I’ve seem quite a few people joining in with this great Spring Cleaning tag and couldn’t resist joining in too, especially given our recent spring cleaning session.
The struggle of getting started: A book or series you struggle to begin because of its size
At 600 pages, Children of Time is a beast (in more ways than one) and definitely intimidated me before I picked it up. It was sat on my TBR for a long time before I finally got my hands on a physical copy, and then sat on my bookshelf being a large book friend for a few months before I finally read it. Once I started though I couldn’t stop because it’s a phenomenal book.
Cleaning out the Closet: A book or series you want to unhaul
My mum bought me the Maze Runner series about a week or two before the news about James Dashner came out. I’ve kept the series to read mostly because I had wanted to give it a go and I also hated the idea of getting rid of brand new books my mum had specifically gone out and gotten for me but will be unhauling them ASAP.
Opening the window and letting fresh air in: A book that was refreshing
Although I haven’t finished it yet, I definitely have to choose The Poet X for this because I’ve never read a book like it before. It’s just been such a refreshing and healing experience to read this, and I feel so grateful to have my own copy to refer back to. I listened to a sample of the audiobook as well to get a feel for the flow and would love to listen to the entire book afterwards.
Washing out the Sheets: A scene that you wish you could re-write
Oh boy, do I have an answer for you. I was loving this incredibly creative book right up until the author decided to throw in a bizarre and awful trans “twist” in the story towards the end rather than have the protagonist confront his internalized homophobia. Literally one of the most disappointing books I’ve ever read thanks to that one scene alone.
Throwing out unnecessary knick-knacks: A book in a series you didn’t think was necessary
I’ve been thinking about this one but I honestly can’t think of an answer, mainly because I am trash and never end up reading more than the first books of series…
Polishing doorknobs: A book that had a clean finish
I find it really difficult to remember endings of books so this one was quite hard to work out for me. I remember loving the overall structure of THUG and how fantastic it is as a self-contained book though.
Reaching to dust the fan: A book that tried to hard to have a message
As much as I am loathe to say this, as I greatly admire Claudie Arseneault. I think The Baker Thief really fits the bill on this for me. I have never gotten around to reviewing the book as I felt so conflicted over it, particularly as so many other diverse book bloggers adored it and this make me feel super awkward. For me though, there were many instances where the book tried to have a message of inclusiveness of gender diversity to the point where it felt incredibly unnatural & interrupted the story and world building. I would be happy to go into this in more detail in the comments but yeah… it just missed the mark for me and I’m very sad about that.
The Tiring yet Satisfying finish: A series that was tiring but satisfying to get through
Again, this is really hard because me finishing series is almost unheard of (ha!) but I did come remarkably close to finished the ASOIAF series when I bought the books many years ago. I only had the two Dance with Dragons books left but completely ran out of steam as I had been reading each book immediately after finishing the one before. Needless to say, I felt exhausted by the time I came to this but it was a wildly satisfying series to be immersed in (even if I didn’t quite reach the end…)
Red Rocket Panda 