Five recent reads | May 20

I've slowed down with reading a bit now that I've managed to claw back some freelance work, but I am still reading. So here's my five most recent reads and what I thought of them!

Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven was just incredible. Focusing on a girl called Libby, once dubbed America's fattest teen and now navigating high school, it's a gut-wrench tale of loving someone for who they really are. It's equal parts happy and sad, and just a great book. I'd definitely recommend!

My next read in May was the end of everything by Megan Abbott, which I devoured in a day. Her writing is almost poetic - and while the story itself is hard to swallow (it's about a girl who's best friend goes missing, and all the secrets that come tumbling out because of her disappearance) I would highly recommend it. Teetering between YA and adult, it's absolutely incredible.

I picked up The Lying Game by Ruth Ware in Lidl during an essential food shop - I just can't pass up a cheap psychological thriller, and this was only about three quid. And it's SO good; the story follows a group of women who were at school together and did Something Bad. They've reunited because of what happened, and the story unravels the whole situation. It had me on the edge of my seat at times and I loved it!

The next book I read was Crocodile Soup by Julia Darling, about a woman called Gert who is trying to woo a woman called Eva - it flits between Gert's tumultuous childhood and her disjointed adulthood, and it is written like strange but wonderful poetry. A beautiful story about femininity and madness and the power of memory, and ultimately a lot of sadness. I loved this, but I wouldn't call it an easy read. Definitely worth a try, though,

One book I was absolutely dying to get my hands on this year was Read With Pride* by Lucy Powrie, and I was lucky enough to get a proof copy before it came out. Her debut, The Paper and Hearts Society, was one of my top books of 2019 and I knew I'd love the follow-on too. I read it in a couple of hours - it follows Olivia and her pals as they try to overthrow the school library's new rule about not being able to borrow books with LGBTQ+ themes without parental permission. Representation in fiction is SO important to me, and Lucy handles it so well. I loved this book and would definitely recommend. I'm actually giving away of copy of this on my Twitter, if you're interested!

So there's my 5 recent reads - what books have you been into recently?