Overall mood this month: eager but distracted. This month, I have been working on something that has taken precedence over reading, as you’ll see in my reads for the month. It’s a shame because this month was the Aotearoa New Zealand Readathon which has been a wonderful opportunity for readers, authors and literary agents to highlight NZ stories and NZ authors, sharing titles and giving recommendations and reviews that help boost our rich literary landscape. I’m happy to note that this eagerness will carry through into March as I have many fantastic titles awaiting pickup from the library.

Books Read:

Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig 4/5

An eerie, tense conclusion to One Dark Window, maintaining what it built in the first novel while fleshing out more characters, relationships, conflicts and world building in its finale. I have seen some division between readers into those that liked it and those who were disappointed with the conclusion. Personally, while I can see which aspects people found lacklustre, I quite enjoyed it as the core of the story stayed true. In my eyes, the poetic and often ominous stanzas and the ancient magic of the land creates a great hook into this dark fantasy realm and while the character relationships and interactions may not unfold how the reader envisioned, the essence of the story remains.

Skim reads – now, I don’t count these as full book reads as I was flicking through the pages more than taking in what was being said. I still have great respect for these books and their authors, but I simply picked them up at the wrong time. I haven’t got individual reviews for these, but I will list the books and give their summary for you to look into yourselves.

How To Loiter in a Turf War by Coco Solid

How to Loiter in a Turf War is a novel about three brown girls, an artist, a poet, and a student in Auckland, New Zealand. It explores the silent gentrification of the city, the haphazard lives of creatives, and the friendship between the three friends. This is a fantastic book for teens with a sharp, witty Kiwi tone. The dialogue is formatted in what I believe as screenwriting dialogue which is a little jarring at first but once you’re used to it I’m sure it’s a breeze of a story. Unfortunately for me, the change from traditional novel dialogue to screenwriting dialogue threw me off.

The Man Who Ate Lincoln Road by Steve Brauinias

Steve Braunias had a mission – to eat at every food joint, all 55 of them (at the time of his investigation), along West Auckland’s Lincoln Rd. His research question – Could one man eat the lot in a single year? Was it possible, was it wise, and was it something that might actually provide an understanding about a nation devoted to eating junk food? This gave me the impression that it was going to answer questions about Auckland’s fast food history but it was more a story about the people he met and interacted with while attending each place than the statistics and resolutions gained from the hands-on (or stomach-on) study. I ended up skimming to see how he rated each place but couldn’t get any further into the journey (again, the lingering presence of my project hanging over my shoulder pushed me to DNF and skim read more books than I usually would this month).

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan 3.5/5 (DNFed at the end of part one/roughly 80 pages)

I picked this up as I’ve been meaning to give it a proper chance for a while now, not being able to read it before needing to return it to the library a few years back. While there wasn’t anything off-putting within the pacing, world building or character development, and in fact I can see this being an incredible read for other readers, it simply didn’t hook me in to continue into part two. I will still recommend it as a fantasy to give a go as it has some striking detail and Shelley has great sense of stakes and how to make the events dire.

Currently Reading:

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

I love the rich detail and character building that I have seen so far, not only on an individual sense but within the community which features many “namesless” faces. To be able to give life to characters who are simply filling space in the background by giving them real human fears and superstitions makes reading these chapters more engaging. I’m roughly four or five chapters in and while I would love to take my time reading this, it’s due back at the library at the end of the week so I have some midnight oil to burn with this one (a dense 540 pages, but it’s very doable for me).