What I Read This Fall

the fall i broke my reading hiatus

1. Bunny -- Mona Awad (3.5/5)

This was recommended to me by Anna on my floor (thank you very much), and for some reason I swear she made it sound like it was written by Margaret Atwood. She told me it was about a "cult of girls that kill", which obviously is right up my alley. This book was interesting, but a little hazy. It's not a junky, drama-focused murder mystery, but instead quite complicated and dark. The cult aspect was fascinating, but by the end I had started to fall off. Apparently she was schizophrenic and an unreliable narrator, which took me a second to figure out. I read it in one sitting, which is part of why I started to give up by the end. Overall, pleasant and intriguing read. Nothing amazing. 

2. California Against The Sea -- Rosanna Xia (2.5/5)

Context: this book was required for Environmental Studies 1. Important context 2: It was pirated and read off a janky pdf. I can't lie, it was actually pretty interesting and educational. I read the first half and then got extremely sick and skimmed the second half, so this is not a very accurate rating. Unfortunately I was so ill I took a train home, so I ended up missing the lecture where the author came in. However, it was mildly interesting for an academic reading and I enjoyed writing a paper about it. 

3. The Female of the Species -- Mindy McGinnis (4.5/5)

This book is EXACTLY the kind I love. It centers around a mentally disturbed female protagonist and takes place in a small town. There is a lot of exploration of aggression and sociopath-type tendencies, and also a good amount of murder. I normally read books where the characters are connected to/escaping the assailant, but having the serial killer be the protagonist was an interesting switch. It was genuinely crazy to see the thought process behind it. This is definitely more of a psychological thriller versus a murder mystery, but I thoroughly enjoyed. This was another one-sitting read -- it was strong all the way through and was not unnecessarily long. Definitely my favorite book of this post. 

4. The Chain -- Adrian McKinty (3/5)

Recommended by Lulu! I wanted to like it more than I did, to be honest. This book is a thriller about a kidnapping scheme that switches POVs and dives into morals (repetitive and fast-paced). It is a gripping idea, but tbh the chapters were so short and I started to lose interest. Another factor could be that I pirated it and read it as a pdf, but I didn't vibe with it as much as I hoped. Intriguing premise, not my fave.

5. Women and Children First -- Alina Grabowski (4/5)

This book centers on the mysterious death of a girl (which is why it peaked my interest), but each chapter delves into a different person in the town. In The Chain I did not vibe with the constant POV switches, but I liked it a lot in this book. The actual death/mystery around it felt like the least interesting component (there was not even a mystery), but I LOVED the way it was written. It felt like when I try to psychoanalyze  people's dynamics except I get to see inside their brains momentarily, and then see how they are viewed from others' perspectives. I found Layla the most interesting. 

I will also be reading Mom's junky romance, report on that to come.