So, the OWL's Magical Readathon is officially over now and I'm extremely happy to say that I passed all of the OWL exams and completed all the prompts to get 12 OWLs! Not only this but I actually managed to complete 22 books instead of the 12 needed. This means I can definitely do any career but I will be aiming for Magizoologist and Animagus Training in the NEWTs in August. I also passed the prompt for the Dragon Tamer course as well.
Anyway, as I said I completed all 12 prompts and received an OWL in every subject, although what I read did differ slightly from my original TBR (which can be found here). I found that some books fit different prompts better than others in the end, and some books didn't end up fitting any prompts at all. So, without further ado, here is my OWL Readathon Wrap-up!
Ancient Runes - Heart Rune: A Book with a Heart on the Cover or in the Title
Star Rating: 5 stars
This stayed true to my original TBR so I re-read the graphic novel Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman. As I said, this was a re-read for me and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it for a second time. This graphic novel series follows Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson in a UK Secondary School, and their experience with coming out.
Arithmancy - Balance/Opposites: Read Something Outside Your Favourite Genre
Star Rating: 5 stars
Again, this book stayed the same and I manged to read the second volume of Heartstopper!
Astronomy - Night Classes: Read the Majority of this Book when it's Dark Outside
Star Rating: 5 stars
And then I read the final Heartstopper volume that's out right now. Again, this stayed the same as my TBR and I managed to read it all in the evening. I loved all three of these graphic novels and I highly recommend reading them! They're all available online from the author too!
Care of Magical Creatures - Hippogriffs: Creature with a Beak on the Cover
Star Rating: 3 stars
For this prompt, I read Our Zoo by June Mottershead which is non-fiction book about the creation of Chester Zoo. This was really interesting and it's fascinating to see how zoos were run in the mid-1900s. My only issue with this book was the animal deaths and lack of animal care that happened by certain people in the book (not by Chester Zoo). If you're interested in the history of Chester Zoo then I'd definitely recommend giving it a read!
Charms - Lumos Maxima: White Cover
Star Rating: 2 stars
For this prompt, I read a book that I've had on my ereader for about 5 years. Unfortunately, this YA book really hasn't aged well. It follows a girl who moves from America to Japan and ends up meeting a mysterious guy. In all honesty, it felt like another Twilight romance but with the difference of it being set in Japan with Japanese mythology, rather than vampires. The characters felt bland and two-dimensional and the only character I liked wasn't really in the book that much. It also wasn't an own voices book (although I initially thought it was), which made me a little uncomfortable as I can't say how accurate any of the representation is. I think if you like paranormal romances with a broody love interest then you might like this.
Defence Against the Dark Arts - Grindylows: Book Set at Sea or at the Coast
Star Rating: 3 stars
For this subject, I was initially going to read both The Iliad and The Odyssey, but I only ended up reading The Iliad. This epic poem follows the Trojan War and some of the battles that occurred. To be honest, I think I would have enjoyed this more if I'd had a different translation. The translation I had was a bit strange and used the Roman names for the Gods, even though the characters were Greek? The story itself was interesting but I just didn't enjoy the translation of this.
Divination - Third Eye: Assign Numbers to your TBR and Let a Random Number Generator Pick Your Next Read
Star Rating: 3 stars
This prompt stayed true to my TBR and it's also the first Sylvia Plath book I've ever read. Before this, I'd only read her poetry and found it okay. This book was really fascinating and explored some truly unlikeable characters. I will say that it wasn't too memorable for me but it was definitely worth the read.
Marley & Me by John Grogan
Star Rating: 2 stars
For Herbology, I ended up reading Marley & Me by John Grogan. This book was on my TBR for about 10 years and I'd always looked forward to reading it. Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. I love animal stories, don't get me wrong, but this is also a part-biography of the people and it focused a lot on their lives. I also really really disliked the use of choke chains and certain training techniques (like kicking the dog when he tried to jump up?), and it just made me very uncomfortable. I know this book is beloved so it might just be me, but yeah, it just didn't sit well for me.
History of Magic - Witch Hunts: Book Featuring Witches or Wizards
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Star Rating: 2 stars
This is the first prompt I actually ended up changing fully. So, because I didn't read The Odyssey, I didn't want to read Circe yet. So, I changed this prompt to A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I've heard mixed things about this book and the TV Show that came out a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, this book wasn't really for me. I really liked the description of settings, but that's about it. It's mostly a paranormal romance, but I didn't really like many of the characters. The male love interest felt very toxic and to excuse that, it was just repeated that he was a vampire so that makes it okay? It was also very slow and nothing really happened. I loved the main characters Aunts and their house; that was probably my favourite part of the whole book. Sadly, I won't be continuing with the rest of this series.
Muggle Studies - Book from the Perspective of a Muggle (a Contemporary)
Star Rating: 3 stars
For this prompt, I read a book I received in an Illumicrate box a couple of years ago. This book follows Beck, a young concert pianist, and what happens when he meets August, who turns his life upside-down. I really liked that this wasn't really a love story and that it's more a story of family and family interactions. I also liked that this wasn't a book that just wrapped up easily because it felt so much more realistic. I will say, the abuse in this book was horrible and difficult to read, so if you can't read about physical/mental abuse from parents, then I wouldn't read this book as it's quite dark. I ended up giving this 3 stars in the end and I'll probably end up unhauling it; it was fine but it wasn't anything spectacular for me, unfortunately.
Potions - Shrinking Solution: A Book Under 150 Pages
Star Rating: 3 stars
This book is a prequel to Ink which I read for the Charms prompt. I actually enjoyed this prequel more than the actual book, but it still wasn't the best. I only really liked the chapters from Katie and found the chapters from Tomohiro a bit boring. I won't be reading anything else from this series.
Transfiguration - A Book that includes Shapeshifting
Star Rating: 5 stars
Again, this stayed true to my original TBR and I read Crescent City/House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas. This is her first adult fantasy series and was easily my most anticipated book of the year (for good reason). This book was definitely slower-paced than her previous books but it definitely paid off with the last 150 pages. Absolutely amazing and I highly recommend if you enjoy urban fantasies.
I also read Temeraire by Naomi Novik in order to complete the Dragon Tamer additional qualification!
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary - 4.5 stars
Death Note Volume 1 by Okba & Obata - 5 stars
Timeshock by Timothy Michael Lewis - 2 stars
Beach Read by Emily Henry - 5 stars
Death Note Volume 2 by Okba & Obata - 5 stars
Death Note Volume 3 by Okba & Obata - 4.5 stars
Scrublands by Chris Hammer - 3.5 stars
The Bromance Bookclub by Lyssa Kay Adams - 4 stars
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen - 5 stars
So, those were the books I read for this readathon and all of the OWLs I passed! Let me know if you took part and feel free to share your blogs/videos with me! As I said in my TBR post, this amazing readathon was created by Book Roast on Youtube. The readathon took place between April 1st and April 30th and will happen again next year! Keep an eye out for August when the NEWT Readathon will start!
So, those were the books I read for this readathon and all of the OWLs I passed! Let me know if you took part and feel free to share your blogs/videos with me! As I said in my TBR post, this amazing readathon was created by Book Roast on Youtube. The readathon took place between April 1st and April 30th and will happen again next year! Keep an eye out for August when the NEWT Readathon will start!
