The Terror of Knowing

Welcome one, welcome all, to my April Wrap Up. April opened up with the end of the Easter weekend which, for me, meant a whole lot of relaxing and doing not very much apart from staying home and reading. There were 2 very important events on my calendar for April – seeing Hairspray when its UK touring production came to the Liverpool Empire and seeing Avengers: Infinity War. I enjoyed both very much – though “enjoyment” seems a loaded word for the latter, for reasons why you can check out my “discussion” post about it but DO NOT read it unless you’ve seen all the MCU films, Infinity War included. Aside from this, there were a couple of book releases and readathons in April and it’s been generally a good month overall in terms of books, films, work, and life in general.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at the books I read in the month of April:

In April, I read a total of 7 books – 6 fiction and 1 non-fiction – and 3 were re-reads (marked by *). This amounted to 2129 pages in total.

In terms of format: 6 were paperback and 1 was an audiobook.

And as for genre, very broadly speaking, 2 were YA fantasy, 2 were children’s fantasy, 1 was a YA dystopian, 1 was science-fiction, and 1 was non-fiction.

Onto the books themselves…

The Elite by Kiera Cass

Rating: 3/5
Genre: young-adult; dystopian; romance
Pages: 323
Read: 1st – 2nd April
Review: To come

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer *

Rating: 4/5
Genre: fantasy; children’s
Pages: 278
Read: 7th – 10th April
Challenges fulfilled: Around the Year #40: A book from Amazon’s 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime list
Review: “Reading like part spy-thriller and part fantasy novel, Artemis Fowl displays that wonderful ability of children’s fantasy to work as a story with both its child and adult readers. For any naysayers who find the fact Artemis that is a child genius and talks like a middle-aged man completely unrealistic, I would kindly point out that you’re happily buying into a story where fairies live within the Earth’s core, ride magma flumes to the surface, and dwarves unhinge their jaw to tunnel through earth and excrete it as shit.” (full review here)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling [audiobook] *

Rating: 4/5
Genre: fantasy; children’s
Pages: 223
Read: 5th – 12th April
Challenges fulfilled: Around the Year #4: 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #1 Earth (in title, cover, content, setting, author…)
Review: To come

The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman *

Rating: 5/5
Genre: young-adult; historical fantasy; paranormal
Pages: 486
Read: 10th – 21st April
Review: (from 2016) “All in all, Alison Goodman’s The Dark Days Club succeeds in skillfully weaving all the accoutrements of a novel set during the Regency along with a more sinister underground world of the real London, complete with its secret societies dedicated to fighting demonic forces of evil so that the lords and ladies might continue their merriment unimpeded.” (full review here)

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: young-adult; fantasy
Pages: 412
Read: 21st – 24th April
Challenges fulfilled: Around the Year #24: A book with a map
Review: “One of the strengths from the very outset was Morgan Rhodes’ ability to balance all the storylines and the kingdoms; each kingdom had its own distinct “personality” and culture and, very quickly, it’s easy to differentiate between the different peoples and their different motivations within the larger story.” (full review here)

Saga: Volume Eight by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Rating: 4/5
Genre: graphic novel; science-fiction
Pages: 146
Read: 28th April
Review: To come

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Rating: 4/5
Genre: non-fiction
Pages: 261
Read: 7th – 29th April
Challenges fulfilled: Around the Year #26: A book with a text only cover
Review: To come

I didn’t do too badly with my reading April – it could have been better but it could have been a lot worse, and re-reading some old favourites brought back a lot of nostalgia as well as love for the Harry Potter and the Artemis Fowl series. In part I have the OWLS readathon to thank for any sense of reading in April – I may have joined in a couple of days late but I still managed to “pass my OWLs” and get the grades to become the Charms professor at Hogwarts, my desired Harry Potter career! Let’s hope May also brings much merriment, readathons, and 5-star reads.

How did your April reading go?
What was your favourite book you read this month?
Please do share in the comments below and let’s chat books!

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