Hey there, I'm Olivia-Savannah from
Olivia's Catastrophe and I'm here to
give you
my July reading wrap-up. Month of July I
read 11 books and the theme for this
month is
if I didn't buddy read it did, I actually
read it?
So I'm not even going to break you in
easy here. I'm just going to go
straight for it and get it over with. The
first book that I finished in the month
was Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha
Shannon and this
book is a huge brick of over 800 pages. To finish this tome it took me two buddy
reading groups. So shout out to the most patient and
wonderful buddy readers. My instagram group which consisted of
Lucy from Lucyinbooktopia, Emily and also Munira from atouchofstarlightblog.
And then we've got
my booktuber friends who also read this
with me and those people are
Jade from Jaded Reader and Soleil from
The Little Reader's Corner. So Priory to the Orange Tree in this one
we
are in the kingdom of Innys which is run
by this queen. Queen Sabran. And queen Sabran has been
ruling peacefully for many many years
and she has been
secretly protected by Ead who is
someone with some powerful magic who's
watching over her. And the kingdom and the kingdoms around
it have a lot of tensions that are
beginning to rise.
While there is also an enemy, the
nameless one, who seems to be
possibly on the rise as well. The truth
of the matter is I didn't like this book.
In the beginning I
started to think I liked it. I thought I
was getting bbc
Merlin and Arthur vibes from Ea and
Sabran. We do have an ff romance in this one so
that is a good thing. But for me it just was incredibly,
incredibly
slow paced. We get a lot of politics
and a lot of backstory that we entirely
do
not need. We did not need that much
backstory of each and every individual
characters. We did not need that much politics. And
not enough of any action happening. There is one major accent scene at the
end
but it's so short and it takes so long
for us to get there -
I legit mean 700 pages to get there - that
it's not worth my time and by then I was
just too far gone.
We follow a lot of characters. Some I
didn't like, some
I didn't not like but I didn't feel
anything for. My lack of emotions,
the passivity I felt while I was reading
this book just ruined the experience for
me. It was just not exciting, it was not
interesting...
I was looking forward to a sapphic
romance but the romance just didn't even
do it for me enough. It was just kind of
randomly thrown in at moments.
So I feel like this book was just
too much dialogue, too much
informationm too much info dumpin. I
needed plot.
I needed depth of character. I needed
more understanding for character
motivations. I needed less subplots that
didn't really
amount to much. This book was over 800
pages and for something so big I just
expected
so so so much more. So this was
definitely my biggest disappointment
of this month and not one I recommend at
all really. But
if you're really into heavy world
building and politics maybe this could
be up your alley. Also,
side note, this was pitched to me as very
very very very feminist.
But I didn't get very feminist vibes
from it.
We do have more female characters and
more female focus than usual.
But it took a lot longer for it to feel
as feminist as I wanted
it to be or I assumed it would be from
what it was pitched to me as. The next
book I read was Clap When You Land by
Elizabeth Acevedo
and this was a five-star, new favourite
read.
This one we follow these two girls who
live in two different places. One lives
in America and one lives
in DR, The Dominican Republic. And
they don't know that they have a father
in common until a plane crash happens
where their father was on that plane and
they realise that
they might have a sister. I'm gonna leave
all of the content warnings for all of
the books that I read this month
in the description box below as I do
every single month. Just putting a
reminder out there if you're new here.
Clap When You Land -- that premise is
the premise but there's
so so so much more to it. We also have an
ff romance happening as a little side
thing and what can I say about this book? Elizabeth Acevedo's writing has just
been
fine pointed and perfected over time.
This novel in verse
was absolutely beautiful to read. I love
the way that she uses
and takes advantage of the novel in
verse formats to bring across these
emotions
all the more. Grief is at the forefront of
this book and we get to see both of
these girls
grieving in different ways. And I like
how it explores how grief can look
differently
for different people. We've got some
beautiful descriptions of The Dominican
Republic
but also about the differences living in
America and living in The Dominican
Republic as we get the two girls point
of view
and how their lives are different
depending on where they are. I like how
their lives kind of echoed each other
and it showed how their lives were
similar but also indescribably
different at the same time. Their
attitudes to each other and how they
experienced and handled their complex
family dynamic and situation as they
discover more and more,
felt utterly realistic to me and I'll
always be grateful to Elizabeth Acevedo
also Angie Thomas for bringing to the
forefront family dynamics
and complex family relationships that
are different from the family norms that
we see in a lot of
fiction. What more can i say other than
this book was absolutely fantastic and I
really
really recommend it. And we love to see
black girls on the cover of books. Then I read The City of Brass and this
was a buddy read with Nicole from
Who Picked This Book? I really enjoyed
buddy reading with her
and we had a blast with this book. This
one follows Nahri
and she lives in Egypt. Cairo where she
kind of thieves and cheats for her own
living.
And one day she does this ritual
to earn some money but she calls forth
more than she bargained for. And she ends up going on an adventure
into another world that she never knew
existed. It was so good. I think I need to
read more desert fantasy books. But this one was just so so so fun. It
was
really really creative which is what I
didn't expect. You also get to see some of the
religious practices and religion in this
fantasy world
being based off of the Muslim religion
so it was also nice to see that
representation in a fantasy book. I
really liked Nahri as our main character.
But we've also got some other
perspectives that are brought into this
book. And other male characters such as Dara
and Ali and I think it did a very good
job with them.
This one has some themes and discussions
about
privilege and poverty and how different
roles of power
mean you can have access to different
things. And it's talking about what is
the right thing to do
in situations like that. It has a lot to
do with history and how history affects
the present day.
But all of this is underlined in a
fantasy kind of setting.
We are seeing a royal family as well so
you get to see some of the politics
of this royal family manipulating people
and working towards their own
gain. I love the characters. I love the
complexity of the characters.
And how you see that nobody is unbiased
and nobody is perfect.
They all have flaws but their
relationships to each other and how they
interact with each other
was A+ and stellar and brilliantly
done. The only thing I'll say about this
book is that I thought the plot was
gonna
get going at one point but it doesn't
quite get going. It still reads very much
as a first book
in a series but it promises a lot of
things
that are going to be exciting and
interesting. The ending of this book
especially,
left me with some cliff hangers and some
exciting information that has me so
eager
to pick up the sequel. Next up we have
one of the reads that I read for All the
World's a Page and that is If We Were
Villains by
ML Rio. I buddy read this with Laura from
the chronic bookworm over on instagram
and
we had a lot of fun with this. I rated
this book five stars. It's another new favourite. So this is a
dark academia book where we follow these
Shakespeare theater students who are
in their final year of university and
are working towards their final
performance. However, this friends group has a very
unique dynamic and one thing leads to
another and
one thing leads to another. The
perspective that we get in this is
Oliver who's in prison
and he is talking to a detective about
what happened
to end up with him there. Wow!
This book was fantastic. But if you do
like Shakespeare's plays this kind of
the -- the prose is still contemporary
prose but sometimes reads a little bit
like a Shakespeare play. The book is set in acts and scenes so it
has that Shakespeare element to it. We've got characters who fit the roles
that many characters play in
Shakespeare's plays.
And a plot that could very well have
been a Shakespeare play as well.
We also have these prestigious
university students who are in love with
Shakespeare's work and kind of quote it
in their conversations. So you've got
that aspect of the Shakespeare side of
things.
But it's also a dark academia thriller
kind of read where we know a crime has
been committed
and we get to see the lead up towards
that crime and then
why Oliver ends up in prison.
I thought it was so interesting because
the friendship dynamic in this one
is so complex and so twisted. They are all kind of horrible people but
also
very very human people. And the way they --
they're just all entirely too close to
each other. I really loved some of the
characters. I really loved James as a
character.
I really loved Oliver as a character. Oliver is so smart but at the same time
so oblivious. I definitely related to different
elements of James and Oliver. But
Philippa was also someone who absolutely
stole my heart and kind of stole the
show for me.
I don't want to say too much because I
don't want to give anything away. And
while I think the ending is not as
unpredictable as
it could be... I also think it's
unpredictable in some other ways.
It went somewhere I didn't expect it to
go at the end. All in all if you love
Shakespeare you're probably
gonna love this. But if you love dark
academia and you've not read any
Shakespeare plays, I also think you could
really enjoy this book. The next book I
read is The Court of Miracles by Kester
Grant and I buddy read this
with Raquel from raquelbaggins. I did say
when iIunboxed this in my illumicrate
unboxing that I wanted to read it next
because it was so beautiful. And I did that. So this one is a Les Mis
retelling
set in this fantasy world. And we follow
this girl whose sister gets sold into
the court of miracles.
There's different guilds in these courts. And her sister gets sold into the court
of flesh. And she decides that she's going to
rescue her but in order to do that she
might have to
sell out her other sister. And she has to
choose between them.
I thought this book was just okay. It
disappointed me a little bit.
And how do I put this in a way that's
understandable?
There's absolutely nothing wrong with
this book. There's nothing that I didn't
like. The plot is still there, the characters
are there, the world building is there. However, I think all of it lacked the
depth that would have made this a great
book.
I didn't feel anything for the
characters. I didn't feel anything for
the plot. I feel like some elements of the plot
were just solved a little bit too
easily? And were just resolved so easy
that I didn't feel any of the suspense
and the drama that you feel because the
stakes are just not high enough. And as
for the world building, it was there, it
was present. I could see the elements of the Les Mis
retelling. We've got the revolution
happening.
But it still just wasn't enough for me
to feel fully immersed.
So while this book brought everything
that it promised to bring to the table,
it didn't bring it to the table in a way
where I could connect and really
feel and get emotionally connected to
this story. I feel like overall it was
just surface level. I kind of recommend this to people who
are beginning in the fantasy genre and
kind of easing their way in,
rather than people who have read a lot
of fantasy and want to
sink deeper. After that I read When Life
Gives You Mangoes by
Kereen Getten. And I buddy read this one
with Gavin from How to Train Your Gavin.
And I really did enjoy reading this one. There's not that much that I can tell
you without giving the game away. But we follow this girl who lives in
Jamaica. This is a middle grade book. And she can't remember anything that
happened last summer. And when a girl moves to Jamaica from
England called Rudy and they start to
become friends,
she slowly starts to remember more and
more as a storm is brewing in Jamaica.
I really love this. I love this for a
number of reasons. First one being that I
read a book set in Jamaica. I haven't
read a book set in Jamaica before
but it made me miss Jamaica so much? I
loved seeing ackee and saltfish and guineap
mentioned in this book. Those are foods
that I never really get to see mentioned
in the literature that I'm reading. I thought it did a very good job of
portraying believable child characters. And some of the frustrations that the
child feels about parents
like, talking over her and talking about
her as if she's not there or not
understanding her
or when they play imaginary games... Those all felt like very realistic
children things to do. The first half of
the book felt a little bit slow paced
but it's working its way up to a
brilliant plot twist.
And you just have to hang in there. It's
not too long of a read so if you hang in
there it's going to be worth that wait. It's going to be worth the time you
invested. And by the end of this book I
was incredibly
satisfied with the way that this book
went and what it discussed and what it
talked about. It handles a theme that I really really
love but I don't want to say anything
because I don't want to give you any
spoilers. Just trust me. Read this one and let me
know what you think. This one comes out in October 2020 so
you should be
pre-ordering it and looking forward to
reading it too. Then I'm going to talk
about
Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception. This
is the fourth book in the Artemis Fowl
series. And I buddy read this with Gaia from Gaia
Athena. We've been buddy reading the
whole series together
and all I can say is that I absolutely
head over heels loved this book. It was
another new favourite. I had three five
stars this month. How
fantastic. This one blew me away but I
don't want to tell you anything about it
because I don't want to give you any
spoilers.
So I'll tell you about the first book in
the series in the hopes that you go and
pick that one up. Which is a heist story. We follow Artemis
Fowl who's a 12 year old
criminal. And he hears about this very
world that exists and he believes it
exists.
And if you kidnap a fairy they have to
give you the ransom gold. And he decides
he wants that ransom gold. In this one so
much has happened since the first book.
But the author has yet again managed to
raise the stakes
and raise the excitement. They were put
into a situation that I did not believe
that they were going to come out on top
of.
So every time that I put this book down
it physically hurt me
because I needed to turn the pages. I
needed to know what happened next. I
wanted all of my characters
to be okay. It was a struggle. It was an
emotional struggle. There was some
emotional turmoil in this one.
I love all of these characters. I just
realised how much I love all of them.
The whole lot. And I love their
relationships to each other. Something
happens in the third book in the series
which changes up
the relationship dynamic that these
characters have between each other. And
then in this one
you get to see the effect of that. And
how it works into the story. I also really like that the author
always gives time to just mention
some really nice things. He talks about
animal abus,  he talks about the
environment and littering,
he talks about sexism in the work
community. He effortlessly
weaves this into the story so it's not
like, preaching at the child,
but it's just a little bit of a mention
here and there so you do get some good
ideas that I think it's good for
children
to take note of and be aware of. It's
just
so much fun plot wise, such great
characters,
brilliant world building. He's always
adding to the world as you get further
into the books.
What can I say except that I loved it
and you should be reading this series?
Then I read Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
and I'm not going to talk about this too
much. I'm reading this for my read it
backwards series.
This is the third one in the Twilight
Saga and I'll have a link up there and
down below.
So that you can go and hear all of my
thoughts on this book. I did enjoy it. If you watch that video you get to hear
about hangry Edward and what he does
when he's hangry.
You get to hear about why I dislike
Jacob so much.
You get to hear about why the side
characters are infinitely the best thing
in this series. And also about plot
versus character backstory.
That's all waiting for you if you go and
watch that video. And then last but not
least we have
the three Shakespeare plays that I read
for All the World's a Page. And I'm not
gonna hold up this complete Shakespeare
collection
because it's very heavy. So the first one
I read
was King John and that's because history
plays aren't usually my jam. And one of
the challenges
was to read from a genre of Shakespeare
play that you don't usually read from.
However, King John was an okay play. It's
very military focused. It's about King
John
and it was just okay. I don't really have
that much to say about it other than
there was enough action to keep it
interesting. But I didn't particularly
care for any of the characters
so I didn't feel a deeper connection to
this one. And it doesn't drive home any
big themes and I'm a very thematic
reader when it comes to Shakespeare. So
for me that was just okay. The second one that I read was King
Henry the fourth part two. And I really enjoyed this. I'm incredibly
biased because I liked
King Henry the fourth part one and my
favourite character in that
was Falstaff. And we get to see a lot
more of Falstaff in this one. He is absolutely hilarious and he's
sassy
and he's a drama queen. So I absolutely
loved getting to see
more Falstaff. I did also like the
friendship aspect of the first one and you get to
see how that friendship develops in this
one too.
My biggest problem with King Henry iv
part two is that it felt a bit
repetitive. It's almost like the character
development that happened in the first
part
was undone so we could get to see that
character development happen again in
the second part. Which we didn't necessarily need. I was
talking
to Ken from Rineheartreads?? He just
changed his instagram username
and he mentioned how it would have been
infinitely better if part
one and part two of this play were made
into one play. And I actually agree with that. I think
that would have been fantastic and he
could have cut out some of the
repetition. And last but not least the last play
that I read on the last day of the month
was Julius Caesar. I
entirely read Julius Caesar because that
was one of the main plays mentioned in
If We Were Villains
that i hadn't read. It was in fact the
only mentioned play that I hadn't read
so I was like: I need to read Julius
Caesar. And I absolutely
loved reading this one. I'm again biased
because a
I just read If We Were Villains and it got
me hyped up for this one. I  also already like the Julius Caesar
story. And we get to see Mark Anthony in this
one. If you've read Anthony and Cleopatra you'll
know that Mark Anthony
is this emotional man who challenges
preconceived ideas of masculinity in
Shakespeare plays.
So we get to see him be emotional. We get
to see him be feminine. And
he is exactly the same way in this play. So I loved getting to see him again and
see him
be his fantastic self. I really like this
play because of the theme
of loyalty and betrayal when it comes to
friendship. And you get to see two
characters who kind of embody those
elements. And how they interact and deal
with the situation here. Loved all of the
politics. Loved all of the drama and backstabbing.
I'm here for it. It was so much fun to read and I was
incredibly satisfied by the time I
finished reading this play.
And there you have it. Those are all the
books that I read in the month of July.
Please let me know in the comment
section down below: what was your
favourite read of the month in July? Or
have you read
any of the books that I mentioned here? Please give this video a thumbs up if
you enjoyed it, hit the subscribe button
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And you know what they say: onwards and
upwards. Excelsior!
What is it about? What does it tell you
that it's about? Because I don't even
know what this book was about...
so
you
