November 2017 Wrap Up

November 2017 Wrap Up

This is my first ever attempt at a wrap up post, so please bear with me. I’m going to attempt to keep up with it for the foreseeable future (I’ve put it on my blog schedule, something else that is new to me!), but there will likely be format changes as I grow into it. But I digress…

What was I saying?

Oh, yeah.

This is my first Wrap Up Post ever! And I have to tell you, it felt like a really slow month to me, so I was rather shocked to find that I’d finished nine books (six of which I reviewed, three reviews still to come)! My average is 11, but nine in a month where I took several breaks from reading and had to push myself to read anything at all? Yeah. I’m proud of that.

What I Read
DNF’s

Sadly, I did DNF a few books this month, one of them half-way through (I couldn’t push myself through it).

I really wanted to love this book. The cover is divine, the subject matter (Lizzie Borden) is super compelling. But I found the pace painfully slow. And I couldn’t stand any of the characters. Not knowing enough about the history of the killings, I was further frustrated not knowing if the characterization of the participants was fair or not. Truthfully, I could see this book as a film, and I think I’d rather enjoy it so long as the atmosphere was properly done, but as a book, it just didn’t work for me. I know at least one other reader, whose taste tends to align with my own, who loved this book, so don’t let my experience turn you away from it if you find the subject matter interesting. Just not a good fit for me.

 

Normally, I’m a big fan of YA. And one of the main characters is autistic and that supposedly plays a large part in the overall story, so naturally I was drawn to it (two of my children are autistic).

I had no issues with the characterization of autism in the book (it’s a spectrum, so there isn’t a one size fits all), but I struggled a little with the family dynamics as they related to caring for the main character’s autistic brother. Only a little though.

Ultimately, I think I’m starting to realize that I like YA fantasy/sci fi, not so much contemporary YA. Also, even though the characters were sixteen, I felt this read more like juvenile fiction (middle grade maybe?), and unless I’m doing a reread, or it’s fantasy/sci fi, or I’ve heard amazing things from one of my librarian friends, juvenile fiction isn’t my bag.

That said, I’m always happy to see autism as a theme, especially in school-aged fiction. If juvenile fiction is your thing, this might be a great read for you.

What I Started

So far so good on both of these. Not anticipating 5 stars on either, but I’m enjoying them both, and that’s good enough for me.

Now onto December…

3 Replies to “November 2017 Wrap Up”

Leave a Reply to Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆Cancel reply