My last 5 books: Blood and magic

1. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, by Patricia A. McKillip. I have never ever heard of this book, yet it's marketed as a classic. It read like an old tale, sort of stilted and very proper language. The characters felt unfinished to me like their motivations and personalities weren't properly executed. They were more like embodiments of tropes or storytelling stereotypes rather than people, and I didn't actually care for any of them. The ending seemed like a fairytale ending; after the climax of the story and all that fighting and the conflicts people were just happy together again. This book didn't make me feel anything.

2. The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan. This second Percy Jackson book was really cool and promises even more cool things to come! I like how he made use of the mythology surrounding the Bermuda Triangle in this book, as well as introducing Cyclopses and Hippocampi. If they weren't just kids I'd totally ship Percy with Annabeth. Tyson is really, really sweet and I liked how Percy finally accepted him and took him fully under his wing rather than treating him like some useful but annoying appendix. And omg I want to punch Clarisse. She's so stupid she makes me inwardly groan. I'm excited for the next one!

3. Broken Homes, by Ben Aaronovitch. The fourth Rivers of London book and I feel like barely anything at all happened until the last few pages. Most of the book was speculation and surveillance without much coming from it until the very last minute and then we get a revelation of a traitor, with the traitor having had a huge signpost above their head since around the middle of the book. There was no surprise involved in the revelation. Part of me wants to drop this series, but another part of me clings to it because I find it funny with the modern references to well-known fantasy and sci-fi books, although there's getting to be less of that with each installment. 

4. Konferensen, av Mats Strandberg. Det är alldeles för länge sen jag läste nånting på svenska. Jag gillade Färjan skarpt, men Hemmet var en besvikelse, så jag började läsa Konferensen med blandade förväntningar. Den visade sig dock bli en bok som jag hade svårt att lägga ifrån mig och läste ut på två dagar. Under flera scener i boken satt jag och halvblundade mot alla blodiga beskrivningar som om jag såg på en skräckfilm. Under scenerna där Jonas blir halvt skalperad och senare får skalpen helt avsliten fick jag tvinga mig att inte gny högt. Alla karaktärerna gjorde mig smått förbannad samtidigt som de var otroligt igenkänningsbara och så fruktansvärt svenska. För tio år sen hade jag inte känt igen mig lika mycket men nu satt jag där och kände att jag personligen hade träffat variationer av alla dessa karaktärer på riktigt i arbetssammanhang genom åren. Denna bok blev helt klart en av höjdpunkterna det här året.

5. The Uninvited, by Dorothy Macardle. After having had a bit of success with gothic ghost stories I was looking forward to reading another one. I had previously watched the old black and white movie based on this book and enjoyed it so I was hoping to enjoy the book as well. It starts off good enough and I was excited for the plot to really get going, except it didn't. Not really. There were some ghostly things going on and then some piecing together of the story, while the male main character was infuriatingly logical about the whole thing because forbid a man to act emotionally even when faced with proof of the supernatural. Also the whole lovestory grossed me out. Roderick calls Stella a child throughout the entire book, even after halfway when he suddenly decides he's in love with her, he keeps calling her child. I suppose it acts as an old-time endearment, but why keep using it after they find out Stella isn't as young as her grandfather wants her to appear. Stop calling the woman you love a child. The book started off great, seemed to lose the plot halfway through, and never really recovered.