Hey guys it's Trina and this is my reading wrap-up for November. This month
I had these five books on my TBR list and I did read all five of them this
month. Yay! I read six books in total in November, so those five plus another one.
So into my reviews for the books I read in November. As always I am starting at
my lowest rated book and working my way up to my favorite books of the month and
this month I did have doozy of a one-star book and unfortunately that
book was one I was really looking forward to. It was Replica by Lauren
Oliver. This is a young adult science fiction novel and I don't want to say
too much about what the sci-fi element is because I was kind of unsure of it
going in. Like I had a suspicion but wondering if it was right was part of
the appeal to me so I don't want to tell you too much about it. I want to talk
about the representation issue that I had, and then I want to talk about the
format and whether or not I thought it worked, and lastly I'll talk about my
thoughts on the plot. I had been looking forward to this book for over a year. It
came out last year, I was very excited about it then and I just didn't get to
it in time because I procrastinate on anticipated releases a lot of the time
so by the time I got to this book I was still very curious in it and it just
let me down from chapter one and the big issue that I had with this book was
the amount of body shaming that happened in it. There was a lot of fat shaming and
also some thin shaming. It was offensive and it was never challenged. If you want
to know specific quotes from the book you can go to my Goodreads account and
find my review of this one - I will link it down below just so it's easier to
find - and when I did all of my individual page reading status updates
I pulled quotes word for word from this book and then talked about why I didn't
like them. There are a lot of negative stereotypes used and I just think that
all it does in a case like this is it just serves to ingrain those negative
stereotypes in the minds of readers. A lot of people did try to defend it and
say well that's just how the character thinks about herself, and hey that is
totally fair. If a character internalizes some kind of negative
connotation or stereotype about themselves - I've been there, I do that
myself too. I think all of us do it to some extent, but I had an issue with it
because these things that I pointed out and the things that I was offended by
were not internal thoughts of the character. They were all coming from a
third-person narrative and there's a huge difference to me in saying "Gemma
felt like a hippopotamus," versus "Gemma WAS a hippopotamus." Like do you see
the difference there? You can feel like a thing or you can just be told you ARE
thing and the book was telling us she was as fat as a tree trunk, as fat as
hippopotamus, as fat as a parade balloon. Now I'm not saying that everyone is
going to be offended by the same things that I am. Certainly we aren't. I'm not
telling you you have to feel the same way. I'm not telling you you can't read
this book. I'm just telling you this is a thing that went into why I gave it a low
rating. Now as for the format of the book, you can read the first half of the book
and you will get a Lyra's story. Flip it over and the second half is Gemma's
story. You can read this in any order. You can read all of Gemma's and then all of
Lyra's, or you could start with Lyra's, or you can alternate each girl chapter by
chapter. It will line up that way. But I used the reading order found on
prettygeekery.com and I'll put a link directly to that reading order down
below if you guys are wanting to read this and want to use it because I do
think that that reading order flowed really really well. As for the format
itself, I don't think it was necessary. I don't think it did the book any favors. I
think it was just kind of a marketing gimmick. Both character's points of views
are told in third person. We are not getting like their internal thoughts.
Their perspectives aren't incredibly different when they're encountering like
the same scenes and dialogue and whatever so to me it was kind of
pointless. There was no reason why this book couldn't have just been written
chronologically and that way it would have cut out some of the backtracking
that we kept having to do every time you would flip. And it would also cut out
some of the repetitiveness, like there were two or three scenes where the girls
are together like the exact same dialogue and stuff happens and you just
don't get enough extra to justify reading those scenes twice in my opinion.
So I did not like the representation, I did not like the format - I don't think
it suited this story - and the third thing I did not like was the plot. For about
two or three chapters I was very intrigued by the plot. Like Lyra's first
couple chapters when I finally got to know like this is really what's going on,
I've been wondering what this book was really about, I was here for it and it
did deliver and then like the plot just kind of fizzled out. I didn't like the
plot, I didn't like the characters, I really didn't like the romances - they
were just so contrived - and I think a big part of it is because I did have you
know large expectations for this book. I wanted to like it. I was interested in it
and it just kind of let me down. So I think because I expected so much from it
let me down even further plot wise. So I didn't like the story and how it
unfolded in everything so I'm not gonna be continuing this series. I personally
wouldn't recommend it but I'm also not gonna ever tell anyone you can't read a
book. If you do want to read it definitely check out that reading order
I mentioned because I think that that is probably the best order to go about things.
Next I read Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, which I gave three
and a half stars. This is his latest YA contemporary story and there's not
much of a plot here, this is very much a character centric book so I just want to
tell you guys that it is an own voices representation of obsessive-compulsive
disorder, OCD. I don't have OCD so I don't want to talk a whole lot about the
representation in this book but I do have an anxiety disorder and OCD does
fall under the umbrella of anxiety disorders so many moments in this book
were very relatable to me as well. Aside from the main character I don't think
the other characters were memorable. I don't think that they were super well
developed or anything. The romance wasn't quite as awkward or angsty as most YA
romances, I did appreciate that. I did also appreciate the way that the main
character reflected on and thought about her friendship with her best friend. I
don't think it was the best friendship but I just enjoyed the conversations
that it kind of brought up about it. It was overall a good book.
I enjoyed it more than I disliked it but when I left this book, as soon as I was
done I just knew that it wasn't going to stick with me very long. There's not a
lot here to grab on to aside from I think the representation. It's a very
character centric book and I think if you love character centric books this
one is probably going to be you know a great fit for you but I
keep just finding about myself I like a little bit more plot than was in this
one so it didn't quite like feel like a rounded out full story to me, and there's
nothing wrong with that. This is just a personal preference thing. So overall I
did like it but I don't think it's gonna really stick with me. Next I read Follow
Me by Sara Shepard, which is the second book in her Amateurs trilogy. This is a
young adult thriller series and in the first book it is set up where we're
following a group of four or five different characters that have met
online on a website that is dedicated to unsolved true crimes. In the first book
these characters come together to investigate a disappearance of a really
pretty popular high school girl that had happened five years previously and in
the first book that mystery is wrapped up but there is a story thread that does
carry over into book two and I am assuming it will also carry over into
book three. Book two for the most part though does follow a brand new mystery.
Another girl has gone missing, she's a social media star. Now the interesting
thing in the structure of this book to me is that the reader and the
main characters - the sleuths, the amateurs - we know who the suspect is and they are
sending notes to the amateurs gang that are basically like clues of how to
follow him and find him. So the main question in this is can they find him in
time before something else really bad happens. So if you don't like books set
up like that where you kind of know who the main suspect is from the start I can
understand why you might think this isn't suspenseful enough but I think if
you liked her Pretty Little Liars series, you wanted to see characters who were
much more capable of solving mysteries and crimes, and you really liked A and
wanted to see kind of a behind the scenes of A and what they were up to, I
think that this book in the series, at least a second one, would appeal to
you so I still would recommend it for that. So I gave it four stars. It did lack
a little bit of suspense for me but I mean overall it met my expectations for
a Sara Shepard book, for an Amateurs book. I wasn't unhappy with it at all so
I did enjoy this one. Another YA thriller that I read this month was
There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie
Perkins. This one is about a small town where some of the high school students
are being murdered. I gave this book four stars and I feel like that is a highly
unpopular opinion because I've heard nothing but bad reviews of this book. The
main things that I saw people saying that they did not like was they did not
like that the killer was revealed too early, that killed the suspense for them.
Totally fair. If you don't like that I can see why you wouldn't like this book.
They also didn't like that it was a cheesy slasher. They didn't like that
there was a big romance in it and to me I didn't think that the romance took
front-seat. I expected there to be a romance in the book because like the
synopsis on Goodreads like leads out with "love is hard" or "love is killer" or
something like that so I was like okay I know there's gonna be a love story in it.
I also totally expected this to be a cheesy thriller slasher in the vein
of Scream or something, like kind of a parody, kind of cheesy. I just expected
it to be a romantic cheesy slasher and that's exactly what this book was and
that's what I wanted from it so it delivered upon my expectations. I could
have used a little bit more creepiness. There is a lot of gore in it. I don't
think it's the worst gore I've ever read there just happens to be a lot of
it. The main character is biracial, she is African-American and Native Hawaiian. Her
grandmother is African-American, one of her best friends is trans. I do want to
note here that there was an issue with the trans rep in this book. Early readers
of the ARC copy alerted Stephanie Perkins that she had deadnamed the
trans male character and that is pretty offensive. Stephanie did apologize
for that, she you know showed that she had learned better and that she was
going to edit that and it would not be in the final finished copy. However, it
was in my finished copy which is a first printing. Both in my first edition
finished copy and my partial ARC it was on pages 11 and 83. I'm just pointing
this out to you in case you were really counting on that being changed. If you
need it to be changed then definitely wait for a future version of the book to
come out, I hope that it will be fixed in the future. I'm going to give her the
benefit of the doubt that it will be changed and I don't want to really hold
that against the book or my rating. As for the story and the characters and
stuff like that, like I said it was what I thought it was gonna be so I enjoyed it.
Next, my favorite new
to me book that I read this month was Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba
Bray. This is the third book in The Diviners series. I think that there a're
gonna be four books total so it's not over yet. This is a series following
different characters who have supernatural abilities and so they are
called diviners. The series is set in 1920s New York. In the first book it
was very much a murder mystery where they were trying to figure out what was
causing the string of murders that were happening, and then the second book is
following the outbreak of a sickness, and then the third book is more following
the group of characters as they are you know coming together and trying to
uncover more about their abilities. The diversity in this book in this series is
incredible. My favorite things about this third book in the series was really just
seeing this group of characters like all be together. They're an amazing friend
group in my opinion. I really really love this series. I would definitely recommend
it if you're looking for a lot of different relationships that you can
kind of root for, ship, and a lot of good friendships. Evie is like really growing
as a character to me. Sam is growing as a character to me. Some things have
happened with other characters that have made me completely flip my opinions, like
one of my favorite characters I now hate, one of my least favorite characters I'm
now like aww. It was an emotional roller coaster for me and this series
definitely has some vibes that were giving me similarities to like a mashup
of Scooby Doo, Stranger Things, and Ghostbusters. As for the spooky level, the
first book I remember being so creeped out by the first book in certain scenes
and I think that the first book definitely has a much more occult feel
to it but once that mystery is over it's it's lighter than that with books two
and three. I absolutely love it. If you're gonna read this series I highly
recommend it on audio and I will definitely be talking about this
audiobook more in an upcoming audio review video. The last book that I read
this month that I only want to talk about briefly because it was a reread
for me, it is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling. I've mentioned in
my last few wrap ups that I am rereading this series via listening to the audio
books and my thoughts on this book have actually changed. It's been like seven or
eight years since I last read this book. I had a
picture in my mind of the movie of Goblet of Fire which is much more prevalent in
my mind than the actual book even though I knew that there were big differences
or whatever, and to me I've always considered Goblet of Fire to be my
second to least favorite book in the series because to me I was like oh it's
too different, it doesn't focus enough on their school year, it's so much about you
know the games and the Triwizard Tournament and whatever, but reading this
book I was like what was I thinking?? This is an incredible book. I love this. It's
like jumped up from being one of my least favorites to being one of my
favorites. More of a favorite than Prisoner of Azkaban was, which I always
considered that one to be my favorite in the series because it was just the first
one that I read so it had a great sentimental value. But guys, I just read
those two books back-to-back and I definitely enjoyed Goblet of Fire more.
The big events are starting to be laid down in this one so I was just really
fascinated that I could have such a change of opinion on it. I loved it.
So those are the things that I've read in November. Let me know what you guys read
this month and what your favorite read of the month was. Happy reading in December.
I hope you all have good holidays and thank you so much for watching and I
will see you in the comments. Bye!
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