Since I had taken several walks during break times of my September hell writing time, I wound up listening to quite a few audiobooks. Here are the highlights.

The Audiobooks

The Test

What I Learned: Tightly Woven Tension

This book so thoroughly captured the tight plotting and tension of a Black Mirror episode. It was stressful from start to finish and the ending is so unexpected. It was equal parts “can’t wait for this book to be over” and “I can’t get enough.”

The Water Cure

What I Learned: Minimalism

What fascinated me was the lack of world-building in combination with the character development made this for such an addictive read. The reader knows about as much as the characters do, except the reader also has the context of the greater world, which the characters don’t have.

Tunnel of Bones

What I Learned: Spooky but Appropriate for Kids

Schwab perfectly captures the spirit and spirits of Paris. Ghosts are everywhere, but with the power of friendship and smart sleuthing, there isn’t anything that really deter Cassidy Blake from laying another spirit to rest.

Firestarter

What I Learned: Emotionally Satisfying Endings

I love this trilogy. There’s no way to really talk about this book without spoiling the first two. But I will say that every beat in the ending lands and I found myself in tears from the 75% mark until the very end.

Dark Triumph

What I Learned: Darkness and Hope

Sybella has been through so much. Her childhood in the D’Albret house was full of so much tragedy and heartache. What was really compelling was that there are no simple solutions to the pain she’s overcome, but the book ends with such hope and it’s so earned by the end.

Another name for October I’ve come up for is Arc-tober where I read things coming out soon because of either blogging or personal obligations so maybe I’ll go back to making just one monthly post.

Happy reading,
Jo