journal scraps
The Year of the Witching
Pretty fun.
Under the Pendulum Sun
Love this book so much. Perfect if you enjoy horrific fairy tales.
The Other Bennet Sister
Light-hearted and a bit silly.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
No idea why I liked it so much, but somehow I both loved and hated the protagonist.
Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts
Takes on way more than it can handle. This book doesn't know tonally whether it wants to be a boring verison of the Goonies, an unearned meditation on grief, or an exhaustingly in-depth tour guide to Boston. It manages to miss all three, and you should miss this book.
The Bloody Chamber
Angela Carter is the master of feminist magical fairy tales. A must-read for anyone (unless you're squeamish).
Peaces
Playful, avant-garde, and just the right length. This book works best when you just go with it and lose yourself in it. People who prefer solving or dissecting books should pass on this one, but if you can allow yourself to indulge in the moment-by-moment whimsical feel of this, you will enjoy the romp immensely.
Harlem Shuffle
I just kind of found it depressing in the way that I sometimes find TV shows where no one communicates properly to be depressing.
In the Night Garden
I don't always like short stories but this was solid.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Feels like a fairy tale. Slow-burn of a novel and yet I wanted it to last forever. Seriously amazing.
Home Before Dark
Definitely picked up as it went along - a solid, twisty book. Great summer spooky thriller/mystery read! The pacing wasn't always amazing and the characters weren't always believable but otherwise solid book.
Allusion
Ooh wow this book was really bad. Cardboard characters, awkward writing, straight up incorrect use of words or phrases. The mystery wasn’t compelling and honestly it was flat-out unbelievable. A pretty mindless read.
This Savage Song
Pretty dang good. A bit predictable and I’m personally tired of stories that take place in a high school, but a really decent, breezy read with interesting worldbuilding. Good if you like urban fantasy.
House of Leaves
Went straight to being my favorite book of all time.
Wheel of the Infinite
Great worldbuilding, satisfying ending, wish it were longer! If you like a different take on high fantasy, give this a try.
The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimmage
Surreal, may creep people out.
Our Dark Duet
I really enjoyed the first book, but unfortunately this book was cliched and full of some rather silly YA tropes. The character development was non-existent and the ending was super rushed. I really wanted to like it, but unfortunately it didn’t deliver.
Annihilation
So incredibly good - haunting, mysterious, and terrifying.
Normal People
Hey, I liked it. Maybe that makes me basic.
Authority
Very different from Annihilation but that’s not a bad thing at all. The good: excellent length and pace, lots of the same mysterious ambiguity of the first book but with a few more answers and a few more questions, great characters. The bad (?): it is definitely a middle book - lots of things remain unanswered and it feels like very little progress is made.
Shadow and Bone
I would have loved to read a version of this story that had a bit more internal reflection, a character with flaws and motivations where she could learn and change and adapt, and where the pacing allowed for more reflection and time to let the characters and events breathe.
First Person Singular
It didn't grab me.
Bruiser
Lots of good character development, some really interesting existential questions, fascinating writing style depending on who narrated which chapter, and excellent plot and satisfying ending. A really solid read, great for a long trip.
Frozen Charlotte
This was fun! I picked this up solely based off some reviews I had read and wasn’t expecting it to be middle grade (sometimes it’s so hard to gauge these things from other people’s reviews). It was still a pretty good book, though definitely not very scary.