May has been a bit of a mixed month for me in terms of reading.
It started off really well, and I was really enjoying the books I picked out. I’ve been reading more adult fantasy lately which I have been loving. Then I DNF’d a book (I’ll get into that a bit later) which set me off into a complete reading slump. I started 9 books in this time, and put them all aside because I couldn’t focus on or enjoy them. I didn’t write any of them in my reading journal because I read a maximum of 3 chapters of them and want to start all of them again at a later point, and will be starting them afresh. This meant I ended up having a bit of a difficult time with my mental health, which I won’t go into. Because of that, I eventually had a little break from posting on Instagram, and cancelled all my scheduled blog posts. I’m not quite back to feeling myself, but I have missed creating content. My slump finally broke on the 28th when I managed to read for more than 10 minutes, and hopefully this means it’s all over!
Books Read:
Perfectly Preventable Deaths By Deirdre Sullivan – 4 Stars
– Full review here. This was a beautifully written and very peculiar book in the most interesting way. I very much enjoyed it!
Uprooted by Naomi Novik – 5 Stars
– It was a dark and gothic fairy tale in a mixture of old and new ideas that because something that really gripped me and felt familiar and fresh all at once! I’m a huge fan of fairy tales and folklore, so I’m always overjoyed when something can give me the feeling of the unknown, and especially when it’s a bit dark and twisted and wonderful! The setting was brilliant, with its mixture of creepy forest, quaint town and court intrigue, the characters were interesting and had their own journeys, and all were different shades of grey in terms of morality which I always love. I wanted to race through to know what would happen but I also wanted to stay in the world forever and savour it!
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – 5 stars
– Full review to be posted soon. Gods this book was incredible. This is the best horror novel I’ve possibly ever read. Creepy, atmospheric and captivating from the first line. This is a fresh take on gothic novels and if you enjoy the genre (or horror) you should pre-order this now!
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik – 5 Stars
-The world with its mixture of fairy tales, folklore, surprising twists and new ideas left me wanting nothing more than to keep reading and ignore everything else. The characters are incredibly strong and brave women, who went through so much hardship to survive and make things better for those who were around them. There were quite a few moments that really made me cry, and I felt so much for Miryem and her family as they were treated SO disgustingly for being Jewish and it broke my heart. There are a lot of difficult topics covered in this book, and many of them made me extremely emotional (including physical abuse from a parent that was heartbreaking to read) but there were also some really beautiful and touching moments that made me cry for a completely different reason.
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden – 4 Stars
-Another book on this list that contained something entirely new and special whilst drawing from folk tales and ideas. The writing was gorgeous and engaging, it drew me along into the world, and I loved the combination of segments of daily life mixed with magic and the supernatural. There were a few themes and ideas I had an issue with (marital rape & the treatment of certain characters) that, even though they made sense within the story meant I could quite give this 5 stars, but I really loved this book and the world, and can’t wait to read the rest of this series.
Solitaire by Alice Oseman – 4 Stars
– Full review to come. This was a very emotional read for me, due to its topic of mental health, especially because of the timing for me! A lot of moments hit me quite hard for personal reasons. There’re suicidal thoughts/feelings/actions, self harm, an eating disorder and bullying. They were hard to read about, and I cried multiple times reading this book. It wasn’t an easy read and I can understand why Solitaire might not work for other people, but this felt important to me.
Sounds Like A Halifax Adventure by Jen Powley
– Full review to come. I was sent an earc by the author of this unique choose your own adventure style book! There are, of course, multiple endings. Some sad, some happy, some short, some are more fleshed out. I liked that this felt like a string of short fiction about the same characters (who were anthropomorphized sounds!) and each of the endings were very different. I’m not giving this a star rating because of the unique format but I very much enjoyed it!
DNF’s:
I don’t usually include books I DNF in my wrap ups, but as this one made me uncomfortable, I’m going to.
The Graces by Laure Eve
– I got halfway through before giving up on it because River is honestly unstable, her very questionable thoughts, ideas and actions about everyone around her (stalking, racism, misogyny et c.) and her genuinely psychotic behaviour made me feel far too uncomfortable to continue to read this book. The racism in particular made me feel sick. There is ONE POC in the whole book – Niral. She is cast as the bully character, and River makes some comments saying “she hates where she comes from” because she wears short skirts and cut off her hair rather than wearing a sari like her mum. Seriously?! How dare she decide how Niral feels about herself, her culture and her life?! *SPOILER* River later curses Niral and steals her voice. She literally silences the only POC. I could not continue this book. *END SPOILER*. Apparently the end is good but I won’t be pushing through to get there. Unreliable narrators can be really fun and interesting to read but River’s actions were awful and a lot of the side characters are also unnecessarily nasty to those around them too. The Graces are interesting and I would like to know what happens but honestly I can’t bring myself to read another second of this book.
So, that’s my monthly wrap up!
What was your favourite book this month?
Eldritch Fae 