WWW Wednesday – April 21st, 2021

“Honestly, Mrs Hadley,” said Meggie McGregor, wiping her eyes. “That sense of humour of your will be the death of me yet.”

First line in Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Hi, guys. I hope you’re all doing well. WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words, and it’s meant to give you all a little insight into my reading this week. I’ll answer the 3 questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish?
• What do you think you’ll read next

What did you recently finish?

So I completed two books this past week. The first was Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb, which I gave 4.5 stars. If I were to be very nit-picky, I could find quite a few things that this book could have done better, especially about the ending, but I found that I didn’t care all that much. I loved this book and the development of the magic we got in it. Hobb’s way of writing is also one I suspect will never bore me, so I really want to read more from her. I suspect the rest of the books in her Realm of the Elderlings will only be better.

I also finished Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, which I also gave 4.5 stars (I’m having a great reading month!). This one was more surprising to me as I really didn’t know what to expect going into it. It’s a dystopian set in an alternate and race-bent (?) version of our own reality. Black and white people have switched places basically, and that was actually a very cool twist. I suspect it was done to show white people how crazy it is that one race is treated so horribly, and since this is YA, I think that’s a great message to send to young people. The book really shows the effects of institutional racism by following two young people, one black, one white, to show the reader the differences.
I should say that I took off half a star as this book is extremely fast-paced, with short chapters and a very simple and to-the-point writing style. That wasn’t a problem for me on its own, but I do think the story could have benefited from a slower pace around some of the more important scenes. It didn’t allow me to feel the impact of those scenes completely, but I’m still excited to continue the series.

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What are you currently reading?

The only book I’m reading at the moment is The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. It’s a reread for me as it was my favorite book of last year. I’ve only read 76 pages, but I’ve already been reminded why it was my number one of 2020, which is great because I was afraid I might not love it as much without the mystery element. Now I get to catch all the clues which is just as exciting because I totally didn’t do that the first time. I now know I need to pay attention to the minor stories that are sprinkled in. And I still love Zachary a lot.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Well, I’ve actually read all I planned to read in April, so I think I’ll go ahead and just pick up the sequel to Noughts and Crosses, Knife Edge.