Ten books this December! I love holiday reading time.
(As a reminder: I always track my reading both on Goodreads and via Instagram stories.)
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“PROJECT HAIL MARY” BY ANDY WEIR
5/5 stars:
In the somewhat nearish future, middle school science teacher Dr. Ryland Grace wakes up. He has no idea where he is: All he knows is that he’s in a room with two corpses and a machine. Suffering from short term amnesia, he slowly pieces together what’s going on. He’s on a space ship somewhere in a distant galaxy in an attempt to prevent an extinction-level event on Earth.
FINALLY! A 5-STAR BOOK! I absolutely ADORED “Project Hail Mary.” I know that Andy Weir gets a lot of criticism for only being able to write one type of character, but it takes an incredible amount of skill to write about high-level science in an easy-to-digest way. I really, REALLY loved this book!
“BLACK CAKE” BY CHARMAINE WILKERSON
3/5 stars:
Eleanor Bennett has died, leaving behind a fractured family. Following her death, the Bennett family lawyer brings the Bennett children, Byron and Benny, together, to share their mother’s will and inheritance. Eleanor has left behind two things: A long voice recording that revealed several family secrets, and a black cake.
SPOILERS: I wanted to love this book. I SO BADLY wanted to love this book. It hooked me at the beginning, but then by the end I was exhausted. There were too many characters, too many narratives, too many timelines. I found myself skimming through the last third of the book. So many characters just ramble through internal monologues, and they’re all repetitive. By the end of the book, chapters were a page and a half long, and so many of them were completely unnecessary. Such a good premise that was just convoluted to the point it was almost unreadable.
“AMONG THE HIDDEN” BY MARGARET PETERSON HADDIX
Luke wonders why he has to stay hidden away from the outside world while his two older brothers remain free to live in society. When he’s old enough, he realizes it’s because he’s a third child, a “shadow child,” existing illegal in a society with a capped birth rate. Luke feels lonely until he spots an unknown face in a nearby house one day: Another shadow child, living in a house nearby.
Did this plot seem familiar? Maybe from your childhood? That’s because it is. Every so often a little flash of a book I read as a kid pops into my head, and sometimes I’m able to figure out what book that is, and I read it for nostalgic purposes. This is an example of that. Apparently this book is the first of a larger series? Maybe I’ll read them all this winter, who knows.
“BEYOND THE WAND: THE MAGIC AND MAYHEM OF GROWING UP A WIZARD” BY TOM FELTON
4/5 stars:
Speaking of nostalgia! Remember Tom Felton? He played Draco Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” franchise. This was his memoir.
This book was — simply because I have no other words to describe it — adorable. Tom Felton is adorable. It was really interesting to read about his pre-Potter upbringing and hear him talk about his mostly-normal childhood. I’m not too big into celebrity culture so I haven’t really kept up with what any of the “Harry Potter” stars are doing lately, but Tom detailed his descent into alcoholism during adulthood, and it was a very vulnerable read. This was a really good book that was written in a fun and engaging way.
“WE HAD TO REMOVE THIS POST” BY HANNA BERVOETS
1/5 stars:
Kayleigh takes a new job at a company called Hexa, which handles contracted content moderation for a large unnamed social media site. Kayleigh spends her days watching horrifying and disturbing videos while trying to maintain her sanity, friendships and a budding relationship.
This book — a “novella,” to be specific, because it’s 100-some-odd pages — was awful. Easily the worst thing I’ve read all year. I’m really bummed because it had the potential to be SO much better, but it was just terrible. The ending was totally unfinished. The extremely graphic sex scenes were unnecessary. The book spent much more time focused on every mundane aspect of Kayleigh’s toxic relationship than the conspiracy theories it touted, and then climax of the book was so awful. Skip this book. Just skip it.
“THE PUSH” BY ASHLEY AUDRAIN
5/5 stars:
Blythe will be a good mother, unlike her mother and her mother’s mother. She tells herself this over and over. But when Violet is born and Blythe struggles to connect with her, she wonders how she can possibly be a good mother. Then, Blythe births Sam, and all the positive feelings she thought she would have about motherhood finally surface. Then, tragedy strikes, and Blythe must deal with the tension between herself and Violet.
This one is five stars I think? I can’t think of a flaw at all, so I’m going to give it five stars. Man, this book was SO unsettling. It unwinds slowly, but I didn’t find myself getting bored or wishing the plot would progress faster at all. It was very multidimensional and covered the both motherhood and generational trauma. I didn’t think the ending was a surprise, and it left me wanting more. Even though I already don’t want to have children, this book made me want them even less.
“THE MAID” BY NITA PROSE
4/5 stars:
Molly Gray is a neurodivergent 25-year-old woman dealing with the death of her grandmother, who was her only close family member. Molly takes pride in her job as a maid at the Grand Regency Hotel, where she can fade into the background and focus on cleanliness over social interactions, which she struggles with. However, one day, Molly is accused of murder when she finds real estate magnate Mr. Black dead on his bed upon walking into his suite to clean it.
I loved the plot of this one, but I’m only giving it four stars because Molly’s character is written more as quirky than neurodivergent. She fails to read social cues when it advances the plot, but also picks up on social cues… when it advances the plot. There isn’t really any consistency in Molly’s behavior, thoughts and actions. There are several cringe moments in the book, but also, some cute ones as well.
“I’M AFRAID OF MEN” BY VIVEK SHRAYA
For all of her live, Vivek Shraya has existed in fear of men. She was too feminine as a boy and not feminine enough as a girl. In her 96-page memoir, Vivek talks about misogony, homophobia and transphobia and how all have affected her differently throughout her life and during her transition from a man to a woman.
I’m pretty privileged as a cis white woman, and I’ll be the first to admit that. So, it was really heartbreaking to read about Vivek’s fears and experiences, all discussed at length in a vulnerable way. I feel bad putting an X/5 star review to this because it’s so personal and sobering. I’d definitely recommend it.
“AMONG THE IMPOSTERS” BY MARGARET PETERSON HADDIX
This is the sequel to “Among the Hidden,” where Luke has been rebranded as Lee Grant and hidden away at a boarding school for boys.
I don’t think I’ll finish this series this winter. This book reminded me why I stopped reading the series at this point when I was a kid.
“LUCY BY THE SEA” BY ELIZABETH STROUT
3/5
One day, Lucy Barton is whisked away to Maine by her ex-husband William, in order to quarantine during a pandemic outbreak. From there, she narrates her days spent quarantining by the sea and the new relationships she develops with the new people in her life.
I know this book got rave reviews, but I think I just need an actual plot to my novels. This is just a stream of consciousness, where Lucy narrates her privileged life spent quarantining by the sea, opining on social issues — like the Black Lives Matter protests, the January 6 insurrection and COVID-19. There were a few good quotes and quips, which is why I gave it three stars instead of two, and I can see how Elizabeth Strout’s writing appeals to a lot of people, but I just really don’t have anything in common with this 70-something-year-old character, the 70-something-year-old author who wrote her and I just couldn’t get into this type of book for the most part.
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I can’t believe 2022 — and all its reading — has come to an end! I’m going to have a post soon detailing the best books I read this year, so keep an eye out for that!
