Weekly Reading Roundup: October 29th to November 4th, 2023

This week was kind of a quiet reading week for me, but seeing as I read a lot of books last week, this makes sense.

Despite being a slower week, I did read some really great books, and I did not dislike any of them, so I will take that as a win!

I have redacted one book from this list, due the ongoing boycott of St. Martin's Press and its imprints.

Without further ado, here are the five books I read this week, with my thoughts.

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The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Genre(s): Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller

My rating: 4.75 stars

Description via The Storygraph: "She says she's innocent. But everyone lies...

It was Emma’s first summer away from home. She made friends. She played games. She learned how to lie.

But then three of her friends went into the woods and never returned…

Now, fifteen years later, Emma has been asked to go back to the newly re-opened Camp Nightingale. She likes to think she’s laying old ghosts to rest but really she’s returning to the scene of a crime…"

My thoughts: I read this book incredibly fast (just under two hours) as the beginning of a reading challenge, which I will be writing about soon!

This has been my least favorite of Sager's books so far, but still a super solid thriller. I would still definitely recommend this book!

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Genre(s): Classics, Horror, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction

My rating: 3.75 stars

Description via The Storygraph: “'He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp... his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter' Published as a 'shilling shocker', Robert Louis Stevenson's dark psychological fantasy gave birth to the idea of the split personality. The story of respectable Dr Jekyll's strange association with 'damnable young man' Edward Hyde; the hunt through fog-bound London for a killer; and the final revelation of Hyde's true identity is a chilling exploration of humanity's basest capacity for evil.”

My thoughts: Listen to the audiobook for free on YouTube

I really enjoyed this, and I think the person who narrated the audiobook was perfect.

I definitely recommend listening to this, as someone who has a hard time reading older classics, it was much simpler to understand.

While it is not a great read, I still liked it. Wasn’t as scary as I would’ve liked, but it was written in the 1800s so it gets a pass there.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Genre(s): Fantasy

My rating: 5 stars

Description via The Storygraph: “'One of the most unique works of fiction I've ever read' - Tamora Pierce on The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Step into Starling House - if you dare . . .

No one in Eden remembers when Starling House was built. But everyone agrees that it's best to let the house - and its last lonely heir - go to rot.

Starling House is uncanny and ugly and fully of secrets, just like its heir. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but it might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden.

It feels dangerously like something she's never had: a home.

But Opal isn't the only one interested in the house, or the horrors and wonders that lie beneath it. If Opal wants a home, she'll have to fight for it. She'll have to dig up her family's ugly history and let herself dream of a better future. She'll have to go down, down into Underland, and claw her way back to the light.

This is a sweeping gothic fairytale from Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award-shortlisted Alix E. Harrow.”

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this!

I will say, the use of “fat” as a descriptor to the extent this author used it was just bizarre, and did take me out of the reading quite a few times. We get it, the river, the land, EVERYTHING is wide, just use the word wide!

Overall though, this had haunting gothic vibes and it was perfect to read on Halloween! And thanks to Reddit, I was able to find out that if you bought the book within a certain period of time, you would be able to receive a free keychain inspired by the book, which I finally received on Friday, which was neat!

Loveless by Alice Oseman

Genre(s): Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult

My rating: 4.25 stars

Description via The Storygraph: “Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush – but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she’s sure she’ll find her person one day.

As she starts university with her best friends, Pip and Jason, Georgia’s ready to find romance, and with her outgoing roommate on her side and a place in the Shakespeare Society, her ‘teenage dream’ is in sight. But when her romance plan wreaks havoc amongst her friends, Georgia ends up in her own comedy of errors, and she starts to question why love seems so easy for other people but not for her. With new terms thrown at her — asexual, aromantic — Georgia is more uncertain about her feelings than ever.

Is she destined to remain loveless? Or has she been looking for the wrong thing all along?”

My thoughts: If I had read this as a teenager, I would’ve been OBSESSED. As an adult, this was still a good read, just didn’t hit quite the same. But as someone on the ace spectrum, I liked having the representation!

I absolutely loved Heartstopper, and since this is also by the same author, I think my expectations were a tad too high.

Would recommend it to teenagers in a heartbeat!

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

Genre(s): Mystery, Thriller

My rating: 5 stars

Description via The Storygraph: "It's November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House, Nirvana's in the tape deck, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it's guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it's to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she's named after, Charlie has her doubts. There's something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn't seem to want Charlie to see inside the car's trunk. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she's sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie's suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?

What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a pay phone and in a place where there's nowhere to run. In order to win, Charlie must do one thing--survive the night."

My thoughts: Okay, I know most people hated this and I get it. But I had SO MUCH FUN reading this.

Was it ridiculous? Yes. Does our main character make some of the worst decisions ever? Yes. However, despite all that, this was a ROMP. I could not put it down, and it is definitely a guilty pleasure read.

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What book(s) did you read this week? Let me know in the comments!