Reading round up (74)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week.

13th April

I read 13% of Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley, bringing me to 71%. I wanted to finish it today but my reading time got swallowed by writing 5K words.

14th April

AGAIN WITH THE NOT FINISHING A BOOK. Agh. I'm furious with myself and beginning to feel like a failure WHICH IS FUN. So I'm at 86% with Magonia and I do actually like it a fair bit.

15th April

I read 14% of Magonia, FINISHING THE DAMN THING FINALLY. It was great and I loved it but I'm sure I'll love it much more the next time I read. 

I also started Supervision by Alison Stine (19%), which started off bad (with a rly dumb move by the MC) but got better. The MC is Asian and maybe dead?? We'll see.

I also read Molly Danger/Princeless (60-ish pages) and it was full of lady power. Yaaaaaaaaaas girls, slaaaaaay. I love girls.

16th April

Loving Supervision. It's so sweet yet chilling and creepy, and holds a spotlight to parental neglect and abuse. A fab gothic novel tbh. I read 46%, bringing me to 67%. 

I ALSO read a bunch of single comic issues which I can't be bothered to list here, started Fight Like A Girl by David Pinckney and Soo Lee (20% read) and Harley Quinn, vol 1: Hot In The City by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti (13%), which is of course crazy and awesome. I LOVED the first comic.

17th April

Finished Supervision (33%) and I Love it so damn much. The characters have a permanent place in my heart.

I also started Starborn by Lucy Hounsom, though I've only read 3%.

18th April

I read 2% of Starborn. Tbh I didn't even try to read this. I also read 29% of Harley Quinn, vol 1, bringing me to 42%. It's too cool. She's too sweet. I love everything about this.

19th April

Read 8% of Starborn, bringing me to 13%, and 36% of Harley Quinn, vol 1, which continues to be awesome. My love for Harley/Ivy is still very strong.

Books finished this week: 3
Books DNF'd this week: 0

For review:

Too lazy to link but here's what I got for review this week. Mostly Harper+imprints tbh :)

Bought:

Touch of Frost | Jennifer Estep

This has been on my list for what feels like decades.

I also got these AMAZON FREEBIES:

Arena One | Morgan Rice 

(I read the first part of this YEARS ago. Wanted to finish it ever since)

Rat Queens, vol 1: Sass and Sorcery

Molly Danger/Princeless FCBD

Magonia

For The Right To Learn (scheduled for 26th August)

Supervision

Harley Quinn, vol 1: Hot In The City

Magonia (ARC Review)

Magonia | Maria Dahvana Headley

Published by: HarperCollins, April 28th 2015

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Magic Realism

Pages: 320

Format: Ebook

Source: HarperCollins, via Edelweiss

Neil Gaiman’s Stardust meets John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars in this fantasy about a girl caught between two worlds…two races…and two destinies.

Aza Ray is drowning in thin air. 

Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. 

So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn’t think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.

Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia. 

Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming. Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of a reckoning. And in Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

Magonia and me got off to an okay start, a wobbly middle, and a fantastic end. From the beginning I wasn't sure if I was into it. I liked that the main character was different in that she was dying and had a distinct personality, but it wasn't something that interested me to read. But I stuck with it, because ships in the sky. I'm glad I did.

The fantasy elements of Magonia were so well crafted and well written that it was pure magic. I want my own sky ship (though I could do without being a) blue or b) a bird.) The magic that they possess is vastly unique, too. In this book, song has power. You can sing a sandstorm or sing rock into water. It's absolutely wonderful. Bird in the lung though? Pretty rank.

This book has everything. It has romance that's raw and so genuinely teenaged. It even has a pretty terrifying threat and villain, one that you're never sure if they're bad or good or somewhere in between, another where you're led to trust them and they betray Aza so terribly (taking away her agency, making her sing against her will, literally forcing their words into her voice - it was a terrible, horrifying violation in the context of the book.) So, as I say, Magonia had everything. I just didn't connect with it as fully as I may have done had I been in a better mood - I've been crabby and slow to read and I'm certain my enjoyment of this got knocked down because of it.

To sum: a wonderfully unique story, Magonia is like nothing you've read before or will read again. 

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting/world building ★★★★☆

Writing ★★★★★

--

As seems to be the trend to post the quote from this book that struck you the most, here's the one I cannot forget:

I can't imagine a universe in which I try to unlove her.

Reading round up (73)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week.

6th April

I read a further 24% of The Singular and Extraordinary Tale of Mirror and Goliath by Ishbelle Bee, which is amazing. I'm at 39% and loving it, even if it is getting a little repetitive with certain words (everything is fairy tale in the past few chapters) but I can forgive that because it might be changed in the final version.

7th April

Continuing my trend of random reading, I read 58% of Suicide Squad, vol. 1 by Adam Glass, Ryan Benjamin and Federico Dallocchio, which is SO GODDAMN GOOD. Probably my favourite team ever. Now that I've seen them on TV, and in graphic novel form, I am buzzing with excitement for the film!!!! Heads up: it's like 50p on kindle, so if you 1) love comics and 2) own a kindle, GET THE THING NOW.

I also read 17% of Mirror & Goliath, which I'm enjoying a little less now the novelty has worn off, and sad about it. For a short book, there's an awful lot of story threads and so many characters!

8th April

I read the last 42% of Suicide Squad which was SO COOL until the last 2 comics. Didn't enjoy them so much. There's something about what they did with Harley that, while I enjoyed the back story, made me feel really iffy.

I also read 26% of The Singular and Extraordinary Tale of Mirror and Goliath and I'm getting bored-er.

9th April

I skimmed the last 18% of Mirror & Goliath and it was okay but the first half was better than the last, and started Magonia by Maira Dahvana Headley (11%) So far I'm not sure about Magonia but I'm fair interested in the ship in the sky. Waiting for it to all kick in.

10th April

Read 19% of Magonia, bringing me to 30%, and I'm liking this a bit more. I can see where it's going and I'm fairly interested in getting there. Also Jason is a cutie and his frantic disjointedness resounds with me for a reason I'd rather not think on too thoroughly.

I also read Lois Lane: Cloudy With A Chance of Destruction by Gwenda Bond, and I continue to love Lois so so much. She's likable and unlikable at the same time and I love that. I like to think I'm the same.

11th April

Pushing Magonia aside for today, I read Rat Queens, vol 1: Sass and Sorcery by Kurtis J. Wiebe & Roc Upchurch in its entirety. IT WAS AWESOME.

12th April

Read 28% of Magonia which is really making me feel stuff. SHIPS IN THE SKY! ALOOF AND ATTRACTIVE FIRST MATES! 

Books finished this week: 4
Books DNF'd this week: 0

For review:

Lois Lane: Cloudy With A Chance of Destruction | Gwenda Bond

Another Lois Lane short! I LOVED the first one and can't wait to read more of Lois's vibrant energy.

I also got a bunch of Harper September galleys but I'll put those in the next one because lazy.

I also got these AMAZON FREEBIES:

Hope(less) | Melissa Haag

Submerged | Nicole Sobon

Moonfall | A. G. Wyatt

All Fall Down | Christine Pope

The Singular and Extraordinary Tale of Mirror & Goliath (scheduled for 27th May)

Death Marked

Lois Lane: Cloudy With A Chance of Destruction