The Books I Read in October 2024
A few posts ago, I mentioned possibly bringing back my reading round-ups to Daisybutter and today I’m doing just that! While I’ve tried harder with my reviewing skills, I have absolutely not mastered the art of sharing them anywhere particularly consistently. Does anyone read them on my Goodreads profile? Will the Instagram algorithm ever favour a book review grid post? How do I squeeze it into my Substack rhythm?
October was a solid month for reading. Although I definitely read more misses than hits, I feel proud of myself for really stepping out of my comfort zone and reading a horror book, something a bit meatier by way of Enter Ghost, and delving into mystery-thriller again. Knowing what I like to read means I often ‘forget’ other genres even exist! Anyway, first a reminder of my personal star-rating system, then onto my October book reviews.
⭐️ Unreadable. Should have labelled ‘did not finish’.
⭐️ ⭐️ A mostly unenjoyable book with flaws and issues I couldn’t get past.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ The book was good and readable. Not a standout, but good nonetheless.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ A great read that I enjoyed and would recommend. Potentially one or two things not to my liking, but that didn’t detract from the overall effect or enjoyment of the book.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ An excellent, near-perfect read. Likely to make it to my all-time favourites, and a book I wholeheartedly recommend.
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai
Thank you to Mantle and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
No matter how often I say that I’m a bit fatigued by these cosy, slow, nostalgic novels full of short stories, somehow I return to them again and again.
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is the sequel to one such novel, where a father-daughter duo run a food detective service from their izakaya restaurant. Stay with me here. This book – and its prequel – isn’t a mystery novel at all, just a sweet meandering series centred around a lovely father-daughter duo. They take in clients and customers who are seeking out a specific dish, many of which have sentimental reasons and stories behind them, of course. While it’s nothing groundbreaking, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes features some delicious and more unusual Japanese dishes, and even more beautiful depictions of those than in its predecessor. I wouldn’t be surprised if this series alone brought in a flock of foodie tourists to Japan! A sweet read to start my month.
Loot by Tania James
Thank you to Vintage Books for my advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
I came across an ARC of this on my shelves last month and then instantly brought it out because, how dare I not read a precious early-release copy?! I’m ashamed.
Loot by Tania James is a gorgeous historical fiction and was published in June 2023. And I absolutely loved it. Apprenticed to the legendary clockmaker Du Leze, Abbas is a young woodmaker ordered to create a musical tiger for Tipu Sultan’s sons. It is wondrous to read on as James conjures historical scenes in Mysore, inspired by real-life history. Of course, this is always my biggest draw when it comes to historical fiction. When the British attack and loot the palace, Abbas’ world is turned upside down and his prized creation is pilfered, shipped off to England.
This is a captivating story of the 18th-century European colonial expansion in India. It feels like an important story not least for a simple telling of looting and colonisation, and I enjoyed the portrayal of Abbas’ geopolitical conflict amidst his simple life. With a bit of post-book research, this seems like an accurate depiction of the British soldiers’ plot and of the French sending artisans over to India. My only wish is for a little more emotional depth to both the characters and the plot, although James does a brilliant job of packing plenty in in under 300 pages.
The Shining by Stephen King
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
My first-ever horror and my first-ever Stephen King novel, and it didn’t disappoint.
The Shining is easily King’s most prolific work, and it’s worth mentioning that I haven’t watched the film adaptation that the author distinctly hates. Here, he writes some great prose and conjures an excellent haunted house setting. I thoroughly enjoyed the family saga element of this, and the deep-dive into psychology and what isolation can do to the mind. It’s pure magic to conjure this level of fear through words and across certain passages. In fact, I finished reading The Shining just two days before checking in to my hotel on holiday and it brought me endless sleepless nights.
For all that is good with this novel, I did have some serious problems with the unevenness of sentences. It felt like a constant stumble to wade through paragraphs and while some sentences were miraculous, others soon felt short. Of course, I really struggled with the racial slurs rampant throughout. I understand this novel was written in the 70s, but, c’mon, I expected better from King. Finally, there’s some deeply misogynistic writing about Wendy (again, sure, this is a dated book, but, do better). These elements really threw the story off-track for me, bringing down its star rating.
Book of Night by Holly Black
Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Much-raved about in the online bookish community, Book of Night is an urban fantasy novel. I’ve heard plenty about both the book and author, so I scooped it up last year in a Kindle monthly deal. Sadly, this was a big disappointment for me.
“Charlie Hall has never found a lock she couldn’t pick, a book she couldn’t steal, or a bad decision she wouldn’t make. She’s spent half her life working for gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to peer into locked rooms, strangle people in their beds, or worse. Gloamists guard their secrets greedily, creating an underground economy of grimoires. And to rob their fellow magicians, they need Charlie.”
Attempting to distance herself from her mistakes and her past, Charlie is bartending at a dive bar just a whisker away from the corrupt end of town. I’m not a reader that absolutely must like a/the characters of a story, but Black’s characters all fell flat for me and felt one-dimensional. We’re told who these people are, but rarely shown. Her sister is desperate for a hint of magic, her shadowless boyfriend secretive and quiet. Soon, she descends back into a shadowy underworld full of billionaires, gloamists, magicians and doppelgängers, all at war to steal a secret. I really did not get along with this book not only for the characterisations, but a slow plot that never gripped me, a bland magical world, and endless descriptions of action, never any real action.
Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It felt important to read this book as we marked one year since the latest round of conflict in Palestine. In Enter Ghost, Hammad examines the connections between identity, art, family and shared resistance. After years away from her family’s home, Sonia Nasir returns to Haifa to visit older sister Haneen. Their lives couldn’t be more different: Haneen made a life there, commuting to Tel Aviv to teach, while Sonia married in London and stayed to focus on acting. When she returns, she is surprised to find a newly special relationship to Palestine. Soon, Sonia meets a local director and joins their production of Hamlet in the West Bank.
Between rehearsals and conversations with the troupe, Sonia begins to lean into the daunting, life-altering and impossible thought of finding a new version of herself in her ancestral home. Hammad’s choice to centre Hamlet as the play in question adds depth to this story: the text was banned in Israeli prisons, seen as a dangerous text featuring an angry man with a hunger to avenge injustice. Thoughtful and moving, I really enjoyed this read.
(Also, for some reason, my Kindle copy didn’t display the ‘fi’ ‘ff’ or ‘of’ letters if they appeared in sequence, making my reading experience wildly chaotic.)
The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Greene
Thank you to Crooked Lane Books for my advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I knew I wanted to read a mystery-thriller during October – a.k.a. spooky month – and I’ve had this ARC languishing on my Kindle for a while.
In 1998 North Carolina, freshman Jessica Fadley suddenly disappears. 24 years later, Jess Fadley is a missing person, and she leaves behind a grieving family including sister Lindsey, plus plenty of fodder for a true crime podcast. Through a dual-timeline narrative, we are invited in as two sisters untangle and weave a complicated web of darkness. Lindsey is unsettled as a 30-year-old living in her missing sister’s shadow, dipping into a new podcast series about said sister when a journalist appears at the hotel she works out, seeking information about the case.
I found this to be incredible readable and propulsive: it was my jetlag companion last week. There’s a warm humanity to Lindsey’s chapters that opens up a conversation about the culture of true crime. As a true crime fan myself, it definitely left a lurch in my stomach. I appreciated the focus on sisterhood (above family) here for many reasons, and the short commentary into misogynistic approaches to police investigation. Greene reaches deep into human compassion and emotion to propel her story forwards. And, in terms of the ‘whodunnit?’ element, I felt pleasantly surprised that I did go back and forth on who I thought was the culprit. There’s enough suspense to keep you turning the page for more, and this will be a fun read for true crime podcast enthusiasts.
