Books of March (a little late)

OYYYYY!!!!! So I think this is my shortest list ever. Just two books. I would love to be able to say that I got a lot of writing done this month, but I can't really say that either! What's going on, you ask? Well, I've been doing a lot of therapy for the soul, writing down my thoughts and trying to deconstruct them (cognitive behavior therapy, in case you're wondering) and then I'm exercising more, and making lists to organize my life better. It's all rather time consuming, as you can see because I'm writing this six days late! Oh, and I did do a couple of amazing beta reads for friends this month, so there's that. I'm hoping to get back on the ball with my reading and writing soon, and start posting more. In the meantime, here's my list for this month.

1. We Were Here by Matt de la Pena**  This is an amazing book, and I'm surprised that I hadn't heard of this author until a friend pointed him out. His writing is very raw and very real. Most of characters are Latino. I cried in the middle. I cried in the end. I snickered sometimes and felt the most awful flush of embarrassment for the main character. Oh, and then there's Lenny. I mean, Rondell. I mean Lenny. You remember Lenny, right? The character from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men? Matt de la Pena's version of this character is Rondell, a huge black kid with a baby afro who becomes the main character's best friend. Sometimes you really wonder if the guy should be locked up. Yet, you don't want him to be because that would just be...sad. Five stars for this one, I particularly recommend it if you're looking for contemporary books with minority characters.

2. The Kill Order by James Dashner. This is the prequel to the Maze Runner series, which I really loved. This one was... meh?? It explains all about the sun flares and why the virus was released in the first place, which I think was probably already mentioned in book 3, only this one goes into more detail. The characters we've come to know in the other books are barely in this one, and the terrifying techno-monsters that really made book 1 and 2 come alive aren't there at all. Basically, it's an apocalyptic thriller about how a virus takes over the world, with the type of crazy stuff that you would expect to see in such a story. They encounter people, there's fighting, they barely escape, they encounter more people, wash, rinse repeat until the end. I can't really give this one a recommendation because it was so stinking cliche. You're better off stopping at book 3.