Happy Samhain!

I got covid for the first time this month; it was fucking rough, and I’d like to never do that again, please, but I didn’t end up hospitalised (I’m immunocompromised, so it was a possibility). Even before I got ill, though, I was having a hard time concentrating enough to read, and I’m still struggling with the semi-depressed feeling of nothing appealing to me – I’m not interested or excited by any of the many wonderful books I have waiting to be read. Or am currently reading. Time to tweak the meds again…

ARCs Received

Crown of Starlight and Evergreen are both books I was extremely excited for…but have now become wary of, since discovering that they’re both in first-person, which generally doesn’t work for me. We’ll see – fingers crossed they prove the exception! And City of Stardust just emanates this sense of wonder that I CRAVE in my fantasy, so I have high hopes for it!

Read

16 books read this month – a bit better than August, but I’m still not back to my normal self. September was a lot of mood-reading crossed with some bedtime books (aka the Riddle Master trilogy, which is so boring, but so close to being wonderful, that it’s immensely frustrating) and a few arcs and books-to-which-my-arcs are sequels.

Menewood was glorious, as was Starling House; I have no idea why the Traitor Son Cycle acts as a comfort-read for me, when it’s such a technical and gory series; and Traitor of Redwinter turned the tables on me and left me GLOWING with delight.

I’m not even going to try and turn it into a percentage; only one book this month, No Gods No Monsters, was by a BIPOC author. Which is pretty terrible, but I don’t have the spoons to judge myself for anything reading-related at the moment.

Reviewed

Along with reading less, I’m getting much less written, and my reviews are suffering for it. All but Traitor of Redwinter were mini-reviews this month, and Traitor was not my best work, even if it was enthusiastic.

DNF-ed

I gave up on a lot of books I’ve been struggling with for months – most of these are reads I started months and months ago. Although Our Share of Night and Nightbirds are not books I’d call bad – Our Share of Night is just too scary for me, and Nightbirds is a book I’d like to come back to when I’m in a better headspace for it.

ARCs Outstanding

Well, I’m officially behind schedule: Dark Park, Jinn-Bot, Let the Dead, and Menewood are all still lacking reviews after their pub dates – and I’ve only actually finished reading Menewood.

Sigh.

Misc

Saint Death’s Daughter won the World Fantasy Award!!! FINALLY. I have long given up on SFF awards selecting winners that actually deserve it – it does happen, but far less often than I would wish – but GODS DAMN, IT’S ABOUT TIME SOMEONE GAVE THAT BOOK AN AWARD.

(For context, this is the book I called the most perfect book to ever book, and I stand by that.)

Looking Forward

November has many releases I’m massively looking forward to, even if I have arcs of a few. I know I’m not the only one jumping up and down for System Collapse, and Til Death Do Us Bard just sounds so cute. The other three I’m already reading arcs of, and enjoying immensely.

May November be a wonderful month for us all!