Today I’m bringing you a fairly belated October wrap-up. During the month of October, up until Christmas, I’m on my surgical rotation for medical school, meaning I’m making long days and have barely any free time to spare. Safe to say: I won’t be able to read (or post here, for that matter) as much as earlier this year. In the month of October, I finished 4 books, and started a fifth, largely thanks to the existence of audiobooks.
Books Read
In nineteenth century London, a female detective gets wrapped up in the mysterious case of a kidnapped child, rumoured to be a little less than human. What follows is a journey involving obsessive anatomists, creatures in jars, melancholic ghosts and the lurking shadow of our detectives own past.
I adored everything about this intricately woven narrative and its unusual cast of characters. I genuinely hope this book finds its way into the hands of many this fall, as it’s one that deserves a lot more attention than it’s gotten so far.
Perfect for fans of The Essex Serpent or The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock.
I’d love to write a dedicated review on this novel myself someday, but I doubt I’ll get to it this year. There are many great reviews already out there however, including that of one of my favourite reviewers to follow Amalia Gavea, which I highly recommend you check out.
My rating: 5/5 stars
I read and loved The Diviners earlier this year, so when Halloween-times came round, I couldn’t help but gravitate back to this series.
When it comes to series or trilogies, I often enjoy the second book the least of all. I know I’m not alone in this, hence the existence of the phenomenon “second-book-slump”. Lair of Dreams is one of the few books that doesn’t suffer from this. In fact, I might have even enjoyed this one more than the first book. Lair of Dreams does exactly what a perfect sequel should do: it expands the world that has been introduced in the first book, and adds a layer of emotional depth that The Diviners didn’t have for me.
Similar to Things in Jars: a review is in the making, but I can’t promise that I’ll get to it any time soon. Suffice to say for now: I love this series even more than I did after book 1, and I can’t wait to read book 3 soon, before the finale is released in 2020.
My rating: 5/5 stars
3. The Jumbies – Tracey Baptiste
After the previous two chunkers of over 500 pages, I was craving something shorter and quicker, yet still suitable for the Halloween season. This came in the form of The Jumbies, a delightful middle-grade story that I wish had been around when I was a kid. This wonderfully creepy, yet heartwarming story has its roots in Caribbean folklore, and follows a brave young heroine who must protect her island home from the mysterious trickster-boogiemen known as “Jumbies”. Beautiful writing, friendship, bravery, an original take on a lesser known myth and júst the right amount of scares, make this one of my favourite childrens Halloween-reads sofar. My rating: 4/5 stars The Possession – Michael Rutger The Possession is the sequel to The Anomaly, one of the biggest surprises I encountered earlier this year, and for that reason I was quite excited to read this one. Unfortunately, I was let down hard. The Possession felt very different from The Anomaly, and although it kept some of the stronger elements of the first story, it really missed the mark on others for me. Full review can be found here. My rating: 2/5 stars
Last but not least I started Other Words for Smoke, a 2019 release that I intentionally kept on my shelf until this time of year. For that reason, I feel especially bad for not being able to finish this one within the month of October. Still, I don’t want to rush myself as I am really enjoying this novel so far, and want to get everything I can out of my read. More on this one after I’ve completed it, hopefully in my November wrap up.
November TBR Considering the aforementioned lack of time, thanks to my surgical rotations, I don’t particularly expect to read a lot in the month of November, so I won’t set myself a TBR. I really hope to finish Other Words for Smoke, which I think I should be able to manage. Other than that, I’ve really been wanting to pick up Bridges of Clay for a long time now, even if I don’t expect to finish that within the remainder of the month.
I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading. Especially during this time of year, I feel like I get so much inspiration for new books, from what other people have been reading. You can follow my progress throughout the month on my Goodreads, I’ll see you next month, and until then: happy reading.
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