January Reading Wrap-Up: Birthday Month and ReadAThon Adventures!

Hello everybody, and welcome back to The CW Torch. Today, I am here to talk about all the books I read in the month of January. January of 2018 was one of my best reading months in a while, as I read five books, while starting three more books, but wasn’t able to finish. I also participated in Booktube’s, Winter Biannual Bibliothon. Which is a week-long ReadAThon, for readers, youtubers, bloggers, and Instagramers. This ReadAThon definitely helped me read a lot more books this month, and really pushed me to try to read multiple books during one week. While I did not finish every single book on my TBR, which you can read in my January TBR post, I still managed to read half the books I wanted to read for that week. I also got a lot more creative in my blog posts, because I participated in some of the blog challenges that week, even winning a blog challenge for one of the days. Which I will link down below, if you have not read that blog yet! All in all, it was a very good month for me, so without further ado, let’s get into the books!

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Synopsis:

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined. Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic — The Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison, and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she so desires.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

My Thoughts:

When I first picked up Nevernight, I was really excited to start reading it, but was soon disappointed. I have never read a book about assassins before, and was really intrigued by the world Jay Kristoff had created. I knew this was the type of book that you were either really going to love or really hate, and unfortunately I was on the latter end of that spectrum. There were just so many problems I had with this book, that I wasn’t expecting.

Nevernight was a very dense and heavy novel, which are books I usually end up loving. I love books that make you think, which is how this book started off for me. I was really curious as to what Mia was in search of, when on her way to the Red Church. But, once she got to the Red Church, things went downhill from then on. I couldn’t connect with a lot of the characters, except for one or two… at best. The world and language wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be, and the writing style was really difficult to get through.

While this book was difficult to catch on to, I was intrigued by the end. So, I may pick up the second book, Godsgrave, but it might not be for a while.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Synopsis:

I don’t know if I can sum up this synopsis, because even Goodreads doesn’t do it justice, but I’ll try my best. Basically, Slaughterhouse- Five is about a former World War 2 Veteran, who suffers from PTSD and depression. His name is Billy Pilgrim and he is writing an anti-war novel. Through time-travel and his times of being abducted by Aliens, he accounts the most important times of his life, which ultimately lead to depression and suicidal thoughts.

Rating: 4/5 Stars.

My Thoughts:

Unlike Nevernight, I ended up liking this book way more than I thought I was going to. When reading the synopsis, I couldn't really tell what this book was actually about. It was just as confusing as Vonnegut’s writing style, so I knew I had to go into it blindly. While there were some very weird and strange parts, that didn’t seem to make sense. I overall liked the message Vonnegut was trying to get at about war. I also appreciated his take on mental illness and PTSD, it wasn’t as obvious as most books on this subject can be, and he had a very dark sense of humor which I enjoyed.

I will have to say that Vonnegut’s writing style was one of the most difficult and chaotic styles, I have read in a while. He wrote in passages, but sometimes the passages didn’t make sense together, and were very irrelevant at times. But, when they did make sense together, they were very eye-opening. I found it difficult to connect with Billy, but I felt like that was the entire point of this story. After reading Slaughterhouse-Five, I definitely want to read more of Kurt Vonnegut’s books. Mostly, because he made me think in a different way when reading.

The Chronicles of Narnia; The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Synopsis:

This is the second book of The Chronicles of Narnia series, and follows the Pevensie family, who find their way to the magical land of Narnia. After the youngest, Lucy, stumbles upon the magical land first, through a wardrobe, and meeting a friendly Fawn named Mr. Tumnus. The second youngest, Edmund, finds his way into this land after following his sister, meeting an Evil Queen named the White Witch. Who persuades Edmund to bring his brothers and sisters to Narnia, bribing him with Turkish Delight and the right to a throne. Edmund does not know that the White Witch is evil and is the one who cast this curse over Narnia, to make it always Winter without Christmas. Bringing his siblings to this magical land, realizing that they are meant for something far bigger within Narnia, that they never deemed possible.

Rating: 5/5 stars

My Thoughts:

I read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe for the Winter Biannual Bibliothon, ReadAThon. For the read a book under 200 pages challenge, and I am so glad that I finally picked it up. I grew up watching the movie, but have never actually read the original title, until now. It brought a lot of nostalgia, and was the perfect Winter read. I love this magical land of Narnia so much, I mean what's not to love about a world with talking animals? I was very pleased to see that the movie was very similar to the book, which hardly ever happens in book-to-movie adaptations. There isn’t much else I can say, other than that I loved it so much, and can’t wait to continue on with the series!

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertelli

Synopsis:

Simon Spier is a sixteen year old boy, who is gay, but has yet to come out to anyone. Simon meets someone online, and starts to develop feelings for him. Simon does not know who this boy is, and the guy on the other end doesn’t know who Simon is either. Then something terrible happens, when a bully takes a screen-shot of his emails, and blackmails Simon. Threatening to post the emails to Tumblr, if he doesn’t help the bully in hooking up with one of his friends. Unfortunately, the bully is impatient and posts the emails anyway, forcing Simon to come out to his high school friends, and family, when he wasn’t exactly ready to do that.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

My Thoughts:

I absolutely loved and adored this book, so, so much! I am not one to read contemporaries very often, but I thought this would be a good book to start with, especially with the movie coming out soon! I read Simon, for the read a back-list title challenge for the Winter Biannual Bibliothon.

I immediately connected with Simon, in his personality, not necessarily the situation he was in. He was absolutely hilarious and extremely relatable in the way he talks about his family and friends, and spends time with them. My most favorite parts were the emails between him and Blue, and his family gatherings when watching The Bachelor with them. I loved how he handled the situation he was put in. While he was pissed off by this bully, he kind of made the most of the situation by coming out to everyone he loves, and that was all due to a little help from a boy named Blue. This was the first book I read in a while, where I loved and connected with most of the characters. Not only am I extremely excited for the movie adaptation titled; Love, Simon. But I am also very excited for the companion novel titled, Leah on the Off-Beat. Which follows one of Simon’s best friends, Leah.

Otherworld by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

Synopsis:

The company says Otherworld is amazing—like nothing you've ever seen before. They say it’s addictive— that you’ll want to stay forever. They promise Otherworld will make all your dreams come true. Simon thought Otherworld was a game, turns out he knew nothing. Otherworld is the next stage of reality. It’s everything you’ve ever wanted. And it’s about to change humanity forever. Welcome to Otherworld. No one could have seen it coming.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

My Thoughts:

Otherworld was the third book I completed during the Winter Biannual Bibliothon Challenge, for the Group Book challenge. I ended up listening to the audiobook, and was pleasantly surprised by it. I am not one to read a lot of video game or virtual reality-themed novels, but now I’m thinking I want to read more of them, after reading Otherworld. I was also hesitant at first, since it was co-written by Jason Segel, from How I Met Your Mother. I am always hesitant when actors try to write fiction novels, and I was certainly not expecting this type of book from Jason Segel. Throughout the novel, I could definitely tell that Jason Segel had a big part in writing this book, with the humor built into it. But, what really made me enjoy this book even more, was the narration by Jason Segel himself. It was very different from the big, loveable, goofball, that is Jason Segel, that we’re so used to.

The world was what made me really enjoy this novel, because honestly I didn't really care for the characters all that much, this was one Simon I didn’t like a whole lot. However, I did like how there were essentially two different worlds within Otherworld, the City of Emra and the Outskirts of the city. For some reason, I was getting a lot of NeverEnding Story vibes with this world, especially with Gorog (also, I have no idea if I’m spelling these words right, since I listened to the audiobook). Gorog reminded me a lot of Rock Biter from The NeverEnding Story. To me this setting was a mix of The NeverEnding Story and Westworld, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I also thought the idea of becoming so invested in Otherworld, would cause some sort of disease. I am very intrigued by this story, and can’t wait until the next one comes out. Which I hope is sometime soon!

My Favorite Book of January:

Tied between The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.

Least Favorite Book of January:

Nevernight

Total Books Read:

5 Books, +3 started books

Current Read:

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Thank you all for reading!

TTFN,

Chynna Williams @TheCWTorch

Social Media Links: