By: Kitti Kovács
A Break Diver in Slovakia
[Edited slightly by staff editors for clarity, paragraphs, and spelling, but in general, the English and grammar remain in the style of the author.]
The first book I’d like to mention is A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
The saddest, most heart-breaking book I’ve ever read.
This was what everyone told me about it, and this was the only reason I eventually decided to read it.
Don’t take these words as lightly as I did. I believe this book could actually be harmful to your mental health. I cried for days after finishing, but it was beautiful and it will stay with me forever.
I believe I already mentioned [on the BreakDiving.io community], This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay.
The only non-fiction I read this year.
It was extremely funny and a very insightful read, if you are interested in the way NHS works.
Then I read To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.
As a future female editor, I knew I had to read a novel from her at some point in my life. It was different, interesting, definitely not her most popular book, and I understand why… It wasn’t an easy book to read, and I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed it, but I see the value of it, and of course, it’s beautifully written. But I wouldn’t recommend starting with this novel if you want to get to know this author.
The next book was The Fifth Sally by Daniel Keyes.
I had high expectations because this novel discusses D.I.D. which I’m really fascinated by. I was very disappointed.
It did a good job at portraying the disorder, but it had no value as a piece of literature. It was highly problematic, the woman characters were shallow and stereotypical and overly sexualized – it was extremely obvious that his book was written by a man who tried to maintain a female POV but failed miserably.
If Keyes published it as non-fiction, as a study, I might have a different opinion, but I didn’t enjoy this novel at all. Most people did, however, so feel free to give it a try — you might disagree with me.
The next book, however, was a high success for me. The Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is just a beautiful, unforgettable story. I would say that it maybe fits the genre of magical realism?
The main character is a young boy whose mother has cancer and he has to deal with the situation. He’s just a child and it’s heartbreaking but somehow it still manages to be uplifting? I don’t know how the author did it, but I highly recommend giving it a try.
There is a film adaptation as well. I haven’t watched it yet, but I heard great things about it.
There aren’t many left, stick with me. If We Were Villains by M.L.Rio was just a grey book among all the others. I had high expectations since it’s dark academia and it promised to be something similar to The Secret History (I’ll talk about that in a minute). It was. It basically took everything good from that novel, mixed it with Shakespeare and watered it all down. It was a fun read, but it was bland and flat. It felt like a first draft, to be honest. A bit more work, a few changes, and it could’ve been a great novel, not just a decent one with plot holes and non-existent character arcs.
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman has been on my TBR for years. It was the funniest book I’ve ever read. It’s too long and I feel like the show managed to find the best parts of it and focused on those, but the novel was a solid 5 star read even with its flaws.
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman is a coming of age novel. A realistic one.
I read others saying that this book feels like a comforting blanket after a long day and I agree. It certainly wasn’t the best or most powerful piece of literature, but it felt like a breath of life.
I just finished rereading my favourite novel as well, the already mentioned The Secret History by Donna Tartt. You either hate it or love it, and I ended up loving it the first time I read it. It’s a stunning, disturbing novel filled with tension and classical literature (I mean Greek literature).
It has uni students (pretentious ones) and murder and it’s psychological and it’s certainly not a fan pleaser. I. Love. It.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I’m Kitti, a Hungarian editing student and, obviously, a bookworm. Books and literature have always been close to my heart, which is the reason I want to work in publishing one day. I started a bookstagram (@litterae_latibule) not that long ago and, I write book reviews for a student magazine.
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
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