It’s time for a look at my May reading life!

It’s time for another wrap-up/haul post — and some fun stats!

The month at a glance: books completed: 11 books DNFed: 2 average rating: 4.4 (wow!) best book: Finlay Donovan is Killing It worst book: Ten Count, Vol. 2	PAGES READ PER DAY:

What I read:

(each title link will direct you to my review for more thoughts!)

emoji key:
✨ review copy → 💞 buddy/group read → 🔁 re-read → 🎧 audiobook → 🍰 graphic novel/manga
🫙 TBR jar → 🗓️ 2022 TBR → 🌻 seasonal TBR → 😻 Devour Your TBR
💫 half-star

• Finlay Donovan is Killing it // Elle Cosimano: 💞 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → My favorite book of the month! Hilarious and so much fun. I loved buddy reading this and the sequel with Leslie (check out her reviews here)!
• Bunnicula: The Graphic Novel // James Howe & Andrew Donkin: ✨🍰 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → I’m a lifelong Bunnicula stan and this was delightful!
• The Liminal Zone // Junji Ito: ✨🍰 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → Definitely my favorite Junji Ito collection so far.
• The Haunted Mask // R.L. Stine: 🔁🎧 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → I hadn’t read this in WAY too long, and it absolutely holds up well. The audiobook is fantastic!
• Diet Riot: A Fatterpunk Anthology // edited by Nico Bell & Sonora Taylor: ✨ + ⭐⭐⭐ → Loved the representation and a few of the stories, but I sadly was underwhelmed by most of the anthology.
• Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead // Elle Cosimano: 💞 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → Absolutely delightful. I still need to write up a review for this one!

• An Arrow to the Moon // Emily X.R. Pan: ✨ + ❌ DNF ❌ → After how much I loved The Astonishing Color of After, I really hoped I’d adore this, but I was so bored I put it down pretty quickly.
• Ten Count, Vol. 1 // Rihito Takarai: 🔁🍰 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → I re-read this one before finally continuing the series, and still loved it!
• Ten Count, Vol. 2 // Rihito Takarai: 🍰🫙 + ⭐⭐⭐ → I picked this as one of my TBR jar reads for the month, but it was such a letdown that I regret reading it and also regret buying the next volume. There’s some REALLY concerning dub-con and non-con in this volume.
• In Darkness, Delight: Fear the Future: ✨🫙 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 → An absolutely fantastic horror/sci-fi anthology! I’ll post a full review for this one in a blog post soon.
• The Ruins // Scott Smith: 💞 + ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ → This book deserves ALLLLL the hype I’ve heard it receive over the years!
• Summer’s Edge // Dana Mele: ✨ + ⭐⭐⭐ → I very rarely pick up YA thrillers, and this book is a good example of why: because they’re often good, but almost never live up to their full potential.
• Fangirl, Vol. 2 // Rainbow Rowell: ✨🍰 + ❌ DNF ❌ → I’ve accepted that I’ve outgrown this book and its adaptations (not as in I’m “too old for this book”, but as in, it isn’t serving me personally anymore).

And now, for some of my favorite recent hauls:

• Burn Down, Rise Up // Vincent Tirado (audio review copy; YA horror)
  
• Your Mind is a Terrible Thing // Hailey Piper (purchase; adult horror/sci-fi)
• The Mummy (novelization) // Max Allan Collins (purchase; adult adventure/fantasy)
• Just Like Mother // Anne Heltzel (review copy; adult horror)
• Three Days in the Pink Tower // E.V. Knight (review copy; adult horror)
• Little Eve // Catriona Ward (eARC; adult horror)
• Our Wives Under the Sea // Julia Armfield (eARC; adult horror)

And finally, a little life update:

May was, thankfully, a MUCH happier month than April. While we’re all still recovering from our loss of Lotus, we’ve been trying to focus on happy things in life, and the kittens have helped a lot with that (I don’t know if you’ve ever tried, but it’s hard to dwell on sad thoughts for long when a tiny kitten is gnawing on your toes, lol). Ceylon and Pekoe turned 8 weeks old last week, and they’re all over the place, wild AF, and into EVERYTHING. 🤣 It’s wonderful. They’re also still extremely loving, though it’s harder to get them to sit still for cuddles as long as they used to, that’s for sure!

Aside from the much-needed kitty bonding times, May was mostly a lot of swim time with my son in our little backyard pool, family gaming sessions, work, and thankfully getting out of a mini-slump pretty fast! Lately, I just want to read ALL THE THINGS (I had to force myself to set aside Sleeping Giants to write this post 😂) and it feels great! I’m also slowly getting my sleep schedule back on track, which I’m hoping will help me get back on schedule with everything – especially since we just found out that my spouse’s work schedule will be changing to an earlier shift next week, which will help us get back into our “normal” daily routines (they’ve been on second shift for the past 6-ish weeks?, and it’s totally thrown me out of whack lol).

How was your month? What was your favorite book you read or hauled, or what was something nice that happened in your life?

— destiny ♥

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