Reading Without Resolutions: Letting Go of Bookish Pressure

It's that time of year again when people are celebrating their reading accomplishments, and the naysayers are out in full force. This discourse happens every single December, with people creating posts, videos, and comments, dragging and degrading those who have read 100+ books. I will never understand this perspective, as reading just one book is winning!

With this discourse comes the return of New Year's language: goals, challenges, numbers, accountability. Even reading, which is one of the quietest, most personal pleasures, gets lumped into productivity culture, which is where I think some of the animosity toward those who have read more than us stems from. We're encouraged to set book counts, maintain reading streaks, and hit monthly targets. To read more. To read better. To read correctly. And in all of this, pressure begins to creep in. If reading has ever felt like another obligation on your to-do list to "keep up with the Jonses," then this post is for you.

When Reading Becomes Performance

Reading is deeply personal, often happening in private silence without witnesses. With the advent of social media, especially that of Bookstagram and BookTok, reading culture has become an increasingly outward performance.

We track our books.

We announce our goals.

We measure our success by volume.

None of these things is inherently bad, however. I love tracking my reading progress, setting goals, and logging my daily reading. However, when you are chronically scrolling through these book tracking apps and websites, such as GoodReads, Fable, and Storygraph, or even on Bookstagram or BookTok, it can subtly shift the way reading feels. Instead of asking yourself What do I want to read?, we start asking, What should I be reading? If you are a slow reader, like me, you begin to feel guilty for not reading faster. Reading becomes a task to complete, not something to inhabit and enjoy.

A lot of this pressure stems from unspoken ideas about what a "good reader" looks like, pressure that is promoted by influencers. A good reader finishes books quickly, reads widely and diversely, keeps up with new releases, always has something constructive to say, and never seems to struggle with posting, reviewing, and generating content.

The reality is, most of us don't look like this. Some of us read slowly. Some of us get stuck in reading slumps where we read little to nothing for long stretches of time. Sometimes we choose to reread the same comfort read over and over again because the world feels like too much. This doesn't make you less of a reader. It just makes you human.

Why Reading Resolutions Often Backfire

Like all resolutions and goals, reading resolutions are usually made with the best of intentions. They promise motivation, consistency, and structure, but for some readers, they end up doing the exact opposite. Instead of encouraging us, they make us feel guilty and unworthy, but why does this happen?

1. They prioritize quantity over experience. A book finished isn’t always a book enjoyed. When numbers take center stage, attention shifts away from immersion, reflection, and pleasure.
2. They ignore seasonal and emotional shifts. How you read in winter may not resemble how you read in summer. Energy, focus, and capacity fluctuate seasonally, and rigid goals rarely account for that. When I am going through a particularly difficult time, I tend to hide in books, but when I am happy and healthy, reading takes a back seat in favor of activities outside of the home.
3. They turn reading into a metric. Once success is measured numerically, falling behind can feel like failure, even when reading is meant to be restorative. It becomes a competition, with ourselves and others. Who has read the most? Who has read the least? A good reader should be reading 50, 100, 200 books a year, right?
4. They create guilt around rest. Not reading becomes something that needs to be "fixed," rather than a neutral or even necessary pause. You are not required to read every day. Taking a break or entering into a slump is normal!

Reframing Reading as Rest, Not Achievement

I am not saying you can't continue to set reading goals, but how you treat that goal should change. Reading should be reframed as rest, not output. When you do this, you shift how you interact with books and reading. You give yourself permission to choose books that match your energy, read at your own pace, take breaks when needed, and even DNF books that just aren't working for you.

Reading without rigid resolutions doesn't mean reading without intention. You can still set the goals, track your progress, and celebrate your wins, but you should also include softer, more responsive reading practices that help alleviate the pressure of "success."

Instead of focusing on book count, try noticing your reading patterns. What kinds of stories are holding your attention right now? When do you feel most drawn to reading? What pulls you away from it?

Instead of forcing yourself to complete books, open yourself up to honesty and give yourself permission to engage in "anti-resolution" behaviors. Stop reading a book you are not enjoying. Don't panic when you pause or take a break and return to reading when the interest naturally resurfaces. Allow for reading seasons, choosing heavy books during the quieter periods, and lighter reads when your focus is more scarce. Reread your favorites again and again. Read short, "easy" books and read long, difficult books "badly."

Reading should bring you pleasure and enjoyment. If at any point you feel pressure to read more, I strongly encourage you to take a step back and reassess what you really want to get out of reading. 

Remember, there’s no universal pace you’re supposed to maintain, and, just like the rest of life, your reading doesn’t move forward in a straight line. It expands and contracts in relation to everything else you’re carrying. Some years are full of books. Some years are quiet. Both still belong to you as a reader.

You don’t need a reading goal to begin a new year. Reading doesn’t ask to be improved. It asks to be returned to. So, whether you set a goal or not next year, I hope that reading brings you peace, joy, and well-deserved rest in the coming new year.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas | Book Review

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Series: Cemetery Boys #1
Published by Swoon Reads on September 1, 2020
Genres: YA Fantasy, LGBT, BIPOC
Pages: 344
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

Content Warnings: Murder, Transphobia, Misgendering, Deadnaming, Death, Grief, Blood, Violence, Abuse, Racism, Deportation
Rating:

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him. When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

If you are looking for a book to help diversify your shelf, look no further than Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. While it is distinctly and beautifully Young Adult, it is YA fantasy done right. Cemetery Boys is a coming-of-age story rooted in gender expression, familial ties, and culture. Thomas does an exceptional job of immersing the reader in the family's cultural roots, including both the good and the bad. This truly highlights how families sometimes get things wrong, but that those transgressions can be forgiven when real change takes place, and people grow.

Our main character, Yadriel, is a young, trans boy, struggling to be accepted by his family for who he truly is. What's interesting is that, unlike other books where the queer character is wholly accepted or wholly rejected, Yadriel exists in a liminal space. His family very clearly loves him, with several fully accepting his transition, while others express their love with backhanded, transphobic comments to boot. This made the story feel so much more real as we watch Yadriel struggle with what many young queer children experience. Yadriel wants nothing more than to be fully and wholly accepted by his family for who he truly is, and we watch as he struggles to reconcile his desire to be a part of his family while also being authentically Yadriel. All of this is tied to the disappearance of his cousin, whom the family believes has been murdered. Yadriel believes that if he can find his cousin and help his soul rest, he will finally be accepted into the family as his true self.

“You don’t need anyone’s permission to be you, Yads.."

During this process, Yadriel unexpectedly resurrects a ghost of one of his fellow classmates, Julian, and the two set off to find themselves. What unfolds is a beautiful, yet humorous, love story of two boys coming into their own. I am getting teary-eyed just thinking about the ending and the purity of the love Yads and Julian share. It is sure to move even the most stoic of readers.

Thomas is a truly exceptional storyteller, although there are several instances of info-dumping, which reduced my 5-star rating down to a 4. I generally like to be shown instead of told, as I am sure many of you do too, but it didn't pull terribly away from the story. Overall, a very solid read that will leave you craving more.

Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid | Book Review

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid
Published by HarperCollins on March 4, 2025
Genres: YA Fantasy, Dystopian, LGBT
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover
Source: OwlCrate

Content Warnings: Abuse, Violence, Gore, Death of a Child, Classism, Misogyny, Trauma, Body Commodification, Fire, Suicide, Murder, Adult-Minor Relationship
Rating:

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society. Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet. Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks. When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive. For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption. As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing. And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.

This year, I have read almost all of the books Ava Reid has written, and I have come to two conclusions: they like to use the word "gorge," and they are a talented writer but not great at telling a story. This last point is extremely disappointing. Reid has some of the most gorgeous prose I have ever read and some of the absolute best passages and lines of any author, but their stories almost always fail to deliver. Fable for the End of the World is one of these cases where the story fell flat, despite the beautiful prose.

Fable for the End of the World takes place in a future where the Earth has been ravaged by climate change and war, resulting in strange evolutions among the wildlife and a significant class divide. Despite the obvious issues of capitalism and innovation that brought about the present landscape, the wealthy continue to push capitalism, hiding away in their pristine cities and attending banquets and parties while the common folk suffer. In order to survive, people take on astronomical debts, and eventually, that deceptively endless supply of credit runs out, and the debt must be paid, often in blood. Unfortunately, this often results in parents turning over their children or elderly parents to participate in the Gauntlet, in which they are hunted by modified women on live television. These televised events are deliberately sprinkled with ads to encourage even more spending while reminding those with less are in a precarious situation. You can't fight oppression if you are fighting for your life.

This dystopian future is not much different from our own, minus the grotesquely "mutated" animals and humans, of course. I thoroughly enjoyed Reid weaving modern-day politics into a fantastical tale, as this helps put our current political and social climate into perspective for readers, especially young readers. We are living in a time where the class divide is deepening, and the disconnect between the common folk and the ultra-wealthy is becoming increasingly noticeable. Contrary to what you might think, you are closer to homelessness than you are to becoming a billionaire, and they do not care about you. Fable for the End of the World makes this very, very clear. The poor and struggling are a source of entertainment to die at the whims of those with more, especially to keep a corporation going. It calls out corporate oligarchies, the dehumanizing nature of online and streaming culture, the commodification of women's bodies, and our obsession with violence as a form of entertainment.

There is a passage toward the end of the book that sums this up rather succinctly. I am going to quote most of the passage because of everything in the story; this is the most important message:

"Debts. It all began with debts. Student loans, medical bills, mortgages, credit cards—all of it weighing down New Amsterdam's government like an anchor attached to a bloated corpse. People died and passed their debts on to their children, on to their children's children. Shackled by the debt that followed them for generations, people stopped buying houses and cars. The birth rate plummeted. There was a shortage of doctors and skilled professionals because who was going to take on the extra debt of getting an advanced degree, on top of everything else?

In an act of benevolence, Caerus bought all of New Amsterdam's debt. They begin a staggered program of loan forgiveness to jump-start the economy...And in order to entice people to buy houses and cars and to get their degrees, Caerus offered a massive line of credit to anyone purchasing their products: up to five hundred thousand credits.

...Looking back, anyone could've predicted what happened next. The erosion of lines between corporation and government. People clamoring for Caerus's CEO to replace the governor. An election with questionable democratic integrity. Schools that used to be state-run dissolved and replaced with a new standard curriculum created by Caerus.

...Caerus was running every other aspect of life in New Amsterdam—why not education, too? Why not military and defense? Why not housing and transportation? Why not health and human services?

..Because the truth is, things could always be worse. Sure, some people couldn't pay their debts and have to die for it, but those people are the stupid, the indulgent, the weak. As long as it's always somebody else, it's easy to blame them, easy, even, to cheer for their deaths."

As Trump's second term has worn on, I have found myself on more than one occasion thinking about this passage. The writing is on the wall, and so many are just sitting on the sidelines saying, "It could be worse!" And while that is true, that isn't an excuse to justify being a bystander to fascism and corporate greed. It was this passage and the underlying themes of the narrative that originally prompted me to give Fable for the End of the World a 4-star rating, which I have since reduced to a 3.5 because the rest of the story wasn't there.

The enemies-to-lovers trope was poorly executed, with the two leading girls falling in love significantly faster than they should have. They were enemies all of two seconds before sharing a bed. Like, I get times are tough, but what?? 

There is also zero resolution. Inesa's time in the Gauntlet does nothing. It doesn't spark revolutionary thoughts, it doesn't open anyone's eyes, it just is. This was incredibly frustrating to me, but, at the same time, extremely realistic. If the Palestinian genocide has taught me anything, it's that many people are willing to look atrocities in the face and say, "Eh...not my problem." I was really hoping Reid would offer young readers not only hope, but also the tools they need to fight against corporate oligarchs, fascism, and oppression. This would have been the perfect opportunity to provide those tools; instead, I was left saying, "That's it??"

My other major complaint with Fable for the End of the World is the number of times Reid used "gorge." It was used so often that I, too, wanted to vomit. Please learn a new phrase. Thankfully, Reid did a much better job in A Theory of Dreaming, which I recently finished, so maybe they are learning.

Despite the flaws in storytelling, Fable for the End of the World is a must-read, especially for younger folks. Books are political, as they should be, and Fable for the End of the World is a great way to introduce young readers to the threats we are facing today. They are our future, after all, and I will always choose not to sacrifice them for corporate greed.

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young | Book Review

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
Published by Delacorte Press on October 17, 2023
Genres: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Mystery
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

Content Warnings: Domestic Abuse, Mental Illness, Suicide, Gun Violence, Murder, Grief, Police Brutality, Child Abandonment, Racism, Bigotry, Pregnancy/Childbirth, Sexual Assault, Death, Misogyny
Rating:

In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors. It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere—the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own. After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.

The Unmaking of June Farrow is not a book I would typically pick up. While it is listed as fantasy, it certainly falls more into magical realism. I have no issues with magical realism, but it isn't often my preferred genre of book. However, I was not disappointed.

The Unmaking of June Farrow is my introduction to Adrienne Young, whose writing and storytelling are absolutely enchanting. There are not many authors out there whose writing utterly pulls me into a story and brings tears to my eyes while also telling a beautiful and compelling story. Young is now among that small list of authors.

In The Unmaking of June Farrow, we follow June Farrow, who comes from a long line of women who eventually succumb to madness. But the reality of this madness is so much more than anyone can truly understand, an understanding we come to right along with June. While the first genre category is listed as fantasy, followed by magical realism, the heart of The Unmaking of June Farrow is a mystery. What is the red door, and where does it lead? Why do the women eventually go mad?

I am about to give away a "spoiler," so if you want to be surprised, please know I enjoyed the story and writing and hope you find enjoyment in this afternoon read too.

When June eventually decides to go through the red door, we learn that the women in June's family can time-travel and choose to do so out of love. June, unbeknownst to her, has travelled before, and the life her previous self left behind left a gaping hole in the lives of her family. We are presented with a timeless love that surpasses time itself while solving an age-old town mystery. As I mentioned, we are unmade with June, the reality coming forth slowly. There were times I felt the story was too slow and was frustrated with June for not feeling more urgency. My anxiety could never!

“It loomed over me, an infinite number of forgotten moments living beneath its roof. But forgotten wasn't the right word, was it? How could I forget something if I hadn't lived it yet?”

And while I enjoyed the overall story, The Unmaking of June Farrow did leave me grieving the life June didn't get to live, the life she left behind in the present. We are given brief flashes of what her future could have been, including the unfolding of a profound love between her and her best friend, Mason, who is the perfect man, by the way. This was honestly the most disappointing aspect of the entire book. Eamon, who is supposed to be her greatest love interest, did not live up to the timeless love story that I thought we might get with Mason. I say Young writes a second book where June refuses to go through the door and live her life in the present, but that is likely a pipedream.

Overall, The Unmaking of June Farrow was a solid 4-star read for me, and one you could likely finish in in afternoon if you are impatient like me. Haha!