whatwrenreads

[whatwrenreads]

I fear Emily Austin changed my life again with this one. Read this in its entirety in under 6 hours.

Completely entranced by her writing style.

Immediate 5 stars, obviously.

Synopsis: Gilda, a twenty-something lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace. In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace’s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence.

[whatwrenreads]

i will do literally ANYTHING

[whatwrenreads]

Have already found my best read of 2024, in fact, it will certainly be within my top 3 of the entire decade, if not the best.

Interesting Facts about Space - Emily R. Austin

Have you ever been so moved and seen by a book that you had to message the author on instagram and thank them? because I haven't... until now.

This book may have changed my life and I still have so many Austin books to look forward to that are already out & are publishing soon.

Shoutout to Emily R. Austin, fellow Canadian, and literary legend in my eyes.

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Synopsis

Enid is obsessed with space. She can tell you all about black holes and their ability to spaghettify you without batting an eye in fear. Her one major phobia? Bald men. But she tries to keep that one under wraps. When she’s not listening to her favorite true crime podcasts on a loop, she’s serially dating a rotation of women from dating apps. At the same time, she’s trying to forge a new relationship with her estranged half-sisters after the death of her absent father. When she unwittingly plunges into her first serious romantic entanglement, Enid starts to believe that someone is following her.

As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her. Because at the end of the day there’s only one person she can’t outrun—herself.

Brimming with quirky humor, charm, and heart, Interesting Facts about Space effortlessly shows us the power of revealing our secret shames, the most beautifully human parts of us all.

[whatwrenreads]

stopped into this absolutely stunning bookstore while I was in toronto earlier this month as it was right next to our airbnb, the curation was some of the best ive ever seen.

definitely jealous of the toronto book girlies once again

Flying Books - 784 College St, Toronto, ON

[whatwrenreads]

Nobody understands the bond between a girl and the mediocre book she read when she was 13 years old.

[whatwrenreads]

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering

Expected publication: March 5, 2024

One of my favourite reads so far in 2023, knew nothing about it going into the ARC and was so pleastantly surprised.

Do yourself a favour and check this out in the spring

full review is up on goodreads

genres & themes: adult fiction, mystery, suspense, contemporary, ex-best friends, female friendships, childhood

[whatwrenreads]

september has been so productive for reading for me!

also despite two terrible reads (looking at you ITOOY and Rouge) i also had three absolutely incredible reads, not a bad ratio if i do say so myself.

currently reading a gathering of shadows (finally) and then have a lesbian romance ARC on deck after that

[whatwrenreads]

Review: Night Shift by Annie Crown

5 Stars!

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i got so used to ali hazelwood type romance i forgot that romance books can actually be fun!

In all seriousness this was great, and i read it in like 2 hours

Self-aware of all the tropes that seem to plague new adult romance as of late (with the mc actually calling them out), while also leaning into tropes that make sense for the story itself and having a lot fun with them. Its clear to me that a lot of care went into writing these characters.

ACTUALLY well written side characters (I swear its been forever since ive read a book with likeable friends), miscommunication is quickly cleared up, and the male lead feels like an actual normal dude.

Probably the best romance ive read in a while, if not ever, but its my opinion that wattpad/fanfic writers just do this genre best

Thanks to W by Wattpad Books for the arc!

[whatwrenreads]

Review : BUNNY by Mona Awad

5 Stars

A complete masterclass in writing. Awad fully pulls you in to the story the same way Samantha gets pulled into the 'cult' of Bunnies.

Atmospheric and cinematic, it's the easiest I've been able to submerge myself into the world of a book in a long time.

“The poets brace themselves for imminent, overeducated poverty.”

I need more stories like this. More reflection on a life of academia, the pretentiousness of these arts programs, the extreme and intense ambition for no other reason than a feeling of greater importance. Bunny is how a satire on all of these things should be written.

I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about this one for a long time.

[whatwrenreads]

REVIEW : TIS THE DAMN SEASON by Kimi Freeman August 30, 2023

3 stars

a very quick and easy read, and perfect for gilmore girls fans imo. Has a lot of similar qualities, especially in the first half, and if you forget that she's actually famous it gives off early rory and dean vibes.

A little juvenile, but that makes it endearing at times. Especially with the song choices in the chapter titles, they were a little teen-like, and I stopped taking a look at them after the first few chapters. Would recommend more for older YA readers than the average NA reader.

The short chapters help the pacing a lot, and I enjoyed the flashbacks to their high school days/her early career. Though as other reviewers had said, her success felt a little TOO sudden, especially after being brand new to acting and songwriting, its shocking she'd land a role almost immediately after moving to LA post high school.

My only other critique is the way her parents are written. They are almost TOO supportive and TOO nice. I would've liked to see some more tough love, or typical arguments, between her and her parents in the flashbacks that would feel more realistic to her age in high school.

a solid 3 star read, nothing spectacular but nothing to really put me off reading it. I enjoyed the time I spent with it and think with some creative growth the author can really continue to improve

originally posted on goodreads

[whatwrenreads]

1.5 - 2 stars

Before I get in the weeds as to why this book is rated so low, I have to say Ali Hazelwood definitely improved her male lead in this book, it's just unfortunate it takes a painful 75% of this book to get to that point. The best part was the end, if you can even get that far.

I am begging authors who swap to writing YA to stop throwing in random "gen-z" references every sentence, it's extremely jarring and the flow of the writing is completely disjointed because of it. Plus, the references are outdated and random.

Earlier in my reading update I described the writing of this book as like someone who refuses to download tiktok and gets their trends from tiktok reels like a year or 2 later. I stand by this description even after finishing it.

I'm disappointed, because beyond my distaste for the writing, the plot is interesting. Chess drama is extremely topical with the surge of popularity right now, but I imagine anyone reading this who does have a background/knowledge of chess would cringe at the constant use of the same joke (it's like she only learned about 'castling'?? nearly every chess reference or joke was about castling)

You know a read is going to be rough when your computer is filled with screenshots of 'what the fuck' moments, and I had about 14 from the first couple chapters. (A starbucks drink that they haven't sold in years, discussions of tentacle porn, "like tony stark briefing the avengers", 4 uses of the insult 'dickbreath' within a few paragraphs, her thinking gluten sensitivity isnt real, bill nye erotic fanfiction, an experienced chess player not know what professional chess means) I could go on.

The book tries to make a statement on misogyny in chess, but its extremely surface level. There is significant work being done currently to address this issue, and the book hardly digs past the base level knowledge of the history of gender inequality in the sport. The misogynistic characters are stale and stereotypical, and there's no real discussion of it beyond "sexism exists!"

I leave you with a reference the book makes at one point that made me open a drink. A character describes someone as young by saying they could shove their nipple in their mouth and "you wouldn't be able to latch on"

thank god this only took me 3-4 hours to read.

p.s as others have said, this definitely is not YA, but more NA. There's so much in this that made me question how it was categorized as young adult.

Thanks to Penguin Canada & Netgalley for access to the arc

originally posted on Goodreads

[whatwrenreads]

Nobody understands the bond between a girl and the mediocre book she read when she was 13 years old.