Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag // It’s (Pretty Much) Halfway Through 2018 and It’s Time to Panic and Talk About Books!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT’S THE END OF JUNE 2018 ALREADY??

How did this happen. I swear it was just January literally yesterday.

Last year (IT’S BEEN A YEAR AAAHH) I was tagged for this many times, but decided not to do it for whatever stupid reason I made up. So this year, before it was too late, I’ve decided to do this tag!

I was tagged by multiple people (and I don’t really remember who) so here’s the original post! I’m aware that all of these are singular, aka CHOOSE ONE THING, but do you know me? My indecisive butt can’t do that. So for a few of these questions (I’m lying, it’s all of them), I’ll be answering with more than one book!!

I’m supposed to be at 50 books by the end of June help me

1. best book you’ve read so far this year

    

So far, I have five favorite books of 2018. Three of them I cried over. (But I’m going to spare you a bit of my gushing by only mentioning my top 3 favs!)

• Girl Made of Stars Ashley Herring Blake // I am THE stan of this book and I won’t stop screaming about it until all of you have read it. I cried over it. I reread it two days after my first read. Guys I keep repeating this YOU ALL HAVE TO READ IT.
• Radio Silence Alice Oseman // I haven’t had the chance to talk much about this because I read it this month, but oh my god this absolutely blew me away and it is AMAZING. I connected to it so much and I adore the messages and relationships and messages and it’s so so well-written.
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid // I also read this book this month and haven’t screamed a lot about it, but trust me: This book is a MASTERPIECE. It was better than I ever dreamed of and I think it’s something everyone has to read before they die.

2. best sequel you’ve read so far this year

Uhhhh… none.

Look I’ve read a total of one (1) sequel this year and it wasn’t as great as I thought it would be, so there’s no way I’m going to use it for this question.

(It was Obsidio.)

3. new release you haven’t read yet, but want to

Do you realize that each time I have to answer questions like this, I fall into a hole of existential crises and never get out???? I’ve been here since last year. I haven’t caught up with last year’s releases.

      

• The Astonishing Color of After Emily XR Pan // This is one of my MOST anticipated releases of 2018 and I… still haven’t read it??? I don’t know either. One day I’ll pick it up. I really want to love it and I’m kind of scared I won’t.
• The Cruel Prince Holly Black // I can hear the screams of my friends who are realizing I haven’t read this yet. I’M SCARED. I want to love it. But I have a feeling I’ll either adore it or absolutely despise it and I just don’t want to be killed by my friends, all right?
• Children of Blood and Bone Tomi Adeymi // The only thing I have to say about this is that it looks so good but so long.
• Final Draft Riley Redgate // This came out really recently so I guess it’s not a horrendous crime that I haven’t read it yet, but god it looks SO SO good and I have a feeling I’m going to love it. I can’t wait.

4. most anticipated release for the second half of the year

    

• Blanca y Roja Anna-Marie McLemore // LISTEN I LOVE ANNA-MARIE AND THIS BOOK IS GOING TO KILL ME AND I NEED IT RIGHT NOW.
• What if It’s Us Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera // This is going to be a Gay book and I know I’m going to love it and you KNOW I’ll be at the bookstore on October 6 to get a copy of this (and Blanca y Roja).
• Wildcard Marie Lu // Hey… Penguin… anybody… an ARC of this would be REAL nice…

5. biggest disappointment

    

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

• The City of Brass SK Chakraborty // All I have to say is that I expected a 5-star, new favorite book, and I got a 1-star book.
• And I Darken Kiersten White // I just wanted to enjoy a historical fiction book FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE and enjoy a book my friends loved but NO. OF COURSE NOT.
• A Monster Calls Patrick Ness // I went in expecting some emotional catharsis and came out confused and sad.

6. biggest surprise

  

• People Like Us Dana Mele // I don’t usually read thrillers, but this one was just so… great? It was a genuinely creepy, well-written thriller. And the characters were super fleshed out (usually the thrillers I read don’t have well-developed characters).
• The Abyss Surrounds Us Emily Skrutskie // I truly believe that this is one of the most underrated, underhyped books. It is genuinely SO GOOD and I adored it. The plot is so engaging. The characters are so morally grey and yet lovable. I just really love it.

7. favorite new author (debut or new to you)

   

• Ashley Herring Blake. I mean, duh.
• Natasha Ngan. I kind of have a love-hate relationship with her because the ending of her book… how to put this lightly… ENDED me. But I also adore her and her book.
• Alice Oseman. I’ve always been a big fan of hers (especially since I’ve read her webcomic Heartstopper) but I’ve finally read one of her books and can say she is officially one of my favorite authors.

8. newest fictional crush

I honestly don’t really have a new fictional crush? They have to be a certain level of Iconic and Lovable and Meant for Me and no one has reached that yet.

I mean, I read Obsidio this year but I’ve crushed on Ella Malikova since last year so it doesn’t really count. (Please be my girlfriend.)

9. newest favorite character

 

I’m really sad to say that I only have like two new favorite characters!! I thought I would have more but apparently I haven’t connected that much to many characters yet sooooo.

Evelyn Hugo from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is such a dynamic, strong, flawed character and I ADORE HER. She’s unafraid to take what she wants in a world that refuses to give her anything and it’s SO INSPIRING.

Frances Janvier from Radio Silence is also an amazing friend and such a good person and written so well. I’m a little biased though because I have this theory that she is me and I am her and the whole story was written about and/or for me. (IT’S SO GOOD.)

10. book that made you cry

Okay this is really weird for me to say but… I have cried over literally four books this year???

In my entire lifetime, I’ve only cried over six books (and there are another two that I don’t count because I cried over them AFTER I finished reading) and FOUR of them have been books I read this year. I can’t tell if I’m getting more emotional when I read or if I’m just picking really Heartbreaking books to read??

      

• Girl Made of Stars Ashley Herring Blake // Do I REALLY need to talk more about this one.
• Summer Bird Blue Akemi Dawn Bowman // Whenever Rumi thought about her sister’s death, I kept imagining that it was MY sister who had died and I just broke down.
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid // I didn’t cry much over this compared to the other books?? It was really just three times over side characters. But I was still really affected AAAAHHH.
• They Both Die at the End Adam Silvera // This is the book I cried the most over, honestly. It TORE ME APART. I’m kind of shocked at how much it affected me and I literally couldn’t stop crying. (Also the ending made it worse and I can’t believe Adam Silvera would do something like that.)

11. book that made you happy

The only book that made me GENUINELY happy was Autoboyography because while it dealt with a lot of heavy things, the romance that bloomed was so beautiful and there were SO MANY cute moments and I adored it. I smiled and screamed so many times it’s embarrassing tbh.

12. favorite book-to-movie adaptation you saw this year

I saw only one adaptation this year and that was Love, Simon, which is one of my favorite movies ever and I love it so much!!! I cried all three times I saw it and it’s such a powerful, important, beautiful, hilarious movie and I ADORE IT. I hope all my international friends will get to see it soon!

13. favorite review you’ve written

I think I would have more reviews to list if I actually WROTE THEM, but the two I’m talking about here are two I’m immensely proud of.

  

• My rewritten review of Starfish explains why Starfish means so much to me, and it goes into a lot of detail about my experiences as living as an Asian teen in the US and how that’s affected how I view myself. It’s a… very personal review, but I hope Asian teens will relate to it and pick up the book, because Starfish is a love letter to people like us.
• My review of Six of Crows took FIVE HOURS to write (and more to edit) but it’s completely worth it. It highlights all the iconic moments and quotes of the book, with my necessary hilarious commentary on them, and it’s just my favorite. I reread it to make myself smile and it works every time.

14. most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)

 

Girls of Paper and Fire has a GORGEOUS cover, and it’s probably of the main character Lei, who is a sapphic Asian woman. Which means the world to me!! I don’t even generally like book covers with human models on them but this one is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

Also I know I should stop talking about it… but I’m love in the cover of Girl Made of Stars.

15. what books do you need to read by the end of the year?

        

Well, obviously the 2018 releases I haven’t read yet but need to, and the releases I’m looking forward to, but also books 3-5 of the PJO series (a reread!) and Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom (another reread!).

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what are you favorite books of 2018 so far? have you read any of the books i mentioned? what books have you cried over? HAVE YOU SEEN LOVE, SIMON?? and if you’ve done this tag, feel free to link it down below!

p.s. I’m so sorry that 1) I talked about so many of the same books and I tried to highlight some other ones but it kind of failed!! and 2) this is a REALLY LONG post