June Wrap-Up

I haven’t been able to pay a lot of attention to my blog, but I’m back, and I intend to stay! Hopefully I can catch up with my belated wrap-ups soon and actually share some more elaborate reviews and such:)

Rick Riordan – The Hidden Oracle (Trials of Apollo #1)

Rick Riordan definitely played on his strengths in this book: characters and humor. This book was so funny, and Apollo was a great main character. I especially loved seeing Will and Nico together. And the haiku chapter headings were a hilarious extra. Storywise though, each of Riordan’s books kind of follows the same format, and that can make the plots less interesting.

Lemony Snicket – The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1)

This book was exactly what I expected it to be based on the Netflix series! It’s one of those children’s books that make for a great read no matter how old you are, and it’s scary and funny at the same time. I’m really curious about the rest of the series!

Jenny Lawson – Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

This book was ridiculous, funny, wise, insightful, completely insane and really relatable all at the same time. You have to be able to appreciate Lawson’s very specific sense of humour, but if you do, I’d highly recommend reading it. Her stories reminded me a bit of David Sedaris, and some had me laugh out loud.

Ted van Lieshout – Mijn meneer

I read this book for my master thesis, and there are nine more to come.

Max Porter – Grief is the Thing with Feathers

This book is nothing like any book I read before, but somehow, it really works. There were parts I loved, and parts I didn’t fully understand very well (perhaps I’ll reread it sometime), but overall, it was still really moving.

Arthur Japin – Maar buiten is het feest

Another thesis book!

Jeroen Brouwers – Het hout

And yet another one…

Kristien Hemmerechts – De vrouw die de honden eten gaf

…and another one!

Lemony Snicket – The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events #2)

I enjoyed the episodes based on this book the most when I watched the Netflix series, and I really liked the book as well. There are some differences though, especially Count Olaf being a lot scarier in the book and less funny. I also liked the mystery that was built up in the series and I missed that in the book. But overall, it was a fun read.

Samantha Shannon – The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1)

I really wanted to like this book. Because I heard a lot of good things about it. And because it seemed to be just the kind of book I’d like. But I did not enjoy it. There is such a thing as a too complicated plot. This book was all over the place and it didn’t make sense to me at all. There were all sorts of terms that weren’t properly explained and the world building wasn’t clear enough. This made it really hard for me to keep track of the story and I did not feel connected to the characters at all.

Rick Riordan – The Dark Prophecy (Trials of Apollo #2)

I really love Rick Riordan’s humorous writing and again the characters were great in this book. Loved seeing Leo return!! But the story was too unoriginal to make this a great book. It was fun, but not amazing.

Ava Dellaira – Love Letters to the Dead

I picked up this book expecting a pretty regular ya contemporary, and I was pleasantly surprised, because this book is so much better than that! It was really well written and Laurel was an entirely loveable main character. The book is a bittersweet coming of age story, somewhere between The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and The Sky Is Everywhere. I loved the letters, and the way they were aimed at deceased stars added something to the story, putting it into a bigger perspective.

Renee Ahdieh – Flame in the Mist (Flame in the Mist #1)

This book was a disappointment, which is probably because of it being massively overhyped. I did love the writing style and there was a strong protagonist, but overall, the book was very slow until everything had to be wrapped up quickly in the last 50 pages. I was hoping to see a good depiction of Japanese culture, but Ahdieh did little more than throw in a bunch of Japanese words, which is not the same as world building.

Marissa Meyer – Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4)

This was, I think, the best book in the series. I love how Meyer connected all the different storylines, the interaction between the characters was both funny and sweet, and Winter was a great new main character. The ending wasn’t all that original, but that didn’t bother me at all. The book was over 800 pages long, but not once did I feel like it should have been shorter. All in all, The Lunar Chronicles make for a great feel good series for fans of sci-fi and fairytales.

Laini Taylor – Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer #1)

I’m unsure what to think of this book. On the one hand, I loved the writing, the main character, the mysterious vibe. On the other hand, I didn’t feel like a lot happened and I didn’t really feel invested in the story. I’ll definitely be rereading this book sometime.

Alice Broadway – Ink (Skin Books #1)

I hadn’t heard of this book before, but I received it in a Dutch book box. The concept is fascinating: all people’s achievements and major life events are tattood on their skin. This leaves no room for secrets. Or at least that’s the goal. The book revolves around the question what makes a person good or bad or whether everyone is both at once. I thought Leora was a very relatable main character: smart but insecure, and a lot stronger than she thinks. I’m definitely curious to read the next book in this series!

Lemony Snicket – The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events #3)

While this was again a fun one, I liked it less than the previous two books, because the format is starting to really show. Aunt Josephine really was a horribly annoying character, almost more so than Count Olaf. I hope to see more of the mystery behind the story in the following books.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, I had to read quite a few books for my thesis this month. But I still managed to read some really fun books, so I’m not complaining. I would especially recommend Furiously Happy, Love Letters to the Dead, and Ink. And of course The Lunar Chronincles!

Advertisement