February 2019 Wrap-Up

This month I read 17 books, totaling 7312 pages. This is almost 1,000 pages more than last month. I also read, on average, larger books this month. The average length of book I read this month was 430 pages compared to last month's average of 352 pages (shoutout to Don Quixote for that one). This increase in pages/books read despite the month being shorter might be a result of my interest/enjoyment of the books I read; my average rating for the month was 4.0, compared to the 3.7 of last month. Overall I just had a lot more 5-star books in February and a lot of 3-star books in January. My most read genre tied this month for fantasy and contemporary, which is a little surprising because I do highly prefer fantasy, and I don't usually love contemporary. However, it does make sense because there are and have been a lot of contemporaries on my TBR because those are what are most often recommended to me. Here's a list of the books I read this month, with some of my overall thoughts:

1. The Maelstrom (The Tapestry #4) by Henry H. Neff
 
Rating: 3.75 stars
The characters are much improved in this book, and I was never really bored while reading, which is a difficult feat to accomplish in large fantasy books IMO. The plot still feels a bit scattered, and I wish they would use Astaroth as the main antagonist more. For my full thoughts, check out my review HERE.

2. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Rating: 2.5 stars
Man I had a lot of problems with this book... writing style, characters, plot... Definitely check out my full review HERE for the details, but let's just say that I have some questions for the author - nay, the EDITORS - if I ever got the chance. That being said: I didn't hate it. It wasn't unenjoyable. I sped through it in 2 days (400 pages). A good choice for people who like YA fantasy heavy on romance.

3. The Red Winter (The Tapestry #5) by Henry H. Neff

Rating: 3 stars
So The Tapestry is finally over! And when I say that, I do indeed mean I was waiting for it to end. For most of the series, I never felt bored. I enjoyed my time reading, which is why the books in this series have been rated relatively high for number of problems I have with each book. But this one. This one was rough. The pages are just filled with large paragraphs of description. By about 50% of the way through, I wanted to be done. I decided to stick it out because I'm not one to DNF a series in the last half of the last book. But it was rough. To read the rest of my thoughts on this book, and on the series as a whole, check out my review HERE.)


4. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Rating: 4 stars
This book is brutal. It's beautiful in how stark the issues are presented, but it's not an easy book to read, especially in the beginning. This book touches on the political issues of race, misogyny, domestic violence, and most of all, christianity. Christianity is viewed in this book as the White Man's Religion, which was forced upon Africans when they were forced into slavery. With this disclaimer, I think it's safe to say that this book is heavy, but also very lyrical and beautiful at the same time. The simplicity of the narration also really adds to the rawness of the content. 


5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Rating: 3 stars
Maybe I should just stop reading Victorian-era classics, but I HATE THE MEN IN THIS BOOK. AND I HATE HOW JANE DOESN'T HATE THEM. Same problem I had with Pride and Prejudice. I know. It's a time period thing. But I just couldn't stand Jane's relationship with Mr. Rochester. Also I didn't really see what I gained out of reading this. It wasn't boring but it wasn't overly intriguing or unique. 

6. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: 5 stars
Yay! A 5-star book! It's been a while... I loved this book. I couldn't stop reading and I didn't want to. To read my full thoughts, check out my review HERE.

7. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

 
Rating: No rating
I don't like rating classics, especially children's classics, unless I really like them and can give them 5 stars. I just didn't really like Alice as a protagonist, and I thought the story was a little dry. Still, I love how metaphors are confronted in this; so many things are taken literally and it's adorable. It's a cute book, really charming, and I really want to get a fancy oversized illustrated version. 

8. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Rating: 5 stars
I had so much fun with this book. People said it was hilarious, and I did smile quite a few times over it. There's love and drama and adventure and mystery and illness and empowerment and diversity. There are so many good elements about this book. I am not a huge fan of historical fiction, especially pre-20th-century historical fiction, but this book was so accessible, it read like a normal contemporary. I immediately placed a hold on the sequel at my library, which somehow has better reviews than the first one. Unheard of! Check out my full review HERE.

9. The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

Rating: 5 stars
I am not big on contemporaries, but this one got me. A great blend of contemporary with fantastical elements. Read my full review HERE. 

10. The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah


Rating: 4 stars
This book had me shocked and emotional at a lot of points. I felt like I was with Winter through her struggle. It's a classic Riches-to-Rags storyline with a ghetto twist. It's done tastefully and expertly and I was thoroughly impressed. I was much more enraptured by the book than I thought I would be. I highly recommend this one, especially to people interested in diverse books/authors.

11. Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott


Rating: 4 stars
I knocked this book out in a day. I wanted to just keep reading. It was so cute and yet so meaningful. The characters have very interesting motivations and really distinct personalities. I was really hesitant upon picking up this book - and inclined to immediately compare it to TFIOS by John Green. But to my great pleasure, this book was very original. Also, not only did I like the ending a lot, but I respected it. I think it's an important message to send to young people about recklessness and the value of life. Read my full review HERE.

12. Nevernight by Jay Kristoff


Rating: 4 stars
I had SUCH mixed feelings about this one. Read more of my thoughts HERE.

13. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes


Rating: No rating
IT'S FINALLY OVER!!!! I know this is like, the most important book is Spanish literature, and for that alone I have respect for it. But this was a long treacherous journey that I hope never to repeat. I won't rate it, and I won't label it as "good" or "bad" (I don't usually feel comfortable rating genres I traditionally dislike, aka classics), but this is a tough one to read. 

14. Ghost by Jason Reynolds


Rating: 5 stars
I was SO pleasantly surprised by this one! Going into it, I only knew it was a contemporary and it was about track. I don't usually love contemporaries, and I don't usually love books about sports. But this one worked for me. There was just the right amount of light-heartedness and meaningful passion. For the most part, the story is just really fun. Read my full review HERE.

15. Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

Rating: 3 stars
I had high expectations for this one because of my love for Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. This one didn't do it for me. It seems like such an interesting topic, except that most of the "science" is speculative and frankly, boring to read about. I suppose this could be expected from something so philosophical with so little evidence gathered thus far, but I feel like Roach tried to make up for this lackluster research by inserting herself too much into the story. The jokes that made Stiff so charming and accessible were forced, and the book read more like a diary than a nonfiction book about science and philosophy.

16. Godsgrave (Nevernight #2) by Jay Kristoff

Rating: 5 stars
Loved this book much more than the first! That seems to be a pattern with me lately and fantasy series. I tend to enjoy the second/middle installments. Read my full review HERE.

17. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Rating: 5 stars
WOW!!! I loved this. I think I just have an affinity for books that have a bunch of perspectives surrounding the same event/situation, and I love nasty gossipy small-town plots. The characters in this book are fantastic. As in, they're not all great people, but the story was so interesting because of them. And the plot was twisty and turny, it was just a ton of fun. There was a perfect blend of intrigue, humor, and mystery in this book. I love how the clues lead up to the ending, and how everything is connected at the end. This was a really good one. 

If I could only recommend one... it would have to be Ghost. I don't know what it was about this book, but it made such an impression on me. I can't say it's particularly lyrical or mature or complicated. It's simple and raw and amazing for those reasons. 

Review for "Godsgrave (Nevernight #2)" by Jay Kristoff

Conquer your fear, and you can conquer the world.



What... was... THIS BOOK??? I am SCREAMING. (Internally.)

Rating: 5 stars

Mia Corvere has begun to execute her life mission: the assassinations of the men who killed her father, mother, and her baby brother. Now a fully fledged assassin, she is on her way to gaining the skills necessary to completing the task. But the plan goes slightly awry when she finds out that the people she's placed her trust in have ulterior motives. Mia finds herself a self-delivered slave, proving her worth and fighting for her life in the bloodiest brawls in the Republic. Mia must decide what parts of herself she is willing to sacrifice for her promise of vengeance.

There is beauty in knowing all things end, Mia. The brightest flames burn out the fastest. But in them, there is a warmth that can last a lifetime.

So like, I'm used to fantasy novels dropping a bombshell in the last couple of chapters. Something that has been foreshadowed is revealed, or a crazy plot twist happens. But I did not expect THREE bombshells in the ending. THREE different crazy things, and only one of them (maybe two, but that's from my own speculations and not from foreshadowing) was expected. I am absolutely floored.

I don't quite know how to evaluate Mia's character development. Clearly, she's different than she was in the first book, but I can't figure out what it is. She's not more driven, or more or less compassionate. I think that she is more conniving, possibly; she has more cunning. She figured out that there is a way to get her vengeance without bending to her masters' knees. It makes the plot much more clever, and the book was much more compelling for it.

One selling point of this book is the range of characters, in addition to their depth. There were a lot of interesting, unique characters in the first book, and that definitely continued with a new cast in this one. I love the depth of Sidonious, Leona and Leonides, Arkades, Furian, Wavewaker, and Bladesinger to name a few. They have dark and twisty pasts that show in their motives and demeanors, and I've always thought that learning characters' backstories is as or more interesting than the actual plot.

I understand that there are two plotlines going on in the story, both of which will assumedly be resolved in the next and last book. First: we have the vengeance plotline. Mia is trying to kill the people who killed her family. This has always been a clearly stated goal in the story. Second: we have the darkin storyline. Mia is a darkin, meaning she is marked by the goddess of night, Niah, and can control certain aspects of darkness, shadows, and daemons.

Speaking of: I want to talk a little bit about Mia's passengers (another term for the daemons that assist and advise Mia, as well as "drinking her fear"). This book contains one chapter that is only between Mister Kindly and Eclipse, Mia's two passengers, and there is a bit of talk about how passengers are reflections of their masters, and how all of this might tie into "the empire's destruction" and "the Crown of the Moon". All of the talk about darkness and moons and darkin is very cryptic, and we didn't really get anything concrete about it out of this book. I was hoping we'd learn about darkin at least a little, but it is mostly the characters' speculation at this point. We do get to see what happens when two darkin are near each other: feeling each other's pain, fears, desires. So that was a nice addition, but still I feel like we don't know enough about darkin at this point. I'm only worried because I fear that all of it will be thrown into the next book on top of the other plotline, and everything will be too crammed, too messy, and too complicated.

I must mention some things that did not work for me in this book. It's mostly superficial stuff, which is why I still give this book five stars. I didn't like Mia's obsession over certain things that shouldn't have mattered at all, from her perspective. She gets her face ripped open by a human spider, and she CONTINUOUSLY (as in, more than once) is like "Oh no but what will __[romantic interest]__ think about my scar" (don't want to spoil it). Like girl??? You are way above worrying about scars and your image. Maybe that was intentional, like the author was showing that Mia's still a teenage girl even with all the blood on her hands. But it annoyed the heck out of me. I also didn't appreciate how much Mia obsesses over "What am I?", in reference to being darkin, considering that they never ended up telling us what she is. If there was some reveal about darkin in the end of the book it would have been okay, but without it the persistent identity crises were also annoying. The reason I list these issues is because I don't think Mia was as annoying in this sense in the first book. I don't want to say she was less focused on her overall goal in Godsgrave, obviously she took a lot of risks and made sacrifices for it in this book, but she definitely seemed more insecure, which is not a trait I love in female leads.

Also, small note: anyone else bothered by the unclear pronouns? I couldn't tell who was speaking in some of the dialogue because it just said "he said" or "she said" after a sentence referring to both characters. It wouldn't have been a problem except it happened so often that I took notice of it as a pattern. Perhaps it's nit-picky, but I feel like expecting exemplary grammar from a writer isn't an odd request.

Even with my criticisms, I give this book five stars because of the plot twists and the betrayals and the emotion throughout. It was just so INTERESTING and despite all the killing so FUN and the cliffhanger... it got me. I will be picking up Darkdawn, the third Nevernight installment, on the day it comes out, undoubtedly. If you love stories about assassins and shadow bending and gladiatorial type fighting... READ THIS SERIES.

Review for "Ghost" by Jason Reynolds

And it felt good to feel like one of the teammates. Like I was there--really, really there--as me, but without as much scream inside.


Rating: 5 stars


I was SO pleasantly surprised by this one! Going into it, I only knew it was a contemporary and it was about track. I don't usually love contemporaries, and I don't usually love books about sports. But this one worked for me. There was just the right amount of light-heartedness and meaningful passion. For the most part, the story is just really fun.



We get to know Ghost, who is just a middle schooler trying things out and trying to forget his past. One day, Ghost stumbles upon a private track team practice and the park. After challenging the fastest sprinter on the team and giving him a RUN for his money, Ghost is recruited for a sport that he never even considered joining. Now Ghost is faced with a million new possibilities: a sport to love, a team to connect with, and a reason to stay out of trouble. But Ghost will also face situations that challenge his integrity and his heart.


Because for something to make you feel tough, you gotta be a little scared of it at first. Then you gotta beat it.

Ghost is an amazing character. He is relatable and has really come to understand the world around him, but he's not too mature for his age. His fascination with world records is spot on for a seventh grader, and it honestly made me a little nostalgic. That theme throughout the book, including the chapter titles, the constant references to world records, and Mr. Charles's encouragement that one day Ghost will be "one of the greatests", really worked for me. Ghost is a very compelling yet believable middle school age character. This might stem for the way that Ghost is told in the first person POV, which I feel like A) isn't done very often; middle grade perspectives are more often third person POV and B) is hard to get right, because authors either make them too focused and mature or annoyingly young. This was not the case with this one; Ghost was spot-on as a meaningful middle grade protagonist.

The character contrasts are another great part of this book. Ghost is contrasted with Coach, and Lu is contrasted with Brandon, etc... Overall, it kind of shows a "what could've been" angle to each character. Ghost and Brandon could've been friends if they'd been on a team together, or Lu and Ghost could've hated each other if they hadn't.

Don't ever let someone call your life, your dreams, little.

I really don't have anything negative to say about the book. The book probably would've been "just fine" had it not been for the emotional punch to the gut you get in the last couple chapters. Everything that's been building up from the first chapter, with what we know about Ghost's past, plus all he goes through to be accepted on the team, just really packs a punch in Chapter 9. I loved the parts where I smiled, the parts where I cried, and as I said, I was really pleasantly surprised with this one.

I am currently on the wait list for the next three books in the series, which to my knowledge focus on the other three team newbies: Patty, Sunny, and Lu. It's a unique idea to make the different books from different perspectives, and I'm really excited for them.

Review for "Nevernight" by Jay Kristoff

When all is blood, blood is all.



Rating: 4 stars

Mia Corvere has a burdensome task: avenging the deaths of her mother, father, and brother. Deaths that haunt her dreams, asleep and awake. Her best chance at killing the men who are responsible for her loss is by finding and attending the Red Church, an infamous school for aspiring assassins that is hidden from and sought out by the corrupted Republic that rules Mia's country. Mia has to not only prove her worth as a deadly assassin, but also decide if revenge is worth sacrificing her humanity.

I am so conflicted about this book! I almost feel too generous giving it four stars because of how boring the first 70% of the book is. A book that is boring for literally more than half of it should not get to be 4 stars!! But then I'd feel guilty giving this only 3 stars for how good the last 30% was... Like I said, I'm conflicted.

The wolf does not pity the lamb. The storm begs no forgiveness of the drowned. We are killers one, killers all.

I think I'm outside the norm on this one. Most people either love or hate this book, no in-between. I just couldn't care about the characters or plot or story throughout the beginning-middle. Contrary to popular opinion, I did not think that the world-building was good at all. I had no idea what was going on. The best part of the first half of the book was learning Mia's backstory (the part in italics). Other than that, I was bored to death with the Whitherwastes part, the entry to the school, the training; all of it was just so dry. I didn't even think Mia was a super compelling character, despite her backstory, until 80% of the way through. Because of the nature of the story, I can't help but compare it to Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. The worlds are just very similar. And this one was so much worse than Six of Crows, but admittedly that one is really good so it's hard to measure up to it.

After I got to the part where the competitions (that determine who gets to be a Blade and thus continue studying assassination at the Red Church) are two weeks away, I finally got into the story. There were plot twists and betrayals, emotions running high, deaths; it was really great. I was very enraptured, and I just had to keep reading. I wish the entire book had been like that. Because of the thrill, the emotion, and the shock that I felt in the ending (last ~25%), I bumped this rating up to 4 stars. Beware those who want to start this novel though: the beginning (like half!) is both BORING and CONFUSING.

Review for "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott

I know in that moment, even though it could not be more ridiculous, that if I die in there, I won't die without falling in love.



Rating: 4 stars

Can a book be both heart-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time? Apparently, the answer to that question is yes. I tend to be a very stoic person while reading. You can't tell how I feel about what I'm reading based on my reactions/facial expressions. BUT THIS ONE. I was smiling. I was tearing up. I was gasping for air. It's a beautiful story.

Stella and Will are both cystic fibrosis patients, which means their lungs suck and cross-contamination between the two of them is a major risk. AKA: no sharing germs for Stella and Will. But then they fall in love. They have to learn how to love from a distance, or risk everything.

I knocked this book out in a day. I wanted to just keep reading. It was so cute and yet so meaningful. The characters have very interesting motivations and really distinct personalities. I was really hesitant upon picking up this book - and inclined to immediately compare it to TFIOS by John Green. But to my great pleasure, this book was very original. Also, not only did I like the ending a lot, but I respected it. I think it's an important message to send to young people about recklessness and the value of life.

I did knock one star off my rating because the falling-in-love pace was way too fast. It probably wouldn't have been bad if they'd started out as friends or at least not hating each other; but IMO Stella and Will went from hatred to irrevocably in love way too fast. It really messed up the plausibility of the story for me. At one point, I even thought I would rate this book 3 stars because of that one reason, but after the last 1/3 of the book with all the feels I just had to give it 4. I don't really understand it either; the book is under 300 pages so there would have been plenty of opportunity to add in more chapters developing the relationship at an appropriate pace. I just think it's a shame because young people in love already get a bad rep about "being in lust not love", and the rashness of Stella and Will's love supports that point. Maybe that was the point: to highlight the beauty of the immature, hasty, R&J type of love that plagues terminally ill teenagers, but I just thought the book would be better if it fought against this stereotype.

In any case, I picked this book up because I know the movie is out in less than a month (Cole Sprouse anyone???) and now I am super excited for it!!

Review for "The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue" by Mackenzi Lee

We are not broken things, neither of us. We are cracked pottery mended with lacquer and flakes of gold, whole as we are, complete unto each other.



Rating: 5 stars

FIRST OF ALL WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT-- to rip my soul out of my body at the same time as making my heart swell three size like the GD Grinch. Seriously crying happy and sad tears over this book. It means so much at the same time that it has extremely important, well-handled themes that young people need to read about. And - it's historical! Things that affect us today, while undoubtedly a little different, were also experienced during times that we can't even fathom living in. The writing style, and the characters, and the plot just... so good.

I understand less than half the words in that sentence, but God bless the book people for their boundless knowledge absorbed from having words instead of friends.

Is that not one of the best sentences you've read in your life???

I had so much fun with this book. People said it was hilarious, and I did smile quite a few times over it. There's love and drama and adventure and mystery and illness and empowerment and diversity. There are so many good elements about this book. I am not a huge fan of historical fiction, especially pre-20th-century historical fiction, but this book was so accessible, it read like a normal contemporary.

Let's talk characters:

"No, you want this to be about you. You care about what happens to me because of what that would mean for you. You are the only thing that matters to you."

Monty
If this guy didn't drive you crazy, you might be as rash and immature as he is. I wanted to slap him across the face so many times for his insensitivity and shelteredness. God. In some ways, he's just the worst. But that's what I appreciate about him. He's not an ideal, perfected main character. He has major flaws which are often cause for drama between him and other characters. This is real life, people. And I definitely know some real-life Montys.

"Ladies haven't the luxury of being squeamish about blood."

Felicity
I LOVE FELICITY. 20% of the way in I knew I loved her, and I had to go make sure the sequel was her story (it is!!). She's snarky, and she likes books more than people, and wants to study medicine. I relate, hard. She's kind of the logical voice of the bunch, with Monty always making bad decisions and Percy just going along with it. Furthermore, everyone wants to commend this book for giving the 18th century a voice in LGBT. I agree that this is pretty cool. But, Felicity serves as the voice of the public in this regard. LGBT lifestyle was much more taboo in this time period, and Felicity reminds the reader that while we see LGBT relationships/feelings as normal, that was definitely not how 99% of the people surrounding Monty and Percy saw it. In addition, she is obviously the most capable of the group, and yet she's often barred from places and activities because of her gender. I know this is accurate to the time period, but I commend the author for making subtle references to the injustice of it.

It's Percy, your best friend. Percy who you've gotten foxed with, who plays you his violin, who used to spit apple seeds at you from high up in the orchard treetops. Percy, who you kissed in Paris, who looks so damn beautiful, even now.

Percy
Percy has to deal with a lot of crap. Not only is he constantly rejected and belittled by society for his race, but he can't even count on his best friend and not-so-subtle crush to understand and empathize. I spent a lot of this book wondering why Percy was even friends/in love with Monty. Here's Percy, a perfect little cinnamon roll who just wants to live his life, and Monty who is, in Felicity's words, "a bit of a rake." Percy is so pure, and so kind, despite the bad luck he's drawn in life. He's "learned his place" at the same time that he's not ashamed to be himself. He's really an icon.

So yeah. This book was a real fun time for me. I immediately placed a hold on the sequel at my library, which somehow has better reviews than the first one. Unheard of!

Review for "The Astonishing Color of After" by Emily X.R. Pan

Believing is a type of magic. It can make something true.

Rating: 5 stars

After Leigh's mom dies, Leigh receives frequent visits from a beautiful red bird that gives her artifacts and clues from her past. Leigh can only come to one conclusion: this bird is her mother. On instructions from the bird, Leigh sets off on a journey to Taiwan, her mother's home country, to learn about her family and herself. All the while, she is thrown into the memories of all the people she loves, and her own memories as well. 

This was a very effective mix of contemporary and magical realism, especially if you (like me) highly prefer fantasy over contemporary reads. I thought the supernatural elements, whether or not you think them to only be within Leigh's imagination, supported the main plot and kept the story interesting. There was something so raw, so lyrical, and so beautiful about the way Leigh's story was told. It wasn't over the top, but it had just enough emotion to make the reader reflect on their own life and relationships.

Memory is a mean thing, slicing at you from the harshest angles, dipping your consciousness into the wrong colors again and again.

Seriously who could come up with a line like that? It's amazing. The best part of this book, hands down, were the Smoke and Memories sections, and Leigh's own memories which are dispersed throughout the main plot. This is how you make a story: you layer in multiple perspectives and multiple timelines to create one moving-forward plot. I wouldn't change a thing about it. Something also must be said for Leigh's development - as a character, and in her relationships. The parent-child relationship in this book is so frustrating for the first 90%... and then it's fixed and that's great. But it's these frustrating realities that make the book believable and relatable and raw. 

This was an excellent book; I will definitely be reading more from Emily X.R. Pan.