and fiction, and I did find the perspective of being a gay woman with a very religious upbringing quite interesting.
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City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Cassandra Clare co-wrote my favourite middle-grade books; the Magisterium series, so I was pretty willing to give her original solo series a try. I did and this was quite a fun romp into the 2000s, and it is very 2000s, complete with shaming a girl for wearing a thong. I think if I read it as a teen, I probably would’ve loved it, but I’m 25 now and without nostalgia, this was just alright. I thought it would appeal to me more since I love urban fantasy but hey, not everything is for everyone.
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Cassandra Clare co-wrote my favourite middle-grade books; the Magisterium series, so I was pretty willing to give her original solo series a try. I did and this was quite a fun romp into the 2000s, and it is very 2000s, complete with shaming a girl for wearing a thong. I think if I read it as a teen, I probably would’ve loved it, but I’m 25 now and without nostalgia, this was just alright. I thought it would appeal to me more since I love urban fantasy but hey, not everything is for everyone.
I was initially interested in continuing the series, especially because they do apparently get better, but I think I’m going to wrap it up and unhaul the three books I have. I’d rather continue series that I really want to read.
“If there was such a thing as terminal literalism, you’d have died in childhood.”
“If there was such a thing as terminal literalism, you’d have died in childhood.”
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Regeneration by Pat Barker
I’m going to have to do a full blog post on this one as it is a truly incredible book. A fictionalised account of real people in WWI dealing with shell-shock. I wanted to pick this up and read it again the second I finished, and I still want to re-read months later!
I’m going to have to do a full blog post on this one as it is a truly incredible book. A fictionalised account of real people in WWI dealing with shell-shock. I wanted to pick this up and read it again the second I finished, and I still want to re-read months later!
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Been Here All Along by Sandy Hall
I found this while trawling Amazon for more books like Autoboyography by Christina Lauren because I needed more M/M romance in my life. This appealed and luckily I didn’t have any kind of book buying ban on myself this year because I don’t think I’d have got out of my slump without it!
It’s a very cute, 200-page fluff-fest. I just wish there was more depth to it. I think the main issue for me, apart from how short it is, was that the narrative is split between four characters and chapters were often split between two or three of them. It was a lot of flipping from one point of view to another.
On the other hand, there is an openly bisexual character, with mentions of pansexuality and how sexuality can be a spectrum, which I really appreciated in a book aimed at younger teens. And it was dang cute.
“-If your life were a teen comedy, tonight would be your night. It would be the climax of your young life.”
Been Here All Along by Sandy Hall
I found this while trawling Amazon for more books like Autoboyography by Christina Lauren because I needed more M/M romance in my life. This appealed and luckily I didn’t have any kind of book buying ban on myself this year because I don’t think I’d have got out of my slump without it!
It’s a very cute, 200-page fluff-fest. I just wish there was more depth to it. I think the main issue for me, apart from how short it is, was that the narrative is split between four characters and chapters were often split between two or three of them. It was a lot of flipping from one point of view to another.
On the other hand, there is an openly bisexual character, with mentions of pansexuality and how sexuality can be a spectrum, which I really appreciated in a book aimed at younger teens. And it was dang cute.
“-If your life were a teen comedy, tonight would be your night. It would be the climax of your young life.”
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Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
This is a book that has been on my radar for a couple years, I even mentioned it in a blog post way back in 2015! In the end though, I’m glad I didn’t buy it and just borrowed it from my library because it just didn’t end up being what I expected. Despite the name being a pun, the funeral home aspect barely played into the narrative. It was an interesting read but I’m not going to search it out again.
Waterstones | Amazon | Book Depository | The Works
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Have you read any of these? What did you think?
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