Article by Sydney Loder
By taking the first few steps into spring, I was forced to take my last few steps of high school. However sad that may seem, it was rather angering and difficult. My senior year clearly wanted to end with a world record amount of homework, which unfortunately left me little time to read. Although, I was still able to perservere in the matter, and managed five novels containing quite the range. Starting off strong in March, I was able to compile a list including Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Vow of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson, and Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. When transitioning into April, I quite literally had little to no time to read, leaving me with the list of Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco and Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Where the Crawdads Sing was quite a disappointing and boring read simply due to the fact that the entire novel felt rushed and forced. For example, both the romances with Tate and Chase had little to no time to take affect, leaving the chemistry between the characters extremely weird and confusing. Overall, I did thoroughly enjoy the importance of setting within the novel and the murder/mystery aspect that was seen throughout. Then I decided to read Vow of Thieves next as an attempt to get me out of the reading slump the previous novel caused, and that it did. This novel was action packed from beginning to end allowing for an extremely entertaining read. An aspect of this book that I really loved was how Pearson was able to provide relational and individual character development even though the main characters were separated for a majority of the story. Taylor Jenkins Reid was able to carry the high Mary E. Pearson started with her novel Daisy Jones and The Six. The only reason I picked this novel up in store was so I could read it before the show came out, and I somehow managed to read it in less than a day. I just found the story to be captivating and really enjoyed the interview writing style Reid was playing with. She was able to encroach really heavy topics including addiction and infidelity into a beautiful coming of age and falling apart. However, the story was just an easy read and good, nothing more and nothing less.
Kingdom of the Cursed is the second novel in a trilogy, and shockingly enough I had read the first novel Kingdom of the Wicked more than a year before. Even with this gap I was able to pick up right where I left off and found myself the perfect spring break read. The world building was absolutely amazing and allowed for a completely new dynamic to take place within the story. This is especially true to the romance aspect, and Maniscalco was able to keep me on my toes as I never truly knew how the two main characters would fall together. It was a beautiful dynamic that was fun, and challenging, and overall kept the novel beyond interesting. The last novel that I was able to read during this time, and possibly my favorite, was Carrie Soto is Back. I was able to find so much of myself in the main character, Carrie Soto, and her mentality as an athlete. It was also amazing to see the dynamic between a parent/coach and athlete cause there are a multitude of highs and lows when an individual finds themselves in that category. I was overall just astonished by how close this story related to my life in general, and how Reid was able to completely understand the struggles and hardships one can face when they have so much determination and drive. It was a motivating and telling novel.
Within these two months, I was honestly able to complete a lot both inside and outside of school, which left me feeling really good. I am also very happy to say that these novels were able to do the same, even though they started out a little iffy. Each writer and story was able to bring something new to the table and I was happily able to take something away from each, which isn’t normally something thats able to occur. However, it did, and I couldn’t be more estatic to say so. Each of these novels deserves to be read for one reason or another, but if I had to give you my top three, it would absolutely be Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Vow of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson, and Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco. My March and April went through quite a journey as it pertains to the reading world and so far May is looking to challenge them both...
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