Welcome to Litsy!

"The restaurant was big and noisy and crowded and terrifically bright. It felt like entering a fever."

"It was a terrible pressure, motherhood. It had a way of fucking with your options. Life before a child was all miscellany, and in that miscellany, a woman could off herself. Now, there was no way."

"Beautiful voice. The kind that could be on the radio in the middle of the night listing off plant varieties, cloud formations."

Part 1 of my June reads. I am trying to get back on track with my goodreads goal. So 13 books this month should hopefully get me a little closer. Out of this batch the tagged book was my favourite.

This book! First, it‘s so fucking weird. But the payoff at the end is so good and it wraps up so well while still not feeling forced. It‘s a fever dream and I really enjoyed it and am glad I took my time with it.

Requested this from #Netgalley as I'd thought it was by the author who wrote Star Wars: Bloodlines. It's not. It was a weird read that never quite gelled for me. The dog's POV was so self-consciously kooky it was almost funny. It's not that it's bad, it's just ... not great either. Frustratingly, I can't entirely put my finger on why. Plot wasn't particularly compelling, mother character type is becoming an overdone cliche, ending was annoying.

Oh my goddess I have had enough of sickness bugs! My daughter has just got over her third one since she started EYFS last September. That's more than I've had in my entire life! So my reading time has been severely impacted. Started this one but haven't really got stuck into it yet. Hoping for a few quiet hours of quality book time tonight. With thanks to #netgalley for this book.

Teens and their parents who live in an insular, close-knit northern territory keep falling in love and getting their hearts broken, while readers fall in love with Dey‘s stark, heartbreaking words and imagery.

Read April 26 - May 2
Book 24/55

Bit off more than I could chew with my library holds. I‘m going on vacation for a week and had to return 4 books unfinished with due dates while I‘m away. Haven‘t done that in awhile. Back in the queue I go.

I‘m only 10 pages in and I‘m already hooked. How many books do you have on the go at once? I think I have 4 or 5 right now.

She was an obsessive reader. She would sit straight-spined on the couch and move only to empty her ashtray or to get a new book. The conversation she wanted was the one in her brain.

#currentread

A strange, ambitious book that partly succeeds in what it sets out to do, though not entirely. 15-year-old Pony‘s mother disappears from their isolated cult-like community. The book is split into 3 sections, each with its own narrator: Pony, the family dog, + a teen boy named Supernatural. There are secrets + mysteries that slowly unravel, with Pony‘s family at the center. I appreciated this book as a whole a lot more than I enjoyed reading it.

Welp, this was definitely not the book for me. Dey pulls out her best Cormac McCarthy impression in a book about a family living in an isolated cult. I understand what the book was doing, I just didn‘t want it. The book has three main parts following a teenage girl, a dog, and a young man. The book attempts unique prose but you‘ve seen this style before. The timelines can be hard to follow. Overall, a complete disappointment.

Welp, this is not shaping up to be what you‘d call a good book. I‘m 68 pages in and the sentence structure is rather annoying. There are a lot of short broken sentences. It reminds me of a Cormac McCarthy novel but without the proper cadence. We‘ll see in the end but I‘m losing hope. #readathon #spookathon

This will be a frustrating read for many. The story is told 3 ways. First up is 15yo Pony Darlene, a strange girl trying to find herself. Next, is the POV of her mother‘s dog, which I thought would be worse than Pony‘s disjointed thoughts but was more articulate & thankfully addressed Pony‘s mother‘s past & present. Third was from a young boy‘s POV, Supernatural— the guy all the girls crush on & the son of the one truck dealer in the territory. 💔

So hard to rate this one. The plot, the setting, the characters - all great! The style really grated on my nerves, though. Way too much with the very disjointed streams of consciousness. Many times I slammed the book shut because I wanted to scream, "get on with the story, already!"

Too irritated to give it a Pick but I recommend it anyway.

Won this from a #goodreads giveaway, so, that was nice ?

"My mother came to this place as a stranger. Now I feared she was retracing her steps out. Returning to a world she had refused to describe to me." Happy publication day! Claudia Dey will be at #emwf18 to read from her captivating and luminous new novel, Heartbreaker. bit.ly/2N2ZD5l #canlit #publicationday #releaseday

I was hoping to finish this before it releases on Tuesday but it's slow going. It's weirder than I thought with less of the cool elements touted in the blurb and an odd writing style.

I think this is only my second book of 2018 that I‘m bailing on, but the fragmented writing style and scattered narrative is more frustrating than fun- despite the cult premise and the 80s references, I couldn‘t find anything redeeming for me to continue on past my 50 page mark... on an unrelated note, since leaving #Chicago- a piece of it is always in our family room! #AugustIsATrip @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @vkois88

The author of Heartbreaker commented on my review and I‘m fangirling so hard🙈😍

This is a bizarre little book, that focuses on the disappearance of Billie Jean Fontaine and is told from three perspectives: the girl, the dog, and the boy.

I was absolutely fascinated and captivated by the territory – which is the name of the area that this cult-like group of people inhabit. They have their own customs and rituals that I found so intriguing.

This book won‘t be for everyone, but I enjoyed it! #netgalley #emwf18 #24in48

I slept in a bit longer than I meant to, but that‘s okay! Coffee is brewed and I‘m ready to jump back into #24in48. It‘s raining here today, which is perfect for curling up on the couch to read!

After a long hard day of reading, it‘s time to get in the tub, and read! 😂 I‘m 7 hours into my readathon, and feeling pretty good!#24in48

#Hour18 for #24in48! I only keep my current read on my nightstand (and only when I'm sleeping - when I'm awake, it's with me wherever I go)! I‘m reading the tagged book on my Kobo at the moment, but I hope to be able to finish it before I go to bed tonight! The little whale is my jewelry holder 🐳💍 @24in48

I really feel like I'm going to bail from this book. It's just too weird. I thought it was a cool weird at first...but now I'm just getting aggravated. Ugh... I'm not a quiter...but seriously.

Hooray! So excited to have been approved for this ARC! 💔💔💔 #NetGalley

If My So-Called Life had taken place in a cult-like compound in the wilderness in the mid-1980's and had been directed by M. Night Shymalan you'd get this book. Maybe.
This book seriously defies a genre label with a sci-fi-ish drama/mystery/dystopia vibe.
Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Finishing this #arc this morning 📖