A good reading month

*very Mean Girls voice* My friend El did a book review roundup for their last Substack, so I’m doing a book review roundup for my Substack.

April was a bloody good reading month. I was very optimistic about my reading speed when I requested about a million books on Netgalley so they’re mostly recent or upcoming releases as I try to get through my backlog, which is a lot more fun than it sounds.

I finished it on 1st April so it counts! So Many Somethings by Molly Dunn is published by my publisher, 8th Note Press, and I couldn’t be more overjoyed to share a space with this wonderful book. Diana writes real-person-fanfiction of Sam Raymond, famous rock star, and is stunned when he visits her café for brunch and they strike up a connection. Online she is speaking to S about the fanfiction and starting to have feelings for this person she’s never met. This was just truly wonderful. The writing was beautiful and sucked me in right from the beginning, and I loved the parallel relationships developing separately but together. Stunning romance, can’t wait to read it again.

Next I read Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane. Bel is an investigative journalist and gets a sniff at a huge story, but Connor (the new 30-something intern) gets caught in the crossfire and they have to embark upon a fake relationship to avoid ruining the story completely. I really liked this fun and fresh read. Some classic tropes (positive), worked in such a seamless way to bring the story together. Sometimes I can find miscommunication narratives tiring but this felt original and realistic, very true to the characters and their life experiences. Loved both the lead characters and really sank into their lives.

Vanishing Edge by Zillah Bethell. Apricot and her best friend Charlie are seventeen and living in Port Talbot. Apricot wakes up to graffiti on her front door and a man in a black Jaguar who calls himself the Baglan Giant looking for her mom, Carys. Apricot and her best friend Charlie must find the secret that Carys is keeping and come to terms with parts of themselves that are lost while reaching out to new beginnings. I found this story absolutely stunning. The writing style completely devoured me, and the two different voices were so distinct. I read it over the course of three evenings, and it's one of those rare books that I tried to read slowly so that it wouldn't be over, but I couldn't help myself racing forwards to find out what happened. Can't wait to have it on my physical bookshelf so I can reread it and refer to it whenever I want. A real work of art.

Favourite Daughter by Morgan Dick. Mickey’s dad abandoned her as a child for his new family, so it’s a shock when he leaves her millions of dollars in his will when he dies. On the condition that she attend therapy to access the inheritance. Meanwhile his other daughter, Arlo, is grappling with the fact that the father she poured so much of herself into has left her nothing. They’re thrown together unknowingly, crazily, and unethically. This book smacked me round the face. A stunning narrative, expertly woven together with gorgeous prose. A stark look at grief and addiction, and the monsters they can bring out in us. This one will stay with me for a long time.

i want to die but i want to eat ttekbokki by Baek Sehee is the one audiobook I finished listening to this month. Since being unable to drive, my audiobook consumption has gone way down. This kept me company on train rides for a couple of months, and I finally finished it midway through April. It’s a memoir of Baek Sehee’s time in therapy examining her chronic depression and suicidal ideation, composed of selected transcriptions of her therapy sessions. This was really interesting. I was struck by a lot of cultural differences and found some of the talk about self image and weight difficult, as it’s written in a very upfront way with not much room for nuance. The parts I connected to the most deeply were when the author psychoanalysed herself, particularly at the end of the book. I have someone in my life who faces similar struggles, and I feel like I unlocked another level of understanding by really getting into the author’s story.

And then I got to finish off this month’s reading with Exit Stage Death by my friend Ava Eldred. Livi Campbell is at her last summer of Camp Chance, where she’s desperate to get a lead role in the end-of-camp showcase. But when a fellow camper shows up dead under mysterious circumstances and Livi finds a note suggesting all is not as it seems, she must team up with her camp-mates to catch the culprit before they kill again. This book is absolutely delightful. Written in a mixture of prose and screenplay, I loved the weaving together of all the different elements. Ava has one of the strongest voices in YA and it was a joy to spend time with Livi and the most dramatic summer she’s ever had.

That’s it! See you next week.