Ugh, so last week I wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped. I’ve just been having the absolute worst reading slump for the last couple of weeks.
Honestly – and I feel a bit bad for saying this – I think Witch King triggered it. No it wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t really good (in my opinion) either. It was just… there. And “there” types of books are always the ones that kind of nudge me towards reading slumps, unfortunately.
This week, though, I’m definitely aiming to do better! But before I get into that, let’s wrap up last week first!
Wednesday 6/21: WWW Wednesday
Last Wednesday, I had planned on double posting, but I ended up not having time. So I just participated in WWW Wednesday. WWW Wednesday is a weekly feature currently hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.
On Thursday, I did another Popular Books That I’ve Read Never post. It’d been about a month since I posted one, so I decided it was more than time for another.
Popular Books That I’ve Read Never is pretty much what it says on the tin: I highlight popular books that I’ve never read, and so far, don’t have any plans to read.
Yesterday, I did another Retrospective Book Review. Retrospective Book Reviews (previously Reading Retrospectives), for those who don’t know, are basically book reviews, but they’re on books that I read before I started this blog.
The book I did this time was Witch & Wizard by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet. Yesterday, I’d finished skimming through it and was ready to post my review. I gave it ★✫☆☆☆.
So yeah, I wasn’t nearly as proactive as I’d wanted to be last week, but sometimes that’s just how the cookie crumbles. But this week, as I mentioned at the top, I’m definitely aiming to be better.
All I’m planning for this week, is to do at least five posts, and to finish at least one book. I really don’t know why, but for whatever reason I feel like if I put specific goals here, I’m bound to screw up again. 🤷
Fingers crossed I meet my nonspecific goals! 🤞
And as always, thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
It’d been two and a half months since I last did a retrospective book review – not to mention that I’ve been in THE WORST reading slump – so I decided that it was more than time for another.
Retrospective Book Reviews (previously Reading Retrospectives), for those who don’t know, are basically book reviews, but they’re on books that I read before I started this blog. So, in order for them to get their day in the sun, I go back through them and see if my opinion when I originally read them holds up.
This week, I’m re-reviewing a book I read a couple of years ago. It’s Witch & Wizard, the first book in the aforementioned YA series, written by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet.
The world is changing: the government has seized control of every aspect of society, and now, kids are disappearing. For 15-year-old Wisty and her older brother Whit, life turns upside down when they are torn from their parents one night and slammed into a secret prison for no reason they can comprehend. The New Order, as it is known, is clearly trying to suppress Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Being a Normal Teenager.
But while trapped in this totalitarian nightmare, Wisty and Whit discover they have incredible powers they’d never dreamed of. Can this newly minted witch and wizard master their skills in time to save themselves, their parents–and maybe the world?
My Review
So, I’ve been in the worst reading funk that I’ve been in for a long time. For whatever reason, summers are rough for me, and I almost always end up with a reading block for some duration of the season.
So I thought, what better way to get the brain wanting to read then skimming over a book I didn’t really care for when I read it, and re-reviewing it for the blog?
No better way, I decided. So here we are. Onwards, to the rant!
The Rant
Witch & Wizard is an aggressively mediocre book, that was the brainchild of a collab better James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet. Yes, the same guy who wrote those godawful Maximum Ride books, and just pumps out like twenty books a year on average. (His poor ghostwriters…) And yes, if you couldn’t tell by the title, this is going to be a roast.
So let’s get straight to the point: this book sucks. Like, when I first attempted to read it as a young teen, I think I only got two thirds of the way through. Then, when I finally got through the thing years later as an adult, I didn’t like it. Yes, I admit, I gave it three and a half stars. But I also gave The Savior’s Championthree and a half stars, and Blood & Honey two and a half stars. I read all three of these books when I’d just started out reviewing books online, and I was afraid to be critical.
But those days are over. Now, I’m gonna say what I actually think and feel about these books.
Let’s get started with the thing that has always annoyed me with this book: the villain and the villain’s name. He appears at the beginning of the book in a flashforward, and then appears very little throughout the book. I never found him very threatening, even when I first read it. Also, he’s only referred to as The One Who Is The One. Very annoying to read, as well as extremely uninspired.
The dystopian world and the magic system also don’t make any sense. There’s no buildup and there’s no background on like anything. And there was just far too much action and far too little character introspection. Whenever I get to the end, I still never feel like I know who our main characters – Whit and Wisty Allgood – are. (Plus, their POVs read exactly the same. They’re really not that distinguished from one another.)
The most grating thing about Witch & Wizard, however, is most definitely the invented slang. It just doesn’t feel like… actual slang. I’m sorry, but as someone who was definitely a teenager when they first read it, I can definitely say then and now that no teenager or kid will ever use Erlenmeyer as a slang term. NEVER.It’s waaayy too long, and not at all catchy. And the rest of the invented slang is also pretty clunky and unnatural.
Honestly, I found this book at least as messy as the Maximum Ride series. It really felt like a disaster to read. (And to read again.)
By this rant, you’re probably wondering why I gave this such a generous one and three-quarters stars. Well, that’s cuz I know that there are far worse books – heck, I’ve read some far worse books. So that’s why.
You’re also probably wondering why I haven’t added any quotes to this review, like I usually do. It’s because this book is straight up cringe with its writing. This is actually something I didn’t really notice as a young teen, and is definitely something that my adult eyes identified. So kids and younger teenagers probably won’t find the (nonexistent) prose and (bad) dialogue to be cringey.
But since you’re clearly curious, here’s a couple lines, just for you:
You know things have gone bad when military marches pass for pop music.
and the absolute cringiest part of the novel
I kept on talking without really thinking, until it turned into a chant:
They’re afraid of change, and we must change. They’re afraid of the young, and we are the young. They’re afraid of music, and music is our life. They’re afraid of books, and knowledge, and ideas. They’re most afraid of our magic.
Closing Thoughts
So yeah, this book is bad. But I’ve somehow read and heard about worse, so this one got a slight pass. A slight. I still find it terrible, even though I know it could’ve been worse.
There’s a good chance that a younger teenager or preteen will like this, but I just can’t bring myself to recommend it. If you’re an adult, read anything else. If you’re a kid, read Percy Jackson or something. There are far better books than this one.
As always, thank you so much for reading, and have an extraordinary day/night.
Here we are again! WWW Wednesday, one of my favorite weekly posts to participate in!
WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the 3 Ws!
I was a lot more productive this past week than I was the week before, and I’m super happy about it. I posted a bunch more and I finally finished another book and reviewed it. So yeah, got a lot more done.
This week, I’m aiming to be just as productive – but hopefully even more so – but we’ll see how that goes! I’m just so glad that last week was better.
Anyway, let’s get on with the wrap-up!
Tuesday 6/13: June 2023 Birthstone Book Covers
Last Tuesday, I not only did a rare Tuesday post, but I also participated in June 2023’s Birthstone Book Covers. Birthstone Book Covers is a monthly post created and hosted by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black.
On Friday, I once again participated in another weekly thing – First Line Fridays. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words.
Yesterday, I finally got around to posting my book review for Witch King by Martha Wells. It’s a recent fantasy release, and it was probably my most anticipated book coming out this year. But, unfortunately, I thought it fell a bit short. I ended up giving it ★★★☆☆.
This week, I definitely want to make sure and post two book reviews. I’ve been really slacking on that sort of post lately, and I really wanna do better. I also, of course, want to participate in my usual weekly posts, as well.
As for other stuff to post on the blog… I want to do another popular books that I’ve never read post. It’s been a while, so I think it’s definitely time. (I also kind of want to do a Majestic Monday, but I’m not sure I’ll have enough time before the day ends.)
Anyway, thank you all so much for reading, and have an excellent day/night!
Sooo, I wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped to be last week, but what can I say? I was having too much fun on our little vacation, and then I had a wedding to go to this weekend. So, kinda busy in my own way, I guess.
Anyway, this week’s gonna be better. Hopefully as good as the week before last, but we’ll see.
Anyway, on with the wrap-up!
Wednesday 6/7: WWW Wednesday
Last Wednesday was really the first day that I posted something (that wasn’t a Weekly Wrap-Up). I just participated in my usual Wednesday post, WWW Wednesday. WWW Wednesday is a weekly feature currently hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.
On Friday, I also just participated in the weekly Friday post. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words.
So yeah, this Weekly Wrap-Up is waaayy shorter than usual, but I didn’t have the opportunity to post as much as usual, unfortunately. But I’m hoping to be a lot more frequent this week!
This week, my goal is two book reviews, my usual weekly post participations, posting for the monthly post I participate in, and maybe something else. So I’ll hopefully be able to do all of this.
Anyway, thank you all so much for reading, and have an excellent day/night!
This last week was so much more productive than the ridiculous week before, and I’m so happy. Now, I’m back in the groove! (Yes, I know this is technically a day late. Shut up.)
I haven’t had the best start so far this current week, but I’m hoping I can pick up the momentum a little bit nonetheless. And yeah, I’ll go into it a bit more closer to the end, but I’m not expecting to post like last week. I’m hoping to have almost as much proclivity as usual, but we’ll just have to find out how much together.
Anyway, on with the wrap-up!
Monday 5/29: Majestic Monday
Last Monday, I did the first Majestic Monday that I’ve done in a long time. It felt great, and I’m excited to post more of these in the future. For those who don’t know, Majestic Mondays are when I gush over covers that I like.
Thursday was when I finally posted my review for The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah. It’s an excellent Middle Eastern fantasy that I absolutely adored. I gave it ★★★★★.
Last Friday, I participated in First Line Fridays. It’d been a bit since the last time I was able to (courtesy of the power so generously deciding to go out the week before), but I managed to do it last week. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words.
On Sunday, I finally got around to posting my monthly reading wrap-up for May 2023. It’s no later than I usually get to it, but I usually take a bit to get to it sometimes. I didn’t read and post as much as I’d have liked last month, but what can you do? Sometimes life just gets in the way.
This week I’m aiming to be almost as productive as last week. The key word here being almost. See, there’s sort of a vacation-y kind of thing going on at the moment, so my spouse and I are doing some stuff this week, which means I’m gonna be distracted. Like, a lot. So I’m hoping to post at least four times, but we’ll see.
But yeah, not a lot specifically planned this week. I just want to post a few things of anything really.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, and have a great day/night!
Sooo… this is a bit later than I hoped it’d be, but here it finally is – my monthly wrap-up with my May 2023 Reading statistics!
Anyway, talking about May – I’m not super happy with how much I read last month. My statistics were meh on The StoryGraph. It was the least amount of reading that I’ve done yet this year. But I kinda get that a lot of stuff went down this past month, so I didn’t have the time or the mental energy to get the stuff done that I wanted to.
Anyway, I’ve prattled on enough. On with the stats!
May 2023 Reading Stats
I read 3 books and 1171 pages
😐 MOODS:Adventurous was the biggest slice of pie once again. But there are a lot of different kinds of pie on the Moods graph this time. And they’re all pretty equal, which I found kinda funny.
👢 PACE: Unlike pretty much all of the previous months, fast-paced books were the biggest part of the pie. There’s still a chunk of medium-paced, though.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: I read a lot of shorter books in May, similar to what I read in April. 300 to 499 was the only kind of pie here.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: I read a nonfiction book this past month! Yay, finally! This is probably gonna be a once in a blue moon kind of thing though, as I rarely read it.
🎭 GENRES:Fantasy was the biggest part of the graph this time, as per usual. Science Fiction was also on here like it normally is, but Memoir also made an appearance this time… cuz I read a memoir.
📄 FORMAT: The little StoryGraph pie chart for this is wrong once again. (Yeah, I’m never gonna fix it, lol.) 33% (one book) were printed copies, and 66% (two books) were digital.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for the month of April was 4.33. I wasn’t all over the place with my ratings in May. I gave two books 4 stars and one book 5 stars. (According to my StoryGraph stats anyway. Once again, I didn’t add any of the manga I read to it. Otherwise there would’ve been two books with 5 star ratings.)
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I read quite a bit during the first week and a half, but dipped down a ton in the middle. During the last few days of May though, I read a bunch.
So yeah, May 2023 reading was kind of a bust. I know that a crap-ton of stuff occurred that I couldn’t control, but I’m still irritated with the reading and blogging that I was able to do.
I’m determined for June 2023 to be different. I’m going to read more books than I did in May, and then I’m gonna write reviews and post them. I’ve had an okay start so far, and I’m determined to keep up the momentum. And the May 2023 Reading Wrap-Up comes to a close.
Thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
I had so much going on this weekend (sort of), so I didn’t have the time to post another time. Which kinda sucks, but that’s life.
I did completely reorganize my bookshelves though, so that’s definitely something. Now all the new books I’ve gotten this year have a home!
Anyway, here’s another weekly wrap-up for everyone. Let’s wrap-up last week!
Tuesday 5/9: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook Review
Last Tuesday, I reviewed Brandon Sanderson’s new standalone science fantasy novel, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England. It’s quite the band for such a fun book. I gave it ★★★★☆.
Thursday was a day that I was excited about. I did a little something different then – I blogged about books I read that reminded me of The Legend of Zelda games (and exposed myself as a huge geek). What can I say, I was excited about May 12th.
On Friday, even though it was exceptionally late, I actually managed to participate in First Line Fridays. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words.
So, I didn’t quite meet the goals I set for myself last week, but it was so worth it. (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is absolutely incredible, and so much fun, and super addicting.) But I’m determined to post two book reviews this week, and gosh darn it, I’m gonna do it! Also, I want to finish The Stardust Thief, and participate in the usual weekly posts I do.
Maybe I’ll do a couple of other posts too, but I’m not quite sure yet. We’ll see what happens.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
As I neveralways say: another week, another wrap-up!
Haha. Just kidding. In all seriousness though, I’m pretty happy with my blogging last week. Sure, I didn’t read nearly as much as I wanted, but sometimes those things happen.
Anyway, I’ll stop talking now, so that we can wrap-up last week.
Monday 5/1: Majestic Monday
Last Monday, I finally posted another Majestic Monday. The first one in forever. Majestic Monday is when I look at awesome book covers and rate them.
Tuesday, I posted my review of Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth. It’s a dystopian, post apocalyptic, science fiction retelling of the Greek play Antigone. I gave it ★★✬☆☆.
On Wednesday, I double posted. First, I participated in Can’t-Wait Wednesday. Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings. Then, I participated in WWW Wednesday. WWW Wednesday is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.
Yesterday, I reviewed I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy. It’s her memoir, and it’s about growing up as a child actor and her toxic relationship with her mother. There’s some sensitive themes here, so if you’re wary of TWs like: EDs, emotional abuse, and addiction, maybe stay clear for your health. I gave it ★★★★☆.
This week, I want to read at least two new books and review them. I also want to keep up with the weekly memes that I participate in. I’m also planning on something a little different for Thursday, or as an additional post on Friday. We’ll see which day I post it on.
I don’t know what else I’ll do for sure, though. I guess we’ll all find out together!
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, and have a fantastic day/night!
Sooo… this is later than I hoped it’d be, but here it finally is – the April 2023 Monthly Reading Wrap-Up!
The first of May falling on a Monday really messed with my posting, and I never post a reading wrap up until the month is done, so I had to wait till today to post this. Better (slightly) late than never, I suppose. Then again, I don’t think I got February 2023’s out until the fourth of the month either…
Anyway, talking about April – I’m very happy with how much I read last month. My statistics were great on The StoryGraph. It was the most reading that I’ve done yet this year! I also finished my reading goal for this year! Yay!
But I’ve prattled on enough. On with the stats!
April 2023 Reading Stats
I read 6 books and 1750 pages
😐 MOODS:Adventurous and Emotional were once again the biggest slices in the Moods pie chart. Mysterious, Tense, and Dark were much smaller slices than they’ve been in the past.
👢 PACE: Medium-paced books were once again king this month, but I did read a decent slice’s worth of a fast-paced novel.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: I read a lot of shorter books in April than I did in March. 300 to 499 was still the biggest part of the pie here, though.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: Once again, all fiction. I have a nonfiction book I’m reading right now though, so May’s F/N pie graph will finally look different.
🎭 GENRES:Science Fiction and Fantasy were the two biggest parts of the graph this time, but that’s cuz I was in a sci-fi mood this month. Dystopian and Romance also made their way onto the Genres bar graph, as well.
📄 FORMAT: The little StoryGraph pie chart for this is wrong once again. (At this rate, I don’t think I’ll ever fix this, haha.) 50% were printed copies, and 50% were digital. (And this is even counting the manga I read, which I didn’t add to my StoryGraph reading stats.)
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for the month of April was 3.54. I was even more all over the place with my enjoyment of the books that I read last month than I’ve been all year so far.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I read quite a bit during the first week and a half, but dipped down in the middle. During the last third of April though, I read a ton.
April was my most successful month for reading so far, and I’m so happy about that. I hope to read even more in May if I can, however. That’s every bookworm’s dream, though, isn’t it? Haha.
The goal for May 2023 is to read more (as I just mentioned), and to blog more. Cuz the latter could’ve gone better. However, I’m having a very good start to the month, so far. Here’s hoping I can keep it up! And the April 2023 Reading Wrap-Up comes to a close.
Thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
