Monthly Roundups

June was a…wild month, to put it lightly. I started off the month by losing my job and with everything else going on in the world, sometimes it was hard to concentrate, especially on reading. When I’m reading if a book isn’t holding my full attention my mind tends to wander and, during this time, my mind had a lot to sort of dwell on and wander to. Because of this I didn’t read too much in June, though I still managed to cross quite a few off my TBR.

July is already going much better, which I couldn’t be more happy about. I hope I can catch up to my reading goal for 2020. I set it at 100 and right now I’m at 43 which is around 9 books behind where I should be (thanks, GoodReads…). However, I also start grad school in August so, I’m not holding out too much hope. Either way, I know I’m going to spend the rest of the year reading some amazing books and that’s really all I want!

1) The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

This was, by far and away, my favorite book of the month. My Best Friend’s Exorcism is an amazing book that is at turns horrifying, hysterical and poignant and The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires was no different. It even takes place in the same town, but instead of focusing on two teens grappling with the idea of growing up, this one focuses on a group of middle aged mothers grappling with the idea of stagnating. I really loved all of the women and found myself getting so frustrated at the parts where they weren’t believed and were instead belittled and silenced. It’s a reality for too many women, even now. This book also solidified that I will always find a vampire hot, no matter how weird or creepy they are. Whoops.

2) Docile by K.M. Szpara

First of all, this book comes with some big, fat content warnings that I believe are outlined on the back of the book. But basically they include rape and sexual assault and few other very graphic depictions. One of my goals for 2020 was to discover and read more trans authors and that’s partly how I discovered Docile. Also, I stalk tor.com publishing like an absolute animal for Locked Tomb goodies. This book is a commentary on capitalism, plain and simple. Debt is astronomical and people pay it off by offering their bodies up as service, whether for hard labor, house keeping, or prostitution. Either way, it’s all the same, you’re sacrificing your body, your autonomy, your years, and your freedom to pay off you or your family’s massive amount of debt. This book is a wild ride and will definitely not be for everyone, but it has some very good things to say about consent under capitalism and the idea of false choice.

3) Children of Blood & Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

I’ll be completely honest, I really wanted to like this more than I did. It was still AMAZING, don’t get me wrong, but I was expecting to be wowed and instead I read a typical Young Adult fantasy book. However, given the whitewashing of YA, there is something to be said about how necessary average but inclusive young adult books are. My biggest critique of the book is that I legitimately did not understand a lot of the choices the characters made, especially Inan. Inan deserves a good punch to the throat and that doesn’t change into book two but I’ll get into that in a second. To a certain extent Zelie and Amari are almost impossible to tell apart in terms of character. The only difference is that Zelie is a little meaner. Having said that though, I LOVED the magic system and the world itself, I just wish the characters had moved through it a little better.

4) Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Caraval is one of those series I see everywhere, especially on Bookstagram, so I figured I should finally check it out. It also didn’t hurt that my significant other had already bought it a while back, so it was just sitting on the book shelf, ripe for the picking. I liked this a lot, in particular because it shocked me. Twists and turns in YA books can sometimes to be easy to predict but with this, I really had no idea what was real and what wasn’t or a clear idea of how it was obviously going to end. The only gripe I had is that Julian is basically indistinguishable from every other roguish, but (of course) self-sacrificing male love interest. In the end though, the relationship between the sisters was enough to keep me around. That and I’m fascinated by Legend.

5) Children of Virtue & Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

There’s definitely something to be said about the fact that I read both of these books in the same month, but I still just couldn’t get myself to jive with any of the character decisions. They still seem nonsensical and even, at times, purposefully made against what they would have done just for the sake of plot. Especially, again, Inan. His choices make no sense and I always end up just wanting to slap him. I also didn’t really like the ending, especially the cliff hanger. I know it’s the middle book but it still felt SO anti-climatic that I felt like I had whiplash from how sudden that cliff-hanger was out of literally no where. Roen is the only character I absolutely love and if anything happens to him, I will riot.

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May was a bit of a slow month for me, I’ll admit. The general state of the world and some things I’m going through in my personal life made it kind of hard for me to find time to read and when I did find time, I couldn’t focus. However, I still managed to read seven incredible books this month and I wanted to highlight them below. They’re not in chronological order but rather in a ranking from best to worst of the month. I will say, though, all of these books were great and fun to read, I had a super enjoyable month with pretty much no flubs. So, on to the list!

1) Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth

Let me first admit that I haven’t read a single Divergent book. I’m sure I will eventually, it’s just never been a series that piqued my interest and I think it was really a hit sensation when I wasn’t reading as much as I do now. Because of this, though, I think I was able to go into Chosen Ones with a very open mind. It was nothing like what I expected but I ended up absolutely loving it. What I thought was just going to be a book about chosen ones trying to adapt to normal life in their 30s became a book about parallel universes and twists and turns and paradigm shifts. It was crazy and I definitely didn’t expect that much world building.

2) Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Robinson

I picked up Sorcery of Thorns from Book Outlet for less than $5 because I had heard so many awesome things about it and, honestly, who can say no to a book for under five dollars. Also, why is it such a well kept secret that Nathaniel is bisexual. If I had known that I would have read it so much sooner. I also really enjoy Silas and particularly the between relationship Silas and Nathaniel. The magic systems were extremely cool and I loved watching a Young Adult book delve into the subject of legitimate sorcery.

3) The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

After reading Samantha Shannon’s 2019 fantasy epic, Priory of the Orange Tree, I knew I should probably go back and read her earlier series, The Bone Season. This was also part of my Book Outlet order because they just so happened to have all three, The Bone Season, The Mime Order, and The Song Falling available all for under $5. Knowing nothing about the series, I was immediately drawn into it. The different types of clairvoyance intrigued me right off the bat and then all of the sudden there was an alien race and nothing was as it seemed. I get the feeling there’s still so much about the world that the reader doesn’t know and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

4) The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

My significant other read this first and told me I absolutely had to read it, and I’m glad I finally got around to it. This book is equal parts atmospheric and horrific while still being inspiring and a little manic. Fans of horror movies like The Descent or books like The Annihilation or Wilder Girls will absolutely LOVE this book. It’s a solid addition to the badass female protagonist dealing with subterranean terrors and otherworldly flora and fauna.

5) Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye

Date Me, Bryson Keller isn’t my usual read but I received a free eBook through NetGalley and I ended up loving it. I wrote a full review on this LGBTQ+ Young Adult fiction book here.

6) Nevernight by Kay Kristoff

There’s a few reasons I put Nevernight so low on the list, even though I gave it a five star review. The major reason is that I can tell, very obviously, that the main female character was written by a man. Some of the things she goes through and some of the motivations she has are definitely rooted in the male gaze, as is a lot of the world building and plot development. For example, giving her slightly bigger breasts so that she “blends in”, because, you know, to be an assassin you have to blend in and having a flat chest would just make you too inconspicuous. Having said that, though, I still found myself rooting for Mia and rejoiced every time she ended up steps ahead of her competition. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

7) Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

This dark academia book had everything I should have loved, but it ultimately missed the mark for me. The pacing is extremely weird, there is little to no character development, and none of the character motivations seem to ever make sense. I loved the atmosphere and the setting of Catherine House, but this was a miss for me. You can read my full review of Catherine House here.

There you have it, my official ranking of all of my May reads. Be sure to follow me on GoodReads if you haven’t already to stay up to date with everything I’m reading!

Citronella Seance Reads

June 2020 Monthly Roundup