books

May Book Reviews

Hi loves,

Here’s May’s book reviews!

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
5/5 stars
☆☆☆☆☆

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I have been absolutely dying to post this review, I read this at the beginning of April and it’s been killing me to have to wait until now to talk about it.

Because oh my God.

This book. This. book. I cannot remember the last time I ever read something so beautiful. This is a debut novel. A DEBUT NOVEL. God is a woman and her name is Delia Owens because that lady has an absolute gift for writing. There are no words for me to describe how perfect this book was. I’m speechless. I haven’t read a book this beautiful in…years, everything about it was absolutely perfect in every way. I still can’t believe this is a debut novel – I know Delia Owens has written non-fiction books in the past, but for this to be her first fictional novel…I literally have no words. I think I’ve found my new favourite author, I want her next novel. Right now. Please bring out more future novels Delia Owens I pray to thee.

Everything she wrote was perfect, I agreed with every single thing she did in this book, there wasn’t a single thing I didn’t like or I wished had been different, which is practically unheard of. She just got it, it was perfect. The writing was absolutely gorgeous, I loved all of the characters, the setting, the atmosphere…I just cannot express how good this book is. And this might sound crazy, but even for things like, when I thought she was going to take the story down a specific route and do something that was going to make me feel anxious because I was so invested in the characters, she’d suddenly pull it back again and I’d breathe a sigh of relief and think oh thank God for that. It was just perfect. The most beautiful novel. So atmospheric, so descriptive, the scenery…everything. This would have been the perfect thing to read during Summer, when you’re really in that type of setting, you’d just become completely immersed and get lost in that whole world.

There was a point near the end of the book where the climax had been built up so greatly that I was actually sat there shaking as I was trying to hold the book to read it because I was so nervous about what was going to happen, it was so gripping. And then after it had happened I threw the book down in my lap and cried and I was thinking oh my God I can’t remember the last time a story had this effect on me. It was truly brilliant.

People (magazine?) said this was an astonishing debut and I cannot agree with that enough. Delia Owens is an extraordinary writer. She has an absolute gift.

Read this book.

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
2/5 stars
☆☆

Jane Eyre (AmazonClassics Edition) - Kindle edition by Brontë ...

I’m torn on whether to give this 2 stars or 3, I’m sticking with 2 for now but a little part of me still wants to give it a 3 since it’s a classic and there were some parts that I really enjoyed.

However,

The latter half of this book kind of ruined it for me, the first half I thought was very nice – I really disliked Mr Rochester in the beginning and for that I thought his character was written brilliantly, he was completely insufferable. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but the intent with which his character was written was fantastic – absolutely unbearable to read about and listen to which shows how well Brontë was able to create him. I also liked Jane at first, I liked the fact that there was the element of breaking the fourth wall and I thought she was endearingly funny, especially when recounting her younger years.

There were also a lot of lines and beautiful quotes that I loved throughout, such as –

“It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit to a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you.”

“His changes of mood did not offend me, because I saw that I had nothing to do with their alternation; the ebb and flow depended on causes quite disconnected with me.”

“He made me love him without looking at me.”

“I like rudeness a great deal better than flattery. I had rather be a thing than an angel.”

So then Chloe, why did you only give this 2 stars?

I shall tell you.

This, as I understand it, is supposed to be, or is regarded as, a “feminist” novel, and as a passionate feminist I should supposedly therefore agree with everyone else’s opinion about the fact that Mr Rochester was an awful man, and Jane was a strong, independent woman, trying to get out in the world and live her own life.

But I don’t have that opinion.

I really liked Mr Rochester, he grew on me a lot and towards the end of the book I actually found him quite endearing. On the other hand, I thought Jane was silly and spoiled things for herself for the sake of nothing – the last 25% of the book I had no time for, as it was just her moaning about the situation she had gotten herself into and the problems she had brought on herself, so I had no sympathy. I completely understand her staying true to herself – that’s not the thing I’m referring to here, but the actions she took in order to “free” herself felt to me like they were the things she thought she should do in order to try and prove…what, that her freedom could not be taken away ?? I can’t even think of another example of what she could’ve been trying to prove, I just didn’t get it. And then we had to listen to her wail and moan about it for what felt like forever afterwards. No thank you.

The last 25% of the book really bored me, I found it much more interesting when reading about life at Thornfield – it was the thing that made me want to keep picking up the book as every time I put it down I missed being in that little world for a bit. Also at the end of the book I felt like she was toying with / teasing Mr Rochester which I didn’t like. I absolutely am not saying that women are places of refuge for broken men and / or that Jane should have felt guilty for her choices, or even have felt any obligation to come back and be the rescuer, because that is not the case, but I still didn’t like the way the whole thing came across, it was a bit too arrogant for me.

So there we go, please let me know your opinions if you’ve read Jane Eyre because I’m so interested to know what other people think!

The Deathless Girls – Kiran Millwood Hargrave
2/5 stars
☆☆

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God this book was rubbish.

You may remember I mentioned this in my aesthetically pleasing book haul where, this book physically fits very nicely because it is of course, very nice to look at, however, unfortunately that’s all it seems to be good for.

The story? Sucked. I knew this was a “young” YA when I bought it and so was a little skeptical to how much I would like it even though I knew nothing else about the book other than that, this means that I also didn’t know it was essentially a re-telling of the Brides of Dracula (I have not read Dracula), but if this book is anything to go off…I will not be reading or watching it anytime soon if I can help it.

Take this with a pinch of salt as like I said, I have not read Dracula, so maybe I needed context in order to appreciate the book, but, the story was just rubbish. First of all it was way too short which basically ensured the story could never actually go anywhere because there were not enough pages to give us a good adventure. The whole thing made no sense, it was so random and underdeveloped, nothing had any emotional impact, it was all very dramatic but never went anywhere, the ending was probably one of the worst I’ve ever read, it was like when you go through a big dramatic story and then the ending is like “and then I woke up and it was all a dream!” – it sucked. There was no point to any of it, I didn’t gain anything from reading this book, there was seemingly no direction at all. It was just so !! random !! and !! pointless !!

I finished the book and was like…what? 

It was just rubbish. Apologies to not be very articulate about it but I can’t think of any words other than it was just a rubbish, dead-end story. Would not recommend.

Burying the Honeysuckle Girls – Emily Carpenter
3/5 stars
☆☆☆

Burying the Honeysuckle Girls eBook: Emily Carpenter: Amazon.co.uk ...

An enjoyable read! I was surprised at how much I actually liked this as Kindle recommendations are usually a hit or miss for me, but I feel like I did actually stumble upon something good for once. The writing was easy to read, it all flowed nicely, I liked the context and the direction of the story, I liked what it was about, stories set in the Deep South are my favourite anyway so I loved it even more for that, the only thing I will say is that the ending was a bit rushed which was quite disappointing. We spent 80-90% of the book trying to figure everything out and then it was all given to us within the last 10% and it wasn’t this big revolutionary magic secret at all, even though that’s what we’d been made to believe up until that point and therefore it just felt like a bit of a cop out for lack of better wording – a little rushed and anti-climatic. However, I did really enjoy the writing, it was so fun and quick and I’ll definitely be making my way through Emily Carpenter’s other books in future.

All my love,

Chloe .xx

Goodreads – ChloLuna

26 thoughts on “May Book Reviews

  1. I always love to read about your book reviews so much! 😍📖 I really need to read the book When The Crawdads Sing. I have seen that book coming up all the time. It sounds like a beautiful Summer read indeed. I also love your honest reviews always when you don’t like a book.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Ahh thank you so much !! I’m so glad you enjoy them hehe, I really think you’d love Where The Crawdads Sing – if you read it you have to let me know what you think!! It’s such a beautiful book and would definitely be the perfect Summer read .xx

      Liked by 1 person

  2. It’s such a shame that two of these books weren’t that great at all, I hate devoting so much time to a book that didn’t live up to the expectation. Where the crawdads sing sounds absolutely amazing though!!! Once i finish my book I’m reading I will defo look into this, thanks for the recommendation angel! Xxxx

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Exactly !! Life is too short to read rubbish books when there’s so many amazing ones out there! If you read Crawdads please let me know, would love to hear what you think !! xxx

      Like

  3. Well I’ll have to pop Where the Crawdads Sing on my to read list (with BTW seems to just get longer and longer, and I have no complains at all lol). I can feel how excited you are when writing about it haha ❤ Amazing reviews xx

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Ahhh I feel you, as soon as I feel like I’m actually working my way through my TBR I just end up adding more and more books to it !! I really think you’ll like Where The Crawdads Sing, please let me know what you think if you read it !! Thank you as always Karen xxx

      Liked by 1 person

  4. I read Jane Eyre ages ago and just remember feeling kinda ‘meh’ about it when I expected so much more? But I don’t remember much so I’d definitely give it another go. Also your book reviews are so magical xxx

    Liked by 1 person

    1. So glad I’m not the only one, I’ve heard everyone rave about how powerful and feministic it is but I didn’t feel that way at all! Wasn’t sure if I was just missing the point. Thank you so much for being so lovely as always, I’m glad you like the reviews 💞xx

      Liked by 1 person

  5. I’ve been wanting to get my hands onto where the crawdads sing for so long and your review really made me take that final step and get it on my kindle! Looking forward to reading it!

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Okay. Where The Crawdads Sing makes me so intrigued after your review!! But wait, is it like a heavy book or like a lightread one? Like.. do I have to be mentally prepared for it? 😅

    Like

    1. Good question! Definitely wouldn’t say it’s a heavy read – it’s so gripping and really draws you in, to the point where it’s like, the only thing you can think about haha, but I don’t think you have to be emotionally prepared for it! It’s more beautiful than anything .xx

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Definitely definitely read it, I think it’s going to be my favourite book of the year! Would love to know what you think of Jane Eyre, I’m not sure if it simply just went over my head or if it’s just loved for no reason! X

      Like

  7. Oooh When The Crawdads Sings sounds like a book I need to add to by TBR list! I actually started Lord of The Flies cos like…a classic…and I feel so bad that I just can’t get through it without taking days of breaks in between! I’ve ended up putting it on pause and started a new one, but fingers crossed I get back to it! xx

    Liked by 1 person

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