Happy Monday, friends! I thought I would have a much bigger reading recap for you guys, since I took last week off but I went through a fun period of starting and abandoning books left and right. I think I ended up abandoning like 3 or 4 books last week! Ack.
Anyway, I have two books to review today as I at least ended up finishing something last week. Let’s dive in:
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado (★★★☆☆)
In this YA romance, Charlie Vega is a fat, Puerto Rican teenager who loves writing romances online. She has a best friend, Amelia, who is thin, Black, and beautiful, and she always seems to be coming in second to Amelia, especially with the guys at school. Charlie’s mom, who used to be fat but then lost a bunch of weight, is continually pushing weight-loss shakes at her. And then there’s Brian, a cute classmate of hers who she starts flirting with and it seems like she could really have her own love story with him. This novel is your classic adorable YA love story, and it has excellent representation. However, for me, it was a very YA story. Which is fine! It’s YA, after all. And I’m not its intended audience. I found Charlie to be so grating at times, but teenagers can be like that, you know? I felt like there wasn’t any nuance to her relationship with her mom and it wrapped up in a way that didn’t feel real and didn’t address the real issues at the heart of their relationship. All in all, a fine book that I think will appeal to a younger audience, but it wasn’t my favorite.
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager (★★★★☆)
I think thrillers might be my perfect antidote to a reading slump. Whenever I feel blah about my reading life, I can usually count on a thriller to pick me up. In this novel, Maggie Holt’s father has just died and she finds out that she has inherited the haunted house that made her family famous. They lived in this house 25 years ago but a series of suspicious events involving ghosts and other paranormal activity caused them to leave in the middle of the night, never to return. Maggie’s father ended up writing a best-selling book about their experience living in this house for two weeks, and ever since, Maggie has been trying to forget about the book and the house. Unfortunately, now she has to return and find out just how much of the book was fact and fiction. I really liked this thriller and I found Maggie to be a super enjoyable character. The novel definitely had me wondering just how much I believe in ghosts and paranormal activity, for sure. Not one of the best thrillers I’ve read, but a good enough story to keep me entertained last weekend.
What I’m Reading This Week
- Act Your Age Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert (e-book) – I’m actually really enjoying this book, even though I was a little “meh” on it in the beginning. It’s been a nice, easy read.
- The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta (audiobook) – I have a few hours left in this audiobook. I like it a lot!
- The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women by Jessica Valenti (print) – I was deeply entrenched in purity culture during my teen years and for a good portion of my twenties, too, so this book is particularly meaningful to me. I’m about halfway done with it!
What are you reading?
It’s becoming harder and harder for me to read YA, too. I’m just not the audience anymore and that’s FINE. I am not OLD and BORING and unrelatable to the young people. Get off my lawn and stop doing tricks on those electric scooter things – you’re going to break open your head.
I love Talia Hibbert’s books. Once I changed my mindset from “romance” to “wish fulfillment fantasy,” while I was reading, it made those books such a joy to read.
Happy reading this week!
I think I’ve accepted my lot in life as old and boring when I was at the pool and was getting so nervous about all the kids jumping into the pool where the water wasn’t even that high. Is this what I’m spending my pool time doing now? Worrying about a random kid’s head?!?! Sigh.
Wish fulfillment fantasy is a great way to describe MOST romances, lol. It hasn’t been great for my dating life to be reading all these romances and realize the real thing isn’t anywhere close.
I’m reading a very light mind-candy book called The Lies That Bind. It’s a super fast and easy read. I’m still working my way through A People’s History of the United States, so it’s a nice balance to that extremely heavy and dense book. I’m also in kind of a boring chapter, all about the start of unionization, and strike breaking, etc., which makes for pretty dry reading. Anyway! The Lies That Bind. Fun and light.
I still like the occasional YA but I find I am REALLY not the audience for “young women’s memoirs.” For some reason I can handle YA much better than 20-something angst.
I need to get my hands on A People’s History of the United States – sounds like a book that’s right up my alley, but definitely needs that “Slow and Steady” approach!
Do you listen to Jen Hatmaker’s podcast? She interested a therapist that works with people who grew up in purity culture to help them work through their feelings/shame around sex. I grew up Catholic so we weren’t exactly in the purity culture movement, but very adjacent/similar in how sex was discussed and the emphasis on virginity.
I am curious to hear what you abandoned! I always find that really fascinating! Over the weekend I finished “Cultish” which was “just ok” and then I started “Oona Starts Over” which I am really enjoying. I think you gave it 4 stars. It is a page turner for me and very propulsive because I want to know what happens when she gets dropped into another year!
I don’t listen to Jen Hatmaker’s podcast but I really want to listen to that episode. That’s been the hardest thing for me when it comes to deconstructing purity culture – letting go of my shame around sex!
Really interesting mix of books… And this also reminded me of why YA books drive me oh-so-slightly bonkers. 🙂 Thanks for the reminder!
I’ll be really interested to read your take on the last of the current books, given your own experiences growing up. (I’m sure you’ve posted it already, I Just need to catch up!)