My very late (what’s new) Cramathon Wrap Up

I loved Cramathon! I got back into the swing of really sitting down and read. I felt like I might get into a reading slump right before, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case!

I had such a good time! I actually finished all 7 challenges (well if we’re really honest, I didn’t, because I finished the last book midday after cramathon was officially over, but shhh! I still count that!)

* I’ve linked all the Goodreads pages so you can check out the books if you haven’t heard of them before. Also, as always, all the cover images were taken from Goodreads.

 

A Predicted 5 Star Read

So, I started with A Predicted 5 Star read: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. And let me tell you … boi was I right! I listened to this on Audio while also reading along to get the full dose with the illustrations and everything. And I can 100% recommend reading it that way. The audiobook is stellar!! Jason Isaacs voiced this story so brilliantly. It was such an emotional time for me. I typically don’t cry while reading books (cold dead heart, ya know) but I sobbed with this. So raw, true and emotional. I’m so happy I finally read this. I’ll stop gushing now because I’ll post a review of this sometime soon.

 

A Book With Your Favourite Colour On The Cover

To get my emotions to calm the fuck down I read Das kleine Gespenst (The Little Ghost) by Otfried Preußler. It is such a cute and heartwarming story and one I loved dearly as a kid. The copy I read was my moms and it’s falling apart because we both read it so much. Otfried Preußler is a really great author and I loved everything I read by him so far. I actually started this readathon with finishing another book by him: The Robber Hotzenplotz. Equally cute and wonderful.

Also the illustrations in this book are just adorable.
(As for why this book for this challenge: it has black and the spine is a gorgeous sea green, turquoise)

 

Book That Has Been on My TBR For A Long While

I don’t know why but I stopped reading for 1 1/2 days after that. I would have had time to read, but I don’t know … I just didn’t.

But after some debating what to read next I settled on White Cat by Holly Black. (Originally I planned to read Tithe by Holly Black, but I wasn’t in the mood for that one.) That book was on my TBR for probably around 4 years now? I bought it used somewhere because I had heard good things about Holly Black, but I just never had the urge to pick it up.

It was good, I guess? Probably a 3 star book for me.
I loved the magic system, the whole con thing and the characters, especially Cassel, were quite enjoyable to read about. But the first half was incredibly predictable (I don’t know if it was supposed to be? Because it was just really obvious? So maybe it wasn’t supposed to be a twist or secret?) and that put me out of the story a bit. But overall very fun and I might actually pick up the next book if I find it used somewhere.

 

A Book Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Next, I picked up Betrachtung (Contemplation) by Franz Kafka. Another 3 star read for me. This is a collection of short stories, poems and just simple thoughts. Some were really good and interesting, some were a little underwhelming and all were very short. This was for the challenge A Book Out of your Comfort Zone and this is double out of my comfort zone being a classic and a short story collection. Both things I want to get into more but I haven’t really read a lot of.

I never read the books I was supposed to in school (only the beginning and end, pshhh. Even if I liked the book and genuinely wanted to read it, I couldn’t simply because it was required. I’m stupidly stubborn like that.)

 

Read 7 Books

The next one was a bit of a cheat because it really can’t be considered a book … it was that short! About 15 pages I believe? But I really wanted to finish 7 books and it was on Goodreads so I count it! If you can’t win the game change the rules. Anyway, it was a very short novella thingy about the first time Daemon & Katy meet from Daemons POV (Lux Series by Jennifer L Armentrout). Not really necessary, but eh. It was fun and short. So not complaining.

(Also can we please talk about how much prettier and way less cringe-y the German covers are?? (I will be doing a whole blog post comparing some covers soon, so stay tuned for that))

 

A Book That Is Not A Standard Novel

Monstress Vol 1 by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda was my next read. And I loved it. If I wasn’t on a book buying ban currently, I would have bought the second Volume immediately.
The art is stunning and the story actually quite moving.
I really enjoyed reading about the MC (I’m terrible with names!) and her journey/struggle in that world. It has a really intriguing world and I’m very curious to see what happens next.
Also, Kippa was the cutest thing ever! She was sooo adorable and I simply wanted to hug her (that doesn’t happen all too often with me).

 

 

A Book That Is LGBTQA+ Ownvoices

And last but certainly not least was Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. I loved this so much. I was a little bit hesitant about this because a) it’s so short and I usually prefer longer books where I have more time to connect with the characters and b) the hype. I was afraid of having too high expectations and not enjoying it as much as everyone else.
But as I said, I loved this. I loved the writing style, the atmosphere, the characters, the glimpses we got of the other worlds they’ve been in. Everything.
The mystery wasn’t that hard to figure out, but that didn’t hurt the story in any way. It was really not the point.
This is the first book I’ve ever read where a character explicitly said they were asexual and I loved it. The way it was written. The way Kade was introduced (one of my fave characters). Sumi and just … everything. Can you tell I liked this book?

(Do you have any recs for asexual characters in fantasy?)

 

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I loved this round of Cramathon. I actually got to 5 books I probably wouldn’t have picked up so soon otherwise. Three that have been on my tbr for at least 2 years. And I just … it was a success. I’ll definitely participate in the next round if I can.

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Have you read any of the books I mentioned? Did you enjoy them?