I can’t believe that we are officially in the last month of 2024. It’s so crazy. But before we get to that, let’s talk about November.

• I read 12 books this month
• I DNFd 1 book this month
• Genre: 4 fantasy, 3 murder mystery, 1 romance, 1 thriller, 1 horror, 1 non-fiction and 1 sci-fi
• Gender of authors: 7 women and 5 men
• Race of authors: 8 white authors and 4 asian authors
• Age range: 7 adult, 4 YA and 1 middle grade
• Format: 9 paperback and 3 hardback
• 3.9 stars average rating for the month

A Very Lively Murder – Katy Watson (DNF)

While I loved the main trio of Dahlias and the setting unfortunately I couldn’t get past the really slow pacing and the not that very interesting side characters!

The Wood at Midwinter – Susanna Clarke (1 star)

Yeah… I wasn’t big fan of this. While I can’t deny that Susanna Clarke has a beautiful writing style this book lacked a lot of things. Character, substance, a plot. It made no sense and ended way too soon for anything to make sense.

The Wizard of Oz – Frank L. Baum (2.5 stars)

This was such an interesting reading experience as I have watched the original 1930’s movie and I very recently watched the Wicked movie as well as the whole musical. But I have never read the original story. What I took from it was how imaginative the world was which I loved but the writing style was underwhelming.

Night Side of the River – Jeanette Winterson (4 stars)

Wow. I have not been this impressed by a short story collection in a long time. Soul-bearing, spooky and very black mirror esque. This book had a bit of everything and I was drawn in with every story I read. It is very hard to master the art of writing short stories, not everyone can do it. Smaller word count, tighter plot structure while still needing your reader to connect with your characters and Winterson managed to achieve this so well! My favourites stories were App-arition, Boots, The Door,No Ghost Ghost Story

Murder at Holly House – Denzil Meyrick (4.5 stars)

Going into this book I wasn’t if this was going to be for me. I was trying to figure out if I liked the main character and the narrative voice, I also found the plot to be a bit all over the place at the start but something just would not let me put the book down and as I slowly endeared to Grasby’s idiosyncrasies and the plot starting slowing piecing itself together I found myself needing to pick it back up and find out what happened next. I would be disappointed if my bus turned up at my stop or my break ended and I found myself thoroughly enjoying this book and not wanting it to stop!

Everyone On This Train is a Suspect – Benjamin Stevenson (5 stars)

I think I have found my new favourite crime writer! I love this feeling of loving a book so much, reading the sequel, and then loving that book just as much if not more! Knowing you have a brand new series and author to follow along is an amazing feeling. Going into this book I was not nervous. Normally, when I love the first book in a series I worry I won’t love the next one as much but this time around I just knew I would love it. The writing style is just as hilarious and witty, the narrative structure is just as engaging, and the side characters are just as interesting. I found myself invested very easily and loved following along with Ernest. Stevenson has such a great way of writing first-person dialogue, I am normally a 3rd POV girlie but this is my favourite 1st POV book. The storyline this time is a lot easier to follow and I found it to be structured more clearly than in the first book which made the reading experience flow a bit more. The ending shocked me which is amazing as I am normally super good at guessing who the murderer is in crime novels. I also respect Stevenson’s desire to be fair to the reader and give you all the information you need to solve it in the novel. There is no weird out-of-no-where plot twist or anything. Everything is on the page.