Month: June 2020

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Book Review: The Mermaid & Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

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The Mermaid & Mrs. Hancockthe mermaid and mrs hancock
Imogen Hermes Gowar

Harper, 2018
★★★★☆

I think the best way to describe The Mermaid & Mrs Hancock would be: uneven, meandering, and unbalanced, in terms of both pacing and genre. It’s almost as though it can’t quite decide what it wants to be. Somehow, it is too long and yet not long enough.

Oddly enough, a book with this kind of pacing normally wouldn’t be able to hold my attention, but I was never once bored! I think that is to do with two factors. One is my own personal interest in Georgian London as well as the history of prostitution. Harlots is one of my favorite shows. The amount of historical detail Gowar displays here is simply astonishing. It stops just shy of being too much, but because of this detail I could picture everything so, so clearly; I felt like I was inhabiting this time period. Continue reading “Book Review: The Mermaid & Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar” →

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The Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag 2020

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We’re halfway through the year already. Incredible. It feels like it’s gone by in the blink of an eye, but it’s also felt like approximately three thousand years. Anyway.

My reading this year has been pretty steady; I’ve read 56 books thus far. At the beginning of, you know *gestures at everything* I was still reading a ton of books, but now I seem to be falling into a reading and writing slump, so there’s that. Alas. Continue reading “The Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag 2020” →

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Book Review: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Mexican Gothic
Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Del Rey, 2020
★★★★★

The Guardian describes Mexican Gothic as “Lovecraft meets the Brontes in Latin America,” which is rather apt. Moreno-Garcia has written a delectably Gothic, deliciously weird, and appropriately horrifying tale of a young woman tasked with rescuing her cousin, allegedly imprisoned in a dilapidated old mansion, potentially being poisoned by her husband’s family.

Continue reading “Book Review: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia” →

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Wrap-Up: May 2020

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  • Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier (★★★★☆)
  • Beach Read by Emily Henry (★★★☆☆)
  • The Black Prism by Brent Weeks (★★★☆☆)
  • A History of God by Karen Armstrong (★★★★☆)
  • Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Basterrica (★★★★☆)
  • The Eye of the World: The Graphic Novel (★★★☆☆)
  • The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho (★★★★★)

MONTHLY TOTAL: 7
YEARLY SO FAR: 54

There are two reasons I’ve read so much less this month. First, I just spent less time on reading, because as you’ll see, I watched a LOT of television this month! Second, I read some pretty dense books. Two high fantasies that were pretty long, as well as finally finishing a non-fiction tome that was incredibly intellectually satisfying but also mentally taxing.

Continue reading “Wrap-Up: May 2020” →