monthly wrap up: february, ’20

Hello, friends!

February is now over, which means Carnaval is over. In case y’all are not familiar with it: it’s a five-day holiday in Brazil, that involves a lot of partying – or for an introvert like me, a lot of Netflix. March will have no holidays, so I am not exactly looking forward to it, lol.

HIGHLIGHTS

February was pretty uneventful for me, except for the fact I now have an *actual* part time job! I already have sort of a side job, where I am monitoring for my old high school teachers – basically checking out students’ work -, but now I’m actually working at a kindergarten, helping out with kids. I’ve always wanted to do that, but it’s been an interesting experience. It’s not entirely what I expected – and not in a bad way. It just involves a lot more responsability than I thought at first. But it’s also been rewarding, and I’m looking forward to it more and more.

BOOKS I READ

★★★☆☆

I really enjoy contemporaries with sprinkles of magic and fantastical elements, so I was really intrigued by this one’s premise. Basically: Mila is convinced her best friend was murdered, while everyone else in town is calling it a suicide. So Mila decides to do what anyone else would – bring her best friend back from the dead to get her answers. Except she ends up bringing other two girls as well and chaos ensues. As much as I liked the rep in this – Mila was a Latinx fat girl -, I felt like the relationships were particularly surface-level and the resolution of the mystery rather underwhelming.

 

★★★★☆

More often that not, the sole existence of Percy Jackson is enough to make me smile – even if just his fictional existence. This book is basically Percy counting all the original greek myths, with his characteristic sarcasm and humor. I mostly loved this because of how authentic the voice was, but I was also really intrigued by some of the myths, and especially how Rick Riordan transported them to the 21st century, highlighting some of the very *questionable* choices made by the gods – such as the amount of non-consensual sex, lol. This was super entertaining and I miss Percy already.

 

★★★★★

I already wrote an entire review of this book, so I won’t talk much about it. But Call It What You Want offered an amazing and remarkable cast of morally grey characters, who make a bunch of questionable choices for the right reasons and whom you can’t help but fall in love with. I especially loved the writing and how fleshed out *every* single character was in here – even the best friends who are typically nothing but comic relief. Obviously, I loved this one a ton and can not wait to read more from Brigid Kemmerer in the future.

 

 

★★★☆☆

I basically saw Cait giving this book a great review, I quickly learned it was about best friends who are also a little bit more, and it sounded beautifully dramatic, so I picked it up. I loved how Helene Dunbar created Sean’s voice – as someone who hasn’t had proper interaction with kids his age in years, it’s expected that Sean would sound a bit immature, but I loved how that dripped to the narration as well and sometimes I felt like I was indeed reading about a thirteen year old boy still. I enjoyed the writing style a lot, which makes me excited to read more about the author in the future. Unfortunately, though, I didn’t care as much for the side characters and felt like the plot resolved too quickly and conveniently.

 

 

★★☆☆☆

I genuinely have no idea how to describe this novella, except that it is a weird relationship between a monster and a sorcerer, who’s equal frightening and sexual. I do think I would’ve enjoyed this a lot more had I not listened to the audiobook, as I couldn’t connect with the narrator at all, and I feel like it took a lot from the story. Even though I enjoyed the characters’ relationships and dynamics, I was not that interested in the overall plot, and ended up zoning out through most of it.

 

 

MONTHLY PLAYLIST

This is probably one of my favorite playlists I’ve ever made. There are so many classics here, but also a lot of songs I just recently discovered and fell in love with. And, of course, A LOT of the High School Musical The Musical The Series soundtrack because I’m obsessed.

LOOKING FORWARD

I am positive March will be an exhausting month, as I’ll be both working and going to classes regularly. But I am excited nonetheless, because two of my favorite shows are dropping a new season in March: On My Block and Elite. So I’ll at least have some motivation to wake up early everyday, lol!

 

Let’s chat in the comments: any new music recommendations? Books you loved in February? And how much do you like kids? Hahah.