Books I’ve Read: May 2017 (Part 2)

May was a big reading month for me, so much so that you get a second post about books! (See part 1 here)  Here are a few more I read last month…

The Fever by Megan Abbott.  I feel like I heard about this one on the What Should I Read Next podcast, but I don’t remember for sure.  We were browsing our local bookstore, and I picked it up kind of on a whim.  This book was not exactly what I expected.

Girls at the local high school start dropping from this weird disease that presents with some fairly odd symptoms.  Is it contagious?  Is it from a vaccine?  Is it from the mysterious creepy lake?  Through the eyes of Deenie, her brother Eli, and her dad Tom, the story unfolds.

I liked Abbott’s writing style.  The story moved along well, although if you were to actually write out the events that happened in this story, the list would be short.  There was a lot of character development, and I feel like everyone really had their own unique voice, which is always a plus.

But.  This story, although largely fictional, was inspired by a true event.  And I feel like if I had come across news of that event, I would have found it interesting.  But when the story ended the way it did, and the reasons and motivations for everything came to light, it fell flat for me.  Like, that’s it?  All this buildup about these different things, and THAT’s what you decided on?

I still raced through the story in one afternoon, which is a sign of good writing to me.  So I may pick up something else by Megan Abbott at some time (maybe her newest one, which I’ve heard good things about too).  But this one didn’t do it for me in the end.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.  I grabbed this from the library after a friend reminded me of it when I was praising Ready Player One.  She suggested I would enjoy this one as well, and she was right.  Jason is physics teacher at a local college, but at one time he had dreams of being a big deal in the theoretical physics world.  This all reminded me of The Big Bang Theory guys, especially when there was a mention of Shrodinger’s cat.

I love that this book went into some really heavy science stuff but was still totally accessible to someone who has no knowledge of or love for that topic whatsoever.  I actually felt like I kind of understood some of the smart stuff in this book, even if it’s only on a surface level.

At it’s core, this book was about the choices we make and the effect they have on our lives and the people around us.  What would happen if you had chosen differently, even in something small like whether or not to say hello to someone?  Now what if you find yourself face to face with a reality where you had made some of those decisions differently?

Without going into too much detail, I also appreciated how Crouch was able to develop the different characters in this book, especially toward the end.  Also, I should have seen that shift in the plot coming, but I didn’t, and I love when a book can take me by surprise a bit.  My one beef with the plot is that there’s one character whose story is never resolved, and that bugs me.  But overall, I really liked this book. And the cover is a pretty color.  Always a plus.

Also, here’s why I was able to read so much last month:

Apparently when you’re growing a baby, sometimes you just feel tired and not able to do much besides sit on the couch.  This never happened with any of my previous pregnancies, but this time around, I’ve got plenty of morning sickness and being tired.  So, I sit on the couch and read books.  There are worse things to do, after all.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links.  If you make a purchase through these links, I receive a bit of a commission at no additional charge to you.  Thank you for your support!