Read While It Rains

First of all, this is one of the most beautiful books that I own! I am utterly obsessed with the cover, and love the illustrations. I was kindly given it by Pauliina from The Bookaholic Dreamer who also patiently did a buddy read with me. Sadly this one was a big miss. I wasn’t a fan of the writing- I felt awfully juvenile which juxtaposed with the content, sometimes veering into more adult territory. I also thought that the plot was a bit of a mess and a touch incoherent. As you can imagine, this book put me in quite the slump and it took me a long time to get through it. Thankfully things did eventually pick up with my next read!

Hamnet was a gift from my mother-in-law who read it in Spanish. She gave it to me in August but I have been so preoccupied by my thesis that reading for fun has really been on the back burner for me. I can now tell her that I have not only read it but utterly adored this book.

This is a book that I can quite easily recommend to just about everyone. The writing is beautiful, the characters are complex and often frustrating, the plot is non-linear and brought tears to my eyes. A new favourite.

After the success that was Hamnet, I was so keen to keep the good reads coming, with what I fully expected to be another five star read. Oops.

This is a book that made me go to Goodreads after to try and understand why on earth people felt so passionately about it. I’m sorry, I just don’t understand! I realise that this is one of my most controversial opinions, and I am truly disappointed because I had ridiculously high hopes for this one.

My main issues centre around the plot and the writing. I just felt like everything was a bit basic. Each story seemed too obvious, too neat, and awfully predictable. The characters were flat with convenient, immediate development. I could tell that certain moments were meant to be a gut-punch but I can tell you that I felt nothing when reading this book. It’s okay, you can call me heartless if you want!

My final read for the month ensured I ended on a high. Vladimir is a complex book, with a character that you will root for and root against simultaneously. She is human and full of contradictions and blind spots. I can imagine some will struggle with the tone of this book- the main character is very critical of some aspects of modern feminism and this makes for uncomfortable reading at points, particularly her unwillingness to grapple with power imbalances.

However, I really enjoyed this read. I am all for “prickly” characters that are so frustrating! I did think the ending was a bit absurd but I am happy to overlook that for the bigger picture. I can definitely understand the critical reviews and would recommend with caution, but Vladimir is a book that I’ve been thinking about long after I finished it.

I read this one switching between a physical copy and an ALC provided to me by Libro.FM who support local, independent bookstores.