10 Books I Have Read But Not Reviewed

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This week’s prompt is for books I have never reviewed. This is a slightly random selection of books that I’ve read in the last 5-7 years where I either never wrote a review or just added some brief thoughts to Goodreads. I did log and rate them all so I have some clues as to what I thought!

1. Dune by Frank Herbert – Read in 2021 in audio format which is the only way I was ever going to get through this! I hated Dune the book, I hated Dune the 2021 movie (I do greatly enjoy David Lunch’s 1984 adaption of Dune though because it’s actually fucking fun!)! I didn’t like the writing style, the prophesied saviour plot or the characters. It’s honestly a miracle I ever finished it.
2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Read in 2022 actually in paperback which is rare for me these days! I gave this 4 stars on GR, and I did enjoy it. I remember it was a well-balanced read that stays light but has some substance to it.
3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – Read 2018 on Kindle, I remember reading this on my old commute on the tram! I gave it 3 stars at the time. It had a lot of fun retro-future stuff and scarily predicted a lot about how our society has evolved (for something written in 1932). However I struggled with the satirical elements and some of the characters were OTT, plus the “savage” stuff is very uncomfortable to a modern reader.
4. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood – Read in 2021 and in paperback. I hated this! I gave it 2 stars. So many people love this book and I do not understand why, I think they had a different copy to me. The characters are flat and Oryx – despite being a real person – only exists as the fantasy object of Jimmy. Everything interesting happens off-page while we get stuck in Jimmy’s POV, and Jimmy sucks. The world-building was great though.
5. The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary – Read in 2020 on Kindle, and I gave it 3 stars at the time. The premise was cute but I did not like Quirky Girl cliche Tiffy much, and I felt the author blew her load too early by having them meet at the halfway mark and it was a lot less interesting after that.
6. The Fifth Season by JK Jemesin – Read in 2020 on Kindle. I have mentioned this series before when I DNF’d The City We Became. I don’t know why this trilogy gets the praise it does because it’s fine at best in the first book and became increasingly tiresome over the series. I gave it 4 stars at the time, which I my memory seems generous!
7. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite – Read in 2019 for Book Club and I can’t believe I forgot to mention it in my last post! I LOVED this! I gave it 4 stars, it was just the right amount of messed up and it was brilliant. I will re-read it at some point I think.
8. The Power by Naomi Alderman – Read in 2018 and I think I loaned it by a friend. I gave it 3 stars and I remember it being fine. Enjoyable enough but nothing special and I don’t remember a lot about it now other than it was women having superpowers.
9. Bonfire by Krysten Ritter – Read in 2018, on Kindle. Yes, the actress Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones, The B* In Apartment 23, Gia in Veronica Mars etc!)! I had forgotten about this book but was reminded of it because Krysten has her second novel coming out shortly and was promoting it on her Instagram. I gave it 3 stars at the time, it’s a fair straightforward mystery but the characters were great and I enjoyed it.
10. Ubik by Philip K. Dick – Read in 2018. There are a lot of PKD books I’ve read and not reviewed but this is one of the latest and the weirdest! I gave it 4 stars at the time, and I can’t even start to describe what the plot of this was.. probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever read, and I will re-read it at some point!

I should (all being well!) be on holiday in Venice when this post goes up, but I’ll try to find some times to explore the link up and respond to comments.