A Hard Month... | April 2024 Reading Wrap Up
Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!
Man, April was rough. Not only reading-wise, but also just life-wise. I didn't get to half of the things I wanted to finish this month, I didn't make it to the gym a single time, and overall I had a lot of excruciating sick days. The life of a chronically ill person, am I right? But even looking at my reading, it was overall pretty bad. I didn't have a single five star, and I even gave out my first one star of the year.
In April I read a total of 15 books: 5 novels, 2 poetry collections, and 8 manga volumes. I'm actually a little confused about two of the books, whether or not they're novels or short story collections, but I'm just putting them in with the novels anyway. I also DNF'd a book, and for the first time in 2024, I have an unfinished book carrying over to May (though you'll understand once you see it at the end of this post).
Related to reading but not something I would normally mention, this month I decided to create a reading journal. Normally I just keep track of what books I read that month in my bullet journal and then save any thoughts on them for my monthly wrap-ups, but lately I've been watching a lot of YouTubers who keep reading journals and felt some serious FOMO, so I decided to make one for myself. I got this massive b5 journal (I'll be able to use this thing for a very long time) and spent all month backlogging 2024's reads. I still have quite a few reviews to write, but I'm very happy with my progress so far. There isn't any decoration, just very simple trackers, which I needed since I decorate my bullet journal and I don't want to burn out on that creativity.
Okay, enough chatter. Let's get into the wrap up.
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Novels
Genre: Literary Fiction, Dystopian, Adult
Star rating/CAWPILE: 2 stars/3.18 CAWPILE
Page count: 288 pages (8hrs 48 mins on audio)
Day(s) read: 4.09 - 4.11
Final thoughts: I cared even less for this novel than I did for her other one (Once There Were Wolves, which I read back in January). The world building was pretty cool...a world where climate change has destroyed so much of the natural ecosystems that 90% of the animal kingdom has gone extinct. Like that sounds super interesting, right? Except for the fact that it's barely mentioned in the story. Without the occasional comment, you would totally think that this book took place in the present day. Not only that, but I really disliked the main character. I've noticed that Charlotte McConaghy likes the trope where you have no idea if the main character is lying about their life. Everyone is unreliable, including the narrator, and I just really don't like that. I want to be able to enjoy the story without worrying if everything I'm reading is true or not. I won't be picking up any of Charlotte's other books (if she publishes again), and I'm also unhauling this from my shelves.
Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Adult
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3.5 stars/6.39 CAWPILE
Page count: 455 pages
Day(s) read: 4.07 - 4.18
Final thoughts: Even though I love this series as a whole, I think this is probably the weakest installment. In my eyes, at least. The narration was super choppy and confusing, there were times where I had no idea who was speaking or if what was happening was even really happening (note the previous review on how I really hate that). I'm pretty sure more people died in this book than in the previous two combined. It had Stephen Graham Jones's signature flair, but I do feel like the story got away from him a little bit. Not necessarily a disappointing end to this series, but not quite the ending I was hoping for.
Translated from the Japanese by Allison Watts
Genre: Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Adult
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3 stars/5.71 CAWPILE
Page count: 304 pages
Day(s) read: 4.12 - 4.17
Final thoughts: This reminded me a lot of Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, so I would definitely recommend this to people who like that series. I do think I enjoyed this more than Coffee (even though I gave that book 5 stars back when I read it...) because each of the vignettes told in this book connected back to at least one other, and I really liked that. It was nice seeing characters from previous chapters come back and interact with new people, and we could also see how their lives had changed from visiting the library.
Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
Genre: Philosophy, Short Stories, Adult
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3 stars/5.71 CAWPILE
Page count: 244 pages
Day(s) read: 4.20 (ONE DAY READ)
Final thoughts: This is marketed as a companion to The Alchemist, which we all know is one of my favorite books of all time, if not the favorite. However, I didn't see much value in this book, honestly. A lot of the "advice" is what I would assume to be common sense for most people, and most of the stories mentioned are pretty lackluster. I don't know how Paulo Coelho can give us a masterpiece like The Alchemist but also churn out such mediocre books like this one. I'm sorry if that seems a little harsh, but I hold Coelho in such high regard that it's rather disappointing to read something like this.
Translated from the Indonesian by Annie Tucker
Genre: Magical Realism, Literary Fiction, Adult
Star rating/CAWPILE: 1 star/1.43 CAWPILE
Page count: 470 pages
Day(s) read: 4.19 - 4.30
Final thoughts: Oh boy. If you thought my review for Maktub was harsh, buckle up for the ride of your life. As you can see, this is my first 1 star read of the year. This has got to be, without a doubt, the most depraved and disgusting book I've ever read in my life. And I tried to read A Little Life. Good news, I suppose, if you loved A Little Life and have been trying to find a book that would leave you feeling as tortured as that one, I do think this might be that book. But other than that, I would recommend this book to absolutely zero people. It has every trigger warning under the sun, but the narration is so detached from the plot that you hardly even notice you're reading the most vile things someone could come up with. If you value your sanity, please don't read this book. I'm begging you.
Poetry
Genre: Science Fiction, Memoir, Adult
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4 stars/7.14 CAWPILE
Page count: 75 pages
Day(s) read: 4.06 (ONE DAY READ)
Final thoughts: I don't usually read fictional poetry, but this collection has me thinking that I need to rectify that. Tracy K. Smith is obviously incredibly talented. She combines science fiction with some memoir-type poems about her father who, from what I understand, was an astrophysicist and the person who inspired Tracy to write science fiction.
Genre: Nonfiction, Civil Rights, Adult
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3 stars/4.71 CAWPILE
Page count: 224 pages
Day(s) read: 4.22 - 4.25
Final thoughts: I thought this poetry collection was good, but there wasn't anything particular about it that struck me on a personal level. I fully admit that it's probably due to the fact that Martina and I have lived very different lives. I just wasn't all that moved by these poems, unfortunately. The collection wasn't saying anything that I hadn't already read about from a dozen other poets, and the prose wasn't particularly gripping. Considering it took me three days to get through this collection, I think I just wasn't feeling the need to pick it up.
Manga
Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Shoujo (YA)
Star rating/CAWPILE: N/A
Page count: 1,496 pages
Day(s) read: 4.23
Final thoughts: This set of volumes was wild! There was a lot of information to digest, about Su-Won and a lot of other characters. I think Yona in particular went through a lot of character development in these volumes. I can't say much without getting into spoiler territory, since I'm so far into the series now, but I can say that all the girlies who are saying that the story is getting boring are wrong and need to reread if that's how they're feeling, because the last four volumes especially were super intense. I only have two more volumes until I'm fully caught up with what has been published. I don't know if I'm ready!
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Total page count: 3,556 pages
Favorite book of April: Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
DNFs this month: The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu
Unfinished books this month: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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And that's it for April! What was your favorite book you read this month, and just for funsies, what's the worst book you've read so far this year? Let me know in the comments below, or DM me on Instagram (link in sidebar under the heading "More Media").
Until next time, friends!
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