Memo Pad – July Books

This month has been a pretty bad reading month to be honest. I still managed to read four books but at times it was a bit of a struggle. I think I’m still in a slump because of a book hangover but fingers crossed I’m getting over that. And ending the month reading Artemis was great because I really enjoyed it but more on that later…

Read: 4

13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough *****

This book kind of oscillated between 3 and 4 stars for me. In the end I think it overall deserves the 4 stars. Just about. First of all this is a very realistic portrayal of teenage girls. None of them were particularly good people. They all had bitchy thoughts, petty jealousy, the need to one up each other. I mean in general, they were all bitches. I find that a lot of books nowadays are pretty unrealistic with just how good the main characters are, they very rarely have nasty and uncalled for thoughts so this was…. Refreshing to read? But on the flip side, it meant that I didn’t like any of them…. So there’s obviously a reason that authors don’t make characters as realistic as this! As for the actual plot, It’s a story about a bunch of girls who go to sixth form together (equivalent of junior/senior year in a US high school I believe), it picks up after one of them, Tasha, is found in the icy river and gets rushed to hospital. When she wakes she has lost all memory of the last couple of days. The book is split up between a couple of point of views, police interviews, text conversations and sections of Tasha’s diary as everyone tries to work out what happened. I thought for the majority of the book this was a solid 3 star read but then everything got amped up towards the last third and I rushed through it. The only thing I would say is that I really feel like it should have had an epilogue, I wanted it to be wrapped up a little bit more neatly.

The Alchemists of Loom by Elise Kova *****

I am disappointed. With myself, with the book, with both? Who knows. I really wanted to love this book but it just…. Didn’t give me what I wanted? Arianna is a thief that goes by the name of the White Wraith, living on Loom and hating the dragons who rule from the sky world of Nova when one day she stumbles upon an injured dragon who offers her a boon if she helps him. The story is basically both trying to come to terms with the truths about their two worlds rather than the propaganda/hatred about the others cultures that they’ve learned. That sounds bland, but it isn’t, I especially loved meeting the Ravens and the high speed race along the tunnels. It was packed with action but…. I’m not sure what it was. It was good and I enjoyed it but I was expecting amazing and it just didn’t live up to that. Also, did the dragons really need rainbow trails? It was a serious book in every other aspect but whenever that got mentioned I was just like ?? Why??

The Glamour Thieves by Don Allmon *****

I was expecting this to be YA but this was definitely in the new adult ballpark! It’s about an orc called JT who has left a life of crime behind him and started his own robotics business when his old partner and friend (and maybe something more), an elf by the name Austin, comes around calling and asking for help on a job. JT reluctantly agrees and they go on an adventure. Wizards, necromancers, zombies, drones, virtual reality, AI’s and magical foxes all get thrown into the mix. Sounds exciting right? Only, the whole thing was so overtly sexual that it was pretty uncomfortable for me to read in places. Focusing on the plot, I enjoyed it, but it felt a bit crude to me especially as I was expecting a YA adventure and the blurb definitely didn’t give me any indication that this was the way the book was going.

Artemis by Andy Weir *****

I really liked the Martian so when I heard about this book and saw it was about a thief living on the moon who gets caught up in a conspiracy, well, that sounds awesome even before you consider I already liked Andy Weir’s previous book. But OMG this was. So. Much. Better than that one. And I liked that one! Jazz Bashara is a citizen of Saudi Arabia but she’s lived on the Moon in the small town of Artemis since she was six. She’s a small time smuggler and when one of her regular clients asks her help to do a job in exchange for a hefty fee she agrees. What follows is one of the cleverest heist books I’ve read and it’s all set in 1/6th gravity! Jazz is brilliant and hilarious but also flawed and just the right amount of spiteful. She’s one of the best characters I’ve read about in a long time. Even just the basic differences about living on the moon were really interesting and, while all the science is explained, with Jazz in the drivers seat, it’s never too heavy or complicated. Simply put, it’s fast, character based sci-fi about a heist on the moon and it’s awesome!

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I really, really hope I get fully out of this slump soon. I’m enjoying reading and there were some good books but I’m not ENJOYING reading, if that makes sense to anyone? I don’t feel like I’m fully immersed right now and it’s a bit of a struggle to get myself to pick up a book. But I did really enjoy Artemis so hopefully that can lift me up a bit and things start changing. Anyone else struggling with a slump right now? What was your favourite book you’ve read this month?

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