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timidizzy · 3 months

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January Reading Wrap-Up

The first month of the new year is over, and with it begins a whole new year of reading goals! I personally set my goal to 24, which was the number of books I read last year, but considering I've already read 12 this month (okay, two of them were short stories) I'm feeling pretty confident about overcoming that goal!

I thought it would be a good idea for me to write down short reviews of books I read each month, as a way to help me better understand what it is that I like about books. I've never been very critical with my ratings, as you'll notice soon, so I'm hoping that the more thought I put into the reading I've done, the less 5 star ratings I'm giving out.

Books I'll be discussing below:

A Court of Silver Flames, by Sarah J. Maas

Ankle Snatcher, by Grady Hendrix

The Pram, by Joe Hill

Don't Let Her Stay, by Nicola Sanders

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Red, White & Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

Do Not Disturb, by Freida McFadden

Mister Magic, by Kiersten White

Circe, by Madeline Miller

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, by Douglas Adams

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins

And of course, here are my Goodreads and Storygraph profiles if you're interested!

A Court of Silver Flames Sarah J. Maas

“The struggle with that darkness is worth it, just to see such things.”

As you could probably expect considering this is the last (at time of writing this) book in the series, I’ve read all of the books to come before it. And this is actually my favorite one.

Which surprised me, I kept seeing a bunch of bad reviews and people talking about how unlikable Nesta is, but I really just don’t agree. I mean, yes, Nesta’s unlikeable at first. That’s the point, character growth and whatnot, but I actually found her much more relatable than Feyre ever was. In fact, I’d go on to say the romance of this book is more fun than the romance of the rest of the series. I adore Feyre and Rhys, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it’s really nice having a relationship that has more emotional conflict to it. In fiction, at least.

Feyre and Rhys in this book both come off as very up their own asses, which I always imaged had something to do with why people aren’t as fond of this book. But I honestly was a big fan of it. It’s interesting to me seeing the way a character you thought you knew so well can appear from a different POV.

And all that aside, I do genuinely enjoy the arc Nesta goes through, and I really found her emotional struggles very relatable. It felt so worth it coming out at the end and seeing just everything we overcame with her.

4.5 Stars

Ankle Snatcher Grady Hendrix

"They live in our closets and under our beds, and after dark they come out when we break the rules. We’re serving time for the boogeymen’s crimes.”

I liked how the theme for this short story was very clearly generational trauma, being shown in a physical sense with these sorts of demons that are physically following people down the generational line. In the case of the main character here, it’s a monster under his bed that will kill him if he gets out of bed at night, this monster having come to him after being attached to his father. I’m a sucker for generational trauma as a theme, especially when it’s shown in a bit more abstract ways. It was a really quick and easy read, I honestly just was reading it when I had nothing to do at work, and it was really digestible as a horror short story. I'm a very big fan of Grady Hendrix's writing style, and I think it really works well in the form of a short story.

4 Stars

The Pram Joe Hill

It never once crossed his mind that he was depressed, too, that he had also lost a child.

The Pram was a very emotional experience to me. I’m not going to really divulge much of the plot, as there is a very heavy content warning for loss of a child, but I do think it’s important to share the remaining emotions connected to the story. The main character is shown to be developing resentments regarding the content warning above, and we as the reader get to watch as it slowly begins to take over him. It’s an interesting perspective to see from, as there is even a moment where the very obvious root of the resentment starts making sense, and you begin to understand he doesn’t resent the situation, but rather his own emotional reaction to it. I think Joe Hill is a really talented author, especially with situations that aren’t always completely comfortable to readers, but it’s handled in a way that made this a very emotional read.

4 Stars

Don't Let Her Stay Nicola Sanders

'Don’t stand too close to any balustrades, Mrs. Atkinson.’

I honestly keep having a hard time trying to put this one into words. It twists and turns and sometimes I loved it and sometimes I didn’t.

It was the kind of book that made me confused, sometimes unsure how things were going to go, and always eager to find out. Yet simultaneously I just kept feeling like the main character was far too oblivious. I may have enjoyed the uncertainty of what I was experiencing, but the main character really felt like she was just gliding along in life with no understanding of why the sky was blue.

I’d have my suspicions about the twists shortly before they happened, but I still wasn’t really displeased to see them play out. Unfortunately, I did still find myself a bit disappointed with the outcome, despite enjoying most of the journey. I don’t know how to explain it without spoiling, and I’d like to avoid spoiling since I understand that a lot of people can still get enjoyment out of this book, regardless of the opinion of an internet stranger. I don’t think this book isn’t worth the read, and I’d hate to turn someone off of reading it because I couldn’t help myself and spoiled it while attempting to discuss my thoughts. I guess if anyone is ever interested in asking questions or discussing, I’m here to talk!

3.75 Stars

The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien

“Go back?” he thought. “No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!”

I don’t even know what to say here. If you haven’t read The Hobbit yet, then I don’t know what I could say to incentivize you! At this point, I don’t personally know a single person that doesn’t have at least some understanding and interest of the Lord of the Rings franchise.

If you’ve been interested in the franchise but have been a bit stressed about reading the **book (like I have) then The Hobbit is a great start. The fun and adventure that J.R.R. Tolkien is known for, and The Hobbit is a far smaller book than the rest of the franchise. I’m a sucker for immersion reading (reading while listening to the audiobook at the same time) and I highly recommend the Andy Serkis version of the audiobook, if you choose to listen. He’s a wonderful actor and does an amazing job reading the book, and you just can’t deny getting to hear Gollum himself reading Gollum dialogue!

5 Stars

Red, White & Royal Blue Casey McQuiston

"With me it is quite stark: I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal."

This book is fun, and that’s a fact that rings true no matter what I say about it.

I’m not always the biggest fan of the writing, but sometimes I’m in love with it. Sometimes I find the concept incredibly silly, while other times I think it’s an interesting idea. It’s not incredibly deep or thought provoking, but it did give me the opportunity for some introspection. It might not make you cry, but you might have some strong feelings. You might roll your eyes, you might laugh. I may not have always been in the mood to read it, but I still had difficulty putting it down.

Above everything, this is the most important sentiment I have to say about it:

Sometimes it was incredibly, eye-rollingly, gushy. Sappy, even. But it kept making me smile and think about my own experiences with love. At the end of the day, I don’t care about the times that it felt a little silly, maybe even like fanfiction. I got a really good, loving experience out of it. I might not read it again, but I know I’ll keep going back to the quotes I highlighted from it.

4 Stars

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams

“I think you ought to know I’m feeling very depressed,”

The first time I read this book, I was a teenager. And even before I read it, it still had a very prominent place in my household. My dad was always making references to it, my very first email address had a “42” slapped proudly on the end of it, this book was always just in my general consciousness, whether I fully understood why or not. This book, despite being a fun sci-fi adventure with an interesting outlook on life and the creation of it, is just so ungodly funny. I’ll never not cackle at “[t]he ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.” The humor is just effortless, and rereading through it, it becomes clear just how much of our modern humor, whether intentional or not, is at least partially derived from this series.

It’s a very quick book, and really worth the read.

5 Stars

Do Not Disturb Freida McFadden

I’ve never attempted to get blood out of my clothing before

I was honestly really invested in this to begin with. I adore the movie Psycho, and this book clearly began as a love letter to it. Plot points are almost beat for beat in certain aspects, it almost read as though the author was looking to see what her take on a story with the same premise would be. And I loved it for a good minute! Then the twist happened. The twist isn’t entirely bad, just very uncharacteristic and makes the book impossible to reread, as suddenly a good amount of the book just doesn’t make sense anymore. It really doesn’t line up with the twist. You know that thing people complain about with Frozen, like “it doesn’t make sense for Hans to be a twist villain, we see him smiling fondly at Anna when she’s out of shot! She would have no way of seeing that, so who was he trying to fool?” It just felt like that. Too focused on making the twist shocking and exciting, and not enough focus on making it an actual reasonable twist.

3 Stars

Mister Magic Kiersten White

"You never forget the lesson that they would rather destroy you than let you inconvenience them.”

I really adore this book. I always loved the Creepypasta Candle Cove, which this book very clearly took heavy inspiration from. And I absolutely mean that as a good thing. Chapters will end with forum posts, podcast discussions, AO3 posts. (Yes, really) It’s a very clear love letter to the fascination with lost media and Creepypastas. I loved the paths this book took, I adored the characters, and I loved the premise. When I first finished the book, I found myself slightly confused by the way it ended. I foresaw a complete separate ending, I couldn’t understand why this was the ending the author went with. But then I read the acknowledgements at the end of the book, and immediately the tears fell. I got it instantly, and I just loved it even more.

5 Stars

Circe Madeline Miller

You threw me to the crows, but it turns out I prefer them to you.

I had always heard people say that this book wasn’t anywhere near as good as Song of Achilles. I ADORED Song of Achilles, so I was a bit hesitant to read this book. I understand everyone’s tastes are different, but man I just loved this one so much more. What’s not to love about a woman living in isolation, turning men into pigs for stepping foot on her island.

There’s a lot of emotional hardships in this book, and yet I couldn’t put it down. Originally I had worried about the book running slow, considering the limited locations available for the story, but it really flowed nicely and I was never bored. I’m a sucker for retellings of mythology, and Circe is just so wonderful.

5 Stars

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Douglas Adams

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

This is going to seem lazy, but everything I said for the first book is the same here. Really there’s not much else to say. It’s more time with the fun characters that were introduced in the first book, as well as some new additions as well. I adore the titular restaurant as well, it’s such a fun concept to me and it was really enjoyable reading the scenes taking place in it!

5 Stars

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Suzanne Collins

People had short memories. They needed to navigate the rubble, peel off the grubby ration coupons, and witness the Hunger Games to keep the war fresh in their minds. Forgetting could lead to complacency, and then they’d all be back at square one.

Sometimes I really am a sucker for a main character that I don’t agree with.

Going into this, I knew I wasn’t going to agree with him. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it? To see the creation of the monster we know from the original trilogy. But he’s so human, and it’s kind of sad. Not sad from a writing perspective, she did a great job introducing nuance to the character. But it’s sad because it shows just how normal and natural a person may live and portray themselves, despite having the thoughts and feelings they do.

I adore this franchise, The Hunger Games is just so wonderful and I always love rereading the books. The last time I reread them was Valentine’s Day of last year, so who knows, maybe I’ll do that again this year.

My absolute favorite part of the book is seeing the little bits and pieces that you recognize of Snow from the original trilogy. Things that may seem inconsequential, if you’re reading this book as a new fan, but acts almost like little nods to the people who know what his future holds. The creation of this book, and the new movie based on it, has introduced a lot of people to the fandom. And it makes me so happy seeing all these new takes and perspectives!

5 Stars

#Hi I've been reading a lot lately so I started a book sideblog so I can do little reviews and share book memes <3 #bookblr

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