What I Got:

• Heartstopper, Vol. 3 by Alice Oseman
• Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

What I Read:

• Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead (ARC) by Emily Austin
• Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli and translated by Simon Carnell & Erica Segre
• The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold
• The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He
• The Raven Boys (reread) by Maggie Stiefvater
• Baby by Annaleese Jochems
• Meet Cute Diary (audio) by Emery Lee and narrated by Logan Rozos
• Check Please! Book 1: Hockey (reread) by Ngozi Ukazu

Another month, another excuse to give myself fake homework instead of actually being productive. If you want the details of the Orilium: Autumn Equinox 2022 Readathon, I’ll link it here, but the basic facts are that certain “callings” (careers) require you to complete certain “classes” and reach a certain level of expertise (Ordinary, Qualified, and Distinguished). Each class has a reading prompt that you must complete to have reached that level. Tl;dr, it’s an RPG for readers.

The Magical Readathon is one of the few reading challenges I keep up with throughout its different stages, and the creator of this readathon, G, always exceeds my expectations. She even made an ASMR room for background noise—amazing! Okay, let’s get onto the books before I write an entire page about how cool this readathon is.

CALLING: Beast Master

RESTORATION (Qualified):

• Single object as focus of cover (Object Restoration) —Baby by Annaleese Jochems

This book is… strange. That’s the word. Though the “single object” on the cover is a jam sandwich, this book has little to do with jam sandwiches. It’s about two women in New Zealand who run away from their lives to live on a cheap boat.

Absolutely none of the characters are reliable storytellers, which can work really well if the storytelling method adds to the plot, but I wasn’t really that interested in the characters nor did the narration add much beyond cementing that the main characters all lying to each other. I’m also not super into the storyline of one person being literally obsessed with another person who clearly does not reciprocate; they’re both using each other.

The moments I didn’t enjoy this book were similar to moments I didn’t enjoy while reading Virginia Woolf—nothing happens in an uninteresting way. The inner lives of the characters didn’t pull me in.

I will say that the writing itself has impressive moments. Though I wouldn’t say it’s full of dark humor, as the front cover boasts. The details Annaleese Jochems focuses on seem unimportant at first but take on new meaning, or add meaning, as the story progresses. Hence the jam sandwiches. She’s great at character-building through item description, something I find incredibly difficult to do in my own writing.

Though this book wasn’t for me, I don’t think it’s an inherently bad book. I just didn’t gel with it.

• One of oldest books on TBR (Enchanted Scroll Mending) — Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

These lessons are definitely brief, I’ll tell ya that! I love bringing out my physics nerd brain every now and then, and though I did learn a little from Carlo Rovelli in this book, I knew quite a bit of the information already.

The most thought-provoking moments were the chapter on how time flow may not be a fundamental part of reality, because it doesn’t fit in a lot of the attempts at a “universal theory,” and the chapter on how the science behind human consciousness doesn’t negate the free will and humanity of a person. Reading about the nature of personhood from this perspective before reading The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He ended up adding to that experience, because (as I discuss below) it challenges our ideas of consciousness and the essence of humanity.

ELEMENTAL STUDIES (Ordinary):

• Start book with a drink (Water) — Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee (with wine)

I absolutely loved reading Café con Lychee by Emery Lee earlier this year; it was an adorable hate-to-love queer romance. Meet Cute Diary is the book e wrote before that one, and I can tell that eir writing has evolved even just between these two stories.

Both stories have main characters who are queer people of color, though the story is not about their identities. Their identities obviously impact the plot and his character developments, but Meet Cute Diary is more about a teenager discovering who they are without the comforts of his regular life. The main character is forced out of a rut, and in contrast to the characters in Café con Lychee’s resistance to change, Noah in Meet Cute Diary goes into this new life with too many expectations—expectations to find and maintain the “perfect” relationship to prove that trans people are allowed to have cute romances.

This is one of those books that makes me upset at the main character for not seeing what’s obviously happening. The author makes what’s actually happening so incredibly obvious to the reader that it’s more frustrating than intriguing to follow his journey. I wish that the foreshadowing was a bit more subtle, or that its obviousness added more to the story than to make Noah seem oblivious.

The actual romance brewing behind the scenes during this story is super cute, as hinted at by the title. And though you’ll rarely hear me say this, I wish the denouement was a bit longer, explaining how life goes for Noah after he makes certain changes to his blog and relationships. I wanted to see more of Noah making smarter and more thoughtful decisions and how he continues to impact the online trans community.

I’ll still read whatever book Emery Lee comes out with next because I can see that eir writing is getting better, eir stories are full of naturally diverse casts of characters, and eir books center trans joy (or the journey toward trans joy).

Like in Ana on the Edge by A.J. Sass, there’s a character figuring out eir pronouns during this book, and I love how normalized it was for people to switch pronouns for em. It wasn’t made into a big deal, even when eir pronouns changed quite a few times; e just had to ask someone to use different pronouns and that was that.

This was a fun read, and the audiobook narrator captured Noah’s manner of speaking perfectly, not sounding awkward while using slang words and reading tumblr posts. This book delivers the cuteness and drama everyone wants from a queer YA story without sacrificing realism.

ANIMAL STUDIES (Distinguished)

• Involves a familiar or animal companion (Study of Familiars) —The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

Unbeknownst to the Ryn who chose to read this book because of one character’s dog companion, I’ve actually read one other book by David Arnold: Mosquitoland. I remember enjoying that book in my early teen years, especially the road-trip aspect. The Electric Kingdom also has a traveling theme, which seems to be Arnold’s comfort zone.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t quite meet expectations, mainly due to the lack of exploration of the post-apocalyptic world, which makes little sense considering they’re all traveling. The whole time travel element could have been explored deeper than surface level. Time travel and the Flies (which are actually just mutant bees, proving that my fear of bees and wasps is completely rational considering how often they pop up in dystopian stories) were the most interesting parts of this world, along with the “geographical anomalies,” but none of these got a lot of page time. I’m not even sure I could explain what all of this means in a succinct way, so I won’t try.

But this post-apocalyptic world is full and interesting if not completely explored. I also love that David Arnold sets out to show how storytelling can be a means of survival, which is one of my favorite themes to think about.

Though the POVs don’t feel very different and (like Meet Cute Diary) the author fails at his attempts at subtle foreshadowing, the characters themselves are compelling and seem to beckon you into their lives. They’re not telling you a story, they’re living it. Kit, the special-golden-child-who-is-doomed-to-die-young-because-he’s-so-pure, was endearing and fun to follow. His manner of speaking and relating to the world is very interesting. 

Oh, also, the dog doesn’t die. That’s definitely a bonus.

All in all, it’s a good book, but for me, it lacked enough depth to make me super invested. 

Side Note: The countless Harry Potter references were super annoying. I could’ve done without those, especially since this was published in 20-effing-21. 

• Raven on cover or in title (Familiar: Raven) — The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

I’ve reread The Raven Cycle quite a few times, so I don’t have much new to say. I’m always surprised by how early the Gangsey learn about Noah’s death, and there’s always a few moments of foreshadowing that I’d missed during my other reads. Maggie Stiefvater is the Queen of Foreshadowing, let me tell ya. It makes rereading these books even more worth it.

These books are comforting and intricate and poetic every single time.

• Rabbit on cover or in title (Familiar: Hare) Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

If you could package up millennial existentialism into one neat package, it would be Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead.

This month, I accidentally read two literary fiction books that follow sapphic women who are going crazy, though I enjoyed this book decidedly more than Baby. I mean, how can you not love an atheist lesbian who accidentally gets a job at the Catholic church because she’s too awkward to correct the priest who assumes she’s there for an interview? The dark humor is immaculate; I snorted so many times while reading this book.

Emily Austin’s depiction of a woman who has been dealing with mental health issues for years is highly relatable, and she shows how OCD can manifest in obsessive thoughts as well as obsessive behaviors. The main character worries constantly about her family dying, and taking over a recently deceased woman’s position as a receptionist doesn’t help mitigate those fears.

This book involves a main character with a captivating inner life, even if she kind of just lets things happen to her. Her family and girlfriend are supportive even if they’re not entirely sure what’s going on in her head, though her family does do the typical suburban “our life is perfect, nothing’s wrong, white picket fences” thing where they deny a family member’s alcohol misuse issues and instead blame the family member who points out the problem. Don’t rock the boat, but especially don’t point out when others are rocking the boat. Emily Austin points out all these hypocrisies people perpetuate in society, whether accidentally or on purpose.

The pacing of this book can be a little slow, which mostly works but at times makes scenes drag. The main thing I didn’t like about this book was how little the girlfriend’s character was explored. She’s so understanding and patient, but she mostly just shows up in text messages or vague descriptions of dates. This is almost definitely on purpose—an attempt to show how it’s hard to connect with people while involved in your own inner turmoil—but it did take away from the experience for me.

This is a book I went into with very few expectations and it ended up being a successful choice. Boy, am I glad there was a rabbit on the cover of this book, because I’m not sure I would’ve picked it up so soon if not for that.

ALCHEMY (Ordinary):

• Book on someone’s “worst list” you think you’ll like (Basics of Poisons): The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He

I can’t remember if I found this on one of Books and Lala’s worst lists or Jesse the Reader’s, but either way, I predicted I would enjoy this based on the beautiful cover, the sibling storyline, and the mysterious disappearance. I had no idea how sci-fi and post-apocalyptic it would be, though these two qualities would also have made me excited to read this book!

Sometimes I was underwhelmed by The Ones We’re Meant to Find and sometimes I was blown away. It turned out to be a story that explores what being human means and whether artificial intelligence has less humanity than naturally occurring intelligence. The human desire to separate ourselves from machines, even if those machines have a consciousness indistinguishable from our own, is very complex and interesting, especially when put into a narrative. 

I think the pacing could have been better, and the world building a bit clearer. (These seem to be the two problems I’ve had with books this month. Oh, well!) I couldn’t immerse myself in the world because I didn’t fully understand how it looked and operated—similar to The Electric Kingdom, though this book executed the post-apocalyptic worldbuilding with slightly more finesse.

One of the main characters tasks herself with coming to a solution for human-induced environmental disasters, and what she decides to do actually surprised me a lot when it was revealed. And then there’s another reveal about a different character’s identity that adds a whole new level to both storylines. (This story is told in alternating POVs—one sister stranded on an island, and one sister stuck at home dealing with the disappearance of her sister months earlier.)

Anyway, this was an overall good reading experience even though it’s not a new favorite. Past Ryn saw the future, if only partially!

QUEST (Patreon)

• Three-word title (Organized Cat Crime: Third Runaway) — Check Please!: Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

Okay, so I cheated a little with this prompt by deciding “Book 1” isn’t part of th title, but I’m in charge of my readathon experience, so I’m counting it! I’ve already read Check Please!, and it was just as cute and wholesome as the other times I’ve read it. Bitty is sunshine embodied in a character, and this time around, I found a new appreciation for the character Shitty. (Yes, that’s his name.) Shitty reminds me of my best friend, just in hockey bro form.

Ngozi Ukazu’s art matches really well with the story she’s telling—it’s cute and detailed enough without being overwhelming. I love an accepting sports-related brotherhood, and I love baking/cooking in stories, so this is just the perfect recipe for my enjoyment! (See what I did there?)

Next month, I’ll be a bit busier than these past few months and have no plans for any readathons, so hopefully the next wrap-up post is a little shorter. More 5K than half-marathon. I read quite a few “just okay” books this month, but I’m proud of myself for reading as much as I did, and rereading a couple favorites definitely helped me “pass” all my classes.

Now that fall is coming up, I’m going to have the urge to reread more faves. Even though I developed a new appreciation for summer this year, I can’t wait to sit in my comfy reading chair with hot chocolate and a favorite book without overheating. It’s gonna be great!