I had a creeping suspicion during the gradient transition from the sweltering, miserable (in my humble opinion) summer to the delightful, richly vibrant, mildly brisk months of autumn that I was going to end the reading plateau that occurred in this year’s middle. Unfortunately, though, that was not entirely the case. It did start off a bit promising as I read four books in September–though it hasn’t always been, it’s now one of my favorite months of the year–but only three more thereafter. I don’t mind this slight slump, though, because I’ve been busying myself with other life changes and have actually spent a fair amount of time focusing my attention on writing, which has been somewhat exciting. With that being said, these are the books I’ve read over the last few months.
Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
This one was a reread and has a little bit of history for my personal reading journey. I picked it up once many, many eons ago upon discovering the lovely cover in the young adult section at my local library when I was hardly a teenager–if a teenager at all. I read a portion of it at the time but ended up putting it down and not picking it up for another few years. I eventually completed it over the weeks I turned fifteen following some large shifts in my life, and as coming-of-age stories are meant to, it had a huge influence on my thinking and processing at the time. It was an instant five-star back then because the passive protagonist so wholly captured my personal feelings of passivity (later that year I’d come to discover Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and, boy, you can probably picture how revolutionary that was in this melodramatic individual’s life).
As I’m on the road out of youth and on my way to venturing into the many struggles of new adulthood, I decided to pick up this book once again, perhaps as a sort of farewell to the younger person I once was. In a less poetic sense, though, I desperately wanted to try out annotating with the tabs I bought off Amazon, and felt comfortable enough to underline–with pen! egad!–things in my paperback copy of this novel.
While the actual quality of this novel in terms of prose, plot, character development, and so forth may leave the more developed reader wanting, it will infinitely have a special place in my heart since it was such a fixture in my own life development. Though this book is at its core about grief, which is not something I’ve had to endure on such a personal level, my own resonation with the story had much more to do with the format of the character amongst a world moving around her, feeling detached and unsure how to go about this new life leaving a chapter behind for the next. And this was the first book I tried out annotating, so it will have another little place in my heart for that reason. (With that being said, I have a lot of love for this book, but I’d be hesitant in recommending it as the prose can come off childish and the character is hopelessly passive, which could understandably irk readers. This was the first book on my journey of loving “fake deep” books, so take that as you will!)(5 stars, for old times’ sake!)
The Raven King (The Raven Cycle, #4) by Maggie Stiefvater
I first started listening to this on audiobook over the summer and after abandoning it for a little while, decided I should probably finish it before the year was out, especially since I’d collected the books in The Dreamer Trilogy, a series set in the same universe following the events of The Raven Cycle, and wanted to start reading the trilogy. Thankfully, I did get to finish this book in September (though, spoiler alert, I’ve only started The Dreamer Trilogy this December…).
Following the fan-favorite installment, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, I was excited to coast into the series finale, and finally get a resolution to the plotlines sweeping over the entirety of the series, as well as seeing the character dynamics and morphing relationships continue on their paths of growth. While the lovable characters were still something to love in this final book, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t found The Raven King at least a little disappointing. The big finish to the quartet’s main storyline felt a bit vague and anticlimactic, which was a bit of a let-down, especially since the storyline had been spread out for so long, with a lot of building up to something that didn’t seem to deliver on all of its promise. There were definitely parts of it I enjoyed and even loved, but as a conclusion, I had hoped for something a little more fulfilling. And if I’m being honest, I can hardly recall how it came to a close, just the feeling left behind after finishing it. All of this is not to say I didn’t like it, though–I definitely did–it just felt a tad lacking in some facets. (3.5 stars.)
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Though the general regard for this novel seems either a bit mixed or let down, I have to say that I actually enjoyed it quite a bit more than I expected. Within its pages is a gothic tale surrounding an eery home with a dark, unnerving history, and it was just up my alley, though I’ll admit, my stomach turned throughout the book and I found myself glancing up from where I perched, a smidge uneasy about the possibilities permeating the night air around me.
I’d advise venturing with caution for those more squeamish as this book involves body horror as well as much more disturbing topics such as incest and cannibalism. There were times when I felt I’d be better off putting it down, but it made up for quite the Gothic horror tale. When not outright gross, it has its fair share of more palatable levels of grotesqueness with dank air and mold and mushrooms, making up a distinct environment. Laced with themes of visceral cycles, generational trauma, and colonialism, this read is not a light one, but one I enjoyed significantly nonetheless (though I’m not sure I’ll be picking up something with similar subject matter for quite some time, if at all). (4.5 stars.)
The Miserable Mill (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #4) by Lemony Snicket
In an attempt to reconnect with my youth as I move further away from it, I picked up this series and have taken my time (thanks to procrastination and busyness more than a stop-to-smell-the-roses mentality) in maneuvering through this favorite childhood series of mine, especially after being egged on by reading The Beatrice Letters last year and the more recent release of Lemony Snicket’s Poison for Breakfast this past spring.
While the first three books have grown a bit mundane after viewing the various adaptations and being excessively familiar with the storylines, I was looking forward to venturing into more distant territory. I’d watched the first season of the Netflix show and a bit of the second before losing interest with creative choices and abandoning that rendition, so I was looking forward to relearning the material in its rawest manner. However, The Miserable Mill is probably the series’ dullest installment as it’s stuck between the initial draw of the first few books and the exponential growth and shift as the plot broadens in the following novels, losing itself with the formulaic structure as well as the disconnect between the siblings, which is one of the series’ strengths. In the way that trilogies often dip with the second book, this series dips with the fourth. (2.5 stars.)
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
After watching The Book Leo’s fall recommendations video and finding the first book listed to be Piranesi as well as having heard of it a few times on her channel before, I decided to finally pick it up and give it a try, especially since it’s seemed to be held in quite high regard with its quirk and vivid, somewhat whimsical atmosphere. I’ll be honest, part of my wanting to pick it up was also that the golds and browns on the cover seemed very fitting for the encroaching autumn.
With a peculiar protagonist and an even stranger setting, this novel slowly unveils its world and premise to the reader through the earnest fragments of its narrator and is entirely odd in its tone, which many readers I think found charming, though I’m sad to say that I was not quite as enthralled as others.
While I couldn’t find anything particularly wrong with this book, I didn’t find that I particularly loved it either. The different facets of the story were fine, but really just that–fine. In its whimsy, it came across to me as lacking themes or a deeper purpose, and despite its quirk and zeal, I felt more neutral than at all enamored by what I was reading. The story’s environment is rich and eccentric and the protagonist is endlessly optimistic and fervid, but for me, this novel was only so-so. (3 stars.)
Normal People by Sally Rooney
After consuming a variety of audiobooks and library loans, I was ready to return to one of my own paperbacks to approach with my tabs and pen for annotating. Along with this, I was feeling myself drifting away from reading and wanted to reclaim my grasp on it before devolving fully into a slump by returning to a novel I’d read once already this time last year.
All the parts I’d enjoyed about Normal People the first time I read it stood the test of one year’s time from my resonation and intrigue with Connell and Marianne as well as the novel’s mundane prose, perfectly and vividly capturing a feeling of tedium that’s at once passive and completely arresting. In the early pages of the book, I found myself underlining and tabbing much of the story, bringing attention to the gradual, yawning start that prefaces the complications that unfold later on. All of this, I still loved.
However, in a similar manner, all that didn’t quite register still did not quite register. Things that rose, making me unsure how to feel about them, still left me uncertain, particularly the note that this novel ends on. Throughout the story, it has me hooked and enthralled, and instead of petering off into a fade-to-black or concluding definite assertion, it sort of just stops. Like a few pages are missing, or there’s some greater meaning to be drawn. Just the same as the first time I’d read it, I stared at the last page, my insides a tad off-kilter, unsure what to make of it as a whole. In this, it was difficult for me to conclude my final thoughts on the story, and I’m unsure if I’ll ever know how to make sense of it at all, whether that’s the point or not. (4 stars.)
Misery by Stephen King
Misery is–in standard Stephen King fashion–a fairly verbose and somewhat slow-paced novel but remains thrilling and does what it says on the tin. It’s tense, horrific, and engaging, though I have to be honest and say that my reading experience was muddled somewhat by the steadily beating undercurrent of exceedingly sexist understandings as well as flippantly utilized racism. Though discomfort is brought on as it’s intended by the gruesome situations and psychological horror, a fair bit of my personal qualms relate to this oft-dismissed harmful stereotyping.
With that being said, I believe the issues inherent in the text tend to be disregarded due to the reader’s otherwise enjoyable consumption of the story, and I wish that weren’t the case. Instead of recognizing it as an “it’s problematic but” situation, I think seeing it as an “it’s problematic and” sort of thing would have more integrity and decency, even if we as the reader didn’t pen the words ourselves.
Overall, it delivers on what it’s hyped up to be but is also irrevocably laced with questionable ideals. (3.5 stars.)
Books Completed: 7
Average Rating: 3.71 stars.
Most Read Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy, Horror
Top Intended Audience: Adult
Listing out the books I’ve read over the last few months and penning my thoughts on them has actually been surprisingly beneficial in reminding me that I haven’t only loafed around this autumn, and I did indeed read a bit, even if it didn’t match the intensity or frequency of this past spring (which is understandable as I’ve never read at the rate that I had earlier this year). There was a variety of good and bad but with an average rating of 3.71 (my overall rating for the year being 3.64), I’d say that’s not altogether too bad, though I do hope to pick up more new favorites, rather than just returning to old ones and being slightly disenchanted when they’re not all I remembered them to be.
Have you read any of the books on this list? Did you like them? Why, or why not? How has your reading been fairing these last few months? Have you discovered any new favorites or least favorites? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!
Little Bit of All That 
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