I read these in May and now it is almost July.
If you give this anything less than 4 stars on Goodreads, people will tell you that you just don’t get it, you’re dumb, etc. (interesting that it appears to be mostly MEN leaving those types of bullying comments). I guess I’m a big dumbo who just doesn’t get it. I gave it 3 stars. The first chapter was wildly engaging to me, but I quickly got bored after that. The timeline jumping and, quite frankly, annoying cast of characters was a bit too tedious for me to keep up with and I wound up just not caring. People freak out over the POWERPOINT section of this book but that was probably the most boring chapter to me.
SUFFICE TO SAY I will not be continuing this series.
2. The Between – Tananarive Due
Four stars, a decent horror story with great writing and compelling characters. Creepy. I was sold pretty much from chapter 1.
3. Carrie Soto is Back – Taylor Jenkins Reid
DUDE. I was worried about this because I legit hated Malibu Rising and Carrie Soto is a character from that book (albeit a very small periphery character). But no, this book was just what I needed. Of course, I love tennis so the fact that this is about a tennis star coming out of retirement to defend her Grand Slam record was already appealing to me, but in true TJR fashion, she intersperses magazine articles, sports commentary transcripts, and flashbacks throughout the book to really keep it interesting. I should note that I ONLY “read” her books via audio because she always gets a full cast to read. This one had Patrick McEnroe and Mary Carillo voicing some of the sports commentators. YES. I loved this goddamn book and it made me want to start playing tennis again in the worst way. (More on that later lol.)
4. The Writing Retreat – Julia Bartz
Eh. Three stars. Pretty lame. The beginning, before the whole “Writing Retreat” comes into play, was solid and made me think I was going to love it. The worst part was the inclusion of the book-within-the-book. So, fucking boring and just not well-written at all. I started to skip those parts.
5. Lavender House – Lev Ac Rosen
Another three star but no strong opinions on this one either way. It was fine, a decent mystery, enjoyed the historical and queer aspect of it, but I likely won’t be picking up any more of the Andy Mills series.
6. The Swimmers – Julie Otsuka
Just depressing, honestly. And not very fun to read. I almost DNFd this numerous times but I had the audio and it was relatively short, and I needed something for my walks so I just dealt with it. Here, pretend this broad is me, because I agree 100%:
7. Whisper Down the Lane – Clay McLeod Chapman
Satanic Panic? Sign me up. But only if it’s well-written. Which this was…not. I think this is my second book by this dude and that I disliked so we will officially put him on the DNR list. The writing was just bad in this one. The plot was lame. Goodbye.
8. The Only Survivors – Megan Miranda
Her books are neither good nor bad in my opinion. They just are. And the main character is always exactly the same, I swear to fucking god. I never noticed it until Henry pointed it out because he was on a M.Miranda kick a while back and was like, “I wonder if she is writing herself as the main character??” If so, she must have the personality of a paper bag. It was fine. I feel like this is a good “killing time on in an airport” read because if you get distracted, you can pretty much accidentally skip chunks at a time and not notice.
Three stars only because it didn’t piss me off.
9. The Hundred-Year House – Rebecca Makkai
YES. YES YES YES YES. Finally, a five star read. My third Makkai book, and all have been five stars. Stick her on my FAVE WRITER list. This book spans three timelines, starting with 1999. After reading that portion of the book – so quirky, Gilmore Girls-vibes as far as the dialogue goes – I thought that I would hate the subsequent sections of the book. I didn’t want to leave 1999! But yoooo, this book only got better the more “way-back” it got. I immediately made Janna read it (JANNA DID YOU EVER FINISH IT Y/N. IF SO, DID YOU LIKE IT Y/N.)
You know how people will say things like, “I couldn’t put this book down! I devoured it in one sitting!” when they love a book? I think it’s the opposite for me, in a way. This book was so intricately and smartly written that it begs to be read slowly. I dragged it out for nearly 2 weeks. I would go back and re-read parts of the previous sections once I stumbled across an easter egg. I would luagh out loud – ACTUALLY – at the brilliance of this story. I felt like I knew all the characters by the end and wanted it to be a true story. NOW I AM CRYING. I want to read this again and I am usually not one for re-reads. I actually reserved the audio book on Libby because I want to see if this adds to the experience at all.
Makkai is a terrific writer. I think I might idolize her. I mean, I signed up for her newsletter and I hate newsletters, so that’s saying something.
Totally on brand for me to think that a book that won awards is “just OK.” I felt like the writing didn’t do enough to make us give a shit about Hamnet so when the thing that happens happened, I didn’t give a shit about the thing happening. One of the Booktubers that I follow on Goodreads said that they couldn’t stop crying and this book wrecked them. Am I dead.
It’s weird though because I wasn’t exactly bored while reading this. I was interested. Yet, I didn’t care. Explain that to me. I think I am losing function of part of my brain.
***
Wow, May was a shitty month for me, book-wise. Please someone recommend more books to me like The Hundred-Year House. Sigh.