Recent Reads: 6-10

I have been putting off writing this post for a bit now. Mostly due to the fact that I had no idea how to review some of these reads but have decided to start writing in hopes that the words would come to me in the process. In this segment of Recent Reads there were a ton of three star rated books that I would really just call a "hit or miss" even though they were not all five stars or two stars. I ended up rating most of them three stars for a number of reasons that I plan on getting into later.

I read a lot of poetry this time around. While it was unintentional it did help me complete my goodreads before the end of the year, and now I am four books ahead of schedule, so that is a plus.

The Books

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Shame Is An Ocean I Swim Across (poems) by Mary Lambert

The Future by Neil Hilborn

Depression and Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaim

The Umbrella Academy, Volume 1: The Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

The Reviews and Ratings

6. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Rating: 3/5 stars

The Secret History by Donna Tartt is a cult classic in what basically started dark academia. Think of it as like the bible.

It tells the tale of Richard Papen and his year at Hampden College where he falls in with a group of Classical Studies Majors. It is there and with these fellow students that Richard slips into an alternate way of thinking, of viewing the world—of viewing people and the meaning of life. Friendships, lies, blackmail, and multiple accounts of murder ensue.

They brought forth a god and in the process murdered an innocent man. I loved the idea of this novel, of seeing the whole warped situations through the eyes of someone drug into a mess that he wanted no part of but was still forced to.

7. Shame Is An Ocean I Swim Across (poems) by Mary Lambert

Rating: 3/5 stars

Queer musician, activist, icon, and now published poet Mary Lambert is a whirlwind of an artist.

Now my love for Mary Lambert is as big as my love for cake is (and believe me, I really love cake). Shame Is An Ocean I Swim Across was a huge hit or miss for me. There were a few poems that I loved in it, some that I felt deep in my heart but others that just felt like a weird string of metaphors and words shoved together I watched her [Lambert] perform a couple of her poems on YouTube and that, to me, is my favourite way to experience this form of art. To hear the emotion in the speaker’s voice, the smile forming on their lips, where they unconsciously pause, or raise their voice or lower it to almost a whisper.

8. The Future by Neil Hilborn

Rating: 4/5 stars

Neil Hilborn is the poet of the Spoken Word poem that went viral not once, but twice. Titled OCD it is one of the most viewed poems on YouTube with over 7 million views. OCD is featured in his first collection of poetry, Our Numbered Days, which he followed up with The Future, released in 2018. At first, I rated The Future 3/5 stars but upon review for it decided to give it 4/5 stars instead.

Neil Hilborn has an honest but dark sense of humor that he uses to talk about mental health. Living with mental illness and how it not only effects you but the people around you.

9. Depression and Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaim

Rating 3/5 stars

Much like Mary Lambert I prefer the preformance of poetry rather than sitting down and reading it. Sabrina is most known for her poem “Explaining my Depression to my Mother: A Conversation” which she originally preformed 6 years ago in 2014. While preforming it she actually went into an anxiety attack that she used to put even more emotion into her poem (or that is what the comments say, I’ll link the poem below).

She has a poem that she included in her collection titled “Single” and that is one that I really connected with. It talks about life after getting out of a relationship, how it is doing everything alone and how one slowly grows into a semi-new way of life.

10. The Umbrella Academy, Volume 1: The Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way (Writer), Gabriel Ba (Artist), Dave Stewart (Colourist)

Rating: 5/5 stars

This is possibly one of my favourite shows in the history of the universe and I was sadly somehow unaware of the comics until after I had watched the show.

It [The Umbrella Academy] follows a family of six former child superheroes that have grown apart as they are reunited to save the world from an impending apocalypse. Not only are they trying to save the world they are also trying to deal with their own chaotic lives. The comics and the show do differ in ways, one being that the role of the Comductor in the comics is replaced by Leonard. Vanya (portrayed by Elliot Page) has a more covered-up, sweaters blue jeans and jacket type-of-style in the show. Whereas in the comic she is more impulsive and I would describe her style as classical-trained meets abused-living-in-a-low-apartment and fuck-you attitude. I hope that made sense.

I wish I was able to express why I love this series (both comics and Netflix adaptation) so much. But, since I am not able to find the right words I will leave it here for now and return in the future.

“Explaining my Depression to my Mother: A Conversation” by Sabrina Benaim

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About the author:

Liv Atterson is currently finishing a General Studies Degree and plans to continue to get her Bachelor's in English and Art History. She is an avid believer that you can never own too many books just too few shelves. When she is not reading or writing she can be found studying and drinking her body weight in coffee. She is currently working on her debut book.