I didn't get to read many books this year but I still managed to squeeze some in, so here is a brief summary of the books I got to read the last half of 2024.
This last half of the year I read nine books, but three were rereads so I count it as six books. Here are some thoughts on them.
Title : Graveyard Heart
Author : Kala Godin
Genre: Poetry
Pages: 127
Own/Borrowed/ARC: eARC *Special thanks to the author Kala Godin for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: October 1, 2024
I rate it : ★★★★☆ This is not the first book of poetry that I read by Kala, nor do I hope will it be the last. Each poem driven by personal experiences wanting to be shared, not pitied. To be understood, not analyzed. A brutal realistic lens into the world of someone with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2, chronic pain and the life they lead and the world that presses back against them. With quotes like:
So, I make a choice, Even when I feel like it isn't my choice. Even when the terror of it sits, hulking, stuck in my breastbone. I will be okay. Because that is my only choice...
That shows not just the own authors inner struggle but also the struggles against this unfair and unjust world. It's a reflection that does not ask for your pity, nor does it ask to be martyred - just asks to be seen.
I highly recommend you give not just this one but also Kala's other works a read.
Title : The Watchers
Author : AM Shine
Genre: Fiction, Horror
Pages: 310
Own/Borrowed/ARC: borrowed
Publication Date: October 14, 2021
I rate it : ★★★★☆ After the movie came out earlier this year, I read this with Knight Light Podcast Book Club since so many of us were interested in it. I had watched the movie first and while it was a disappointment to me, my curiosity on the original material grew. I'm glad that it did. There is a lot left out of the film, as there usually is, that the book provides. The characters in the movie felt bland and one dimensional while in the book they all felt fleshed out and had many motivations and aspirations, and didn't do anything that didn't seem out of character for what we were told about them.
Quote that stuck with me:
“Was this how it must feel to die and return as a ghost? To see how the world moved on without you, only to find that it never even realised you were gone.”
If you saw the movie and were disappointed by it, the book won't disappoint you. I look forward to reading the sequel.
Title : Jawbone
Author : Monica Ojeda
Genre: Fiction, Horror
Pages: 310
Own/Borrowed/ARC: borrowed
Publication Date: October 14, 2021
I rate it : ★★★☆☆ I read this with Knight Light Podcast Book Club as well and as much as I wanted to like it, I just couldn't seem to. While I resonated on some ends about how vicious being a girl can be in the world, along with how crude girls can actually be. The complicated relationships between all of womankind, from mother to daughter, to teacher to student, friend to friend, and oneself to the rest of the world - I really wanted to like it, but alas it fell short to me. Filled with pop culture references ( a lot of Taylor Swift and Creepy Pasta/Reddit references ) and shock value scenes/moments, by the end of it I just felt like it was too long for what it was trying to say. Had it been a little shorter and a little less of the references, I might have enjoyed it more.
Quote that stuck with me :
Monsters have to be taught how to be good daughters.
I enjoyed the unreliable narrator portion and what this book was trying to bring to the forefront, that girls can be just as vicious and grotesque as boys can. The girls are violent and manipulative to each other in ways that are hidden from others and can use their preserved innocence to their advtantage. That when faced in a world of being seen but not heard, or understood, girls can be violent in ways that people don't think or believe possible.
Title : Mirrored Heavens
Author : Rebecca Roanhorse
Genre: Fantasy, fiction,
Pages: 597
Own/Borrowed/ARC: eARC provided through Netgalley
Publication Date: June 4, 2024
*Special thanks to NetGalley and SagaPress for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I rate it : ★★☆☆☆ I am starting off by saying that I am a big fan of Rebecca Roanhorse and the worlds and characters she creates. Black Sun, the first in this trilogy, is one of my favorites. Setting up this world and the people we follow, it creates a world that I wanted to explore more. That being said, I felt unfulfilled when it came to the ending of this series. The characters seemed to be uncharacteristically themselves by then end of it. One, despite loving another and wanting to nothing more than to live a life with them, isolates themselves in remote mountains for years on their own. While the other character spends years trying to find them. Then there was no growth at all for another character, he was just as a pawn twice over and then died. I just didn't enjoy this end. Again, this is a me thing not an author thing. I just was expecting something else.
Quote that stuck with me:
“I have saved a place for you, my love. In the quiet spaces between the stars. -The Obregi Book of Flowers.”
Title : N0S4A2
Author : Joe Hill
Genre: Horror, fiction,
Pages: 692
Own/Borrowed/ARC: borrowed
Publication Date: April 20,2013
I rate it : ★★★★☆ This as a book club read with Horror Lovers Unite! and I have to say that I enjoyed it. There were moments that made me want to hate it, it was vulgar, and the point of view we got of one of the villains made me want to vomit at times. I stuck with it because I was in love with the main character and everyone in her life. I cheered for Vic and all the side characters on their plight with this entity. It is not for those who can't deal with a lot of bad topics, such as sexual assault, rape, murder, gore, child abductions, etc. many trigger warnings going into it.
Quote that stuck with me:
“The difference between childhood and adulthood, Vic had come to believe, was the difference between imagination and resignation. You traded one for the other and lost your way.”
Title : Snow
Author : Ronald Malfi
Genre: Horror, thriller, fiction
Pages: 311
Own/Borrowed/ARC: borrowed
Publication Date: January 1, 2010
I rate it : ★★★★☆ This was another read with with Horror Lovers Unite! and I enjoyed very moment of it. It started fast, plopping you in the middle of the action before introducing you to the main characters and how they find themselves in the middle of this event. I can totally see this being a mini series or even a movie, it is fast paced and takes you on a ride that does not let up. I can't say much without spoiling so I will leave it at that.
Quote that stuck with me :
He stood for a long time staring into the open doors of the ambulance. If this were a movie, he’d be cursing the hero, telling him to go back in there and pull the trigger, pull the trigger, pull the fucking trigger. But this was real life, and sometimes people are just as foolish as the fake people on screen.
Title : The Book of Doors
Author : Gareth Brown
Genre: Magical realism, fiction,
Pages: 403
Own/Borrowed/ARC: borrowed
Publication Date: February 13,2024
I rate it : ★★★★☆ This book was a wonder and more timey-wimey than I had initially expected it to be but I have to thank my fellow bookworms at Horror Lovers Unite! who helped me figure out which book I was looking for. For two days they put up with my "it's blue and it has stairs!" or "It has doors and books" and they all patiently sent me suggestions for what books it could be, before we finally figured it was this book I was thinking about. This book begins where it ends and ends where it begins and I love it. It wastes no time in introducing you to Cassie whose favorite patron at the bookstore she works at passes away and leaves her a book. A magical book that can make any door a passageway to wherever and whenever she wants. Quickly she finds herself entangled in the dealings of a secret underground book society that collects such books, and some collectors are ready to kill for her book.
Quote that stuck with me :
“Because if you stop you admit the bad stuff has won, don’t you? All you can do is keep going. Refuse to be beaten, even when you are beaten. The bad stuff only wins if you let it. I refuse to be beaten, Cassie. I refuse.”
As the book progresses Cassie grows. While an adult she was still stunted by grief at the loss of her grandfather that raised her. On the run for her life from these hunters, she begins to see what she holds important, what matters and what she will be willing to do for those she care for. If you like Doctor Who, you should give this a go!
Title : Yerba Buena
Title : We Are Okay
Title : Watch Over Me
Author : Nina LacourThe last three of the year were re-reads of some of my favorite books. As Gareth Brown stated in The Book of Doors :
“I’ve read it before, but as I get older, I find comfort in rereading favorites. It’s like spending time with old friends.”
It is no secret that I love Nina Lacour's writing. The way that she writes grief and overcoming things slowly from within is just magical to me. We Are Okay is a book I re read every year during winter to help with my own mental struggles through that time of year for the last 6-7 years and her other books help me stay positive. Helps me remember that I can overcome anything, that, as she wrote in We Are Okay : “I was okay just a moment ago. I will learn how to be okay again.”
Let's keep the conversation going below! Have you read any of these books? Do you have any on your TBR ?
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