March books: 5/5 (The Deck of Omens)
Happy Wednesday, squiders. I have managed to drag myself away from BTS’s 2.0 music video to write you today’s blog post.
Like many avid readers, I have more books than I may ever be able to read. In addition to that, I maintain two digital TBR (to be read) lists: one on Goodreads, and one on my library system. Periodically I will go through these lists and pick out books, usually once a month or so, because I do try to not be in the middle of too many books, and also not to have more books out from the library than I can actually read in a time period.
(I picked up two books from the library about an hour ago, one from my library TBR and one by my SFWA mentor.)
(It is interesting how it’s easier for me to select a book from a digital TBR and request it from the library instead of looking at my book shelves and choosing books I own to read. I wonder why that is.)
Last month I picked out The Deck of Omens from my Goodreads TBR list. This is the sequel to The Devouring Gray (which I do actually own), which I would classify as YA dark fantasy or perhaps horror. According to Goodreads I read the first book in Sept of 2020 and shelved the sequel.
Squiders, I am not great with series. I read a lot of first books and decide not to move forward. I almost never move directly from one book to the next, even when I am interested in continuing on. (Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom earlier this year was an exception, as is Armageddon’s Children and The Elves of Cintra, which I have started.) Often with series I am interested in, I shelve the second book and come to it some time later, which is obviously what I did here.
Until last month, when I pulled The Deck of Omens out of my TBR, I’d forgotten that there was a sequel.
Now, obviously, reading series like I do is kind of dumb. But in my defense, I’m generally pretty good about remembering what was happening and being able to jump back into the world and the story.
But almost six years is apparently the limit. The Deck of Omens was well-written and the author left plenty of reminders, but even though I enjoyed the book and the story, I felt like I was missing something the whole way through. (Also I noticed after the fact that one character did not have a viewpoint in this book though I believe he did in the first book. Like, he was still there, but not as a viewpoint character, which was a very interesting choice and kudos for that.)
So don’t be me, squiders. Don’t leave sequels for years and years.
Will I learn a lesson from this?
I mean, probably not. But there’s always a chance.
Have a good week, squiders, and try not to fall for too many April Fools things. (Though I’ve seen, like, none this year?)
