I didn't read a lot in January due to my university applications but everything I did read, I loved.
1. City of Ghosts (Cassidy Blake #1) by V. E. Schwab ***** - In the opening of a City of Ghosts we meet Cassidy and her best friend Jacob, and we learn early on that Jacob is dead and Cassidy can see ghosts. She shows us how her sight works when she feels the tugging of a spirit at school and learns the truth about how a boy died in a fire during the school’s productions of a Midsummer’s Night Dream. Cassidy can see the Veil; the barrier between the living and the dead and she can pass through this barrier to see the memories of the spirit’s death. However, she wasn’t always able to do this it was only after her near-death experience that she acquired the gift and Jacob along with it. Compared to V. E. Schwab’s previous works the simpler writing of City of Ghosts is much easier to read and I’m looking forward to seeing where the rest of the book goes.
2. Tunnel of Bones (Cassidy Blake #2) by V. E. Schwab ***** - After finishing City of Bones, I couldn’t wait to jump into Tunnel of Bones. In the opening of this book, Cassidy and her parents along with Jacob and Grim are heading to a new city. This book isn’t named after the city as it’s called the city of light but rather from one of the locations they will be visiting there; the tunnel of bones. If you hadn’t guessed the city they are in is Paris, and the tunnel of bones refers to the catacombs that run under Paris. Now, I have never been to Paris or France in general, but I can’t wait to see what this book has in store for Cassidy, especially since Jacob is stronger now as he seems more like a poltergeist who can interact with the physical world and she is keeping in touch with Lara. As Cassidy begins to explore Paris, it isn’t long before she feels the tug of the Veil but rather than ignoring it like she did before, she now travels there to free the ghosts trapped there but she is warier after her encounter with the Raven. The first ghost she sees is a man trying to help fight the blaze at the French Palace in 1871 and she does have to fight him as he tries to take her life like the Raven, but Jacob is there to help.
3. Halfway Home by Hugh Howey *** - I haven’t read anything by this author before, so I was eager to discover something new. The opening of Halfway Home was interesting we are introduced to a unique society by an unknown narrator who tells us that humans are being sent into space to conquer viable planets – ones that will sustain human life. However, they are being sent as embryos nurtured for 30 years by an AI and when they are “born” they are adults fully trained in a specific career. Our narrator is a psychologist. We learn that this colony for some reason has gone wrong. The story truly starts with many of the people being born early in their teens rather than adults and it seems like the colony is being attacked. In the attack 50 of the 500 humans escape, the rest are lost along with the command module. Even though their bodies have been kept in peak physical conditions adults and they have been given a wealth of knowledge they have no experience using their bodies which was interesting to see. Even though they look like teens with the brains of adults they are nothing more than newborn babies on a strange world they may not know much about and I’m intrigued to see where the story goes.
4. In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami ***** - I didn’t know much about In the Miso Soup before I checked it out from my college’s library, but it is set in Japan and I love absolutely anything about the Land of the Rising Sun. The opening to the novel was interesting as it follows Kenji a tour guide who is hired by an American named Frank to show him around Tokyo’s underground nightlife, which was an interesting premise, to begin with, and I can’t wait to see what it has in store for me as it promises horrors similar to American Psycho. Frank is hiring Kenji for a three-night tour of Kabuki-cho, an infamous red-light district similar to Roppongi but probably more well known in Japan. From the first time, they meet Kenji feels something is off about Frank, from his appearance to his mannerisms but he doesn’t question it.
5. Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles #1) by Anne Rice ***** - I have seen the 1994 movie adaptation of this book many times, in fact, it is one of my favourite movies of all time, so I was excited to pick up the book for the first time. So, anyone who is remotely familiar with this series with know that Interview with the Vampire is told in an interview format (hence the title) and in the past tense, everything the vampire talks about has already come to pass. I will be bringing back my Book vs Movie series with this book, where I will compare the book to its film counterpart. The vampire initially is unnamed, but we come to learn his name is Louis (pronounced Louie) who was before he was turned a plantation owner in, New Orleans. In the first 50 pages, we get a lot of information on how Louis became a vampire and I will talk about this more shortly, but I did notice a striking amount of difference between the opening of the book and the opening of the movie.
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