Rae's Reads and Reviews

Hey everyone, it’s good to be back! I remember being so excited to post Down the TBR Hole #10 and then literally not doing another one for weeks, but that ends now. I’m back and I’m better y’all.

So the way I go through my TBR is by fixing my Goodreads Want to Read section in descending order. I have it fitted to twenty books per page. Now, I’m finally up to page two! That means I’ve removed over twenty books from my TBR. Is it just me or do y’all smell progress?

The Rules

• 1. Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
•  2. Order on ascending date added.
•  3. Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books.
•  4. Read the synopsis of the books.
•  5. Time to Decide: keep it or should it go

Goodreads Synopsis: Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Yet another book from my long-lived dystopian phase. I’m not gonna lie, the synopsis does sound pretty cool. I just haven’t gotten into dystopian fantasy in a while.

Verdict: Unhaul

Goodreads Synopsis: Top secret—only for readers deeply interested in the Baudelaire case. How I pity these readers.

With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

A Series of Unfortunate Events was the bomb.com in elementary school. The Netflix series is also really good and got me back into the series again, bringing all those memories along with it.

Verdict: Keep

Goodreads Synopsis: In an alternate United States, love has been declared a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. Living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Portland, Maine, Lena Haloway is very much looking forward to being cured and living a safe, predictable life. She watched love destroy her mother and isn’t about to make the same mistake.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena meets enigmatic Alex, a boy from the “Wilds” who lives under the government’s radar. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?

Again, this synopsis sounds so good! I want to keep it on my TBR, but I know there’s little chance I’ll actually read it.

Verdict: Let it go

Goodreads Synopsis: She’s got a voice like Keisha Cole, attitude to burn–and is the body-rockin’, Bebe-sporting girl everyone in her high school wants to be. . .or be with. But in real life, sixteen-year-old Elite has a crack-addicted mother, no father in sight, and is secretly raising her sister and two brothers on her own. Now a radio contest has put her up-close-and-personal with mega-hot singer Haneef and their chemistry is too sizzling for Elite to stop pretending. And as the clock ticks down fast for this ‘hood Cinderella, she has only one shot to save her family and make all of her dreams come true. . . 

I remember loving books like this in high school. They were really fun and I could relate to the characters and their stories. I’m a little on the fence about this but it has a 4.59 rating so… I think I’ll try it out.

Verdict: Keepin’ it

Goodreads Synopsis: Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life – which means getting into the right high school to get into the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan’s Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself.

Craig’s suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.

Ned Vizzini, who himself spent time in a psychiatric hospital, has created a remarkably moving tale about the sometimes unexpected road to happiness.

I love stories on mental health, especially when the representation is on point. I’ve been hearing great things about this for years and I really do want to get to it.

Verdict: Keep

So, I kept 3 books and unhauled 2. Progress is progress, y’all.

Have you read any of these?

Do you do Down the TBR Hole?

What do you have planned for the week?

Let me know in the comments below, let’s chat!