Reading My 2025 Priorities | A Vlog

Another year done. Another priorities vlog done. Just barely, just under the wire. So, just like last year and the year before, this is the third year in a row that I've done this. I chose 12 books to make my priorities for the year and then vlogged me reading those 12 books throughout the year. And in case you need a refresher or you missed that video where I selected my 12 and explained why, here they are. For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten. Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James. Disqu Gods by Christopher Rockio. The Lost Queen by Sydney Sydney Pike. The Miniaturist by Jesse Burton. Harry Sodto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reed. The 13th Child by Aaron A. Craig. Foundry Side by Robert Jackson Bennett. Anxious People by Friedick Bachman. Fairy Tale by Steven King. All's Well by Mona Aad. And Lady McBth by Ava Reed. Without further ado, here is how I got on with all of those books. Next is a book that I was quite excited about. This one I actually haven't owned for a very long time. I This is a recent acquisition, but since acquiring it, I heard very bad things and it made me go, "Whoa." So, I'm not going to put my patrons through reading it. Not that I have that power cuz I can propose it, but they have to vote for it. But anyway, we'll see. I I'll read it. We'll see how it goes. And that is Lady McBTH by Ava Reed. And this is a stunning, gorgeous um edition from Water St. And I hope I like it cuz it's Shakespeare inspired. This cover is stunning. We'll see. I did read A Study in Drowning in 2024. Oh, and I dropped it. Um, yeah, I read A Study in Drowning in 2024 and I didn't really like it that much. I didn't hate it, but there was I had some problems with it and I've heard pretty much nothing but negative things about this, but I often I mean there's a lot of books that people feel negatively about that I like. We'll see. Maybe I'll think it's genius and everyone's wrong or I'll be like, "Oh, yikes. Yeah, that was really bad." So, we'll find out. And book one is done. Lady McBth by Ava Reed. Um, if the title is not a clue, this is a retelling um of the story of McBTH, but from the perspective of Lady M herself. And um when Shakespeare wrote about a naive 17-year-old French up upy princess who's just cast about to the whims of evil men, that story absolutely called out to be rewritten from a feminist perspective, recasting her as a powerful woman with agency. And oh wait, um that's actually the other way around, isn't it? Yeah. What? What the [ __ ] Lady McBth? like, okay, I was intrigued, but this is not a character that was calling out to be uh given like a a feminist retelling because Lady McBth, the original, is already one of the greatest female characters ever written in [clears throat] the English language. So, a story that celebrates that or, you know, centers that, sure. Um, but really the only twist on that story that you could do is to undo that. You already have a character that's powerful with a great deal of agency. So if you're going to do some kind of a reversal, the only way to go is down. So, usually like one of my absolute favorite retellings that does this of taking a character and doing feminism is The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, which takes the character of Elizabeth Levenza from Mary Shell's Frankenstein and tells the whole story of Frankenstein from her perspective. And she in the original is like a wallflower character that isn't really, you know, is is not just not the protagonist, but is like definitely kind of like a just a wafish girl off to the side. And to tell the story from her perspective, to recontextualize the whole thing from her perspective is a brilliant move. But Lady McBTH, the original, is already like a girl boss. [gasps] Like Lady McBth is one of the most like I mean I it doesn't need to be said, right? Like this is not a controversial take that Lady McBth is incredibly written. It's like not just like for for the time that it was written, but obviously for the time that it was written, but by today's standards, Lady McBth, the original, is an incredible female character. So, like looking at these blurbed reviews, I'm like, what? Um, for example, it's this one really is the one that stuck out to me. It says um Hail Queen Ava Reed has done it again in this Gothic atmospheric reclamation of the story of Lady McBth. Was Lady McBth in need of reclamation? Why? What? What part of the story was what? Why? And I'm not saying it's off it's off the table. It's off limits that you can't do McBTH um because it's already perfect. Although kind of [laughter] I And you could you could even do a story where Lady McBth goes from being this powerful character like she is in the original and instead making her a much less powerful, much more naive character. But then the point of that story is not to recast her as a girl boss. The point of that story would be to do something very different with it. And I don't know exactly what that would be, but I mean that is certainly a thing you could do and there could be something to that. Like I'm just spitballing now, but thinking about how like Lady McBth is the villain or one of the villains. Like the protagonists of McBth are McBth and Lady McBth, but they are also unambiguously the villains of the story. So to say that if you did like a reclamation of Lady McBth where she's um forced to go along with murder and she didn't want to um and then history cast her as the villain that manipulated her husband because it was going to keep the reputation of McBth pure or something like that. Like if that's what we were going for. Um which like if someone was going to try to argue that that's what this was doing. No, absolutely not. I'm saying that you could do something like that. But again, the point of that story would not be that Lady McBth is a girl boss because a character that is forced into that situation and is doing this, that, and the other and is not like the the one moving and shaking. She would be necessarily a weaker character, necessarily a character that is um acting out the the the will of someone else, not acting out her own will. So you going to you're going to have to like sacrifice the girl bossess to make her innocent, which is a thing you could do. You could do that in a story. Here we want to have our cake and eat it too because Lady McBth, you know, she's this is a girl boss of the modern day feminism. Patriarchy is evil. Let's go. Um, but then we've decided to do it by taking the already powerful character of Lady McBth and instead making her a waifish, selfish, xenophobic pain in the ass that I [gasps] why why and then another big problem. So, this is speculative. I mean, I guess the original McBTH is also arguably speculative. It depends on how seriously you take the witch and the ghost or the witches and the ghost. Um, this is like straight up fantasy. Lady McGath herself has powers and then um, smile spoilers, there is um, shape-shifting of one of the characters, which was truly ridiculous. Like, why? Um but so one of the problems with historical fiction or um historical fantasy that decides to take a story where um in in the original telling or how history like what went down in history was that women were being um harmed, women were being suppressed, women were being mistreated with the the excuse being given is that of witchcraft that they have powers that they have they've consorted with the devil. And so then for that reason they should be feared and punished. And so because that's not a thing IRL, we know that any woman that's accused of this is innocent. Like we don't need any proof. It's because that's just not a thing. So if you're saying, "Oh, this woman is an evil witch. Burn her." We know you just burned an innocent woman because there is no such thing as witchcraft. Um, so books and movies and whatever and stories that decide to again have their cake and eat it too where they're like, well, we want this to be speculative and girl bossy, so we're going to say yes, they are witches. They really do have witch powers. Um, but we're also still going to have the story but about be how these evil men are um being so awful and harming these totally innocent women. Like I'm not saying that's impossible. Actually, really recently, like um at the end of 2024, um I read Sloohoot by Braum. And that was one of the things I called out about it was that like that's a really really hard like walk to walk is because like the thing that makes these these these people from history or these types of characters um tragic victims is that they are innocent. That they they were not witches. And so if you make them really witches, you kind of lose the moral high ground in the you're burning innocent women when it's like no, but they're right. Like they are witches though. Like the these men aren't good people, but they are correct. These are witches. Like you know um whereas if it's like something like the Crucible um the play they are not witches, they're just innocent women, you know. So it's like anyway, you get I think you get what I mean. So here uh we do that. So Lady McBth, this is like not a thing in the original McBth at all. This is completely Ava Reed's invention. So, it's not even a thing of like, let's recontextualize this thing that's already in it because I'm not talking about the witches. I am not actually talking about the witches. What's done with the witches is also kind of weird. But Lady McBth herself, who again, 17-year-old French girl, not powerful, mature Scottish woman, but 17-year-old French waif. Um, because [ __ ] the Scottish. Like, we just despise the Scottish. um just can cannot be overstated how much we are against Scotland in this book. Like I don't know why you decided to pick McBth when you apparently despise Scotland. But okay, so 17-year-old McBth girl um she is so beautiful and so witchy that like it's kind of like a Medusa type situation. not full on, but like she has her face or her eyes veiled because if men look upon her, only men, women are safe from her powers, but if men look at her, they um like fall victim to her spell and they can be compelled by her or whatever. Now, does she use these powers in a way that's really cool and cunning? No. The real Lady McBth with no witch powers is much more cool and cunning. Um, but part two of that is that it's framed as all these evil men suppressing this this woman and like how like if we IRL veiled a woman's face because we were like, "She's too pretty and it's witchcraft and she needs to be hidden," we'd be like, "Wow, men are the worst." But in the case of this book, she actually has powers. She actually can compel a man when her veil is lifted and and they can see her eyes. So again, I'm not saying the way she's treated in this book by the universally evil men, because by the way, if you are a man, you are evil. And if you are a Scottish man, you are beyond saving. Um because the only thing worse than a man is a Scottish man. Um so the men um who are mistreating her, cuz obviously they're men, so like what else would you expect? Um when they veil her like this and are saying, "Oh, it's it's evil witchcraft." um like we're it's it has this tone again of like how these awful men are controlling this woman, but again like they're they're correct. They are right to be scared of her when she has that power. Like I'm not saying that like if someone is powerful, the right thing to do is to like chain them up and and say they shouldn't have access to that power. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying they weren't wrong to be afraid of this. She absolutely has magic powers and they are correct to be afraid of that. Um, so like what point are we trying to make? Like do you know what I'm saying? Um, and then again like the Scottish women in this like the only thing that's like they're better only because they're not Scottish men, but Scottish women also can go [ __ ] themselves. Um, because we only like the British and the French. Um, yeah. Like I guess we pity the Scottish women for being born Scottish and then we hate the Scottish men because they're men and then also Scottish. I just why [gasps] I'm I'm not going to say it's fine to hate Scotland because that's very weird. I don't know why you hate Scotland. But if you do hate Scotland, did you think this book would make people see it your way? Is like like why would you do this? Like if you just don't like Scotland, then just don't write about it. Or unless of course, like I said, you are writing this because you're hoping to like let help people to see it from your point of view that people will go, "Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, fucks." [laughter and gasps] Um, and it might help if you actually like Googled some stuff, you know, like how like geography, history, language. Um, you know, so to so that we're clear on the the people that we hate so much to to get them correct, you know, uh, cuz that's not great in here. I don't know enough to know everything that's wrong. I I know enough to know that a lot of it is wrong. I just And then, okay, spoilers for the end of the book. It's a spoiler that you should absolutely see coming. You should absolutely guess that this is the case. Um, if one you know the play, the the Scottish play McBTH, if you know how that play goes, and if you've read two pages of this book, so you can very clearly see how this is going, you should immediately guess where this is going to end. But I'm going to do a spoiler warning, unlike last year. Like, I'm going to do the spoilers. Um, if you don't want to be spoiled, then skip this part. I'll put something up. Yeah. So the the the twist in the original Scottish play, the original McBTH, um is this prophecy and McBth thinks he's invincible because the prophecy is that like he will not be defeated until the like the forest rises to like up to like comes to him. Um which Forest obviously cannot do and that no man born of woman will be able to kill him. So he's like great, Forest can't move. Every man is born of a woman. I'm golden. No one can hurt me. And so the loopholes for both of these um the forest thing is like branches moving and then the no man born mourn of woman thing is that the man who kills him was like um a C-section baby basically that he was untimely from his mother's womb ripped or whatever. Um so that's how McBth originally goes. Um, and of course like like it's I mean it's it's Shakespeare, so it's like we just accept the fact that while we are fighting with swords, we're going to volunteer information about how we were born so that the audience is clear on how this is a loophole because you know when you're on the battlefield, what is there to talk about besides the circumstances of your birth? So having a man tell McBth as he's killing him that he was untimely from his mother's womb ripped is like a totally normal thing to do. Anyway, um, one guess before I say it, one guess what the twist is in this book. What we do here instead with no man born of woman is going to be able to kill him. What? Did you guess it? Did you guess it? Yeah, she is no man. We did the alowin one. It's not really a twist because the prophecy didn't say that no woman can kill him. The prophecy was just talking about men. So, this is in no way a loophole in that prophecy. I mean, I guess you could say the same thing for Lord of the Rings, which in fairness, Lord of the Rings is also, if you didn't know this, that's actually kind of why that's in Lord of the Rings. The whole like no man can kill me. I am no man. Um, that is a little bit inspired by McBTH as well as the the ants the ants forest the like walking trees in in Lord of the Rings. That was a little bit inspired, actually a lot bit inspired by McBTH because Tolken was disappointed when he saw McBth that when this whole prophecy about the forest coming to him that that he was wanting the forest to like get up and walk like how cool that would that be and um instead there you know it's like that the tree the branches were removed or whatever and he was really disappointed so he made a walking forest in Lord of the Rings. Anyway, again, usually I find like feminist reimaginings and feminist retellings of classic stories of mythological characters, etc. to be pretty shallow and pretty man-hy and pretty like u lacking in subtlety and have very little of anything interesting to say like just generally speaking. But in the case of Lady and McBth, like this isn't just like, oh, this is a really like shallow idea of what feminism is. This isn't even feminism. the original story. Like that's a way better example of feminism. Like and and and and in McBTH, the original um like I said earlier, Lady McBth and McBth, they are the protagonists of the play. They are the characters you are following, but they are the villains of the story. the the play is not trying to convince you that what McBTH and his wife are up to is great, is good, is morally justified. Like they're scheming villainous characters. So here McBth is evil and bad because um he's a Scottish man. So and yeah, no explanation needed. Um and Lady McBth, the French teenager, we are supposed to be rooting for her. This is like supposed to be a triumphant great ending for her, like celebrating her. I guess that's what we mean by a reclamation of Lady McBth, but she is um also doing terrible things constantly. Like she is not redeemable either, but what makes this bad is that the book wants you to root for her, which is baffling. Like again, it means that this is back to my This isn't cozy fantasy, but this is like the problem with cozy fantasy where it's like it's it's not terrible to write characters that do terrible things or that believe terrible things or whatever. It's terrible when the book positions it as like this is good though. Like we're rooting for this. Yay. Um, no. And um I don't Yeah, I don't I think I've talked about study and drowning. If not, whatever. I read study and drowning and I didn't really like it and it gave me the ick on a lot of things, particularly xenophobia, other things as well, but mainly the xenophobia. and my friend tried to like um and succeeded in kind of convincing me that maybe there's some gray area and I'm being overly harsh about it and that like giving it the benefit of the doubt. Um so I was like okay like I mean it initially gave me the ick but I guess a case could be made that this is like the way I'm interpreting it is a really bad faith interpretation and that it could be interpreted more positively. So I was like I don't really like it that much but okay maybe I'm being harsh. Maybe I jumped the gun on assuming the worst, but um having read this now and the extreme xenophobia here, like again, what did Scotland do to you, Ava Reed? Um like now that's true for two that have xenophobia. And I've seen reviews I have those are the only Ava Reed books I've read. Um but I've seen reviews of the wolf one um which I own. Someone gifted me the wolf one um that said that she's like really weirdly like uh anti-hungarians in that one which like having read these two I do not find that difficult to believe. Um, yeah. I'm not going to read any more AA Read books, period. Flat out. It's just obvious. No. No. Yeah. People said this was bad. And again, I was like, "Oh, this is going to be one of those like shallow girl bossy like feminism but like uninteresting kind of books, and it is, but also all the other stuff. Um, wow. Zero stars if I could. Um, terrible start, but um, here's to all the other books being at least better than that. Keeping up with the Shakespeare theme, uh, next I have Allswwell by Mona Aad. Uh, Mona Aad has been real hit and miss for me. I have enjoyed her writing for for both books of hers that I read. I really enjoyed her writing, but the story of Bunny worked so much better for me. I thought it was much more tightly plotted and kind of knew what it was doing better. I I enjoyed that a lot more. Rouge, which I read last year. It started out pretty good, but I felt like it ultimately kind of like lost its way and fumbled the land. So anyway, All is Well, as far as I'm aware, is Mona Aad's either retelling or she's inspired by or in some way to do with Shakespeare's All is Well That Ends Well. And I mean, again, I'm a big Shakespeare nerd. I have enjoyed Mona Awad's writing. And I think that type of writing that she has, that kind of like dreamlike, bizarre, hard to pin down kind of writing style does lend itself to trying to do something with Shakespeare, to do a retelling, to do an homage, to do that kind of a thing. And I think I heard this was also leaning on towards horror, but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, that's why I want to read it. That's why it's on this list. Um, we'll see how it goes. All's well. Um, I didn't really think about this, or maybe I did. Um, but I don't remember thinking about the fact that I had multiple Shakespeare retellings in my list. Um, and for you, this clip is like directly after um, me finishing Lady McBth, but for me, it's been several months. I really hated Lady McBth. I've been struggling and trying to finish for the Wolf since the beginning of the year, and at some point there will be a clip of that, but it's like put me off making progress on reading my priorities. So now, so I read Lady McBth in like for January or whatever. It is May and I just finished All's Well, and this this [snorts] is favorite of the year material. I will say the end it didn't it wasn't like bad. It didn't like ruin it, but I was like riding high. I was like, "This is five out of five stars. This is so good. This is incredible. This is amazing." And the ending I was like, "Fine. Um, and I was thinking about this and I was like I I really don't like have a suggestion for like how I would have wanted it to end or how you could have ended it. Um, cuz I did keep wondering. I was like, I don't know how you're going to end this. Um, I can't wait to find out. And I feel like maybe Mona also was kind of like, um, I'm going to end it like this. I guess [gasps] it's it's like fine. It's not a bad ending. It's just Yeah, I don't know how you end it. Um, so I guess that's fine. Um anyway, so yeah, um not only is this a Shakespeare retelling, this turns out to actually be a McBTH retelling. So this is named Allswwell and it's named for the Shakespeare play All Well That Ends Well, and it does um it is about Allwell that Ends Well also. So like I guess it's a retelling of both in some respects but it's more so a retelling of McBTH while like in like in the text it is um talking about all that as well but the events of the book are McBth if that makes sense. Um probably doesn't make sense if you haven't read it. So, this follows a woman who is a an ex actress and she had a terrible accident and so she now is like permanently disabled by that and ever since then she um has been working as a drama professor um cuz you know those who can't do teach is the old saying. So like people who knew her from before like got her that job basically. So, she could still like do theater stuff, but she obviously like couldn't act anymore because acting is a quite physical, like stage acting is a quite physical thing, and she's just physically not able to do that. Uh, and so the play that she's putting on and insisting on putting on um with her students, even though her students don't, her students actually want to do McBTH. And she's like, "No, we're doing all iss Well, that ends well." And they're like, "Why?" Literally, why? Um, and it's not like that this is exactly why cuz it's been years now. Um, and she's put on plenty of other plays, but she her accident happened when she was in All Swell. Um, so she played the female lead in All Swell and that's when her accident happened. Um, so that plays into it a bit, but it's mainly if you've ever read Mona Aad before, which I have, she has a very kind of um, surreal, hard to pin down, quietly horrifying kind of writing style. And that's the case here for sure. Um, but like here, Bunny, I still don't I think I liked Bunny, but I am still not convinced I know what happened in Bunny. Rouge was good until it wasn't. It really truly did not stick the landing. This I was like, "Oh, this this is it. This is where it's the most appropriate to use that style, which is just her always style." And I have read so many Shakespeare retellings and nine times out of 10, uh, nine times out of 10, they are terrible. I I never like them. Shouldn't say never, but I can't think of an example of one that I like besides this. I'm sure there is one specifically Shakespeare. There's retellings I can think of that I like, but yeah. I mean, most of the time when I read a Shakespeare retelling, I can't I'm like I want to ask the author like why? Like, did you feel called to tell this or did you just think that like making it a retelling of Shakespeare would give it name recognition and would would sell copies? like it it never feels like they had they there was like uh motivation behind the choice to do the retelling. I'm always like, "Okay, so you recontextualize the events of the of the original play. Why? To what end? What are you what do you think you're saying with it? Are you trying to say something with it? Like what is the point of this?" um because simply to tell the story in a different context isn't in it in itself worth a worthy endeavor. You know what I mean? Like I you that could tease out some interesting new angles of the story, but I'm most of the time not convinced that that's what's happening. I'm just like, "Oh, you were like, "What if I told this story, but it actually uh takes place here in this time and place?" And you're like, "Okay, but why? What do you think this is doing? [snorts] So this Oh, chef's kiss. This is so so brilliant. I Yes. I don't know how well you would like it if you are not familiar with McBth in particular. Allswwell. It's It's like good to be familiar with All Swell and it's not that well known a play, but I mean there's like quite a few moments when they're like playing out scenes from All Well, referencing scenes from Allswwell very directly, but it's because it's so direct that I don't even think you really do need to know anything because they're putting on All's Well, the play. So, they're talking about the plot of it. They're telling you what happens in All Well, this kind of almost expects you not to know um or gives you the information you would need to know. Whereas McBTH, it kind of assumes you do know. And it keeps referencing McBTH um in ways that it's not necessarily directly telling you. And it's doing such an amazing job of using McBTH but not like leaning on McBTH, if that makes sense. Like when it when it's doing McBTH things, it never feels like and we're doing McBTH now. It's always like, oh my god, and this is this is McBTH is what's happening right now. Like, oh, that's so genius. Yeah. So so good. So good. Had me kind of on the edge of my seat. It's it's a pretty again it's like this surreal dreamlike maybe nightmare-like kind of experience reading Mona Aad. And this is for sure this one. But McBth has that quality as well cuz McBth has to do with like perception and madness and paranoia and all these kinds of things. So like those are like um concepts that are like uh they make sense to put together. Yeah. I mean, I love this, but her writing style is this like kind of like weird surreal kind of thing. So, if that's not your jam, then I wouldn't recommend. If you're not familiar with McBTH and you have no interest in becoming familiar with McBTH, then I wouldn't recommend. But if you are, like if her writing style doesn't sound like an instant turnoff to you and you are familiar with McBTH, this this is what this is how you do it. This is my my new gold standard for like you actually can do a Shakespeare telling well. and Mono Wad has proven that to be the case. Absolutely nailed it. I mean like had a point to do doing a retelling and also in reading this I was I was like she gets it. She gets McBth. Like I would absolutely trust Mona to like I mean I don't know that she knows anything about stage directing although from having written about this woman putting on a stage play it seems that she does but um yeah I was like she she gets it. What's at the core of McBTH? Um, yeah. Nailed it. 10 out of 10. I guess because the ending because I mean again like I don't know how you end this story. I guess if I had a complaint, I almost feel like the ending isn't dark enough. Like I would have been absolutely here for just a completely brutal ending. And the ending is like it's by no means like gumdrops and rainbows, but it's not nearly as brutal as it could have been. And I think maybe it would be better with a more brutal ending, but I don't know because like on on the other hand, like there's an argument to be made for ending it the way that it did end. Like I don't hate the ending. I'm not like, "Oh, that's that's a terrible way to end it." I'm like, "Yeah, I mean that works. That works." Um, so 9.5 out of 10, I guess, for that. But again, I don't have a recommendation for how to improve the ending specifically. But yeah, I mean the the day and night contrast between Lady McBth and Allswell. I I mean I know this is not the order in which this happened, but in the order in which I experienced this, it feels like [laughter] Ava Reed was like [ __ ] around over there, not knowing why she's doing this or what for and doing it terribly. And Mono Wad was like, "Hold my beer." [laughter] Oh, so good. Such a release. Such a pallet cleanse. Um, and I'm actually enjoying the book I currently picked up as part of this project. It is not for the wolf. I at some point we'll have to finish that. But so yeah, things things are are doing better now with this whole project. But yeah, this right now easily could be my favorite for my priorities and it definitely contender for favorite overall of the year. Um, so good. Next is another book that I've owned for a long time. not as long as some of the others, but I was super excited when it came out, mainly because of the cover and feel like everyone's already read it except for me, so it never wins polls because everyone's already read it. But that is Fairy Tale by Stephen King. I've been reading a lot of Stephen King in the last few years. And for the most part, I have not regretted that. He's not always a hit. I actually tend to prefer when he writes things that are not horror. There tends to be horror elements in most of what he writes, but I've much much more preferred cuz and there's also speculative elements in most of what he writes, but not everything. But like this in 2024, I really enjoyed Dolores Clayborn. I really enjoyed Misery. I really enjoyed Carrie, which is more horror. The year before I read maybe it was last year, I forget, but like decently recently I read um Mr. Mercedes. Is that the series or the book? I forget, but the first one. And I my I think my first Stephen No, my first King's Pet Cemetery. But I really love The Eyes of the Dragon and I really love Joy Land. Um I tend to prefer that. I don't really like The Shining or Salem's Lot. Not because they're like too scary for me, I just I find them boring. Anyway, all that to say, Fairy Tale very much intrigues me because uh I don't know too much about it. I did hear kind of mixed reviews, but what this kind of like the cover um and the vibe of it, it looks to me like it's going to have more in common with Eyes of the Dragon, which I love. And I'm not expecting this to be exactly like that, but that's kind of why I'm so intrigued by it. I mean, this cover is stunning. And yeah, that's the story of why this is on the list. Fairy Tale by Stephen King. This is the book that I mentioned in my previous clip that I was in the middle of reading. And the way that I went from caring so much, caring being turned up to 11 to not caring at all to caring a negative amount needs to be studied by science. Oh my god. Like I had seen mixed reviews for this and foolishly I thought that the beginning part which is like not fantastical really um was the part that everyone was like not liking and I was like wow this is the part like I'm really loving this and if I love this part then I must love the whole thing. The fantastical part is the part that absolutely did not work for me at all. Maybe I shouldn't say at all because I guess I have seen worse but I just wow wow wow wow wow wow. So, like I have um read quite a lot of Stephen King books now. Um mainly cuz um my patrons have me like pick the Stephen King books a lot for me to read um for like to vlog for them. And what I've said repeatedly is that a lot of the time when I love Stephen King, it's when he's doing it's when he's showing off his abilities as a character writer because I think he's actually a phenomenal character writer. Um, and it's the fantastical and the horror and all that stuff that it's not like it's scary or something like that. Um, I usually don't find it [laughter] scary. I find it really really boring. I really don't enjoy very much speculative stuff by him. If I like something speculative by him, it's usually because the specul speculative element is sort of the back seat. Um, it's sort of like a small like flavoring to it. So, like Carrie, I loved Carrie. And Carrie certainly has a speculative element, but it's mainly a character-driven story about this young woman. And then there's like kind of this like speculative element that kind of like heightens everything. So, I really like that. And um I really liked my very first Stephen King, which is Pet Cemetery. Although, I I think I only gave it like four or 4.5 because of the speculative part. So, like the speculative part for the most part really again did the thing Carrie does where it kind of like heightens the character part of it. Um but the end went full speculative and completely lost me. So, fairy tale was really, really phenomenal character writing in the beginning. Um, more than the beginning. It's like it's a good chunk of this book before we get to the speculative portal fantasy part of it. The fairy tale part of it and all of that. I was like completely here for this. 10 out of 10. Love this. More of this. It can only get better from here. Right? Wrong. And then like almost like as soon as we do the speculative part where we do the portal fantasy part, we're in the fairy tale now. just negative caring [sighs] just and okay that's not actually true the very beginning this is a really thick book so I guess I'll keep holding it up but um the very beginning of the speculative part of it when we first go into like the portal fantasy part of this I still cared actually a great deal because we were still kind of resolving an existing problem from like the real world and we were going into the fairy tale world to kind of like fix that issue so it was like a carryover over like a residual from the part of the story that I really liked and was super invested in. So then we resolved that part of it and now we're like full on into like fairy tale problems. Like now that we're here, new problems have arisen and now that's what we're dealing with and I just could not care less. I I kept trying to care, kept hoping I would care, kept waiting for the moment that I would care. And honestly, all of the fairy tale part, it just kept feeling like it was like building up towards the part where it would get going, but then it was over. I was like, "Okay, so he's going to do like the this bit for for a bit. Um, but this is like leading to the greater narrative or like this is like we're starting to get somewhere with this, but this is just like the beginning part of it." But no, that's the whole of it. It's actually like a really really simple story. The like fairy tale part of it. Like what ends up being like the situation in fairy tale land that needs to like be dealt with is so I mean I guess aptly named fairy tale. Like it is that simple. Like I don't want to say like it's it's Stephen King, so it's like dark and violent, but like what the situation is and what needs to be accomplished and what needs to be done and what they end up doing is just so brutally straightforward. [laughter] I was like, is that it? like for me to care about this story, like you have to make me care about the characters because there's like nothing to this story that's natively interesting to it cuz this is just there's just like nothing here. Um it's like the the um window dressing is kind of like horrifically fantastical, but like the actual like what's going on here is like there's like nothing to it. And so like the beginning part, which also like I guess has nothing to it, but it was like really really good character work, you know, just like a real normal people with normal everyday problems. And he's actually really good at writing that. But somehow he can't do that with a fantastical character. Even the main character who is like from our world, he suddenly becomes like a fairy tale character that I give no shits about when he's in fairy tale land. He loses the piece of him that like made me care about him in the first place until he's back in the real world and then I suddenly start caring about him again. Like and all the characters that are like native to Fairyland, it's not actually called Fairyland, but like you know like there's just like one one of them I kind of a little bit felt a little something for. barely. And there's like a bunch of characters. There's suddenly a ton of characters in Fairyland, the the main story like or like the the beginning like when we're in real in the real world, there's what, like four characters that like we're following. That's it. And then in Fairyland, there's probably like 20 characters. And I don't remember any of their names. I vaguely remember like the archetypes they fulfilled. I just, oh my god, I cannot possibly overstate how little I care about the fairy tale part of this. Like, as far as I'm concerned, he this book should have been like he wonders about going to Fairyland, decides not to end a book. It would have been five stars. Oh, going to Fairyland snoozefest. And it like again, dark snoozefest, like nightmare snoozefest. But like I didn't feel horrified. I didn't feel tense or scared. The only time I f felt tens or scared was when we were still resolving the real world thing that we were going to fix in Fairyland and I was very on the edge of my seat for that still and I was like okay so this bodess well cuz I still like again this is still just like the normal mundane part of it and I'm so invested like you know can only get no as soon as that was resolved I was like okay so like the thing that I was feeling the most anxious about is is over now like we fixed that so like what are we doing now other stuff? Um, yeah. I just don't care. Uh, all y'all could die. Would not care less. [laughter] So, wow. I am extremely disappointed, which like when I started like the good like like a third of this probably before you get to Fairyland is some of the best I've read. I was hooked. Completely hooked. I just Yeah, it's like the highest highs and the lowest lows. I love would give five stars to the first third of this book. The Veriland part of this book one star. One star is generous. So if this was like a duogy and we split it that way, then that's how that would split. I would give the first book five stars and then the second book were in the fairy land would be zero stars. Um, and I'm really also disappointed because like I haven't really liked Stephen King's specular fiction as I already said, but it's usually like um horror type stuff. Um, like I don't really like The Shining. Again, it's not I don't think it's scary. I just think it's boring. I don't really like Salem's Lot. Um, what else have I read? I don't know. But anyway, um, but I do really like Eyes of the Dragon. And so I was hopeful that like, well, this is going to be speculative, but it's going to be Eyes of the Dragon speculative. This is going to be like the marriage of the two bests of Stephen King, like fantastic IRL stuff, which is just like character-driven storytelling, which he's really good at. And then we're going to get like Eyes of the Dragon fairy tale vibes, which is also phenomenal. And we're going to get the two at once. This is going to be like my favorite book ever. And that is very much not the case. If you're hoping that this is going to be anything like Eyes of the Dragon, it is not. It is not. So, yeah. I guess I'll give this like three stars, which is like an averaging of the two feelings I have, but I feel like if you saw like a three star rating on this, that wouldn't like accurately convey the like amazing amazing and horrible horrible of what this is. It's not just like meh throughout. It's like so good and then so not good. [laughter] Um 10 out of 10 cover though. Love this cover. Fantastic cover. Um [snorts] and yeah, that's that's the next one done. Would I recommend it? I don't know. I genuinely feel like if you read this book, you should just read it up until the part he's going to go to Fairyland or even through the part where he's fixing the real world thing still in Fairyland cuz that's still good. And then just be like, "Okay, and now the story is over. The end." just stop reading [snorts] cuz that's like genuinely worthwhile. It's just so good up until that point um that just pretend the rest doesn't exist. It's it's my sincere advice. [laughter] But um yeah, on to next one. And last is a book that my patrons desperately want to prevent me reading, but I've owned it for a long time and I'm not going to get rid of it before at least finding out if I like this or not. That is Anxious People by Friedrich Bachmann. Never read Friedri Bachman. A couple people have said that I would like Friedick Bachmann, but a lot more people have been like, "Don't read him. Don't ruin this for us, Lyanna. Don't do it." But again, I've had this for a long time. I'm going to at least try it. And maybe I'll hate it. In which case, then we know. But I think I could like it. You never know. Well, we're going to find out in 2025. Anxious People. That's my patrons. Anxious People by Friedrich Bachmann. A book that I heard a lot about. I've had this since 2020 when I got it from Book of the Month. and it's not I mean it's like lit fick and it's this cover isn't very enticing. Um and then also a ton of people most of whom were my patrons but just a lot of people were like oh no Lena's going to hate Friedri Bachman Lena's going to hate Anxious People don't no one let her read that but I already owned it and it's part of this project and everyone was like oh god she's going to hate it. Uh jokes on you I [ __ ] love this. This is like favorite of the year material. This is so so good. And I think I suspect that the reason people thought that I may not like it is because of how um [clears throat] like sweet it can be and kind of like a little bit silly in a way that is kind of could keep company with like cozy type books. But I just I I think coziness is is usually irritating to me because one, it's boring. Two, there's nothing like underpinning it. there's nothing deeper there. And three, I usually find it to be really like surface level and really shallow and empty and just like a boring waste of my time. And that could not be further from the description of this. This is so perfectly sincere. So like it's sweet, but in a way that's just like life. [laughter] like a of extremely sincere sweetness, extremely sincere heartbreak, extremely sincere irritation, frustration. This just feels like such This is gonna be kind of weird to say because this is just kind of litfic that's kind of like about a somewhat kind of like quirky set of circumstances that is a little bit I suppose beggars's belief but is a an excuse to kind of unpack various traumas in a way that's kind of sweet and endearing um and a little bit of a mystery sort of to it. What was I going to say? Where was I going with that? Anyway, I truly do not know where I was going with that, but anyway, this just like hits the Oh, I There we go. And I thought of it. Um, yeah. So, this is just yeah, what I just described, but so weirdly like this book is kind of why um or like this uh the reason I love this is the same reason that I love studying anthropology. And um not just studying anthropology because I mean I did like studying it, but doing like field work um like doing my own ethnographies. I really loved it and strongly considered going to graduate school to be an anthropologist. Um because cuz you have to talk to people and you have to just kind of find out what they have to say and not in a really directed kind of like interview kind of way where like there's a targeted like piece of information you need or a targeted narrative you're trying to find. Like being a good anthropologist, writing a good ethnography is just being a sponge. Is just being a sponge for like a place and a time and a people and just trying to kind of like absorb it all and kind of be able to then uh like to to soak it all up and then to be able to ring it out into like a cohesive bit of writing that can kind of convey all the all of what you soaked up. And so like when I would talk to people um when I was doing my own ethnographies like yeah like I I could never be an archaeologist could not be me. I didn't expect to be talking about this about this book, but it Yeah, this is this is probably why this works for me so well is because this when we were sort of like slowly unraveling who these people are and and looking beneath the surface of what your assumptions about them would be and what makes them tick and why they're here and what has motivated them and and what they think and what they feel and why they're saying the things that they're saying and how they feel about the world and whatever. And as we kind of like peel back those layers in a kind of very gentle way, it reminded me of doing field work of talking to people and just kind of letting them just talk, letting them just say stuff. And cuz I would never be bored by that. Poturds, fossils couldn't be me. Do not care. Um, but listening to people just tell their stories and they don't have to be riveting stories. They don't have to be, you know, this in crazy thing that happened to me cuz I'm an adventurer or whatever. It would just be just lives lived because they often were had surprising things to say, things that you wouldn't necessarily have assumed or necessarily have known. Um, I can listen to people talk all day, which is weird cuz like I feel like I'm pretty antisocial. Um, but it's because like I don't like small talk and I find like socializing exhausting, but just absorbing what people have to say endlessly interesting to me. And I guess, yeah, I I don't like the performance of social interaction. I don't want that. I want to be able to just sit there and just be a sponge and just have you tell me your life story um without any expectation of me like having to like performatively respond and the back and forth of it and the like social politics of it. like when we can just not do that. When you can just just tell me just tell me about you and not in a way that's like what are we getting out of this? Is this an interview? Are we are we networking? Like any of that. I find that so exhausting. I hate it. And I feel like with with being an anthropologist, like with with doing field work, you get to talk to people in a way that is more raw because they know that that's why you're there. like that you're not there because you're networking or because like you're a friend of a friend and now there's like all these layers of the awkwardness of the social situation. You're like like you're not a person when you're the anthropologist. Like you are but you're not. And so they know that you don't have any other agenda there besides listening. And so then they just talk cuz they're this isn't about anything else. And I that's what I love about it. Anyway, so that's yeah, that's for the same reason I loved this cuz it was just I mean, if you're not interested in people's stories and just kind of like what makes people people and where they came from and what made them who they are today and and the world that shaped them and how they viewed their place in that world and how they would like to see the world be or how they would like to shape the world if they could or maybe they have no idea like if that's not going to be of interest to you, then yeah, I would say you should never read this book. Um, but as the to the tone, if that's why people thought I would hate it, no. Like I could see someone doing this badly and me hating it if they tried to make it too cheeky, too, too like uh wallowing in being sort of depressing and trying to like overemphasize that point, but it doesn't. It just kind of lets things just kind of be kind of just they just kind of are silly and they just kind of are sad and life just kind of is inherently silly and sad and and really beautiful and and really ugly and everything in between. It just kind of is all those things. And this book just kind of lets it be those things in a way that's so sincere and I teared up multiple times. So I loved this and I shall be seeking out more Friedrich Lachman. This was for sure, this might be my favorite of the books that I'm reading for this project. We'll see. Five stars for sure. Next up is a book that has been on my shelves for a very long time. And I'm pretty sure at this point that I won't like this because enough um I've heard enough things and I've had enough people read this book like that talk to me or like start it while they're like in my Patreon or whatever and talk about like the experience of reading it and I I'm pretty sure at this point it's not going to be for me. But I own it. I've own it for a long time and like let's just just find out. And that is Foundry Side by Robert Jackson Bennett. I love this cover. That's half the reason I own it. And then I remember it sounded like a pretty intriguing premise for the world building and the magic system. But then everything I've heard since then, both from people that enjoy it and that don't enjoy it, that the consensus is like Lena won't like this. And it's Robert Jackson Bennett, right, that wrote that book that came out in 2024 that was like a fantasy Sherlock Holmesesque type thing that had that beautiful cover, The Tainted Cup. That was Robert Jackson Bennett, right? Yeah. And the Hex cuz I kept getting confused. This is not totally related to this, but I kept getting confused between The Tainted Cup and the Hexologist cuz those covers look similar to me. But yeah, The Tainted Cup was Ry Robert Jackson Bennett. Pretty sure. Anyway, like I said, I own this. I've owned it for a very long time. I suspect that I will not like this, but I'm not going to get rid of it without even trying it. So, I'm going to try it. Might DNF it. We'll see. Boundary Side by Robert Jackson Bennett. I don't think this is an author that's for me to be perfectly honest. I um I read was it last year? I think whatever the year it came out. I Well, I think it was the year it came out. Um along with a really pretty cover. Actually, this cover is pretty cool, too. Um, Tainted Cup. Is that Robert Jackson Bennett? The one that was like Sherlock Holmesian. Anyway, everyone was really impressed with that and really loved it. I wanted to like it and I did not. [laughter and gasps] So, so this book I there's just like so much about it that was just like never going to work for me. Even a better version of this wouldn't work for me. And I don't think this is that good a version of this because I don't think he's that good a writer in terms of like the writing part, which sounds like a very stupid thing to say, but I just I don't think like on a pros level, on a dialogue level, on on just that like the the conveying of the story um like content of story aside, just like how it's being delivered, I don't think he's that great at that. And then yeah, I just don't like the story or the world building or the pacing of said story. The delivery of the world building, I don't think that's done well. And the world building, it's probably the biggest problem I have with it. But the other stuff I don't think is great either. Like, and I've said this before, where um it's it's it's rare, but there are times when um world building is so good that I forgive bad writing or bad pacing or that like the writing and the pacing, character work is so good that I forgive bad world building or bad plot, things like that. They can be good enough like so Will of the Many uh is is like my go-to now example. Um where I just think the concept is so good that I I'm kind of overlooking and forgiving a heck of a lot with that one. and I'm still rating it quite highly and I think it made my favorites of the year last year. So this Yeah. Okay. So I kind of knew this going in at this I didn't know when I bought it and was first hyped when I was first interested but between then and like now when I was reading it people had mentioned it a lot like what the magic system is both in terms of why they're excited for it or also why they thought I wouldn't like it and they were right. So, the magic system is like coding reality. I think that's how people have described it. I think that's a fair description. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I can't really think of another way of describing it. But so, there's like a a world view that um this is all predicated upon that is not my worldview. And I've read a lot of books that are written by authors that have different worldviews from me. And it's sort of it sort of depends on how much that's playing a role in their story for how much it's going to bother me. Like is it so like univorceable, so fundamental, so recurringly present in what is being told to you that it's inescapable or is it just kind of like also there? I've mentioned this when I've talked about the Sun Eater books. I call it cilantro [laughter] cuz I'm like look, I love Mexican food, but I'm one of those people that cilantro tastes like soap to me. And so I just kind of put up with a little bit of soapiness sometimes in my Mexican food because I really love Mexican food. And they boy do they like putting cilantro and things. So I'll usually like pick it off or ask for none. But it's it's kind of in everything. So I just kind of like I like the food so much that I tolerate a little bit of soapiness. So that's kind of how I am with Sunny Eater where like the thing that this that I don't like about this that is not my worldview that is for sure present in it, it is like cilantro. I kind of put up with it cuz the rest of it I do find quite compelling. So here the world view and I actually I don't even know like I would actually want to ask the author if this is their worldview or if they just like didn't think about it cuz I do find this to be the case in quite a lot of fantasy. And I know I'm more nitpicky about like the sort of implications of fantasy world building than other people. Lord knows the soul is not a cigarette box is now what I'm famous for thanks to book. [laughter] if you don't know what I'm talking about the lore there and I will talk more specifically about this in a sec but like bookorn um gave me uh paper managerie to read and overall I love the collection the paper managerie collection and I love the story paper managerie for sure but in that collection which I think is like a five-star collection overall in that collection one of my least favorite stories was a story about souls being like animate uh inanimate objects um like man-made objects. And that's one of Bookworn's favorite stories in the collection. And I hated that story. I hated that story. And actually, since we're talking about it, I don't know if I've ever shown these on my channel. Um, but and she said she was going to do this and then she really did it. She made uh her customordered coasters for me um that say um a soul is not a man-made object. So, um, and then I don't know if you can tell, but it's, um, it's a cigarette box, and I think this is like meant to be like a soul, and it's like a, you know, line going through like um because in that story, one of there's a various people with various types of inanimate object souls. And one of the most prominent ones in the story is a cigarette box. like someone's soul is a cigarette box and [snorts] now it's just like shorthand. Like I've messaged Bookborn since then or like I'm reading something that I don't like. I might have even messaged her about this book specifically and said that where I'm like I'm not liking the book I'm currently reading and she was like, "Oh, why?" And I'm like, "I'm I'm very soulless not a cigarette box about it." [laughter] And she knows exactly what I mean immediately. So, [snorts] okay. So in this world um basically all things have souls. I don't know if it's not expressed that way. Um but it is expressed in terms of um like mind versus body as being two distinct things which you know like in like philosophy and metaphysics and religion and whatever like that's a that's not undisputed as an idea. in fact is extremely disputed and a lot of I guess my issue I think I I do better with this as a concept if it's a very soft magic system and we're not going into the hows and the wise and whatever. Um and then I'm like it's more of like a discussion about something spiritual and it's all a metaphor and I'm like okay I can kind of go along with this. Um, but here it's very like technical because it's it's presented more like coding where there's like very like technical discussion about manipulating reality. Uh, and the way that manip reality is manipulated is kind of like by convincing the like mind of the object of certain truths or like or lying to the object. And it's it is a little actually reminiscent of sympathy in name of the wind which I really like. But in name of the wind, the like mind that must be convinced of something that is not actually possible being possible in order to make the magic happen is the magic user himself or herself. Like the it is like the the practicer of sympathy who it needs to like create a cognitive dissonance in their mind so good, so ironclad that they can create magic. They make themselves believe that this is possible and through that make it possible. But here it's the object that needs to believe this. And it just like falls apart for me so quickly because first of all what is an object? That's not undisputed in philosophy. You know like when you break things down to their component parts when does it become the object? When does it split into two different objects? How are we defining these entities and whatever? and then the idea that they have minds. And there's a line in the book that I like I already didn't like this and I already knew basically how I was going to talk about this, but I was just like was a nail in the coffin. It was a line about like someone is talking about uh the magic system being used in a way that they're like, "No, but that's not possible. It's never we didn't think that was a thing this magic system could do." And they were like this magic it can affect like um the mechanics of something and that u and then they're like but it cannot create a mind. And the way they express it is like that this this magic system can only um affect physical reality. It cannot affect create or affect minds. And like this is where I'm like okay but a mind is a physical reality. Like I do not hold the belief that a mind is something other than a physical reality. So [sighs] when it's saying that I'm just I already like if I liked this book and I liked this magic system if it did that it was it would be the cilantro. It would be something where I'm like having to like swallow it and kind of go with it even though I don't agree and I don't like it. But I already don't like any of this anyway. So it's it's this book spends a ton of time on mechanics of magic system and this is all how it works and how it works constantly. It's constantly explained to you and infod to you and the characters talk in unnatural ways just in order to continue to convey this information to you. In general, people don't talk in ways that humans talk. Like all of it is like tons of expository dialogue. Really on then things to like say the emotions or whatever. um really on then the nose kind of like conclusions that people come to or the way that like the magic system and the the plot unfolds in a way that is just too again on the nose for a sort of emotional beat or emotional revelation that we've been building towards. It's all it's too neat and it's not elegant. But it also the thing it also reminded me of was Arcane. And again this this might be sounding great to you in which case I wish you all the best and happiness. A lot of people like this book. I don't really like Arcane. I thought Arcane was okay. I like Arcane better than this, but I don't really like Arcane. But the setup of this city and of kind of the power struggle in this and also a little bit the magic system and the sort of like magic tech that is going on did feel at least aesthetically and like in vibes extremely similar to Arcane. So, if you love Arcane, then you'd probably like this book a lot. Again, I don't really like Arcane, so that's not like a huge plus to me. I think Arcane, though, actually has some quite compelling character arcs. Um, and obviously the art style is very impressive, so it has some things going for it for me, which this is entirely without. It does not have compelling character arcs. This is just like an onslaught of the author thinking they're oh so clever with the intricacies of this like ridiculous magic system that I'm just not on board for for a single page of it. I just I just can't be on board for this. And I get that that's probably like a me problem and you're typing some comment about how I'm not cut out to read fantasy. That's fine. It's I can't I just can't with stuff like this. I just cannot. So, I don't even I mean I guess I don't even really think it's like it's a bad book. It's just I think it's like a mediocre book that then chose to do a ton of things that I specifically really do not like. Like I don't think it's like a really excellent book that I'm just not the right reader for. I think it's like an okay book and then it's gonna be like okay for you if you're like on board for the type of plot and magic system that it's interested in doing. Like I but for me it's mediocre and I'm not on board for this type of magic and for like this info dumping language and whatever. And it's blurbed by a bunch of people that I don't especially like. I shouldn't say that, but I done like Brian Mlen and Sebastian Castell. So, uh, the fact that they liked it is that's I'm really happy for them. Have I read Peter V. Brett? Feel like I have not. I feel like people have told me not to. Uh, anyway, I mean, by the time I added to the list, people had already kind of like I I've owned this for quite a long time and people had already kind of been like, "Oh, you know, you're not going to like it." And I'm like, "You're probably right, but I've owned it forever." And you know, I surprised myself all the time, so maybe I'll like it. I did not. It was a slog to get through. I did it. It's done. I know now that Robert Jackson Bennett is not the author for me. I'm really happy for all y'all who do love Robert Jackson Bennett. Live your best life. Next up is a book that I was very excited when it was announced and I pre-ordered like every edition of it and I'm still excited about it, but I planned to reread the to reread the books to reread the book that kind of inspired this world. I think it inspired this I could be absolutely wrong about this. Okay, let me just tell you what it is. The 13th Child by Aaron A. Craig. So Aaron Aaron A. Craig wrote House of Salt and Sorrows which I loved when it came out and then she wrote a sequel to that which came out and I still haven't read it cuz I was going to reread House of Salt and Sorrows and I didn't finish that reread so I have not then read the sequel and then I'm not totally sure if this is related to that or not and that's why I haven't read it cuz I'm like well I still haven't tackled the reread and the reading of that sequel and then is this different or is this new? Can I read this? So I'm going to figure it out and whatever I need to have read before this I will do so and if it's nothing then I can dive in. Great. But I was so excited for this to come out and now I just haven't read it. I think this would be a really good Halloween read, but just whenever I'm feeling it. So, I'm going to figure out the situation with this and read it cuz her writing was very atmospheric. I really really liked House of Salt and Zoros. Ending like a little bit not perfect. And same with Small Favors. I also really loved Small Favors by Aaron A. Craig, which is not related to any other books. It's a standalone. I think she has very good like atmospheric transportive writing. The plots have like issues with them here and there, but overall I enjoy her writing. So yeah, very excited about this. And this is this edition Bond with a pretty. Yeah, it has a pretty naked book. Anyway, The 13th Child by Aaron A. Craig. I thought it was okay. I think it started decently strong. Um, it's really it just kind of steadily went downhill and then also I really did not like the ending. The ending left me really scratching my head. Now, to be fully transparent, it's been several weeks since I finished this. I just have not found the time to film this clip. Um, so it's not as fresh in my brain as I would like. But yeah, I firstly it did not have like the the atmosphere, the the I don't even know. Like I Aaron A. Craig books. I guess I've only read two before this, but both of them, they were quite different. Um, and they were by no means like perfect. They both had flaws, but what they both really really nailed were like atmosphere and just a a mood, a vibe that was so like immersive and engrossing and haunting. And then both of them kind of fumbled the landing, but I, you know, the journey is like amazing amazing vibes here. We never even at the opening had those vibes and then it just kind of like continued to not be that great and then the ending was once again fumbled but it didn't like it wasn't like the the the journey had been so great. So, so basically this is a story about a young girl who is pro she has the 13th child and she is promised to death basically and why death would need that or want that or care about it. I mean the book technically gives an explanation for this but not a particularly compelling one. And the main character, she's just not that interesting or compelling. And the romance in it is not that interesting or compelling. It's so immediately obvious what the romance is going to be. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is annoying when it when you know this is what it's going to be and then it acts like, "Oh, and I surprised you with with this room." It's like, "No, you didn't. No, you [ __ ] didn't." It was so clear how this was going to go. And like I don't know like when the male like you know, romantic love interest or whatever in a book like you're supposed to like when they're saying things about you know our main character, our main female character. I don't I like you're supposed to agree, right? You're supposed to be like, "Yeah, she is so amazing. It's so great that he's seeing it and like kind of like be there for it." As opposed to being like, "Is she though?" [gasps] Like when he's just saying like, "Oh, I see you and you are so special and you're the strongest person I know." And I'm just like, "Is she though?" Because she makes very stupid decisions. Some of them can be justified by just her being naive and young. But I don't there's an art to doing that where when you watch a character do that stuff where you don't feel annoyed by it where if you might feel frustrated in the sense of like, oh, I wish I could read through the pages and save them from making a dumb choice. Like when you read a Robin Hob book, but in Robin Hobb I'm never like gh they're just so dumb. I'm like h like it's just too believable that they would naively make this choice and it's painful to watch. But here I'm just rolling my eyes a lot. Um, so I wasn't like very invested in the in the the main character and then like how the plot unfolds and and a lot of the conclusions that she jumps to, they're just such stupid conclusions like and and the frustrations that she has I just had no sympathy for because like the information you are given that are is the same that you know the information she's working off of and like when she's questioning things in the way that she is I the reader who has the same information that she does, I'm like, why? Why would you question this? Like, based on the information you have, like, you're what are you doing? This is so stupid. And so when other characters get mad at her for having done the things that she's done, and then they'll sort of come around when she like gives her side and be like, I understand why you did what you did, you even if it was wrong. And I'm like, I don't understand why you did what you did. It was very stupid. So then later when characters are like, oh, you're so smart and brave. I'm like, no, she's not. She's not. She's really dumb. Like makes really like dumb decisions or really emotional decisions and she's just kind of boring. And then the ending, she it's she the author and not the character. I don't I mean I won't spoil the ending, but the ending I literally don't understand the ending. Like it it it skips ahead and gives you this neat little bow. But between where the last thing you saw and now where you've jumped to, there is just like that is I I don't have enough information to fill in that gap. I simply do not. And the way that it just is like see and you're like you can like fill in what happened in between. And I'm like I really can't I cannot like I I have so many questions about how we got from the last point we saw to now what is like the epilogue. like that what what I'm not saying you can't have got there but you I you couldn't skip that you can't skip to that nope I need an explanation so the ending all I mean I was kind of glad for it to be coming to an end but then when it ended like that I was like wait what I like you're not going to explain how we got to there it's just over now I'm like but how so like strangely even though like this is the most like vibey cover of all of her books and the premise right the 13th child promise to death. Sounds like it would be the vibiest. It's the least vibe that I've read. House of Salt and Sorrows vibes amazing. Small favors vibes amazing. Like so haunting. It's really just like later revelation about what's been going on that kind of fumbles a bit and the romances tend to fumble for me. But just the setup and the atmosphere of those stories like so good here. Where is the atmosphere? And and the world building here. I'm pretty okay with world building that's kind of like we don't need to fill it all in for the purposes of this story. I'm giving you the pieces you need and you can kind of assume the rest. Um depending on the type of story you're telling that can be absolutely the right decision. But here the world building feels so shallow. It doesn't feel like oh I've told you the bits you need to know and hinted at the rest so you can kind of like fill it in. Nope. I can't fill it in. I really can't. Just like I can't fill in the gap between where you ended it and then the epilogue. There's a lot here that I'm like I feel like you're leaving it up to me to fill in. But I don't have enough here to go off of to be able to do that. So yeah, I just what a let down. What a let down. What a stunning cover. Just look at this pretty pretty book. It's so like dramatic. And the book itself is just so kind of like lackluster to be honest. It does not warrant this. So, it's really disappointing, especially cuz like I know she can deliver vibes like that. And really, that's all I was asking for. I was not expecting like this to like blow me away and knock my socks off in terms of being a groundbreaking plot and the most compelling love story of all time. I'm quite happy for Aaron A. Craig to simply deliver immaculate vibes. And I didn't even get that out of this. So, I'm concerned. [gasps] I still have um one or two other books from her that I have not read. Um, and so because the other two had been so like deliberate on the vibes, even if they fumbled the landing, I was like, "This is solid. Like, this is reliable. It's no longer reliable." So, like, it's not a terrible book. If you did find the main character compelling, which I don't, but if you did and if you found the romance compelling, I think this probably would be a decently like entertaining read and the sort of like something you could call it a mystery to the plot would be like enough to kind of keep you invested and interested and wanting to know the answers. For me, I was like mildly interested at best. So yeah, it's like a very low three stars because there's like there's nothing aside from like the sort of like the gap at the end where I'm like there isn't anything that's like wrong with it. It's just very like it's like barely adequate in every category on my rubric or whatever. And I just know she can do better. So it's really disappointing, sinister, and beautiful. This dark fairy tale swept me away. Like I wish like that's what I wanted to be saying about this darkly wondrous. It's not sumptuous, gothic, ornate. No, it's not. I those are all the things that I wanted, but that it wasn't those things. So yeah, sad. Next up, I have Carrie Soda is back by Taylor Jenkins Reed. Taylor Jenkins Reed is is an author that I am never excited about actually physically picking up her books and then every time I finally do it, I'm like, why did I read this sooner? This changed my life. This was amazing. It's because like she writes litfic about kind of like contemporary contemporary litfic is I suppose what I should say and like the one that was of most interest to me was like the most historical which was Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo E. Yeah, Eve and Hugo and devoured that. That was my first book by her. Um and then I took my time and I finally read Daisy Jones. Loved it. Took my time. Finally read Malibu Rising. Loved it. And Carrie Sodto is back. I mean I do like the UK cover better which is what I have here. The US cover truly does nothing for me but it's like okay. It's about a tennis player. Like, why would I care about that? But I'm like, it's because it's Taylor Jenkins read. I know I will probably love this. I just have to make myself read it. [gasps and laughter] And I know once I do, I'll be like, "Oh my god, that was so good. Why don't I read it sooner?" So, I'm putting it on this list to make myself read it. Like, I'm sure it'll be great. Maybe it won't be as good as some of her other books, but I'm sure I will enjoy it. Carrie Sodto is back. Is not my favorite. This is my first Miss from Taylor Jenkins read. And I say miss because it's like on the scale of Taylor Jenkins Reed. Um, so like it's it's not a bad book. It's just compared to other Taylor Jenkins Reed books, this is just like not not it. And I want to say like I'm not surprised, but then I am surprised because like basically every premise of a Taylor Jenkins read book sounds like something that I would never pick up. Um, the only reason I started reading her books was because everyone and their mother was like, "Seven husbands of Evil and Hugo is lifechanging." And I was like, I looked at the premise. I was like, "I would never myself pick this up just like spontaneously." But every like it like all genres like fantasy readers, litfic readers, classic readers, sci-fi readers, everyone was like, "Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo." And I was like, "Okay, okay, I'll try it." And it was life-changing. It was amazing. So I was like, "Okay." Um, and then I read I probably would have considered more for books anyway, but Daisy Jones got similar hype. So I was like I mean Seven Husbands was great and then yeah, Daisy Jones was also great. Although they have been getting like progressively less great, although they've been all like hits with me, but like Seven Husbands was the first and the best. Daisy Jones was like still really really good. Not quite as good as Seven Husbands. And then Malibu Rising was absolutely like I was like I would literally never pick this up except it has Taylor Jenkins Reed's name on it so I trust her. and I read it and I was like it's probably my least favorite of the three but still like a four or five star book. So she continues to like write books that on the dust jacket would never interest me but like her writing is that good. So Carrie is back about a tennis player coming back out of retirement. I was like just like those other maybe more so than the other three. This is a premise I would truly never pick up if not for Taylor Jenkins read but I was like all right who knows maybe this will be my favorite of them all. It is not. It's not, again, it's not a bad book and I do feel like if I was really into tennis or knew anything about tennis, I might enjoy it more because this book is a lot about tennis and I don't give a [ __ ] about tennis. I was actually talking to somebody at work and they were just telling me about like their kid playing tennis and training their kid to play tennis and just what it's like to train to play tennis and one of the other people at work and what and he's doing to train his kid to play tennis. And I just like I was like, "You know what? You should read Carrie Sto's back. I think you'd like it way more than me." Cuz I was just listening to it. I was like, "Yeah, like what you're describing sounds exactly like I feel like if I was into it or had ever done tennis or trained for tennis or anything like that or knew someone really well that did I I as speaking as a complete amateur novice ignorant, it seems to me based on just having read it and based on just my coworker talking about it, um I feel like I was like, "Yeah, I feel like I probably would feel like my experience was reflected here somewhat." Obviously, not um unless you're like a world champion, that experience is not going to be, you know, something you have. But like the way she's training and how dedicated she is and what the training is like. I just don't give a [ __ ] about it. Like I think this is probably like if anyone is going to make me care about it, it was Taylor Jenkins Reed and she came Well, but that's not true. I was going to say she came the closest cuz her writing is good, but I also just really really don't like Carrie Sodto. And Carrie Sodto is meant to be an unlikable character. So that's it feels unfair to say that but she's unlikable in a really boring way is the biggest problem cuz like I don't mind reading about an unlikable protagonist like a anti-hero or a villain or I mean birth log early here but Carrie Sodto's greatest crime is just being boring because there's just like nothing to her except her obsession with tennis but it's not like interesting watching someone be that obsessed at least not in this book cuz again like I don't know like um when you watch like Oppenheimer or something and you can see the like the sort of like mad obsession with the thing they're doing and it makes you interested in it or it makes you interested in watching them be interested in it. And here again, she's written to be an unlikable character. It's like it's everyone in the book says that she's really unlikable. Like that's like part of her reputation on the world stage as being the one most one of the most like unlikable tennis champions. So, it's like it's you're supposed to find her not likable, but I think you are supposed to like root for her and she's just so boring and like everyone that hates her, I'm just like totally on their side and the way she blames everyone else for her problems. I just I find her really irritating. She like reminds me a little bit of how I imagine Taylor Swift is behind the scenes. Um, sorry, don't cut for me. Um, so like it's fine. I just I don't like the protagonist and I don't like tennis and that's all this book is is all about this protagonist playing tennis. Um so like here and there there's some interesting commentary about like how women are treated in sports versus men. I don't mean um so much the sport itself. I mean like how it's like the the sports version of office politics where like men are considered, you know, um like leaders and if a woman exhibits exact same traits, she's like bossy and [ __ ] Um so like similarly with like tennis where like Carrie's like irritated that she's supposed to be humble in all of her victories and she's like, I [ __ ] earned this. Why should I be humble? Men aren't expected to be humble in their victories. And I mean like I do think it's a double standard, but also just personally I usually with that stuff I'm like I don't think that women should start acting like men. I think men should start acting like women. Like I think it's good to be humble. I think it's good to be to to listen rather than talk over people. I don't think the solution is to have women now being [ __ ] because men are. I think men should act more [laughter] like women like stereotypically obviously. Uh not all women, not all men, whatever. Um those are the stereotypes though. So, I'm just like, I agree it's unfair that it's a double standard, but I'm also like I would also dislike a male champion who acted like that. I know that like maybe society at large wouldn't, but I would also dislike them. So, I don't personally root for a woman to have the freedom to be an [ __ ] [laughter] Does that make sense? I guess I want her to have the right to be an [ __ ] but I don't really want to see her exercise that right. Um, cuz I don't think people should be [ __ ] if you want me to root for them. a thrilling, joyful smashy type of book. I don't know about all that. I do really want to read atmosphere still though because one, Taylor Jenkins read like she was three for three there. This is the first one that's a miss for several very specific reasons. And I do find myself more like I think I might actually pick up atmosphere even if it wasn't Taylor Jenkins read because like that is way more interesting to me as a subject matter um than than this. [gasps and sighs] So I'm sad but you know it is what it is. Sorry. Sorry. The [snorts] Miniaturist by Jesse Burton. I have a few Jessie Burton books and I've never read any of them. And I feel like this an author that there's a very good chance I could like. It's historical fiction, not fantasy. Think I'm pretty sure I saw the miniseries that the adaptation of this that was done for like BBC or Masterpiece Theater or whatever. And yeah, I think if I'm remembering correctly or if I'm thinking of the correct thing cuz there certainly is an adaptation or like a masterpiece theater type thing that has Anya Taylor Joy in it. It's like set in where is this set? Amsterdam. And I think it was the miniatures. It's been a long time since I saw that. That's before she was like big famous. Anyway, so I remember enjoying that adaptation, but it's been a while. So like I don't remember all the specifics of it. And I'm often interested to read especially like historical fiction and classics even though I've seen a film of it. That doesn't deter me from wanting to to read it. I think this author, this is kind of uh not last year, not in 2024, but in 2023, I had a Hillary Mantel book, Wolf Hall. So, this is kind of the the Wolf haul of 2025. Um, hopefully it I I like it better than Wolf Hall because if you didn't see that vlog, uh, spoilers for that vlog, I despised Wolf Hall. So, hopefully I like this. At the very least, it's a lot shorter than Wolf Hall was. But, yeah, I hope I like this. Also, because just like with Hillary Mantel, um, I own, like I said, I own The Miniaturist. I own I think it's called The Muse. And then there's another book that if it's not the sequel to The Miniaturist, it certainly like looks similar to it. Anyway, um, so I own a few of her books. Hopefully I like this one and will want to read the others that I have. The Miniaturist. I tried so hard to like this, but I do not like this. It's not the worst thing I've ever read, but oh my gosh, this can be added to my little grouping of historical fiction that I do not understand the hype about. So, this can keep company with Essex Serpent, with Wolf Hall, with isn't there another one? And it was like one of these projects. I don't know. But that's three then. And I dislike it for very similar reasons that I disliked Essex Serpent and Wolf Hall. Although both Essex Serpent and Wolf Hall were worse. Way worse. This is like just barely readable. But at the end of the day, I'm like, what? Why? Why does this exist? So, The Miniaturist, I I this is one of the first books I started this year and I kept stopping it and I I renewed my audio book um from the library probably like 15 times cuz [snorts] I kept being like, "Oh, I think maybe I'm just like not in the right mood for this. Um maybe I should just read it with my eyeballs, but I want to have the audio on deck in case I need it. I was like, maybe it's just like it's not the right time of year for this or maybe this is one of those I really shouldn't listen to in the car. Like I really need to focus on it and become immersed in it. All these like excuses I was making for it. And now we're down to the wire to the end of the year and I was like, "Okay, you just got to finish it. You just got to finish it." Um, and I don't like it. I don't like it. Um, [clears throat] this book like the the bullet points of what it is are not that bad. It's just that in order to write a book like this and make it worthwhile and make it compelling, you have to be doing really good character work. And this book is absolutely uninterested in doing that. And so since it's not doing that, there's just no point to this because the characters are the only thing that could possibly be of interest here. There's the in terms of like a plot, I guess there's a plot, but not really. It's more just about like the experience of these characters. And I saw some reviews cuz of course after finishing it, I was like, "Nope, don't get it. Got to go look at those reviews. What am I missing here?" But I saw some negative reviews that were saying, "If you're going to call a book the miniature, it has to be about the miniature. What the heck? The miniatureist is like barely even in this book." And I disagree. I mean, I agree that that's the case. The miniature is barely in this book. Um, I disagree. Like I think I know what the book was going for in terms of naming it that. And if it had been done well, I would have had no issue with it because it's about sort of the miniaturists effect on the people that are the actual protagonists of the story because the miniaturist kind of looms over a lot of what's going on. Um, so it's not like the character themselves is in it a lot. It's like the miniaturist effect vibe aura like she's like she's living rentree in folks minds [laughter] and it is also the only thing about this book that's remotely interesting and then ends up being really like wantwamp. So I think people were disappointed for those two reasons. one, they were like, "Where's the miniaturist? I was promised." And then what little there is of the miniaturist cuz it's it's sort of it's sort of pitched to you as it's going to be a mystery. And even in the text of the book as you're reading it, it's sort of giving literary mystery, but then we get to the like resolution, if it can be called that, and that it it isn't a resolution because there really isn't much there there. So, it's a really it wouldn't be that disappointing if it wasn't kind of like set up so much for you to expect something out of it or if it was really really good character work with a character who is the one expecting something therefore you're expecting something. If we were really kind of like examining her emotional journey of having expected it and being disappointed um because then that would be compelling. But the main character, she mostly just seems like like the camera that's observing things and reporting back. Occasionally the book rem like remembers that we should describe her the effect this is having on her emotionally. But that's what it feels like. It feels like the book is like, "Oh yeah, I should probably like explain how this is affecting her emotionally." Uh, there you go. I did it. It doesn't feel like you're feeling it with her. It doesn't feel like a natural reaction. her reactions to a lot of things in the book are like I feel like that would be barely scratching the surface of what you'd be going through right now because the thing is there's some pretty harrowing things that happen in this book or at least they would be extremely harrowing for the people they're happening to but everything is in this like sort of detached kind of just reporting the facts to you kind of narrative which really doesn't work when the whole thing here needs to be like like the miniaturist like the miniaturist is Not the character, I mean like the idea of a miniaturist is that like you're looking at something that's like really ordinary, but there's like so much attention to teenytiny detail to get every little bit of it right that like it becomes like beautiful and becomes artful and it becomes interesting even though it's like a chair, but it's like a chair that was like artfully crafted in every single detail. So now it's fascinating. So, I like literary fiction to be doing that with characters, with their psyches and their emotions, where like all of it's like probably quite mundane, but we're doing such detailed work with it. We're like zooming in on it so closely with like detailed with such a clear um illustration of every single facet of it that it becomes interesting. So, like that's what we needed to like the the the way the characters are being described and their emotional journeys and their emotional states needed to have a miniaturist's eye for like craft and detail, but it's just not there. And then to have this miniaturist around as like ostensibly kind of like a symbolic metaphorical paralleling force to sort of I think the point of it is to just kind of like well honestly I don't know what the point of it is. I feel like it's there because this story truly would have no point to it otherwise, but it's there to sort of like make it seem like this is there's something kind of like tying this together and making giving it like the the patina of of depth of of something profound. [laughter] There there is no profoundity here. Just just none. And in terms of historical detail, none of the like actual detail of like how they live, what they eat, any of that. Like that seemed fine to me. I'm not like an expert, but like I know enough about historical stuff to where it's really bad. I noticed it. So, nothing stood out to me as being like wrong. It was more like the attitudes of the characters were like just a little too modern to be believable and also too modern. Like it's the modernity of their reactions that also kind of took away some of the emotional impact of what was going on. because to watch them wrap try to wrap their brains around something that even in the modern day people kind of struggle with um and to like have their their historical sensibilities really really challenged by what goes on in this book. That would have been again psychologically emotionally an interesting thing to unpack, but because there's just kind of like they we pay lip service to how shocked they are by something or how like well obviously for the times we don't think this is fine because we're living in a different time, but also what they actually do about it and how they ultimately feel about it. It's not like a big like journey to arrive at understanding or or condoning or whatever. like they're like not fine with it because they're supposed to be not fine with it because like the historical time, but then they come around to being fine with it. And there's not a lot of like emotional progress between A and B. It's just like [gasps] I don't know why we're okay with it now, but I guess we're okay with it now. And there's like characters that like were told, you know, have this great affection for each other or they care a lot about what happens to them. And I'm like, I guess I believe you. I've not witnessed this myself, but I suppose you're not lying to me that they care. [gasps] It's just such a nothing burger like the whole time. And it's like written in a way where it thinks it's like doing something and you're like, "But where?" Which is kind of the big problem with Wolfall and and Asex Serpent, although those actively pissed me off. This one was more of like a where's the cream filling? There's just like nothing here. And I kept waiting and waiting. I was like, "Maybe it's a slowburn. Maybe it's like it really takes a minute to like get its engine going." And then I was finished with the book and I was like, "Nope. There's just nothing here. There's just nothing here. It's such a cool cover." And again, the the premise itself, nothing really wrong with the premise. It would it just for that premise, for the the plot of this book to be interesting, to be worth reading, to have anything profound to say, we would have to be doing a deep dive on the characters. And we are just not doing that. So again, what is the point of this? And I think I saw some people saying that too that like marketing is the one is the reason why this got so popular because like the cover is great and like what it seems to promise when it says a haunting and ma magical and full of surprises. It's like it's going to be this like austere gothic magical realism mystery about this like really oppressed, you know, Dutch society and there's like something bubbling beneath the surface and the miniaturist like what why is there a miniaturist that's so, you know, what's going on? Mesmerizing and suspenseful, tantalizing, beautifully poised, exquisitly detailed. Like is it though? Like the descriptions of the pieces created by the miniaturist. Yeah, okay. Those are pretty detailed. Um, they're probably the most enjoyable part of the book is the descriptions of all the miniatures that the miniature is just making. I was like, that sounds cool as hell. I would like to see that. But like, my god, such boring people, or at least I'm not being given a window into what makes them interesting. So, there's like, again, there's some pretty harrowing stuff that happens here. And I feel like a monster when I'm reading it because like I feel nothing. And it's like it's bad. It's pretty bad stuff. But this is not gonna like emotionally wreck you. You're going to read this and be like, "Is this what it's like to be a sociopath?" Cuz I feel nothing. Less than nothing. Like reading a historical book that was just like telling you the facts of history and included like an aside about like if these had been real people, for example. Like they're not. But if they had been, I'm sure there's people with like that it did exist that whose lives could sort of map onto this. Maybe not with the mini at first part. Um, but this the types of stuff that's happening to them, it's like based on like what might have happened in like this time. So if a historical textbook was just like using this as an illustrative anecdote to describe what happened to these people, I would probably feel more emotional about it than this whole ass novel ever made me feel. So I own the se the sequel. There's a sequel to this um which is what is it called? The House of Fortune, I think. Again, stunning cover. I think I have a signed copy and I know what it's about. Having finished this, you can be under no illusion about what it's going to be about and like kind of want to try it. I already own it, so I might like, you know, try a chapter because it sounds like it might actually be a little bit more interesting, but I haven't really heard anything about it besides it existing. Anyway, I already own it, so I may as well try. If it turns out that that book is phenomenal, then maybe I'll come back and be like, "Well, this book sucks." But the second one, which is amazing, couldn't exist without it, so you got to read them both or something. Like, but this on its own, no. No. Literally, what is the point of this? Next is another book that I have owned for a very long time, and I every time I think about it, I'm like, "Yeah, that sounds really great. Hey, I should read that and then I just don't and I think I have put it on several polls as well and it never wins. Just blame my patrons for everything. Anyway, that is The Lost Queen by Sydney Pike. And um this is I think historical fiction fantasy uh for sure historical fiction, but I think it's fantastical as well. And it's blurbed by Lana Hartzer who wrote The Half-down King and I love The Half Drowned King. The other people blurbing it I'm not familiar with. So that's neither here nor there. Um I remember seeing a review for it on Goodreads. Oh yeah, I have a copy with a book plate, but I got it from a used bookstore. It gives me pause that it says already being compared to Outlander and Mist of Avalon. It's like, well, Outlander is not great. I get that that'd be the kind of comparison a publisher would want to make, cuz Outlander is very popular. I remember seeing like a pretty long review on Goodreads of somebody that I've read it, and that review itself was so compelling to me that it made me want to read this book. Anyway, it just sounds very sweeping and engrossing and atmospheric, and it sounds like something that I could adore, but we'll see. Anyway, that's why it's on the list. The Lost Queen by Sney Pike. is fine. I This is not the worst book I've read for this challenge whatever thing. Uh it's not the best. It's very forgettable. So, the most interesting thing about this is that it's um it's about a character that was like forgotten is the lost queen. Um and there's an author's note. The author's note was the most interesting part of this [laughter] whole book is that like the the langanger langanger I know I'm saying that wrong. Langorith Langorath anyway um is uh so like with the Arththeran legends and Arththeran myths and stuff um there's like a lot of where they came from and other things that might have been like people might have been drawing from or combining when the Arthur myths kind of took shape. Um, and so like the person who they sort of think was a heavy inspiration for the character that became known as Merlin, um, the the real person who that might have been based on is Lilicanin, her twin brother. And then she's obviously a person in history, the sister of this person. And so the author was like looking into this history or like stumbled on this history, this history fact and some facts about Langorith and like what her life was supposed to what we know about what her life was supposed to have been like and what she went through. And she was like, "Wow, like I've never heard of this person. That's crazy. We've like totally forgotten about her. She's the lost queen. Uh we should tell a story that like centers her." And like I'm sorry, but everyone else's story is so much more interesting in this book. Like I know that the entire point of this book is to center her, but everyone else seems to be living a way more interesting life. Um, sorry. There might have been a way to tell this in a way that was more interesting to where like her story though the events of it are less interesting and engaging that that she herself has written so engagingly that you would be really good. But the writing is just like fine. It's not bad. It's like fine. And in the meantime like her twin brother, her like foster brother, um her husband, the man that she's in love with who are not the same person. Um, what we hear about them and like what they're doing offcreen when they're not with Langorath sounds so much more interesting. Sorry. So, and then it also seems like so like from the author's note, the stuff that she she the author's note comes at the end because the stuff that she says about her would be kind of spoilery for the the book, but the stuff that she says or like what she found out about Lingor, which made her want to write this like the stuff that that stuff is like at the very end of this book where that finally comes up and it took takes the whole book to get there. And I think there's two more books. I think this is a trilogy. And it really does seem like too little butter scraped over too much bread. Like it already seems like Lingor is like there's kind of a like that's not true. I'm not going to say every time some a figure is like lost to history that it's because they were boring. It's like oh there's a reason. But sometimes there's a reason. Sometimes it's because this one wasn't that interesting. This story isn't that compelling. So, she seems like a character that like if the if we were going to do a story about Lilicanin, who's like the OG Merlin, and then like more heavily also has a really really um prominently featured secondary character, Langorith. That might be kind of good cuz it's like there's enough there there to be of interest, not enough to be its own trilogy because we already have a bunch of time skips in here just to kind of like get through to some more interesting bits. and then there's going to be two more books. I just feel like maybe if this had been one book and we did the highlights of Langor's life or again if we did a book that was like about the other people but we just like made a decision to actively highlight her more because she is somewhat interesting. I don't think she's got main character energy. [laughter] At least not the way she's written here. This is similar to the thing with the miniaturist where like I think like Langor's life is like objectively less interesting than the life the lives of a lot of the people around her. But you could if you were a really good character writer you could write Langor's story in a way where she was just like so leaping off the page so vividly like described that she would be worth it to have these books about. She's just so like serviceable as a protagonist. Like a little bit frustrating, quite boring. She just seems very paint by number. Like when you're imagining like sort of like the type of protagonist that this is going to be, whatever you're imagining right now, it's probably exactly what she is. There's nothing to surprise you here about what she's like, about how she looks, about how she acts. And then the dialogue in this, it did veer sometimes too much for my personal taste towards something that sounded too modern, which not just the dialogue in terms of the words themselves, but also the kind of like relationship that they describe, the way that the characters talk to each other, especially the way Langor and like the men in her life talk to each other and her father. It's just so modern. And any book that's going to be readable to a modern audience is going to be more modern than whatever was going on really in these times. It just like was so modern that for my level it was like taking me out of the story or I was like yeah. [gasps] Um and this has been comped to Outlander. I guess I kind of get why. Um she's got cuz she's kind of like a healer in a historical setting and there's some romance and she's in Scotland but like a way way older time. This is Arththerian, pre-Atherththerian times. And for that, like the way that this is pre-Atherththerian. So like the way that she's talking with people around her again, it's just too B. And then like there's things in it which again like when I read books that take place in this time period where I get annoyed. I kind of like the way they talk about religion, it it has this like the characters that are meant to be the characters we like or think are wise are sort of like divorced from actually like feeling these things or believing these things. They're very kind of like metatitual about it where they're like, "Well, whether it be our pagan gods or the Christian gods, you know, like they're all one God really and that it's all like belief is just it's like it's like did you I'm sorry. Did these like the characters who are these like like wise men of your pagan faith? I'm sorry. Did they go to like get a liberal arts degree to have this kind of like comparative religions view on this?" Like [laughter] like what? um they would be zealous in their in their paganism. So that kind of takes me out of the story. It's like a little too self-aware. And yeah, again like the the sort of like there's a way to do like an oldtimey fierce woman feminism that doesn't read as modern. Does that make sense? like where cuz there were absolutely really fierce, independent, powerful women back in the day, but like the way they spoke and the way they thought of themselves and the way other people thought of them was just so different from how we think of that now, which is in no way to diminish their strength and power and independence, but it would just be like a very different mindset about it, both for themselves and for the people around them. this just feels too like girl bossy 2010s feminism where I'm like [snorts] don't like that. And then again the character like for the comp to Outlander she did sometimes remind me of Claire and with Cla she's not as bad as Cla but then in in another way she's worse than Cla. So like Claire Outlander has timetraveled back to like ye oldie Scotland and she like is a historian or is the daughter of a historian I forget and so and so she like is aware of like what the times were like and a lot of like information about it. So she more than anyone should be like fully aware how little rights that she has in this time period and should know that like as however aggravating, frustrating and offensive it is to like shut the [ __ ] up because you don't have any rights as a woman in this time period. So, like, do you want to die? Like, I I'm not saying you should think it's good or fair, but do you want to die? So, when she would like mouth off to people, you'd be like, Claire, I know you know better than this. So, this character isn't time traveling. She's like born and raised in this time period. This isn't a time travel story. She's like of pre-Atherththerian Britain and the way that she's like indignant sometimes about stuff is very like I'm sorry. Are you not aware of the time that you live in? Where where is this coming from? Huh. So again, that's kind of irritating to me. It's not by it's by no means the worst that I've read that's like that, but it's just like it's already not that interesting a book and not that interesting a story. And like Gith is not that interesting of a character. And then it's giving this kind of like modern thing that is also just kind of taking me out of the story. So it was kind of a slog to get through. It's not bad. If you really like Langorath and you find her really compelling and you find the the romance in it compelling, I could see you really enjoying this. But I don't think it's especially atmospheric or transportive or like historically vivid or and I don't didn't walk away from it feeling like wow like how could history have forgotten her. I'm like kind of get why history for her. [laughter] Sorry. Yeah. I just it's it's Oh, this was blurb. I was actually just thinking about this as a comp. I love the half-drown king by Lenia Hartzer and I was about to say when I was thinking about like the historical feminism thing and how you can absolutely do that without it coming off modern. What I was thinking of was actually the sea queen which is the second book was it's actually called the the half drowned king is the first book but what is the series called? I always forget. Is it called the golden wolf saga? I think it is. Anyway, it's this half drowned king, the golden uh the sea queen, and the golden wolf. Um the second one, the sea queen, is the one that all three books um prominently feature a female character, but like the sea queen especially features her. And I love her as a character and I love her story and it's so compelling and she is a character that feels very like vividly historically realized as like a powerful woman in her time. So I'm kind of disappointed that Lana Hartzer is blurbing this. The myths of Avalon for any generation. Pike vividly recreates both the magic and brutality of early medieval Britain. Replete with betrayals and love affairs, battles and escapes and unforgettable heroin at the center of it all. A gripping historical novel. Well, that's nice that she liked it, but Lana, yours is better. You did much better. So, if you're looking for that, I would recommend Lana's books over this in a heartbeat is my two cents. Anyway, so this is like 2.5, three star probably. Like it's not bad. It's just like it's not really doing anything that like that I especially needed in my life. The top of the stack now that it's been reorganized three times is Disc Gods by Christopher Rock. I started this when it came out and then because I didn't have, you know, like a live show or anything scheduled. Then I kind of fell behind on it and then it had been too long and I was like, "Oh, shoot. I think I would have to restart it again if I wanted to finish it." I was like, "Okay, I I'll do that at some point." And then I just didn't. And it's been half more than half a year now since it came out. I definitely need to restart it. Um I mean I kind of remember but would be best to restart it. So yeah, if you don't know, Disqu Gods is the seventh book. I get confused because like it got split up there in the middle into more books than it was originally supposed to be. I have them all. One, two, three. This is the sixth book and then there will be seven. I think that's correct. Okay. Anyway, so yeah. Um I read like a quarter of this I think. But yeah, I have to start over again. Actually read it. This is This is basically taking the place that Lightbringer took last year. So, this is the Lightbringer of 2025. Disqu Gods by Christopher Rockio. And this is the shiny one. I actually did go and buy now that they re-released it in the matte one, but I also don't know where I put it. But anyway, [laughter] I finally I finally read it and I liked it. just this series is such a mixed bag for me cuz like I the highs are so high. I like I really love so many things about it. But the cilantro is getting stronger with each one and I suspect that the very ending of this series is going to be a bowl of cilantro by which if you don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know where I said this. It might have been in like wherever I talked about um the last book in the series that like I there are things in this that are like the the author's world view isn't like subtext. it is like text. Um, or I should say it previously was subtext. The subtext was getting stronger and now it's like full-on text and it's not a worldview that I share. So, when it comes up, I'm like, I don't love this. And so, the comparison I made for why I still love the series even though that's in it um is that like I love Mexican food, but I cilantro I have like the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap. So, like I don't like cilantro cuz I don't like soap in my [laughter] food, but I love Mexican food. And so I love Mexican food so much that I'm willing to put up with some soapiness in it because there's like always cilantro in Mexican food. It's inescapable. Even if you ask for no cilantro, some part of it has cilantro in it. So that's how I'm like this series like has some cilantro in it. But I really love it. So I'm willing to put up with some cilantro, but it's getting to be very cilantro heavy. So that's kind of a struggle for me. Also, um, from the beginning, I clocked some of his references and some of his influences. And when I don't always clock all of his references, um, mostly because like I'm not always familiar with the thing that he's referencing, but because when I do clock his references, they are so obvious and on the nose and like they are not references so much as they are just like like like in music when you're sampling like it's like straight up just like copy pasting things into here. And so the I noticed a ton of Kingdom of Heaven in the first book. In his other books, there's been other stuff. There's obviously a ton of um Book of the New Sun throughout and this one it was a several moments where it was giving Bladeunner 2049. One of them I talked about on my Insta story. It's like I mean maybe I'm maybe this is me projecting maybe this is like totally unfair of me because it's not a straight quote but if you've seen 2049 the scene where he's talking at the computer to prove that he's on baseline um he's quoting Pale Fire by Nabokov and we have like it's like pretty unusual words to find especially in quick succession because the poem um that he's using what they're using the text from in the movie is like within cells interlin within cells cells interlin within cells interlin and a blood black. It's like a blood black nothingnessless something something within cells interlin within cells interlin and uh a stem um dreadfully distinct um against the dark something like that. So here on these two pages we have the word interlin on the first page and dreadfully distinct on the next page. And I was like what? [laughter and snorts] And then there's I won't say what it is because it's kind of spoilery. Um it's extremely spoilery for the series and for this book. Um but there's a scene in this that since I was already on like 2049 brain when this scene happened I was like this scene is a scene from Bladeunner 2049. Really spoilery for also spoilery for 2049. It would just be like super spoilery. But if you've seen the film and if you've read this book, there's a scene towards the end, very near the end, that tell me that's not ripped straight out of 2049, which like it makes sense why that would be the kind of like point of reference for a lot of this stuff because like the themes that 2049 is interested in exploring um are like on topic for what this book seems to be interested in exploring. Um, it's just that 2049's conclusions, if they can be called that, or the sort of uh where the audience is sort of meant to land on this stuff when watching 2049, the point it seems to try to trying to be making or the sort of direction 2049 is kind of going is a quite different direction from this. So, they're like both having it's like they're both having the same conversation, but it's not they're not agreeing. So, this book I wouldn't say it's like um a clapback at 2049 or anything. In fact, I get the feeling that he probably likes 2049. That's why he's referencing it. But I also get the feeling that he probably watched 2049 and was like, I love this. If only it was making the correct point. Don't worry, I'll do it. And his the correct point is a very cilantroy point. So, I prefer 2049. [laughter] But, nonetheless, this is still an epic installment. I'm still super invested in this and I'm really excited to see the conclusion. Although again think I know what type of conclusion it's going to be, but I'm, you know, prepared for it. So anyway, I think like his creativity and the sort of like expansiveness of this story, the scope of it and the amount of different ideas he's pulling from because like he is sort of like copy pasting a ton of ideas, but it's like to have like combined so many different ideas into here like is itself kind of um impressive. It's like the ultimate fusion food. >> [laughter] >> Um because I think like if you don't know what he's referencing um and he's usually referencing quite quality things so he's got good taste. U and if you don't know that he's referencing something it wouldn't be obvious to you that he is. Um it's just like cuz there's lots of stuff again that like it's not something I'm familiar with. So I'm not clocking it. But I know it's there cuz I know like you don't know what you don't know. But I mean I when it's there and I do recognize it, it is so recognizable that I'm sure there's stuff here. And there's stuff that like after the fact where like I wasn't familiar with it, but then I read it later and now like either when I was reading that thing later, I remembered this and went, "Oh shoot, he was referencing this cuz like this is seeming familiar to me and this predates it." So, like, oh, um, so yeah, like I have filled that in sometimes and been like, oh, there's even more there being copycatted. But like one of the things that like was copycat, it was disappointing to me cuz I thought it was such a cool and original idea. And I still think it's a cool and original idea. It's just he didn't come up with it. And I was giving him credit for it. Uh, it's something that he does in um, Kingdoms of Death, I think it was, where it happens. Anyway, but then I read the thing that he definitely drew that idea from and I was like, "Oh, well, it's still a cool idea, but I guess credit does not go to you for it." [clears throat] So, anyway, still really enjoyed it. Still really great. Really looking forward to reading the rest of the series. And I do still think it's impressive despite all of the references. Maybe because of the references. I don't know. Like it it like bothers me, but it doesn't. just like the cilantroy bits. Like it bothers me, but I'm like, but okay, I'm willing to hear you out. Like, you're not going to convince me obviously, but I'm sure let's sure. Let's go with your thing and let's like kind of see where that goes. Let's see your vision. Um, but I guess we'll see how it ends. Maybe my tune will change when I see the very ending. But right now, it's very like you have a clear position on this. I see it and I suppose I respect it, but I do not hold that position. So anyway, glad to have finally read it. And uh yeah, on to Shadows Upon Time, which is much longer than this one. Jesus, Shadows Upon Time so long. But also, I think I might watch 2049 tonight cuz I've been wanting to watch that for a long time or rewatch that. So maybe Night Tonight's the night. [gasps] Anyway, so certainly one of the best books from this project. Next up is a book that has been on many a poll for my Patreon. It has come close to winning so many times, but it just it never won and I kind of stopped putting it on the poll because it it became more like a running joke and I started to feel bad. Anyway, I'm just going to read it. I'm going to read it myself. And it's Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlin James, which I have owned pretty much since it came out. And I have wanted to read it since it came out. And you know, fine if y'all refuse to let this win the poll. I'm just going to read it on my own. You can just miss out. I'm talking to my patrons, not not you personally who's watching this video, unless you're one of my patrons, in which case I am talking to you personally. I've heard that it's good and I've heard that it's really harrowing that like there's trigger warnings abound. That is like very, very harrowing content in here. So, buckle up, I guess. I also own another Maron James book that I I've never read any Marlin James, but I have this. And I also have it's yellow. What's it called? Is it listed on here somewhere? Yeah. author of the brief a brief history of seven killings. That's the other Marlin James book I own. So hopefully I like this and hopefully I want to read the other. I've put the other one on polls before as well. Never wins obviously. Last year there were like three books I DNFED. I think it was definitely more than one. This year I have not been letting myself DNF almost any of them. I say almost because the second to last book which I started in in January, [gasps] this is how far I got. And I'm going to call it red on good readads cuz like it's more than halfway. I did not like this obviously other than dnfing it. Um [clears throat] but it's one of the best written things that I've ever dnfed. By which I mean like the the writing itself like the pros the writing itself the pros is um a lot of the time quite excellent. it is. Um, but at the same time that kind of makes me mad because I feel like this book, obviously there's people that love it, so they would disagree with me about this, but it feels like it's hiding behind that. Like it's doing that instead of being a good book, like like bad food covered in a a fancy sauce. Um, I'm always using food metaphors, but they just come to mind. Or like Yeah. No, we're going to stick with that one. [gasps] It it's like this veneer, this patina of profoundity that is like if you strip that back, not just like good pros, but also slightly um convoluted pros. If you sort of like push through the thorns of all that, um there's not that much there under it. It's or it's like um if you were to serve like really like um ordinary food but like plated up in a way where you get like the tiny piece of it in the center of a giant plate with a sauce drizzled. You'd be like your brain is like, "Oh, this is fancy." So like I I should like take a moment to like savor it and assume that these flavors are complex as opposed to like realizing that oh actually this is like somebody's like like corn dog that they cut up in a fancy way. Um, like that's kind of the vibe it's giving me where it's like the presentation is so sort of like good in the sense that it is genuinely good pros, but it's it's being used to mask a lack of anything underneath. And I shouldn't say lack of anything, but first of all, it does not need to be this long. I haven't finished it yet, obviously, but um, so far I did not see anything that justified that length. And it is also the the other thing that it's doing is like constantly shocking you. And I think it's also hiding behind that. I think behind behind the fancy pros, behind the convoluted um like narration style that makes it a little difficult to follow and behind the constant shocking you with horrifying triggering things. It's relying on those three things to keep you so busy like mentally that you're not going to notice that there really isn't anything there. Um there's nothing there to like actually engage with cuz you're just so busy first trying to understand what the heck's going on and second of all trying to like emotionally get over what you're being told because it's harrowing. And by the time you've done that, you're like, "Wow, I'm assuming cuz like that was quite a trial for me mentally and emotionally. So that must mean it was a profound experience. But that's actually not true. It's really manipulative. And so that's what I'm getting out of this. And maybe maybe if I finish this, maybe at the very end I would like be like, "Oh, actually it was all worth it. It actually was all this all needed to be the way it is." But I seriously doubt it. I love Gene Wolf. I love Well, I love I still love the works of Neil Gaiman. and I hate Neil Gam in the person, but like that doesn't change how I felt about his literature. And I love first law. I have no issue with reading about unlikable protagonists, about reading really harrowing things happening either to them or because they are enacting it. I have no issue reading about like really triggering topics, really harrowing things, you know, like uh essay and other types of abuse and all kinds of bizarre abuse also like really uncommon um creative ways of being really horrible. And I have no issue, I shouldn't say no issue, but I'm perfectly willing to read something and love something that is told in a convoluted way against the Gene Wolf. I did sort of compare this quite frequently, not on purpose, but it's sort of like the best comparison that my mind could conjure was The Book of the New Sun. It's nothing like The Book of the New Sun in terms of like what this is about. Um, but Book of the New Sun is told in a way that is is intentionally um convoluted um and is also told with very like beautiful pros and also has a protagonist doing terrible things. there's often quite terrible things being portrayed that are quite shocking or quite uncomfortable. But Book of the New Sun when it's it rewards you for peeling back those layers. It rewards you for like waiting through that and trying to navigate it and trying to figure it out because there's something there there. Here I was like struggling to understand what was going on. But then when I every time I did because I part of the reason I started this in January and I've only just now finished it is because I kept restarting it because I kept being like, "Wait, what? Wait, what? I I think I'm not giving this my all. I need to start over. I don't know if I'm getting this. I need to start over. I don't know like if I'm giving this a fair shake. I need to start over. And I've done that multiple times and now this is how far I got. And it did not reward that. Every time I went back to be like, "No, hold on. I don't know that I got that. No, hold on. Wait, what is he trying to sing here? I don't I don't know that I'm fully grasping it. Have I fully received what is supposed to be happening here or what he's supposed to be implying here? And every time I went back to do that, I was just like, "Oh, yeah. Okay." So then I'd be like, "Okay, now I've I feel better cuz I'm less confused." But I'm like, that's all I feel is less confused and not like, "Oh, oh, never ever that." It was always just like, "Okay, I get it now. I think, okay, I think I get it. Okay." But I'm like, but why? Why are we doing this? Like, what is the point to this? And I do not mean that a book needs to be a fable, that there needs to be a point to it in the sense of a a morality tale. And I certainly don't mean that there needs to be a mystery box. Um, I mean, I love reading Sally Rooney. I love reading Forest Law. Those books are, you know, meandering character, plotless, whatever. [laughter] Like, uh, certainly not morality tales. Um, but there's still like a point to it in the sense of the author is trying to accomplish something. The author has a reason for telling this story. What is that reason? And it seems to me the reason here is just like an it's a writing exercise. It's an exercise in like can I confuse and horrify you into believing that this is profound. Um, didn't work on me. Sorry. And and there is some like interesting because this has been comped to Game of Thrones. It's like it's it's Game of Thrones. if Game of Thrones was about like African mythology or something like that. And first of all, people comp everything with Game of Thrones. So I I didn't exactly go into it being expecting that. But um what when people do that, I kind of make the assumption that the thing that they are the reason they're doing that, the thing that I can take away from that that's actually information is that it's probably going to be either really grand in scope, like there's going to be like a lot of characters and a lot of politics or something or and or it's grim dark. And I'm like, those are the reasons usually something is comped to Game of Thrones. So, it's probably going to be nothing like Game of Thrones, but I can probably expect lots of politics with a complicated story andor grim dark. And here, it's certainly grim dark, much grimmer than anything in a Song of Ice and Fire. But I also the thing I was most horrified by was myself because this is just an onslaught of horror constantly that I felt nothing about it because I never felt invested in the characters. I never felt invested in the world. Mostly I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on and constantly being assaulted with like horrifying concepts and images. And I just felt nothing about it. And I felt awful for not feeling anything about it cuz like I'd be reading these chapters where I'm like, "Wow, that's really disgusting. Wow, that's that's really awful." But I didn't feel any kind of way about it. I was just like, "Dang, yuck." Like [laughter] I just I and that makes me feel hollow and awful that I'm so desensitized because I'm not invested in this. It's just like constant and it should no purpose. Like um earlier this year I read um what's it called? Red cover night on the cover. It's like grim dark medieval horror. It's by Christopher Bulman. Oh my god. Between Two Fires is that anyway. Well, I'll put it up. Like I think that's what it was. And then anyway, I liked it and I did when I reviewed it when I talked about it with my patrons cuz we did read it together and then also like in my wrap- up when I talked about it, I talked about how it's a book that you know your mileage may vary. You may disagree with me that it's the horrors it depicts is to a purpose, but like my position is that I do not object to horrible things being depicted in a book if it's to a purpose. Like I don't say flat, but there are some people that are like, "You should never ever ever depict on page essay in a book. Period. There's no reason for it." I don't think that's true. I think it's lazy to lean on that for horror and shock. I think it's lazy to lean on that to convey villain, but I don't think it's off the table. I think there are valid reasons to include that in your story. Just like any kind of like brutality, violence, gore, I don't think that's off the table. And I don't think the only imp the only use of it is to just suddenly like amp up the shock and horror. it can be really vital to the story that you're telling that you include these things. And so when I read Between Two Fires, it was leaning towards like overusing those things, but to me, the story was telling and the the what the point of it all was, like what seemed to be the author's purpose in writing the story did necessitate waiting in some of that territory. And to me, I was like, this is pretty harrowing to read, so be warned. And you might think it's too much. I think it's like borderline too much, but to me there's there's a clear reason why this is being included and it's necessary to what this book is trying to accomplish. And so it's worth it to me to wade through those horrors if that's like one for a reason and two, it's a reason that I'm interested and it's a good book. There's no reason for it here that I can discern and the book itself isn't that good. The book is just like a slo a confusing slog. And again, it's it's confusing in the sense of like it's hard to follow, intentionally hard to follow, but not impossible. So, you I would just have to keep rereading things and being like, "Oh, okay. I get it. Wait, who is he talking to right now?" Uh cuz there's this like weird inclusion of second person cuz like the narrator is sort of telling their story to someone and then they so they address the the person they're telling the story to um periodically without warning a lot of the time and they speak in riddles and they speak in this really staccato way and they bring in a lot of like imagery and metaphor and they contradict themselves all the time. So it's just like really annoying to have to keep rereading stuff cuz you're like wait what what is he saying is happening? Oh, okay. I Okay, I think I think I get it. Um, but I don't feel after that like, oh, wow, [gasps] I understand it now. I'm just like, why did we have to say it in a way that was so complicated and so like there was an easier way to convey this? This is needlessly confusing. And again, I like the book of the new stunt. I like Gene Wolf. When he makes things difficult to understand, occasionally, even with Gene Wolf, I'll be like, did you need to make it that hard to understand this? But nonetheless, there's usually, for me anyway, a clear narrative reason why he's doing this, why this character would not have commented on this. And so you don't get to find this out. You can find it out if you piece together context clues because the the information is there, but the character who's telling you this story would have no reason to bring it up and so they're not going to tell you. Like that's to me is I mean it's a choice to be that kind of dedicated to um narrator consistency as opposed to giving your reader some information they might need or want. Um but there's like a reason for that then it's a commitment to this sort of like method writing which is what I called it when I reviewed Book of the New Son where here it doesn't seem like a commitment to the voice of this narrator. The commitment is to confusion and to shock value. I'm not interested in that. I'm not interested in that for its own sake. If I can discern a purpose for those things, for obfuscation, confusion, horror, shock, etc., I'm fine with it. I'm absolutely fine with it. Some of my all-time favorite books fall into those categories. This didn't earn it. Didn't earn being this confusing and this horrifying. It was just it was just misery. Both because it was like a slog and confusing. So, it was just really annoying and took forever to get through as far as I did and [clears throat] also miserable because the the text itself when you actually understand what's happening is just nonstop like and it was it was also to the point where it's like when um like a kid first reaches young adulthood and so they start wanting to like like put swear words into everything they say and include sexual jokes in everything they say because they think it's like so grown up to do that and so edgy to do that. But like actual grown-ups who've been swearing and like don't think sex is a novel idea don't do that. So you actually seem more childish for have for constantly including swear words and and sexual innuendo in what you're saying. That was also this because like every single character, every single page, every single word out of everyone's mouth including swear words and then either actual descriptions of like horrifying sexual acts or like the way they would speak would be like terms of phrase and idioms that all reference horrifying sex like constantly. And I was like, do you guys truly have nothing else going on in your lives that you could possibly be referencing or using as a metaphor? Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. Like are you did you just reach adulthood? Did you just figure out what sex is? You seem very obsessed with it. [laughter] Like you can't make any comparison to anything ever without bringing that into it. I feel like I'm sounding like my mom because like I swear all the time. I swear like a sailor. Um my mom is always saying how like she thinks it's just uncreative that like if the only thing that you can say is is a swear word that that's that there's more you're not using language creatively. And my answer to that is like, but why limit your tool the tools in your tool box? So, I agree that leaning on just like leaning on um horrors in books is not necessary, but you can include it. That's my position on swearing. Like, leaning on swearing instead of saying anything else is lazy and boring. But to exclude that from your vocabulary is also not good. Like, you should have all the tools at your disposal. That's how I feel about like essay and violence in books. That's how I feel about using swear words. Don't lean on those things. Don't overuse those things, but they are tools in your toolbox for a reason. This is overusing all of those things and offering nothing else. This didn't leave me with any like profound questions to ponder. Didn't at all ever make me go, "Huh, that's food for thought." It just made me go, "Yuck." Okay, but I but I get it. I'm good. Next is a book that I don't really know why I I kind of know why I own this. Okay. Anyway, it's For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten. And if this cover looks unfamiliar to you, um, that's kind of the main reason I have this is because this is a special edition like dust jacket, this is what the cover normally looks like. Um, and that's the main reason I have this is because the artist that did these dust jackets is one of my favorite like bookish artists. She does a lot of like bookbox custom special dust jacket art print bookmark type of stuff. Um, and so it's because I follow her. Um, she shared some of the art she was doing for this and I was like, "Oo." I was like, "I guess I want this book." Sure, fine. Maybe I'll love it. I think it's a Red Riding Hood retelling. I own both because it was like I bought them together. The special editions of For the Wolf and then the sec the second one is For the Throne, I think. Hopefully, I'll like it cuz I do like these dust jackets and I like to support artists that I like. This is the first book that I started for this project and it is the last one that I finished and that is For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten. This book is just nothing. It's nothing. [laughter] It's giving nothing. Oh my gosh. First of all, if you're expecting a Red Riding Hood retelling, it is not. It is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, which like very like it it has a woman called Red with a red cloak and she goes into a forest, but everything else is Beauty and the Beast. So, it's it's like it's a Trojan horse for Beauty and the Beast. It's coming in the shape of Red Riding Hood, but it's like just kidding. It's another Beauty and the Beast retelling. Maybe that's why I did it because I was like, "Oh, everyone's doing Beauty and the Beast retelling, so I'm gonna make everyone think this is Red Riding Hood." But it's Beauty and the Beast. The lore, this is really long for for what it is. The lore makes zero sense. When I started it, I literally was like uh posting in my Discord like, "Has anyone read this? And can anyone am I stupid or does this lore not make any sense?" And [laughter] very kindly, my patrons were like, "Well, it can't be that you're stupid." And I was like, "I mean, it definitely can." But like, it's not even it's not even like where I've read books where it's like, well, the logical like conclusion of this doesn't really fit what's going on here. Like when I it's not like with Way of Kings where I'm like, "The setup here, if you were to really fully consider the ramifications of this, this isn't how this would work." um like what you're saying is happening doesn't fully make sense if you were to like do the thought exercise of how people would respond to that or something like that. That is not what I mean. I mean like literally when it's telling you the lore, I'm like I don't get it. [gasps] Maybe it does work. I don't know. I don't get it. [laughter] I don't get what it is you're supposed to believe here. So because like this this people they live on the edge of this forest and it's like a magical forest and there's this like religious cult and like there's two sisters and the red one the protagonist red her name is like redaris or something and they call her red and it's like the most I needed her name to be abbreviated to red so what name can I give her that could be abbreviated to redaris it's like okay whatever so anyway they live like a the lore like the the beliefs of this cult like she has to be sacrificed to the wolf who's like this good/b bad thing that's in the forest. And there's these like five kings that are trapped in the woods and they're like praying for the the second coming, the return of the five kings. And like by giving a daughter to the wolf who's like keeping them trapped, they'll like appease the wolf, but that will also help in the quest of returning the five kings. I don't see I don't understand. And I also don't know why they want the return of the five kings because like it's just that oh they'll return. It's like but why do we want that like okay what happens when they return? Couldn't tell you. So anyway naturally I'm I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn that when Raris goes to the forest to be sacrificed to the wolf, the wolf turns out to be a brooding emo dude who she falls in love with. And the reason he's called the wolf is the dumbest part of this book. It's because in like whatever language is in this world, wolf and warden in like the word is like either the same word or really similar word. So he was originally the warden of the forest, but then that got turned into the wolf and that got turned into like over time he is a wolf. Um, which is just like, so you're saying in this beauty in this in I'm sorry, in this Red Riding Hood this Red Riding Hood retelling, we don't even have a wolf and we really don't even have a beast because like I was like, okay, obviously he's going to be the love interest, but I was assuming there would be like some wolfishness to get even for our Beauty and the Beast retelling for the beastiness to be wolflike, to be this lupine beastiness. But no, he's literally just a guy. [laughter] He's a guy in the woods who's like brooding an emo and drinks a lot of coffee. Like it's said over and over again that he slash his area, his domain, his library in the middle of the forest where they're living on nothing and have resource like very limited resources because they're stuck in the woods. Um he smells like coffee, his stuff smells like coffee, his clothes smell like coffee, and like when they go to like on their trucks to like resupply, they always get coffee. And like obviously this is a fantasy world so you can do whatever you want but it's the the tone and the vibe of what this world is supposed to be like. It's like the uppermost north. It's like snowy and cold. The forest it's giving, you know, Scandinavian Icelandic, you know, German something like that, you know, like very very northern cold forest. And coffee does not like nowadays I guess we do associate Scandinavians with coffee because Scandinavians love coffee you know same but it's not native there like that's that's the result of like global trade that Scandinavians can drink as much coffee as they do because that does not naturally occur in Scandinavia. Coffee grows in really warm places. So the idea that this like these scant supplies that they have in this remote oldtimey swords and sorcery we live on the edge of a forest where a religious cult situation that they have a ton of coffee [laughter] that really kind of took me out of the story. Again, it's a fantasy world so you can do whatever you want. This isn't like a historical inaccuracy thing. It was just like you just wanted him to smell like coffee and you probably personally like coffee. You Hannah Whitten and you were like it's so hot when a dude smells like coffee. I'm going to make him smell like coffee. Does it make a ton of sense? Does it kind of like enrich the world and make it feel more believable? No. But [snorts] I want it to smell like coffee. Just like is Redarus a good name? No. But I can abbreviate it to Red. Everything about this the lore, too. It's just like I need a reason for her to be sacrificed to the forest and I need a reason for that to actually turn out to be okay. And we're going to write some lore around that to make that make sense. just like we need a reason for people to be against her or like to be working towards a goal that's bad and so then people wanting the return of the five kings and like it's just it's all such a hodgepodge where like everything was like the cart putting the cart before the horse like your goal was to have a forest with a hot brooding dude in it and to get your maiden like sacrificed to him and but actually fall in love with him that's like what she wanted to write and then everything else was kind of cobbled together around that in a way that does not make sense with itself at all and feels cobbled together and takes forever to get through. I and it's not actually like hot or brooding. Like I am not the target audience for that kind of thing. I even if I am picking up romance on purpose because I want to be reading that, which is not that often, I am not the enemies to lovers brooding bad boy girl. I'm a childhood friends to lovers gal. I'm a friends to lovers gal. Like I am not actually a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice. Like I think it's well written. I think it's a pretty good story and there's a reason it's stood the test of time, but like I prefer Emma and Mr. Nightly. I prefer Jane and Mr. Bingley. I prefer like this whole like I hate you, but actually secretly I love you. I I don't I'm not into it. I don't like it. Probably because this is a complete aside that has nothing to do with this book. But like I personally pride myself on being an extremely good judge of character. I have almost never been wrong about my first impression about somebody. So, it's just the notion to me that I could be that wrong about somebody and it be somebody that I would fall in love with is just so beyond belief to me. Like the only time that's ever worked I mean in Pride and Prejudice it works a little bit because like there's some misinformation that causes the hatred. But if it's just like a bad vibe and then you realize you're wrong, I'm like I have never been wrong about my vibe about somebody, let alone be able to fall in love with somebody be that way off. So, I just I can't really buy into it and I don't think it's like cute [laughter] or hot. Um anyway, so but that being said, I have read stories where it is the brooding bad boy, enemies to lovers, whatever. And um I'm not a robot. I can be swept up in that occasionally trying to think of an example and coming up short, but I'm sure that it's happened. Um, anyway, just take my word for it. It has happened. Or at the very least, even if it's not like my cup of tea, I'm like, I get what it's doing here, and if I was into this, this would probably be quite hot. This was just so nothing. It was so like wet cardboard. Like the scenes where like he's like brooding TM and she's like, I see you and I want to help you. It was like the so watered down copycat version of every time I've ever seen that that it was so like by the numbers like paint by number where I was like I I can't even like believe that this is happening like that this is yet another couple that's happening to where I'm just like you don't even seem like real. You literally seem like someone like wrote down this this archetype and then told like an AI to like animate it. [laughter] Like they it was there was just like nothing there. And like all of the times he would say anything that would like was like he's concerned for her but is like hiding it. I was just like this is so I I cannot put into words how on the nose and boring it is. like it is doing it's giving nothing nothing new nothing unique the characters are so boring too like when they're like falling madly in love with each other like Red and and the wolf like she's boring as hell too and he's boring as hell so I guess they deserve each other but I'm just like why would I root for this like a love for the ages like I mean I guess you know like attracts like wet cardboard to wet cardboard you know like they meant for each >> [laughter] >> A brilliant dark fantasy debut. God, I wish. I wish. Drenched in atmosphere with sharp and biting pros. Literally where? Where? Alex E. Heron and Aaron A. Craig. They actually do atmosphere. Girls, you're lying. Atmospheric folkloric and half familiar. If you ever wish beauty and the beast had more Eldrich forest monsters and political minations, this is the romance for you. I wish that was true about it because that sounds fantastic. And I bet if that description, if that story had been written by Aaron A. Craig or else ehero, it would actually be pretty decent. This is just I I I struggle to put into words how nothing this is. Like I can't even compare it to something cuz I don't think I've It didn't make me angry. Like it wasn't aggressively bad. It was just so nothing. It was like the absence of a book that kept trying to convince you that it is actually a book where there's like nothing inside like it's hollow. [snorts] I Yeah. So yeah, not not a fan. [laughter] So after editing everything, I realized that I never actually filmed like an outro or a conclusion. Uh whoops. [laughter] So, to conclude, to wrap up, this was not the my most successful. Uh, I mean, there's always quite a few misses when I do this cuz there's usually since this whole project is kind of like reading books that that I just haven't for whatever reason. And sometimes it's like, man, like I'm so glad I did this project cuz I finally got me to read this thing and I love it. And other times like there's a reason that I didn't read that. So anyway, I'd have to go back and look and see like which year I've done this three times now. Um I had more hits than misses or misses than hits or whatever. Um this felt like an especially bad year to me, but I could be way off on that. Um again, last year I d I actually DNFed a lot last year. This year I sort of like finished almost everything and the one book I DNFED I did read a good amount of. So there's that, I guess. But okay. Um so yeah, what did I read? I read for the wolf. Terrible. Terrible. Not not not anger inducing, just uh the absence of a book though. Only one I DNFED. Black Leopard Red Wolf. I am really glad to kind of be done with this. It's been haunting me cuz I think I said when I was picking these books why I picked this was like I've been putting it on patron polls for years. It's come close to winning a few times. I think I have two copies of this cuz I think someone gifted me an ARC of it and then I also have like this is not the arc of it. This is the finished copy. So I just kept feeling like there was this looming over. why I put it on this project. And I kept thinking all this time that like when I finally do the thing and read it, I'm going to be like, man, I wish I'd read that sooner. That really is so good. But it's not. So, I can be done with this. Disqu Gods. Uh, you know, the cilantro is strong with this one, but I still love the series and I still really enjoyed this installment. And also compared to everything else I was reading for this project, this was like a much needed like a good book. [laughter] But I um spoilers for the new year. Um Alex and I are going to do a final Sunnyer chat. Alex Neves and I've been chatting with him about the last book. I haven't started it yet. I was like I finally finished his squad gods. Um you know we should do a chat about um what's it called? Shadows upon time. Uh and he was like how you started it? And I was like no. He's like, "You're going to have thoughts." [laughter] He's like, "There's a lot of cilantro in this one." I was like, "Oh, no." So, anyway, I look forward to that. I or not. You know, you're under no obligation to be excited for Sun Eater or for me or for Alex or for the combination thereof. And then The Lost Queen kind of just I kind of kept forgetting I owned it, put it on this project, kind of kept forgetting that it was on this project that I had to read it until I would look at the stack. I'm like, "Oh, yeah." And then now that I have read it, I kind of forgot. I keep forgetting that I did read this. I'm like, "Oh, yeah, I did read that." And it was fine. Miniaturist took me all year to freaking read it. And it's it's not good. It's not good. And it's more anger inducing because like it thinks it's good. So, it's very like Essex Serpent and Wolf Hall. Although Essex Serpent and Wolf Hall really enraged me. This one was just kind of like lackluster and frustrating. Or maybe like I've like calmed down in my old age. It could be a combination. And then Carrie Sto is back. My first disappointment from Taylor Jenkins. Do you see how I think this is the worst year yet? They're all like, "No, no, no, no, no. Disqu Gods from a series that I already know I like." And then no, no, no. So yeah, like not the worst book in the world, but like for a Taylor Jenkins Reed book, like on that if we're grading on that curve, this is atrocious. But it's like just like a serviceable also quite forgettable book. 13th Child, my first miss for Aaron A. Craig. Yeah, this was a terrible year. Um because the other two books by her I read neither of them was like perfect or like five stars immaculate favorite of all time, but like really solid where I was like this is an author I can rely on to like deliver specific things and then apparently not cannot rely. This book was also really like lackluster and thought it was more pretended to be more. I feel very lied to this year. And then Foundry Side, which I kind of knew that I wouldn't like or had strong reason to suspect that I wouldn't like and then I didn't like it. So you guys, sometimes you're right about me. Sometimes you're super wrong as we're about to get to in the next one. But yeah, no one thought I was going to like this and and I and I didn't. But you thought I wouldn't like anxious people. And this is possibly my favorite book from this whole project. Although, or at least it's in the top three. Um, jokes on you. This was phenomenal. Super. This is like the one book that's like actually fulfilled the wish of this project, which is, you know, that book that you've just been not reading and not reading and not reading, and you're going to be so grateful when you finally read it. You'll be like, "Oh my gosh, that was so good. I should have read it sooner." This one finally one of the books did do that for me. So very very good. Love it. Want to read more Frederick Bachman. Stephen King letting me down. I have actually read a lot of Stephen King this year. Um including this. And this is the worst Stephen King book that I read this year. Is that true? Feels true. Yeah, I think that's true. Anyway, um Stephen King doing character work and fairy taleesque stuff like should be good. And the beginning was so good. The beginning was really really good. If I was just rating the beginning, this would be my possibly my favorite book in the whole project. But unfortunately, there's a whole rest of the book to get through and that is not good. So, and then all is well, which was so good. This anxious people and Disquite Gods, although Disquite Gods has cilantro in it. This doesn't have cilantro in it. Um, and Anxious People does not have cilantro in it. So, this and Anxious People probably winners of this whole project. This is so good. I stand by that. Chef's kiss. I immaculate. This is how you do a retelling. This is why you do a retelling. Knocked my socks off. You know, praise be. And then possibly the worst book of the whole thing is the one that I started with. So, it's not a great way to set the tone, but Lady McBth can go Die. One of the worst books I've ever read in my whole life. just I am still speechless. What did Scotland ever do to you, Ava Reed? And there you have it. Uh, another year successful in that I finished, not successful in that I I disliked almost every book [laughter] for this project. [gasps] So, those of you who enjoy me ranting, this is probably your favorite one of the lot because there was very little praise going on. >> [snorts] >> Happy new year and hopefully this year's will be better in every respect for everything across the board. Okay, bye.