My main purpose for creating this book blog was to be able to review what I read with an emphasis on the books I own. I wanted to hold myself accountable for constantly buying a mountain of books, and I missed writing about the books I read. So far I think it’s going well for me; I love being able to rant and rave about stories I love or hate. I don’t necessarily have a schedule to my posts, and right now I’m happy with that because I don’t want any stress about this blog, so I don’t give myself any. I’m sure that’ll change at some point though, considering I live to stress myself out.
That’s not to say I don’t sometimes struggle with my book blog. Sometimes I read a book and don’t feel like I have enough to talk about, so I never review it and then forget about it (looking at some of my read books from February, RIP). Sometimes I read a lot of comics or ebooks and feel that I don’t need to give them the same attention that I give books from my physical tbr pile.
I debated doing a monthly wrap-up post, but some months I review every single book I read so it seems pointless. Maybe I’ll do a quarterly post of mini reviews just to maintain reviewing everything I read. I haven’t figured out all the weird kinks to having a blog yet, but I’ll smooth it out eventually. For now, I figured I would write mini reviews about some of the books I’ve read throughout the year that I haven’t gotten around to reviewing yet. All of them are stories I enjoyed but felt weren’t necessarily deserving of an entire review post. I can sum up everything I felt about them in a few sentences, and they’ll include individual ratings.
I read The Looking Glass back in February and rated it highly, so I’m not sure why I held off reviewing it. This is a YA contemporary with magical realism, which is really hit or miss for me. McNally slips it into the story beautifully, and I found it enhanced the already heartbreaking story. The writing here is poetic and almost dream-like, slipping in fairy tales and Fleetwood Mac and tangible signs from the universe. I appreciated the bittersweet ending as it felt more realistic.
Overall rating: ★★★★★
Stephen King is such a beloved author with so many great stories under his belt, but sometimes he writes absolute trash. Thinner is a prime example of this, and it’s exactly what I expect of him: dark, gritty, but also completely eye-roll inducing. This is classic King, including all of the main action happening while the main character is passed out and only hears about it second-hand. Easily not his best work, but also not his complete worst. The ending was extremely predictable but still enjoyable and worth all the buildup.
Overall rating: ★★★
Ghost Boys is an incredibly important story to tell. As a middle-grade book, I think it does a great job of educating kids on systemic and personal racism and police brutality. This is a haunting, beautifully written story that helps open the door to other discussions for children as well. I especially loved the last lines of the book and still get chills when I think about it: “Only the living can make the world better. Live and make it better. Don’t let me (or anyone else) tell this tale again.”
Overall rating: ★★★★
This is a quick young adult story about a girl who goes to Louisiana with her parents to live with her great-aunt who is dying. I enjoyed the ghost aspect but felt like nothing was fleshed out too much since it was such a short story. It was also pretty predictable; there’s no real thrill here, and it isn’t scary despite being categorized as horror on Goodreads(?). I enjoyed the message of overcoming your fears and accepting that death is a natural part of life. I think this book would work well for middle-grade children to learn about such topics. Simply put, I’m not the target demographic for this book.
Overall rating: ★★★
This book is marketed as a mystery/thriller, but it moved more like contemporary or literary fiction. So much of the story was about the family’s every day lives and their grief, but then something mysterious would get thrown in every so often to keep me interested. I also felt like the premise intentionally set the reader up to believe the story would go one way only to have the rug pulled under our feet. The “twist” was something I never saw coming because there was absolutely zero logic or reason behind it.
Overall rating: ★★
Aside from some comics (reading the new Alien as it comes out), I believe I’m caught up now! I’m also working my way through a young-adult dystopian series, which we all know is my least favorite genre, and you best believe I’m hoarding notes away for that bulk review, haha. Hopefully I can finish that soon, although I’ve been incredibly busy this month with family events and book sales 🙂
But First, Kafka 
This is a good idea. I also felt pressured to post regularly and in May it got too much for me so I din’t post anything at all. This month I really felt like writing a review so I did and I posted it, but I’m no longer putting this pressure on myself to be consistent. I’ll post what I write with a maximum of 2 posts a week (because isn’t everyone’s feed overloaded already?). We should all probably chill a bit more :p
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Agreed! When I started my book blog I said I was doing it to hold myself accountable, and I would review when I wanted to. I have zero consistency with posting, and I’m okay with that. Sometimes I’m in a writing slump, and I’d rather just not review a book than write a review I’m not proud of.
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