There are books that blow me away, others that upset me in some way that I can’t avoid talking about them. Although there are others that I could resume all my thoughts to a single paragraph. For those books, I usually just mention them on a monthly wrap-up and leave it there, but that doesn’t felt enough. So I thought – correction, I got the idea from a tweet – to do one post with small reviews. Instead of reviewing only one book, I’ll review five, and to make it more interesting, I have to resume my thoughts to 5 words. But since I can’t limit myself that much – I actually just don’t want to – I’ll add a small paragraph explaining why.

The Murder List by Julie Garwood

Gets better after 100 pages.

The first time I tried to read this book I completely lost my interest in it. I had just started reading (you can know more about my reading journey here), and I didn’t want to “force” myself to read something that I wasn’t enjoying, especially when reading was something new to me. Two years later, I gave it another shot. When I reached the critical point, I pushed through, and thank goodness I did. The story wasn’t exactly boring and it sure got way better after 100 pages. I loved the romance in this book, and the only let down was the killer. I was expecting to be able to discover on my own who the killer was, but the story isn’t laid out to allow that. However, I still closed this book with a smile on my face.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Quick, funny, sweet, and improbable.

I completely fall in love with it, devour it, and then the end was too unlikely for my taste. I understand the idea behind it, and I think it’s great, but it’s taken to an extreme situation that disappointed me. On the bottom line, I wanted the story to be more relatable instead of highly improbable. The romance is so cute, the protagonist so sweet, the next door neighbour very handsome, and the story format is perfect to tell this story, but that little thing, that tiny detail, saddens me and I can’t ignore it.

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Poetry rocks, addictive, and insightful

I read it because everyone was raving about it, especially on Instagram, and it didn’t disappoint. I can say this book made me want to read poetry. Rupi Kaur words have so much emotion it’s crazy. I completely adore her writing style and want to read everything else she writes. Totally recommend it if you haven’t read it yet.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

People were nuts back then.

For moments I thought I would hate this story, everything is so fantasised and unreal I thought it would throw me off, instead, it made me more interested. Every chapter begins with a recipe that is part of the story somehow, which makes this book a crossover between a diary and a cookbook. The story is full of family drama, misfortune, love triangles, and a forbidden love culminating in a sweet family story. Although I still don’t understand what means “like water for chocolate” is that bad or good?

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Veganism took to another level.

This story takes everything to an extreme. It follows along a woman who decides to become vegetarian to a point where she wants to become a vegetal instead. The story also follows the family and how each of them reacts to this drastic change. Between all this craziness, I realised that the protagonist is the only one that knows what she wants for her life, even if that kills her or isn’t seen as a normal lifestyle. Instead, everyone else around her, are the ones that are “broken” and need to figure out what they want for themselves. This book for me felt like one big metaphor and I enjoyed it a lot.