Katie Wismer

October 2021 Reading Wrap-Up

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Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
(Uglies, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Sept 30 – Oct 1
Read Count: 4
Favorite Thing: I don’t know that I have strong enough feelings to have a favorite thing?
Least Favorite Thing: Once again, no strong feelings here…

Ok, but despite my lack of strong feelings, I do actually like this series. I do NOT, on the other hand, like the reader for this audiobook. She says things in such a weird way…

My Posts About Uglies

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
(Uglies, book 2)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Oct 1 – 5
Read Count: 4
Favorite Thing: I think the dumb slang is so fun, to be honest.
Least Favorite Thing: Everybody let Shay down and I will die on this hill.

I liked this more last time I read it, but obviously I still enjoy it because here I am rereading it lol

My Posts About Pretties

Specials by Scott Westerfeld
(Uglies, book 3)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Oct 5 – 6
Read Count: 4
Favorite Thing: I like the dumb slang even more. I love that every time they get new brain surgery they change the dumb slang they use lol
Least Favorite Thing: I can’t think of anything, this has always been my favorite of the original trilogy.

I want to be a special so bad! I don’t even care if I’d have anger management issues, it would be worth it!

My Posts About Specials

Extras by Scott Westerfeld
(Uglies, book 4)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Oct 6
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: MOGGLE!!!!
Least Favorite Thing: I’m trying to think of something… Nope, I got nothin’.

I think this might be my new favorite of the whole series? I usually don’t even reread it because the first time I found it boring because it wasn’t really about Tally, but this time around I just enjoyed it for what it was and had a really good time.

My Posts About Extras

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
(The Southern Vampire Mysteries, book 10)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Oct 6 – 8
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: The whole thoughts/feelings as colors thing was cool.
Least Favorite Thing: I can’t really remember well enough to have one, so maybe my least favorite is just that it wasn’t very exciting.

This was the last one that I’d read before I think.

My Posts About Dead in the Family

Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
(The Southern Vampire Mysteries, book 11)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Oct 11
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Sookie/Pam friendship makes me happy.
Least Favorite Thing: I hate that Eric is being a poop…

I listened to this whole book while I got a tattoo in New York City and it was the perfect distraction in both the sense that I wasn’t concerned about the tattoo and that I didn’t fall asleep.

My Posts About Dead Reckoning

Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
(The Southern Vampire Mysteries, book 12)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Oct 12 – 14
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: I’m just enjoying the narrator more than anything.
Least Favorite Thing: So no one’s going to slap Claude?

I feel like saying I’m “just enjoying the narrator” makes it seem like I’m not enjoying the book, but really I am, I just am in New York City and am missing southern accents!

My Posts About Deadlocked

Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris
(The Southern Vampire Mysteries, book 12)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Oct 14 – 16
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: I have no idea what my favorite thing was, but this book felt very satisfying.
Least Favorite Thing: IT’S OVER????? NOOOOOO!!!

I hate that this series is over, I want it to go on forever lol

My Posts About Dead Ever After

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
(The Wicked Years, book 1)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Oct 19 – 20
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: The- The narrator again? I loved his voice.
Least Favorite Thing: So depresso…

I read this book back in middle school, when everyone at my school became obsessed with the musical (which is much less depressing), but I wanted to reread it because I recently saw the musical. And once I started I didn’t want to turn it off because the narrator was great!

My Posts About Wicked

The Marionettes by Katie Wismer
(The Marionettes, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Print
Reading Dates: Sept 28 – Oct 2
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: The magic system was pretty interesting, which is a thing I rarely say these days.
Least Favorite Thing: VALERIE! COME ON! You literally read about it and then didn’t think “hm I wonder if this is related to the body I found in pieces yesterday” come on girl!!!

Man this took me forever to read because of my stupid reading slump. I just cannot focus on print books lately at all, which is tragic let me tell you. And I have to say this was a really good first foray into the genre by Katie. But I also have to say, HOW DARE SHE end on that crazy cliffhanger oh my god.

My Posts About The Marionettes

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Oct 21 – 25
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Oh man I really want to think of something to say here…
Least Favorite Thing: So unmemorable that I already forgot reading it.

I have no distinct thoughts, just a slight internal cringe. I really wanted to like this book (the world needs more fat protags that don’t hate themselves), but something about the way it was written just…did not vibe with me. I felt like someone was holding my hand, leading me along to every point when I really didn’t need their help. That being said, it was by no means a horrible experience.

My Posts About Spoiler Alert

Cress by Marissa Meyer
(The Lunar Chronicles, book 3)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review: No
Format: Audiobook
Reading Dates: Oct 26 – 27
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Cress is kinda presh.
Least Favorite Thing: Cress is also painfully naïve (which, like, I totally understand, but sometimes it was a bit annoying.)

I forgot how much I genuinely like Cress though you guys.

My Posts About Cress

In Progress

Teaser Tuesday: September 28, 2021

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I wake surrounded by smoke and sit up in my bed, disoriented.

– Katie Wismer, The Marionettes (The Marionettes, book 1), page 35

Version:
Paperback
Published August 17th 2021

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

First Lines Fridays: September 24, 2021

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

The lunar witches left a dead bird in the field again.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

First Lines Fridays: July 24, 2020

LeeLeave a comment

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

For the record, I don’t normally have a predisposition for making bad decisions. I think it’s important for you to know that.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

 

Review: The Anti-Virginity Pact by Katie Wismer

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I received a free eARC copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Real Rating: 4.5 stars! Check out my video review as well 🙂

Content Warnings: bullying (on page), anxiety (we see a few anxiety attacks on page), sexual assault (we witness a near miss), animal abuse (you don’t see the abuse, but you see the aftermath briefly)
I want this to be a spoiler-free review so I won’t talk more in-depth about those trigger warnings here, but if you feel like you need more details to know whether you should read this book, please feel free to reach out, I’d be more than happy to discuss it further.

The Anti-Virginity Pact comes out June 16th (2020). I don’t preorder books for my own reasons, but I will absolutely be buying this book the second it’s available.

The story centers on a girl named Meredith, a preacher’s daughter and a relative nobody at her high school. She’s dealing with some inner conflict because she doesn’t believe in god and doesn’t really want to, which makes dealing with her family more difficult. As a joke with a friend, Mare signs a pact to lose her virginity by the end of senior year. This would be just fine, except that the local mean girl finds out and spreads the details all around the school. Now Mare is infamous and becomes the focus of a lot of bullying and sexual harassment. Also threatened by the Pact, is her budding romance and her family dynamic. And as if all that weren’t enough to deal with, Mare is really worried about one of the dogs at the animal shelter she works for.

Don’t worry, this book isn’t all doom and gloom, though. Mare’s struggles only serve to highlight what a kind-hearted, passionate, brave person our main character is. There are a lot of funny and adorable parts to this book that offset the hard parts nicely. And we all know that can be a hard balance to strike. The difference between “logical conflict” and “everything that can go wrong, does go wrong” is a finer line than one would think.

I connected to this story really well, which is rare for me within the YA Contemporary genre. Usually I find it too difficult to get into the POV character’s mind and even harder to care about their life, but this book drew me in immediately. I identified with Mare’s inner life and cared quite strongly about her highs and lows. I believe this is because it was so well written.

One of my favorite parts about this book is how realistic the relationships are. From the budding romance to the sibling relationship, it all just seems so real. I felt like I had experienced something identical or very similar to every relationship Mare had and I deeply appreciate that in a book.

I also really loved the writing style. Katie Wismer has a really excellent, and potentially distinctive, writing voice. (Which happens to be one of my favorite things in a writer.) I look forward to seeing future books from her so I can compare.

My favorite part was the end, but don’t take that the wrong way. I don’t mean like “oh I’m so glad it ended” I just mean that the way she wrapped things up felt so good. Like not everything was perfect or tied up with a little bow, but it was a satisfying ending. The kind of ending where you put down the book and just breathe a deep sigh because you feel so good, you know?

Overall, my thoughts on this book are very positive. I do a favorite and least favorite for every book I read, and I couldn’t even think of a least favorite for this book, that’s how much I liked it.

I definitely recommend this if you like YA Fiction, but even if you aren’t a YA reader, I think you could enjoy this book, it was that good.

Click to Purchase The Anti-Virginity Pact by Katie Wismer