Welcome to October’s Tops & Bottoms. This came about after realizing that I was getting overwhelmed with the number of books I was reading in a month, but still wanted to do some type of wrap up. I then decided to follow in Lianne (Literary Diversions) footsteps and talk about my two top and two bottom books of the month. This way I can talk about books that I really want to focus on and spread the word about. Every now and then I might put in an honourable mention, but other than that a lot more manageable!
October was an interesting month – apparently I decided to forego entering my books into my tracker – only Goodreads – so half my stats are non-existent – hence the barebones of it all. But I didn’t want to skip another month. I have some great books I want to talk about.
Stats
Total Books Read: 19
Genres Read Most: Fantasy (8), Graphic Novels (6), Horror (2), Thriller (2), Classic (1)
Average Page Length: 183.9/day
Total Pages: 5,701
Average Star Rating: 3.61
Star Break Down
5⭐ – 3
4⭐ – 5
3.5⭐ – 8
3⭐ – 3
2⭐ – 1
Age Category
Adult – 7
Young Adult – 8
Middle Grade- 4
Books
Let’s start with our Tops – both were read at the beginning of the mont.
Tops
The Keeper of Night (The Keeper of Night #1) by Kylie Lee Baker
I absolutely loved this. It was a dark book, but given the main character is a Reaper/Shinigami it seemed fitting.
I gave it 5⭐ and you can read my full review here.
Goals Met:
✔ ARC
✔ Physically Own
✔ Diverse Reading (Asian rep)
White Smoke by Tiffany D Jackson
This was exactly the type of horror I was looking for last month! Extra creepy, extra spooky! I can 100% say that Tiffany D Jackson is a favourite author of mine now.
I gave it 5⭐ and you can read my full review here.
Goals Met:
✔ ARC
✔ Diverse Reading (Black rep)
Honourable Mention: A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L Armentrout. This was my only other 5 star read. Nothing much to say about this one that the hype around it likely hasn’t already been said. I love how JLA write her stories and smut – just an enjoyable fast read inside a world I already love.
Bottoms
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
This one I read only because it fit a prompt – book older than me. I admit to being semi-curious but that was only because a thriller that I really enjoyed was supposedly inspired by this – and after reading this I can see the heavy influence. But how can I love the thriller but not the original? I guess I just found this one didn’t have the atmosphere or the characters – basically, I thought the other thriller did it better.
This was a 2⭐.
Goals Met:
None
The Fever by Megan Abbott
Although I found this to be an interesting idea, I found myself being rather bored during it. I was able to predict a lot of the twists, and that was without a lot of imagination. The twists were basic and could be seen relatively early into the introduction of the twist. I also warn that you may not enjoy reading this if you are currently finding the spread of viruses triggering.
I gave it 3⭐ basic, average – really probably more likely a 2.5⭐, but I’ll stick with my original rating.
Goals Met:
✔ Physically Owned
✔ Backlist
✔ Last Chance Book
How was your reading month?
Nine Bookish Lives 
