Hi friends, how’s it going? This past week I’ve been participating in the Winterween Readathon (thisissummerween) hosted by Gabby (gabbyreads / myfictionalworld) and have had the best time! As today is the last day of Winterween, I thought it only makes sense to do some mini reviews for the books that I read!
I was pretty proud of myself because I managed to complete all 5 prompts/read 5 different books during the week of the readathon, and many of them were books that I’d had on my TBR for a while now! So, without further ado, let’s get to it!
Over My Dead Body: A Witchy Graphic Novel by Sweeney Boo (read for the prompt: read a book with a witch on the cover)
Over the last few years I’ve started to read more graphic novels, and Over My Dead Body is probably one of the most gorgeous graphic novels I’ve ever read. The use of color to depict light and shadow was astonishing and the art style had such a fluidity that made everything life-like. There was so much movement in the art, which really added to the storytelling — I loved everything about it!
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (read for the prompt: read a book with purple on the cover)
Notes on an Execution is a book that I’ve had on my TBR for a long time and I’m really glad that this readathon gave me the push to finally read it! That being said, I’m a little conflicted on it — I enjoyed it, but it definitely left me wanting, which felt a little disappointing. I think that the concept of this book is brilliant, and I love what it was saying about our society’s obsession with serial killers and true crime, but what I was really missing was the emotional impact I was hoping it would have.
That’s not to say that I didn’t feel anything while reading this book — I felt a lot of emotions, but I had fully expected this book to make me cry and it didn’t. I guess that what I really wanted was to know less about Ansel (the serial killer) and I wanted to know more about his victims. I thought it was super fascinating to read from the perspectives of Lavender, his mother, Hazel, his ex wife’s sister, and Saffy, the detective who knew him as a boy and was spearheading his investigation, but I think what I really wanted was to know more about the victims. However, us not knowing much about them definitely mirrors the truth of murder victims, especially those murdered by serial killers; we always seem to know more about the killer — the media is more fascinated by them (I mean look at all the books and films and shows we have about Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, etc. ) than their victims.
While Notes on an Execution didn’t deliver exactly what I wanted from it, I do think that it’s a very well written and well crafted book that will keep readers engaged (myself included, I really didn’t put this book down), and if you’ve ever had any interest in true crime at all, I definitely recommend reading this book as soon as possible.
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (reread) (read for the prompt: read a book with a snowy/winter setting)
I’ve been meaning to do a reread of Murder on the Orient Express for a few years now, and when I saw the prompt “read a book with a snowy/winter setting” I just knew that it was finally time to get that reread in! A locked-room mystery is my favorite type of mystery, and boy did Agatha Christie know how to write a locked-room mystery. While I didn’t forget the big reveals at the end of the book, it has been a while since I last read it, so I forgot about some of the more minor details — especially those towards the beginning of the book, so it was a lot of fun to refresh my memory and see the story unfold. This definitely made me want to get back into reading Christie’s work, and I think I might be starting a full Poirot series read this year…
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (read for the prompt: read a book with a “w” in the title)
Our Wives Under the Sea is another book that I’ve had on my TBR for a long time, and while I’d been looking forward to reading it because I’ve heard nothing but good things, I kept putting it off. My experience with Our Wives Under the Sea was actually pretty similar to that of Notes on an Execution — I definitely see the merits of the book and understand why it’s been raved about and rated so highly by many people, but it fell a little flat for me. While I see how this book is classified as horror, there weren’t enough horror elements for me. This book leads more toward psychological horror, which I do love, but I think I expected a different type of horror if that makes sense.
Something that I did love about this book was the way the story was told. I loved that Leah’s chapters were told in a linear pattern about her experience under the sea during the expedition, and that Miri’s chapters were told in a non-linear fashion, spanning the beginnings of her relationship with Leah, her experiences while Leah was gone and the aftermath of Leah’s return.
While this one didn’t have the impact that I had thought it would, it did keep my interest as I read it in one night. If you’ve had your eye on this one I do recommend checking it out!
The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland (read for the prompt: read a book in the dark)
Once I decided that I was going to read The Invocations for Winterween, I had a feeling that this would be my favorite read of the readathon, and I was 100% correct. This book was an easy 5 stars for me. This book started and I did not put it down, if that pesky little thing called work didn’t get in the way, I would’ve read this in one sitting, no doubt. I don’t want to go too into detail here because I’m planning on posting a full review next week, but this one left me reeling in the best possible way.
I thought it would be fun to go through the books and rank them from my favorite to least favorite and give you my star ratings.
- The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland (5 stars)
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (reread) (4.5 stars)
- Over My Dead Body by Sweeney Boo (4 stars)
- Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (3.5 stars)
- Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (3.5 stars)
While there were some books that I found more successful than others, I would say that even the ones that were at the bottom of my ranking were great reads and I absolutely see why some people love them so dearly. All in all, I would say that this was a very successful readathon, and I’m already looking forward to Summerween!
Have you read any of the books on this list? Do you have any of them on your TBR? Let me know in the comments. Until next time, happy reading!
