The Mid-Year Freakout Book Tag | ’20

Hi! I and the entire book internet has been doing this tag for a few years now, so you know the drill. Wasn’t officially tagged, but whatevs.

This tag was made by Chami and Ely Jayne!

Best book I’ve read so far

Black Butler by Yana Toboso – Kinda cheating here because I picked an entire series instead of a single book, but man. One of my best friends had been trying to get me into it for years. I’m so mad I waited so long. This series is fantastic. It’s set in Victorian era England, and follows a thirteen year old boy who makes a deal with a devil after his family is slaughtered and vows to get revenge. The boy’s father up until that point had been an earl, so the boy has to take over the title. The devil he makes a deal with parades as his butler.

This series seriously has it all: action, comedy, tragedy, horror, suspense, fluff. All of it! It’s so. good.

Best sequel I’ve read so far

Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard – This is the third book in the Witchlands trilogy and I think it’s the best one yet. So much character development!

New release I haven’t read yet but want to

Burn by Patrick Ness – I’ve been to like three different bookstores looking for this and nobody seems to have it in stock. I’m going to order it here pretty soon. It’s set in 1957 Washington state, and follows a family that hires a dragon to help them with their farm. Interesting, no?

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

I made a whole post about this a couple weeks ago – go look-it :”D

Biggest disappointment

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vol 1 by Fuse – This is the light novel, where the anime was adapted from. I watched the anime and though the first half of the first season at least was pretty decent. So considering it was taken right from this, I thought I’d like this too. Well, no.

This light novel gives a lot more insight to the main character’s thoughts. And usually that’d be great, but it’s not so great if the person whose head your in is just thinking about ladies’ boobs and butts and hips all the time and taking advantage of the fact that he’s a slime to get closer in contact with them than he normally would be able to if he was human, because nobody thinks a slime would think that way. Well, they would be wrong.

My first and only DNF of the year so far.

Biggest surprise

Our Dining Table by Mito Ori – I didn’t think I’d dislike this, but this is a fluff one-shot, so I didn’t expect to totally fall for it like I did, either. This is a fluffy romance between a guy who has trouble eating in front of other people, and a guy who wants help learning to cook a meal for his little brother. It is so flippin cute.

Favorite new author (debut or new to me)

M. L. Rio, who wrote If We Were Villains – The narration in this is so well written, as is the infusion of Shakespearean verse. So is the tone, it’s so well maintained. Seriously I loved everything about this book and I’ll read basically anything else this author puts out.

Newest favorite character

Probably Sebastian from Black Butler. He’s the devil butler I mentioned above, and what I like so much about him is he’s so unassuming. He plays his role as butler really well, so well that sometimes you forget he’s evil and is just waiting for his thirteen year old charge to die so he can eat his soul.

But every so often, he slips, you’re reminded of exactly what he is.

Book that made me cry

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas by Yoru Sumino – Man, I knew going into this that I was probably gonna cry. This story is about a boy who befriends a girl, and only after finds out she has terminal pancreatic cancer. So yeah, I knew I was gonna be sad. BUT MAN.

Book that made me happy

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits by Waco Ioka – This was such a pleasant manga. I’ve written a full review on it and have said it a million times now, but it seriously reminds me of Spirited Away. It’s so neat!

Favorite book to film adaptation I saw this year

I don’t think I’ve seen any…. I don’t think. I know I went to the theater a couple times back in January of February but I cannot for the life of me remember what I saw.

Favorite review I’ve written this year

Probably this one, because it’s literally the only one I’ve written so far.

Most beautiful book I’ve bought so far this year (or received)

They’re manga! These volumes of Demon Slayer I think are gorgeous. They’re just so vibrant and colorful!

Books I need to read by the end of the year

Everything still remaining on my 10 in 2020 list. I think there are five or six? I really need to get on it!

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And that’s it! I know most people have already done this tag, but if you haven’t and you’d like to do it, consider yourself tagged!