April Reviews

Spent a lot of time traveling this month, which left very little time for reading, whoops.

Let's get to it!

None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive by Carolyn Prusa

I got this book at the big library book sale thinking it sounded like a funny chaotic read.

Ramona's life is a disaster-- she just got her husband cheating, her two kids are out of control, she hates her job, and to top it all off there's a hurricane and an evacuation order bringing everything down around them. Ramona has to keep it all together long enough to get through this storm, or risk absolutely everything falling apart.

Honestly, the main feeling I got from reading this book was stressed the fuck out. It's funny in places-- a real motley crew and comedy of errors moments-- but they're all built around the genuine pillars of stressed out and hating her life of Ramona. And all that really did was truly validate me for my decision not to have children.

The whole book is named for Prince dying, but he doesn't really seem to show up in any capacity until a decent chunk into the book, and while some of the flashbacks provided interesting commentary on Ramona's present relationships through the lens of where she was, ultimately this Ramona character study is not an good enough driving source for me to really enjoy the book.

Moms looking at their lives with kids and resentful of their husband's unhelpfulness would probably love this story, but seeing as I am none of those things and desperately wishing Ramona would just communicate any of her feelings to literally anyone the entire time, I was not the target audience for this book.

It was fine, just not really for me.

Tuesday Mooney Talks To Ghosts by Kate Racculia

This was a weird book-- I also got this one at the library sale, at the recommendation of a stranger standing in the mystery section, and that really fits the bill for this book.

Tuesday Mooney hasn't gotten close to anyone since her best friend disappeared more than a decade ago. But when she witnesses an eccentric billionaire die at a fundraising event, she's sucked into the game he left behind-- solve the clues to find his fortune. With the help of a handsome rich man, her neighbor kid, her best friend, and the eccentric billionaires widow, Tuesday will attempt to play the game-- and solve more than one mystery along the way.

The mystery of this book was fun-- the game and the clues and the wild chase was awesome. And Tuesday herself is an interesting character-- all of them all, from Archie to Dex to Dorry. There were places where the story felt a little bogged down by all their personal clashes or interactions (that many POV's can be a lot), so that slowed my reading in some places, but for the most part I had a lot of fun with this book.

The writing style is wordy, but it works for the genre and characters, and I think the reveals were all well timed to carry maximum effect for the story.

Overall, if you like books about characters who solve puzzles or general ghostly mysteries, this is a pretty fun read.

The Bright Side Running Club by Josie Lloyd

Another library buy, this seemed like a charming book that might make me cry.

Keira has the perfect life-- loving family, great friends, a job she loves. Then she finds out she has breast cancer, and it feels like her whole world is falling apart-- her husband is distant, her friends don't understand, her job is pushing her away. It's not until she runs (literally) into other ladies going through cancer treatment that she finds the support she needs-- and the motivation to keep fighting for herself.

I liked a good chunk of what this book did. Keira grows a lot from the judgmental person she starts the book as, and learns to take charge and own up to her mistakes with the help of her friends. I will admit though, I liked all of Keira's friends more than I liked her. I get it, she's going through a really truly terrible thing and her coworkers are gaslighting her and her husband isn't really helping with the kids and it's all a huge mess-- but she gets so bogged down by the shit in her own head on top of that it's a wonder she gets anything done, especially because she never seems to talk about anything until it's almost or already too late.

I did appreciate the friendships of this book-- the heart of this story is women supporting each other and reminding one another they are not alone.

The writing style was fine, I skimmed a bit sometimes when it felt like Keira was spending too much time thinking about the same things for too long. The ending was the most interesting, and I genuinely felt a lot of Keira's overwhelm at certain points.

Overall this didn't make me cry, and I'm probably the wrong demographic to feel really really moved by it, but it was a decent read.

Kind of a disappointing month for books, but next month is Star Wars themed, so here's hoping I have time to read the Star Wars books I have.

Literary recommendation: literally anything by Olivie Blake, please go read her whole list of works

Media recommendation: I finally found the time to watch Skeleton Crew on Disney+, and it's so cute omg