August bookish wrap up (Brought back by popular demand)

 So we are back, back again with another incredibly dull but highly requested bookish wrap up. WOOP WOOP. 

Here's the low down. Instead of some 30 minute video, where I ramble on and on and keep repeating myself, I'm going to write down my collected thoughts in a blog format because we all know I am better at writing than speaking. Great, wonderful, with this figured out let's do the damn thing. 

First up, we got The Hiding Place by CJ Tudor. I literally don't know why but I have been in such a thriller mood recently, its wild. If you have been keeping tabs on my reading habits (which, why are you if you are?) I read a book 'The Chalk Man' by CJ Tudor a little while ago. To be brief, this wasn't as good as 'The Chalk Man', but 'The Hiding Place' was intriguing enough for me to finish the whole thing. 

What is it about? Well, there's a guy who's gets a message about a certain mystery that surrounded himself and his family many years prior. Surprised, and interested to know whats up, he moves back to his hometown, takes a job as a teacher at his old high school, and starts looking into the matter. He's a little rough around the edges and is definitely a rule breaker, but generally seems like a guy who just wants to know the truth. Along the way, strange (possibly supernatural-esque) things happen and that's all I'm going to say because who am I to spoil a book? 

Should you read it? Sure, if you're into that sort of thing. Highly recommend the audiobook which is narrated by Richard Armitage. If you don't know who he is, just know that he is a British actor with an incredibly deep voice and I basically want him to narrate my life. 

ANYWAYS, moving on...

Next up we got Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. I think Riley Sager might become my favorite thriller author ever. This was the second book I read by him and damn it was quite the intense read. I don't know what it is about haunted house type of settings but anytime a book description mentions one, I'm automatically intrigued. Like you tell me there is a haunted house in this book, 9/10 times I will probably read it. 

So whats the plot? Well basically, many many years ago this chick Maggie and her family lived in this house called Baneberry Hall in Vermont. Due to some mysterious circumstances, Maggie's family left after living there for like 2 weeks. And they FLED, like they didn't just casually go. But Maggie doesn't have any idea why. Her father writes a horror book about their experience in the house but she thinks it is all fake. 20-something years later, Maggie's dad dies and she inherits the house and wants to know what the heck happened. So she goes back and the story escalates from there. 

Was it good? Yeah. I liked it. On a scale of 1-10, probably a 7.5. Will I casually work it into conversation? Probably not. Riley Sager is a good author, and he writes really interesting haunted house type of things, but TBH I liked 'Lock Every Door' (the other Riley Sager I read before this one) waaaayyy better than this one. 

Onwards!

Surprise Surprise, I got another Riley Sager for you. His debut novel, Final Girls, and to keep it real real short, this wasn't as good as the previous two ('Lock Every Door', 'Home Before Dark'). Riley Sager is definitely one of those authors who gets better as he goes on. So like his two most recent books are way better than this one which came out like 3 years ago. But that being said, it was a decent book. I read the whole thing, which honestly doesn't say a lot about it because I think I finish most books I pick up, even if I hate the entire thing. 

It's basically about this girl (see a pattern here?), who was a lone survivor of a massacre at Pine Cottage (some creepy cabin in the woods). She gains this exclusive title of a 'Final Girl' and also loses most of her memory that night. There are like 2 final girls who survived other massacres and some ten-years later (see another pattern here?) one of them dies. After her death, this girl, who's name is Quincy btw, starts thinking back to the night of the massacre and like begins to see some discrepancies. It's a wild ride that starts a little slow, to the point where I put it down for 2 weeks and then picked it back up again. I'm going to be honest, I hated all the characters in this book. Our main girl Quincy was so annoying. Like I get it, you survived a massacre and are super strong emotionally and all, but like bro can you stop being dumb? 

Towards the end of the month I was getting tired of thrillers so I decided to start reading City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. The description said something about old woman recounting life in 1940s New York City, filled with humor and debauchery. You know that meme thats like, 'I'm a simple woman. I see XYZ and I click'. That is literally me. I see 'humor and debauchery', I click. This book was a delight, but to be completely honest, I'm not sure what the point of it was. Our main protagonist is a privileged, pretty white girl who drops out of Vassar and moves to NYC to live with her aunt and work at her failing theatre company. She makes all these friends who teach her how to live a free life. Lots of smoking, lots of drinking, lots of sex, followed by lots of dumb antics. You get the gist. There was not much of a plot, yet it was still highly entertaining because of how humorous it was. The only real qualm I had with this book was how long it was. Its like 400 something pages and I honestly think it could have been 200 pages shorter and still made the same impact. 

Overall, was it enjoyable? Yes. Would I recommend you read it? Yes. Just don't go into it thinking it's the next great American novel.