So, if you didn’t know, I was taking part in Aimal’s ARC readathon, “A Very ARC-ish Readathon”! You can see my original post here, to see what I was going to read, and Aimal’s original announcement here. As the readathon was going to the end of April, here’s my wrap-up post, detailing what I finished, and short thoughts.

Of the seven I planned to read, I unfortunately was only able to finish three. Yep. You heard that right.

I feel into a horrible book slump. I knew it must’ve been coming soon, too, because I had a list of at least five books in a row that had blown me away, but I still wanted to take part.

Here are the ones I was able to read, and my eventual ratings:

Huntsmen – Michelle Osgood: 4.5 stars, dropped to 3.5 after noticing problematic genderqueer rep

Girl Out of Water – Laura Silverman: 5 stars of amazingness (revew here!)

Want – Cindy Pon: 4.5 stars of pain

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I’m also currently reading the next one on my list, A Gathering of Ravens – Scott Oden, and I’d like to say a few things about it:

The only reason I’m still reading it is because it’s a review copy, and because I want to know more before I start saying things about it. Be aware though, so far I’ve found quite a few problematic things.

• the “demon”, or the protagonist, is described as “swarthy” and “dark”, and is the only character like this.
• this so-called “demon” runs around murdering people for personal gain. I literally just finished a scene in which he slaughtered multiple people.
  • I don’t have a problem with him slaughtering people. It happens in fantasy novels. What I’m not okay with is him being the only “dark” skinned character, and him being the “heathen” and “monster” in the country of white purists.
• “demon” constantly calls girl a slut and a whore, unprovoked.
• Author uses the girl disguising herself as a boy as a chance to convince reader’s that the boy was gay, instead of just saying he was a girl.
  • Queerbaiting, anyone?

So that was my AVA Readathon! Three pretty amazing books, and then one trashfire that I’m still powering through! What about you? Did you participate, or read any ARCs?