July Wrap Up Part 1

This was an unusually productive month of reading for me so I have decided to post two wrap ups to save a huge long post!  I have already posted an individual review of "The Handmaid's Tale" both on here and over on my Goodreads page (megmoore18) so I won't bother with another one.

"The Red Parts" by Maggie Nelson is the first book that I read this month.  I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads and found it particularly interesting as it was new type of non-fiction for me to read. I have to say the book is very different to what I thought it was going to be.  My main thought was that it would describe the murder of Nelson's aunt in detail and investigate in more depth the truth even behind her family's reaction.  Instead it followed her journey to the courtroom years after the murder to witness the conviction of a man accused of the murder.  Nelson has a lovely style of writing in that she invites you in to her deepest thoughts and emotions but the actual narrative was just so different to what I expected that it took me a while to get into the story.   The story lacked fluidity in places and jumped around a lot.  It also became clear that perhaps Nelson reacted and viewed the events in a removed sense since she had not been born when her aunt was murdered.  It lacked an emotional connection to her aunt throughout which gave the narrative a very strange feeling considering the subject matter.

"Lorali" by Laura Dockrill was my next venture and I have to admit it was a lot better than I had expected it to be.  I gave it 3 stars but it had a lot of potential.  This was a relatively short read which made it an easy going novel to get through but it was very well written.  The author's skill was evident through the description included throughout.  I think I got on so well with this novel because I liked the dual narrative style as well as the narrators themselves.  This book was so hyped on Booktube that I felt obliged to read it but I was worried that I would hate it because I felt it may stretch too far beyond the realms of my imagination.  My main concern was that the mermaids and pirates would be all too childish.  I was wrong - I LOVED the pirates and the whole world that the mermaids lived in.  The history of how a mermaid was created was very impressive.  It was a well developed part of the plot.  The characters were just flawed enough to build realistic perceptions of them and to bond the characters to the readers.  This will by no means end up a modern classic but should be valued for what it is - a light-hearted summer read with a twist of fantasy.

The third of my July reads was "Into the Water" by Paula Hawkins which I really disliked.  This was one of two books I awarded just 2 stars this month. The main reason was that the story was very jumbled up due to the vast number of narrators involved.  Each chapter jumped from pillar to post so much so that I could barely keep up with who was who and what had happened to them.  There were very few characters who were realistic enough to be relatable.  I strongly disliked the narrators.  I also found the relationships very unnatural throughout.  None of it seemed very realistic at all.  The only reason I finished this was because I hate not finishing something I have started to read and because it was the book club book of the month.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was a 5 star read - "The Hate You Give" by Angie Thomas.  This deserves all the praise it can get.  This realistic portrayal of the neighbourhoods of American suburbs took the reader on a journey towards awareness of the treatment of black people by the authorities.  This is so relevant to our world today because there needs to be more awareness of the true experiences of black communities across the world.  The characters within this novel are so easy to connect with because they are so real.  The way the communicate, how they feel and what they think are so true to human nature that you forget that they are not real people.  With all of this being said I must admit that I shed tears, I worried about the characters, I laughed in places and generally became quickly and deeply emotionally invested in the story and the characters. This should be more widely read across the world to open people's eyes to the true experiences of the black community.


Part two of the haul will look at the next 5 reads I got round to in July.  Also an August TBR list coming soon!

Meg x