Books I read in April
It wasn’t a big reading month for me. I started a bunch of things but didn’t finish, mostly because I’d forget I’d already started something and start something else. But I did binge-read two books while I was on a trip to the coast so I guess it worked out about the same as any other month.
I’m not bothering this time with being all fancy with links and book covers and stuff; I just don’t have the energy. I’m going to be deliberately imperfect.
The Eight, by Katherine Neville - 4/5
I LOVED this book when I was 16. It was my introduction into the historical thriller, and it was so cool how it drew together chess, math, music, the French Revolution, freemasonry, Russia, alchemy, and, of course, romance. I do still think that it’s one of the best of it’s type–a million times better than The DaVinci Code, which I’ve still never managed to get through. But it has its flaws, which are a lot more apparent to me with the perspective of thirty-ish years of personal growth and social change. It’s frequently misogynistic and deeply fat-phobic. (These aren’t things I can entirely blame Neville for; she wasn’t so much a product of her time as a victim of them, same as I was.) The romance is just plain badly written; the love interest disappears for the middle half of the book, and then they’re suddenly having sex and the way he treats her is gross and belittling.
In high school this would have been a 5 star book for me, and now it’s a weak 3, so I’m splitting the difference and giving it a 4. She wrote a sequel in 2008 and maybe thirty years of personal growth will mean that the second book is better.
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - 3/5
I thought maybe reading a grief memoir would be helpful and this is the most famous one I know. I don’t want to go in too hard on Didion because I know a lot of people love her, but personally I found her the tiniest bit insufferable. I’ll leave it at that.
The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose - 0/5, did not finish
Wow, did I get bamboozled by this one. I found it through tiktok, actually through Jeneva Rose’s account itself, and she seemed kind of funny and the plot of the book sounded interesting and it had 4 stars on goodreads and it got optioned for a movie apparently, so I gave it a shot.
Oh my god, it’s so badly written. It’s the most amateurish writing I’ve ever come across in a book. I’m convinced she must have bought a lot of 5 star reviews because there’s just no way it’s a 4 star book after 350k ratings. (The subtitle “A Completely Gripping Psychological Suspense” did give me pause, and should have made me stop before I purchased.) I have serious reservations about the independent publishing house that put this book out into the world because I don’t think they employ any editors. And I don’t mean that as a joke. I looked them up and I think they really don’t employ any editors.
A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher - 4/5
This is the second Kingfisher book I’ve read and I really like her imagination. The writing is competent, not stellar, but the ideas have been strikingly original. This one is an interesting take on a haunted house. I will definitely read more of her work.
The Crossing Places, by Ruth Galloway - 4/5
An archaeologist and a detective team up to solve crimes, which, I know, you’ve heard it before. This pair is British, though. This was an engaging book, though I’ve already forgotten most of it. I don’t think that’s the book’s fault–my brain’s not firing on all cylinders at the moment.
