Reading Wrap Up #2
I have more opinions! Some controversial, some not!
I was going to call these my Monthly Reading Wrap Ups, but I published the first one right in the middle of June. This one's falling in the middle of July. I don't know what to do about that but, hey, I'm still having fun! Anyway, here’s what I’ve been reading as of late!
Everything/Nothing/Someone by Alice Carrière (Memoir)
One thing about me is that I adore a memoir, and Carrière made it remarkably easy to do so. In her debut book, Carrière details her life growing up in the West Village with a negligent mother and a too-close father. Her prose is simultaneously blunt and woven with metaphor. Yet, instead of being confusing it's just very pretty to read - even when she's writing about tragedy.
My favorite part of Everything/Nothing/Someone is Carrière's way of writing mental illness. When she wrote of times of panic, I myself panicked for her. When she wrote of her apathy, it made me feel her nothingness. The way she conveyed her struggles with identity, depersonalization, and disassociation were so clear - allowing the readers to sit in her confusion alongside her.
The first few days I was reading this I kept putting it down after reading 20 or 30 odd pages. Carrière's story is both disturbing and enlightening, but was certainly a lot for me in the beginning. However, I soon fell head over heels with her narration and needed to know how she got through what she did. It is not for the faint of heart, but it is beautiful and painful and gripping. 5/5.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (Fiction)
I read this in an hour and a half. It's short and easy, but also poignant - perfect to rescue yourself from a reading slump.
Written in short vignettes (which again, helps the book read so quickly), the story follows a young Esperanza as she moves into a run-down house in Chicago. We get a glimpse at a year of her life as she adjusts to her new home and the residents that inhabit her neighborhood. Esperanza's relationship to her younger sister was especially resonate, as an older sister myself. As someone who grew up with little material objects but lots of love and character, I appreciated the nostalgia that creeped in while reading this.
Packed within only 110 pages is a heartbreaking, hilarious, and human story of a young girl growing up in a low-income lifestyle. 4.25/5.
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston (Romance)
Allow me to be a semi-hater real quick. I had such high hopes for The Seven Year Slip. Everyone I'd seen talk about it online had loved it. I guess this is why they tell you not to trust the internet.
Don't get me wrong, it was a cute book! I think my expectations were just too high. The story follows Clementine, who works a publishing house in Manhattan and is picking up the pieces of her aunt's recent passing. She meets Iwan through her aunts magical, time-traveling, apartment. Except, the apartment sends her seven years into the past (an element for which they never explain). Eventually she finds him in the present as well, but I had already predicted exactly how within the first 30 pages.
I think I struggled with how Poston wrote Clementine’s grief. It felt too cookie-cutter and watered-down. I appreciated Iwan’s character and how his character changed over the course of the novel. However, I found Clementine just fine and was more endeared by her friends.
One thing I did enjoy about this book was how much it felt like a 90s romcom. However, nothing to write home about. Cute and easy read, but unfortunately did not meet expectations. 3/5, sorry!
Funny Story by Emily Henry (Romance)
I promise I'm not a romance hater. I just have a low cringe tolerance a lot of the time. But Ms. Emily Henry never misses for me.
Funny Story, Henry's latest release and my fourth read of hers, follows Daphne and Miles. Both of them have just gotten dumped by their long term partners (who ran off together) and are currently living together for convenience. They slowly build a friendship and with it comes a fake-dating scheme. Predictable, but so cutie pie. While I enjoyed Happy Place more overall, I think Miles and Daphne are my favorite love story Henry has written thus far.
One element I always admire in all of Henry's books are how they are an ode to literature. All of them have some bookish element. In this case, it's the fact that Daphne is a librarian, gearing up for the library's read-a-thon. Too adorable.
A lovable read, and one I'll likely reread in the future. 4.25/5.
Tender Is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica (Horror)
Wow, gross! Brilliant, but gross! Basically, this book is set in a dystopian reality where animals presumably became infected with a virus and therefore inedible. Naturally, they turn to cannibalism! Fun!
Man, the descriptions in this book were grotesque. Even when the horror elements weren't fully in play, Bazterrica's writing made me squirm. The most interesting part of this book for me was the implication that the infection the animals had was actually created by the government, and that many knew this and had just chosen to go along anyway.
The ladder half of this is just downright disgusting. I loved to hate this narrator and the choices he made. This is a book that's doing a lot at once, implementing the effects of sexism, racism, classism, and governmental control all to the extreme. I hated it. I loved it. 4.5/5.
As always, if you'd like to keep up with what I'm reading, as I'm reading it, follow my Goodreads (skylarboilard)! Bye!