Reading Recap

Y'all.  I've read some straight up STRANGE books lately but it's been fun and they may be right up your weird alley, too so here we go :)

First up is  The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. This book conjured up ALL THE EMOTIONS.  One day I couldn't put it down, the next I was bored - it was for sure a slow burn but in the end it all came together and I LOVED IT!  

"In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Addie LaRue is a young woman who trades her soul for immortality and a life of freedom. She will can live forever, but no one can remember her. It's a bargain she strikes with the devil out of desperation and a desire for more.

Three hundred years later, Addie has learned to survive, but is still living a mostly invisible existence. Then, she walks into a small New York City bookstore, and meets a man who can remember her name and face."

I REALLY enjoyed the characters in this book - they were well developed and nuanced and even the villain was intriguing.  

After Addie LaRue I listened to  Apples Never Fall because I felt like I needed something a little "lighter" ;)

"Apples Never Fall follows the four Delaney siblings after the disappearance of their mother, Joy Delaney. The police soon identify their father, Stan, as a possible person of interest in her case.

As they try to unravel the mystery of what happened to her or where she went, the four siblings -- Troy, Brooke, Logan and Amy -- are forced to confront truths about their relationships with each other, with their significant others, with their parents and about their parents' marriage.

To complicate matters, there's also a strange young woman who showed up at Stan and Joy Delaney's door a while back, and who is now nowhere to be found..."

I've heard mixed reviews about this book, but overall I really enjoyed it!  I liked reading about all the family dynamics and interpersonal relationships.  I was rooting for Stan and, honestly, didn't see the ending coming. 

Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes was my FAVORITE read this month.  It grabbed my attention right from the beginning and I really enjoyed all the different perspectives.  I found myself rooting for pretty much every character and 

"When a devoted teacher comes under pressure for her progressive curriculum and a helicopter mom goes viral on social media, two women at odds with each other find themselves in similar predicaments, having to battle back from certain social ruin.
 
Isobel Johnson has spent her career in Liston Heights sidestepping the community’s high-powered families. But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of Anti-Americanism and a liberal agenda, she’s in the spotlight. Meanwhile, Julia Abbott, obsessed with the casting of the school’s winter musical, makes an error in judgment that has far-reaching consequences for her entire family.
 
Brought together by the sting of public humiliation, Isobel and Julia learn firsthand how entitlement and competition can go too far, thanks to a secret Facebook page created as an outlet for parent grievances. The Liston Heights High student body will need more than a strong sense of school spirit to move past these campus dramas in an engrossing debut novel that addresses parents behaving badly and teenagers speaking up, even against their own families."

The Winter People was by far the weirdest read of the month.  I LOVE a thriller/mystery situation but this was WAY creepier and more supernatural than my typical read.  

"West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.

 
Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara’s farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she’s not the only person looking for someone that they’ve lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself."

I always love a book that shifts between time periods and I felt like this author did a good job of that - and while I did find it a bit confusing at times, when it did come together the stories really "fit".  Be warned that there are some GORY parts (spoiler: skinned people) but if you're up for a creepy read this one would be super fun!

I'm currently reading  "Watching You" buy Lisa Jewell but would love any other reccs you have - leave them in the comments, please!

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