My May 2025 Reads
It’s June 1st and time to share what I read in May! I read five books, four on audio and one in paperback.
Here are the books in the order that I finished them:
The Payback Girls by Alex Travis- Audio- 3 stars
The Humans by Matt Haig- Audio- 3.5 stars
Something I Keep Upstairs by J.D. Barker-Audio- 4 stars
The Murder Machine by Heather Graham- Audio- 3 stars
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera- Paperback- 5 stars
My ‘favorite read’ was They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera. This was my first time actually reading it, the previous two times I read it, I listened to the audiobook version. The third book in the series was recently released, and I just had to read the other two again (Plus the short stories that Silvera has written that are in special editions of the books! And reviews come for those as well!) This series is one of my favorite books! We won’t talk about how many editions I have of the newest book….. Hey, I admit it: I NEEDED those special editions!
My ‘least favorite’ read was The Payback Girls. It had an interesting premise but was just too “YA” for me. (Too much drama…) I do like the cover!
I did also have a DNF (Did Not Finish) for May: It was a book I had read years ago for a book club that I was trying to read again: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire. I stopped at page 163 of 368. I tried for months to read it and finally DNF’d it.
What did YOU read in May? Let’s see how my June reading goes!
Audiobook Review: The Humans by Matt Haig
The Humans
Author: Matt Haig
Narrator: Mark Meadows
Published: May 9, 2013
Audiobook: 8 hours 11 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: May 6-11, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book Description:
When an extraterrestrial visitor arrives on Earth, his first impressions of the human species are less than positive. Taking the form of Professor Andrew Martin, a leading mathematician at Cambridge University, the visitor wants to complete his task and return home to his planet and a utopian society of immortality and infinite knowledge.
He is disgusted by the way humans look, what they eat, and the wars they witness on the news, and is totally baffled by concepts such as love and family. But as time goes on, he starts to realize there may be more to this weird species than he has been led to believe. He drinks wine, reads Emily Dickinson, listens to Talking Heads, and begins to bond with the family he lives with, in disguise. In picking up the pieces of the professor’s shattered personal life, the narrator sees hope and redemption in the humans’ imperfections and begins to question the very mission that brought him there–a mission that involves not only thwarting human progress…but murder.
Jessica’s Review:
This was a book club read for May. Overall, I did enjoy it; I just had some issues with the narrator. An unnamed alien takes over the form of Math professor Andrew Martin because he (Andrew Martin) made a math discovery which could cause the human race to gain advantages in their development as a species. This could be a detriment to them, so the unnamed narrator is sent to destroy all evidence of the discovery…. and more.
This is the basic synopsis of the story but the journey this unnamed narrator goes on is the entire story. His first thoughts of humans are that they are ugly (especially their noses)! I wondered why a nose was on the cover of the book. And then you read it and know! Humans are also greedy, selfish, and worse!
I was entertained with our unnamed narrator and his discovery of the necessity of clothing for humans at the beginning of his journey. Along with the after-effects of that throughout the novel. The reader sees the ‘new’ Andrew Martin with his family and in a way the ‘new’ Andrew Martin becomes human: He begins to experience empathy, love, understanding and more. But this ‘new’ Andrew Martin also makes mistakes as we humans do. He then has a conundrum of sorts: Complete his mission and return to his home planet or stay in human form.
This book was entertaining and I did giggle quite a bit. I did have some issues with the narrator; he did not totally work for me. His narration was a bit flat and toneless, which made it harder for me to listen to. I did get used to it, but it didn’t really work for me. This could also be the narrator’s interpretation and presentation of the alien character. The narration did cause me to rate this novel 3.5 stars.
It is a good book, but I would say read it over listening to the narration.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Audiobook Review: The Payback Girls by Alex Travis
The Payback Girls
Author: Alex Travis
Narrator: Tamika Katon-Donegal
Published: April 1, 2025
Audiobook: 10 hours
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: April 30- May 5, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars
Book Description:
Why get over your cheating ex when you can get even? John Tucker Must Die meets One of Us Is Lying in a gripping, binge-worthy debut thriller.
His first mistake was underestimating them.
Senior year is going to be perfect. Meghan won’t settle for anything less. She’s already crushing her classes and dating the star of the basketball team. Nate’s friends have been less than welcoming, but it’s never easy being one of the only Black kids at a mostly white prep school. Still, Meghan did not expect the scene at pep rally.
Robin and Bria dated Nate too. Correction: are dating him. He never broke up with them, and Meghan is furious.
When Nate is found bloodied and unconscious in the locker room after the big game, suddenly the three teens are prime suspects—and a tenuous alliance may be the only way to clear their names. Except Meghan doesn’t remember everything that happened that night, and she’s starting to have feelings for one of the exes. One thing is for sure: the more clues they uncover, the more Meghan, Bria, and Robin each look responsible
Jessica’s Review:
The Pay Back Girls is a YA novel that is high on the drama while also showing a commentary on being a black girl minority in a white dominated school. We have a star athlete that was attacked and he was dating three girls, none knowing about the others. We have the infidelity, adding in some amnesia with one character on what happened to Nate on the night in question; we also see the girls deal with social media warfare/bullying galore, and some LGBTQ themes. Put all of this together and we have a book full of drama with some immature girls who can’t seem to make up their mind on if they want to be friends and work together or not on who hurt Nate.
I am far from the target audience but the book description intrigued me, so I wanted to listen to it. But this book was not for me. We have three very different girls who all look suspicious in that that they all could have hurt Nate. They go from not liking each other to becoming friends and working together to try find the culprit. And two of them realize that they actually like each other as more than friends. And despite Nate cheating on all three of them, they still realized that they had feelings for him. These teen girls are confusing!
We do find out who the culprit was and I was a little surprised with that. Other than the novel not being for me, I did like to see real-world issues being brought to the spotlight in a way for the teenage reader to experience.
The narrator Tamika Katon-Donegal, did a great job with her narration. She really brought on the teen girl feeling.
Many thanks for the publisher for granting me a copy to listen to and review. I just wish I had enjoyed it more!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK