The Hardest Reading Challenge: August Update

I want to keep these updates monthly and neat… And I’m doing a terrible job! I swear I’m not taking this long to read the books. Once again, I bring you another late update for the Hardest Reading Challenge You’ve Ever Done. Please don’t be confused. I know we are at the end of September, but this post is about the books I read in August. I’m already writing the next update, so it will be on time. Before I get ahead of myself, let’s travel back to the 7th of August.

The books of August

I started the month reading The Bachelorette Party by Sandra Block. I received an ARC to review closer to its September release date. It’s a thriller quite fast and intense, verging on horror. I already have a review here on the blog if you are interested to know more about it. Sadly, I couldn’t count it for the new release prompt for September since I read it a month early. But, it still didn’t go to waste.

I planned to read Murder in The Interstellar Express by Gregory D Little as my August new release. I had to DNF at 20%. I didn’t enjoy the humour, which is very uncommon for me. It’s pretty easy to make me laugh, although I felt the book was making fun of the character instead of laughing with her. I have posted a review on Goodreads and Storygraph, where I go over in more detail of what happen. Since DNFs don’t count for this readathon, I was still in need of a new release.

Holding a Kindle showing the coloured cover o The Bachelorette Party by Sandra Block

Towards the middle of the month, I gave in and subscribed to Everand for the second time this year. I usually don’t sub for long since it takes a toll on my TBR. There I found Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch by Codie Crowley. A debut mystery/horror about a teenage girl who wakes up soaking wet in the river and has no memory of what happened. But she has a feeling something very bad was afoot. With a title like that, I knew she was a character I would enjoy to follow along. And it didn’t disappoint. Despite what it might seem, she’s a nice girl after all.

With the most important prompt out of the way, I let myself wonder through the app, looking for my next read – do you see why I can’t have a subscription like that? – I’ve been thinking about which book series I could read. Most of the ones I’m interested in are 2 or 3 books long. And for any 4 book series I want to read, I already started on the first book. I decided on A Study in Charlotte by Brittani Cavallaro, a retelling of Sherlock Holmes I’ve been curious for a long while. Although, I didn’t like it that much. It felt too much like the original, which isn’t bad for an adaptation, right? However, original Sherlock is very different from the modern Sherlock I’m used to. Since I’m not planning to continue the series, I’m better off using it for the classic and adaptation prompt. No book should go to waste.

And I didn’t let the month finish without seeing what Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw is all about. This is the lowest-rated book on my Want to Read list on Goodreads, and I wanted to see why it’s so disliked. And after finishing it, I still don’t know why. For horror based on Japanese folklore, I was expecting it to be extra scary, although it used a lot of Japanese words I didn’t know what they meant. So, I’m guessing the story would be far more disturbing if I was familiar with the folklore. I expected the book to be an introduction, but I was supposed to do the homework. Apart from that, it wasn’t bad. I wish it was longer to spend more time with those characters and develop their terrible relationships.

Kindle showing the coloured cover of Nothing But Blackned Teeth laying on top of a book.

But how are the prompts looking?

Okay. So, there was a lot of progress made on the prompts overall. I found another protagonist name the same as someone I know in Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch. The protagonist goes by Annie, but her full name is Annabel. It was a delightful surprise. I’ve already mentioned that I’ll be using A Study in Charlotte for the adaptation prompt and plan to read A Study in Scarlet and The Adventure of the Speckled Band, which is the story mentioned in the book. And I’ll see which of the two is the story adapted from.

Since some prompts don’t allow doubling up, I have to make a choice. Nothing But Blackened Teeth is set in Japan and is the lowest-rated book on my Goodreads. But it can only fulfil one of these prompt. When it comes to the lowest-rated books, I’m not sure which list to follow. If the books I already own or the ones I want to read. On one hand, my want-to-read list has below 3 stars books, while on my TBR they are 3.3 stars and above. I mean, if I’m supposed to read the lowest rated, I want to read low ratings, and a 3 is an okay book. I want to question my decisions and see if the masses are right in rating the book low. Well, I think I’ve made my decision.

In the alphabet prompt, I fit all four books. B for The Bachelorette Party, H for Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch, N for Nothing But Blackened Teeth, and S for A Study in Charlotte. I use those letters as well to spell my name, which is pretty neat! And did you know the main character in Nothing But Blackened Teeth is bisexual? I didn’t, so it was a surprise to tick off from the queer rep prompt. I almost forgot, but since Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch is a supernatural story, it counts for the genre prompt as fantasy. I’m so close to finishing that prompt.

Holding a Kindle showing the coloured cover of Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch.

The rainbow challenge is one that I’m progressing slowly. I want to find covers that are predominantly one colour, and I guess the books I read have very busy covers. Nonetheless, I can cross off the colour blue for A Study in Charlotte. And as I already mentioned, Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch is my August new release, so I’m still on track on that prompt.

And here is how my progress stands as of the 6th of September: