September felt like such a weird reading month. A Mirror Mended was a so-so follow up to A Spindle Splintered. The concept is great (Into the Spider-Verse meets fairy tales), but I think these ideas would function better as longer novels after the first one. There’s so much to play with, and the constraints of the novella in A Mirror Mended left it feeling rushed. Stoner was one of my 23 in 2023 books, and I liked the first half a lot, and it’s definitely one of those sad people literature books in which depressed people have affairs and be sad, but the writing in it is engaging. I love all of T. Kingfisher’s work, and I’m working through her backlist now!! My most interacted with review on Goodreads is my DNF of Carve the Mark, which wow book community drama never really changes, but anyway, if you would have told me then that I’d be still reading Veronica Roth’s future works and liking them, I wouldn’t have believed you. (And I was one of those who enjoyed the Divergent series.) I was offered a review copy of the paperback release of Chosen Ones, and I enjoyed it! Void could stand for expansion, though, even if by a few chapters.
I reread A Discovery of Witches and then promptly fell down the binge-watch of the television series (and I WILL finish this series in 2024). Supergods was annoying and ended up being a lot of angry essays, but as I wrote in my Goodreads review, I hope Grant finds the peace they wanted when they wrote Supergods because this book read as very bitter. Melissa and the Vicar was the palate cleanser and a delightful historical romance. I liked the concept of The Time Collector, but something about it felt like it was missing or a little underdeveloped/undercooked, but it s always hard to write wibbly wobbly time stuff.
WHAT I READ
💖 purchased/owned | 🌠 library/borrowed | 🔮 review copy | 💞 reread | 👻 dnf
🔮 A Mirror Mended, by Alix E. Harrow
💖 Stoner, by John Williams
💖 Paladin’s Grace, by T. Kingfisher
💖 Void, by Veronica Roth
💖 A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness
💖 Supergods, by Grant Morrison
💖 Melissa and the Vicar, S.M. LaViolette
💖 The Time Collector, Gwendolyn Womack