Book Riot's 2023 Read Harder Challenge - May Update: Into The Bright Unknown & A Master of Djinn

Happy Thursday everyone!  I hope everyone's been doing well.  How is it practically summer already?  Anyway, I've now competed the ten tasks of Book Riot's 2023 Read Harder Challenge.  The tasks I completed this month required me to read an author local to you and any book from the Ignyte awards shortlist/longlist/winner list and I selected Into the Bright Unknown (The Gold Seer Trilogy #3) by Rae Carson and A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn Universe #1) by P. Djeli Clark respectively.  Read on to see my mini reviews and my plans for next month:

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Into the Bright Unknown (The Gold Seer Trilogy #3) by Rae Carson is a great finale to what has been pretty fantastic YA historical fantasy western series.  I've always been interested in the California Gold Rush, and this has done a good job of putting a unique spin on the world.  There aren't nearly enough YA western or western adjacent novels out there, but this series does it justice.  I wish I had gotten around to this series earlier.  I know I'll miss all of these characters.

My review is also on Goodreads.

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A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn Universe #1) by P. Djeli Clark hit so many of the right notes for me.  Honestly, it's always good to read something new from P. Djèlí Clark.  My favorite aspect of this steampunk mystery is the setting of an alternate 1912 Cairo.  The characters were all great, but they never quite stood out to me as much as setting.  I need to read the other shorts featuring this world asap.

My review is also on Goodreads.

Next Up For June: 

Read a book that’s been challenged recently in your school district/library OR read one of the most-challenged/banned books of the year by a queer and/or BIPOC author

My choice: Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison - I've seen this YA coming-of-age novel come up in a lot of challenges/ bans this year.  It's time I give it a try for myself.

Read a nonfiction book about BIPOC and/or queer history.

My choice: The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in Nazi Death Camps by Heinz Heger - This incredibly important history book has been left on my tbr for way too long.

Are you taking part in this challenge?  Have you read any of these books?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!