May 2020 Wrap-Up

I read 16 book this month! (This was my last hurrah before I start my clinicals in June and have zero time for reading.) I read 6588 pages, more than 2000 more than in April, and my average rating was much higher than normal at a solid 4.0. All of these high statistics might be due to the fact that I reread the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series this month, which are both easy to fly through and amazing. I did read a number of other books this month though, mainly through audiobook. Without further ado, the books of May 2020:

1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Yeah no I did not like this. Perhaps it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I knew I wouldn't like this book, and I did not. I didn't hate it, but I was bored. The writing style is not for me. It's a lot of telling of actions that happen. "They went to the hut. The woman was in the hut. They grabbed the woman. The woman yelled." Simple sentences, not captivating. The story did start getting interesting when the missionaries came in, and I feel like that was supposed to be the main plot of the story, but that happened super late in the book. Either there were two plots going on, or there was way too much exposition.

2. Foul Is Fair by Hannah Capin

Rating: ★★★☆☆
WTF was that ending? This book was creepy and dark, which was cool, but nothing was realistic. I appreciated the premise of the book, but I did not buy into any of the characters. Everything was just too easy for the main character, and apparently no adults in this town cares about kids just randomly dying/disappearing.

3. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan

Rating: No rating
Yes, in fact, I do have hundreds of books on my TBR that I need to read but instead I am rereading a ten-book MG/YA series. I justify it based on the fact that I never actually finished the series (I only read the first 9 books). So yes, I'm reading this, and I'm loving it. Because this is a reread for me, I will not be rating these book nor putting them into my end-of-the-year ranking of all the books I read in 2020.

4. Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2) by Rick Riordan

Rating: No rating
This book is, in my opinion, the weak link of the series, but I am still very much enjoying my reintroduction into this world.

4. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

Rating: ★★★★★
I loved this one. Check out my full review HERE.

5. The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3) by Rick Riordan

Rating: No rating
Nico was such a pure soul, and he turned dark and twisty so fast. I love him.

6. The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #4) by Rick Riordan

Rating: No rating
So, the entirety of this series holds a lot of nostalgia for me, but if I'm think about it objectively, this is the book where the series gets really good. Compared to the first book, you can tell how much better the writing and character development is in the fourth and fifth books of this series.

7. The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

Rating: ★★★★☆
So here’s the thing. I understand why/how this book is problematic. I know that it reinforces harmful social stigmas and stereotypes. However... I still enjoyed it. So it is what it is. Looking back on it, this might deserve only 3 stars, but I'm too lazy to think enough about whether I want to actually change my rating.

8. The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5) by Rick Riordan

Rating: No rating
That finale gets me every time. The battle, the redemption arc, the tense romance that's been building since the first book, it's just.. *chef's kiss*

9. Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Rating: ★★★★☆
This story grabbed me from the beginning (I mean, what kind of reader doesn't love a story about a fellow avid reader?), and it never really let go. The twist at the ending was really good too, and I like how as the story progresses you question the reliability of the narrator more and more.

10. The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1)

Rating: ★★★★★
Out of the ten books in this (Percy Jackson's) world, this book is, to me, the hump. Meaning that this is the book you have to get through for continuity's sake, but on its own it doesn't hold much importance. Still, you can see I enjoyed it very much as I gave it five stars. I just love Percy so much, and I MISS HIM when he's gone. The issue I have, looking back on this book, is that the characters are fake-developed. The characters seem to be built up to be really important, but then in the rest of the series that character development disappears. Case in point: Jason doesn't have a single chapter in the third book. My theory is that Jason only exists as a foil for Percy, which is fine, but I wish that he hadn't been presented as the new/Roman Percy Jackson when he was just going to fall into the background in two books' time.

11. The Honey-Don't List by Christina Lauren

Rating: ★★★★☆
This was real cute, and it rekindled my love for HGTV. Check out my review HERE.

12. The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2) by Rick Riordan

Rating: ★★★★★
I LOVE PERCY JACKSON!!!!

13. The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus #3) by Rick Riordan

Rating: ★★★★☆
That ending gets me SHOOK every single time. Also, and I can't stress this enough, Percy and Annabeth are my OTP. Still, for some reason (which may very well be my own life and things going on outside of reading), I did not devour this one quite as enthusiastically as the last seven books, except for the last 50-100 pages of course.

14. A Heart So Fierce and Broken (Cursebreakers #2) by Brigid Kemmerer.

Rating: ★★★★☆
I normally don't like it when authors switch up who the main characters are in between books in a series, but I must say I really enjoyed this. I think I like Grey and Lia Mara, as people and as characters, even more than Harper and Rhen. The next book will be interesting because we will see both Rhen/Harper and Grey/Lia Mara as the enemy and the good guys. I read the first book when it came out, so I wasn't expecting to jump right back into this and be really entertained, but I was.

15. The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper

Rating: ★★★☆☆
This really could've been 2 or 3 stars, but I'm feeling generous. The romance in this book was... so cringey, so cliche, so instalovey... I was truly appalled. The thing is, I don't actually think the book is bad other than the romance. The premise was interesting, and I liked the themes on family, fame, and learning to be okay with not being okay. The unfortunate thing is that a large portion of the book is about the romance. I actually did like Cal and Leon together by the end of the book, I just wish the way they'd first gotten together didn't make me wince so much at the corny awkwardness. It is disappointing though because I was really hyped for this book, and it just did not live up to my expectations.

16. The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus #4) by Rick Riordan

Rating: ★★★★★
The ending... so beautiful... so sad... this series is ruining my life. Chapters 29-32, 36, 45, 52, 54, 57, 67-68, 70-71, and 78 were some of my faves though.