Hey! It’s been a hot second, but I’ve been adjusting to academia again.
In the last few weeks, I’ve read a ton of books and instead of bombarding you with a million reviews, I thought I’d do a few quick reviews to get some content out there and catch myself up.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo: I ended up giving this one four out of five stars, but I ultimately loved it! I think the one thing that brought it down for me was how hard it was to connect to the characters via poetry. While the story worked soooo well as a series of poems, I struggled to relate to any of the side characters since it was so personal to our main. However, it’s a wonderful story and I highly, highly recommend it.
Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs: This was a reread…the last time I read this I was maybe 14 and I gave it five stars. Sadly, I’m changing that to three stars because I just didn’t enjoy it this time around. The ending was so annoying and the characters were hard to relate to. The plot-twist came out of left-field with no build up there. The writing wasn’t as good as in the first two, almost like Riggs was chugging out a book because he had to. And finally, my biggest complaint with this whole series is the romantic relationship between Jacob and Emma. They’ve known each other for basically a week, talk about being together forever, and I just don’t see it. They have no chemistry. Anyway, I was incredibly disappointed, but because I’m not a quitter, I will read the fourth one (for the first time!) and then decide if I’m continuing with the next two.
Song and Dance by Alan Shapiro: I had to read this poetry book for my creative writing class, and boy am I telling you that it was absolutely incredible. It’s such a vivid picture of grief and coming to terms with loss. I don’t own a copy of it yet (just scanned pages of my prof’s copy), but once I get back home, I’m ordering myself a copy! It’s just so powerful. It’s not very popular, but I highly recommend checking it out. Needless to say, it was my second five star of the year.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: This was a birthday gift from one of my friends a few months ago and I honestly can say that I didn’t expect to love it. However, it ended up being awesome. It sparked conversations between me and my friends, got me interested in the subjects more than I expected. It was absolutely fascinating. I think my one qualm was that a few of the chapters (stories?) were a tad boring, but most of them were really, really good. It was a solid four stars!
The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper: I received this from NetGalley. In a nutshell, this was fun and cute, but lacked any substance. The romance was rushed, the plot was underdeveloped, and the writing was eh. I gave it three stars, mostly because I enjoyed reading it, just didn’t think it was all that quality.
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram: I really, really enjoyed this one! I gave it four out of five stars. It was sweet, powerful, and a good depiction of depression! I like that it focused solely on friendship, even if there may have been some romantic feelings under the surface. I think my only qualm was that I didn’t emotionally connect to it as much as I hoped; it wasn’t life-altering. It was just…good…and I think it had the capabilities of being more but just didn’t get there. I’m really excited for Darius the Great Deserves Better!
The Dry by Jane Harper: This is one of my mom’s books that I nicked from her on my way back to college. I enjoyed the writing style, but I found the ending to be incredibly disappointing. The plot twist for the murder ended up seeming really unrelated, and yes, it was a big plot twist, but I think I was looking for something more connected to the rest of the novel. HOWEVER, the last page had a major reveal on it that was incredible. I wish the rest of the novel hit me as hard as that page did. It ended up being a three star read for me.
I since finished Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley, but once I’m out of class today, I’m going to try to write a full review. I just have too much to say to give it only a few sentences.
-Book Hugger
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