I had a fun and productive reading month in April, participating in Dewey’s 24-hour readathon and finding two 5-star reads from new-to-me authors. Let’s get into it!

Stats

Total books read: 8

Physical books: 6

2025 releases: 4

BOTM: 2

Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen (5 stars) – This book was FANTASTIC. I loved Bob on RuPaul’s Drag Race; he was consistently hilarious and quick with comebacks. I had no idea that he was also a fiction writer, and an extremely skilled one at that. This book has a creative premise but a very human message, drifting between the broad and fabulist and the deep and personal effortlessly. I’ve been recommending the crap out of it, particularly the audio, ever since I finished it.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler (5 stars) – This was such a fun and hilarious fantasy read that takes on tropes head-on, with both humor and heart. There weren’t any dull moments; I loved the writing style with footnotes; Davi is an addicting main character to read about. I can’t wait for the sequel, which luckily comes out very soon.

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica (4 stars) – So far my least favorite of Bazterrica’s works, but it’s a high bar. The Unworthy is a dark, disturbing, and fascinating post-apocalyptic horror that’s well-written and absorbing; it was a great pick for a readathon as it’s short and intense.

The Chase by Elle Kennedy (4 stars) – My second Elle Kennedy contemporary college sports romance of the year, this one featuring a Legally Blonde-esque plotline alongside the opposites-attract romance. Her writing style is addicting and fun, and this one did tackle heavier topics as well. I immediately started another after finishing.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer (4 stars) – This was an interesting and unexpected portal fantasy featuring two boys, now adult men, who were lost for months as teenagers in a national park and reunite to help a girl find her missing sister. I didn’t predict where the story was going and enjoyed how it played out.

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao (4 stars) – This was a very dreamlike book with various fantastical places and people connected by a thread of a quest that the main character is following. The stakes are high but it still feels surreal; I thought it was lovely but could have used a bit more grounding at times.

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (4 stars) – This was a great readathon read, a fantasy novella featuring fairies and the bond between sisters and emphasizing the power of love both familial and romantic. It was well-written and enjoyable, but lacked the unique freshness of the author’s first novel, This is How You Lose the Time War.

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar (4 stars) – This was a difficult and disturbing science fiction novella featuring a rigid and horrifying class structure employed on spaceships, and the child who grows to challenge it.