spoiler free book reviews

Sorry, I dropped off the blog radar there for a few days but I was working on finals and there's only so much a girl can type per day. But now!!! I am free to yap away about whatever I want to my heart's content. 

So far this year I have finished 32 books (I'm aiming for a solid 2 more). This may sound impressive but to be completely honest most of them were ya novels read for the sole purpose of ignoring something I actually had to do. I also read all 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty books because I had become obsessed with the show. 

Anyway, here are some spoiler-free reviews of a few of the books I read this year.

 1. Bunny 3.5/5

I read this for my very famous and highly esteemed book club (founded by me of course). I have never personally been under the influence of psychedelic drugs but I have to imagine it is somewhat similar to reading this book. It's about a group of girls at an East Coast liberal arts college who are like weird and a little culty and always seem perfect. They actually have a weird dark secret and we watch as our main character descends into their world which is increasingly just bonkers bananas. 

I loved the feeling of reading this book though I think the plot was lacking. It's more of a vibe-focused book. I also think it's written in a way that seems like it should allow deep analysis and then it doesn't and you feel stupid because maybe you're just missing something. She also weirdly infantilized the main girls which would have made more sense if they were in highschool but not for women in a graduate program. I'd still reread it just to feel something and I love an unreliable narrator.

2. The Secret History 5/5

I could talk for such a long time about this book. I read it all while working my summer job at a greenhouse ( I also read the picture of Dorian Gray and the whole Lockwood and Co. series there) and in my eyes, it is an absolute masterpiece. For at least 2 weeks after this, I was questioning the meaning of humanity and the divide between good and bad. It was like that feeling you have after seeing a movie in theatres where the whole world feels different, except it lasted much longer. 

Donna Tartt's writing style is INCREDIBLE. My only wish is that she was a short-chapter gal because 600 pages and only 8 chapters is a little insane. Similarly to Bunny, it follows a group of East Coast college students who only study Latin and have an odd dynamic. They make many bad and life-changing decisions and we hear about all of them through an unreliable narrator. Each character also has a super weird vibe to them but for different reasons. One of them refused to take the SAT in high school because it did not "fit his aesthetic" which honestly is genius and sounds like something I would say. 

3. Upstream 

This was a book that I bought before reading, which I rarely do, but I had heard good things and even if it was bad it was gonna look good on my shelf because look at that cover. I remember that reading this felt like you were lying on the ground of a forest somewhere after it had rained and the air was fresh. 

It is a series of nature or writing-based essays that tend to just remind you how incredible and powerful it is to be a living being. There is one essay that I think about a lot, which is about a spider that lived under her stairs and how she could never bring herself to kill it. It's the kind of book that you read piece by piece and just sort of ruminate on, which sounds a bit cheesy, but I love nothing if not the dramatization of the average life.

4. Mist and Shadow  0.5/5

Hey, don't read this. Scarily similar to something I would have come up with in the 6th grade and about the same writing level. I believe I read this one night after seeing a video about it and thinking "I'm not doing anything else". Read it in one sitting and I'm glad I did because it would have been much worse over a long period. Don't get me wrong it was entertaining but sort of down the same alley as not being able to take your eyes off a car crash. 

It's a fantasy/action/romance, which could be good but is not. The characters have very little personality and the ones they do have are not particularly likeable. The plot is middling and carried out poorly. There are 2 more books that  I will only read in some sort of mental break (could happen).  Please do not look any further into this because I will be embarrassed.

5. The Hating Game 4.5/5

Now don't let it be said I am too much of a book snob. It's true that I rarely wade into romance novels because it's rare that they are written in a way I enjoy and also I'm already on thin ice concerning romance in media. However. I first watched the movie adaptation and became so obsessed with it that I bought the book. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I HATE (no pun intended) books with people on the cover. It's just never a good sign, but this is my exception. 

Do I think it should win awards? Maybe not. Did I enjoy reading it nonetheless? 1000% yes. It's a love story that starts with two colleagues who hate each other only to slowly realize they've been in love the whole time! incredible. Plus I actually like the way Sally Thorne writes. Minus half a point for how many times the MC mentions how small and petite she is...

That's all for now! I have many more thoughts on many more things but I feel that none of them would warrant a full blog post. Someday though I'm just going to make a stream-of-consciousness post and good luck to you then. Much love and Happy Holiday Season!!