This is now my 40th post - can you believe it? Writing my book thoughts has just become second nature, if I'm being honest. When I really love a book but have to put it down for an hour or two, I end up mentally writing the review, sometimes getting a sentence or two so stuck in my head that I have to write it down in my notes app (quite a few first paragraphs live there, many of which have been left unfinished).
To celebrate the two year date, I decided to create a list of my seven favorite and seven least favorite books, along with a few honorable mentions favorites. (A note: these are in no particular order and are subject to change at any time. Today, I prefer these ones. Tomorrow, it could be entirely different. Try not to take it personally if a book you like is on the "no" list and a book you dislike is on the "yes" list.)
Honorable Mentions: The Sun is Also a Star (Nicola Yoon), Frankly in Love (David Yoon), Percy Jackson series (Rick Riordan), Hunger Games series (Suzanne Collins), Turtles All the Way Down (John Green).
Favorite: Jane Austen's Emma. I read this book two summers ago, and wow. Just. Blown away. Austen knows how to direct the reader's attention, manipulating their reactions into exactly what she wants in order to really punch you in the gut with a plot twist. It's not a new thought that Jane Austen is one of the greatest writers of all time, and her carefully crafted, one-of-a-kind gem Emma proves it.
Least Favorite: Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I can't even count the amount of times this book offended me. It literally hurt to read, to the point where I would be in the middle of a scene and get so disgusted Kesey thought this was okay that I would actually stop and think to myself, Why am I reading this? Yes, I was assigned a book for class and almost read the SparkNotes instead. The only reason I didn't was because I wanted to feel like I had real authority to rip it to shreds.
Favorite: Tara Westover's Educated. Like many readers, I'm not one for nonfiction. It's not that the genre is bad, I just get bored. Tara Westover's memoir, however, kept me reading late into the night. I couldn't seem to put down the heart wrenching story in front of me, and when I finished, her words stayed with me for a long, long time.
Least Favorite: Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn. You didn't think I could make this list without this book, did you? There is so much wrong with Meyer's tween girl trap series, but Breaking Dawn takes the cake when it comes to problems. She didn't originally plan the book, which is probably why it's so all over the place. If you can avoid it, please do. You won't regret it, I swear.
Favorite: Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows duology. This is a recent read for me (as in yesterday), but it's already at the top of my list. Bardugo crafted a complex story with a diverse cast of characters. She put in enough plot twists to make your head spin while keeping a few tropes we all know and love.
Least Favorite: Kacen Callender's This is Kind of an Epic Love Story. I wanted to like this book. I wanted to love this book. I just couldn't. Nathan made me too upset, to the point where I was rooting for the love interest to end up with an entirely different character - yes, it was that bad. When a girl with an extreme affinity for rom-coms can't get behind a romantic comedy, especially a queer one with such a diverse cast of characters, there's definitely a problem.
Favorite: Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X. What can I say? I'm a sucker for strong poetry, and Elizabeth Acevedo delivered only the strongest. This book deserves the attention it gets, with a powerful, unforgettable story. It carries meaningful lessons about finding your voice combined some of the best writing in all of YA. Every time I pick this book up, I'm blown away once again, drawn into Xiomara's life immediately.
Least Favorite: Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen. I didn't have a problem that this book was unoriginal when I started it. I'd already read Ally Condie's Matched, so clearly I wa starting at the bottom of YA dystopia and fantasy (sorry if you like Matched, I just could not with it). Mostly, I thought Aveyard's books had cool covers, which was good enough for me. What I didn't expect was to hate pretty much every single character in the book. Just. Could not stand anybody - except, of course, the little brother prince, who ended up being a very boring Big Bad.
Favorite: Holly Black's Folk of the Air series. I couldn't leave the truly iconic Holly Black off this list. She practically created modern YA fantasy, some of her best work being this truly breathtaking series. Her Faerie world is twisted and cruel, a distinctive poison I can't seem to resist. Jude and Cardan are some of the most interesting characters I've ever read, and the recent prequel edition brought the series to a whole new level.
Least Favorite: Jordan Sonnenblick's Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie. No, I do not hate this book because the title leaves out the Oxford comma, although that does irk me. Really, I just found the main character dislikeable. And I know he has an extremely hard life, and I certainly don't want to discount his life-altering experience, but from the descriptions of him before all the bad stuff happened, I don't think I would have ever liked him. His crush on the "hottest girl in school" and his original disdain for his younger brother screams "boys will be boys," which is pretty much the worst phrase in the history of the English language.
Favorite: Hank Green's The Carls duology. Hank Green's extensive knowledge of science and how to make it accessible to those of us not as science-inclined is what makes this series so special to me. He made a modern YA sci-fi that I could love easily (not an easy task, considering sci-fi has always been the genre I'm least interested in). Switching to multi-perspective in the second book really put it over the top (especially Carl's chapters, which I found weirdly endearing).
Least Favorite: Jack London's The Call of the Wild. I don't understand why people love Jack London's writing so much. It doesn't blow me away, and he only ever writes about the Alaskan wilderness, which, after enough "I'm a man going out to live in the wild" stories, gets extremely boring. His most famous novel is no different, despite it being about a dog instead of a man. I also just personally don't get people's affinity for dog stories (or animal stories in general). Like, I get it. You love your dog. I love my cat, but I don't think I would write a book about one.
Favorite: Stuart Turton's The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I had a surprising love for this book. I don't read mystery often, but I'd just binged a bunch of Agatha Christie movies (as well as Knives Out, which for some reason every single person with Amazon Prime has seen and loves but no one ever mentions). I wanted a book to read, and this one had a really interesting title. So I tried the first could chapters. And then I didn't put it down until I finished it. Stuart Turton knows how to write an addictive mystery. That's all I can say without spoiling. Know that it's really, truly fantastic.
Least Favorite: J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. I understand that this book shaped much of American literature at the time. What I don't understand is why anyone still cares about it. This book used to mean something because it spoke to young people in a way that books never used to, but it no longer speaks to young people, and is mostly just extremely dated to anyone under the age of 30. There are much more reasonable and modern books that express many aspects of young adult life. There is absolutely no reason anyone should have to read this horrid book anymore.
Any thoughts? Again, sorry if I crushed your favorite book (unless it was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, in which case I leave you with one piece of advice: pick a new favorite). These are just some of my own personal thoughts, not true analyses, so it's all a little extra opinionated.
This blog has changed my writing profoundly. I've gone through quite a few (embarrassing) phases since it started. The world literally fell apart, but this has been a constant for me.
Maya Angelou wrote in A Letter to My Daughter, "We may act sophisticated and worldly but I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place we really do." When I go inside myself to find home, I go to my writing. I am forever grateful to have a place to store it, to express it freely, without fear of judgement or anger.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for being here with me, for reading my writing and coming into my home. Until next time, keep reading, readers.