March Wrap-Up

In March I got into a bit of a reading slump, which means I didn’t get as much reading done as I’d hoped. I still managed to read 16 books, but a lot of them were quite simple and thus very quick reads.

Vanshika Prusty – Rebel (How it all ends #1)

Read my review here: Review: Vanshika Prusty – Rebel (How it all ends #1).

Lesley Livingstone – The Valiant (The Valiant #1)

Click this link to read my review: Unboxing: Celebrate Books February & The Valiant Review.

Rainbow Rowell – Landline

What I love about Rainbow Rowell’s book is that they feel like reading one of the better romcoms. Her books are basically movies in book form! This one wasn’t her best though. To me, it felt a little too long and, because of that, empty. It was a really enjoyable read, but most of it was set in the past and in the main character’s head, and so in the end, I didn’t feel like I knew her husband Neil at all, while he was one of the most important characters.

Ernest Cline – Ready Player One

This book is perfect for any geeky bookworm! It’s an ode to sci-fi and fantasy, to gaming and comics, and to a lot of fandoms. But it’s not an empty book. It’s also about what is real and what is fake. What matters and what doesn’t. It’s a critique on society, but it offers a fun way out too. All in all, it’s not just an entertaining read, but it offers an important message as well. And all the references make it so much fun to read!! Definitely recommendable!

Naomi Novik – Uprooted

This book was a massive disappointment. I had heard so many great things about it and read a lot of positive reviews. Unfortunately, mine isn’t. I did not feel invested in this book at all – it annoyed me to no end. The main character wasn’t just young and innocent, she was intolerably naive and completely clueless. That did grow a little better throughout the story, but not until the end. She’s chosen to live with the so-called ‘Dragon’, a sorcerer who picks a village girl to come live with him every ten years. This sorcerer is utterly unbearable, but suddenly, for no visible reason, the main character likes him. Also, when the prince comes to visit and tries to assault her, she merely deems it unpleasant but not the biggest deal, which is quite incomprehensible. When it comes to the plot, this book was all over the place. There were quite a few interesting parts, but so much happened that it was just too much to even want to keep track of. All in all, it was fairly well written and well thought out, but for me, it lacked a lot of character depth and control over the story.

Neil Gaiman – Norse Mythology

This was such a great read! I expected it to be fun, and interesting, but I didn’t expect it to be this funny! It had me cracking up a lot of times. It was hard not to picture Thor and Loki the way we know them from the Marvel movies, but if anything, for me that added to the fun. The most interesting about this book is seeing how these myths have influenced all sorts of writers throughout the last centuries. If you’re interested in myths, and/or in fantasy, I’d highly recommend it!

Ashley Poston – Geekerella

To read my review, click here: Review: Ashley Poston – Geekerella.

Stephanie Perkins – Lola and the Boy Next Door (Anna and the French Kiss #2)

If you pick up this book hoping it’ll be as good as Anna & the French Kiss, you’ll be disappointed. It isn’t an unenjoyable story, and it has its cute parts – especially Cricket is a nice character, but it has more downsides. First of all, Lola is a manipulative, whiny main character, who doesn’t think of anyone but herself, which made her almost completely unlikeable for me. Second, Lola has two dads, and the book seriously goes through the whole arsenal of ways to explain that stereotypes aren’t true, which is plain out annoying and exhausting. Third, Anna and Étienne return and this book, and you might think that’s nice, but they’ve lost all their personality and act like an old married couple, which is, again, annoying. I do hope Isla & the Happily Ever After will prove to be better, because I already liked Isla in the first book.

Tahereh Mafi – Touching Juliette series (#1-3)

Read my review of this series here: Review: Tahereh Mafi – Touching Juliette series.

Eoin Colfer – And Another Thing… (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #6)

I saw a lot of mixed reviews of this book and that made me hesitant to read it. But I’m glad I did, because I think Colfer did a great job here! Of course he’s not Douglas Adams, but he doesn’t pretend to be. He makes the story his by putting a lot more emphasis on all kinds of mythology, especially Norse, which had me cracking up a lot of times. I loved all the different sorts of references. If you read it, see it as an hommage to Adams’ iconic Hitchhiker’s Guide.

Becky Chambers – The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1)

This was a very ambitious, very original read. Chambers clearly put a lot of effort into the world-building, and it paid off. It was so fun to read about all the different species and I felt it was very realistic how a lot of them had treaties and worked together. It especially reminded me of Star Trek, with the big difference that here, you don’t follow an official ship set out to explore, but a small business punching worm holes. The crew definitely held interesting characters and what I admired most was the way Chambers wrote about cultural and biological differences between species and how people were trying to deal with them. An example is the use of gender-neutral nouns like ‘xe’ (instead of ‘he’ of ‘she’) and ‘xyr’ (instead of ‘his’ and ‘her’). However, I felt that in her effort to write a realistic, fun and interesting world, Chambers kind of forgot that the characters – especially the main character Rosemary – should also be relatable and the reader should really get to know them. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case for me, no matter how loveable some of the characters were. Another thing this book lacked, was a clear plot. Chambers seems to have gotten a little carried away with her world-building and thus left out a clear storyline. There is, for instance, the storyline of why Rosemary has left Mars with a new identity patch, but that gets cleared up all too easy. All in all, this is a fun read, but it definitely has its flaws.

J,K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter #5)

Still my favorite book in the series!

Conclusion

The best book I read this month was definitely Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. Aside from that, I read two book that I’d highly recommend to every fangirl or fanboy out there: Ready Player One and Geekerella!