2023 Reading Wrap-Up, Sept-Dec

Ace of Spades and Legendborn tied for first place in September. They both deal with some heavier themes like institutionalized racism, grief, class differences, and queerphobia, so definitely check the content warnings before reading. The Dangerous Gift got last place by default as it was technically the lowest rated book I read that month, but not because it was bad. I rated it lower than any other book in the Wings of Fire series purely because I was not as invested in the POV character and so didn’t enjoy it as much as the other books, but it was still good.

Me best and worst of October were, ironically, written by the same author. I read I Wanna Be Where You Are first and really enjoyed it, so I went looking for more of her work. At first it seemed like The Neighbor Favor would be another favorite, but the book lost me pretty hard in the second half, mostly because the pacing of the plot was atrocious and the male protagonist was kind of annoying. These characters technically fall in love twice (once anonymously online and once in person) and I just felt like the first half of the book was so much more compelling and organic than the end, where their romance seems to be driven by lust more than anything else. I guess this author is just hit-or-miss for me 🤷‍♀️

In November I finally got around to reading Our Wives Under the Sea, and oh my god I loved it so much. It is such a beautiful love letter to grief and lost love, and I just can’t even describe how much it made me ~feel~ the loss. There’s also a lot of really cool stuff about the deeper parts of the ocean, which I’ve always found horrifyingly fascinating, so that added another layer of depth that I enjoyed. I will say though, the ending doesn’t give you many answers. The author intentionally leaves a lot to the unknown, so if you go into it looking for everything to be explained, you’ll probably be disappointed. My worst book in November wasn’t actually that bad; I did have fun with it. I rated it lower because of some of the same issue that I had with Lightlark (my review is a few posts back) but not nearly as bad. For example, this book actually had a plot, unlike Lightlark. But the excessive overuse of plot twists got a little annoying, and there was one pretty glaring plot hole I couldn’t get over. It wasn’t horrible though, and because of that I haven’t decided yet if I’ll continue the series.

I mentioned Forest Born by Shannon Hale in another part of this wrap up, and Enna Burning is part of that same series. Technically Enna Burning comes before Forest Born in the series order, but they were both rereads and I think you can read them in different orders anyway. Shannon Hale is genuinely such an incredible writer; the way she constructs and describes her magic systems is so unique and beautiful. (I also love and highly recommend her Princess Academy series, it’s not at all like it sounds.) I reread almost the entire Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children series in December to see if I still liked them as much as I did when I was younger, and for the most part I did. Book two, however, got a much lower rating than the rest because there are some extremely problematic and harmful stereotypes about Romani people in the very beginning that I just could not get over. For a series all about harmful prejudice and bigotry, that’s kind of a huge oopsie. (Side not: do not call the Roma “g*psies”. That is a slur and is not their group identity.)

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