August 2025 Reads
Sep. 14th, 2025 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tjs_whatnotOddly light month. I'm not sure why. I mean I did accidentally get a new job towards the end of it (a story for another post), but before that I should have gotten a lot more read. I think it was because I had way too many books going at the same time this month.
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Consumption of Magic by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Survivor Wants to Die at the End by Adam Silvera ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Something Spectacular by Alexis Hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Looking for Group by Alexis Hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I think this was the first book where the hype sort of worked against itself in regards to my expectations vs. the reality. The premise was amazing, but it was so amazing that I wanted MORE. I wanted to live in that world, wanted to see and feel what it was like to walk amongst giants, what it felt like for these legends to see what (and what hasn't) changed. What we got was amazing, but I wanted more.
I think it also didn't help that I am not familiar with the author? They seem to be important and some of the storytelling maybe would have been more meaningful if I had that context? At least that's what it seems like from reading other's reviews? 🤷♂️🤷♂️
The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I'm glad that I had randomly read another book by this author first, that her style and the details she brings to the characters was cemented. It made this book feel a bit more intimate, like I was visiting a familiar space. It made it really easy to get invested in these characters.
The mystery of it, the coincidental and fated of it, the magical realism of it, is very much distracting me from the inevitable love(ish) triangle of it I fear lurks in the horizon. I loathe love triangles for two separate reasons, and I fear this one is going to be for the hurty reason. The I love all the characters, and want them all to be happy, but that can't happen because one is inevitably going to lose everything reason. (Which I guess is better than the ugh, why does this idiot always make the wrong choice and pick the wrong side of the triangle?! reason.)
Still, it's not something I'm looking forward to, and still, I will read on…
Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It's been a long time since I've ridiculously loved a story and a character like this one. I love a lot of what I read (what's the point of reading if you don't?) But, this level of giddy and sigh worthy? Not as much. It's so ridiculous and I loved it!
The narration was especially delightful and really made the insane and unhinged of the main character, Avra, come to life. There were noises that he makes that mystify me on how they were made. 😱
If "Our Flag Means Death" is your jam, but you wish it was even zanier (and had more cake) THIS is the book for you! ❤️❤️
The Consumption of Magic by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
If I had reviewed this book before the last few chapters, I would have pointed out the twists and turns, how it was as ridiculous as the first two, but also, really sort of profound (which is something I can say about a lot of Klune's books) and how it was a rollicking good time…
But then the last few chapters happened and it fucking hurts. The ache of the things that happen and the unresolved of how they could ever unhappen, just rocked me to my core.
The Survivor Wants to Die at the End by Adam Silvera ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
After finishing this, all I could say for a long time after was… WHA?!?
Like, um, what? Did I miss the last chapter? Or the fine print of “To Be Continued…”?
I've read a lot of reviews for the book and none of them prepared me for the ending (and usually, in this series, the title alone prepares you for the end, right?)
But, aside from the shocking cliff hanger, this book was different in a lot of other ways too. For one, it didn't follow the same time line of meeting a character (or two) on their last day alive. It gave back story and histories and it also used so many of the characters and survivors from the first two books-- like A LOT.
I really enjoyed this book and I guess I will be waiting patiently(ish) for another book to wrap it all up.
Something Spectacular by Alexis Hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
I am honestly surprised about how much I loved this! I realized I had been hesitant to read it because I thought it was going to be about Peggy and Arabella Tarleton, and Arabella grated on my nerves in Something Fabulous. But it's not about her, and yet, her role in this book made me almost ready to read the next book, which I think has her as a main character.
But after I've reveled in the lovely that was Peggy and Orfeo, two characters whose entire personalities I related to in different ways. I love meeting characters who think as I do, who have questions that I do and somehow carve out a life for themselves that I'd like to do as well. Ahhhh, fiction. How it sometimes seems so real, so possible. ❤️❤️
Looking for Group by Alexis Hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
I admit, I accidentally tuned out a lot of the gaming bits (and there's a lot of those), so I was totally caught unprepared for how invested I was in the conflict and the separation between "real" and digital, long-distance and supposedly "imaginary" relationships.
For anyone who has carved out a family of "People Of The Internet" who make a home for you, I think you'll enjoy this almost YA piece of delight from Alexis Hall.
And it's just dawned on me that I've finished two of their books on the same day (when I hadn't even really felt like I'd been simultaneously reading two all this time). That's how diverse and insanely good at storytelling this author is. ❤️❤️
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Date: 2025-09-14 01:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-20 08:38 pm (UTC)Have you read Something Fabulous? (Wait, is that what the third one is called?) I'm going to read it soon. I'm oddly excited.
And JFC, but Running Close to the Wind was a fun ride! ♥ ♥
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Date: 2025-09-21 10:40 am (UTC)It's very fun, but my fave is A Taste of Gold and Iron. <3 <3 <3
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Date: 2025-09-22 04:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-22 11:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-15 03:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-20 08:40 pm (UTC)♥
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Date: 2025-09-21 02:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-22 04:57 am (UTC)I've been sidetracked by the knowledge that there is a graphic novel of the first book, so I paused to look through that. ❤️❤️
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Date: 2025-09-23 03:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-16 08:08 pm (UTC)Yay, Running Close to the Wind is such a fun book! Rowland is a really good author, they've written a lot of cool and fun things, so I highly recommend their books (+ they've posted a NSFW epilogue to one of their books on their AO3 account, and I'm hoping RCtoW gets one too one day 😁)
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Date: 2025-09-20 08:47 pm (UTC)OMG! Isn't RCTTW sooooo fun?!?!?! I read a few fics about it and it seems people really get the vibe right. I will check out more of their books. I realized I had another one on my TBR for a while, but it seemed Super Serious, so I hadn't really given it a chance, but knowing more about their style, I'll definitely be bumping it up the list. ♥
THEY HAVE AN AO3?!?
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Date: 2025-09-30 08:24 pm (UTC)RCTTW is indeed so much fun! Other than that one, my favorites of Rowland's thus far have been A Taste of Gold and Iron and Yield Under Great Persuasion, but I haven't exactly disliked any of their books 💜 Some of them are more serious than others, though, so the vibes are definitely not the same in all their works.
And they absolutely have an AO3! They're very open about their ties to fandom (otherwise I wouldn't "out" a professional author as writing fanfic too, for privacy reasons). You can read more on their Tumblr.