The typical life cycle of a true reader seems to start early on. The young reader reads constantly for fun, dealing with the bullying and criticism from their peers. It continues until middle school, when they read to escape all their problems. Then, they are about to graduate high school when they realize they have been so insanely busy that they have not picked up a book in four years.
That is unfortunately what happened to me, and this past summer after I finished my freshman year, I was determined to end my five-year reading slump, if it can even be considered a slump at that point.
Since it had been so long since I read a book that was not for a school assignment, I had no idea where to start, so I read three vastly different books to see what genre would be best to throw me back into the world of words. I read My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russel, Beartown by Fredrik Backman, and Here and Now by Corinne Michaels, and I will share my knowledge in hopes to help you escape your own years-long battle with getting back into reading.
My Dark Vanessa
Some advice for anyone trying to get out of a reading slump: do not read this book. After closing the back cover, I did not pick up another book for a month, however this is mainly on me. I had actually read this book before, and I remember it wrecked me emotionally.
What I did not remember was the feeling that I needed to throw up the entire time I was reading, or the way my chest started to hurt throughout the chapters of this book, literally.
My Dark Vanessa is classified as psychological literary fiction, and it follows our main character, Vanessa, as she deals with the trauma of being groomed by her teacher as a young teenager. It takes place during her younger years but also shows her point of view 17 years later, as she deals with everything that has happened to her.
I could not put this book down even though it hurt me so badly. I felt for Vanessa so badly, and I was so emotionally invested in her decisions and thoughts. I was constantly flipping the page, wanting the best for her, so when this book was over, I felt like I had worked a full-time job. I returned it to the shelf and did not pick up another one.
So while this book was a definite five-star read for me and is still on my favorites-of-all-time list, I do not think a dark literary fiction book, especially one as gut-wrenching, is best for getting back into the flow of reading.
Beartown
Beartown by Fredrik Backman has sat on my bookshelf since my sophomore year of high school, so of course I had to pick it up during this challenge. It is a contemporary fiction novel that follows a small town during hard times.
This book was hard to start. I love a small-town book, but this one follows what feels like every single character in this town. There are 42 characters in this book, and you get written perspectives from almost all of them. For the people with bad memory like me, that makes the beginning of this book so insanely hard to decipher because you are constantly forgetting who is who.
But after pushing through and getting to know all the characters, I was hooked. I fell in love with half the characters and ended up hating the others with a burning passion. I sobbed my way through this book. What confused me most at the beginning eventually became my favorite part because there are so many people that you are bound to resonate with at least one of them.
Frederik Backman has a thrilling way of writing such sad and devastating events that I thoroughly believe if you need a book to get you out of a reading slump, you cannot go wrong with one of his novels. I ordered the sequel the second I finished the last page of this book.
Here and Now
The last book I read this summer was Here and Now by Corinne Michaels, and here’s the thing, I do not mind reading a romance book. I actually really enjoyed them when I needed something light and easy to pick me up. I also definitely do not mind a well-done suspense book that has me on the edge of my seat the whole time. That said, there is just something about romantic suspense novels that does not mesh well for me.
It is the whiplash from watching an adorable love story unfold and then a mysterious, dangerous entity’s inner workings. It does not work for me, but this book once again had been sitting on my bookshelf untouched for years, so I gave it a chance.
This book follows the love story between a single mother and a hockey coach, while the mother and her son are being stalked by an evil mayor trying to kill them. It was certainly a fun read; I just could not get super invested when one second the main couple was on a cute date, getting to know each other, and the next she was kidnapped by this evil mayor.
That being said, I think this was the perfect book to get out of a book slump. It was quick; I finished it within two days. It was an easy read, and when I finished, it did not leave me with any empty feeling of existential dread and sadness, as the other two did. It actually made me want to pick up another book immediately (which I would have done if I had not gotten swept away with my biochemistry class).
So while it was not my favorite book I read this summer, it definitely did the job it was supposed to. All in all, I think the best books to get you back into reading are definitely the more lighthearted ones, and this summer, though I only read three books, was a great opportunity for me to get back into my original hobby.