Bookhaul #2

Hey everyone! I finally got the chance to go to a Barnes and Noble while my family visited for Thanksgiving. I was so pumped to set foot in a nice, huge bookstore for the first time in months. I have been careful about money recently, but treated myself to 3 new, HARDCOVER books. I absolutely love the feel of new books; used books just aren’t the same (especially because I’ve been buying a lot of ex-library books for super cheap). I got 1 adult book and 2 young adult books. I used to read almost all adult books, but I’ve been venturing out into a younger age range just to see if I like it. Here’s a quick breakdown of my haul:

– Future Home of The Living God by Louise Erdich

Evolution is going backwards in this sci-fi/dystopian novel. All pregnant women are sentenced to live in jail like conditions to monitor their babies and check for evolutionary reverses. Cedar Songmaker, the protagonist, is pregnant and hiding from authorities, a crime with a terrible punishment. She and the father of her baby live in the confinement of their home, forcing themselves to refrain from all human contact. While the world is going to pieces, Cedar is left in the darkness and has no idea what is going on in the world around her. Hopefully, she can carry the child to term without authorities finding her. That is, if society doesn’t fall to madness before then.

– Like Water by Rebecca Podos

Savannah Espinoza has a big plan to leave her small town in New Mexico. She wants to be one of the only people to successfully go off to college and not get stuck in the confinement of her hometown. This plan is going well until her father is diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. Suddenly, her future does not include moving far away and college is not an option. Savannah completely isolates herself from her high school friends to keep herself from getting hurt. That is, until she meets Leigh. Leigh changes Savannah’s world and makes her question her identity in very deep ways. She definitely is something extremely special and Savannah wants nothing but to become closer to the girl who makes her feel at home.

I actually have already finished this book and surprisingly did not like it very much. I want to get a review of this title out as quickly as possible to explain the issues I encountered while reading it. I ended up giving it a 2/5 stars on GoodReads, which is something unusual for me!

– I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin

Ava and Gen are best friends who go their separate ways for their freshman year of college. They still communicate constantly via text and email, and the book is written in these electronic formats. The 2 girls couldn’t be anymore different and sometimes these differences cause small fights. Long distance friendship is hard, but Ava and Gen have a chance to make it work. As Gen experiments with drugs and girls, Ava battles social anxiety and her first college parties. Maybe, their differences can actually make their unique friendship thrive.

I’m halfway through this book and having many problems with the way the characters develop. I’ll do a review shortly after I finish it, which should be later this week, as I’m on holiday break from college right now.

Overall, I’m slightly disappointed with my choices. I’m glad I gave them a shot, because these books fit my blog focus well, but I’m not enjoying most of them. I hope to do reviews of all three within the next few weeks during my school break. Be on the lookout for some critical reviews of titles that had a lot of potential to be outstanding! Thanks for reading about my book haul and I’ll see you in a few days with my review of Like Water!