#bookaholic

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Challenge

Scavenger hunt challenge

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Disney

Disney by the trope

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National holiday

Happy national root beer float day!

[bookishpixiereads]

“Ghost in the Night” by Tiffany D. Jackson

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.75/5 Stars

Thanks to Scholastic and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. This book just came out this week! All opinions are my own.

This new mystery/thriller is perfect for your middle-schooler as we are approaching this ghostly season. (A word of parental warning, this is a murder mystery and a missing child is involved.)

In the book’s introduction, Jackson talks about how, especially in children, the belief or interest in ghosts can be derived from grief and their attempt to understand their grief. And you can really see this thesis throughout the novel. Harmony recently lost her grandmother (who basically raised her) and her mother died when she was very young and those losses brings about her interest in ghost tours and stories.

I really liked the parts that discussed the Gullah Geechee peoples, their cultures, and their beliefs in the haints. I also really liked how it talked about how places like Savannah, Georgia often try to obfuscate their uglier pasts and that activists in cities like this are actually trying to bring those stories to the forefront and to properly memorialize them.

I disliked some of the choices and actions that the adults made. Granted, we were suppose to dislike them (or at least some of them), but I feel like the issues were glossed over too quickly for a proper resolution or not truly dealt with at all.

But overall, this was enjoyable and had a bit more going on under the surface which I like. I think this could be a fun parent/child buddy read.

[bookishpixiereads]

“Gay Girl Prayers” by Emily Austin

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5 Stars

Thanks to @frenchybookworm on Instagram for the recommendation.

I went into this one not quite knowing what to expect and I LOVED it. Austin takes Bible verses and subverts them in a queer and a feminist way.

I imagine that this could be very healing to a woman on the LGBTQIA spectrum who was brought up in a high control version of Christianity. This hit me hard even as a straight woman deconstructing after being raised in an Evangelical Christian church.

The poems are pretty short and easily accessible as I’m sometimes intimidated by poetry.

I highly recommend this one.

The poems that hit me the hardest are:

Deuteronomy 22:23-27

At Calvary

Joshua 2

Psalm 91

Hey Mamma

1 Corinthians 11:1-6 & Luke 7:36-50 & Judges 16:17

Romans 1:26-27

Romans 1:26-27 & Ruth 1:16

Joy to the World

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Facts

10 facts about me other than I love to read lol

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Twilight Tuesday

Happy Twilight Tuesday. Which Bella do you choose?

[3mptysp4rkle]

July Books!

Witch Hat Atelier and Warrior cats are clogging my normal reading. I struggle to put them down to open the others. The books outside of those series were mostly good!

Pinball, 1973 is the second book in The Rat trilogy by Haruki Murakami. Its kind of hard to read because of how much it tells you about how straight cis men think. The obsession with a pinball machine and the idea of loneliness was interesting enough.

Hells Most Incompetent Demon was cute and easy after Pinball. I really needed that sweetness. It felt a bit too close to the movie The DUFF which kind of put me off. I did like the couple.

Don't Let Me Go is not the best written book but it had me in a chokehold. I read it in only a couple hours and chose to not sleep in order to finish it. I adore reincarnation story lines. They fell in love and died together and then continued the same story every time they were reborn. I ate it up and I still want more.

Eat the Ones You Love, hahahahahaha I really liked this one. I love creepy plants and slight obsession. It was my first time reading an MC that is a pick me, or at least wants validation so much that she constantly changes who she is. I was really interested in reading about a character that wasn't likeable. I didn't like her as a person at all. Shell was frequently frustrating and annoying and superficial. I loved to see the POV of Baby towards Shell.

Witch Hat Atelier is top tier and I hate how long it took me to get into it. Libby is amazing because my library has all the manga if only for a little bit of waiting. I just need the others reading it to hurry up, please. I am in need.

Lost Souls was exactly the kind of amoral vampire nest that I expected and I am so happy about that! It was so messy and dark, though I definitely wish they treated the female characters with a bit more dignity. I loved Nothing and Ghost a lot. The POV shifts were really nice cause they happened pretty frequently and I wasn't dreading any characters POV. I could dive into the meaning behind all of the characters and their actions but I don't want to. I put this on my list years ago but finally started it cause I rewatched The Lost Boys and wanted more messy and truly monstrous vampires without the big series of The Vampire Chronicles.

Into the Drowning Deep was so difficult for me! I went in for scary mermaids and instead got a lot of stupid characters that were practically begging to die. I had heard so many good things about this book and I was sooooooo frustrated to find out it wasn't a serious horror book but more akin to Jurassic Park. The Mermaids are definitely scary but the characters thoughts and actions took me out a lot.

Automatic Noodle was fun and cozy while still talking about society and government issues that need to be spoken about. I read this with a horrible migraine because it was so cozy and I needed something. All of these robots are soooo interesting and I love them. Hands just wants to make noodles, Staybehind wants to keep them all safe, Cayenne wants stability and security, Sweetie wants to be herself without a front. I cried.

I finished the first warriors arc/series and just wow. I was Traumatized, one of my favorite characters died, as well as two of my least favorites. I was more distraught over the deaths of my least favorite characters than my favorite. These books have made me into a blubbering mess more than three times and I'm not upset about it.

A Murder Most Camp was fun! The characters were not meant to be taken seriously but there were still things that made me feel for the characters and their life. I read it as my first book of the Queer All Year Pagebound Quest and I liked it.

Psycho is a danmei about two people making a murder exchange and then becoming obsessed with each other. There's a lot more to it but I don't really want to spoil it. I expected freak4freak, for the most part I did get that, it wasn't that all the way through. I wanted more but I do like how it ended as well.

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