Technically I read most of Tennis Lessons by Susannah Dickey in June, but that post got very crowded and I finished this book on the first day of July so it's heading up this month instead. This is the first novel I've read in second person and I'm really not sure how I feel about it; being responsible for such a gross main character and all the terrible things that happened to her wasn't hugely up my street. But it was well-written and follows a pretty classic coming-of-age structure so it was altogether an enjoyable read. Plus I'm a sucker for contemporary Irish literature so I was never going to rate this too harshly. Excited to see where Dickey goes next because I think this was slightly held-back by debut novel syndrome. Still, it gets 3.5 stars out of 5.
Despite having only read one of her books before, I'm a huge Liane Moriarty fan. Crime fiction is my favourite genre and the way she blends it so seamlessly with humour is brilliant. So it's no surprise that Big Little Lies was a 5 star read for me. It's possibly one of the most tightly plotted novels I've read; every character and every interaction has its significance and keeps you guessing all the way, even though (on reflection) the victim could never have been anyone else. It's a very vindicating read. Our three main characters are incredibly real. They're bitchy, hilarious, and very sympathetic. This book also has some things to say about a few important topics: domestic violence, the danger of cliques, and more. But it's never too taxing so I'd recommend to every one.
I really wanted to like Eimear McBride's debut novel, A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing. And I certainly admire it: the prose must have been an incredible challenge to write and parts of it read like lines of poetry but I personally found it painful to read. Kind of like wading through fog: I had to focus far too hard on each word to understand what was happening. Which is no fault of McBride's really, I just like to read things leisurely and this was more of a brain-teaser. Part 5 was a masterpiece, however. Truly heart-wrenching and the ending was icy cold. However I feel like this book holds you at arms' length. We spend 200 pages in the very claustrophobic mind of our narrator, but I never really felt like I knew her, or that she even existed outside of her interactions with other people. And although the sibling relationship was very well written, none of her family members ever seemed more than abstract blurs to me. Now, I love a depressing book as much as anyone else but this was almost too much for me: no respite whatsoever! And the stream-of-conscious breaks. in the. Middle of. The sentence never stops either. But this is a solid 3 star read, maybe even 3.5.
M. L. Rio's If We Were Villains immediately became one of my favourite books of all time. An almost instant 5 stars. I read more than 400 pages of this in less than a day because I was immensely drawn into it. Romance, murder, Shakespeare, art school — the perfect ingredients for a pretentious, gorgeous novel. The main character was brilliant; although Oliver seems like the typical everyman, he's so fleshed out you forget the stereotype. The same with all of the characters, they all seem to come alive on the page. And the setting is perfect: an eerie Gothic estate filled with art and genius. In a fucked up way, this kind of made me wish I was at a conservatoire. Don't ask why. Similarly to Big Little Lies, I was shocked by the twists, but it could never have been anything else all along. Please, please read this book.
Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Brontë was a very slow novel. I've expressed my hatred for the trope of following a main character from childhood many times an it was particularly gruelling here. Plus the narrator of this story was a peculiar choice. I liked Ellen (a fed up housekeeper is always going to be an A+ for me) but the tenant character annoyed me to no end. Heathcliff is despicable, but of course he's going to be rude if you're rude to him first? Nobody asked for your opinions on them! But once the story picked up (with less of him) at around chapter 17, it was great. A gothic whirlwind with a happy ending? That's a bit of me. This was a 4 star read. I know it's not productive to compare women, but I absolutely preferred Jane Eyre to this.
Before I knew anything about her, I took both of Eimear McBride's novels out of the library. And I'm grateful I read A Girl is a Half-formed thing first because it made The Lesser Bohemians a much smoother read. Meaning I could easily give it 5 stars. Both the main characters in this have suffered terrible, awful things and whilst I gave their relationship a side-eye for most of this (there are some disconcerting Freudian links between them & the age gap is unsettling), they both became better people by the end of it. Again, another novel that inexplicably made me want to go to drama school. Parts of this book were miserable but there fun parts as well, and this was a nice look into London in the 90s. This was sort of wish fulfilment for me; I'd love to live there at some point. And I know the 'no-name' characters thing is done to death, but McBride used it really well here. I don't think a single character has a name at first and they slowly leak out in tender moments; my favourite was when the love interest's was revealed. I would read this book again and again I think, I definitely want my own copy at some point.
I've bought her debut novel already but I'm waiting for some unknown reason to read it, so I thought I'd read Mother's Friend to get me started with Naoise Dolan. I enjoy her writing style and the tone of this was interesting: sad, but accepting. And with one glaring message: London isn't all it's cracked up to be. For such a short story we get a lot of insight into Treasa and my heart ached for her throughout. I gave this 4 stars.
Another 4 star Irish short story, Sally Rooney's Mr Salary. I'm so ready to read Rooney's next novel Beautiful World, Where Are You so I thought I'd read this to tide me over. And it was good. There's a lot of common themes across all of Rooney's works, but she writes them well. And both characters in this tory were very interesting. It reminds me of Conversations with Friends although I actually preferred this surprisingly — I'm not always big on short stories but I'm trying to read more. Plus I like Rooney's writing style and it shines here.
I think Kate Elizabeth Russell's My Dark Vanessa is darkly gorgeous, exactly as the title suggests. Russell paints such a vivid, horrifying picture of an abusive relationship and her characterisation of Jacob Strane is masterful: we can see him for the manipulative monster that he is, yet she simultaneously shows the romanticised version of himself he presents to Vanessa. The prose is gorgeous as well, I underlined so many lines in this. Vanessa herself is a brilliant character with a fascinating psychological journey. Also, the interwoven references to other books and stories throughout was incredibly clever. Made my little English student heart very happy. Another 5/5 but very disturbing although I liked the hopefulness of the ending, even if justice unfortunately wasn't served. Which I suppose is sadly realistic
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld is by far my least favourite book I've read all year, and (not to be dramatic) maybe ever. The writing style was decent, maybe even good (I was too irritated to notice), but I hated almost everything about the actual story. I gave it 2 stars on goodreads but I think I might lower that to 1 right now. This was just absolutely fucking disgusting: animal abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, and just general unpleasantness. I'm actually grateful that the narrative was so detached (quite a feat for first person) because it stopped any of these things from getting to me because I probably would never have recovered. The ending was horrifically bleak but fitting for the story. I don't regret reading this, but I hope I never read anything like it again: I physically retched at parts of this.
To make myself feel better, I did my first rereads of the year with two of my comfort novels, Swift and Nomad by R. J. Anderson. These are technically aimed at a younger age group but they're just such quick and easy reads (I read both in one day! I amazed myself there) that I read them whenever I want to feel better. I think they're a fresh take on the fantasy genre. I love both of the main characters and the romance develops very sweetly and naturally between them. And the storylines are actually really cool, with a lot of tension. Perhaps I'm just biased, but I gave these book 5 stars each. I'm starting to realise I actually might just be too generous but I don't care! Life is too short to begrudge praise to art that you enjoy.
Emma Jane Unsworth's Adults is a hoot. Incredibly addictive and very witty, it's a delight to read, but I did have to put it down because of second-hand embarrassment several times. Those are the pitfalls of such a realistic portrayal of modern life: it's shamelessly embarrassing. And I know the deranged social media obsession definitely exists but my god was it painful to read about. I actually really liked the relationships in this book: the friendship fizzling out and being rescued, the rebirth of a relationship with your mother. It's all relatable and heartfelt. I gave this 3.5 stars because whilst it was fun, it was absolutely exhausting, and it didn't really mean anything to me outside of a fun time.
I have to admit, Sally Rooney's At the Clinic let me down a little bit. I loved Normal People and actually am fighting the urge to reread it whilst I have 6 library books to get through, but the short story that founded it all is nowhere near the quality of that book. It's almost too detached for me; I didn't care much for this Connell and Marianne. But it's an interesting insight into the characters and it works as a short story perfectly fine. 3 stars. Will probably watch the TV show.
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin broke my heart. What an introduction to one of the most important American writers of all time. Truly tragic and beautifully written, he packs so much emotion into just 150ish pages. The two central characters are so emotive to me: Giovanni makes me sad like possibly no other and David is just depressingly lost to himself. The setting here is also incredibly alive, I truly felt like I was walking the streets of Paris with them (God I wish I was, this strangely made me want to live there) and even like I was in Spain with Hella whenever she appeared. The lives of these characters become your own and despite knowing exactly what's coming, you can't help praying for a miracle. I'll definitely be buying my own copy; there was so much of this I wanted to highlight.
I've read very few short story collections (I am looking to change that, I just borrowed Homesick For Another World from the library) and I think Lot: Stories by Bryan Washington is my second ever. This was a solid 3 star read. The concept of each short story was really interesting to me and I do think Washington is a talented writer, if Memorial ever shows up in the library I'll definitely check it out, and I do think he managed to bring some of the recurring characters to life. However this falls just a little bit flat for me. I never managed to truly connect with most of the stories but all of them were interesting reads. And maybe I am just not a short story fan, but the longer ones definitely worked best for me: Elgin (maybe I'm just sentimental because my dad was born in the Scottish town), South Congress, and Waugh, although that was very bleak.
I read the majority of The Handmaid's Tale on the last day of the month: it was an addictive read, if completely horrifying. This is probably my least favourite Atwood thus far, but still a 4 star read. Things with high concepts are not really my thing (my brain is too busy to focus on so many details) but I actually really enjoyed the fact this focused almost entirely on Offred. A lot of reviews seem annoyed by the lack of context but I thought it made the story much more personal, since we weren't focussed on an entire society, and just one woman. Obviously Margaret Atwood knows how to write, so this was beautifully done as ever. Very explicit about the terrible banality of evil.
A very good month for reading, aside from one major hiccup! I've definitely challenged myself: new writing styles, short stories, a few classics. Happy with myself.
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