:O

after almost a decade, i’m finally getting back into reading!!! the last time i read for pleasure was back in high school and i didn’t read that much, mostly assigned reading though i did enjoy some of them. oh how i miss being a loser in elementary school and camping out in the library during recess. the past couple years i’ve spent more time romanticizing reading than actually touching a book, not to mention buying them and leaving them to collect dust—there’s even a japanese term for it, tsundoku, and i had a severe case of it T__T i did end up buying some physical books since coming to london and this time i did start reading, but then i stopped hfjkd;;

now i’m in recovery bc i asked my mom for a kindle for christmas. i think having an ereader would help since i’m accustomed to reading on my phone (thank you ao3) and it did, yay! so i logged back into my barely touched goodreads & storygraph and now here we are. i have so many books on my tbr list, but i’m focusing on shorter length ones bc i’m still a baby reader uwu and i read soooo sloooowww.

initially planned on doing quarterly media roundups, but i’m too lazy for that and i watch too much shit… i’ll maybe do a “my fav tv shows & films of the year” instead. also, i’ve resigned to the fact that i’m just not that thorough about reviews and i don’t want to force it. books are the only medium i’m rating bc i actually Hate scale ratings—it’s usually i like it or i didn’t—but i spend enough (too much) time on them that i feel like i can rate them. i still kinda teeter between stars but i don’t want to do partial stars either; i want to be decisive and more options is overwhelming for my pea brain

here we go

BOOKS

here’s my rating system for reference

• 5/5 = LOVED IT
  
• 4/5 = really enjoyed it
  
• 3/5 = liked it but not awe-inspiring
  
• 2/5 = meh, probably DNF
  
• 1/5 = truly terrible, most likely DNF

GALATEA by madeline miller
★★★☆☆
this was a nice short read to get me back into reading; it gave me the satisfaction of finishing a book that i oh-so craved and in one sitting at that! i have untouched physical copies of the song of achilles and circe back in the us, but never knew miller wrote a short story

i’ve heard of the original myth going in, but don’t know the full story. i liked the narrator’s voice and appreciated how deadpannish and unserious she was at times. her husband, pygmalion, is so gross and miller did a good job at showing how incel-y he was bc i cringed at his scenes, but i kinda wish there was more to make the ending more cathartic. tbh i was confused about the setting bc i couldn’t tell if it was an ancient or modern one? the language used made it seem more modern, but maybe that’s just for easy reading. all i know is when galatea said someone was Fucking, i was like whoaaa you know that word? it threw me off lol

i gave this 4 stars before i established my rating system, then 3.5 but was like no i don’t want to do half stars, and finally a 3. i felt a bit mean compared to goodreads hgfjbf;; i mean i did like it, but it didn’t Change me and it’s not very memorable. maybe it would’ve been if it was longer. however, it’s exposed me to miller’s writing, which i do enjoy, and so i look forward to her other works :)

favorite lines:
no lines stood out to me initially but i revisited the book and picked a few i thought sounded cute (sans the first bc galatea was being a silly girl)

I went to my husband’s room and stood in the doorway. He was flung across the bed and rumpled.

“Ah, my beauty is asleep,” I said.

• this Needs context!! when i looked through the book again to write my review, i thought it was funny lmao. basically, he would say this to her when he visited her in the hospital (psych ward??) and they roleplayed her coming to life, and now she said it to him

He had no chance, really. He was only flesh.

The ocean floor was sandy and soft as pillows. I settled into it and slept.

THE SIX DEATHS OF THE SAINT by alix e. harrow
★★★★★
ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED. i love this short story so much, i still think about it a month later T_T i honestly don’t really know what to say. my review won’t do it justice. i finished this in one sitting too, which yeah it’s only a short story, but you don’t understand how HARD it is for me to focus on reading. but i DEVOURED this story. it made me cry real tears.

i don’t care much for prose, i feel some writers can be too wishy washy with their language, but lord, harrow is an amazing storyteller and she does it so gorgeously. not to mention it’s written in second person, and i was like huh?? i’m no y/n but this is the only second person pov story EVER. i will never read another second person pov again and enjoy it

ngl i spent way too much time breaking down the time loop [insert confused math lady meme]... my brain still hurts when i think about it now. that’s on ME though!! harrow has no faults in this story whatsoever. maybe i wanted more gwynne x devil, but it’s FINE. i am just happy he was acknowledged and even loved <3 i am also happy about the ending. at first, i was worried when gwynne was held hostage but i’m so glad he took it into his own hands. it’s not explicitly HEA, it’s pretty ambiguous, but a good ambiguous. i still have some questions—why did the devil’s attitude towards gwynne change? did the saint tell her or was it just a feeling from her previous incarnations? perhaps i need a second read to find answers

she’s a 5. i thought hmm is that too generous? i only started reading again, do i really know what a 5 is? but idgaf. She’s A Five. and i will always scream about her if anyone asks for recs. actually they don’t even need to ask, i will still yell about her

favorite lines:
O i’m gonna go crazy. i would quote the WHOLE story but alas

And you found you did not mind being a devil, so long as you were his.

You pitied him, almost hated him, for the way he looked: weak and vulnerable, just another poor bastard whose name the bards would never sing.

• i just think that last bit is such a unique insult. anyway, (almost) hate to love trope aye

I see my squire, too, hovering at the edges of every vision. First he is a limping, gawking collections of limbs, then a slim boy, then a graceful man with sad eyes, always on you. I notice for the first time that he is beautiful.

• um i cried. gwynne i love you. i think i felt something developing when he first ran after her in the beginning but AHHH

“I would rather love a coward than mourn a legend.”

• the lines of all lines

I know him, and in knowing him I love him, and in loving him I cannot do as he wishes.

I return to Gwynne, long enough to kiss his brow and whisper to him what I should have understood lifetimes ago, what I should have told him every night and every morning. “I am yours.”

HOW TO NOT MARRY A PRINCE by megan derr
★★★☆☆
the longest book i’ve finished recently and it’s a novella lmfao. a decent read—a bit slow and boring at first ngl, but it picked up around the 40% mark. the main chara amador is kinda annoying in the “woe is me” way, and while i could relate to him sometimes, i just wasn’t into that. also there’s so much waxing poetic about the love interest’s Big Strong Arms like bro i get it you’re touch-starved but enough is enough. i realize i’m not into instalove or meet cute (is this a meet cute?) when it comes to books; i need TENSION. i could enjoy it if it was a manga, but i spend more time on books and it just gets boring. maybe i wanted the bully to fuck things up more.

i came across a few typos and they bothered me a bit. if it was a fanfic, i would’ve dropped it. i know i’m kinda dogging on it, but it was an easy and fun read and i found myself missing it after i finished LOL. it was nice bit of escapism reading. i started another of derr’s works and her writing is significantly better there

favorite lines:
busted my ass finding a quote for my twitter thread, but it’s not that good now that i checked it again… i was grasping at straws tbh so no quotes here [shrug]


BISCLAVRET by k.l. noone
★★★☆☆
another short story and this took me too long to get through. i wasn’t familiar with the original story, so i read about it on wikipedia after starting the book. that left me unsatisfied with bisclavret’s ex-wife’s ending, but i guess noone didn’t want to make bisclavret into some irredeemable monster? i wasn’t a huge fan of the storytelling style bc the narrator would sometimes add stuff in present time and i just wanted the story to go on. i think i would’ve preferred if the story was told as it was happening. but i guess the style has its pros because the readers weren’t left wondering and issues between the couple didn’t last too many pages. i also wasn’t in love with the prose either, it felt too flowery for my taste. not to mention the age gap… i cannot with large age gaps guys. and so much “i love, i love, i love,” it felt almost unsettling and like something was off? glad to know that wasn’t the case though.

OKAY i find criticizing to be easier than complimenting but i did like this story, it kept me entertained and didn’t drag on. i would’ve finished it sooner if i wasn’t so lazy dghjs. that’s not on the author! i have some other books by them on my tbr list, so hopefully i’ll enjoy those more

favorite lines:

I am Lord Bisclavret, I am the King’s werewolf, and I am home.

MANGA & WEBTOONS

i’ve read and dropped too many series to keep track; most of them were isekai or BL. also read a shit ton of straight-up porn, so i’m just not gonna expound on those and only talk about memorable sfw series <3

THE SAVIOR’S CAFÉ IN ANOTHER WORLD VOL 1-5 by kyouka izumi, oumiya, reiko sakurada
this is an example of instalove and meet cute, overall vanilla relationship, that i enjoy in manga. barely any tension or pining, but still enjoyable. maybe bc it’s short-form and i read it faster compared to books. it was warm and cozy :3 i’m not interested in reading the light novel (yes i skipped the bonus chapters) though because again i need tension for books lol

lowkey i was confused why she got isekai’d if home girl just became a hermit but whatever


[ONGOING] HI, I’M A WITCH AND MY CRUSH WANTS ME TO MAKE A LOVE POTION VOLUME 1 & 2 by eiko mutsuhana & vient
long ass light novel titles that summarize the plot strikes again and i fell victim to it. i LOVE unrequited love <3 i’m caught up and i need MORE. i don’t care for light novels bc translations are weird sometimes and usually more tell, don’t show, but i got the light novel for this series and i am going to read it


[ONGOING] NOT YOUR TYPICAL REINCARNATION STORY by lemon frog & a-jin
yeah i’m kinda obsessed with this story. it inspired me to write my own isekai, which is on the backburner bc a new wip was born from that one lmao. it has some of my favorite tropes—hate to love and unrequited feelings—and the mmc is initially cruel to the fmc like whewww. what i don’t like is the “innocent” heroine ugh. i read spoilers from the web novel and i’m not exactly looking forward to the heroine’s actions -_-


[DROPPED] 7TH TIME LOOP: THE VILLAINESS ENJOYS A CAREFREE LIFE MARRIED TO HER WORST ENEMY! VOL 1 & 2 by touko amekawa & wan hachipisu
i’m an otome isekai trash panda and i go feral for the premise of being killed by your love interest in your past life, but dropped this because she’s 15 and he’s 19. dawg, i’m not with it.