Happy Monday, friends. This weekend was a bit of a quiet one for me, which I needed after an emotionally draining week. I didn’t even have the energy/inspiration to do my usual Wednesday and Friday blog posts! Whaaat. This week, I was also less inclined to read and more inclined to lump on the couch and watch episode after episode of Brooklyn 99 (which I’m rewatching and finding it to be such a comfort right now).
Somehow, though, I finished two books this week—a short, 5-hour audiobook and a contemporary romance that took me ELEVEN DAYS to read (unheard of for me, especially for a romance novel). Neither book was particularly great (in my opinion), so I’m hoping the problem with my reading life right now is just that I’m not reading anything super engaging, not that I’m losing my reading mojo.
I’m Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal (★★★☆☆)
In this YA novel, we follow two high school girls during a particularly brutal night in their lives. Lena and Campbell don’t know each other before the novel begins but will form an unbreakable bond by the end of it. The novel starts during a football game at the high school. Campbell is working at the concession stand and Lena has stopped by to get a Coke when a fight breaks out right outside the stand. The police are called as things escalate and Lena and Campbell have to figure out how to find their way out of the melee without getting hurt themselves. The novel switches back and forth between Lena and Campbell’s perspectives, and it should be noted here that Lena is Black and Campbell is white. Obviously, they are experiencing this night in two vastly different ways, and I found it to be such an interesting way to tell this novel (especially considering a Black author wrote Lena’s perspective and a white author wrote Campbell’s.)
YA novels can sometimes be hard to rate because, many times, the ones that may fall flat for me may be perfectly written for younger readers. I love it when YA books don’t feel YA, but I also recognize that’s not the point of this genre either. This is the kind of book that will likely be incredibly impactful for high school readers, but for me, I found it hard to sink into the story. There were so many details that didn’t make sense and seemed thrown in just to create tension. And so many other details were left out of the story, making it hard to form a connection with the characters. All in all, a book that is probably best left for the readers the YA genre is intended for.
Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur (★★★☆☆)
Annie has come to Seattle to visit with her best friend, Darcy, for two weeks… and to tell her that her job is relocating her to London. She decides to surprise Darcy with the visit, only to find out that Darcy is away on vacation with her girlfriend and won’t return for a few days. Enter: Brendan, Darcy’s brother who has had a crush on Annie his whole life. Brendan has some free time and decides to show Annie the best of Seattle while she’s here, and maybe also convince her that love isn’t a waste of time. Sparks fly between the two of them and it makes Annie question what she wants: Does she really want to move to an entirely new country for a job she doesn’t even really like? Or has she found her happily ever after in Seattle? It’s a sweet contemporary romance, but considering that it took me 11 freaking days to read it, it didn’t really keep my attention. I didn’t believe in the chemistry between Annie and Brendan, and I grew very tired of all the rom-com tropes (especially the grand gestures from BOTH characters at the end). I’ve read two novels by this author and neither have been particularly great, so I think she’s just not for me.
What I’m Reading This Week
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson – Still slowly making my way through this book (which I think is part of the reason why my reading has slowed down so much lately). I should finish it sometime this week, though!
- A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza – Another book I am reading oh-so-slowly. I only got through 150 pages last week! Ergh. I’m enjoying it, so I don’t want to abandon it, but I will also be happy when I finally finish it and can move on to something else.
- The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary – I loooooved Beth O’Leary’s debut, The Flatshare, and I’m hoping that I enjoy this one just as much! I’ll start it today or tomorrow.
What are you reading?
I think it’s the books you are reading and not you! Hopefully when you finish Caste and Place for Us, you’ll get your mojo back.
I finished “The Other Black Girl” and felt really meh about it. I was so confused for a good chunk of it as characters are introduced and you don’t know who they are and how they relate to the main story. It ends up coming together/wrapping up in the last like 30 pages. So you have like 300 pages of build up/wondering what is happening and then it abruptly wraps up. I think you were on the edge about reading this one and I’d say skip it… or if you start it and feel confused/like it’s a slog – abandon it! I wanted to finish it to see what was going on, but I don’t think it was worth it in the end. I just started the latest Jasmine Guillory book. I love her books and they are such a fast read for me! I’m also reading “The Thursday Night Murder Club” on my kindle which is about a group at a retirement community that solves mysteries. It’s really cute.
I just finished a book that I would recommend: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall. It’s a romance story, that features reality tv and it’s very inclusive and sex-positive. Quick, enjoyable read.
I hope this week is better for you, irl and in reading. I bet the irl feelings were seeping into reading, a bit.
That perspective makes so much sense on YA! I like the ones that transcend too, and when I read one of the more juvenile ones, I just don’t dig it.
I am reading a family drama, Count the Ways. It’s really good and heartbreaking, I just read so much less now it’s taking me a while to finish it! Hopefully I do before it’s due at Libby!