Soooo… The Reading Rush has ended and those of you who follow me on Instagram will probably have seen all my stories. Long story short, The Reading Rush was a massive success for me! I switched one book on my TBR, but did manage to read seven books and complete all seven challenges!
In total, I managed to read 1946 words with a peak on the last day of 630 words (to catch up 😉 ). And a little dip on Tuesday cause I got caught up in YouTube videos… But all in all, I think it went pretty well. So let’s get into the books I ended up reading to complete all the challenges and my thoughts on them.
1. The First Book You Touch
​The first book I touched (Wilder Girls) was coincidentally also the first book I finished during the readathon. But it definitely wasn’t my favourite. I ended up giving it 3/5 stars mainly because nothing really happened. What I was hoping for was an exciting pageturner. A dystopian that grabbed me in the way The Hunger Games has in the past. I had especially high hopes because this book is about a virus and seeing the current circumstances, I expected this to be a thrilling read. But I was wrong. At some parts, it was definitely exciting, but they were few and far in between. Besides, the main character Hetty was beyond annoying. I found her to be hypocritical and a little dumb. Overall, not my favourite book of the readathon.
2. A Book That Inspired A Movie You’ve Already Seen
The second read of the week was The Hate You Give, and this book has been on my shelf for years! So I’m glad to finally have gotten to it. In the end, I gave it 4/5 stars, it’s an important story and it’s awful to realise that this book was published 3 years ago and it’s still just as relevant today. I do think the audiobook kind of ruined the experience for me cause I found that Hailey (arguably one of the villains) was portrayed as almost a caricature. This took away some of the punch of the horrible things she did and said.
3. Read A Book Completely Outside Your House
Next, I tackled the ‘read a book outside your house challenge’, which wasn’t that big of a challenge for me cause I have a garden and the weather was lovely ;). But I still decided to opt for a short and sweet graphic novel. Namely, Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell. And omg what a cute story! My rating for this one was 4/5 stars and it was a lovely break from the more serious books I read during the week. The story surrounds two friends who work at a pumpkin patch every fall and this is their last year. They explore the whole pumpkin patch on a mission and it’s super adorable!
4. A Book That Matches The Colour of Your Birthstone
This is the challenge for which I switched the book. I ended up reading All American Boys, which was reminiscent of The Hate U Give, in the sense that it also touches upon police brutality in America. However, what makes this book different is the fact that it is told in from two perspectives. The first being the black boy who is assaulted by a police officer, and the second being the white boy who is a close family friend of said police officer. It was a 5/5 star read for me. The dual perspective was what set it apart from The Hate U Give, for me.
5. A Book That Takes Place On A Different Continent Than Where You Live
To complete this challenge, I was planning on doubling up with the genre challenge and reading Red, White & Royal Blue. However, I thought it was pointless to read a book set in North America since I’ve read about that countless times and the whole point of this challenge is to read more diversely. So I ended up reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, it was a book I read throughout the week in between other books because it was quite a hard book to get through. It’s a book showing the story of two half-sisters and their descendants through generations.
My main issue with it was the fact that you don’t get more than one chapter per character. So every time I was engrossed into the characters of a specific chapter, it would change to a different one and I would be taken out of the flow. Regardless, I gave it 5/5 stars. It did not end the way I wanted, but that’s a good thing. I would’ve liked to see a happy ending but it’s important to show that that is just not realistic in the context of these stories. It would be an injustice to the story to just pretend these characters were ever able to get a happy ending.
6. A Book That Starts With The Word ‘The’
The book I chose for this challenge was an impulsive one. I read The Boston Girl, a book I had never heard of book stumbled upon in my audiobook app when searching for ‘the’. It’s the story of a woman telling her granddaughter about her past. I am a sucker for life stories told by an old character reflecting on their past. The rating I gave this book is 4/5 stars, the main reason for this being the format through which I consumed it. The audiobook really made it sound as if Addie is telling the story to the reader.
7. A Book In A Genre You’ve Always Wanted To Read More Of
The last and seventh, book I read during The Reading Rush was Red, White & Royal Blue. This book I also rated with a 4/5 stars. It was a really cute romance and had some laugh out loud moments for sure. However, I did find it to be rather predictable. I also rushed through this book, seeing as it was the last book I had to read. I think I might need to re-read this book at some point without time pressure.
Overall, I would say The Reading Rush 2020 was a success! It definitely pushed me to read more and spend less time on social media. I’m excited to read more and keep this going. Did you participate in the readathon? How did it go and what was your favourite read of the week?
