I haven't done a monthly review since February...and it is now the end of August which is wild. Between then and now I have actually read some books but I end up getting sidetracked between work and other current hyperfixations that doing reviews was put a bit on the backburner. But now I am back!
Let's get straight into the statistics!
In the months of March through August, I read 17 books, 4 novellas and 2 volumes of manga for a grand total of 22 titles, 3427 pages read. 5 of those were read in March, 9 in April, 3 in June, 2 in July and 3 in August.
If you want to check out my reviews, click on the pink links! Reviews for titles not linked can be found on my Goodreads page. Now, here are all the titles I read this month:
Come Closer by Sara Gran
You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
Dark Water Daughter (The Winter Sea #1) by H.M. Long
You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
Comfort Me with Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
Iron Flame (The Empyrean #2) by Rebecca Yarros
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
The Restorer (Graveyard Queen #1) by Amanda Stevens
The Kingdom (Graveyard Queen #2) by Amanda Stevens
The Prophet (Graveyard Queen #3) by Amanda Stevens
This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer
Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain #1) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
The Cardigans (Criminal Intentions #1) by Cole McCade
Junk Shop Blues (Criminal Intentions #2) by Cole McCade
What Have We Done by Alex Finlay
Little Beach Street Bakery (Little Beach Street Bakery #1) by Jenny Colgan
Kaiju No.8 Vol 1 by Naoya Matsumoto
Kaiju No.8 Vol 2 by Naoya Matsumto
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden
The Ruins by Scott Smith
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber
DNF GRAVEYARD
I ended up DNFing 4 books in that time and I am kind of sad about that because they were books I had high expectations for.
I first ended up putting down The Library of the Dead which I wasn't expecting to because it sounded like something I would love, and at the time I was still planning my trip to Edinburgh where the book is set so it was a fitting book to read. I don't know what it was about this book that made me immediately give up on it. Something about the main character, a 14-year-old girl who refused to help grieving parents figure out where their missing son went because they couldn't pay her just didn't sit well with me, and I didn't want to follow her story because of that.
The next book I put down was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. This had been on my TBR for quite a while now and I meant to pick it up several times before but never did. I mainly put this down because I found it to be rather dry but I might try to pick it up again later.
I DNFed The Shadow of the Wind... This one hurt. This has been a priority read of mine for a while now but I have been putting off reading it. Part of me is happy I did because this is set in Barcelona, and now that I have actually been there I can appreciate the setting more, but boy did this book bore me. I thought there was something wrong with me or something I wasn't getting because this book is incredibly well-loved, but I just couldn't get into it. I didn't care for Daniel and his romance issues or the mystery, and since that is pretty much all this book is my reading enjoyment went downhill real fast for me. It is a shame but at least it is one book I can take off my TBR.
Finally, I had to put down The Eyes are the Best Part. I put this on my TBR since I was looking for horror books and this was recommended if you wanted a book from the killers perspective. I quickly realised though that this was not for me and put it down straight away.
RATINGS
⭐....................
⭐⭐................5
⭐⭐⭐...........11
⭐⭐⭐⭐......5
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.
You know what...not that bad of a time here? Sure I have read some books that I regret reading, and the majority fall more into the 'meh', category, but I had some good books over the course of these months.
GENRES
Fantasy - 5
Horror/Thriller - 9
Mystery Thriller - 3
Supernatural Mystery - 3
Fiction - 2
A bit over the board here, but you can tell I was really, and still am, in the mood for horror and mystery thriller books. I have no idea why, but I really hope my mood doesn't fizzle out by the time October comes around.
Best - Assistant to the Villain
Worst - You Should Have Left and The Wasp Factory
Most Disappointing - The House of Last Resort
Most Surprising - The Restorer
Starting off on a high we have Assistant to the Villain which was just so much fun to read. I'm surprised that some people didn't like this because this just checked off so many boxes for me. Witty banter between the love interests, check, fanfiction-esque writing, check, magic and magical creatures, check.
Now moving on to the lows, I think I have found that horror books like You Should Have Left and The Wasp Factory are not my cup of tea...that is all.
The House of Last Resort could have had so much potential because we are talking about demons and creepy houses and catacombs here, but no, the author completely fumbled the concepts.
Finally, we have The Restorer. When I put this on my TBR I have no idea, but this book had no right being as good as it was. I love a good book where the main character can see dead people and there is a mystery subplot, so I am not surprised I enjoyed it on some level, but I wasn't expecting to pick up the next two books right away after that.
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