It’s the weekend! Thank goodness, because that means I get a day off tomorrow. A much needed one because this week seems like it’s dragged on forever. Has it felt like that for anyone else? Maybe it’s just because I had a few longer work days in there. Who knows. In the very least, I got a decent amount of reading done for the week of 8/15!
Granted, a lot of that reading seems to have been graphic novels. I’ve picked up my Spider-Man reading again, since one of my goals for the year was to make more headway on my read through of the backlist stuff. Which has been going okay, if I didn’t get so distracted by other stuff.
Anyway, here’s what I read this week!
Bite Size Reviews: Week of 8/15
Heartstopper Volume 2 by Alice Oseman (8/16)
I read volume 1 last week and fell in love with Nick and Charlie. And I did even more so in this installment! This volume focuses on Nick’s coming out process and coming to terms with who he is. His journey felt realistic, even down to finding information online. While not everyone’s coming out process is as smooth as Nick’s, it is one that a lot of people find themselves in. It’s still such a cute story filled with real, relatable characters (5 stars).
The Faithless Hawk by Margaret Owen (8/16)
This was a new release this week, and I got to be a part of the blog tour for it! Check out my full review here. This second installment in the Merciful Crow duology adequately ties up all loose ends and gives us a satisfying ending for Fie and her crew. While it took me a little bit to get back into the groove of the story, I enjoyed it immensely once I did. I think this is a duology that would benefit from reading one immediately after another. Maybe someday I’ll do that! (4 stars).
The Loop by Ben Oliver (8/18)
Set in a dystopian future where teens who are sentenced to death are kept in a prison called the Loop. The inmates get the option to push back their sentence by participating in experiments from the government; experiments that don’t always end well. When one experiment leaves the prisoners in the prison by themselves, Luka finds out that the prison might just be what was keeping them safe. This wasn’t really on my radar until I saw it at the library, but I had a difficult time putting this down once I started it! Oliver keeps you guessing with every turn, and I had to know what happened to Luka and everyone else. Plus, there’s a cliffhanger ending that will definitely leave you wanting more (4 stars).
Civil War: Peter Parker, Spider-Man by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (8/19)
After revealing his secret identity to the whole world, Peter Parker is desperate to keep Aunt May and Mary Jane safe. But even being a superhero, that isn’t as easy as it looks. The stories varied in this volume, though the one with Aunt May was probably my favorite. With some of these Civil War stories, it’s difficult to see how they fit into the overall storyline. However, the Spider-Man stories have probably been some of my favorite thus far (3 stars).
The New Avengers, Vol. 5: Civil War by Brian Michael Bendis (8/19)
Following a few of the New Avengers team, this volume muddied the waters a bit for me. Maybe because I didn’t read them immediately after reading the original Civil War. Maybe because there are just too many characters to keep track of. While I love Marvel comics, their large-scale events like this can sometimes become a bit difficult to follow. Especially when there are just so many characters involved (3 stars).
Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall (8/21)
This is a series of essays that focus on the women that the mainstream feminist movement often forgets about. Kendall covers topics like food insecurity, housing, appearance, and a lot of other topics. For those that consider themselves feminist, this is an important text. I read a lot of feminist texts in my first grad program, and a lot of these issues were never covered. Definitely a must-read for anyone looking to make feminism as a whole more inclusive. (5 stars).