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Bibliophiles of the internet, my name is Adriana and today I'm here to bring you my March Wrap-Up.
Things you need to know: March was "Magical March," so everything I read had some element of magic within it,
with only a couple of exceptions, with things I had to read for school or some other stuff.
But other than that, it was a complete success. So let's get into it.
The first book I finished in March was "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara.
I actually did an entire spoiler-free video review for this. So I will link that up above and down below
in case you want to see that.
Then, for school, I read "How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe" by Charles Yu.
This book is a mixture of meta-fiction and speculative fiction.
And actually the main character is named Charles Yu, and he lives in a universe called Minor Universe 31,
and this universe is incomplete,
and also time travel exists.
So his job is to actually go around repairing people's time machines,
because they always end up in places where they're not supposed to go.
When he's doing that, he actually runs into a version of his future self,
who hands him a copy of this book, "How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe,"
which he has, all at once, both not yet written and he is in the process of writing it.
He hopes the book will help him out of the paradox he now finds himself in,
but also he hopes it helps him find out what happened to his father, who, when Charles was very young,
became depressed,
dropped out of time, and disappeared altogether.
I was captivated from page one, because both the author and the character Charles Yu
has a sense of humor that just won't quit. It's so easy, it's so effortless,
and that's what makes the story so engaging, and that's what makes it so easy to invest in this character right away.
The story is really clever, and I love how it engages a lot of complex ideas within it,
like how the story overall posits language as its own time machine
which I think is a fascinating concept.
It's a nice balance of humor, cleverness, and sadness.
And the language itself is so beautiful, because it constantly builds in a way that feels revelatory.
Plus it explores a lot of complete themes and ideas,
such as secondariness, familial debt, inherited modes of sadness, cyclical grief.
There's a lot of box imagery as well, which makes you think of the boxes other people put you in
versus the boxes you put yourself in.
It also explores feelings of inevitability,
confinement, limitedness, and also how to break cycles by regaining your own agency.
So overall, I thought this was great!
This was definitely one of my favorite reading experiences all year by far.
I very highly recommend it, and I gave it 5 out of 5 stars.
So then the first thing I read for Magical March was "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" by N.K. Jemisin.
I buddy read this book with Ivan from Sonahaazrah, who is a daily fixture in my life,
and if you're smart, he should also be one in yours.
This is N.K. Jemisin's first book, and it's about a main character named Yeine Darr,
who, when she was very young, alongside her mother, she was exiled,
and now that her mother has died under mysterious circumstances,
she has been summoned back to the most powerful kingdom in the world,
a kingdom called Sky.
And her grandfather just so happens to be the current ruler, and he's looking for an heir.
When she gets to Sky, she realizes they're so powerful because they've enslaved these former gods.
She has to grapple with that and she's also thrown into this power struggle,
so there are some things she needs to figure out quick.
Both this book and "The Fifth Season" are so important, because they are vital and necessary disruptions
to fantasy narratives as we know them. And even though I liked this one a little less than "The Fifth Season,"
I still really enjoyed it.
You can definitely tell at times that this is N.K. Jemisin's debut novel,
but the only thing I didn't really enjoy about it was that at sometimes it felt like more of a mystery than anything else.
Yeine is so preoccupied with finding out what happened to her mom and finding out what happened in her own past—
—which is totally fine; I don't fault her that at all.
But then, as a result, the thing about the power struggle kind of takes a back seat in the story,
when I wanted to know a bit more about that.
But I love how this story complicates and challenges our ideas of love, family, power, sacrifice.
Overall, I think it was great and such a strong story, and I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars.
Plus, all the gods in this story are ***.
I always forget to say that, but it's true.
Then I read three comics that are in some way, shape, or form magical.
The first one is "Milkyway Hitchhiking,"
the second one is "Unicorn vs. Goblins,"
and the third one is "Princeless."
I made a completely separate video where I reviewed all of these comics in-depth,
so I will link that down below in case you want to see that.
Then I read "The Walls Around Us" by Nova Ren Suma.
This is magical realism and also kind of a ghost story.
It's about a girl named Violet who is a very talented ballerina,
but she feels really guilty about something that happened with her former best friend, Orianna.
Ori was convicted of a crime that got her sent to a juvenile detention center,
where she actually died in a freak accident.
What I really like about this book is that it's super dark and twisted and creepy.
The writing style itself is beautiful. It's lush, descriptive, lyrical,
and it really lends itself as a proper vehicle for magical realism.
Like you just believe
that magic is possible based on the language alone.
And what was so fascinating about this story is that, in many ways, it's about pent up anger and ugliness.
It's very raw in that way, and it really explores what will happen not only to ourselves,
but to those around us if we let that rise to the surface.
It was a really immersive, atmospheric reading experience, one that I felt like I often couldn't turn away from,
so I really liked that aspect of it.
The only thing I didn't enjoy was that the ending felt a little bit rushed,
and the characters' motivations, which ultimately fueled the things that they ended up doing,
didn't quite land, didn't quite feel wholly convincing,
and I think they just needed to be pushed a little bit more.
But other than that, it was a haunting, gripping read that I really enjoyed,
and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
Then I re-read "Blue Lily, Lily Blue" by Maggie Stiefvater, which is the third book in The Raven Cycle.
I re-read this book in anticipation of "The Raven King," obviously, which is finally—FINALLY—coming out this month,
and now, I'm ready.
And I'm really glad I re-read this book, because now I'm refreshed on the story, and what's happening,
where it's at. I'm reinvested in the characters, I'm reassured that I am complete Pynch trash...
So I'm set!
In all seriousness, I love this book, I love this series. I love that every book in the series is so completely different,
aesthetically and plot-wise from what came before,
but it also builds the story in a really interesting way.
I just...I love it so much, and I loved this book even more upon a second reading.
That's really all I have to say.
My battery's about to die, but the last book I read for Magical March was "The Real Boy" by Anne Ursu.
This is a middle grade, high fantasy story about a main character named Oscar, who is actually autistic,
and he's also a shop boy for a very powerful magician.
But when some children in a nearby town fall ill,
it's up to Oscar and one of his friends to find a way to help them.
I will link my Goodreads review for this book down below, in case you want to know more in-depth thoughts,
but I really, really loved it.
This is such an important, fantastic, well done story. It's a very thoughtful and accurate portrayal of autism,
and I really like that it doesn't define Oscar,
but it definitely plays into how he interacts with the world around him
and how he interacts with others.
So it's definitely an important part of how he perceives the world,
but it's not a story ABOUT autism.
Oscar is capable, he's smart, he's kind, he's empathetic,
and he will do whatever it is in his power to help those around him,
and I thought he was such a great character.
Again, if you want to know more of my in-depth thoughts, I will leave a link to my Goodreads review down below,
so be sure to check that out. But I loved this so much and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
So those are all the books I read in Magical March. Of course I would love to hear your thoughts if you've
read them as well, so feel free to voice them in the comments down below.
Or feel free to let me know what was your favorite book that you read in March.
But that is everything I had for this wrap-up today. Thank you so much for watching.
I really hope that you enjoyed it, and I will catch YOU on the flip-side of the page.
Bye!
[♫ snazzy end screen music ♫]