Book Report: Autumn Reading Recap

My thoughts on everything I read between September and November this year.

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I really can’t believe it’s officially winter already, and my favorite season is behind me once again, but alas. I had a really good reading streak the last few months, though things really slowed down in November and I only managed to finish two books. I managed to read five in October, though two were kind of disappointing. Anyways, read on for a recap and reviews of everything I read from September to November this year!

September

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

★★★★★ 5/5

I was really craving something lighter after finishing several heavy books, and I’d been seeing this one constantly online, but avoiding it because the name and cover art aren’t what I normally gravitate to. Joke’s on me!!! This book was utterly charming, and had really fascinating worldbuilding for how short and succinct it was. It was sort of like if Nora Ephron wrote Harry Potter, and I immediately wanted 10 more books like it.

Read if you like: Cozy fantasy, found family, redemption arcs, satisfying conclusions.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

★★★★★ 5/5

Speaking of wanting 10 more books like the last one… I was in for some good news! Sangu Mandanna had already written a book that I would say is set in a very similar, if not the same, world of magic and witches. I honestly can’t decide which one of these books I liked more. This one had a lot of fun found family, enemies-to-lovers action, and a trio of very adorable young witches. I also really love that her side characters always feel so incredibly fleshed out and real, it makes the experience ten times more delightful in my opinion.

Read if you like: Cozy fantasy, found family, enemies to lovers, cute baby witches.

We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad

★★★★☆ 4/5

What’s better than one unreliable narrator, Bunny? FOUR unreliable narrators! I’ll admit, I was fairly skeptical and quite surprised when I found out Bunny was getting a sequel (er, prequel?). But this book was so deliciously FUN, Bunny. Overall, I loved it. I loved hearing from the Bunnies and, well, the bunnies. It was brutal, heartwrenching at times, and laugh-out-loud funny a few times as well. I thought it was the perfect successor to the original Bunny. There were parts where I felt that it dragged on a little bit, but overall I was spellbound from the get-go, so I can’t complain too much.

Read if you like: Mean Girls, cults, dark academia,

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

★★★★★ 5/5

Read if you like: Magical realism, dark academia, enemies to lovers, feeling smart.

October

Heart the Lover by Lily King

★★★★★ 5/5

By far one of my favorite books I’ve read all year. King’s prose had me hooked from the get-go, dropping the reader directly into an unfolding scene without any fanfare. I devoured this book in a single evening, even getting back out of bed to finish reading it because I decided I simply couldn’t wait. It was a beautiful, devastating story of young, all-consuming love, a musing on how the choices we make, or don’t make, have reverberating ripple effects across our entire lives. It was utterly crushing, I’m talking full-on ugly sobbing in the wee hours of the morning.

Read if you like: Campus novels, love triangles, utter emotional devastation.

Little One by Olivia Muenter

★★★★☆ 4.5/5

I really enjoyed this book, and how the plot unfolded so tantalizingly across the dual timelines. Anything that has cults in it is going to be a hit for me automatically. I still am untangling how I feel about the ending. At first it felt like one twist too many, but the more I think about it, the more fitting it feels for Catharine’s character. The present-day side characters felt a bit one dimensional, especially the best friend character. But overall, it was a really juicy mystery with a very satisfying ending.

Read if you like: Unreliable narrators, complex female characters, bad journalistic ethics, cults.

When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

★★★☆☆ 3/5

I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. The premise sounded so promising – the ghosts of enslaved people exacting revenge on the clueless rich white people who had turned a plantation house into a twisted amusement park and wedding venue. But something about the pacing just felt really off to me, and the prose was quite clunky in places, and not in a way that seemed intentional or stylistic. Overall, it was an interesting read with a satisfying conclusion, but I came away a bit disappointed.

Read if you like: A good revenge fantasy, complex relationships, ghosts.

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

★★★★☆ 4.5/5

This book, on the other hand, was one of those that I was super excited about from the premise, and it overdelivered. I love stories that are told in varying timelines, like this one is. And I loved the tie-in to academia across a couple different generations. I also thought that this book had a really interesting take on witches – like something between a vampire and a demon. I’d be curious to know if there is something like this in actual Mexican folklore. If you do read this book, be aware that there is some rape-y, incest vibes that I wasn’t expecting, though it’s brief and not described graphically. Just heads up, if that’s a dealbreaker for you.

Read if you like: Witchcraft, folklore, dark academia, 90s campus novels.

We Had a Hunch by Tom Ryan

★★★☆☆ 3/5

Another book that I was super excited about based on premise that sort of let me down. This book follows a group of teen detectives whose meddling had devastating consequences twenty years ago. Now, a new string of copycat murders has rocked their sleepy hometown, and the killer they helped put in jail will only talk to the washed up teen sleuths. This sounds like it was tailor made for me, but the prose was very meh, I took great offense to some of the character names (a character named Evan Stevens, and twin boys named Levi and Levon – come on now), and overall I felt it had one too many twists at the end. I’ve found that I get immediately annoyed when a mystery novel feels like everything had wrapped up, had a satisfying but probable twist, and then suddenly decides to through a curve ball at you in the final pages. It always feels like it’s trying too hard to be clever and subvert expectations. And it reminds me of Riley Sager, whose books I detest for that exact reason. Anyways, it ended on a cliffhanger and clearly is set up for a sequel, which I will likely read but won’t be happy about it.

Read if you like: Plucky teen detectives, Scooby Doo, Y2K nostalgia, plot twists.

November

It’s Different This Time by Joss Richard

★★★★☆ 3.75/5

This book was so sweet, I really loved it! I was pleasantly surprised by all the references to Broadway and music theatre, as a huge theatre nerd myself. It was also the perfect book to read after coming home from a week spent in Brooklyn and NYC. I felt like the side characters were pretty well fleshed out, and loved the dynamic of Adam’s family. My main complaints were that Adam felt a little too perfect at times, and it got to a point where I wanted to scream, “Oh my god just talk to each other for once.” I know there’s an element of that feeling in all rom-coms, but sheesh. All in all, a delightful and heartwarming book with plenty of spice.

Read if you like: Musical theatre, New York City, second chance romances, fine dining.

The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon

★★★★☆ 4.75/5

I predicted at the outset that this book would make me cry, and boy DID IT. Just such a charming, emotional, heartwrenching contemplation on what it means to be human. And also definitely a bit of a warning against letting AI and tech bureaucrats run our day to day lives for us. It’s set in a near-future dystopia where all household appliances are sentient to varying degrees, and control everything about human’s lives under the guise of being helpful, but in ways that end up being a lot more sinister than that. A little robot vacuum named Scout decides she’s going to break the mold and see the world, and it follows her adventures in doing so. This book is perfect for my fellow 90s kids who felt a lot of big feelings watching The Brave Little Toaster or Wall-E.

Read if you like: Crying about inanimate objects, The Brave Little Toaster, Wall-E, Up.

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