Books Read in March 2022!

Posted On March 31, 2022

Hi Readers! I have not been super actively reading or writing or browsing bookstagram lately. All I am doing these few weeks is working & sleeping. Finally today I woke up earlier than usual to write this post & to write a book review for Upgrade by Blake Crouch. Stay tuned for that one!

Like I said, March started off great with me finished a 600-page book in the first week. But, after this followed a dreadful reading slump which lasted for 2 weeks. After this, I read 3 books in 3 days, which were Japanese murder mystery novels. Then, I finally finished Upgrade, and yesterday I read Madeline Miller’s Galatea. So, that is it! I read only SIX BOOKS in MARCH! Because I have already written reviews for almost all of them, here is a short brief for you!

~~THE ROSE CODE by KATE QUINN~~

Kate Quinn has become my favourite author in the wartime historical fiction genre. I love the way she writes about women. I love how all of her characters, whether in this book or in The Alice Network are entirely relatable when you get down to the basics. Their every-day lives may be vastly different, but their every-day decisions, thoughts & actions are like those of any other woman. Kate Quinn’s female characters make you want to be better at your job, love the people close to you more fiercely, be your flawed self but learn from your mistakes. In The Rose Code, we have three main female characters, all of whom I loved. The story is set in Bletchley Park from the years 1940 to 1947. I got to know a new side of the story about WWII from this novel. I would definitely recommend this book if you love the genre. I have rated The Rose Code at 4/5 stars!

You can read the full review here!

~~THE HONJIN MURDERS by SEISHI YOKOMIZO~~

I had way too many crime & mystery books by Japanese authors on my TBR. I finally started with The Honjin Murders which was a locked room mystery. I did not like this one so much, because the writing was not to my taste. Also, I wasn’t able to imagine how the murders actually played out & also the setting in which it took place. I have rated The Honjin Murders at 3/5 stars!

You can read the full review here!

~~THE INUGAMI CURSE by SEISHI YOKOMIZO~~

I read this book second & all my worries about disliking Japanese murder mystery books disappeared completely. I entirely enjoyed reading this one despite the major violence in it. It was brilliantly written, the plot seemed straightforward when you read it, but in actuality you understand that the events of the story are a complete mess when you reach the end, all the characters are perfectly cold-hearted & cold-blooded. This book is truly not for the faint-hearted. If you are used to reading some level of abuse, then you should go for it. I have rated The Inugami Curse at 5/5 stars!

You can read the full review here!

~~THE VILLAGE OF EIGHT GRAVES by SEISHI YOKOMIZO~~

After the first two, I was ready to take on whatever the third book had in store. It was entirely different & yet I enjoyed it! It started off with such an intriguing foundation about a curse with eight graves. And to add on to this, it also added another story of a mass murderer who is the protagonist’s father. This happened in the first 15 pages or so. With such a strong foundation, the rest of the story felt a bit average & slow-paced. But, either way, I had fun reading it. I have rated The Village of Eight Graves at 4/5 stars!

You can read the full review here!

~~UPGRADE by BLAKE CROUCH~~

I am so grateful for the publisher Penguin Random House who sent me an e-book ARC of Blake Crouch’s latest book Upgrade which will be released in June this year. Given how much I loved reading Dark Matter as well as Recursion, I had high hopes for Upgrade. I did enjoy it, but it was not a 5 star read for me. Just like the other two books, this one also had the most interesting subject around gene-editing in humans. This story is also entirely fascinating with an interesting plot & your usual white male protagonist. The pace was medium, because of which it took me much longer to finish it. I have rated Upgrade at 4/5 stars. I will write the review soon!

~~GALATEA by MADELINE MILLER~~

Madeline Miller is among one of my auto-buy authors. I utterly adored her two mythological fiction books; Circe & The Song of Achilles. Very few authors reach my favourites & auto-buy list after reading merely 2 books, but there she is! Galatea is a (super short) short story. I would have loved to read more about Galatea. In a mere 20 pages, we are hooked to the story and characters. Even for a short story, I felt it was way too short. I have rated Galatea at 3/5 stars!

~~MARCH READING STATS~~

I had a lot of plans for March. I wanted to read books written only by women because of Women’s History Month. I wanted to focus on reading books with more than 500 pages. I wanted to read Korean books as well. But, all of this derailed because of the reading slump. This is mainly why I never used to create a monthly TBR. And, I think I will go back to that philosophy. Planning works for me in every aspect of my life except when it comes to reading. So, I am just going to go with the flow from April! Anyway, check out my March reading statistics from StoryGraph!

So, that is all, folks! Tell me how was your March like? How many books did you read & how many did you truly love?

Until next time,