April Wrap-Up

April was… busy! Honestly if I already thought that I didn’t read a lot in February the same could be said about April. Of course I had my reasons for not reading all too much and now that it’s official I can also write it in here and don’t have to beat about the bush like I did in my last wrap up. I don’t know if you guys follow my BookTube Channel as well but if you did you already heard about my life updates. If not you’ll read it now. 😉

After working for many years at the same company I decided to go on an educational sabbatical for a year. There were plenty of reasons that caused me to rethink my current work life and over those last couple of months it became more and more clear that it couldn’t go on like that. I wasn’t happy anymore and I was constantly stressed which took a toll on my health and caused my private life to suffer as well. So I kinda pulled the rip cord and decided to go for an educational sabbatical instead. I’m really looking forward to go back to studying and I’m sure that this year is exactly what I need right now. I want to broaden my horizon and do something I really want to do! I’ll take all my energy to set up a second line of business and I hope it will help me to go down a different career path. 😉

I mean I’m too young to spend even more years in a job I don’t like. I’ll have to work at least 30 years more until I can retire (if I ever retire *lol*) and that’s way too long to do a job that’s not my cup of tea. XD So yeah, to initiate all those changes took a lot of time and energy and then my hubby ended up having Covid which cost me another 10 days of quarantine in which I had to do everything. I’m vaccinated thrice so I basically had to do everything from buying groceries to getting rid of the trash, cooking and taking care of my kid etc. It was… busy. *lol*. So yep, that was my April and I guess no one is surprised that I didn’t get a lot of reading done. Haha! On this happy note let’s jump right into my wrap up, shall we?!

Books read: 3 (3 books & 0 webcomic, I won’t even say anything about the fact that I only read 3 books. >_<)

Pages read: 1.085 (This is actually more pages than I thought I would have read. XD)

Average rating: 4,17 (I rarely had months in which my ratings varied so much)

Books that were on my reading list: 0 ( 0 from 2019, 0 from 2020 and 1 from 2021. One of those 3 books was actually from my TBR so yay! I’ll take my victories where I can get them. *lol*)

April Reads:

       

Pet:

This book was a real surprise and I don’t know how to describe it. I think it kind of reminded me of „A Monster Calls“. I mean it tackled serious topics but with the help of a monster that made it easier to address them?! Anyway! I really enjoyed this book and even though I was so busy it kept me engaged and I wanted to know what would happen next so that’s definitely a good thing. If you want to read my full review you can do it: here!

Gideon the Ninth: ,5

I enjoyed the book but it was so confusing? *lol* There were so many different names which made it hard to get into the story and sometimes I didn’t really get what the author wanted to tell the reader? Despite all that I ended up enjoying the book though and gave it 3,5 paws rounded up to 4 stars on goodreads. I wrote a long and more elaborate review about „Gideon the Ninth“ on my blog so if you want to read it just follow the link!

Sometime After Midnight:

I felt like I needed to read something fluffy and nice to get back into reading and when I picked this book up I totally didn’t expect to end up loving it so much, but boy this book!!!! AHADKFASLKDFSADF! I loved this story so much! And not because of the romance but because of the music aspect which was quite the surprise! This was amazing and if you love music and the chemistry between two musicians you should definitely pick it up! I’ll write a full review on this hidden and unkown gem once I have more time so be prepared to hear more about it! ❤

This said: How was your April? Was it a great reading month for you and if yes how many books did you manage to read? (Hopefully way more than I did. *lol*) What was your favourite book last month and did you read any of the books I read? Have you ever gone on an educational sabbatical and if yes what did you study?

Talk to me and let me know! 

And as always take care and stay healthy and safe!

*hugs’n’kisses*

The Sassy Library Fox

Review: Pet (Akwaeke Emezi)

Rating:

„It wasn’t like the angels wanted to be painted as heroes, but the teachers wanted the kids to want to be angels, you see?“

Wow… this book caused me to think about so many things. I don’t even know where to start but I think we’ll just go with the writing style first because it’s very unique but also kind of perfect to convey this important story to the reader. We see everything from Jam’s perspective and this was done so well. I mean Jam is a black trans girl that doesn’t speak and uses sign language instead (I think this is called selective mutism) so the language she uses to describe things and feelings is very different to those of other people. I really liked this about the book and it gave me a lot of “A Monster Calls” vibes.

”That was something she’d taught Jam – that a lot of things were manageable as long as they were honest. You could see things clearly if they were honest; you could decide what to do next, because you knew exactly what you were dealing with.”

Just like in “A Monster Calls” we have a very serious topic that is hard to put into proper words. It’s a tough one to understand for kids and I really liked that the monster helped Jam and Redemption to approach the topic. I think in some way the message is easier to convey if you have the help of a monster to do it, because after all you expect monsters to know about monstrous things, right?! What I really liked about the book is how it shows that even in a seemingly perfect world there can still be monsters. And if you don’t call them out and allow yourself to be lulled into a false sense of security you give them the power to do whatever they want to without them ever facing the consequences. After all there are no monsters in Lucille, at least not as long as you overlook their dark deeds and neither confront yourself or them with the truth.

”It was no small thing to try to restructure a society, to find the pus boiling away under the scabs, to peel back the hardened flesh to let it out. Jam had heard stories of how horrifying it had been to see the truth of how many monsters there were in Lucille – the public ones, the private ones, the chameleons, the freestyle solitary ones, the charismatic smiling ones.”

So the monsters in Lucille were seemingly normal people that did horrible things and the angels were also just normal people that rooted out those monsters. Alone this concept was already very intriguing because the so called “monsters” were actually human beings and didn’t look any different than everyone else. I felt really sorry for Jam and Redemption because they were the only ones that saw the monster for what it was and because the adults refused to believe in monsters this made it even harder for them to reveal the truth. They were both hurting so much and I wish I could have taken that pain away from them.

”She didn’t like keeping a secret from Redemption, but it wasn’t time to tell him about Pet, not yet. Not that telling would even work – you had to see Pet to accept that it was real in this world; the telling would never be enough. Words are never enough for a lot of things.”

I could understand why Jam felt so conflicted about telling Redemption because telling him would have made it real and who wants things like that to be real? But then again if no one found out about the truth others might have gotten hurt as well so yes it was horrible and exceptionally painful to reveal the monster, but it was necessary as well. To close your eyes to reality never helped anyone and it’s exactly this kind of lesson our two MCs had to learn. >_<

“You want many things, you are full of want, carved out of it, made from it, yes. But the truth does not care about what you want; the truth is what it is. It is not moved by want, it is not a blade of grass to be bent by the wind of your hopes and desires.”

Serious topics aside, another thing I really loved about the book was the diversity and the amazing representation. I mean everything in here was so natural and casual. When Bitter and Aloe found out that Jam was a girl and not a boy, they just took it in stride and made sure that she got all the help she needed in order to transition into a girl. And this was super wholesome and extremely amazing to read about! I wish every parent of a trans kid would react like that. Plus can we acknowledge the awesome and effortless polyamorous relationship between Redemptions parents?

„His mother, Malachite, was punching down bread dough in a large ceramic bowl, the sleeves of her linen shirt rolled up to her elbows, her mouth open in a laugh and her eyes crinkled. His father, Beloved, was sitting on a stool across from her, sketching her face while the recipient of her smile, Redemption’s third parent, Whisper, juggled three oranges and a grapefruit, their eyes focused on the fruit, tongue sticking out in concentration.“

Not to mention the fact that Whisper, the third parent, went with they/them pronouns and it was the most natural thing ever! I loved that so much! <333 Plus Whisper was continuously non-binary. We never got any hint about their original gender and that was so damn wholesome. I mean there are so many books in which the original gender (or the body parts) of non-binary characters are revealed but I really loved the fact that it wasn’t done in here. Whisper was non-binary and that was it! Just amazing! ❤

”Everyone, everything deserved some time to be. To figure out what they were. Even a painting.“

All told I really enjoyed “Pet” and I was totally absorbed by the story. I constantly wanted to know how it would continue and this even though I knew the ending would hurt. (And it DID hurt, boy did it hurt…) A very important book that didn’t only tackle serious topics, but also confronts the reader and forces her/him/them to make the right choice even though it is difficult. Highly recommended if you already read “A Monster Calls” and survived the heartbreak.