Everything I Read In November 2020

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November was a pretty solid reading month for me clocking in at 15 books! I read a couple novellas, which helped, but I also read a whole book in a day more than once (usually a couple chapters short of the whole thing) which is rare for me but not unheard of.

There were some great ones and a few that were just SO BAD I couldn’t even. It was a big month for series’ for me. I read two whole trilogies and 2/3 of another, 1/2 of the novella series and the final of one I started in January!

• If you want to listen to some of these, consider trying Audible! You can get your first month free (one free book) plus tons of others they have for free.  Get that Audible deal here.
• If you’re on more of a budget, try Scribd!  You can get your first month free there. You can read books and listen to audiobooks. It is unlimited (especially the reading) but if you listen to tons of new audiobooks you may be restricted after a few. I don’t listen to enough to confirm this, but I do use Scribd myself and like it a lot. Sign up for Scribd here!
• Shop my collection of bookish goodies on Etsy! These aren’t my shop items, but other shops I’ve curated into a book-themed collection. Shop my Etsy bookish goodies here!
• If you want to read more on your Kindle but don’t want to buy books, Kindle Unlimited is a wonderful option. It’s $9.99 a month but if you read a lot and like to read more than just new releases, it could be worth it. Get Kindle Unlimited here!
• Get $5 off of $25 from BookOutlet! This is a great place to find new books for pretty cheap. They also have sales quite a bit, so keep an eye out for those. I tend to check here for books I want if they’re more expensive other places. They don’t have everything but they do have a lot. Shop BookOutlet here!
• Thrift Books has become my go-to when I’m looking for a book and want it cheap. It’s great if you like buying used books. With this you can get a free book after spending $30!
• Shop my book lists here! You can find every book list I have on Bookshop.org (except my monthly round-ups) and I add everything I can but they occasionally won’t have some. I do occasionally add extras though. If any lists are empty, they’ll be filled in shortly! Shop my bookshop.org book lists here.
• Shopping internationally? Check out Book Depository!

The Breathless

Final thoughts: Direct from Good Reads:

I.. didn’t really like this.

It wasn’t as creepy as it could have been, like not even close.

I didn’t care about any character at all. They were all flat and boring.

The love triangle stuff was weird. Two guys liked the dead girl, but after she was dead both of the guys liked her younger twin sisters because they looked like her?

They constantly referred to converse shoes as Cons which, honestly, annoyed me the most! No one calls them cons. (Some people actually do, I polled my IG)

There was magic. Well, it was supposed to be magic but it was the most boring magic and didn’t feel thought through at all.

Ugh. Did not like this.

The Girl with the Raven Tongue

Final thoughts: This is a perfectly fine little novella. I read it quickly and enjoyed it enough. It’s a little weird and the wording/writing is a little strange but it wasn’t enough to really bother me. I liked it enough to read all four of these, but I also just love Greenland.

Transient

Final thoughts: From Good Reads: Is this the best dystopian book out there? No but it was entertaining, an easy read, and a really interesting concept. I mean, would you want to know when you die?

The weirdest part to me is that, as far as I can tell, takes place in 2016 which feels weird since that already happened and these are usually the future. It threw me off a little but I’ll definitely keep reading them.

Catacomb

Final thoughts: From Good Reads: My favorite of the three! I loved the setting and that it was different than the first two. It could definitely have been creepier especially since it’s set in New Orleans but I did enjoy this as a lite spooky book.

The Wood

Final thoughts: I loved this! I appreciated that it wasn’t part of a series and that the ending may not be as perfect as expected. I also really love the cover. If you have any suggestions of other books with characters kind of stuck in the wrong time, I’d love to hear them! This is actually one of my favorite books of the year!

The Boy with the Narwhal Tooth

Final thoughts: From Good Reads: 3.5 rounded up. It’s not the best mystery out there but it was short and entertaining. I’ll keep reading them.

Sanctum

Final thoughts: Direct from Good Reads: I could not get over how the author called cell phones mobiles in this. It’s set in New Hampshire, it just doesn’t make sense! And she’s from Minnesota so it’s just baffling to me.

Mobile aside, I enjoyed this. It was a little creepy, culty, but a nice easy read.

The Testing

Final thoughts: I LOVED THIS! Another one of my favorites from the year. It’s kind of like the Hunger Games, but instead of food, you can go to College where the testing never really stops. I read most of this in a day and picked up the next two for my drive home and read those almost as fast.

The Rule of All

Final thoughts: From Good Reads: I loved the first book, the second was good, but this one was just fine for me. I didn’t enjoy having the four points of view, it got confusing and I never knew who I was reading from.

It was a little hard to take the water cartel seriously for me, especially with a 15 year old leader? I did enjoy the last 20% more than the first 80, which kind of felt like it dragged on. I’m just torn on how I feel about this one.

Independent Study

Final thoughts: I still really loved this series and it’s probably one of my favorites now. Everything Tomas is frustrating to me, but I like the rest of it.

Graduation Day

Final thoughts: From Good Reads: Maybe closer to 3.5. I liked this but not as much as the first two. I did appreciate that this one wasn’t just a war which is how most dystopian trilogies end and I hate that. So this was a nice change.

I will say, I don’t care about Tomas AT ALL. He’s boring and we could have done entirely without him.

And as for the bag, in the first book she was told (I think by her dad?) tO always be prepared or something like that so she just keeps everything with her and it helped her before so she continues to pack rat that backpack.

It was annoying how much explaining we had for the planning in the beginning but I also get it because she thinks everything through a lot. She’s not impulsive and needs reasons for everything. I also think this is just a way to emphasize how smart she is. It’s mentioned a lot that she’s the youngest person in their class and testing group so she’s probably smarter than the average student and this is just how we see that.

Overall I enjoyed it for the most part.

Configured

Final thoughts: From Good Reads: 2.5 rounded down. I didn’t care about anyone in this. My favorite thing about it was kyra at the end. I thought a lot of it was weird, didn’t make sense, and is very fast paced. Like, typical book three events in a dystopian series are basically starting in this one.

She almost immediately becomes a rebel with little to no questions after seeming pretty into the whole government thing. This just didn’t make sense to me.

Why is Meyer offended she doesn’t agree to rebel the second he asks her? She literally knows nothing. Then waits 30 seconds and joins him. Ok.

This just wasn’t what I hoped it would be but I can see how people like it.

Outliers

Final thoughts: From Good Reads: ** spoiler alert ** 3.5. I did mostly enjoy this but there are a few things that bothered me a lot.

The timeline between this and the first book. Apparently the whole two years between the test and DOD have passed? It seemed more like a few months unless I missed a mention of time.

They talk about how much time rae and Logan spent together but as far as we can tell, it was only one evening? This came up a lot and it bothered me every time but I like her with Logan more than Drew.

Her relationship with peter was my favorite though since it’s different and unexpected, though I wouldn’t consider how he’s living “off the grid” in any way at all. He’s literally working for OBK.

A lot of typos and weird wording in sentences but I enjoyed it enough to finish off the series. They’re easy reads which I usually appreciate.

Source

Final thoughts: From Good Reads (buckle up, this is long. Basically, don’t bother with this book. There are spoilers in this but it’s so bad I don’t care. I’ve never given a book I’ve completely finished one star before.)

Ugh. Where to even start? The non-ending? The shockingly high number of typos and errors? The details that don’t make sense?

Ok. The non-ending. WHAT WAS THAT!? I read over 600 pages total in this series to not even really know how it ends? Is everything the same as it was this whole time?

Her friends that despised OBK now all love it and somehow she disrupts everything with one prick of blood but we don’t even know how? Nothing even changed. The government or OBK or whatever still controls everything as far as we know so this was all for LITERALLY NOTHING.

There’s a disclaimer in the beginning that it was written and edited in the UK so things like spelling and punctuation may differ from the US but this has to many mistakes, typos, weirdly worded sentences (like they wrote it then changed it but didn’t take out all the words they should have) that have nothing to do with UK English. Also, was this even edited at all!?

Now for some random thoughts I noted while I was reading which I literally never do these just bothered me that much:

Logan and Peter couldn’t be seen together in public becaus eots suspicious but they have lunch together immediately and at work! Where people know them! Then they meet up again in public.

Drew sucks.

In the second book her story was that she spent time with homeless people but this one says they’re extinct

Why are they in a quarantine? Why a lockdown? What contagion does she have?

How does the entire world get this lifelong AV update thing? Do they have some technology in them already? I don’t get this.

Did OBK shut down the entire world after the attack? Just the US? What was the threat they told people? Do I just not remember?

How does peter delay his appointment so long? It’s originally the next day then all of a sudden it’s over a week later? And he just isn’t going to work during this or what?

There is just one world government now? Is that what this is?

I’m glad this is over.

Ghost Boys

Final thoughts: Another favorite of all time! That’s three in one month. Wild. This was heartbreaking and eye opening. I think everyone needs to read this, especially with all of the police brutality stuff going on this year. I think this may be middle grade so it’s easy to read and follow. This was really so good and one I’ve recommended at least ten times since I finished it.

Well, there you have it, my November 2020 wrap up!

What did you read in November? Have you read any of these? Which ones?