Summer & Early Fall Reading Wrap-Up: Feeding the Inner Child and Autumn Cravings

While long-standing Percy Jackson fans have been bundles of anticipation awaiting a new release for years, I’m sure, I had the fortunate circumstance of getting to experience quite a seamless transition into this new era of Riordan’s works. On top of that, getting to read this during the summer (my least favorite season) was a definite pick me up. On top of that, I got an excellent inner child feeding out of it all! (4 stars.)

Although romance is not typically my genre of choice, the fact that this was such a quick and easy read made it a fairly enjoyable experience for me. In several senses this book reminded me a lot of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, despite this novel preceding it. There was the summer setting, of course, but also the inane privilege of the characters and all other superficiality therein. That being said, it was still cute enough.

Among the complaints about Belly as a character, I think there may be fair criticisms there but I found Conrad far more insufferable than anything. His excessive gloom and off-putting possession definitely did not help this book out at all. In all honesty, I thought Jeremiah was the most nuanced in the slew of half-baked (practically raw) characters. I did end up watching the show and can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think the adaptation is actually better than the source material. First time for everything right? (Although this book probably deserves a 2 or 2.5, I enjoyed it well enough to settle for 3 stars.)

Although I claimed to be ready for the final installment of The Dreamer Trilogy after reading Mister Impossible (see: above), I was not. Due to that, I gave The Dream Thieves a reread to delay the inevitable conclusion to this universe. (Additionally, I reread The Raven Boys in the spring–the season in which it was set–and this book is set in the summer, so I wanted to continue that trend.)

I reviewed this book last year, and somehow, it also made it to the number one slot of my favorite books read in 2023. Although a reread cleared a little bit of the rose coloring from my eyes, I still loved this book a lot upon the reread. (at least 4 stars!)

The mediocre reviews of this book puzzle me. Personally, the only complaint I could conjure on my own time is that Malibu Rising employs constant head-hopping, which is pretty universally considered a poor writing choice. Other than that, this novel was a real winner for me.

While this book is about mothers and fathers, it’s far more about the profound, visceral interrelationship of siblings. Family is so often equated to the people who bring us into the world, and I find it so refreshing, invigorating, and evocative when the focus is put on the built-in peers we (non-single children, that is) spend our developmental years with.

A few months ago, I participated in a tag where one of the prompts was a book that made you cry this year. At the time, I put in Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin as it was the only book I’d read that had sadder elements. Despite that, I hadn’t actually shed a tear to it. I did, however, shed a tear or two or more to Malibu Rising, and I think that has to count for something. (4 or 4.5 stars!)

I had sort of mixed feelings about this one.

While reading the prose on a line level, I thought much of it was rich and compelling but couldn’t escape a sense of something missing. The first half of the story seemed a little slow and hard to follow, and while I enjoyed the latter half more plot-wise, there were some character choices that soured it a little for me.

The ending wasn’t totally satisfying, and the thing that could maybe save it is the fact that this story blooms into a series. That being said, it doesn’t change that this installment fell slightly flat in the end. I enjoyed my time with it well enough, fortunately, though I did spend much of it a bit unsure overall. (3 stars.)