I just realized I completely skipped my June wrap up! Oops! I have a mid-year’s resolution (I made that a thing today) that I am going to blog more. I need to be better about getting on a schedule and being more accountable! You all have permission to yell at me and tell me to get it together if it seems that I’m falling behind! I’ve been reading a lot of book blogs lately and I’ve been trying to figure out what I should and shouldn’t do with my blog. Finally, I just made the decision that it’s my blog and I don’t think I should have any rules! So, here is my July reading wrap up and we are pretending that June didn’t exist.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
This has to be one of my best reads of the year so far! This book was really well received by people on bookstagram so I had a feeling I would enjoy it. But I didn’t just enjoy it, I LOVED it! It’s a really powerful read and definitely a book everyone should experience. I can see this becoming a required read for schools in the future because the message is so important! I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone!
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
I think, similar to Joyland, this is a great read for someone starting to read Stephen King. It is suspenseful with a touch of gore but reads more like a fiction novel than one classified as horror. I was able to get through this book quickly because it’s a pretty fast read. It isn’t my favorite King novel, I think that’s because I started out reading his intense stuff so this seemed like a bit of a let down. I’d still recommend it to a new Stephen King reader.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
I “read” this book through audiobook and I think I would have preferred it as an actual book. The story was good, but it wasn’t captivating enough to keep me fully interested during my drive to and from work. I found myself needing to rewind occasionally because I felt I missed something big. I like the lessons behind this story, that you don’t always know how one of your actions can affect other people’s lives, and it did have me reflecting on how I’ve lived my own life. All in all, it’s a good read but didn’t blow me out of the water.
Full Dark, No Starts by Stephen King
My dad purchased this for me from an old bookstore in Denver on my birthday, so I think reading it gave me warm feels for that reason. Of course, this being written by Stephen King meant those warm feels turned to cold chills rather quickly! This book is comprised of four smaller stories, none having anything to do with another. I like reading his short stories like this because I feel I can read one of his creepy short stories, then take a break on another book. I’m not someone who can follow two consistent storylines at once so this allows me to read two books at once and feel like I have it together! He nails the gore in the first story and the creeps in the others. It’s not my favorite Stephen King read but I did really enjoy it.
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
I loved this book until the end and then it lost me. Usually, I am a big fan of Ruth Ware’s writing. I liked The Girl in Cabin 10 and In a Dark, Dark Wood a lot and this book had a very similar feel as these. Ruth Ware does an awesome job of building suspense slowly without giving away the ending. She starts making you think you know what happens but changes it up on you multiple times throughout the book until you have no idea what will happen. I do love the unpredictability of her writing. I have to say the ending left me with questions and it ended so abruptly that I felt like the final climax of the book was a bit of a dud. If she had added another chapter or so this would have gotten a better rating from me!