October Wrap Up

Hey, hi, hello readers.

Another month has come and gone and as we enter November I come to you yet again with a wrap up of all the books I read in October. Rest assured, it's still October in my pumpkin-shaped heart, reader.

I will (hopefully) post my November TBR at the same time as this wrap up post, but we shall see. Unforeseen events and all that. November is the last month of my grad school program so I do tragically have to work on those final projects before I do any of this. Just know I'd rather be spending my time here, reader.

But let's get to the books, shall we?

I finished my TBR list faster than I anticipated. I read eight other books that I didn't list on my TBR which I will talk about below. I'm also not going to put the books I read for my spooky book-a-thon in this wrap up since I reviewed them in a different post. Go check it out if you're interested.

Here are the books I read in the month of October. 

From left to right: The Ship Who Sang by Ann McCaffrey, Bunny by Mona Awad, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis, Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire, Luster by Raven Leilani, Afrofuturism by Ytasha L Womack, Sleepwalking by Meg Wolitzer, Even If We Break by Marieke Nijkamp, White Rage by Carol Anderson, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Dracul by Dacre Stoker & JD Barker, Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters, Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.

I did a full review on The Ship Who Sang by Ann McCaffrey. Not for any particular reason, I just had some questions and also some thoughts. I don't have much else to say about it. It's still an interesting concept. The ending just felt a little rough, I guess.

3/5 pumpkins.

Next up is Bunny by Mona Awad. This is one of several books Booktuber Kat of Paperbackdreams recommended on her channel that I read this month. (Go check her stuff out, though. It's good). I. Am not entirely sure how to describe this book, reader. Bunny is one of those books you pick up and then part way through realize that it's Magical Realism and then you have to readjust your whole mindset, except I went in to this book expecting the Magical Realism. I got to about page ninety and had to put the book down for a second and just. Attempt to figure out what it was I'd just witnessed.

Never have I been more fully thrust into the main characters emotional shoes then in that moment. It was wild. We were both so confused.

Bunny's got it all, cults, grad school writing programs, actual rabbits, and probably more alcohol consumption than is strictly healthy. It's kind of like if you took the movie Heathers, set it in university, made it about creative writing majors, and also just put it gently into a cult blender. Does it have that mean girl energy? Yes. Does it also have more gore than I expected? Also yes. 

Personally I liked it because I took a couple of creative writing classes in uni and I hate to say that those classes are Like That but they are a little. You can feel that vibe creeping in. There were a lot less writing cults, so far as I remember. Perhaps I just didn't get the invite, reader.

My notes for this book do just read "I was not prepared" in all caps and then the rating but I still remember the things that happened in this book vividly. It's stuck with me for a whole month. If it sounds even a little interesting, go pick it up reader. Especially if you like high key nonsense, magical realism, and more explosions than your typical writing and editing process.

4/5 pumpkins. 

The next book on the docket is Prince Caspian by CS Lewis. My Narnia journey is still going strong and I am still reading them in order of publication. Not even the books want me to do that, they're all numbered chronologically within universe. I am nothing if not a little bastard, reader.

Back to the book. Again my notes here read "I am very sad" and then a sad face for emphasis. I stand by this. Prince Caspian is a melancholy book, for me personally. There's something really heartbreaking about Lucy, Susan, Peter, and Edmund coming back to find that generations have passed and the castle they called home is now an ancient ruin. Time travel stories like that get me. It's the inability to return to your home once you've left. It got to me.

There's also a revolution to free Narnia from the oppressive rule of Prince Caspian's family and that's what most of the story is about. I thought it was neat. 

3/5 pumpkins.

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire is a standalone book that I'm pretty sure counts as urban fantasy. It's got a lot of timeline shenanigans, which I love. I also loved the timestamps. McGuire put actually useful dates and times at the beginning of chapters which went a long way towards helping me keep everything straight in my head. The book itself bops between viewpoints, but for the most part we're in the heads of two twins, Rodger and Dodger. 

Listen, I love Seanan McGuire's writing style, dear reader. I might have mentioned it. At least once. Or possible every time I bring her up. Good prose aside, I also loved the characters? Even the side characters who we only see a little of were great. Rodger and Dodger are fascinating characters to follow around since they are both living embodiments of two halves of the universe (essentially). Rodger is language and Dodger is math. I'm more of a language person, reader, which you might be able to tell since I run a blog about books. But I am having a torrid love affair with physics, despite my total lack of math knowledge. It's like being obsessed with writing but having no idea how grammar works. Despite that, Dodger is a mood. I also have anxiety and hyperfixations, Dodger. I'm also just like, so bad with people in the outside world. 

Ugh, I love this book so much, reader. I want to go back to the beginning and read it again. It's an unsurprising:

 5/5 pumpkins.

Please go read this. I say that about every Seanan McGuire book, but this one is so good. If you like timeline hijinks and also magic it's delightful. It's also got some real creepy bits.

Full disclosure, I did not get to Rosemary and Rue. I'm still waiting for the physical book from the library. Hopefully I will get it in early November and commence my reading. Apologies for the deception, reader.

This is another of Kat's recommendations. Luster by Raven Leilani is an adult contemporary with a main character who I related to despite the fact that we have like two things in common. We both have IBS and it was the first time I read about it in a book. So that was nice. This is a minor part of the book, just one of the many issues that the main character Edie has going on in her roller coaster ride of a life. She's struggling with housing, with her art, her job, her relationship to an older white man in an open marriage while also being the only black woman in said white man's adopted black daughter's life. Those scenes were the best, I loved the dynamic Edie and Akila have, that was one of my favorite parts. But yes, reader. It's a wild ride, to say the least.

It's a great story, I loved it. It had a dream-like and unreal quality to it that pairs perfectly with how unmoored Edie is. Leilani's writing style is wonderful to read, you really get to know Edie. I came out of the book with the fervent hope that Edie's life is on the upswing. I just want her to be happy, reader.

5/5 pumpkins. 

Next book is Afrofuturism by Ytasha L Womack, reader. This was a short history about the roots of the Afrofuturist movement and I learned a lot. I had a vague notion that it involved sci fi and looked really cool, but honestly there's so much more to it then just aesthetic. Questions of identity and belonging are easier to explore in a sci fi context, and the stories that the Black artists involved with this movement have made are incredible. It goes back much further than just Octavia Butler, starting with Sun Ra's music in the 1950s. 

I loved the content of the book, and the art that prefaced each chapter, but there was something about the writing style itself that felt odd to me. This is a minor nitpick, reader, but I've run into this style of contemporary nonfiction voice and I'm not a fan. Certainly, it doesn't change the content of the book, or Womack's skill as a writer. There were sections of the book that absolutely sang. Check it out if you want to know more about Afrofuturism.

3/5 pumpkins.

Sleepwalking by Meg Wolitzer is another Kat rec, and it's another book that I liked although it is wild. Not as wild as Bunny, per se. It has its own special kind of wildness. It's another book that deals with loss and grief and the need for meaningful human connections. The story follows a group of college freshman who are all obsessed with their own dead lady poet. It does have some real freshman year vibes, reader. And by that, I mean my freshman year were I would sit in the dark on my windowsill listening to the radio and wondering if I would ever feel joy again. Perhaps your freshman year was better, reader. I do hope it was. 

It's a little slow in the beginning and we only really get to know Claire during the course of the story, which I was a little sad about. It didn't start out framed like her story, but the second half of the book really focuses in on her. Granted she gets up to some Stuff, reader, so I wasn't too mad. Without going into too much detail, it's a gentle but wacky time. If you are also just obsessed with a piece of media, I think you'll relate. I certainly did, reader.

4/5 pumpkins, reader.

The next book is outside of my usual reading habits: Even If We Break by Marieke Nijkamp. It's a YA Thriller following five estranged friends playing their last TTRPG before they go their separate ways after graduating high school. It does deal with themes of poverty, addiction, disability, and mental health and handles them well, in my opinion. And also Murder! Honestly, aside from the whole murder thing, I would jump at the chance to got to that remote cabin to play a TTRPG, reader. This was a book that was lying around the house but I'm glad I picked it up. Nijkamp wrote a spooky story here. It's also got some excellent queer, disability rep.

4/5 pumpkins.

White Rage by Carol Anderson was the book I read this month for education reasons rather than just for fun. Since it's one I read academically I'm not going to rate it. This book is a political history of the US starting with the end of the Civil War and stopping in 2016. It focuses on the response white people, especially those in power, had to gains Black people have made in that timespan. It's been on my Anti-racism TBR for a while and I'm glad I got to it this month. This book is very informative and interesting political history. I would also say it's an important book to read if you want to know more about the ramifications of racists policies, and how racist policymakers have acted and continue to act in the American government. Knowledge is power, reader. It's important to me that I fill in those gaps in my education. Go check it out if it sounds like something you need in your life.

Could it be, reader? Could it really be time for another Kat rec??? 

Our next book is Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, which is a book written in verse. It's a YA book about Will's elevator ride down to the ground floor of his apartment building. He's intent on getting revenge for his brother who was killed on his way home the day before. I listened to the audio book, read by the author, and it was fantastic. It's a powerful story on its own, but it sings when read aloud. I don't have a lot of experience with books in verse but this book was so good, reader. I highly recommend you get the audio book. It's short, only an hour and a half long, and it's very worth it. The book does deal with gun violence, and one of the deaths is that of a child. If that's something you don't want to engage with, feel free to skip this one, reader.

5/5 pumpkins.

The next book, reader, is one that was actually sent to my partner as part of a goodie bag from an Emerald City Comic Con Panel. The panel didn't actually happen due to pandemical reasons, but they did send some books. Honestly, reader, I feel like I should do a whole review of this book because it is a wild ride. The book in question is Dracul by Dacre Stoker and JD Barker, and yes it is that Stoker. As in the several times great nephew of Bram Stoker and manager of the Stoker estate. So this book, reader, is meant to be a fictionalized version of Bram Stoker's life in which he is beset by vampires irl which is what gives him the idea to write the book Dracula. Does this technically make it real person fanfiction? Yes, reader. Yes it does.

Before I get too into the weeds of trying to explain this book, I do want to say that it's a fun read. It does have that same sense of gothic drama (tm) that the original book has. There are several weak points but I'll get into that, reader.

So first of all the book is structured as mostly journal entries, like the original. However these journals are separated by sections taking place in the (in universe) present as well as a section that is entirely in the present before going back into journal entries. It's a lot, reader. Again, I feel like I should write an entire review on this book. I have much to say. 

Long story short, there are good parts and bad parts of this wild vampire ride. Dracula is there. The book has less ableism than the original but more racism, somehow. In my onion, reader, it's a good time until you get to the end where most of the unnamed racist Romani characters are. Anyway, I would have given this a three out of five if it hadn't been for that. If you could remove Renfield, you could have done something about the depictions of Romani people. This came out in 2018, do better. 

2/5 pumpkins.

Next up is Dracula by Bram Stoker, reader. Did I read Dracul before the original? It's entirely possible, reader. This has been a year of classic English literature for whatever reason. I think that reason might be for the drama of it all because goodness gracious is there a lot of it here. 

The book starts out with Jonathan Harker's journal entries from that one time he went to to Eastern Europe and helped sell a house to a vampire. There are slurs, wolves, and three hot vampire women who try to eat Jonathan. Then we transition to Mina's journal, letters between her and her friend Lucy, and Dr. Seward's audio journal. Odd things are happening, Jonathan turns up with a brain fever as was so often the case in Victorian England, and Van Helsing doctor and vampire slayer gets recruited to find out what's wrong with Lucy. Renfield is there. The rest of the novel is the team trying to stop Dracula from moving in and kill him before he can turn anymore people in to vampires. 

So I enjoyed the book, reader, though it could be little hard to follow in parts. Some of the journal entries are concurrent so there is some backtracking that happens between entries by different people, especially when the gang is trying to get rid of all Dracula's dirt. There were also lines in here that just made me laugh. Like Mina calling herself a 'train fiend' because she knows all the train schedules. There are several slurs, all of them the g-slur, and one baffling instance of anti-blackness from Lucy. Most of this occurs at the beginning of the book, since we get too wrapped up in the whole slaying plot after that. Which is where the ableism comes in, but I am looking at Renfield's character from a modern perspective, it should be noted. I have no idea if this depiction was good or bad at the time of Bram Stoker writing it. I mention these things so you will know they are there, reader. 

Even with the flaws, I had a good time.

3/5 pumpkins.

Goodness me, reader. It's another Kat rec. This is another book written in verse: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. This is another YA, about a family of color living in New York. Our main character, Xiomara, is in high school and dealing with family life, being a person of color in America, as well as her growing dissatisfaction with the roles her mother and Catholicism as a whole want to box her into. All of this told in the form of poetry. It's a beautiful book to read, I'm sure it would also be a good audiobook, and I really enjoyed it. It's a nice coming of age story, the love interest is just great, and I saved a line of it in my commonplace notebook.

    "...And now I think of all the things we could be

if we were never told our bodies were not built for them..."

5/5 pumpkins. Go check it out, readers.

The second to last book I read in the merry month of October was Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters. This is another YA, set in modern day Florida, and is about music and also ghosts. It's a murder mystery as well, reader, but let's not get bogged down by silly things like plot and genre. 

Shady Grove, our main character, is coping with the loss of her dad, her mother's remarriage to his best friend, as well as dealing with her feelings for her best friend. She's openly bi, which I just love, and also a bluegrass fiddle player, like her father. Oh, and she can see ghosts. Ghosts are real and they are given form by her father's music, which he played on an heirloom fiddle that was tragically lost when he died. Or was it???

I liked this story, reader. It reminded me a little of the Bedlam's Bards series by Mercedes Lackey, in that there was a fiddle player and also some ghosts. In this one we get to solve some murders, though and that's always fun. It's got light southern gothic vibes, a hot cowboy, and bluegrass. What's not to love. Waters is very skilled at setting a scene; everywhere besides the school felt real. I don't know why the school didn't, but I can't say it mattered. We don't spend a lot of time in there. Anyway, it's a nice story about not letting grief consume you.

4/5 pumpkins.

The last book I read in October was Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. I'm going to be honest reader, I think my brain might be too smooth to get everything that was happening in here. I saw the movie first, but it was awhile ago. I'm not sure which I liked better. They both made me feel the same: brain smooth, no wrinkles. No thoughts in here. They were also very different in terms of plot and structure.

Annihilation is an eco-horror novel that is unsettling, and a little melancholy. It's the first book in a trilogy, but I don't think I'm going to pick up the other two. I did read their summaries. I liked the prose of the book itself; Jeff Vandermeer is very adept at painting a scene. I did like our protagonist, too. It's interesting to be in her head while she changes into whatever she is at the end of the book. Also, I can relate to not being a very people-oriented person. It's a big mood. I too would rather observe than interact. It's a short, tense story. I think it's at least worth a look, although I cannot for the life of me tell you what it means, reader.

3/5 pumpkins.

That wraps up all the books I read in October. I have already posted my November TBR list, so check that out to see what I plan to read this month. Here's hoping your November is going well.

Until next time, reader. 🎃