March Wrap-Up (2018)

Hey everyone, Victoria here! Today I'm really excited to share with you my wrap-up for the month of March! This month, I completed 6  books, which I am ecstatic with! This month, I really got into listening to audiobooks so I can read more each month which is really nice. Without any further ado, let's just jump right into the books that I read this month!


1.) Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️  ⭐️  ⭐️ .5 / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (4.5/5)



I absolutely loved this book! I had tried to read it physically a while ago, but couldn't really get into it...so I decided to try the audiobook. Thankfully, I really enjoyed listening to this book, I truly could not get enough of it. I posted a full review for Brain on Fire so you can see my full thoughts on it HERE.



2.) Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (4/5)



*TRIGGER WARNING- If rape or sexual assault are at all triggering to you, I would recommend that you steer clear of this one. *

Wow. I can't believe I've never read the original by Laurie Halse Anderson...maybe I will read the actual book now. This. Book. Oh. My. God. I'd honestly never heard of it before I picked up the graphic novel on a whim while it was on the 'new' shelf at my library. And I'm so glad that I decided to give it a chance! Speak is about a freshman girl, Melinda, who has been raped. This book tells the importance of speaking up for yourself and reporting things that are wrong. This book had me utterly speechless and confused and I can't even put into words how I felt. The illustrations in this book are absolutely stunning and bring the story to life! I would definitely recommend checking this one out, whether picking it up in its original form or the graphic novel.



3.) Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️  ⭐️ ⭐️  / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (4/5)



*CW- Schizophrenia *

I have been wanting to read this book for such a long time since I fell in love with Eliza and her Monsters, also by Francesca Zappia. I listened to Made You Up on audiobook and I really enjoyed it! In this novel, Alex, our main character, has to fight daily to determine which parts of her life are real, and which parts are hallucinations. She has schizophrenia, which causes her to hallucinate different things, including people. Miles, a boy that she met when she was young, is a creation of her imagination....or is he? When Alex runs into him in college, she wonders if she made him up or if he is , in fact, a real person. I quickly fell in love with this story, and couldn't stop listening to it! I have developed an interest in reading books that deal with schizophrenia after reading The Movie Version by Emma Wunsch at the end of 2016  (which oh my god read it if you haven't). This book was a super quick and fun read, and I will be looking forward to reading more of Francesca Zappia!



4.) Letting Go of Gravity by Meg Leder
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️  ⭐️  / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (3/5)



I received this as an ARC by my local bookstore in exchange for my review of it. Needless to say, I didn't love it, but there were some good things about it. This book's expected publication is July 17, 2018, so check out my review HERE to determine if you'd like to put it on your radar!



5.)  The Call by Peadar O' Guilin
Rating: ⭐️  ⭐️  ⭐️ .5 / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (3.5/5)

This is another one that I listened to on audiobook this month. I was interested in reading it through seeing some hype for it on Booktube, so I decided to give it a go. I did enjoy listening to this book, but I found the middle chunk of this book extremely boring. After you're introduced to the world and how it works, you are just waiting for everyone to be "called". Don't get me wrong, the aspect of being unexpectedly "called" into the land of the beasts banished from Ireland thousands of years ago is utterly terrifying, but after a while it got boring. Another thing I found really problematic was the writing style. It is written in 3rd person (I believe), but personally, I found it really confusing and ineffective for this story. Overall, there was a fair amount of action and the plot was well developed but I was expecting a little more from it. I think the audiobook was definitely the way to go for me personally because if I were to physically read it I think I would have possibly DNFed it. Despite all this, I did enjoy the story that this is book told and I haven't read anything else like it ever before. At this point, I'm not sure if I will be reading/listening to the sequel, but let me know what I should do in the comments below if you've read The Call or its sequel!



6.) The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith
Rating: ⭐️  ⭐️  .5 / ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  (2.5/5)




Ok, so this book was pretty bad, not going to lie. Last year, I read Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith and really enjoyed it so I decided to check out some of her other books. Keep in mind that she wrote Windfall multiple years after The Geography of You and Me, but I still had some hope for this one. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed with it. I can't even give you a plot synopsis because the story and its characters are so utterly forgettable. I was expecting this to be a European travel contemporary novel with a cute teen romance, but literally, none of that was in this book. The travel aspect was terribly done in my opinion, as the characters switched from place to place too quickly. The plot of this story was ok but definitely pretty bland and boring. I really thought this was going to be a light, quick read, but sadly I didn't really enjoy it.



These are all the books that I read this month! Be sure to check out my TBR for April to see what I'm planning on reading in the next few weeks and let me know in the comments if you've read any of these books that were mentioned in this post!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

-xoxo Victoria