What is it about January being about a thousand years long? I don’t understand how we aren’t halfway through the year, at the least. Since the last update times have been a bit stressful, I’ve been trying to very last minute put a PhD application together for a studentship at a university close-ish to where we are living right now so it has been INTENSE. I’m currently waiting on feedback for my very rushed and jumbled proposal, I’m not feeling super confident but I’m glad I managed to get SOMETHING done because I had not been as engaged with my PhD prep as I wanted to be recently.
So with all that stress and a deadline looming of course I managed to get some more reading done than usual, shout out to my procrastinating self.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
After falling in love with the Six of Crows duology last year I thought it was time I picked up the original books from the world that I fell in love with. For the very few that haven’t read this series already, Shadow and Bone follows Alina Starkov as she discovers that she has a previously undiscovered power, and is potentially the only person that can save her country from the darkness that is taking over. This book was… fine. I was kind of disappointed that ultimately it is pretty standard YA fare from this time period. It was a quick, easy read but nothing super special. I did find the characters of the Darkling and Magda really well written, but everything else was just pretty flat, if easily consumable. I have to put this out there now because it will come up throughout this post: I cannot stand Mal, what a waste of a love interest GOD DAMN.
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
I was hoping to have finished this well over a month ago, but I only managed to finish it at the beginning of January. I listened to this on audiobook and for the most part I really enjoyed the audiobook, but I think I definitely would’ve gotten more reading the physical copy I have because boy did I zone out in some moments listening to this. I think the main issue with that is that this was a LONG audiobook, and I struggled to keep track of all the character and where anything was happening. Also I know its a product of its time and bla bla bla but did Dickens really have to give Fagin a name, and then just CONSTANTLY refer to him as ‘the jew’. This was one of the big reasons my brain kind of checked out of listening because it came up A LOT and I just felt pretty uncomfortable about it. When I was engaged and comfortable listening though I was enjoying it, the story is so much more intricate and complex than I thought. That being said, whilst I planned to listen to a lot more Dickens this year I think I’m not prioritising that so much right now.
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Whilst I didn’t have stellar mini-review of Shadow and Bone there but I enjoyed it enough to go on to the next book in the series, half still out of love for Six of Crows and wanting to know more about the world, half out of just wanting another easy read I could relax into. Siege and Storm was very much the same as Shadow and Bone for me, another digestible yet not super engaging read. I just want to make it clear I really don’t dislike these books, they’re the epitome of a three star read for me: absolutely fine when you’re reading them, but once its over its I am checked out. I found myself missing the setting of the Grisha school and royal court in this book, but the introduction of a few new characters with strong personalities helped a lot.
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
This was definitely the strongest of the series, even with the bloody ‘i am become a blade’ tattoo which I never want to have to think about again but CANNOT for the life of me forget. The characters all developed a lot in this book, and I loved the rag-tag bunch of rebels that formed throughout this novel, I just wish it had that energy from the beginning. Whilst I wasn’t a massive fan of the overall ending, I still was left the book knowing I’d enjoyed the ride.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
I’m back on my reading of all Oscar Wilde’s plays, finally! This was a reread for me, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time round as I did the first. The Importance of Being Earnest is typical of Wilde in that it is full of wit, has an abundance of entertaining confusions and manipulations, and is generally just a lot of fun. I haven’t ever watched the film adaptation with Reese Witherspoon and I have no idea why, so I’ll be sure to look out for that ASAP. If you’ve seen it, be sure to let me know if its worth a watch (although I will probably watch it anyway for Reese Witherspoon alone)
Misfit City vol. 1 by Kiwi Smith
After Giant Days finishing I thought it was time to try and get over the loss of my favourite graphic novel series and pick up another one. Misfit City takes place in the location of a famous 80’s kids adventure movie, a play on The Goonies (which I’ve never actually seen) called The Gloomies. Like most great graphic novels at the moment, Misfit City follows a group of unique friends with their own lives and interests, thrust together with an adventure. The adventure in this instance consists of a treasure map left to the museum Macy works at, in this volume our heroines face all kinds of villains and slightly terrifying characters desperate to find the map. I didn’t fall immediately in love with this graphic novel, but it was full of atmosphere and I do intend to pick up the next one soon.
Filth by Irvine Welsh
Filth follows Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson (and the tape worm inside his gut gaining consciousness and self-awareness) over the Christmas period. This book is essentially ACAB: the novel. There is no redeemable character, there is no happy ending, and the whole book is genuinely pure filth. It is not a comfortable or easy read by any stretch of the imagination, at best it is uncomfortable and at its worst it is genuinely vomit-inducing. But it is great. I don’t know how, because every part of it is objectively terrible, but it is a great book. You’re just gonna have to trust me on this one.
Those are the 7 books I’ve finished in the past couple weeks, its been a pretty average time reading rating-wise, but I’ll take it and I hope I can keep the pace up!
Hows 2020 been treating you so far? Any stressful and unexpected deadlines you want to cry about? Let me know!
Claire Reviews Stuff 