So, we’re at that point in the year when you have more work than you can possibly imagine, you’re more stressed than any person between 14 and 18 has any right be, and you’re running on approximately 0 hours of sleep! You know what would make that whole load even better? Some personal reading books! But in all seriousness, if you’ve found yourself wanting a good book to distract you from all your work but don’t have the time to go hunting for one, here are a couple of suggestions.

Book: Mosquitoland

Author: David Arnold

Rating: 5/5 Greyhound buses

David Arnold’s Mosquitoland revolutionized my summer. The novel follows Mim Malone in a confusing, exciting, and at times nerve wracking journey of self discovery as she makes her way from Mississippi, aka Mosquitoland, to her sick mother in Ohio. Initially, I was put off by this book because it claims to have won, or nearly won, quite a few awards and, despite what English teachers everywhere claim, in my experience award winning books are the worst. But this one was different. The main character, Mim, and David Arnold’s style grabbed me right away. The whole book is confusing in the best possible way, integrating pieces of Mim’s past with her present and slowly clarifying small details page after page. Not to mention, you learn to love just about every single character, and even the most minor are so incredibly well developed. The story might appeal especially to fans of John Green. I would absolutely recommend Mosquitoland to anyone who likes a good adventure.

Book: Pet Sematary

Author: Stephen King

Rating: 3.5/5 Headstones

Pet Sematary was my first Stephen King novel, actually my first horror novel in general, and it lived up to all the hype. When Dr Louis Creed and his family move to Maine to pursue a new career, naturally they are all full of apprehension but quickly, with the help of friendly neighbors Jud and Norma Crandall, they feel totally at home. Of course, in typically Stephen King fashion, this can’t last and things fall apart pretty quickly with blood and gore aplenty. The novel is just the right amount of creepy, taking constant twists and turns. The slow downfall of main character Louis Creed into insanity is absurdly eerie – my favorite aspect of this being King’s repetition of various phrases, slowly growing more and more abstract and creepy. The only downside of the novel to me was its pace, which in the beginning was almost painfully slow: it felt as though almost nothing happened for about 300 pages and then in the last 100 everything fell apart.

Stay tuned for the next issue of Unleashed for more suggestions!

Photo by ASTERISK KWON on Unsplash