Writing
I did very little work on Follow the Raven this month. I am kind of upset with myself, but at the same time, I don't feel too ashamed because I did write 10k of it last month during Camp NaNo. I'll pick up the slack in June and then write another 10k in July's Camp. It will happen!
"Everything Changes" has been going really well over on Wattpad! The story is booming, and the plot is really starting to pick up now. People are just as excited about my writing Sonic fanfiction again as I am. It's been a fun journey this month, especially. My current stats are 1,653 reads; 169 votes; and 37 comments.
Reading
I'm proud to announce that I completed my goal of reading at least three TBR books this month, in addition to the one library book I began reading at the end of April. I feel like I've mostly come out of my mid-takedown crisis and am back on the straight and narrow way, so to speak. I'm also on schedule to begin my Skulduggery Pleasant readthrough next month, but we'll talk about that in a minute. First, for the books I read in May:
- The One by Kiera Cass
- Made For You by Melissa Marr
- Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
- The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
Last month I read the first two books of The Selection series by Kiera Cass, which were both fantastic and unputdownable (except for that one time...). You can read about my thoughts on those here first if you so desire. Suffice it to say that The One was at once a heartbreaking, unforseeable, and completely perfect wrap-up. Holy flip, that ending, though...but I won't spoil anything here. I loved, loved, loved all three books so much, and would totally read them again. I intend to read the twenty-something-years-later duology soon - maybe later this year.
Made For You. I don't know if I can accurately put into words exactly how I feel about this book. I finished it a week ago and I'm still thinking about how crazy and messed-up it was. It is definitely worthy of its genre - mystery thriller - but man, this book was really disturbing and terrifying in its own way. This is one of the best YA thrillers I've read in a long time. Definitely recommended.
This month I listened to the audiobook version of Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. I can't even really tell you what it was that suddenly inspired me to want to listen to an audiobook at all - let alone this one. All I know is that I was nearing the end of my then-current read and wondering what I felt like reading next from my TBR pile. The title that kept popping into my head was Rebel of the Sands. But at the same time I was like, "Do I really want to read that one?" So I started my usual process of re-reading the summary and whatnot to get reacquainted with the book. Except this time instead of picking it up to read the first few lines and see if I was feeling it, I suddenly found myself searching for the audiobook and listening to a sample of it. Whatever it was that spurred me to find the audiobook, I ended up really liking the narrator for the story, so I went ahead and made the decision to listen to the whole book that way. And guys...I have not made such a fantastic decision in a long time.
The narrator for this book - Soneela Nankani - was such a perfect choice. Rebel of the Sands is told from the first person POV of a character named Amani, who is a girl, poor, and orphaned in a land where all three are disregarded as useless. Nankani does such a spectacular job of portraying the character that Hamilton created - everything from the pitch of her voice to its lilt. No one else could have portrayed Amani as well as Sonella Nankani does. The narrator also does a good job of distinguishing other characters' voices without trying too hard to really sound like something she's not, such as a male or a child. It's kind of hard to explain, but she does it very well. I can always tell which character is speaking when it's not Amani herself. Major props for that.
Beyond the narration, though, the story itself is spectacular. Alwyn Hamilton won Best Debut Goodreads Author in 2016 with her book Rebel of the Sands, and rightfully so! It is a story that is unique, captivating, and unpredictable. I never know where the story is going to take me next, and I love that because it's so hard to find books in the YA genre nowadays where I can't predict at least one thing about how it might go. I love Amani's character, her strangled relationship with Jin, and the story of how the two get swept up into a revolution without meaning to. I fully intend to listen to its sequel, Traitor to the Throne, as soon as I can. (Soneela Nankani narrates that one as well. Yes!)
Now for the most exciting part of all (for me, at least) - my Skulduggery Pleasant readthrough begins as of June 1! Finally! I cannot express how excited I am to finally read the entire series from beginning to end. I've read each of the first three books at least once before when I was in high school, but the high school, college, and public libraries would never get books four and beyond (for reasons I know now that I've been working in a library for nine months). Now, after having slowly bought the rest of the series for myself book by book, I can finally find out what happens to Mr. Pleasant after the end of book three. *fangirl squeal* I'm so, so hyped for this!
And with that said, I'm off to the awesome world of Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain! Expect to see mostly books from this series in my next few wrap-ups! :D
The narrator for this book - Soneela Nankani - was such a perfect choice. Rebel of the Sands is told from the first person POV of a character named Amani, who is a girl, poor, and orphaned in a land where all three are disregarded as useless. Nankani does such a spectacular job of portraying the character that Hamilton created - everything from the pitch of her voice to its lilt. No one else could have portrayed Amani as well as Sonella Nankani does. The narrator also does a good job of distinguishing other characters' voices without trying too hard to really sound like something she's not, such as a male or a child. It's kind of hard to explain, but she does it very well. I can always tell which character is speaking when it's not Amani herself. Major props for that.
Beyond the narration, though, the story itself is spectacular. Alwyn Hamilton won Best Debut Goodreads Author in 2016 with her book Rebel of the Sands, and rightfully so! It is a story that is unique, captivating, and unpredictable. I never know where the story is going to take me next, and I love that because it's so hard to find books in the YA genre nowadays where I can't predict at least one thing about how it might go. I love Amani's character, her strangled relationship with Jin, and the story of how the two get swept up into a revolution without meaning to. I fully intend to listen to its sequel, Traitor to the Throne, as soon as I can. (Soneela Nankani narrates that one as well. Yes!)
Now for the most exciting part of all (for me, at least) - my Skulduggery Pleasant readthrough begins as of June 1! Finally! I cannot express how excited I am to finally read the entire series from beginning to end. I've read each of the first three books at least once before when I was in high school, but the high school, college, and public libraries would never get books four and beyond (for reasons I know now that I've been working in a library for nine months). Now, after having slowly bought the rest of the series for myself book by book, I can finally find out what happens to Mr. Pleasant after the end of book three. *fangirl squeal* I'm so, so hyped for this!
And with that said, I'm off to the awesome world of Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain! Expect to see mostly books from this series in my next few wrap-ups! :D
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