Well March was a doozy, wasn’t it? My book count was still fairly low for the month with three books, even though the second half of it was spent at home / off from work. I’m hoping to really make up for it in April and set my goal for eight books! Here’s what I finished in March.
📊 Reading Stats
Books Read: 3
Genres:
Fiction (2): YA (1) ◦ Literary (1)
Nonfiction (1): True Crime (1)
Formats: Print (2) ◦ eBook (1)
Sources: Library (2) ◦ Netgalley (1)
Average Rating: 2.33 stars
📖 Book Reviews
📘 Wilder Girls
Author: Rory Powers
Genre: Fiction ◦ YA
Publication: 2019
Format & Source: Print ◦ Library
Dates Read: March 1 – 17, 2020
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Note: This was the monthly pick for my Forever YA book club.
I had super high hopes for this one, and while it was pretty good, it was nothing special and not all that memorable.
The Raxter School for Girls is a boarding school on an island off the coast. For 18 months, they’ve been in quarantine, ever since “the Tox” hit, a mysterious and violent illness that causes various deformities and violent outbreaks. The girls are dying one by one, and their communication with the rest of the world has been cut off while they wait for a cure. When one of the girls disappears, her friends make it their mission to find her, even if it means wandering into the dangerous woods.
The very first thought I had about this book was that it was exactly like Annihilation, but for a younger audience. While I’ve never read the book, I saw the movie when it first came out and I loved it. This book definitely had all the same vibes, which was a good thing.
The story itself was very intriguing. It had a lot of elements that I enjoy: horror, boarding school setting, mystery, even gore. It fell a bit flat though with a lot of unanswered questions and things that just didn’t seem to make sense or were not explained thoroughly. I liked the writing style, the setting, the descriptions, and the survival aspect, but some stuff just didn’t quite add up. All in all, it was worth the one time read, but that’s about all.
📘 The Shawcross Letters: My Journey Into the Mind of Evil
Author(s): John Paul Fay ◦ Brian Whitney
Genre: Nonfiction ◦ True Crime
Publication: 2018
Format & Source: eBook ◦ Netgalley
Dates Read: December 29, 2019 – March 24, 2020
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
I was really looking forward to this one because I’m a big true crime buff, and Arthur Shawcross’ killings were actually here in my city, but this book ended up being disappointing.
John Paul Fay is an interesting guy with a dark past and dark thoughts. Because of that, he and Shawcross begin writing letters and strike up an intense friendship, despite Shawcross being in prison as a prolific serial killer. John felt a sense of kinship with the killer because he, too, had a warped mind and was always misunderstood. This memoir chronicles their friendship over the years, including letters from Shawcross.
This book felt largely disjointed, with most of it being narrative by John about his own life, and letters from Shawcross randomly thrown in from time to time. I felt that John’s writing was too “flowery” with an attempt at being eloquent and high brow, but it just ended up making no sense and felt like word jumble from trying too hard to be “fancy.”
Also, it was very one-sided because we were seeing Shawcross’ letters, but not John’s. This meant that essentially, they completely lacked context because we had no idea what Shawcross was responding to. The letters were also randomly inserted into the narrative with no rhyme or reason that I could ascertain. The timeline was confusing, and the letters didn’t seem to fit in where they were placed in the story.
This book had a lot of potential with an interesting topic. People who befriend serial killers are an interesting breed, aren’t they? It was definitely lacking though in that it needed WAY more editing and cohesion. It came across as a jumbled mess, and was not what I was expecting: a story more about Arthur and less about the author.
📘 The Rehearsal
Author: Eleanor Catton
Genre: Fiction ◦ Literary
Publication: 2008
Format & Source: Print ◦ Library
Dates Read: March 17 – 27, 2020
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
The Rehearsal is about a teacher / student relationship at an all girls school, and the repercussions of that on the students. It also intersects with a story about a local drama school and their production that centers around the affair. While taboo stories like this are usually dramatic and addicting to read, this book was surprisingly… boring.
The writing style was very unique with (some) anonymous characters and a dual narrative, all while going back and forth in time. I would even go so far as to say that the writing itself was eloquent, beautiful, and well done. The story, though, was very dull and not at all what I was expecting. Was it readable? Yes, but it was slow paced, and really not about the relationship at all.
Though I didn’t really enjoy this one, I have seen some good reviews for it. If you enjoy literary fiction, I think you’ll like this one better than I did. I just wanted some juicy drama, and I did not get it!
🎖️ Favorite Book of the Month
Wilder Girls by Rory Powers
That’s a wrap on this month’s reads — here’s to another great chapter! 📚
No comments