July Wrap Up Part 1

The slump is getting a little better. I have read 4 books for the first half of July. This isn't really close to my average but it is a slight improvement over the last two months.

First I picked up The Missing of Clairedelune by Christelle Dabos. This is the second book in The Mirror Visitor Quartet. I loved being back in the world, finding out more about the people, the magic, and the gods. There is an overarching mystery of people disappearing which kept me turning the pages. The book ends on a cliffhanger and I'm eagerly waiting for the third book to be translated into English. I gave the book 4 stars.

Then I found out my library hold of Recursion by Blake Crouch had come in. Having previously enjoyed his book Dark Matter (which was a sci-fi thriller) I was eagerly awaiting another one. The book is about a disease called False Memory Syndrome which is happening to some filling their heads with lives they have not lead and people are responding by killing themselves. The story is told from two perspectives, a cop named Barry who responds to a suicide and a scientist named Helena who knows what is causing it. The book was compelling and I read a good chunk of it in one sitting, but over time the story becomes repetitive and dragging. The ending was very unsatisfactory, muddled, and not following the rules the book had set out. I gave it three stars but now thinking about it, I've downgraded it to a 2.5 stars.

I wanted something funny and lighthearted so I picked up The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams which is the sequel to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by Martin Freeman. He was a great narrator and there were a few moments where I laughed out loud (like the motivation for Earth's destruction), but for most of it I was bored. I gave the book 2 stars and I won't be continuing on.

Lastly, I picked up The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. This book has been getting a lot of hype and I was in the mood for a page-turner. This book is about a woman named Alicia who murders her husband and then stops speaking. She says nothing in her defense and is remanded to a psychiatric ward. A man named Theo gets a job as her psychotherapist and tries to understand her motivation for killing her husband and determine why she has gone silent. I enjoyed unraveling more about Alicia and I liked the twist at the end. I gave the book 4 stars.