May Wrap-Up and June TBR

May Wrap-Up

This Is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey

I did a longer review here. I wanted more buildup before the big reveal but I very much enjoyed this YA thriller 4/5

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Ten teens are invited to a house party that turns deadly. If the Agatha Christie classic was turned into a teen slasher. Some of the emotional arcs messed with my willing suspension of disbelief. Nothing groundbreaking but entertaining. 3/5

The Unlikely Thru-Hiker by Derick Lugo

I did a longer review here. It was good, not great, and avoid the audiobook at all costs. 3.5/5

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

It starts with a hench scraping by until she’s collateral damage to a hero. Broken and broke, Anna realizes how much damage heroes really do. From there, a funny, clever, and compelling story about how it’s not as black and white as it seems 5/5

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole

A thriller about a gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn. Cole touches on systematic racism, gentrification, and medical racism. The big reveal stretched my willing suspension of disbelief a bit but not nearly as much as it should have. 4/5

One Child by Mei Fong

What inspired China’s one child policy (hubris and bad math), the crimes against humanity if wrought, the current mess it has made, and the future mess yet to come. It was an intense ride. There were several moments so disturbing I had to stop. 4/5

I’m not finishing anything else this month so I’m posing it now. The Spawn has the short toddler attention span so he’s occasionally having trouble getting to the end of his favorite books. He still likes reading to himself. He’s figured out Optical Physics for Babies and Quantum Information for Babies have fun pictures.

June TBR

The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman

A horror novel loosely inspired by a true story. A dark history, a possible curse, and a true crime podcast? Sounds fun.

Zero Fail by Carol Leonning

Inside the secret service and the hot mess they’ve become. I’m on the hold list at my library.

I’ve started The Remaking and it’s not quite what I expected. I’m hoping I like it better as it goes but I’m not optimistic.

The Likely Thru-Reader

Despite my love of air conditioning and dislike of bugs, I’m a sucker for thru-hiking stories. I’m not sure what exactly about them draws me in. Getting back to nature, the simplicity of that life, pushing yourself physically. Pretty sure I’d hate thru-hiking but I do feel inspired to check out some local trails when spawn is bigger.

I loved the sound of Derick Lugo’s The Unlikely Thru-Hiker. A metrosexual NYC boy living in the woods for months at a time? Yes please!

Very little time is wasted on why Lugo is doing this and I hated that. There has to be some sort of reason or backstory to go from the biggest city in America to ‘hobo on a journey.’ I love the sound of getting back to nature but you couldn’t pay me to do it for 2,000 miles. Why dude?

No sane person goes from couch to thru-hiking so there was some planning involved. Did he start with weekend hikes? How did he choose his gear? What gear did he choose? How did it hold up? Was there a workout routine? So many details, no page limit, still no answers.

Despite the radical change in lifestyle, there were remarkably few ‘fish out of water’ moments. Lugo is a decent writer and managed to inject plenty of humor in his story. But there were no clueless city boy moments? Really? There’s some shenanigans he’s not telling us and I’m salty about it.

I listened to the audiobook instead of getting the ebook. Many memoirs are enhanced by the writer doing their own audiobook. This is not one of them.

While Lugo is a good writer, he’s a terrible narrator. He read the entire thing in a flat, expressionless monotone. No inflection, no excitement, no sadness, no voices to distinguish different people. I read my grocery list with more emotion.

I would regularly get sucked out of the story and think about how much better this would have been if a professional voice actor had done this. He described the emotional end of his AT journey with the same monotone he used to describe unpleasant trail privies.

Lugo is a decent writer but he’s a terrible performer. As a book, I’d say 3.75. As an audiobook, 3 since I’m feeling generous. The overall grade is a 3.5.

This Is the Jess Show

I am a Jess and it is my blog so it technically is The Jess Show. This TA thriller is described as Black Mirror plus My So Called Life with (IMHO) a hint of The Truman Show.

From reading the blurb alone, you get a sense of how this story is going to go. The big question is when and how the penny will drop. I wanted that tension to drag out a little longer, let it simmer a bit more. Once it happens, things change very quickly. That is my only real complaint about the book.

I’ve found a lot of Quirk books to be written at a very easy reading level. More USA Today than WSJ which makes them fun and fast to read. I have slightly mixed feelings about this trend overall but I don’t think it did a disservice to Jess Show in any way. Thrillers have a very fast pace so being able to easily digest the story helped things keep moving.

I suspected this would be a one-off but when I updated my GoodReads, I saw that there will be more. I’m very excited to keep exploring this world. I think the next installment will offer a deeper dive into our dependence on technology over human connection and desire for notoriety.

I’d give this 4.5/5 stars. The Black Mirror comparison is very apt and it’s definitely worth a read.

April Wrap-Up and May TBR

April was a weird month. I spent the first week finishing books I started in May

Wench by Maxine Kaplan

Tanya is a tavern wench who goes on a crazy adventure to try and get it back. A fun YA fantasy novel with a lot of unexpected twists. Some of the rules of the world didn’t make total sense to me. How does the magic work? What’s the geography? I had questions I wanted answered. I did enjoy the feminist messaging though. 3.5/5

Nomadland by Jessica Bruder

I’ve always been enamored with the idea of living tiny. This takes a hard look at the people who have no choice but to live in RVs or vans. The people who can’t afford to retire and must take jobs that send them all over the country. It’s a combination of freedom and desperation Bruder captures brilliantly. 5/5

Siri, Who Am I? by Sam Tschida

A fun and interesting story of a woman who lost her memory. I know this isn’t how TBIs work so it messed with my willing suspension of disbelief. The quality of writing is good, not great. Fun for what it is but nothing groundbreaking 3.5/5

Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller

Part memoir, part history, part philosophy. This is a beautiful and poignant book that I highly recommend. Go in knowing little of what it’s about, because it’s not only one type of story, and keep an open mind. 5/5

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

I loved the premise for this but was underwhelmed with the execution. Half of the actions of the characters made no sense and the plot as all over the place. Childhood trauma, the dark history of the sanatorium, current secrets. Pearse is not a good enough writer to make it feel anything but messy. A flicker of an expression Elin can’t read was the ‘releasing a breath I didn’t know I was holding’ of this book. It’s not bad but it’s not good either. 3/5

I read ~40% of The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle. There’s nothing wrong with it but it’s not quite clicking for me. I’m going to table it and come back another time.

The Spawn still likes being read to. I discovered a sequel to one of his favorites. Five Little Pumpkins is a good and very simple book. I think the whole book could fit in a tweet. Which makes it feel weird to say Five Little Pumpkins Came Back is much weaker and just meh. Kid loves it the same so I’m reading both either way.

May TBR

This Is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey

The Truman Show for teens. I am so in!

The Unlikely Thru-Hiker by Derick Lugo

I’ve already started the audiobook for this and I regret going with audio instead of the ebook. Lugo is a good writer and I’m enjoying his story but he’s not a good audiobook narrator. Once you’ve listened to the professionals, you can’t really go back