What I Read in October: Dinah

This month was a pretty accurate mix of what I usually read, two books that were sequels to a royals book and a YA fantasy book I really liked, sweeping historical fiction, a murdery thriller and a contemporary novel.

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Lilac Girls

This is an older book, based on real life people, that follows three women during WWII, a Polish teenager Kasia, a German Doctor Halina and a wealthy older American woman Caroline. Kasia gets sent to a women’s camp when Poland is taken over by the Nazis, where Halina is part of the medical staff. Caroline meanwhile is working at the French consulate, trying to help with the increasing refugee situation and raising money through her wealthy, Upper East Side connections. Their three lives continue to intertwine throughout the story, which is heart-wrenching and tragic, with moments of joy of hope. It felt very well researched and based in fact, even though parts were obviously fictionalized. I listened to this as an audiobook, which had a different person voicing each woman’s story making it even more dynamic - it’s long, but I didn’t have any trouble finishing it during the two week loan!

The Silent Patient

A solid psychological thriller set in England that goes between two points of view, Alicia, an artist who was accused of brutally murdering her husband and hasn’t spoken a word since (getting committed instead of sent to prison), and Theo, a psychologist who is fascinated by the case and wants to treat her and see if he can get her to speak. Most of the action is set in the psychiatric facility where Alicia is a patient and Theo works, with flashes to both of them at home, and Theo as he investigates what led to the murder. It was definitely a fun, distracting read, but given all of the hype around it, I had very high expectations that weren’t completely met. I saw the big twist coming, but there were a few surprises along the way!

Majesty

Eloise touched on this in the Monday Missive a few weeks ago, but we must have both come off of the library lists at the same time! I was anxiously awaiting this, as I loved American Royals so much. The story picks up six weeks after the end of the first book, when the King suddenly dies and our main character Beatrice is suddenly the Queen. She has to grapple with a love triangle, engagement, a country that isn’t too sure about a young queen, and figuring out how to rule on her terms. Meanwhile, her sister Samantha has her own complicated romantic situation and the new pressures of being the second in line for the throne. Daphne, the social climbing “villain” of the books is definitely a more relatable and tragic character, but still horrible. Her path intersects more with all of the characters, including Nina, her romantic nemesis. I didn’t overall love this as much as the first, but you get more dimension on many of the characters and get to meet a few new fun ones! Except poor Jefferson, who barely makes an appearance and accessory to the powerful women around him.

The Queen’s Resistance

This is the sequel to The Queen’s Rising, which I read in September. We find our leading lady, Brienne and her friends and family dealing with the aftermath of the battle in the first book and them handling how to run the country of Maevana following their win. This is a nitty gritty part of fantasy series that you often don’t get to see. The author expands the world building, which is always fun to see in any fantasy book and a normal element of sequels. There were very interesting new characters added, and political dynamics that were explored - I almost wish we had more time to focus on some of them! One of the things I really love about these series is their emphasis on Brienna’s chosen family meaning more than her biological one - the relationship with her and her adopted brother and father is one of the highlights - and there are other examples of chosen families being able to overcome family histories.

Normal People

I have been dying to read Sally Rooney’s novel for months, but the waitlist was so long after the Hulu show came out! If you haven’t read this, it’s a love story between Connell and Marianne, two teens in their last year of school before university in Ireland, he is poor and popular, she is wealthy and regarded as strange by her classmates. Connell’s mother works for Marianne’s family, and as they are the top two students in their class, they get drawn together. Continuing through the next few years and how they come together and are torn apart, the changing back and forth between them as narrators shows how two people can be their own worst enemies due to miscommunications and misunderstandings. So many times I just wanted to shake them and say “tell him/her how you feel!!!”There is also quite a bit of sex in this, but in a way that feels more emotional - although the sexiness definitely comes through in the TV show, which I obviously watched right after.