Thursday, January 7, 2021

My October reads 2020


I actually read a ton of books in October for me, especially since I've gotten into audio books but also I've just gotten into the reading groove. So here they are and I'll mention a few things about specific books but the ones where I just give a rating will have dedicated posts about eventually....

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 4 stars

Torso Brian Michael Bendis is a true crime graphic novel that really encapsulated the times when this case was happening. It was honestly more historical than true crime. it was really good but I'm more interested in the actual crime versus that specific time period. It's a little too modern for me.

Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts This was really well done I thought. I was expecting it to be more genius but it ended up just being a fun spooky food graphic novel. I don't know if I'll reread it for the stories or just for it's aesthetics which are beautiful.

To Catch A Killer by Sheryl Scarborough I listened to this on audioe and overall the narrator did a great job, the overall story was a bit predictable but fun. I rated this as less stars and almost didn't finish it because the main character swooned over her love interest too much. It was so ridiculous I rolled my eyes constantly. Just ugh, gross and I live for romance.

Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf by Hayley Kirscher I feel like this topic is important to explore within ya especially. So much rape culture is fostered young starting with kids, middle ages and teens. It's important to instill healthy ideas about consent and sexism for all genders starting from a young age. Overall I really enjoyed this book, I read it very fast because the writing hooked me in.

Monster Vol 1 by Naoki Urasawa This series has a bunch of my friends fawning over it and so I really wanted to see what the hype is, and although I liked it and will be continuing on with the rest of the series, I did find this first volume a little hard to get into and slightly confusing. I perservered and was rewarded with by the story getting better and better. 

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden This short middle grade horror was actually horrifying for me. I read it in one night because I couldn't go bed thinking about the story. I really loved this book and look forward to reading the next one and then the 3rd when it's released. 

Dryad vol 1 by Kurtis Wiebe I recieved an earc from netgalley in exchange for review. This graphic novel was very well done, I was hooked on the characters and the story. It was very different and not at all what I thought it was going to be. Definitely worth reading, although I'm not sure if I'll continue the series because it ended up not being what I wanted from the story. I struggle to enjoy stories that have both classic fantasy and sci-fi elements. Idk I'm weird.

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe  I recieved an earc from netgalley in exchange for review and this was very much a 3/5 star for me. It was good, but also meh. 

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco I was hoping this book would be scary but the scary elemnts fell really flat for me. I did enjoy the story overall though, but reading it felt awkward.  I know the author is Filipino and probably has a very good understanding of Japanese culture but maybe she wrote this book so that a younger teen could enjoy it as well. It just wasn't scary at all even though I feel like the stories about thelegends this book was based on feel scary. It's hard to explain, but it was good.

Dare You to Lie by Amber Lynn Natusch This was by far my favorite read of October! It was pretty much Veronica Mars in a ya book format and I had so much fun reading it. The pacing and voice were addicting and I read it in one night. And I'm excited because people tell me that the second book is even better!

The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter Um, don't read this series unless you enjoy toxic masculinity and romance involving the trope mates, instalove, and smut. Although I would not recommend to most (if not all) of my friends the actual plot develops is interesting ways and I'll probably make my way through all 15 books because I'm trash for trash. It's 2020 and I can't handle anything remotely serious anymore.

The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes This made a really interesting audio book and I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. TW for natural animal death which brought me to tears. Now that I'm writing this, I think this book is way better than I originally thought and if more books appear with these characters I'm going to read them.

Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano I realy enjoyed this overall but I think I wanted it to be better than it was. This concept has been used before by authors and was doing good with it but it fell downhill with the forced romance and awkward characters. I may read the next one eventually.... but also I don't know if I care enough.

The Darkest Kiss by Gena Showalter see Darkest Night write up above and know that I'm fallen....


#octoberreads #thelovelyandthelost #thedarkestnight #smallspaces #dryad #somethinghappenedtoaligreenleaf 


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