April 2016 Wrap-Up

This month was actually an awesome reading month for me, which I am pleasantly surprised with! School is really picking up, but I still managed to read a total of 7 books! I read every one on my TBR as well, expect for The Raven King, as I haven't gotten it yet.


I read:

• ★★★★☆ King Lear by William Shakespeare
• ★★★★★ We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
• ★★★☆☆ Brave New World by Aldous Huxley7
• ★★★★★ The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
• ★★★★★ The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) by Maggie Stiefvater
• ★★★★★ Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvater
• ★★★☆☆ The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick

The first book that I completed this month was King Lear by William Shakespeare. It wasn't my favourite of his plays, but overall I enjoyed it and I thought that it was definitely one of his best. King Lear is a tragedy, but I still really enjoyed the extremes that some of the characters went to, as well as the humor in it. Shakespeare has a tendency to put a lot of dry, dark humor into his tragedies, and it always makes the play much more enjoyable for me.

The second book I completed was We Were the Mulvaneys, which I needed to read for my English class. I picked it on a whim, and I am so insanely glad that I did. Not only was the novel very detailed and the plot attention-grabbing and interesting, the novel also had many important messages and I think it is one of those books that everyone should read at some point in their lives. I have a full review here if anyone is interested in reading more of my thoughts on this book!


The third book I read, and the first book I fully read this month was Brave New World. I have many mixed feelings about this book, from the beginning all the way through. I found it to be very rushed and also lacking a lot plot wise, as well as making some of the characters just disappear at points and never bringing them back. The writing of the characters was great though, and the way that they spoke was just amazing to read. This book was enjoyable, but I'm glad it was only 220 pages. I feel kind of neutral about it, as I didn't particularly enjoy the whole book, but I also didn't not enjoy it. Some parts I loved, some scenes are some of my absolute favourites from a classic novel, but other parts I just couldn't stand, so therefore I gave it three stars.

I then powered through The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, which was a re-read for me. I read it back in 2013, and I still loved every page of it. Maggie's writing is always amazing and intoxicating, and I love how she manages to string words together and create worlds and characters that are so unique but are also so relatable. The Raven Boys is an amazing book and I have absolutely nothing but the highest praise for it. Her characters are different while still being relatable, her stories are fascinating and heart-grabbing, and her characters' relationships are so beautiful to read about. I loved every second of reading this book, the first time I read it as well as this re-read. I have a full, spoiler free review of The Raven Boys here if you want to read more!

I also powered through The Dream Thieves, which is the second book in The Raven Cycle. I didn't love this one as much as I loved The Raven Boys, mostly because we didn't get as much Gansey as in the first one, but I still completely loved it. Maggie Stiefvater's writing is so beautiful and wonderful and I love it so, so, SO much. Her characters developed so much in this book, and we learned so much about all of them in such a short time. I have a full, spoiler free review up here if you're interested in reading more of my thoughts!

I then read Blue Lily, Lily Blue, the third book in The Raven Cycle. This one was probably my least favourite out of the first three, but it was still easily a five star book. The characters and the plot become darker, we start losing characters, and everything becomes more intense. I cant say too much about this book without having any spoilers, so I'll leave it at that! I also have a spoiler free review here if you want to read more of my thoughts!

I had high hopes going into the next book I read this month, which was The Ghosts of Heaven. I didn't know going into it that it was split into four different parts, of which I enjoyed some but not others. The first quarter of the book I was not a fan of, as it was in more of a poetry style. The second part I enjoyed, and the third even more so. The fourth part I thoroughly enjoyed, and it was what saved the book for me in the end and pushed me through to the end of it. The book was good overall, and I did enjoy it, but I personally feel that I will never re-read it as I don't believe that I would be able to find anything in it to make it worthwhile for me to re-read it.