WRAP-UP| May 2018

May has been a weird one. Another assignment over, another semester over, another academic year... get this... over! I have officially finished my second year at University and now will spend my time reading, coming up with ideas for my dissertation and reveling in the feeling that is home.

What started out as a rather poor reading month (blame the essay, screenplay, a novel chapter and a short story that were due) and then rapidly improved when I did nothing but lay in my pit for two weeks.

A Court of Frost and Starlight
Sarah J. Maas
⭐

My first ever one star read! I have some, a lot, of thoughts on this one and plan on doing a review. In fact it's scheduled for June 5th. It just provided with every example of poor execution that I could think off. 

I Was Born For This
Alice Oseman
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In contrast, Oseman's IWBFT might just be my only five star read and my favourite contemporary so far this year. It dealt with a lot, and used such casual diversity that I wished we were more focused on producing than the books that use it as marketing strategy. 

Ruin and Rising 
Leigh Bardugo
⭐⭐⭐⭐

This one is on the high spectrum of a 3.5 rating so I bumped it up. I rather enjoyed the conclusion to this YA Fantasy. And while it may not be groundbreaking, it was overall a pleasant series with some wonderful writing. I can't wait to read Bardugo's Six of Crows and see how the two compare.

Sleeping Giants
Sylvain Neuvel
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Another book I am hoping to get a review out for in the next week or so (now that I have time to sit and write). I loved this! The only thing stopping me from giving this a five stars is that for a book so focused on characters, I felt too withdrawn from them. The nature of how this book is told means that I had no interaction between the characters apart from 1-on-1 with this masked voice.

Planetfall
Emma Newman
⭐⭐⭐⭐

I went on a real sci-fi kick this month. Even rewatched a few of my favourite sci-fi films. Although this one is slightly more sci-fi, that I would ordinarily aim to read, I still thouroughly enjoyed this. I just need to purchase a copy of After Atlas. Newman has a way of creating such complex and interesting characters that I just want to keep reading about - they're dynamic.

Books continuing into June:

• The Charmed Life of Alex Moore by Molly Flatt
• Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
• Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson