- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (★★★★☆)
- Vicious by V.E. Schwab (★★★☆☆)
- We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (★☆☆☆☆)
- The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss (★★★★☆)
MONTHLY TOTAL: 4
YEARLY SO FAR: 74
Ha. Well, this has been kind of a dismal reading month for me. In my defense, however, I spent the first two weeks on vacation in Egypt, and then a week after I came back I went up to Vermont to visit friends, and work got really, really busy because the school semester has started, I had to finish up my Fulbright application and submit it, and, oh yeah, grad school started up again, so that’s been a thing too! Anyway, it’s been a mixed to average reading month, with some fun reads but no particular stand-outs.
In general, September has flown by. Again, I spent much of it on vacation and adjusting to the start of the semester, so I didn’t get much of a chance to do anything at all besides that (and editing my manuscript for #DVpit, which is in about two weeks!).
I am currently reading:
Okay, so regardless of how I feel about The Raven Boys as a novel, the fucking writing, guys. The writing is so gorgeous and atmospheric. I keep re-reading whole paragraphs because they’re so beautiful. Like. Incredible. This book gets a whole extra star rating because of the writing, to be honest. I only just started The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, but I can already tell I’m going to love it; it’s got a very creepy, malevolent aesthetic going on. I also picked up The Straight Mind mainly because I was interested in a couple of Wittig’s essays, namely, The Category of Sex, One is Not Born a Woman, and The Straight Mind. I’ve read them, so I’m actually not sure if I’m going to read the rest of the book, because to be honest, it is extremely dense and academic and I’m just not that interested in the other essays.
Nothing else to report. Like I said, it’s been a whirlwind of a month, but it’s October now, so I’m looking forward to reading all of my delightfully creepy Gothic reads.
Hadeer Elsbai 
Very excited to see what you end up thinking of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein; I’m so eager to try that one!
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Omg this is the first 3 star review of Vicious I have ever seen. I gave it three stars too, but I was thinking about rereading it just to see if I imagined it being mediocre. This made me feel validated 😂 Also, The Raven Boys is one of my favorite books of all time and I am glad you are at least enjoying the writing
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omg it is nice to see a fellow 3-star reviewer of vicious!! have you read schwab’s other stuff? I do enjoy her shades of magic trilogy, but again, I don’t think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread (though I do like it better than I did vicious). didn’t like the monsters of verity series so much though!
I’m actually really enjoying the raven boys! it’s gonna be a 4-star rating at least, i think. i’m not head over heels in love with it yet, but it seems that the first book is really taking its time setting up the lore and the atmosphere and the relationships so i’m hoping if I enjoy the book to the end and keep reading I’ll like the sequels better. what did you think of the controversial finale to the series? From what I hear most fans hated it!
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I haven’t! Vicious is the only book of hers I had read, but I do have the Shades of Magic series on my TBR.
As for the finale, I think it was very different to what I and other fans of the series expected, which is why I feel most people didn’t enjoy it. But I personally ended up feeling like that was the only way the book could have ended and that it made total sense. I also think that it’s not a very “YA” ending, which is why a lot of people were probably put off by it. I am really interested to see how you feel about the rest of the series (I personally like the second book the best, followed closely by the third) 😊
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I’m glad to hear that you’re enjoying The Raven Boys! I just loved the friendships between the characters and the atmospheric writing in that series so much. The second and third books were definitely my favourites though.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter has been on my TBR for awhile, so happy to hear that you enjoyed it! It’s been so long since I read Frankenstein that I’m going to re-read before getting to The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, but I CANNOT WAIT!
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