Jan to Jun - Fiction

I read 12 books in the span of January to June - 7 Fiction + 5 Non Fiction!

Here are my thoughts on the fiction books:

Book 1 - Turtles All The Way Down  ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Short: Novel on a girl w OCD dealing w grief

• it was easy to read bc Mr John Green always uses smooth and simple language

• V realistic portrayal of OCD (to the point of a little personal discomfort)

• ^ which is much appreciated as opposed to the sort of romanticisation or reductionist portrayals i’ve seen.

• i really liked how the main friendship wasn’t all roses and rainbows - and it dealt with the truth of how having MH issues can affect others

• i like how the male character blogs, v cool. smth similar i’m trying here

  
  

Book 2 - Sharp Objects  ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Short: Small-town American murder mystery

• loveddd Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl (it is everything to me)

• been years since i read that but i’ve heard that this one is better.

• ^ i don’t agree. to me, GG is THE best. but this was also a v cool weird read.

• i love reading weird shit (remembering Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh)

• watched a bit of the hbo adaption, i love amy adams

  
  

Book 3 - Salvation of a Saint  ⭐️⭐️

Short: Japanese murder mystery

• last Kiego Hagashino book i read was Devotion of Suspect X - right after Drishyam so around a decade ago (wtf)

• i enjoyed it back then so picked this out of curiosity

• v easy read and such a good time-pass (also listen i know time pass is not a “real” word but fuck all this condescending bullshit ok we all know what timepass means and it does a very effective job of conveying the meaning)

• anyhow, it was quite repetitive and predictable and a bit of a let down. don’t regret reading it tho bc WHY NOT

  
  

Book 4 - Intermezzo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Short: Lit fic about two brothers; their lives after daddy dies

avoided it for so long bc

• a) heard it didn’t hit the same and ididn’t want anything to tarnish the feelings i’ve

  built around sally rooney’s work in my head so i

  pretended it didn’t exist for the longest time

• b) paperback is really expensive and i’ve stopped feeling comfortable borrowing books bc i ABUSE THEM

• c) if i finished it, i would have nothing of hers left to read (wtf)

anyway

• it turned out to be two person pov. i love ian’s pov and hated peter’s side writing style. atleast at the start

• but of feckin course it grew on me

• beautiful writing as always, and i was so attached to the characters and the world built by the end that when i was done, i felt an inconsolable emptiness

which led me to

a) reread all her short stories for the 70th time

b) hunt for similar books - i might make a whole different post about that bc this is getting LONG

Book 5 - Exciting Times  ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Short: Lit fic about a young Irish expat + her love life?

• Naoise Dolan, Irish, has that awkward self-aware protagonist with non-monogamy themes - perfect for my rooney itch

• had to google lots of new words to the extent that if i compiled them it would create a small lexicon

• tbh i didn’t notice that she wasn’t being v politically accurate or that she was being performative until i read some goodreads critique

• (i dont recommend goodreads for the weak, it will tear apart any book) BUT i learnt that her usage of Hong Kong in the plot was insensitive and overall that the character wasn’t as Marxist as she was claiming to be

• i guess that makes sense

• but i did enjoy reading it bc she’s funny asf. she’s like if sally rooney was less politically astute BUT! instead.. hilarious.

• ALSO was really craving wlw romance in my own life by the end

Book 6 - The Rachel Incident ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Short: Lit fic about young Irish woman and her gay bestie <3

• one thing i’ve learnt is that Boy do the Irish know how to write

• they don’t play when it comes to literature omg

• such a genuine-feeling book

• just fun as hell

• also, man. the Abortion ban was such a big thing there, i did not know

Book 7 - Annie Bot ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Short: Sex Robot grapples with humanity (fiction)

• written by Sierra Greer - who won the Arthur C. Clarke award for 2025 (which i learnt is given for sci-fi novels)

• best read of the year so far

• i loved it sm

• it lowk ragebaits u but in a good way. like it makes you hate certain characters or dynamics and feels uncomfortable

• ^but that is the Intention of the book - so it’s quite brilliant and effective

• just wow. i’m v sleepy it’s 12:30 now so all coherence has flown out the window BUT

• just wow what a brilliant book that handles what it means to be human + robots and autonomy? (what was i made for by billie eillish vibes)

• never thought id empathise with an AI in the big 26???

• it mirrors unspoken, quiet, underlying, unnoticed human behaviour in relationships and just slots them into an unhinged situation to show you how absurd our lives are

• wonderful read wow

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-samjam

this was originally a substack post. ive edited it to feature in my blog as well :)

for reference, here's how my star rating works-

• 5 stars = loved it unequivocally

• 4 stars = immensely enjoyed it, save for few irks - and recommend it

• 3 stars = good! might recommend in specific circumstances

• 2 stars = not for me, bothered me at many instances

• 1 star = im usually gracious with my rating so if you ever see one of these, run for the hills