When I think of the books I read in March, “random” is the first word that comes to mind. One of them has been on my TBR (to be read) list for ages. Two of them I waited in anticipation for. Two of them I had no idea what I was getting into before I started. I tried to slam out one more before the end of the month but this very over hyped book (which you’ll have to wait a month to hear about) is going to be the death of me.
MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
I get it. You love Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre (those are two of my favorite books). You don’t have to hammer me over the head about it… Without actually doing so. The modern speak of the characters made me forget it was the 1940s several times. I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. It was overhyped, that’s for sure. It wasn’t terrible. If I had found it on my own accord, I might like it better. But after hearing about it for a few years, I expected so much more. It was a slow burn and many times I got bored. I almost put this book down forever several times. It was a struggle to get through the first like, 75% of the book. The word around town is that “yes, this book is a slow burn but oh my god THAT TWIST”. My thought is that people who think this is a twist has never read a book with a twist. I had that ending pegged early on. It’s an ending I’ve read in several books already (in one ay or another). I wanted so much more from this book but I’ve decided it’s not worth the read. Go read Jane Eyre again.
THE BALLERINAS by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
I won this book on GoodReads without knowing at all what it was about and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s not the best book I’ve ever read and BOY OH BOY are there plot holes (so many unpunished crimes?????) and the more I think about it, the more I think about the plot holes. Doesn’t make it not enjoyable though. The main character is not likable. Her and her ballet friends are all snobs and they’re all really bad friends. The unlikability of each character actually fueled me – these women are completely and utterly alone. They have no one. It made me remember all the love I have in my life. I think I just convinced you not to read this book but I enjoyed it.
THE WAR OF TWO QUEENS by Jennifer L. Armentrout
This is the fourth book in the Blood & Ash series (which I discovered last year). None of the books have held up to the very first one and I don’t think that any of them will. This book could have easily been at least 100 pages shorter (or even 200). There’s sex in this book (GASP) but like, it’s getting annoying (tbh, it was annoying in book three). I get it. They like to have sex literally all the time but it’s starting to get to the point where I’m wondering if they even love one another at all or if they just love to bang each other. I’ve seen some hate for a specific… “ceremony” and relationship and all I have to say is OH MY GOD you have all been screaming to have this happen for 2 books. Grow up and get over it you freaking weirdos 🙂
ONE OF US IS LYING by Karen M. McManus
I was given this book by one of my friends. It was a quick read and it’s a YA novel. The ending was semi-predictable. I got half of it right pretty quickly but couldn’t fit the other pieces in place. There seems to be a running theme in YA novels of blaming others for problems you should talk to a therapist about (ex. Pretty Little Liars, 13 Reasons Why). I could be seeing this book from an adult womans’ eyeballs though. It was good enough – I liked the story and thought it was a good way of storytelling (different perspectives – WHICH I know I’ve complained about a lot).
INTO EVERY GENERATION A SLAYER IS BORN by Evan Ross Katz
If you’re new here, hello, my name is Lauren Kaleo and Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best show in existence. I heard about this book a few weeks before it came out and waited for the release. There were some news articles about the absolutely bananas interviews that happened for this book. I couldn’t wait to read it all. The bummer was that most of the good interview tidbits were already leaked. This book had 7 chapters for the 7 seasons of the series, slowly going over the gist of it. Personally, I love season 6 but boy oh boy does this author hate that season (I get it, I do, but this is the most biased book I’ve ever read). It was really tough to get past the authors bias throughout the entire book. It was almost as hard as trying to get past the incredible amount of errors. For someone who’s a huge Buffy fan, I’m shocked at how many things the author got wrong (claiming Seth Green started in season 3 not 2, stating that Anya and Giles speak Spanish in “Restless” when it’s French, referring to the rocket launcher episode as “Consequences” instead of “Innocence”, and a few more). For a huge Buffy fan, the interviews were entertaining (albeit kind of sad) and the author does handle sensitive subjects well (Joss Whedon’s abuse allegations). I recommend for a huge fan but not for a casual viewer.
Have you read any of these? If so, what did you think? Are any of these on your “want to read list”?
Writes with Wolves 