March 2020 Wrap-Up

March has felt like the longest month, and i’m pretty sure everyone is thinking the same at the moment. However long the month has felt, i have sadly still got no more reading done than normal. Actually, i’m probably a little gutted about the lack of reading that i’ve done this month! All being well, April is looking up!

Saga Vol 3 by Brian K. Vaughan 
I think volume 3 was my final venture in to Saga. Whereas i’ve been enjoying the story, i’m just not sure i’ve been enjoying it enough to carry on with the entire series. I really love the story-line of this series, and the art style is wonderful and perfect for me, there are just parts that i can’t agree with, or get frustrated by. A lot of unnecessary slurs are used, some story-lines i haven’t enjoyed for certain reasons. It’s one of the most popular graphic novel series and honestly i’m starting to wonder why.

Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick
Similar to the next book, i had heard a lot of people talking about Bitch Planet and about how wonderful it was. Whereas i found the story interesting and the art style okay, something didn’t really click with me. Which honestly i’m gutted about. I was ready to absolutely love this graphic novel and jump right on the train, but it just didn’t happen. It’s very graphic, for anyone that’s not in to that, however i didn’t find any issues with it particularly.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up The Marvel Universe by Ryan North
I’d heard a lot of people talking about this graphic novel so i finally borrowed it from my boyfriend. I adore Marvel as a concept, and as movies, and as characters, basically i really love the Marvel universe, but i’ve always really struggled with Marvel graphic novels. Comics i can even deal with! So i think i didn’t love this as much as i was hoping to for that reason. The art style was stunning, and the characters were fun, i just didn’t find it as entertaining as most i think.

Birthday Girl by Haruki Murakami
I wanted to read Birthday Girl because it was effectivly a super short introduction to Murakami. I’ve not read any full books but the author, so wanted to test something out to see if i liked the style. I was surprised to say i actually did. Birthday Girl is only forty-or so pages long and tells the story of a restaurant worker on her birthday. I really loved the tone and the mystery of the story, and if you get chance i’d urge you to pick it up!

The Love Hypothesis by Laura Steven
*Gifted by the publisher.
An LGBTQ+ contemporary rom-com written by Laura was definitely going to make me happy this month. I don’t think i’ve laughed so much at a book in a while, and i really adored the characters. The Love Hypothesis follows a girl who is trying to understand her sexuality on top of trying to make people actually like her. I really enjoyed this read, and a full review of the book will be up on the blog shortly!

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
For a long time i thought about reading American Born Chinese, and when i finally got my hands on a copy over a year ago, i completely forgot i owned it. I finally picked it up this month and not only did i love the art style instantly, i enjoyed the story far more than i expected to. There are technically three stories merging in to one in American Born Chinese, which i really loved and it kept the whole thing incredibly interesting.

Ziggy, Stardust and Me by James Brandon
I borrowed this book from Lois after eyeing it up for some time now. The cover was the first thing that struck me, and obviously the fact that it’s LGBTQ+ was what really drew me in. Ziggy Stardust isn’t for everyone, it’s heavy, and a hard read at times with a lot of focus on conversion therapy, which honestly as someone with a healthy relationship with being LGBTQ+, i found that quite difficult to read. The writing however was lovely, and the relationship was lovely, and the idea of the book was completely lovely. In ways it reminded me of Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy, however, they are not very similar. The tone and the style mimicked it for me.

Last Lesson by James Goodhand
*Gifted by the publisher. Last Lesson dropped in to my emails a couple of months ago now, and after hearing nothing about it, the premise of the story pulled me right in. Books about mental health struggles always intrigue me, so this was right up my street from the start. It follows Ollie, who is being bullied, cannot cope with his mental struggles and plans to take revenge on his school. To me, it read similar to something by J.D. Salinger, but a little less atmospheric and dramatic. A full review of Last Lesson will be up shortly!

Books read: 8

Books read this year: 21

Pages read: 1,680

Pages Per Day: 54

Average Rating: 3.5