Well, my annual reading goal is shot.
I didn’t get a chance to read at all during fire season, and it’s been very hard to find time recently to sneak in a few pages.
With that said, I did read a few novels over the course of the past few months.
(As a reminder: I always track my reading on Goodreads.)
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The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Recommend
I brought this book with me on both of my most recent fire assignments before realizing it was not the kind of book to read before cuddling up in my tent before bed. After taking a bit of a break and coming back to it after fire season, I have to say I loved it. This novel — which follows a man and his son as they walk across a post-apocalyptic landscape — was bleak, dreary and hopeless, but the writing was beautiful.
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Don’t recommend
I wanted to love this book because the concept was so fun! A man, dropped into a time loop set in an abandoned mansion, wakes up in a new body each day and is tasked with solving a murder. However, I really felt this book could have used another few edits. It got bogged down in scene-setting that I felt added nothing to the experience. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and by the time I got to the ending, I realized I didn’t care whether the murder was solved. The twist at the end felt contrived and I really didn’t enjoy this book at all.
American Fantasy by Emma Straub
Don’t recommend
I really hyped myself up for this one, and boy was I let down. I didn’t realize a novel about a boy band on a cruise ship could be so completely awful! I went in expecting millennial nostalgia and was instead treated to an insufferable woman’s midlife crisis, which just happened to occur on a cruise ship with a boy band that was so generic, I couldn’t differentiate between the characters. I almost gave up on this one a handful of times, and I wish I did. Goodreads reviews let me know the last 10% of the book was where all the action happened so I held out, but it was just another let down.
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Recommend
A book about a Love Island-Meets-Survivor reality TV scenario? Sign me up! Lily, a pretty-and-bored 20-something, finds herself cast as one of 20 contestants on a reality show, where she couple up and complete tasks for prizes while living on a compound cut off from society. This book isn’t subtle at all, and it basically smacks you in the face with its lessons about vanity and consumerism. But, with that said, it was a very fun read that I devoured in a few days.
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