December  was a great reading month! 7 books (all different genres), including 1 comic and 1 poetry book.

Difficult Women by Roxanne Gay 

My rating: 4/5 stars

“It is easy to become accustomed to darkness and chill. If you bear it long enough, you can become accustomed to almost anything…We learned to love the different kind of light at night, the pale blue of it. In the moonlight, the world felt purer. Making peace with the world and its black days was the only way to find any kind of happiness. What we all wanted even more than the sun was a little peace to hold in our hands and hearts.”

This book is a collection of some of the most intriguing and fucked up stories I’ve ever read! Seriously, I couldn’t tell you how many times I muttered “what the fuck?” while reading this book:

Anyways, here’s a list of  some of my favourites out of the entire collection:

The Mark of Cain
La Negra Blanca
North Country
Requiem for a Glass Heart
Break All the Way Down
The Sacrifice of Darkness
Strange Gods

 

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo 

My rating: 5/5 stars

“Hope has always been my opium, the thing I couldn’t wean myself off. No matter how bad things got, I found a way to believe that even defeat was a sign that I was bound to win.”

‘Stay With Me’ is definitely in my top 10 favourite reads of 2017! Adebayo tells such a compelling story about love, marraige, motherhood, unimaginable heartbreak, suffering, perseverance and strength. Unwavering strength.

The story of Yejide and Akin’s turbulent marriage is told from the point of view of both characters. It’s also told through alternating periods in time. Jumping from present day, to their days at university, to the early years of their marriage, back to the present day and so on.

SO much happens in this book, things you would never expect! & I can’t believe how brilliantly Adebayo put it all together! Truly such a magnificent read!

 

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

My rating: 3/5 stars

“Like, the world is billions of years old, and life is a product of nucleotide mutation and everything. But the world is also the stories we tell about it.”

I would just like to say that I personally feel forever indebted to John Green for giving us some of the most remarkable and unforgettable stories like ‘Looking for Alaska’ and ‘The Fault in Our Stars’

Like the rest of the YA world, I have been waiting for a new John Green book and finally, it’s here! I wanted so badly to buy ‘Turtles All the Way Down’ the minute it was released but I had already put it on my birthday list and I knew my sister was going to get it for me, so 2 months later, here I am, finally getting the chance to read it!

There were so many things I liked about this book.

I really liked the detail that went into Aza’s character.

“People always talk like there’s a bright line between imagination and memory, but there isn’t, at least not for me. I remember what I’ve imagined and imagine what I remember.”

The portrayal of Mental Health in this story was very informative, very descriptive and very real. And if I was rating this book solely based on its representation of Mental Health, I would give it 5 stars.

I also really liked the breakdown of Aza and Daisy’s friendship. I loved how they both had to see themselves through the other’s eyes.

However, there were other things going on this book: such as the disappearance of Davis’s father. It was pretty much what started the book; and then it kind of faded in to the background and popped up at random moments, and then the ending to the whole “disappearance mystery” just seemed rushed.  In a way, I felt this book tried to do, too many things at once. Davis’s and Aza’s relationship also seemed a bit wonky? Does anyone even use that word? But that’s the best way I can describe it.

I would say though, one thing I love about John Green; is his ability to deliver a strong ending.

“You pick your endings, and your beginnings. You get to pick the frame, you know? Maybe you don’t choose what’s in the picture, but you decide on the frame.”

 

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson 

My rating: 5/5 stars

“Your entire sense of self-worth is predicated upon your belief that you matter, that you matter to the universe.

But you don’t.

Because we are the ants.”

I triple dare you to read the first 5 pages of this book without getting hooked. You can’t.

 

 

 

 

Here’s an actual representation of me reading the first few pages & ultimately how I felt during majority of the book:

I mean, Exhibit B:

“It seems silly to worry about the arbitrary moment some person long dead declared to be the end of one year and the beginning of another, as if our attempts to divide time into meaningful chunks actually mean anything. People wait for the countdown to tell them that it’s okay to believe in themselves again. They end each year with failure but hope that when the clock strikes twelve, they can begin the new year with a clean slate. They tell themselves that this is the year things will happen, never realizing that things are always happening; they’re just happening without them.”

Like I said, attacked!

I want to gush about how much I adored this book but words always seem to fail me when I need them the most. So here’s what I’ll say: Henry Denton is definitely one of the most loveable characters I’ve encountered this year! Everything about this story felt so honest. Hutchinson’s writing style is easy flowing and hilarious.

Oh, and the cover. Look how beautiful and magnificent it is. I truly feel like an ant when staring at it. & feeling like an ant has never felt so good.

“The universe may forget us, but it doesn’t matter. Because we are the ants, and we’ll keep marching on.”

 

Justice League Dark, Volume 1: In the Dark by Peter Milligan 

My rating: 3/5 stars

Zatanna, John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, and Shade the Changing man become earth’s unlikely heroes after the Justice League fall hopelessly to the dark magic of Enchantress.

I was already familiar with Zatanna and Constantine but the rest of the team were pretty new to me. I immediately took a liking to Deadman.

Volume 1 for the most part, was really all bout the formation of the team. At this point they are still strangers who just happen to be brought together by fate. I’m sure the other Volumes are more action packed and more enjoyable.

 

Flux by Orion Carloto

My rating: 2/5 stars

I’m a huge fan of Orion Carloto for:

1. Her Youtube channel (which I’ve been subscribed to since forever)
2. Her aesthetically pleasing Instagram

Sadly, I was not a huge fan of  her debut poetry book ‘Flux’ (which sucks because I really wanted to love this!).

Firstly, the entire book seemed extremely repetitive. I felt like I was reading the same plot: you loved him, he broke your heart, he left, you didn’t see it coming, it was so easy for him to leave and repeat and repeat and repeat.

Secondly, a lot of the “poems” felt like a waste of paper, for example:

“I just wish I would have known when the last time

                                                was going to be the last time.” 

I did enjoy most of the short stories. & I particularly appreciated this beautiful word play on Orion’s name:

“But while she’s sleeping in your arms at midnight,

I hope you look out your window and remember

that my name will forever live in the stars.”

 

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan 

My rating: 3/5 stars

Is it really December without reading a Christmas book?

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares is quite literally about Dash, Lily & *drumroll* their book of dares! Haha. Lily leaves a red notebook full of dares on the shelf of her favourite book store. Dash, by chance or fate, stumbles upon this notebook and so ensues a series of dares.

If this wasn’t a Christmas/holiday story my rating would be a star lower. The only other thing that kept me going was curiosity about the content and whereabouts of the notebook; & my personal liking for scavenger hunt type adventures. Eventually, the dares seemed to drag on and there were just too many instances where Dash & Lily would miss opportunities to meet each other.

I also found Lily’s character to be extremely annoying. She constantly complained about how much she wished to be treated as a grown up, yet her behaviour suggested otherwise. & the number of times she is referred to as ‘Lilybear’ in this book is gag worthy..

But guess who is probably still going to read the sequel (The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily) next Christmas?