What I Read in September : Dinah
My reading volume took a little bit of a hit, as a geared up on a big new work project and got back into the swing of a busy fall. I also read a few longer books, which slowed me down. My biggest reading investment this month was a new (to me) supernatural teen series, which I read the first two books for. I also dove into an excellent college campus thriller and the gangs of 1920’s Singapore.
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Crave and Crush
Sometimes an adult lady just wants to read a book about a teenager finding out vampires are real! The Crave series is a really fun entry into the genre - it’s set at a remote Alaskan boarding school, mostly within the campus, and centers around Grace, whose parents die and enrolls at Katmere Academy, the school where her uncle is the headmaster and her cousin Macy is her roommate. Her less than warm welcome, and outright hostility (then flirtation) from Jaxon, the most intimidating of the students, with a few near death moments, makes sense when she finds out that it’s a school for witches, vampires, dragons and werewolves. Who is trying to kill her though, and why?
I flew through this first book, but the second definitely felt longer. There are definitely elements of this that are derivative of other series, but they do manage to wink at those (for example, outwardly referencing Twilight). I liked the other supernatural species that are added in, and the level of the stakes involved. The second book expands the world and the story dramatically, and honestly was maybe a tiny bit too long, but there was a lot of plot! I also had a really hard time believing that vampires would name their child Jaxson - that spelling is hilariously contemporary and doesn’t track with the characters at all. If you want a cross between Twilight and Harry Potter, which let’s be honest, is my kind of book, then I would definitely recommend the series! I am planning to read the third installment in October.
These Violent Delights
What if Romeo and Juliet were Roma and Juliette the heirs to rival Russian and Chinese gangs in 1920’s Shanghai, engaged in a violent turf war with each other and communist groups, Western foreigners and the threat of a mysterious illness that was causing people to kill themselves in brutal and disturbing way? It sounds completely insane, but this book actually works, layering all of the plots together and painting a really fascinating portrait of the city as the two team up to save their people. While the book is about the characters and their struggles to retain power, prove their legitimacy as heirs and figure out what is making people to lose their minds, it also draws a beautiful portrait of a city on the brink of massive change.
After a summer of zippier reads, this was definitely a little bit more dense to get through and took me longer, but it was worth it! I loved the “star-crossed lovers” premise, but the author took it pretty far away from the original story. The secondary characters each had their own interesting backstory that added in diversity and other types of “otherness” in a story that at it’s core is about belonging and power. There is some fairly graphic violence (the way that people kill themselves is intense) and drug use (opium dens), and the book does take a surprising sci-fi turn, but I did enjoy it overall.
The Girls Are All So Nice Here
A mysterious death set at a New England liberal arts college? Yes, please! The plot is around Ambrosia, who was somehow involved in someone’s death her freshman year. As her 10 year reunion approaches, she receives mysterious messages alluding to what happened, and gets backed into attending and facing down what happened that fall. The book is told in current times and with flashbacks to her first semester, as she balanced a perfect roommate and a toxic but thrilling best friend, Sully. At the reunion, the stakes get higher, with more menacing threats and Amb trying to hide the truth from her husband. Who is looking for revenge and how far will they go to get it?
I really enjoyed the flashback parts - they paint such an accurate picture of those types of college friendships with insane but fun people, and how unnerving and disorienting those first few months of college can be as you try to figure out where you fit in. I kept thinking about the girls I knew who were like the characters - even though I couldn’t relate to a lot of the decisions that college Amb made. I also thought that she made complete bonkers decisions in the current day timeline that made things worse for her - but outside of that frustration, I was so drawn into the mystery and finding out what was happening in both timelines!
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