Monthly Wrap-Up – June 2023: Creature Of Habit

Once again, I started this month with some lofty reading goals, but as I sit down to write this it feels like I read Piranesi, the first book in this wrap-up, months ago. Somehow, it was definitely in June, and I ended up getting through 3 books this month (as usual), including one that I highly recommend, and I’m excited to give my thoughts on them.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Synopsis: Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Recommendation: unreliable narrator, fantasy, mystery, magical realism.

Though I expected this book to be good, I was pleasantly surprised by just how good it was. By the time I got around to reading it, I had completely forgotten the synopsis and—as usual—did not bother to refresh my memory by reading the blurb, so everything occurrence was new to me. I thoroughly enjoyed Piranesi’s love for the House around him and his determination to catalogue everything the house had to offer. His life was beautiful in its simplicity, and it was admirable that he was never bored by the limitations of his world.

I was even more enthralled as the plot unfolded, having not suspected where the book was going. Though I never did trust The Other, I did not expect what unfolds in the later parts of the novel and found the mystery elements to be very well done. I thought it was beautifully well-written and consistently grounded in Piranesi’s way of thinking and what he believed at any given time. I also liked the format in which it was written, following Piranesi’s unique journalling and timekeeping system. I can’t say too much more without going into spoilers, but I believe that Piranesi’s reactions to the events that unfolded were entirely believable, and I felt for him in his confusion and upset. Though I got distracted along the way, I’m glad I finally finished reading Piranesi and would highly, highly recommend it.

The Fine Print by Lauren Asher

Synopsis:

Rowan

I’m in the business of creating fairy tales.

Theme parks. Production companies. Five-star hotels.

Everything could be all mine if I renovated Dreamland.

My initial idea of hiring Zahra was good in theory, but then I kissed her.

Things spiralled out of control once I texted her using an alias.

By the time I realized where I went wrong, it was too late.

People like me don’t get happy endings.

Not when we’re destined to ruin them.

Zahra

After submitting a drunk proposal criticizing Dreamland’s most expensive ride, I should have been fired.

Instead, Rowan Kane offered me a dream job.

The catch? I had to work for the most difficult boss I’d ever met.

Rowan was rude and completely off-limits, but my heart didn’t care.

At least not until I discovered his secret.

It was time to teach the billionaire that money couldn’t fix everything.

Especially not us.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Recommended for: romance, new adult

I had a great time reading this book, and I knew I would because it was recommended by a friend. It had the perfect balance of serious and funny, with a lot of self-reflection from both characters, which I love to see in romances. I’m not usually a fan of reading romances where someone is dating their boss, but because of how Lauren Asher went about it, it was a little less fraught with power struggles. The story saw Rowan and Zahra work primarily together and learn a lot from one another, creating a wholesome, overall positive relationship with a few bumps along the way that I can’t mention without veering into spoiler territory.

Another thing worth mentioning is that I enjoyed the concept of Dreamland. Never in a million years have I thought about a story with a Disney-inspired, filmmaking, theme park dominating, multi-billion-dollar cooperation, but I’m glad it exists in this form, humanising it with a bunch of brothers attempting to make their grandfather proud. Other than that, this book had an extremely cheesy ending, which was equal parts irritating and relieving, because while it made for a cute scene that suited the characters, it was also slightly annoying, but enjoyable, nonetheless.

Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

Synopsis: In the tradition of audacious and wryly funny novels like The Idiot and Convenience Store Woman comes the wildly original coming-of-age story of a pregnant pizza delivery girl who becomes obsessed with one of her customers.

Eighteen years old, pregnant, and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban Los Angeles, our charmingly dysfunctional heroine is deeply lost and in complete denial about it all. She’s grieving the death of her father (who she has more in common with than she’d like to admit), avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future.

Her world is further upended when she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a stay-at-home mother new to the neighbourhood, who comes to depend on weekly deliveries of pickled covered pizzas for her son’s happiness. As one woman looks toward motherhood and the other towards middle age, the relationship between the two begins to blur in strange, complicated, and ultimately heartbreaking ways.

Bold, tender, propulsive, and unexpected in countless ways, Jean Kyoung Frazier’s Pizza Girl is a moving and funny portrait of a flawed, unforgettable young woman as she tries to find her place in the world.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Recommended for: queer, literary fiction, coming of age

The final book I read in June was something I picked up after reading a post by Reading with Delaney of some Queer Literary Fiction recommendations, and I’m really glad I did. While I quite liked this book, I found it difficult to judge. I can’t say I enjoyed it, because the subject matter does not technically lend itself to enjoyment, but it was an interesting read. To start with the better points, Jean Kyoung Frazier’s characters were all incredibly well written and the story itself was too. It was vivid, suitably bleak, and I liked the staccato nature of her descriptions. It suited her uncertain, uninspired mindset perfectly and made it flow very well. It also touched upon the reality of dealing with mental health or personal issues quite well, how silent of a struggle it can be, how it can cause you to act out, and how you might do anything to get it under control. It felt very honest, especially surrounding the main character’s growing obsession with Jenny and each of the characters’ difficulties.

The synopsis describes the book as audacious and wryly funny, but I’m not sure I found it that humorous. The book is moving, and I appreciated the frank portrayal of the characters skirting around their problems up until the point where they could no longer ignore them, but it seemed to be missing something. I usually enjoy reading about flawed characters because it’s a lot more realistic and the main character was both too flawed and not flawed enough which I thought was very well done. While I understood her motivations as she dealt with grief, fear, and uncertainty, however, some of her actions I couldn’t quite get. The events running up to the ending made me feel a little uncomfortable, and then incredibly concerned, so I’m not sure I’ll ever truly sort out exactly what I feel about this book, especially because nothing felt resolved, which is not necessarily bad or something that had a bearing on rating. It got me thinking, which is a good thing for a book to do and I appreciated what Frazier did with her characters in the end. But I think I have a lot more thinking to do before I decide how I really feel about this book, which is why I went for a kind of neutral rating of 3 stars. But I am glad I read it, as it had a lot of good moments, and kept me engaged throughout.

That’s all I read in June, and I’m quite happy with the slight variation, though I’m hoping for a little more next month. I find it difficult to gather recommendations for books that aren’t just popular thanks to social media or best-seller status, so I’m always looking for sources for books that aren’t on my radar!

Do you have any slightly less popular book recommendations?