By Ava Shaffer
College finals are around the corner which is to say I barely had any time for reading (for pleasure, not my Creative Writing degree) this month. I expected to knock out a few books over Thanksgiving break, but instead I just ate lots of mashed potatoes and added even more books to my TBR thanks to Barnes and Noble’s Black Friday sale. But of the two books I did read, one was a 5 star read!
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
I don’t know where this book has been all my life but I am so glad I found it this month. I heard about this book from Books With Leo on youtube, and the way she described how this book tackles found family and old school life in New York City instantly caught my attention.
Although I think City Of Girls started off slow for me, once the setting of New York City became more established, I was thoroughly sucked into the story. This book was an immersive experience about love, life, lust, & NYC- and I ADORED it! The manner in which Elizabeth Gilbert can write about sex, grief, love, betrayal, hope, and art is simply astounding. In short, this book was a spectacle. I want to see it on the big screen, with famous actresses and a killer soundtrack and a dazzling backdrop of New York City in the ’40s. The unabashed sensuality and independence in this book made me feel empowered and made me fall in love with reading all over again. City of Girls made me cry, it made me laugh, and it made me want to give Vivian Morris a big old hug.
(PS- If you liked The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, you should check out City of Girls! These books are quirky, sensual, star-studded cousins! They’re also both narrated by bold and spunky old women, which is the best thing a narrator can be. )
The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker
This was my November Book of The Month and sadly it put me into the worst reading slump.
I think the premise of this story was so incredibly cool, following the lives of Reapers and bringers of Death? The difference between Japanese Shinigami and British Reapers? The mythology, the three-act storytelling? This book had the makeup to be something I could have really enjoyed.
But unfortunately, The Keeper of Night lost me. The writing, although lyrical at times, centered too heavily around body horror which just really isn’t my thing. I often found myself having to put the book down or cringe away from the gross depictions of violence. I’m no newcomer to violence in storytelling (I can watch most of the violent scenes in Quentin Tarantino movies without looking away), but this book was just a bit too much. Maybe that type of immersive, intense writing is for some people, but it is certainly not for me.
Also, I found it so unbearably hard to care about the main character, thus I didn’t care about the majority of the story. Ren was so angry and unlikeable and just rude to her little brother (who I did like!). I understand where her anger and anguish stems from, I just thought she didn’t have any redeeming qualities that would make me as a reader want to root for her.
Overall, the creativity of the world Kylie Lee Baker built saved this book from a one-star rating for me. It lost me at the bone-dry boring characters, but I stayed and finished it for the mythology and creativity (also because I am unnecessarily determined to finish every Book of the Month book I ever get).
My November Reading Stats
Books Finished: 2
Pages Read: 1,063
Book images courtesy of GoodReads
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