Hello friends! Something I’ve seen a few BookTubers do recently is a 24 hour reading challenge and I thought it sounded like fun. We usually think in terms of how many books we can read in a week or a month, but rarely do we think about how many books we get to in 24 hours (at least I don’t).
I’ve seen this done a couple ways. Kayla from BooksandLala stayed up for a full 24 hours whereas Olivia from oliviareadsalatte had a timer running whenever she was reading until she completed 24 hours. When I decided that I wanted to do the 24 hour reading challenge, I went back and forth on which method I wanted to use and ultimately decided that I’d go with the timer method. Not that I couldn’t do Kayla’s method and stay up for a full 24 hours, but my sleep schedule has been all over the place lately and I’ve been trying to fix it, so I don’t think that’s the best idea for me right now, so, the timing method it is!
I’ll be structuring this post a little differently than I do my typical mini reviews, and focusing on splitting this post into days as opposed to by book. Making this post a little more like a Let’s Talk and Mini Review post combined! So, get comfy and cozy and let’s talk about the books that I read during this 24 hour challenge.
Wednesday, May 1st
To me, it made the most sense to start this 24 hour reading challenge on the first of the month, and I did so pretty much immediately after I finished work on Wednesday.
I had started reading Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie at the end of April, so my plan for Wednesday was to pick up where I left off, and hopefully finish the book, which I did! Episode Thirteen is a found-footage paranormal horror told in a mixed media format, so automatically, it ticked a bunch of boxes for me. I love ghost hunting shows — my mom and I watched Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters obsessively for a few years (this book made me want to start watching them again), so the premise of Episode Thirteen really made me excited. At first, when I saw the page count, 434 pages, I thought “Oh, this is long” and that is long, but as the story was told in a mixed media format consisting of texts, emails, diary entries, video transcriptions, etc. it didn’t feel like it was long.
Truthfully, Episode Thirteen has left me reeling a bit! I’m writing this a few hours after finishing the book and I’m still trying to figure out how to process everything that happened. That being said, I did really enjoy it! DiLouie did a really great job of revealing information in a way that kept the reader wanting more; there would be little reveals at the end of chapters that made you want to turn to the next page and to my delight, you didn’t have to wait long to see what came next. The atmosphere was great and there were some moments that genuinely freaked me out and made me shudder a bit. To be honest, I didn’t really care too much about the characters, but I was fine with that because I was interested in what happened to them and what was going on with this house. Really, pretty much everything about this book worked for me, it’s just a lot to process. I think that if you’re a fan of The Haunting of Hill House, Stranger Things and/or Lockwood and Co. you would probably enjoy this book, as those were the vibes that it gave me.
After finishing Episode Thirteen, I decided to start a reread of The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe. I have an ARC of the second book in the series, The Girl In Question, that I need to read this month and while I actually remember much of The Girls I’ve Been very clearly, I thought a reread before starting The Girl in Question would be a good idea since it’s been almost three full years since I last read it. I remember absolutely loving The Girls I’ve Been — I gave it 5 stars — so, I’m hoping that it’s just as good as I remember it being. Considering I flew through 122 pages before the end of the day, I think it will live up to my memory of it!
End of the day update:
- Books finished: Episode Thirteen
- Books started: The Girls I’ve Been
- Total time read today: 4 hours, 7 minutes and 40 seconds
- Hours left of challenge: 19 hours, 52 minutes, and 20 seconds
Thursday, May 2nd
Well, today didn’t exactly go as planned. I once again slept poorly (really that’s just expected at this point. I love sleep, she doesn’t love me back) so I was pretty tired for most of the day. After work I was going to read but I had a horrible headache, so I took a nap instead (the nap definitely helped). After I woke up from my nap I made dinner and then went back to reading.
I had a little over half of The Girls I’ve Been left to read, so that was my priority for the day. As I mentioned before, I did remember most of the book very clearly, but a lot of the minor details after the big event were a little fuzzy, so it was nice to get a refresher. The book did live up to my memory of it and is still a 5-star read. I reviewed it when I read it back in 2021, so you can read that review here if you want to read my detailed (non-spoilery) thoughts because these things still stand. I just love this book.
After finishing The Girls I’ve Been I turned straight to the sequel, The Girl in Question. I’m definitely glad that I did a reread of The Girls I’ve Been before jumping into this one as I had originally planned because there was something right at the beginning of The Girl in Question that made me say, “Oh, if I didn’t do a reread I would’ve been super confused”, so good job me for doing a reread! I read 107 pages of this one today, and those 107 pages flew by super quickly and I’m completely hooked. I can’t wait to keep reading!
Obviously, reading 341 pages in a day is a very positive thing and a really solid number (I mean, that’s the length of a book itself!) I had just hoped to read more today, but quality is more important than quantity and I really enjoyed everything I read today. That being said, I am hoping that tomorrow I get to read more than I did today.
End of the day update:
- Books finished: The Girls I’ve Been
- Books started: The Girl in Question
- Total time read today: 3 hours, 18 minutes, and 4 seconds
- Hours left of challenge: 16 hours, 34 minutes, and 15 seconds
Friday, May 3rd
Update, she did not in fact, read more tomorrow. What a day Friday was. I had a lot of work things that I had to deal with and it was a bit stressful, so I had a bit of a hard time focusing once the work day was done. Originally, I had hoped to finish The Girl in Question and start another book…well, at least one of those things happened!
I didn’t get to read at all in the morning or during my lunch break as I typically like to do (instead I went on a bit of a spiral about Newsies and then also listened to & Juliet, what can I say? I’m a musical girl at heart). However, I did end up starting Wild About You by Kaitlyn Hill, one of my May ARCs, while I was watching the Giants game with my dad (we lost, I don’t wanna talk about it), which was the book I wanted to start today, so we’re right on track there!
Really, I probably would have finished The Girl in Question tonight since as I’m stopping to write this I only have 79 pages left, but my sister and I hung out and were reminiscing about some of our favorite movies and tv shows from when we were kids for a few hours, so I don’t really have any complaints about why I didn’t finish my book today. However, I did read 218 pages of The Girl in Question and I’m really hooked and totally loving it, so I’m going to finish it very quickly.
I’m not far into Wild About You, but I have a feeling that I’ll end up flying through it and really enjoying it since that’s my track record with Kaitlyn Hill’s previous works. Something that I thought was funny and I didn’t realize until I went back to The Girl in Question after dinner was that both the books I was reading today were taking place in the woods, though definitely very different vibes. I’d much rather be in the woods for the reasons in Wild About You than The Girl in Question let me tell ya!
End of the day update:
- Books continued: The Girls I’ve Been
- Books started: Wild About You
- Total time read today: 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 51 seconds
- Hours left of challenge: 13 hours, 41 minutes, and 23 seconds
Saturday, May 4th
May the 4th be with you, and also with your spirit (I’m not really a Star Wars girl, but I can’t resist a good Star Wars and Catholic joke — I’m Catholic, I can make the jokes, it’s fine). Anyway, since I only had 79 pages left of The Girl in Question once the clock struck midnight, I went right back to The Girl in Question and finished it. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about my thoughts since I’ll be posting a review next week, but I really loved it. It delivered on what I wanted it to and surprised me multiple times — to know my full thoughts you’re just gonna have to come back to the blog next week and read my review!
I was planning to take some photos for booksta because I am very much so lacking in content currently, but it was rainy and gloomy all day and the lighting was horrible so that didn’t happen, which meant that really all I did was read, because really, what else does a reader want to do on a rainy and gloomy day? I spent the afternoon/early evening focusing on finishing my ARC of Wild About You by Kaitlyn Hill and I really really enjoyed it! I love that all of Kaitlyn Hill’s books have centered around some sort of competition show or reality show. I definitely think it’s a fun little niche that she’s created for herself and she does it very well.
Based on Hill’s previous books, I expected a funny and enjoyable YA contemporary romance, which is what I got, but I also loved how much of the characters’ journeys were in processing and coping with their respective anxiety and grief. I’ve mentioned this many times before, but I love stories where characters have close relationships with their grandparents, and I loved reading about the bond that Natalie had with Granny Star and I could really relate to the grief she was experiencing after her grandmother’s death. Especially since her grandma was the only person in her family who supported her. That really broke my heart because as y’all know, like Natalie, I was heavily involved with theatre in high school (obviously I still am as it’s literally my job) but unlike Natalie, I had/have incredibly supportive parents who proudly and loudly encouraged me to pursue my passion and I found it so disheartening that Natalie’s parents completely rejected her theatrical pursuits. Natalie actually reminded me a lot of Elle Woods in the sense that almost everyone around her underestimated her and believed her to be less capable than she was simply because she was pretty and enjoyed wearing makeup/putting effort into her appearance.
I loved the development of Natalie and Finn’s friendship and relationship. They were a very fun grumpy x sunshine pair, and their interactions early on made me laugh and were definitely a little awkward and stilled, which then made it so much sweeter once they started to open up to one another. They had some wonderful open and honest discussions about grief and how grief, once you experience it with the loss of a family member especially, is a lifelong process that ebbs and flows. As fun and funny as this book was, there were also some really beautiful moments and that made it a very enjoyable read.
I also got to start Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez! I got through 7 chapters and am curious to see where the story goes.
End of the day update:
- Books finished: The Girl in Question, Wild About You
- Books started: Just for the Summer
- Total time read today: 4 hours, 52 minutes, and 51 seconds
- Hours left of challenge: 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 31 seconds
Sunday, May 5th
It was sunny and beautiful today, which definitely helped brighten my mood a bit. I didn’t really have anything planned for the day either, so I mostly just read — there were definitely other things I should’ve been doing, namely folding and putting away my laundry, but some days you just can’t be bothered.
I ended up finishing Just for the Summer and overall I enjoyed it! I like Abby Jimenez’s writing style a lot; there were a lot of moments that made me laugh, a few that made me tear up and some very heartwarming moments. There were a few times where I felt like some of the phrases used were a little cringey, but it was less than a handful so I can move past that.
I love dual POV romance novels, and I’m really glad that this one was dual POV because I absolutely loved Justin and I think I was a little more invested in his POV than Emma’s. It’s not that I didn’t like Emma because I did, however, I found myself getting a little frustrated with her at times. I definitely sympathized with her and I know she needed to go through the journey she went through with confronting her childhood trauma and her toxic mother, but sometimes I found myself getting a bit frustrated with her — similarly to how her best friend Maddy could get frustrated with her, it all came from a place of love, but it was hard nonetheless. I also really loved Justin’s siblings, Alex, Sarah and Chelsea, and while they were present in Emma’s chapters as well (I loved the bonds she created with each of his siblings), I would’ve read a whole book about the Dahl siblings, so I was always eagerly awaiting chapters from Justin’s POV and glimpses of his siblings.
I thought the premise of Just for the Summer was so fun, and it was, but the book dealt with a lot of really heavy topics and I was glad to see that Jimenez added some content warnings to the beginning of the book. That’s something I think more authors should do, so I applaud her for that. I’ll definitely be reading her other books!
After finishing Just for the Summer, I started reading My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix and got 110 pages in before the end of the night. So far I think I’m enjoying it; I’ve just hit the point where I think things are really going to start to ramp up so I’m looking forward to that and hoping that it really leans into the horror. There have been quite a few moments where I’ve found myself going “is that really necessary?” with certain things mentioned or language used, but it’s definitely one of those things where I acknowledge that it’s reflecting the way things were spoken about and the language used in the 80s. Just because it’s accurate doesn’t mean I have to like it though and I’m hoping there’s an actual point to it and not just there to be there…however, I’m definitely curious to see where things go and will be continuing it (maybe finishing it?) tomorrow.
End of the day update:
- Books finished: Just for the Summer
- Books started: My Best Friend’s Exorcism
- Total time read today: 4 hours, 35 minutes, and 34 seconds
- Hours left of challenge: 4 hours, 12 minutes, and 56 seconds
Monday, May 6th
My allergies decided to make another appearance today which was definitely annoying, and resulted in a bit of a headache, but that didn’t stop me from reading, especially since I only had 4 hours and 12 minutes left of my 24 hour reading challenge! After I finished work, I hunkered down to read the last 222 pages of My Best Friend’s Exorcism.
Honestly, I had a hard time with this one. Some aspects of it I found interesting and others really dragged for me. I saw one review say that they thought this book would be better if it had been written by a female author, and I completely agree. There were some things that just really sat weirdly with me when it came to discussion of young women’s bodies. I’m not saying that men can’t write about these things as well, but something just felt off to me. I also had a lot of difficulty reading about the rampant racism — I’m aware this book takes place in the 80s (we’ll get to that in a moment) and people were very comfortable making racist remarks and doing racist things, but personally, I didn’t feel like there was any point or lesson to be learned from the racist language and action aside from a part that said “Five years later, Slave Day was done as if it had never existed, but in 1988 no one dreamed that it could possibly be offensive. It was a tradition” — yes, you read that correctly. Slave Day. At this school for their spirit week, they had a “Slave Day” where a student could “buy” a “slave” for a set price. Yup. What was also frustrating was that the scene that takes place during this time could’ve easily happened without the backdrop of “Slave Day” so I’m not sure what Grady Hendrix was intending with this one.
I also think that this book could’ve taken place in the 90s or even the 2000s and it wouldn’t really have made a difference. I didn’t really feel anything 80s about it aside from everyone freaking out about satanism and cults. A lot of people that I have similar taste to have really enjoyed this one, so I had high hopes for it, but unfortunately, I did not vibe with this one. I’ll be donating my copy and hopefully it goes to someone who will enjoy it more than I did.
After finishing My Best Friend’s Exorcism I had about an hour and a half left until I completed the 24 hours, so I started on Kelly Andrew’s Your Blood, My Bones. I liked Andrew’s first book The Whispering Dark, so I’ve been looking forward to her sophomore novel, especially since it has some gothic vibes and the author herself said that she had some of my favorite Taylor Swift songs on her playlist while writing and shared some lyrics that fit with the book. I read 96 pages before I finished the 24 hours and I’m definitely excited to continue reading this one!
End of the day update:
- Books finished: My Best Friend’s Exorcism
- Books started: Your Blood, My Bones
- Total time read today: 4 hours, 12 minutes, and 56 seconds
- 24 hour reading challenge completed
I really had a lot of fun with this 24 hour reading challenge! Here’s a little recap of the challenge
- Number of days to complete the challenge: 6
- Average hours read per day: 4
- Total books read: 6 (and 1 more started during the 24 hours)
- Total pages read: 2,412
What I will do with this information, really I have no idea, but I did think it was interesting! I also thought I’d share my ratings for each book with you:
- Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie (4 stars)
- The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe (reread, 5 stars)
- The Girl in Question by Tess Sharpe (5 stars) (review coming next week!)
- Wild About You by Kaitlyn Hill (4 stars)
- Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (4 stars)
- My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix (2.5 stars)
So, as you can see, with the exception of one book, the books I read during this challenge were very successful!
This is a slightly different way of sharing my mini reviews, and I hope you enjoyed it! Have you ever tried a 24 hour reading challenge? If not, do you think you’ll try it in the future? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time 💜
