June wrap up 2022

Hello friends! Turns out it is five days into July and we’re well past the mid-year point. Seriously. Half the year’s over, and I’m still processing that. Nothing big happened in June except for the fact that my work life severely messed up my sleep schedule, and that I’m maybe falling into a reading slump once again.

What I read

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

This is a colourful superhero novel with a fantastically morally grey main character. And all the ‘abilities’ the characters have are so creative (that one girl who bursts into a thousand butterflies?).

Maybe the thing was that I was so hyped for this book, that when I read it, it just felt a bit flat. The beginning was amazing, and so was the ending, but the middle felt like a drag to read. My rating: ★★★✩✩ (3 stars)

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Now for a hyped book that I really enjoyed reading! I’m a sucker for sad stories. The entire story is told from Patroclus’s point of view and he’s my favourite character in the book.

Thetis was my second favourite character, then Achilles. I didn’t like Achilles at first – the way he was portrayed as perfect in everything nearly threw me off before I realised that this was from Patroclus’s point of view. The way we gradually see the war and his fate changing him was really well written.

The book wasn’t the tear-fest I was promised (to be fair I almost never cry while reading books) but it ends on a very bittersweet note which I loved. My rating: ★★★★✩ (4 stars)

Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover

No because this book is better than the film. It fucked me up and left me on the edge of tears and wishing I’d never read this. (In case it wasn’t entirely clear, I’m in a Star Wars brainrot these days. Yes, the franchise has a number of issues and some moments are absolute bonkers but I just love it alright). This book was a perfect mix of hilarity and tragedy and emotions and a perfectly written corruption arc.

In conclusion, there’s nothing more tragic than found family going terribly, horribly wrong. My rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars)

Vicious by V. E. Schwab

Vicious is a twisted tale about two brilliant sociopaths and ex-best friends, Victor and Eli, who are both now looking to kill the other person. What I find fascinating about the story is that both Victor and Eli think themselves the hero of their own story.

I liked the side characters Mitch, Sydney and the dog Dol so much. The story is a bit predictable at times but it was fun, and the ending was perfect. My rating: ★★★★✩ (4.5 stars)

What I watched

Spy × Family: I absolutely LOVE this anime! It’s so cute, lighthearted and awesome and though I would have liked it more if there was more action, I liked it well enough. I absolutely lived for Anya’s wow my dad is a spy my mom is an assassin this is so exciting! moments.

I finished Obi-Wan Kenobi! I wish it was more quiet and character driven but you know what, I still loved it. (Shut up haters aka my sister)

Tree With Deep Roots: my younger sister and I started this Korean historical drama and we’re both loving it so far! It’s like this very nerdy murder mystery mashed up with puzzles and phonetics and sword fights and secret cults (it’s a story of how the Korean alphabet was created, and the plot is very good.)

Life update

I am exhausted and I feel like everyone else is, too. Everything goes on as normal, but then I turn back and realize how awful this ‘normal’ actually is. My dad spent three days in a queue to pump petrol to the car. And I think everyone’s two seconds away from exploding.

But aside from that, I think I made an effort in June to be more…creative. Making origami in my free time is always a calming experience. My WIP is now at 5.7k words and I have some semblance of a plot showing up. I drew several pencil sketches and a digital painting of a dragonfly that I posted on twitter (ignore that caption though, I was lying):

I drew something (I'm very rusty but hopefully this will be a new header image for my blog) pic.twitter.com/vKw9MQoagV

— jan (@ink_spun) June 6, 2022

I wrote a grand total of ONE post for the whole of June, but I put a lot of thought into it and I’m very proud at how it turned out. Click on the image to read the post!

Goals for July

This almost never works out, but we’ll see.

TBR

• We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
• The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

Other

• Drink more water
• Deep clean my bedroom (right now, it is the biggest mess in the universe)
• Reach at least 10k words on my WIP
• Get back to blogging/ blog hopping regularly

I hope you all have a great month ahead!

Yours truly,

Jan

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