October Wrap-Up and Birthday Book Haul!

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog! 

I hope everyone had a good Halloween last night (or for all of my practicing witches, a good Samhain). I didn't do much because I was having a terrible allergic reaction so I kind of just stayed in bed all night. But I did have an excellent birthday weekend, which I'll touch on after the wrap-up! 

October was a very slow month, reading wise. I read a lot in the beginning, and then when I went on my road trip I read nothing, and that carried into the rest of the month. So I only have 10 books to talk about today: 9 novels, and 1 poetry collection. So let's just get into it, I guess. 

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Novels

1. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism
Star rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Page count: 592 pages
Day(s) read: 10.01 - 10.04
Goodreads thoughts: Ahhhhhhhh that was so good!!!!!

Erin Morgenstern's writing is so unique in that its twisty and whimsical but also not over-flamboyant or frivolous. She makes you care so deeply about her characters that they almost feel like imaginary friends from your childhood. It's like we knew the stories our whole lives, but we've only just recognized them now that they're on paper. I don't know how she comes up with these ideas.

2. Small Favors by Erin A. Craig
Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror
Star rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Page count: 480 pages
Day(s) read: 10.04 - 10.05
Goodreads thoughts: I binged the heck out of this (it only took me six hours!) and I loved nearly every page. This was such a wild concept and with Erin’s spooky writing-style it really came to life. This felt much bloodier and more horrible (like, content wise, the things that happened) that HOSAS but honestly that book is a bit of a fever dream to me so I don’t really remember it. Unfortunately I have a feeling this one will turn out the same way, that’s just how it goes when I speed read a book in one sitting. All the discontent and hatred seeping through the town really freaked me out, more than the creatures lurking in the shadows. And really, aren’t humans the most monstrous of all? This book certainly proves that. This was perfect to read in October!

3. All These Bodies by Kendare Blake (ONE DAY READ)
Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Historical Fiction
Star rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Page count: 304 pages
Day(s) read: 10.05
Goodreads thoughts: This was weird.

It was the kind of horror that never actually confirms if its supernatural or not, and I gotta say that I'm disappointed in that. I was hoping for real, true vampires (which sounds like an oxymoron now that I type it out). But we never got confirmation about that. I know that its a stylistic choice a lot of authors make--let the reader decide if it's paranormal or not, but I like answers where answers are due.

That being said, this felt like a story from my favorite podcast, Lore. And a lot of the stories told in that podcast were mentioned in the book, which I found fun: Mercy Brown and the vampirism craze that hit New England in the 1700s, the Black Dahlia murders, and even an obscure tale about the "Murder House"--a family found slaughtered in their homes, everything clean and sterile, except for a bowl of blood and a slab of bacon left on the kitchen table. Believe me, I couldn't make this up if I tried. I love binging episodes of Lore when I'm bored, so this was fun to read as it felt like a written up episode. Also without Lore I wouldn't have known about the true stories that were mentioned in this novel that I typed out above, so I'm doubly happy about that.

I'm just frustrated that it wasn't confirmed being actual vampires. Oh well.

4. The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Star rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Page count: 297 pages
Day(s) read: 10.06 - 10.07
Goodreads thoughts: I loved this! Using magic to explain real problems--in this case, climate change--is a trope that I don't think I'll ever get tired of. My only complaint about this book is that it got pretty repetitive at times, explaining that the atmosphere is dying and that witches were the only ones that could save it, and that the shaders (non-magic humans) were the ones causing the problem, and how the magic changed with each season, etc. etc. There were a lot of moments were full on sentences were repeated. But overall it was a very good debut novel, and I'm looking forward to what Rachel writes in the future.

5. Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon
Genre: Horror, Paranormal
Star rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Page count: 202 pages
Day(s) read: 10.07 - 10.08
Goodreads thoughts: Creepy, but not as creepy as some middle-grade I've read. This felt like a kids version of Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky, which I didn't particularly love but I didn't hate it either. Same with this one. It definitely had potential to be super scary, but I think the ridiculousness of the creature as well as some of the fears made the impact not as memorable. I was laughing at some of the situations I shouldn't have been laughing at, because they felt comical to read. Like, the dolls? I totally understand that fear, but the way they were described had me cracking up. Also the giant needles. I have a phobia of needles myself but even I would laugh at giant needles flying at me.

6. Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise (ONE DAY READ)
Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Retelling
Star rating: 3 out of 5 stars 
Page count: 333 pages
Day(s) read: 10.10
Goodreads thoughts: This was very well written and very sad, but I didn’t fall head over heels in love with it (which I’m sure will disappoint my mother, since she told me she “gave this book the highest rating I’ve ever given”). I did really like Wendy’s characterization, and it is something I’ve thought about in past—what happens to all of the children who fell down rabbit holes after they grow up? I think A.C Wise did a wonderful job answering that question.

Honestly the only thing I’m confused about is Tinker Bell. Was she not in the original book? I haven’t read it (yet) so I wouldn’t know, but every adaptation I’ve seen of Peter Pan has the fairy in it, but Tinker Bell wasn’t once mentioned, not even in the flashbacks of Wendy’s first trip to Neverland. Almost every other character from the source story was in there, if only in name, but nothing on Tink. Sooooo, I’m confused. And a little sad, because Tinker Bell was always my favorite character.

7. Root Magic by Eden Royce
Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Star rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Page count: 352 pages
Day(s) read: 10.08 - 10.11
Goodreads thoughts: This was so sad!! A very, very powerful middle-grade about tradition and family and loyalty and love. I liked reading from Jez as a character, she had a unique voice that was surprisingly mature and rational despite all of the racism and hate she dealt with on the daily. I can easily see Eden returning to Jez and writing about her when she’s older, because there’s so much there to work with.

8. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (REREAD)
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian
Star rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Page count: 374 pages
Day(s) read: 10.19 - 10.20
Goodreads thoughts: Reread 2021: listened to the audiobook on a road trip, it kept me busy for the first two days of driving. I still love this series, it still totally holds up.

9. Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Christina Henry
Genre: Horror, Retelling
Star rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Page count: 320 pages
Day(s) read: 10.18 - 10.23
Goodreads thoughts: This was fine, it didn't really scare or unsettle me though, and that's what I was looking for. I'd heard a lot about Christina Henry's dark fairy-tale retellings and Sleepy Hollow was always the story that terrified me the most as a child, so I figured this would really freak me out. But I don't know, I was a little bored throughout. And it was easily forgettable, I set it down for a few days and when I picked it back up I had forgotten nearly everything important that had happened. I'm not sure if I'll read anything else from her, if this book is any indication.

Poetry

1. Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things by Amanda Lovelace (ONE DAY READ)
Genre: Feminism (nonfiction)
Star rating: N/A
Page count: 176 pages
Day(s) read: 10.28
Goodreads thoughts: One of her more simpler collections, but impactful nonetheless. It really drives home the moral that you can be soft and fierce and everything in between, and you don't have to apologize for being who you are. Honestly I wish there was a little more Persephone imagery since the book was based on her, but that's not the end all be all.

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Total page count: 3,430 pages

Favorite book of October: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Least favorite book: Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Christina Henry

DNFs this month: The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

Unfinished books this month: The Burning God by R.F. Kuang
                                                    Watership Down by Richard Adams

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Okay, time for my book haul! 

This past weekend I went up to Flagstaff because that is where the majority of my friends are, including Angela, and my entire sorority family. I stayed at Angela's apartment and we ate a ton of food, went shopping, and watched the entirety of Squid Game. Y'all, that show is so good but it traumatized the heck out of me. I came home yesterday with a bulging bag of candy and a fat stack of books.

As I mentioned previously, I was going to wait until my birthday passed to buy any books this month, as I've spent an inordinate amount of money on books this year and I really needed to reign myself in. So all the books I bought this month were purely from my birthday money, plus I was gifted a few as well. This really will just be a list of the books I got, like every other month, but I wanted to emphasize the birthday aspect to it.

Books I bought myself

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things by Amanda Lovelace
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan
I Love You so Mochi by Sarah Kuhn
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood-Hargrave
Heartstopper vol. 1 by Alice Oseman
Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett

Books that were gifted to me

The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin

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That's it for today! What was your favorite book of October? Let me know in the comments or tweet at me @AllyEmReads.

Until next time!