2024-06-07
Scott, host of YouTube channel, "Gunpowder, Fiction & Plot" hosted a "Misery May Readathon" this year. I stumbled upon it by pure chance and committed immediately. Miserable reads are my favourite kind of reads. Within the main theme of reading miserable books, there were nine bonus categories.
I don't really see how this one fit but Scott himself suggested Crime and Punishment for this category. His reasoning was, "there is a, horrbile scene with a horse in it." It happens in just one chapter. Which counts, I guess? I'm glad we're playing loose with the rules. I really enjoyed Crime and Punishment and I think it's going down as one of my favourite pieces of literature.
I was going to read Our Bodies, Their Battlefields by Christina Lamb. I had it downloaded to my Kindle and everything. But I had no time to read it, alas. But this is put on the "to read" list.
I had high hopes for this book. But I really disliked it. I don't require main characters to be likable. In fact, one observation I made while reading Crime and Punishment was that I thought Raskolnikov was utterly despicable. Despite that, I couldn't help but root for him. Not so for the main character of this book. I think the main thing that turned me off is that they were just plain mean. Raskolnikov was pathetic, cowardly, and, yes, mean at times. But his meanness towards certain people felt justified considering his character. In My Year of Rest and Relaxation, the main character was mean for really superficial reasons. I couldn't understand it. Maybe that was the book's main flaw: I couldn't understand the main character on an emotional level.
I count manga as books so I'm counting this towards the readathon. This was a really miserable read. It was like a pit of despair. But such a page turner. I finished it almost in one sitting. I also read this near the end of the month so it was a good lead up to Pride month.
This is a masterpiece. Truly an epic novel. War is not the main theme of this book but there are several chunks of the novel that touches upon it. What this book is instead, is a wonderful survey of the history of a fictionalized town. 100 years of ups and downs and, yes, misery
I planned to read "A Brief History of Seven Killings" by Marlon James for this category but I just couldn't get into it. Scott seemed to add the category for diversity but I already read quite a bit of immigrant lit. Or maybe I'm just tired of immigrant lit.
This was really miserable at points. But the characters were all so warm that it made the misery tolerable. I really enjoyed this one.
This is a short story but still a "read" in my books. I don't read a lot of horror but this is my kind of horror. Powerfully feminist. It's a quick read and I definitely recommend it.
This was my favourite read this month. It was truly a very miserable read and I was glued from front to back. Not going to lie, after I finished reading it, I felt a little empty inside. On one hand, it felt like a journey left unfinished. On the other hand, I just wanted it to keep going on forever. But it was a good place to end it. I really just wanted more time with Maggie.
Self explanatory, considering what I've written above. I'm really grateful for this readathon getting me to read Bodies of Light, as I would not have read it otherwise. It also bumped a few books (One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Yellow Wallpaper, and My Year of Rest and Relaxation) up my "to read" list. Felt nice to finally cross those off!