April Reading Wrap Up
And the one book that left me gobsmacked...
I finished 2 books this month and one of them I haven’t stopped thinking about since. Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson is one of those books that will stick with me for quite some time. It’s the second book of Tiffany D. Jackson’s that I’ve read and she’s quickly becoming one of my favorite writers.
Monday’s Not Coming is a YA (young adult) missing persons psychological thriller. Claudia Coleman lives in Washington D.C. as an only child with her mom and dad. She also has a best friend named Monday and they are completely inseparable. That is, until Claudia comes back from a month at her grandmas house during the summer with Monday nowhere to be found. And nobody seems to care. Monday wouldn’t just disappear and leave her to fend for herself and figure out school, boys, friends, life without her…would she?
And what unfolds is something I could’ve never expected and that you have to experience for yourself. The twist was something that left me gobsmacked, mouth ajar, standing in the middle of the kitchen as I listened to the narrator tell me what was really happening.
This is one of those books where you just can’t really speak for a few minutes after reading it. And every so often, for one reason or another, you just keep thinking about the book. About the characters. About the emotions.
And then! To know that it was based off true events?!
I think this is one of the best books I’ve ever read and one of the most emotional books I’ve ever read. And for it all to be a psychological thriller tells you the type of emotional rollercoaster I’ve been on since finishing it.
This is why I DNF’d a lot of books when trying to find my next read after Monday’s Not Coming (MNC).
DNFY (Did Not Finish Yet)
So once I finished MNC, I was looking for my next read. At any given time, I’m usually reading 2-3 books at once. One is on my Kindle and the other is usually an audiobook. MNC was an audiobook read for me so I was looking for the next book to listen to while I was commuting to work, waiting in the school pick up line, etc.
I tried:
Look Closer by David Ellis - found myself drifting off in the middle of the narrator’s sentences
The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas - I love a YA thriller but I was just disinterested
The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica - as I sit here right now I don’t remember what that was even about so I must not have been hooked from the start
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke - I’m about to 1/4 of the way into this book. It’s interesting but also quite repetitive and I found myself stopping the book to do something else more often than not.
I even tried Freida McFadden, my usual slump cure. And I just didn't want to read it. That's when I knew the hangover was real.
Can you see how much of a book hangover I was in?
One note: I’m not against DNF’ing books at all! But all of these books I probably WILL finish at some point this year and so that’s why I’ve named this DNFY, because I realize they probably didn’t hit right simply because of my book hangover, not because I didn’t/wouldn’t actually enjoy them.
Finally, I found and enjoyed Creep by Jennifer Hillier on my Kindle. It’s been on my TBR for quite some time and while searching for my next unputdownable read - this one stuck. So, to keep up the reading momentum I decided that when I was in the car I’d do the audiobook version & pick up where I last left off on my Kindle when I was at home. I’ve never done this before and actually enjoyed the back & forth format of reading this particular book.
So, the two books I finished were Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson and Creep by Jennifer Hillier. So one devastating book, one on the edge of your seat book and a lot of DNFY hopefuls. All in all - it wasn’t that bad of a reading month. Not for a busy reader like me.
How was your reading in April? Did you have any DNFY hopefuls or did you find a 5-star read?
Looking forward to reading every reply.
Warmly,
Laura
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Book hangovers are real! Thanks for putting Monday's Not Coming on my radar. I'm totally out of the loop on anything YA, so I wouldn't have come across this otherwise.
Monday's Not Coming left me feeling the same way...needing what I refer to as a palate cleanser. Some time and space to just let it sit. I read it years ago, but reading your review brought the feeling all back. My go to palate cleanser is usually Nora Roberts. :-). Enjoyable, easy to follow, generally pretty light.