October Reading Wrap-Up

October Reading Wrap-Up!

I was hoping to read a lot of spooky books in the month of October and I read 6ish? I only completed two physical books, because I was super busy with the workshop I went to, grad school, etc. I listened to seven audiobooks and almost all of them were really good!I have 12 more challenges to complete for my year-long reading challenge so I need to do lots of reading these next two months! Without further ado, here's what I read in October. ~Em

 The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy is the sequel to The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue. It follows Monty's sister, Felicity, after the events of the first book. I really loved learning more about Felicity because she is an intelligent, independent character in a time where women aren't really allowed to be. She's also asexual, and though I can't speak for the representation, I found it very interesting to read from a character's perspective who does fall into that category. I didn't like this one as much as the first, but I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook and love these characters and Mackenzi Lee's sense of humor in her writing very much. Rating: 4/5

 I picked up the second volume of the Lumberjanes after absolutely loving the first one. The adventures in this volume were fun and whimsical and I love these characters so much. I love the art style, the humor, and the great representation throughout. Rating: 4/5

 Daughter of the Pirate King is about a girl named Alosa, whose dad is the Pirate King. She allows herself to be kidnapped by a crew that supposedly has a piece of a map that she and her father want. I had problems with this book. Alosa is this fearsome pirate who will not hesitate to kill people in her way. She attempts to hide the fact that she got captured on purpose and acts out against her captors. The thing that got me was that she is super wishy-washy about being attracted to one of the pirates that captures her and trying to pretend like she doesn't like him. I'm not explaining this super well, but I just felt annoyed with Alosa's thought processes often. However! I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook and had a great reading experience overall. Rating: 4/5

 Sadie was the first book I listened to during Spookathon and it fulfilled the challenge of "Read a thriller." I went into to it hesitantly because this book has been receiving so much hype. I hadn't heard anything bad about it when I went in to reading it, but I was scared that I wouldn't like it. The book follows a girl named Sadie whose younger sister was murdered. Sadie is certain that she knows who did it and she wants to seek revenge and kill him. In another element of the book, this man picks up the news story of Sadie running away (no one except Sadie knows the motive for running away) and starts a podcast with it. I loved this audiobook. It was the first full cast audiobook I had ever listened to and the podcast element was done really well. I had heard that this book was really gory and gruesome, but I would not agree with that. The only main problem I had with the book was the ending, but I can understand why they ended it the way that they did. Rating: 4/5

 This was the second book I read during the Spookathon and it fulfilled the challenge of "Read a book with a spooky word in the title." I didn't realize until it was too late that this book is the second in a series. I was able to understand most of what was happening, but I think there were a few key elements from the first book that I missed out on. I liked the premise of this story, but I hated the audiobook. The narration went back and forth between two people, one male and one female reader. Each of the readers used different voices for the other characters so it was hard to tell who was speaking some of the time. I probably would have liked it better if I had read the physical book and I'm not sure if I will go back and read the first one/continue on with the series. Rating: 3/5

 I read The Halloween Tree to fulfill the challenge of "Read a book not set in this time period" for the Spookathon. This was my first Ray Bradbury book and I really enjoyed it. I found the writing to be magical and lyrical. The story is about a group of boys who love Halloween and this particular year, one of their buddies is really sick. He says he will catch up with the other boys later at this spooky house. The other boys go off and when they get there, they meet a man named Mr. Moundshroud. When the boys' friend shows up, he is whisked away by some creatures of Halloween. Mr. Moundshroud leads the other boys on a journey through the history of Halloween in order to get back their friend. Rating: 4/5

I have been hearing amazing things about the Wayward Children series for a long time now. I wanted to read them physically but I had the audiobook available on Scribd and so I just decided to listen and I'm really glad that I did! This story was a lot darker than I expected it to be, being based on children who unwillingly returned from magical doorways. I liked many of the characters and I'm excited to continue on in the series. I think that the ending of this first book was pretty abrupt and wish it could have been elaborated on a little more, but overall I really enjoyed it. Rating: 4/5

When I heard about this anthology, I got super excited to read what I thought were going to be really spooky stories for the Halloween season! The cover of this book is gorgeous and I just got sucked in! I listened to these fifteen stories on audio and technically didn't finish until today (Nov. 1) but I listened to eleven of the stories actually in October, so I'm counting it. I was going to go back and rate each of the individual stories, but I found that many of them weren't memorable at all. And I just finished the book, today! This book has strong representation throughout and there were a couple of stories that I liked, but for the most part, the stories felt unfinished and lackluster. Rating: 3/5