June was an OK reading month. I had a huge TBR list for pride month and I barely covered the start of it, but I did really enjoy most of what I read so that’s a big plus. Hopefully I’ll get to read more in the coming months but as of now it’s looking unlikely.
Machineries of Empire Trilogy by Yoon Ha Lee (5 stars, 4 stars and 5 stars respectively)*
I heard of this series for the first time in a pride reads recommendations video at the start of the month and hearing that the author is both a trans man and a mathematician made me want to start reading it that instant. So I did. The trilogy kicks off with Ninefox Gambit, where Kel Cheris awakens Jedao, a traitor general infamous for not only winning every single battle he fought (which were all considered un-winnable) but also killing his own soldiers. The world it’s set in is incredibly complex and you’re thrown into it without much handholding, which I found to be overwhelming, but I started feeling like I was on stable ground a bit under halfway through the book. My favourite book by far was Ninefox Gambit, because I loved seeing both Jedao and Cheris interacting and their character development, my second favourite was Revenant Gun for similar reasons. I’d definitely love to see more stories set in this world, I am especially curious to have more Mikodez development because it feels like we only scratched the surface of his character and to me it feels like we got a lot of puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit together, but I’m definitely going to read any other books the author publishes. And having lots of LGBT rep (including a trans man) was definitely a nice added bonus.
More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (5 stars)
Someone I know from bookstagram mentioned this book was her favourite Adam Silvera book, since I enjoyed They Both Die at the End so much I was already looking into reading the rest of his books so that made me settle on this one as my second Silvera read. I liked More Happy Than Not way better than I did They Both Die at the End. I loved the character development and the underlying message (not only being gay isn’t bad but it’s not something you can’t change and don’t have control over), plus I definitely liked the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind element. I feel like saying anything else would be a spoiler so that’s all I’m going to say!
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (5 stars)
I’ve been wanting to read this book for ages and I’ve been building it up in my head to be some sort of perfect book, which it wasn’t, but it wasn’t too far off. I loved the representation of Mexican culture, mental health issues and living up to both parent’s expectations and the shadow of a “perfect” child. While I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been less focused on what happened to Olga, I do get why breaking down the image of the perfect child was so crucial to the story, I think I would perhaps have liked it more if it hadn’t been so predictable.
Rubifruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown (4 stars)
This is a hard one for me to review. Rubifruit jungle follows Molly, a lesbian who isn’t ashamed of being a lesbian or particularly inclined to hide it, despite living in the middle of the south. I liked the book, I liked the strong female character who is confident and sure that there isn’t anything wrong with her (because there isn’t) but I never fully liked Molly herself. I loved the concept and the idea of Molly but not so much the execution if that makes sense? Which I was a little disappointed by because a lot of my favourite books have been coming of age stories following young girls which this book fits into.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily (4 stars)
I read this book because it was one of the Penguin Pride Bookclub reads. The book kicks off when Cameron is a 12 year old girl who kisses her female best friend the day before her parents die and then becomes both relieved that her parents won’t know but also convinced that her kissing Irene was the cause of her parent’s death. The book continues going through Cameron’s teenage years, spanning 5 years. I feel like the middle kinda dragged out and I considered DNFing it several times, but I did find both the start and the end to be enjoyable, I just wish the whole middle of it had been cut off.
Release by Patrick Ness (3 stars)
This is another book that I’m putting in my I have no idea how to feel about this book list. Like The Book of Joan, it kinda felt as if it was two different books poorly sewn together, one of which I liked and one where I had no idea what was going on, or cared enough to figure it out (yes, I gather there was a magical realism element and it was technically all the same story, but it didn’t read like it was and had I known about it coming in, I would have been extremely disappointed).
( * ) I received an ARC of Revenant Gun in exchange for an honest review
Comments