books read in 2018 – Page 5 – Pixel Reads Books

title: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): YA, Lgbtqa+, Contemporary, Romance, Coming-of-Age

my thoughts: under the cut for spoilers.

A coming of age story about two Mexican boys trying to find their place in this confusing and complicated world. Ari and Dante are definitely teenage characters with their thoughts and speech, not in a negative or annoying way but in a realistic way. At first I wasn’t sure if they were going to end up together but I hoped because they just fit. The only reason this was a 4 and not a 5 for me was that Ari didn’t come to the realization that he was in love with Dante on his own but because his parents brought it to his attention. Other than that it was a great coming of age story and I haven’t read many books in this category with boys as the main characters. If you love coming-of-age stories I definitely recommend this book and the author is working on a sequel.

Finish date: 07/08/18

27. A book set on a different planet – A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Finished 07/07/18

I chose this book because I always had an interest in reading it. When I went to the bookstore there was a section dedicated to this book because of the movie coming out and I figure why not and decided to buy it. And this folks, is why I borrow my books from the library and then only buy my favorites. With the money I spent on this book I could have bought a different book that I wanted more. Now that’s not to say this book was horrible but I was not blown away like many reviews suggested. It was okay but mostly weird, like a long winded story that your parent is making up as they go along after you asked for a bedtime story. I’m not sure if I’ll continue on with the series or not.

title: Nightmares! (Nightmares! #1)

author: Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): Middle Grade, Horror

my thoughts: under the cut for possible spoilers.

This was a fun and quick read. I came across this book while browsing the children’s section at my library. I love middle grade books and I definitely had a few good laughs while reading this, I also shed some tears. A heart-warming story about facing your fears and finding support from those who care about you. I’m looking forward to continuing with this series.

Finish date: 07/05/18

title: George

author: Alex Gino

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): Middle Grade, Lgbtqa+, Contemporary

my thoughts: under the cut for possible spoilers

A very heart-warming and realistic story. George is struggling to find a way to for everyone around her, including her mother to see that she is a girl and not a boy. This is a very quick read, only 200 pages and so very important and beautifully written. One thing that I loved about this story was that George has a supportive friend that she is able to confide in. I also appreciate the questions and answers by Alex Gino in the back of the book, it’s a great way to educate the reader.

Finish date: 07/02/18

34. A book that’s published in 2018 – Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu

Finished 07/02/18

I planned to wait until late in the year to choose this book to have more options for books published this year. I couldn’t wait and chose this book in June. Oh boy was it hard to choose a book and the year isn’t even close to being over! There have been many books published this year that I want to read and I’m sure the list will grow. I narrowed it down by what I really wanted to read and what was available at my library via overdrive**.

I chose Batman: Nightwalker because I love Batman and I love reading all the different variations people come up with for his backstory and what not. This was a very easy read, a little under 300 pages. It wasn’t bad but I wasn’t blown away either. It’s possible I still had book hangover after reading Vicious. I think this book was more young adult contemporary with whisperings of superhero fantasy and not necessarily a superhero Batman story. This followed Bruce around as he dipped his toes into vigilante-ism (lol idk if that even fits?). Anyway not necessarily a bad story but I’m glad I borrowed it from the library and didn’t buy it (I almost did).

**Side note, if you like/prefer/don’t mind e-books I 100% recommend OverDrive. If your library is in the system you only need to enter your library card to access your library’s available e-books.

title: Warm-Up (The Villains #0.5)

author: V.E. Schwab

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): Short Stories, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adult

my thoughts: This was written before Vicious was released and is a prelude to that story. It’s not bad but I read it after Vicious and this is just a short intro to that world, it is very much a warm-up to that book. It was cool to see the connection between Warm-Up and Vicious.

Finish date: 06/30/18

title: Vicious (The Villains #1)

author: V.E. Schwab

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adult

my thoughts: under the cut for possible spoilers

Amazing. Seriously I loved this from beginning to end. The story and the characters, I fell in love. These characters were not perfect, yeah they have powers but they were just human. Not perfect but real and I love reading stories with well rounded characters. There were some religious themes due to the upbringing of one of the main characters but this story isn’t necessarily religious or anti-religious in case anyone is concerned (I did see some reviews about that). I’m so excited for the next book in the series and I definitely recommend Vicious.

Finish date: 06/30/18

A10. A book recommended by someone else taking the PopSugar Reading Challenge – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Finished 06/27/18

This book was maybe more of a 3.5 because of the narrator and I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style. You can’t do half stars on Goodreads though so I bumped it up to 4stars. The overall feeling I had after finishing the book gave it that extra .5. I cried, I truly felt for Liesel and the pain she went through. This was a quick read for me but the subject matter is very heavy. There were times I had to step away and read a littler book in between to keep my spirits up.

title: History Is All You Left Me

author: Adam Silvera

my rating: ⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): YA, Contemporary, Romance, Lgbtqa+

my thoughts: under the cut for possible spoilers

After reading this book and They Both Die at the End by the same author, I’ve decided this is not the author for me. The characters were not fleshed out enough for me, I didn’t care about them. Yeah the book was sad and I shed a couple tears towards the beginning for their grief but then I just kept getting annoyed. The constant back and forth was confusing at times. The author tried to make this mental health character but it was half assed. There wasn’t enough time to flesh that storyline out and deal with it. There’s nothing in the book that suggests the main, Griffin, is delusional. Then during the last chapter, the last fucking page he mentions off hand oh yeah my therapist diagnosed me with DD. It was out of left field and terribly done in my opinion. If this author wanted to include mental health, it should have been addressed better and given more attention instead it felt like something tacked on at the end.

Finish date: 06/26/18

28. A book with song lyrics in the title – Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Finished 06/25/18

I was having a hard time with this prompt for a while and after the third time I went through my TBR list this jumped out at me. Duh! Carry On by Fun or even Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas. Anyway I was happy to find a book from my TBR list that fit this prompt.

Now this book first caught my eye from the cover when I was at Barnes & Noble browsing. It was really pretty, yes sorry book covers are the first thing I see. I try hard not to let covers deter me but they do snag my attention first if I think they’re aesthetically pleasing. When I read the summary I thought yes, I want to read this. I’ve read other reviews that stress this is not Harry Potter fan fiction. But honestly that’s all I could think. Now I don’t mean that in a negative way. I love fanfiction and I think some fanfiction is just as great as a published novel. There were many similarities that I felt like I was reading a Harry Potter AU. Again this isn’t a criticism, just something that I felt during my read of this book.

This read was medium paced for me, it wasn’t until the middle of the book around 45% that it picked up pace. I really did try to read it as a standalone but I just could not get Harry Potter out of my head. There were some chapters that stood out in a negative way for me. The constant back and forth between POVs in the same chapter was annoying. One example: Simon: what was he thinking right now? Baz: I didn’t know what I was thinking. I as a reader didn’t need to know that. It wasn’t enough to not read or enjoy the book but I really didn’t think it was necessary.