The Big Giant End of the Year Wrap Up Part II

Continuing from yesterday, here are the books I've read (so far) this month. Tomorrow will be the beginning of my favorite of the year lists (yes lists, I divide them up because I can't choose just ten favorite books to talk about. I'm just not wired that way).

Books I read in December (so far):

TITLE: One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter
AUTHOR: Scaachi Koul
PUBLISHED: March 7th, 2017
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
GENRE: Essays
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Very interesting collection of essays. I can definitely see why this has been making the rounds.
MY RATING: Four out of Five

TITLE: Our Dark Duet
Monsters of Verity Duology
AUTHOR: Victoria Schwab
PUBLISHED: June 13th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Schwab delivers again with another amazing ending to a duology.  But it's probably zero surprise to any of you I loved this, lets face it: I'm Victoria Schwab trash and am here for anything she writes.
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five
RATING FOR SERIES: Four out of Five solid duologies

TITLE: Girls Made of Snow and Glass
AUTHOR: Melissa Bashardoust
PUBLISHED: September 5th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy, Retelling
RANDOM THOUGHTS: One of my favorite fantasy debuts this year. This one retold Snow White SO much better then Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (and didn't have girl hate going on either).
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five

TITLE: The Dire King
Book 4 in the Jackaby series
AUTHOR: William Ritter
PUBLISHED: August 22nd, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Historical Fantasy
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Okay ending. I felt it was rather rushed to be honest. But it ended it in  a satisfactory way so I don't feel too cheated.
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five
RATING FOR SERIES: Four out of Five

TITLE: Wonder Woman-Warbringer
Book 1 in the DC Icons series
AUTHOR: Leigh Bardugo
PUBLISHED: August 28th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy/Superhero/media tie-in
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Solid take on Diana and what it might have been like for her as a teenager. If you're just coming into this from the movie: it completely ignores the movie. And honestly the comics continuity in general from what I can see. So I just see this as one of the many different AU Dianas out there.
MY RATING: Four out of Five

TITLE: The Gilded Years
AUTHOR: Karin Tanabe
PUBLISHED: 2016
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Historical Fiction
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Solid historical novel. A bit predictable but otherwise not bad. Not sure how well it will do as a movie (it's been optioned for a film apparently) as a lot of the middle parts are rather dull. But we'll see.
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five

TITLE: Hunger: A Memoir of My Body
AUTHOR: Roxane Gay
PUBLISHED: June 13th, 2017
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
GENRE: Memoir/Essays
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Amazing memoir from Roxane Gay. If you guys haven't checked out Bad Feminist yet, seriously do so.
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five

TITLE: Ash and Quill
Book 3 in the Great Library series
AUTHOR: Rachel Caine
PUBLISHED: July 11th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Dystopian/Alternate History
RANDOM THOUGHTS: I am now completely caught up with series. This makes me happy but also sad because now I have to wait for the next book like everyone else...
MY RATING: Four out of Five

TITLE: Dear Martin
AUTHOR: Nic Stone
PUBLISHED: October 17th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Contemporary
RANDOM THOUGHTS: I wanted to love this. I appreciate what the author was trying to do...but ultimately....this was just okay. The writing style was not my favorite, there was way too much excusing white people for the shit we do (I'm white and I'm sorry stop excusing us, seriously. We need to be held accountable and called out on our shit. Otherwise I guarantee we will never change), and plot choices that bugged me here and there. Plus I tried not too, but I couldn't help but compare it to The Hate U Give and I'm sorry but The Hate U Give is ten times better in quality. It's not bad. It just....was not my favorite.
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five

TITLE: Little & Lion
AUTHOR: Brandy Colbert
PUBLISHED: August 8th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Contemporary
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Damn good contemporary book. I have to say, contemporary genre, you all knocked it out of the park this year. More then half of my favorite reads from this year have been contemporary reads which is pretty unusual for me.
MY RATING: Four out of Five

TITLE: Final Girls
AUTHOR: Riley Sager
PUBLISHED: July 11th, 2017
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Thriller/Horror
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Okay thriller. I could tell the author was trying to be subversive but they quickly fell into many regular tropes that happen in horror/thrillers such as weird hang ups on sex/slut shaming/women can't be friends nonsense etc. I am still side-eyeing the author like hell for his reasoning behind the female pen name.
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five

TITLE: Wicked Like Wildfire
Book 1 in the Hibiscus Daughter series
AUTHOR: Lana Popovic
PUBLISHED: August 15th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy
RANDOM THOUGHTS: One of the most interesting magic systems I've come across. Beautifully written and I loved that most of it involved family and family history. It's just...terribly slow in the middle.
MY RATING: Four out of Five

TITLE: The Afterlife of Holly Chase
AUTHOR: Cynthia Hand
PUBLISHED: October 24rth, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Paranormal, Classic Book Referencing
RANDOM THOUGHTS: This book is best read when you're on that Christmas high like I was when I read it (I finished it around Christmas Eve as a matter of fact). It's like the best of those cheesy Christmas TV specials in book form and it's delightful.
MY RATING: Four out of Five