Book Review: Kissing the Coronavirus

I will start this review by saying that I’m not trying to bash the author at all, I understand that this book was written at the start of the pandemic and is not meant to be taken that seriously.

That being said…this book doesn’t need to exist.

It’s a romance romp under 20 pages and features the weird grotesque humanisation of the COVID-19 virus as some hot green guy but tbh I just pictured Shrek because he’s the first green person that came to mind and I couldn’t get him out of my head.

The idea of the book as a mockery of the pandemic when people had just started working from home and practicing social distancing, I felt, was demeaning to the fears and experiences of people in the countries first hit by the virus. At the time of publishing, there had been at least 4600 reported deaths related to COVID-19 in Wuhan.

I read this book in 2020 after seeing it everywhere and then seeing that it was available to read for free as part of KindleUnlimited so I wouldn’t be spending money on it (I’ve got no clue how KindleUnlimited works tbh). There is now a sequel and an alarming amount of books cashing in on this trend and exploring kinks I didn’t want to see on my Amazon search history. Chuck Tingle, a well known absurdist-kinda erotic writer, has said he would not write about Coronavirus because of the real life harm caused by the illness BUT he has written 3 books about mask wearing, coughing and social distancing.

Ok so now onto the book!

Do you ever read something and want to bleach your brain after because you feel so unclean? That’s what I felt here. And I’ve read fanfiction. So much fanfiction.

Dr Alexa Ashington is on a team of two people (?) working on investigating the coronavirus and how it can be stopped. Unfortunately, she appears to have no work ethic and cannot focus on work as she’s so aroused all the time! The total devastation caused by the virus all around the world has caused her to start…admiring (?) the virus for its power (???)…so much so that she improperly uses a test tube (girl doesn’t measure anything so good luck writing up that lab report) and tries to insert it into herself.

I’m not going to explain the whole thing because the book is 16 pages but bish bash bish the coronavirus sample magically becomes human and as all people do when locked in a room with a humanoid-virus, she decides the best plan of action is to bone down with the killer of thousands worldwide.

I’m honestly upset that I retained any information about this book to be honest.

On one hand, the author had lost their job at the start of the pandemic. On the other hand, it’s not a joking matter.

Overall, just because people talk about a book a lot, you don’t have to read it. In some cases, it’s best for your sanity if you leave it alone.

Down The TBR Hole (Again)

I last posted one of these near the end of 2019 and I just looked at it and…I have not thought about a single one of those books. It is 2021 now and I do not want to lie to myself anymore so I will be restarting this tag/trend again and reducing my Goodreads TBR shelf to a pile of dust because if I haven’t read it since my previous post AND I haven’t thought of it? Not worth the digital space it’s taking up, be GONE!

Down The TBR Hole is a blog tag made by Lost In A Story and has some rules!

The Rules: • Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf. • Order on ascending date added. • Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books • Read the synopses of the books • Decide: keep it or should it go? • Keep track of where you left off so you can pick up there next week!

Book 1: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

Added: 17th March 2014

Decision: Delete! I haven’t read it, nor have I been inclined to do this one is for deletion and donation.

Book 2: Farenheight 451 by Ray Bradbury

Added: 9th April 2014

Decision: Keep! Still because it’s my mother’s favourite and I have it on kindle so it takes up no physical space!

Book 3: Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris

Added: 9th April 2014

Decision: Delete! I actually already donated my copy of this last year so this was an easy decision.

Book 4: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Added: 12th April 2014

Decision: Delete! I tried reading Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Capote and I know that fiction and nonfiction are different and that In Cold Blood can be considered a blueprint of modern true crime nonfiction…but I didn’t like his writing at all and it was not very nice to read either. I know Holly isn’t exactly the best and most flawless character but I forgot the era in which it was written and so was not expecting slurs in my reading that day (should I have guessed it from the uncomfortable and overtly racist Mickey Rooney performance? Probably).

Book 5: The Valkyries by Paolo Coehlo

Added: 27th April 2014

Decision: Delete! This is another that I donated last year so this was easy peasy!

You can find me on Instagram @bukisibecca and in Goodreads @beccaggray if you want to befriend me and see my photos of the books I talk about here 🙂

Book Review: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

This book. THIS book.

I think this is my favourite book of the year or at least a top contender (we do have 6 months of 2019 left). It’s such a nice, easy, fun read and so cute! So much tension. Give me your cute fluffy angsty romance book recommendations because I’m a convert now!

I finally got this book from BookDepository after Amazon kindly informed me that my preorder would be arriving at some point between 18th July and 6th September…yeah so I’m not preordering on Amazon again. I opened it that night and purposely left it at home with less than 100 pages to go a few hours later. It was a joy to read! Just in time for Pride month too!

Red, White & Royal Blue is a New Adult romance focusing on Alexander Claremont-Diaz, the First Son of the USA, and his enemies to friends to lovers relationship with Henry, the Prince of Wales. It also deals with a lot of sexuality based angst and discovery, multiracial families, biracial identities, divorce and mourning. There’s a lot happening in this book but it’s balanced and realistic because all of that happens in real life, it’s rare (in my experience) that one thing happens at a time and now you’re focused on grief but later you’ll be focused on your sexuality. No, life happens all at once.

It’s heartwarming with lots of humour along the way – ‘I don’t know who you think you’re kidding you hufflepuff-ass bitch’ is one of the most quoted lines already on Twitter. The rights for a movie have already been bought and I think there’s an opportunity there for an amazing film! Hopefully a bit like TATBILB in its rewatchability!

There’s much more to say about this book and I probably will at some point but really, I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting a nice, slightly angsty, funny read!

Tw: homophobia, outing

Book Review: Bridal Boot Camp by Meg Cabot

This is a novella by Meg Cabot which is part of the Little Bridge Island series which is coming out later this year (the first book, No Judgements, comes out in September). I was used to my teenage Meg Cabot reading and this book was…much saucier than The Princess Diaries…though much more tame than a lot of romance writing but I’m not I haven’t ventured much into that genre (yet).

This story follows Rob, a yoga instructor in charge of the Bridal Boot Camp fitness class at the gym in her very small town. A new face appears in her class and it turns out that he’s a very eligible Sherriff’s Deputy that is very interested in this leading lady. She is persuaded to go to a local bar that hosts a weekly music class run by this handsome new yoga student and *sparks fly*.

This was a very cute but very short story. I’d be interested to see how these characters fit into the main series as the main character from that, Bree, makes a brief appearance in this.

A short review for a short book! I really did enjoy this so I’m excited for the release of Cabot’s new series later this year!

May Reading Wrap Up! This

May was a really good reading month for me, I was mostly happy with the books that I read and managed to get through a fair few of them too.

1. Penhallow by Georgette Heyer

I have previously discussed my love of Pride and Prejudice on this blog and many people have recommended Georgette Heyer’s books to me as the Regency setting is quite similar and involves a lot of society-type things and I can get really into who is related to who and what title is where and I love it. Penhallow is about a grumpy old man who is horrible and everyone hates him then oh my word he ends up dead and oh my goodness it was a murder. Gotta solve it. It was quite good so I’ll likely pick up another of Heyer’s books, she wrote quite a lot so there’s a lot of choice!

2. Cut To The Bone by Alex Caan

A whodunnit for the modern Youtube era. Very well done and I really enjoyed it, my friend has recommended the second book in this series as the detective characters develop quite nicely there so I’ll be reading that soon(ish). I also did a full review if you want to find out more you can read it here.

3. How To Come Alive by Beth McColl

I’m realising now that this month was when I started doing a lot of individual reviews so I’ve sort of run out of things to write in a Wrap Up…EXCEPT THAT THIS BOOK IS BRILLIANT. Truly a wonderful book that I’d recommend to anyone struggling to manage with mental health issues as she gives no nonsense advice on the realities of life carrying on while you’re in a fog of depression and also has guidance and templates for speaking to GPs, managers and friends. Full review is here.

4. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Blasphemy maybe, but I wasn’t blown away by this book. Yes, it was lovely to read. I much prefer Circe or The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker. Full review here.

5. The Vegetarian by Han Kang

I’ll link my review here but I’ll also tell you now, I didn’t like this book.

6. The Man in the Next Bed by David K Shipley

Ok but a short story so lacks the opportunity to be more interesting, quite surface level and a bit boring. Full review here.

7. The Doctor by Lisa Stone

A bonkers crime thriller, twists and turns and a lot of WTF? This book was an ARC so a full review will be posted nearer publication 25th July 2019.

8. Frat Girl by Kiley Roache

I had fun reading this and couldn’t put it down! A girl is granted a scholarship based on a research project she’ll complete by joining a fraternity accused of misogynistic behaviour and exposing the Greek system but she makes some friends and it’s such a cute story with a nice feminist message along with a heavy dose of girl hate (sounds weird but you’ll see what I mean).

9. A Serial Killer’s Daughter by Kerri Rawson

Mixed emotions about this one. I admire the strength it took to write such a difficult book about a loved one but it wasn’t a very enjoyable or interesting read. A true crime memoir from the point of view of BTK’s daughter, this was an odd read.

10. The Killing Lessons by Saul Black

This is a thriller splitting perspectives between two serial killers/rapists, a ten year old girl that escaped them during a home invasion and the police detective after these men. This was interesting but at some point I got lost with the story and it just wasn’t holding my attention, the depiction of sexual violence was just too much and unnecessary in my opinion and you can definitely tell it was written by a man (Bret Easton Ellis vibes during those parts). I don’t think I’m particularly bothered about picking up the next book in this series, only to find out what happens with the lead detective and the other woman that hacked her medical files and somehow that was just glossed over like that’s not illegal???

11. Develop Your Assertiveness by Sue Bishop

I just had my appraisal last week and one of my development objectives is to be pushier. Hopefully these lessons will rub off on me and I’ll be pushy as anything and not apologise for everything ten times over.

And that’s it for May! Quite a good month for me (reading-wise), how did you get on this month?

You can find my social media @beccaggray on Twitter and Instagram, I also have my bookstagram @booksforbecca if you want to see any of my bookish posts. Thank you for reading!!

Book Review: Frat Girl by Kiley Roache (ARC)

Summary: Cassandra Davis goes undercover in a fraternity in order to expose the chauvinistic organisation for what it is, and to get a scholarship along the way.

“I need to be like one of the guys, but with boobs.“

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this book! I’ve seen mixed reviews on Goodreads but knew right from the first chapter that I would enjoy it, the tone is fast paced and engaging, the main character is interesting and doesn’t rely on the ‘plain Jane’ trope that I worried might crop up.

Cassie is very quickly set up to be an intelligent, gender studies focused young woman with aspirations not to be a housewife like her unhappy mother. Her father is also portrayed as a misogynistic frat alumnus so you can see where her view of fraternity life has come from.

Her relationship with the fraternity brothers is also really interesting. Many conversations seem to be going well until they slip back into the ‘bro’ personas that she expects of them. There’s a really good scene about halfway through when Connor, a boy that Cassie has been seeing, kicks her out at 4am when she refuses to sleep with him. After not being able to get in touch with her best friend to come walk her home, she reaches out to one of her brothers. IT’S SUCH A NICE SCENE! Her brothers stick up for her and get to wreck a rival frat house in the process!

Another big part of the book is her relationship with Jordan, another DTC pledge who she likes as a friend and then more. This develops really nicely and isn’t an ‘insta-love’ as I thought it might be when his character was introduced. Yes, you know it’ll happen but it’s still fun and cute to read when it does. Cassie’s relationships with women are a bit trickier. They’re very quick to cut her off or dismiss her, even blaming her for reacting as any person might do when she says she doesn’t want to go home again after her father has ignored her for weeks then called her a ‘cheap hooker’.

Overall, I’d really recommend this book to anyone wanting a fun, somewhat fluffy YA novel with a message. It’s really easy to get into the story and get attached to the characters. If you like She’s The Man, this is a book for you!

I received a copy of this review from the publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you HQ, HarperCollins.

Warnings: mentions of rape, sexual assault, violence.

You can find my social media @beccaggray on Twitter and Instagram, I also have my bookstagram @booksforbecca if you want to see any of my bookish posts. Thank you for reading!!

State of the ARC #1

I’ve got a backlog of ARC/review copies of books that I need to read and review so I’m going to start doing the State of the Arc tag from Avalinah’s Books (maybe not every month). I’m really grateful to receive these books from publishers and I know I need to be more on time with my reviewing so hopefully this will be a step towards that goal!

Current Titles:

Black Badge Volume 1 by Matt Kindt

A graphic novel about a top secret elite branch of the boy scouts required to go on government missions that adults could not fulfil.

The Doctor by Lisa Stone

A couple moves into a new house and befriend their neighbours and then the wife runs away with the doctor next door – OR DOES SHE?

Girls of Yellow by Orest Stelmach

Dystopia and murder and spies.

The Man in the Next Bed by David Shipler

A Vintage short book, a character study from a hospital bed.

Hazel & Holly by Sara C. Snider

I’ve only seen one review of this book and it wasn’t a particularly good one. This is a story about two sisters and a magical world with necromancy and gnomes and stuff.

Overdue:

Frat Girl by Kiley Roache

A young woman joins a frat in order to use a scholarship and prove that the fraternity isn’t sexist/chauvinistic while getting to know the boys. Is there a romance? We’ll see!

Little Liar by Julia Gray

A YA crime novel where the protagonist tells a lie and then things unravel.

The Last by Hanna Jameson

A murder mystery in a dystopian world setting. I need to read this!

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

A Chinese-inspired fantasy story with magic and murder, there was a lot of hype surrounding this book when it was released.

To Best The Boys by Mary Weber

A young girl enters a competition for boys to win a scholarship by entering Mr Holms’ deadly labyrinth.

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

A little girl comes back to life after drowning in the Thames and WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney

A fictional story based on the real life Bible John murders in Glasgow.

A Serial Killer’s Daughter by Kerri Rawson

A memoir from the daughter of real life serial killer BTK and what it was like to grow up with a father like that.

Ok so after writing them all out I realise that I’ve got A LOT of reading to do! I had better get on with it. Do you have any advice for keeping up to date with ARCs and reviews? If you do, please let me know!

You can find my social media @beccaggray on Twitter and Instagram, I also have my bookstagram @booksforbecca if you want to see any of my bookish posts. Thank you for reading!!

Book Review: The Vegetarian by Han Kang

I don’t like to write negative reviews on my blog, I know that I won’t like every book because people have different tastes, authors have different styles and a book that I don’t like will be someone’s favourite.

WTF is this book? This review will contain spoilers because really WTF is this book?

I got this on Kindle when Kang won the Man Booker International Prize for it in 2016 but only just read it this past weekend and I have to ask: WTF?

Sometimes, the writing style and words were poetic and nice to read which is the work of the author and the translator together. I admire the work that goes into translated fiction and wanted to read more this year (I’ve kind of failed with that so far in my reading this year). But what is the obsession with nipples in this book? Every few pages there’s a point where the protagonist just talks about his wife’s nipples for a bit. We get it. You want her to wear a bra. She doesn’t have to, no one has to, they’re annoying. Let her live her life without a bra oh my god you’re like a broken record.

Then there’s the surprise rape scene in the first part of the book. No reaction or repercussions from that. Ok. Cool. Then the father-daughter slap then attempted force feeding scene which ends with an attempted suicide? What. Also there’s depictions of animal abuse and mutilation. Great.

The second part is a bit better. Male characters still struggle with the idea that a woman’s body is a body rather than an object for their enjoyment. But Yeong-hye actually seems to be better after her divorce and is still comfortable in her body despite her brother-in-law now being the one obsessing over her boobs and forcing her into sexual situations.

The third part is the only one that I kind of liked. It focuses on Yeong-hye and her sister In-hye while Yeong-hye is in a hospital to be treated for her anorexia and schizophrenia. Only because it is centred on the relationship between the sisters, rather than the men of the family who are just irritating and bad. I can’t say I’d recommend this book to anyone because I just didn’t enjoy it, I finished it because it was short and I thought I might as well carry on to see if I started to like it. I didn’t.

Trigger/content warnings for: anorexia, eating disorders, mental illness, schizophrenia, rape, sexual abuse, child abuse, animal abuse, blood, gore, suicide.

You can find my social media @beccaggray on Twitter and Instagram, I also have my bookstagram @booksforbecca if you want to see any of my bookish posts. Thank you for reading!!

Book review: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Song of Achilles is a retelling of Achilles and Patroclus’ story and the battle of Troy from the perspective of Patroclus. Somewhere between YA and general fiction, Miller’s writing is engaging and brings Homer’s story to life for a new audience. I sat through torturous hours in class reading The Odyssey, The Iliad and The Aeneid paragraph by paragraph with the whole class and that isn’t the way these stories are meant to be enjoyed.

Miller’s retelling is far more enjoyable than that experience but truer to the mythos than the Percy Jackson series. Her portrayal of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is everything that historians and classicists have tried to take away from mythology – ya bois are in love and it’s cute.

I also wasn’t expecting (for some reason) to see Briseis presented here as nicely as she was. I read The Silence of the Girls earlier this year and in that she was the main character, bed-slave to Achilles which she is not in this novel. I also forgot about Phyrrus, a really annoying character in the original text and this one, just a really snotty twelve year old who goes to fight in the Trojan way (as you do) and is terribly rude and oh yeah loves literally stabbing people in the back. What’s the deal with that? Stop it.

I do have to say, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. Maybe because of how much I enjoyed Circe and The Silence of the Girls but I also think this book has been overhyped for me. I gave it 4 stars because the story is enjoyable but then again, I enjoy the myths. Sorry that this isn’t a more in depth review but the most fun I had while reading this was saying everything that Odysseus said in a Sean Bean voice.

April Reading Wrap Up!

April wasn’t a huge reading month for me, I did manage to read 5 books which is quite good especially since I wasn’t relying on audiobooks which I tend to do when I’m busy. I’ve been listening to more podcasts at work so that’s part of the reason!

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

I enjoyed this book and felt that it was better than the first book since that took a lot of time focusing on world building and there wasn’t much focus on the evil stepmother character that I hated so much in The Bear and the Nightingale. I did find it quite difficult to keep track of who was who and connected to him or her and what’s going on. That’s a problem I have with fantasy novels and series like this but my friend had a similar problem (but she was able to pin it down in the end and keep track of them). I don’t know if I’ll be continuing with the series though, my friend really enjoyed the third and final book in the series and said it was worth it so I might give it a go at some point soon!

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli

This was an audiobook read while I was at work. As soon as it started with Ada Lovelace, I knew this was a book after my own heart! I think this is a very cute book with little snippets of history for young readers, it would make a nice gift as well for people with young children. Little bite sized pieces of feminist history and culture for the young uns!

I’ll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara

I originally started this in February but to be honest…it’s depressing! The Golden State Killer’s crime spree is depressing to read about because it was horrible and when the edition of the book that I read was published, he still hadn’t been caught. The knowledge that he had been arrested made the book slightly easier to read but he has gone unpunished for so long, many of those families destroyed by what he did and he won’t face half the justice that he deserves.

I will say that it is very obvious in this book how much Michelle McNamara cared about providing the victims and their families with the justice that they had been denied for years. Her writing and her dedication is very admirable and the final part of the book is a sort of memorial to her work from her family.

A Manual For Heartache by Cathy Rentzenbrink

What’s the best thing to read about a nonfiction book about murder? A nonfiction book about bereavement after the death of a loved one.

This was a beautiful book about carrying on with life after the passing of a loved one. Though the writer is speaking about the sudden accidental death of her brother as a teenager, I found it easy to relate her experiences to my own when I’ve grieved the loss of my grandparents. They died 3 and 6 years ago respectively and every October I am a complete mess who considers it a win if I even go outside. Sometimes it is good to be sad and sometimes it is good to be happy, they have gone but they still existed and you don’t have to pretend that you don’t miss them in order to be ok.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Holy mother of god please go read this book. Stop what you’re doing and read it. Wait. Follow my blog then go read it because I just gave you an A+ recommendation right there!

Here is my full review of the book, I loved it so much!

Have you read any of these? I know that Daisy Jones has been a big busy book lately and has been all over the blogs lately so I’m not surprised I loved it 🙂

You can find my social media @beccaggray on Twitter and Instagram, I also have my bookstagram @bookstagrambecca if you want to see any of my bookish posts. Thank you for reading!!