Hi guys! October was kind of a terrible
reading month. Or not even kind of, it was
a pretty bad reading month both in terms
of how much I read and the quality of
the books I read. I ended up DNFing
two books, I was very frustrated with
another two, and I might possibly DNF one
of those, but I did complete another one.
Let's get fully into it. There was one
book that I really, really loved, but
that's, like, the only thing that was
really good.
So the first book I read was Coraline by
Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell because
I read the graphic novel version of this.
I'd only ever seen the movie, I haven't
read the book yet. But I decided to pick
up the graphic novel because I saw it on
someone's BookTube channel and they
convinced me because it was a spooky
time. This is about a girl who just wants
to go on adventures and explore, but she
feels very bored and unloved by her
parents. So she ends up finding a little
door where, when she goes through it,
everything pretty much seems the same,
except her parents are super loving and
super doting. The only problem is they
want her to stay with them forever and
sew buttons over her eyes. So it is a
pretty creepy story. But it is middle
grade, so it's not as scary as it could
be, which is perfect for me because I'm a
wimp. I thought that the art in this
graphic novel also really matched the
tone of the story. It was really, really
creepy. I didn't personally like the art,
but I think that it matches the story
really well, so I can appreciate it. I
couldn't really get the full effect of
Gaiman's writing because a lot of it is
just in the image form as a graphic
novel, rather than just, like, transcribing
the entire book. So I was a little bit
disappointed with that. But I will
probably pick up the book next year when
spooky time comes around again.
I would recommend it still. I think it's
a good adaptation and it's a fantastic
story. Next, I finished the second book in
the Queens of Renthia series, which was
The Reluctant Queen by Sarah Beth Durst.
This is a YA fantasy series that I
absolutely loved the first book. I love
the world in it so much. However this book,
the plot kind of fell through a little
bit. I loved the two new characters who
are introduced they were really, really
interesting. One of them was very
admirable and I loved her strength. The
other one was just so fascinating in her
immorality, it was just a joy to watch.
However, there were a lot of issues with
the plot. It was very, very slow and
sedentary. The first book was a lot of
traveling and exploring. This book is set
solely in the castle really, and you
don't really go anywhere, and it feels
very self-contained. And then sort of
building off of that, it seems like the
characters in the story kind of exist in
this little bubble where supposedly
they're ruling over this world full of
people, and yet no one really comes in
from the outside to kind of point out
what some of the consequences of their
actions would be. Like there's a whole
plotline from the first book that has no
real consequence in the second book. Like
it's not even brought up when this major
thing happened that I'm sure people
would want to know why or how, and it was
just never addressed. So that kind of
makes the stakes not seem very real. Even
when there's on page violence, it doesn't
feel real. There's like a disconnect
between how high the book says the
stakes are and then how high it actually
appears to be through the writing. There
are also sections of the book where
certain characters just disappear for
periods of time. It was a little bit
weird. I think that's more of like an
editing thing. And similar to that, there
were random bits of information about
the wolf that were just kind of thrown
in there and weren't really interwoven
with the story very well, so they kind of
stood out as odd. And I can see why they
were there because it looks like it's
setting up for the third book, but I
don't think it set up that plotline very
well at all. And then just some basic
character things where I feel like Ven
should be much more phased after the
events of the first book that he was. He
seemed way too calm and easygoing about
it. So there's just a little bit of
character work and plot work, I think,
that needs to go into this story. I still
really love the world; if you want
to hear more about that you can check my
wrap up where I go over the first book
in this series. I've forgotten the name of
it, but it'll be up in that video, so go
ahead and check that if you want to know
more about the world. And I really did
love the first book a lot. The second
book just wasn't quite right for me. It
was still enjoyable and a light read, but
it wasn't what I was hoping it would be
after the first book. The next book is
the one book this month that I
absolutely loved, and that was The
Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I listened
to this on audiobook with the full cast
and it is so good. Please do that, it's
fantastic. I also was listening to it
mainly on one day at work when it was
super dark and rainy all day, and it was
just the perfect atmosphere for it. I
loved my experience so much with that.
This is another middle grade from Gaiman
about a boy who ends up being raised by
a graveyard of ghosts. It's pretty
episodic in the first couple chapters,
but then they all tend to tie together
in the end into one overarching
storyline. I think that sort of setup
makes a lot of sense for a middle grade
novel, so I really appreciated that. This
is full of a huge cast of really lovable
characters. The tone is just perfect for
the spooky time, and it was just the
right amount of spook where it wasn't
too scary, but it also gives you the sort
of vibes that you're looking for at this
time of year, and it was just so good. The
way that Gaiman writes is always very,
like, whimsical and flowery, and it just
fits with the story so well. And I was
seriously tearing up while at work at
the end of this book, it was... I loved this
book so much. It was so enjoyable and so
sweet, and I would highly recommend it, especially on that audiobook version. If
not, even the book I'm sure would be
fantastic, or the audiobook narrated by
Neil Gaiman, because I know he does a
version of it as well. I really loved the
cast of characters. You get a lot of
different voices and music as well. It's
so good and it's such a kind of
heartwarming, sort of spooky, like, whole
experience. It is an
experience and I want everyone to
experience it because it's so good. And
then from here, we start going more
downhill. I read Trail of Lightning by
Rebecca Roanhorse, which was the Sword
and Laser book club pick for I think last
month, September, I think. I read it late,
but I've been meaning to read this book
for a really long time. It's an urban
fantasy based on Navajo myths and
legends. And it's a post-apocalyptic world
where a natural disaster has completely
flooded out, like, most of the world. And
there's only a few little areas of the
country that still are running, and one
of those is the original Navajo reserve.
And in addition to much the world being
wiped out, it seems like the legends and
myths from Navajo folklore are coming to
life and basically attacking humanity. So
I really loved this world. I thought it
was so interesting, especially because I
don't know anything about Navajo myths
and folklore, so it was such a treat to
be able to learn a bit through this book.
However, I didn't like anything else
about this book at all. I could not stand
the writing style or the character or
the storytelling. The character is very...
supposed to be badass and, like, super
tough and super strong. And so she has
this really annoying, cocky tone that
gets on my nerves so much, because it's
told in first-person so you're seeing it
from her perspective, and you get the way
that she narrates things in her head and
I-- it was driving me up the wall.
There's a lot of sentence fragments and
just really clunky writing. And a lot of
really cheesy flashbacks that I was
literally rolling my eyes every other
page with something that she said or
some sort of plot point that ended up
being, like, really obvious because also,
this story is very cliche. The whole plot
is nothing we haven't seen before. It's
very, very typical, and the whole badass
characterization was also very cliche,
and I was just getting so frustrated
with this book. The only reason I was
actually able to make it through is
because it's so short. It's like 200
pages or something, so I was like, "You
know,
I'm just going to put up with it and
push through it because it's won so many
awards and it's gotten so much acclaim
that I want to know why everyone loves
this book." So I ended up finishing it.
Didn't like it the whole way through and
I don't think I will be continuing with
the series. Actually, I won't be
continuing with the series because I
cannot stand that writing style. I wish
it was written in a bit of a different
way because I really loved the world, and
I think a lot of interesting things can
be done with that, but I cannot stand the
writing at all. And then I found that I
was having that problem again in my next
book, which is Seven Blades in Black by
Sam Sykes. I've not finished this book.
This one I am considering DNFing just
because similar to Trail of Lightning.
This has a really badass main character
with a really annoying tone because it's
being narrated from her perspective and
the sentence fragments are driving me up
the wall. There are floating pronouns
that don't seem to be attached to
anything, so it's making it really
confusing to follow what's going on. The
names in the story are really weird
where they're like phrases of things
like "Red Cloud" or "72 Broken Flowers in
a Broken Vase" or something. How am I
supposed to know that refers to a person?
What? I don't even know how to describe
the plot of this because it's really big.
It's a classic fantasy series in that
way, an epic fantasy series, that has this
huge world. There's, like, two sides with
an empire and then revolutionaries, and
then there's, like, people who are not
part of either side with the vagrants
and they have magic, and they're all, like,
trying to beat each other, and it's
really confusing. There are a lot of
questions raised in this book that I
have no answers to even though I'm, like,
a quarter of the way through the book,
which I guess isn't really that far. But
this is a really big book, so a quarter
of the book turns out to be like 220
pages. And I am not liking those 220
pages, which is why I've stopped reading
it for now. I have not fully decided if I
want to DNF it. I'm leaning toward
DNFing it just because I really can't stand
the tone again. If Trail of Lightning
was bad with the cocky tone, this one's
even worse. So I was able, again, to get
through Trail of Lightning because it
was short. This is not short. This is not
short. This is like 600 pages of just
frustration really for me. I wish again
that was written differently because I
feel like this could be a really
interesting story. And if you don't have
a problem with that sort of writing
style, then I think it would be a good
book. If that writing jives with you more,
I think you would be able to enjoy this
book, but I just am not getting along
with it really well. I can't stand these
conceited characters, it's driving me
insane. So this is kind of like an odd
one, just because I haven't finished it
but I also haven't officially DNFed it.
But I am leaning towards DNFing
it, so I don't know. Let me know what I
should do. Let me know if you've read
this at all. This is relatively new, I
think it came out in April of this year,
so I haven't heard anyone mention it at
all. I didn't know what this book was
until it was a Sword and Laser book club
pick, obviously, for October, because
that's the only reason I pick up books
that I don't really know. So if you have
any information on this, if it gets any
better, if it's worth it in the end, I
don't know. Let me know because I am just
very on the fence with this book right
now. I also just posted a reading vlog
where I was mainly reading this book and
you can see my thoughts more in real
time. I will link that as well if you're
interested. So at the end of the month, I
also participated in Ebookathon, which I
will leave all the information for down
below. And if you saw my TBR video, you
would know that I was not very hopeful, I
guess I would say, about my selections
for this read-a-thon. I was mainly
choosing books to see if I would like
them at all, or if I could just DNF them
quickly and get them off with my phone.
And so I wasn't really expecting to fall
in love with the books I was reading, and
I was pretty much spot-on.
The first book I tried to read was A
Lying Witch by Odette C Bell. I DNFed
this at 35 percent, which sounds like
a lot, but it's a very, very short ebook.
And so 35% really corresponded to, like,
maybe 30 minutes of reading, if that. But
this is about a deadbeat girl who is
just making money by being a fortune
teller online and kind of just spouting
lies to whoever wants to pay her 3 bucks.
And she ends up inheriting a house from
her grandmother as well as a curse. So
she very quickly finds out-- well, "very
quickly" finds out that magic is real and
that she now has a sexy Scottish
bodyguard to protect her from this
dangerous magic. So even from the
synopsis you can kind of tell what sort
of story this will be. It's not my kind
of story, in short. The writing is really
bad. Again, it's very clunky and very, very
cheesy. It's like the tone is trying to
be this like, 2011 YA romance,
paranormal romance, and it's not a good
look. There was just some really
obnoxious metaphors and similes that I
was just rolling my eyes at. Same with
the very tropey romance descriptions. The
guy is said to be like, so good-looking
and
talks in a low voice and is constantly
crossing his arms, and I was just like,
"Please stop." The editing is also kind of
terrible. There was one scene in
particular that was probably 15% of that
first 35%, and it went on forever
needlessly. They just kept going back and
forth and they're like, "I have powers?" "Yes,
you do." "But magic isn't real, I can't have
powers." "Magic's real, you have powers." "But
no, it can't be. Oh wait, but I remember
using my powers like an hour ago when
you taped me to a chair and pulled a
knife on me. But, but, magic isn't real." "Yes,
it is."
It was endless. It was so stupid.
And it was just... It went on for so long and it was
so unnecessary.
So this writing could definitely use a
bit more work. You could tell that it was
a pretty new author, and I just was not
interested in dealing with that sort of
writing or those characters or where
this plotline was going, because it was
pretty obvious from the start. So I DNFed
this. So because I had that sort
of experience with that book, I decided
to pick up the other book I had by this
author on my readathon list, and that was
A Time of Kings by Odette C. Bell again.
And again, I DNFed this at 11% this
time. There was definitely some
improvement in the storytelling between
A Lying Witch and A Time of Kings. A
Lying Witch was written in 2016 and A Time
of Kings was written in 2018, but there
were still so many issues. It's about a
dream shaman who escapes from the royal
family who have a monopoly on all of the
dream shamans. And these dream shamans
are capable of bestowing King-like
powers onto other people. So at the
beginning of the book, one of them
escapes, and then you go through a time
jump and you get introduced to the
escapee's apprentice and their house
that's been broken into. And that's
literally as far as I got because I was
just not feeling it again. It was the
same cheesey writing except with
extra typos, which was really odd
actually. And the pacing was still wrong,
the writing was still painful, and I was
just not in the mood to deal with that.
The story is definitely already more
complex and I can appreciate that. I can
appreciate how she's grown as an author
to sort of encompass more in her stories.
But I would prefer a more polished
version of the book with some better
editing before I pick it up and want to
finish it. So I DNFed that and I will
not be reading anything from Odette C.
Bell again, most likely. And those were
all of the books I finished in October.
Not very much
considering a lot of them were DNFs. I'm
not going to be too hard on myself. I did
take the GRE this month,
and I will be applying for my PhD
programs in November and December, and
then the holidays are coming up. So it's
going to get very, very busy for me in
the next couple of months and I don't
feel like I'm gonna be reading a lot. I
mean, I have literally The Dragon
Republic right here from R.F. Kuang out
from my library, and I've had it for, like,
a month, and I have not started it
because I just don't feel like I have
the time necessary to read this book. So
I don't know how my reading is going to
fare in these last couple months, or my
video making, but we'll see. I will try to
balance everything, but I am going to
prioritize my education, obviously. So
we'll see where it goes from there.
Hopefully, I will still be able to read
some more books and get some of those
end-of-the-year videos out in time as
well. So let me know any of your thoughts
on any of the books that I have talked
about today. Let me know what you loved
reading in October, if you found another
spooky but not too spooky read that I
might be interested in next year. And I
will see you later. Bye!
