In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 27th Year, Week 27/52

Eight books last week!  That's 10th February to 17th February.

I finished the Matched series.  I've owned the first one for years - first read it in 2012 - so I borrowed the two sequels from the library.  It wasn't mind-blowing, but it was fun and nice to finally get some closure.  You can probably read something into the fact that I didn't read the sequels back when I first read the first book.



I also finished the Gas Lit Empire series this week, with The Custodian of Marvels.  My reaction is about the same as to the Matched series, though I did get through it a lot faster.  Part of that is because it's harder to find good audiobooks I can listen to on 3x speed so when I find a series with the right level of listenability I tend to go for it.

I also finished the Spilling CID series, although there's no indication that this book is the end of the series.  A very meta book, The Narrow Bed.   

Spoilers to follow! 

The killer has decided to murder everyone who gave an unwanted ereader to someone else and to kill the recipients who politely accepted the ereaders and shoved them in a drawer.  I'm kind of glad I listened to it as an audiobook and kept the fuck out of that mess.  There's also a straw feminist character, which is almost as bad as Hannah deciding Andrew Wakefield was being picked on.  No other character - not even Charlie who lives an exceptionally feminist life - says anything to the tune of "I'm a feminist but she's a tad overboard".  We just have one crazy feminist as our only example.  

Not one of her stronger efforts, in many ways.

End Spoilers.

The Broken was another audiobook.  It focused on two couples - with dreadful, ugly, London accents - one of whom breaks up.  It kind of fails at being mysterious and intriguing, though it does try.  The final twist was excellent, but there wasn't a lot of build up to it and it wasn't an exciting journey.

Finally, I listened to the first three Harry Potter books.  I originally read The Chamber of Secrets when I was ten or eleven, closely followed by Philosopher's Stone, Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire.

I kind of lost interest at that point.  It's hard to pinpoint why.  Some of it was to do with having a crush on Ron and then having very confused feelings about Hermione, whom I otherwise liked.  I was also put off by Rupert Grinch who looked nothing like I imagined the character.

I think there was an element of backlash as well.  With so many people raving about the series I didn't feel able to join in.  While I can't criticise the books themselves, my enjoyment of them kind of soured.

Now it's been fifteen years and I'm getting some of my affection for the series back.  It helps that I'm listening on Audible which makes it go by a lot faster; the entire series on 3x speed is less than 45 hours.