I *TRIED* reading Booktubers' Favourite Books of 2019... 📖🤷‍♀️ | ivymuse [CC]

hi guys it's Theresa welcome back to my channel basically in this video I want to read booktubers favorite books of 2019 now I know that last year there was a phase where everybody was reading each other's favorites just in general and this kind of plays off of that idea obviously but reading other booktubers' favorite books of any given year is really something I do almost every year like the end of your favorites videos always inspire a huge like book buying phase for me where I just want to buy and read everything that other people loved so I kind of want to take something that I already was gonna do anyway and make it into a video and see how I would feel about it as a whole I did want to have some kind of system to me doing this so I decided to pick five booktubers these are the people that I usually gravitate towards when I look for videos, booktube videos or book recommendations and basically watch their favorites videos and pick two books from each booktuber that I want to read in the month of January so basically how this video will go is at first right now I'll tell you the books I'm planning to read and then for the rest of the month or however long I kind of vlog my reading experience of these books and at the end of the video we'll see if I agree with these favorites I guess by the way if you're curious to see my personal favorites of the Year 2019 I'll link it in the description and in the cards so the first person I picked I tend to watch like all her videos and we have very similar reading tastes I think and kind of enjoy similar things and that is Merphy Napier and from her video i picked on luna time this book is as far as i can tell a time travel romance and i kind of seem to have missed Merphy talking about this books throughout the year so I was really surprised to see this in her favorites i had never heard of it before and i thought like you know what i should i should give this a go. and then the second book i'm picking from her pile is the Troop by Nick cutter this book reminded me really off wilder girls by Rory Power which I quite enjoyed last month and I just really was interested to read this it's about this group of like teenage boys they go camping in the Canadian wilderness and then they encounter like a horrible strange disfigured person that has like been bio engineered and it's like really strange it sounds I think she said that it has like a lot of body horror in it which I really enjoy for some reason like I'm really morbid like that and I really enjoyed that so I think I'm perfectly setup to enjoy both of these books I can't wait to get started the next person I went to for recommendations was BookswithEmilyFox she is also the person that I gravitate towards a lot for book recommendations she's someone I go to specifically for scifi recommendations because that's the genre she mainly reads and so I picked two scifi books from her pile the first is a Recursion by Blake Crouch this book follows I think a society where people have like false memories so basically they could lead like completely what they think are completely normal lives and then wake up one day and realize what they like remembered vividly to be their life isn't actually their life and I don't know much more than that but it sounds creepy and fascinating and really cool and the second book I'm gonna read from Emily's pile is skyward by Brandon Sanderson we all know what this is about I've been kind of hesitant to pick it up just because at the beginning I didn't think it sounded like something that I would enjoy but since then so many people have told me how amazing it is I have yet to hear a single negative thing about it and Emily really loved it so I have to try it the next person I'm going with is Booksandlala I have loved her videos for a very long time I do find that I don't always agree with her on certain books like sometimes we agree a hundred percent other times it's kind of hit or miss for me at least so we have some overlapping tastes at least and I thought I'd just give it a go the first book I picked from her is Bunny by Mona Awad which honestly is probably the book on this whole list that I'm least sure about just because it sounds really weird and sometimes I like weird and sometimes I really don't like it, if I find a book doesn't have a point in its weirdness then I probably won't enjoy it so this is really a wild card I don't know how I'll feel about it honestly and the second book I picked is lock every door by Riley Sager I've been meaning to give Riley Sager another chance after hating the last time I lied so I thought this was the perfect opportunity I've seen this book pop up on other people's favorites list as well so I think maybe this is gonna be better second to last I have Riley Marie and from her pile I picked first if we were Villains by ML Rio I've already bought this book last month because I wanted to read it, also kind of based on Booksandlala's recommendation but then I saw it in her video and there was another book in that I wanted to read for this challenge and I thought you know what I'll just pick this one cuz I already own it and I'm already really interested in reading it and then the second book I wanted to read from her pile was rules for vanishing. This is the first time I heard of this book but it sounded really interesting it's apparently about this road that these people have to travel down but the road kind of like has a lot of twists and turns and it doesn't want them to reach the finish line or something like that I don't know much more about it than that but when she described it in her video it sounded really interesting and I was like okay I haven't heard this before but it definitely sounds like something that I could enjoy a lot and lastly I have Katesbookdate and from her list I firstly picked spinning silver by Naomi Novik another book I already own and I actually already have read about 130 pages of it but I realized at the time of reading this that it wasn't the right time for me to be reading it so I kind of temporarily DnF'd it but I'm ready to pick it back up especially since she gave it such a glorious review and I did enjoy the base story so I just need to actually finish it and I think this challenge is the perfect time to do so and in the second book from her pile was girls with sharp sticks by Suzanne Young it was actually another kind of funny coincidence because this is another book that I had already planned to read soon because one of you guys recommended it in my comments section I think a few weeks ago and so I already had it in like my cart to order with my book vouchers and then she recommended in the video and I was like oh that's perfect now I can also put this in the video so this is the the last book I'm gonna be reading for the challenge this book is set at the school where people are really like good students and like obey without question and then there's a new student I think and like she figures out that this isn't quite right and I don't even know more than that but it sounds really creepy and I'm very excited to read this and that's it for all the ten books I'm gonna be reading for this challenge without further ado let's get into the actual meat of the video so it's literally minutes after I finished filming and I put on a bathrobe, grabbing some coffee because I want to get started on this challenge I'm so excited it's not actually a challenge I don't know why I keep calling it that but I'm very excited to be doing this video just very hyped theoretically I'm still reading the radium girls but I can't wait so I decided to immediately start with recursion by Blake Crouch I'm so excited I'm kind of apprehensive about not being allowed to share how about the book on social media until this video is up I mean I could do it but you know that's not the point of a secret TBR it's supposed to be kept a secret so I'm nervous I hope I don't slip up and make a mistake so I'm currently about 50 pages into recursion and I'm really enjoying it I think it's very gripping and I definitely am hooked on the mystery like I want to know what's going on so badly the only thing is I can't turn off my brain because I just I keep questioning things like the book hinges so much on the idea of memories and obviously that's the whole thing it's about like people losing their memories or having false memories I just don't agree I guess with this idea of memories, because this one character is currently like recalling the same memory over and over again because they want to trace the patterns of it in her brain and I just don't believe that you could recall one specific instance in your life even if it was very very memorable and meaningful to you over and over and over and over again in exactly the same way or that you would even be able to pinpoint what about it you remember like she's so specific on like the sound of the water and the smell of the leaves and I'm like that's no I mean maybe I'm weird I know I have a bad memory a very sporadic memory and a very bad memory but that's not how I remember anything like I don't remember sounds I don't remember smells specifically I just remember kind of emotions mostly, like an emotion attached to a memory or like almost like a screen shot of the moment and it's impossible to tell how much of that I created like retrospectively and how much of that actually happened and I think especially when you recall the same memory every time it changes a bit because you add something to it or you remove something like it's just not that simple and it kind of bothers me a bit I know I'm overthinking it and I should just let it go but this was the same thing with dark matter like I couldn't stop just questioning everything in it drove me crazy part of the reason I only gave that book three stars because I was like this doesn't make sense... turn of the brain turn it off now I'm halfway through recursion and can I just say that I forgot how like much mind fuckery is in his books I feel the same way reading all of his books and that's questioning reality being completely drawn into this like vortex of confusion and like trying to piece everything together as quickly as this information is thrown at me but being unable to do it and then I'm just frustrate it and like actually like feeling uncomfortable because it's just oh my god it's just so messed up and this is exactly how I felt reading this book like he's a master at crafting books that just fuck with your head good morning it's the next day and I finished recursion I thought no that's the wrong book it's the next morning and I finished recursion here's what I think about this book. it's split up in five parts and I really enjoyed the first two because it was all very personal very much like the micro perspective of everything and then the last three parts are very much the macro and I found that I didn't care as much about that especially the last 100 pages dragged so badly I don't understand why this decision was made it's basically the same thing over and over and over again I know it's supposed to have a lot of stakes but it didn't feel like it did because you just kind of knew that he was gonna how it was gonna end so you're just kind of like we're sitting there waiting for it instead of appreciating the journey at least that's how I felt and I just didn't think it was necessary I honestly about halfway through the book there's like a climax and I thought that was gonna be the ending so I was really confused when the book continued because it was like this is leading up to be the conclusion and now there's more and I don't really get why so I like this book as an idea I like this book in its setup I think it was creepy it was mind fuckery 100% and it definitely left very confused about so many things I wish I would have stuck with that I wish it hadn't gone off into this other direction at the halfway point so I'm giving it like a three star I know it's an unpopular opinion the same with dark matter I'm like very critical of his books apparently like I just don't fully love them I love the wayward Pines trilogy 100% recommend that next I'm picking up on Luna time by I don't know the name but this is on Kindle unlimited so I can read it right away it's only 200 pages long and I hope I can read it all today and then I also want to start on skyward I actually wanted to read like the books by one person like right back to back but I might do on Luna time because it's on my phone right on eBook so I'm gonna do that parallel to skyward hi I took a bath as you can see I put on a face mask in the bath I continued to read skyward and I loved it so much I'm on page 220 I don't want to ever stop reading this book I absolutely adore it I think M Bot, M-Bot and Kimmalyn, Kimmalyn I think that's her name are my favorite characters and M-Bot is essentially what Aidan should have been and tried to be but distinctly failed at being I'm talking about Aiden from Illuminae if you didn't know I love everything about this book I love the characters of the story I'm so excited to finally have picked up this book I'm very excited that I'm enjoying it because that's the point of this video I want to start off the year on a positive note that's why I'm reading favorites good morning it's Sunday day three of this challenge and I just finished skyward it's like 10:00 a.m. I think I stayed up very late last night until like 2:00 and then I had 80 pages left and I was like should I push through and just finish it for you know irrational completionist reasons or should I try to get some sleep and then read this when I like can fully appreciate it and that's what I decided to do so I finished it just now and holy shit what how why did I ever think that I wasn't gonna like this book like I'm I was crazy I absolutely adored it I'm giving this 5/5 stars, already one of the best books I read in 2020 I can tell like this will make an appearance on the list I really like the character development on the main characters part because she starts off as this really defensive overly arrogant and confident person, which is basically just a defense mechanism and then she at some point throughout the book where she like falters and questions her own bravado and like and it kind of faces her insecurities and then she comes out on top and it's like I should just accept myself and like I know I'm a good person I know I'm brave I don't have to question it all the time like oh I missed this feeling you know I read a lot of books but only like I don't know 1% of them elicit this kind of reaction and that's.. oh i love it it it's definitely worth wading through all the mediocrity to get to this 1% I'm not really sure what to go with next as I said I did want to kind of read one booktubers' recommendation back to back but the thing is I don't have all the books physically yet and I don't like to read too much on my phone so I think what I'm gonna do for, oh well I'm still gonna try once I'm when I'm on my phone to read on Luna time from Merphy because I think the troop I also have on eBook so I need to read both her books on eBook and for my physical one I'm picking up if we were villains by ML Rio hey guys so it's like 6:30 on Sunday we're about to go actually finally watch Star Wars with friends in cinema so this is kind of the end of my reading day more or less I'm not sure how much I'm gonna be able to read after we get back cuz I have no idea when we get it back so I just want to give you a quick update on if we were villains I did some stuff for uni today I edited a video and I read like 150 pages of this book and I like it I'm just like not a hundred percent feeling it like the main issue I have is that it feels like you really need to suspend your disbelief to quite an extent to actually buy into what's going on basically it's just about this group of friends that like start to become enemies it says on the front so that's not a spoiler, it says when friends become enemies there's no limit to the damage they can do and I just don't buy this transition that's happening right now I don't think this is at all realistic I don't think that's what would happen in real life I don't believe that people who've been friends close friends for like three years would act this way and so violently like I'm just confused I just don't buy it and I don't know how the book is gonna continue, definitely invested but also questioning it another thing we'll maybe I'm the only one here but like I struggle to understand the Shakespeare quotes in this like I've only ever read as you like it by Shakespeare that wasn't so bad and I think when you read like the longer pieces you kind of get more accustomed to it but they keep, the characters quote Shakespeare all the time and every single time I have to read their lines like five to six times before I actually understand what they're kind of trying to say I know if you had like more of a complete and full comprehensive understanding of Shakespeare and you're like really into Shakespeare you probably appreciate this more, it kind of takes me out of the story like I need a minute to like be like okay what they're saying what are you talking about that's a little bit annoying I just finished if we were villains and I hate to say it, but I don't get the hype I didn't love this I just want to preface this by saying that I understand that I think the book is trying to like imitate a Shakespearean tragedy at least I assume it is cuz it's trying to be really clever and so in order for that to be a thing it does a lot of how do I say it, a lot of decisions are made to make it like extra tragic like people causing themselves harm inadvertently just generally making stupid decisions my first issue with this book is that I really didn't ever want to read it like I finished it in a day and a half or something but I didn't want to read it like I didn't really feel invested in much of anything it's supposed to be a thriller but I honestly predicted the ending like halfway through the book I was like oh it's probably this person and then it was this person and it's just like the issues I have stem from this book being marketed as something else than what it is because it also says on here when friends become enemies there's no limit to the damage that can do it's not really friends becoming enemies it's like a group of friends one of them loses his mind and then that's it like it's not like them turning on each other right so that's kind of with my expectation going into it I felt very much like on the sidelines watching a train wreck and like being very much aware of what's gonna happen next and then exactly that happened and I was just like huh I guess that happened now actually I'm gonna talk about spoilers for a bit because I just want to share those thoughts so I'll put a time stamp here if you don't want to be spoiled for this book jump to this time right here in the video this entire book would not have happened if the characters had made smarter decisions and I know I guess it's probably part of the intention but like it's frustrating to read like it's so frustrating first of all again false marketing because it says it's talking about a murder there is no murder like Richard wasn't murdered first he was you know attacked in self-defense and then they neglected to save him so yes I mean I guess it's not great what they did but he wasn't like murdered essentially this entire book could have been avoided if the characters had at any point in the book alerted authorities or even their own teachers to what Richard was doing he was an abusive asshole and at first the book is kind of trying to make you believe that he kind of flips a switch like they're friends with him three years and Meredith is in a relationship with him for like years and he's totally fine then just because he didn't get the role that he wanted he flips the switch and he becomes this raging asshole and I just don't buy it it kind of hints at Meredith's haven't been like abused by him for longer but still I don't understand why no one ever liked a lot of the teachers I understand if you're in an abusive relationship like I'm just talking about Meredith here if this is a pattern I understand like you know there's a lot of psychological stuff going on as well so her not telling anybody sooner kind of makes sense but as soon as he starts being this way to everyone and like doing it in public in front of their teachers hitting people everyone having that bruises like that is the point where I a hundred percent would have expected real people to tell anyone like they're adults themselves right they should have a little bit more brain and like just tell someone he should have been kicked out of school he would have been kicked out of school if they told the teachers cuz apparently they're really strict so like it was the act like basically they had no choice but to kill him because he was out of control well they should have just told someone like anyone literally anyone and then of course it was James who did it like of course we all knew like it was so obvious and it was also so obvious when Oliver like took the fall for him that this was not gonna be a good thing for James and no he says at a point in the book that like you had this martyrdom wasn't selfless and no it wasn't it was a hunting him just wanting to be a martyr like an idiot when it was really harmful to James like James probably would have psychologically benefited from making amends at least in the form of serving time and honestly I promise you if he immediately after the incident had gone to the authorities and been like this man has been harassing everyone for months we've all suffered he's a huge bully he he was threatening me he was taunting me not giving me another choice I was afraid for my life because he almost tried to drown me at one point so I killed him in self-defense like do you I don't even think he would have gone prison time like I don't know how the justice system works but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even it definitely wouldn't have had to serve 10 years so this entire thing is so dumb like everyone is so dumb and you expect me to care about them I'm sorry I don't I'm so over artists characters who are feel like they're too good for mediocrity or like moderation you know like they feel everything so dramatically that they can't make rational decisions and that they can't think for themselves and they're just I hate it I'm getting worked up but I'm so mad maybe that's the point of the book I don't freaking care I still don't think it's a good book like I'm giving us like two stars one stars for the writing because I genuinely think it's well-written and I can definitely appreciate the author's knowledge of Shakespeare that she demonstrated in writing in the writing of this book yes you're a good writer I'm not sure you're good storyteller like I just I don't like the story hello I'm back yes I'm wearing the same clothes yesterday I judge me I haven't had to go anywhere yet so hmm hi but I'm currently reading on Luna time the writing is really clumsy which again it's like stuff published so you don't have much of an editor usually I think it's so cool because it shows up that like you know when you buy or like you read something from Kindle on your phone it'll show you who the audible narrator is and that you can download it it says Merphy Napier I think that's so cool so cool I didn't even realize that she was the one that narrated this audiobook maybe it's gonna get better I don't want to judge it prematurely but so far I'm not feeling it I'd much rather eat its dark side which arrived today I just have to not do that I have to fuck so read 10 more pages and I am I think I'm on a DNF ed I'm sorry obviously and this is nothing against Merphy I'm glad she liked it i I just I can't do books that like are so sloppily edited and I just don't care either like I'm 15 ages through which doesn't sound like a lot but it's a quarter of the whole book because it's only 200 pages and it just don't care I'd much rather read something else before I completely put myself in a reading slump over this I don't want to say it but unfortunately I'm also dnfing the troop sorry Merphy this is nothing to do with you I love you as a person you know with very similar reading tastes a lot of the times but apparently this time it didn't work I read 56% of this book and while reading I actually was quite enjoying it it's very graphic and gruesome and it's definitely well rich in like I thought that the author has a good way with language and with words he did a good job telling the story but you know we all have a line somewhere and I have just discovered that for me that line is torturing animals while masturbating I generally think I have a pretty tough stomach and I am not usually very queasy or you know I have read a lot of things that haven't made me feel like I couldn't continue but this I think is it I don't know I'm learning things about myself here okay I'm learning things about myself I thought it could take anything apparently I can't so I just did it I didn't want to read that scene I know it's just one scene I don't care I don't want to keep I'm sorry I don't I thought I could but I can't I can okay the next read is going to be a lock every door by ryley shaker and very apprehensive but also excited going into this I think this is a lot of people's favorite books by Riley Sager and I'm excited to give him another chance hi I just finished filming some videos and I thought update you on my reading progress I am a hundred and fifty or so pages into lock every door it's definitely a very quick read and I am enjoying it I just think the main character is making some very dumb decisions which honestly doesn't surprise me because the main character in the last time I lied was also really stupid but like she's just making it such stupid like she's doing such stupid things she's really suspicious and yet she doesn't at all try to cover her tracks or consider people might be watching her also she calls 911 a missing person I don't know about the US but I don't think that you're supposed to call 911 to an emergency that leaves the needs like immediate action like right now like if you being attacked if there's a fire I don't know something that needs immediate action like of course missing person is a bad thing needs police attention but like just call the normal police line you don't need to call 911 like I'm just she's so calm she's so dumb maybe I'm dumb and that's like a common thing but I don't think you're supposed to do that so anyway good morning it's the next day I'm on page 240 and I wanted to add my theory on what's happening I mentioned this in a little clip last night but I think I'm gonna just cut that out and like tell you my whole theory because it has it hasn't changed much but it just evolved a bit these are like full-on spoilers because I don't know if they're true but if you don't want to use theories that could potentially be true and I personally think are true then you can skip to this timestamp to avoid them I guess okay here's my theory so this is the part I already knew last night about like a hundred pages earlier I think they're running an organ harvesting ring out of this house I think that the famous people that live there I have some sort of stake in that they either like benefit from it because there's a lot of old people right so I think that the old people just I like receiving the organs or the blood donations or something like they're receiving like body parts is it to help them like live long real life life I think Nick is the one like the bad guy I think Nick is because he's a doctor he's the one performing these operations and I also think that these like flash-forwards to the now time aren't like her being in like an unrelated hospital but her actually like being in the facility of the evil guys and she's gonna get her harbor her organs harvested know that sounds really macabre another like I said out loud but like that's what I think happens the reason I think this is like up to date with organ harvesting is because of his one girl that like a hundred years ago or something that had her organs taken out and it was mentioned like in such a throwaway way and like not touched on again that I think it's that like I think the author was like I have to put this in somewhere but I don't want to make it obvious I think that's how we did it it could also be ritualistic because there's one person who's but I think that that's like a red herring I don't think it's ritualistic no one like enjoys that type of thriller anymore I think I think it's not very realistic I think it's just like straight up you know money we can sell you organ I'm kind of torn between wanting that to be true and wanting it to not to be true because I want the book to be good but if I can't predict the plot twist or like the the ending halfway through the book that's boring did I say it of course I did of course I did of course I did ah I finished a book I hated it I think a large portion of why is because I called everything like halfway through the book I don't understand how this is supposed to be suspenseful or like not predictable because holy hell there was no other way that this got a goal and and just literally just finishing the book being like okay well yeah I guess it's so also I took some notes I'm thinking about doing a rant video but honestly I think I'm just gonna discuss them right here because I don't have like enough content as a whole for a video so again if you want to not be spoiled for anything then skip there'll be another time stamp just as with the last time I lied there's so many things in this book that I think don't make sense like real people people with a brain that think for more than two seconds about something would not make these decisions would not think this way it doesn't make sense first of all when Ingrid disappears our main character is like well maybe she got a job and left and like no one receives a job offer at 1:00 a.m. that's not how that works and then you don't up and leave immediately like she honestly goes with that theory for so long and I'm like that's that never happened ever also she's so stupid to keep texting Ingrid when she has to half had the suspicion I mean she did but she should have that maybe if something happened to her but she cleared it has been thinking about if something happened to her then someone else might be in possession off her phone and lo and behold someone else is in possession of her phone and the whole reason she can't access the gun when she needs it is because she was stupid enough to text someone I found the gun what's up with it like how stupid do you have to be like I mean just think about this for a second you're in a dangerous situation you don't know who to trust you don't know what's going on and yet you leave such an obvious trail like by texting someone the worst moment is when Ingrid is checking her back and it's so obvious from the get-go that it couldn't be Ingrid but like she takes a minute to think about it and to figure it out and then her method of like suddenly finding out if it's actually angry or not because she like actually thinks to herself I have to be careful here I don't want to give myself away I don't want to make it seem actually questioning the identity of the person I'm texting with she asks what's my nickname like out of the complete blue it's so obviously like a past question like there's absolutely no subtlety to that there's no reason when a normal conversation you'd ask that question to someone when you think that they are who they are like it's so dumb I can't stop saying that but another thing she accesses voicemails through the call logs so she will go through like the call logs on Erica's phone and then first of all somehow when she's with Dylan she listens to all the voicemails that Dylan left which is so stupid and by doing that she wastes a lot of time and then doesn't get to the one that Ingrid left and I'm like how why why would you first of all why would you listen to the voicemails of the person left that's sitting next to you you're supposedly on the same side so why would you listen to his voicemails I'm sure it's awkward for him especially cuz he's like crying on the phone and stuff like where are you and I mean like it's so weird to listen to his voicemails and then she's just like misses the one from Ingrid which is like the most important and she only finds it later it's so dumb but she also accesses voicemails through the call log I don't think that's how voicemails work like you call a number that's your voice mail server whatever I don't know that works I'm pretty sure you just called this like number and it's like your voicemail box right it's not something that you like click on in the call log to get to it's so weird it's so weird but honestly the most frustrating thing is that there is so many obvious clues from the get-go or like obvious places to look that Jules never looked at before it became sort of convenient for the plot like for example the dumb waiter like that's the first idea I had like okay I've been communicating with this girl like she's missing maybe she left me no no Jules waste like a day doing other stuff before she thinks of this or even like checking the apartment or even checking the heating vent like all of these things you would think are kind of the first place look but obviously like she can't look at them all at the same time because these are the only places that there are any clues so the book would be over immediately but also her not looking in those places makes no fucking sense because there's the first place is there any sane person what looking like oh my god this book is so frustrating like I'm sorry I'm glad if you enjoyed it I just I'm so frustrated by Riley Seger like just not thinking about what's realistic and like not at all trying to create a story they could actually happen like I'm so sorry he's not a bad writer on like a language level but like I just I don't understand why he refuses to write realistic stories it's still absurd to me I'm not trying to be mean to anyone if you like this more power to you I'm very happy for you because I wanted to like it I wanted to give him another chance but I can't I can't suspend my disbelief and just believing everything and also it's predictable so that was a dud unfortunately I'm not sure if I'm giving this 1 or 2 stars if I were to give it 2 stars the one star would be for the one extra star would be for the writing because it's not bad writing it's just like everything else that sucks so unfortunately another failure I'm so frustrated I wanted this video to be like super happy and positive and like me finding new favorite books but somehow it's not happening I need a break it's the next day I'm finally wearing a different jumper I know shocker but I did take a little bit of a break yesterday after reading lock every door I basically just spent the evening watching spinning out on Netflix which is a show about figure skating and I love it it's really good January Jones is a revelation she's the most beautiful person but anyway I'm now reading spinning silver by Naomi Novik I have said before I was already like 130 pages into this when i dnf'd it temporarily I'm currently on page 206 up read like 76 pages since then and I like it I like it more than the last time I tried to read it I think reason one is because it's the winter time it's not actually like winter and vni it feels like it hasn't snowed I think once and I also think it just suits my reading taste better plus since the book is so slow it's only now kind of getting more to the action or like what the book is really about I feel like because they had like a very very very slow start and that is kind of just like more fun to read I guess I find it so confusing that there's three separate stories basically being told in this one book I don't know why the decision was made I like them all individually but like every time I just want to stick with it and then it just jumps and mix I'm like but I wanted to know more it's good it's well-written I like that we know weeks writing I just think it's super slow and not necessarily ideally structured so it would appear that I have a pattern of starting books around noon one day reading all that day and then just stop being shy of actually finishing the book and then finish it the next morning that's what I've been doing for this entire video and it happened again it's like 10:00 a.m. I finished spinning silver I had like I don't even know like 80 pages left again it's always the 80 pages I don't know what to say there's a logical rating for this book for me and then there's an emotional one and like a feeling I love Naomi Novik's writing guys it's she's such a beautiful author like she can tell such magical fairy tale stories that make me forget about everything else that I usually like care about in a book like I don't care if the world building isn't thing deal I don't care if you have like a thousand POVs and make me wait for all the interesting parts... her magical writing and these like stories and places and people she creates that are still vivid and so just engrossing like I didn't want to stop reading this even though it's quite long I was I have to take into account that I didn't actually read the first 130 pages of this like this time around so it was really slow when I read it and I know that it's like a really slow start so I think I'm giving back a 3.5 I had moments yesterday I was like this is a five star and it's it could have been I loved it I really loved it even I'm giving only 3.5 stars because I have to merge the logic with the emotion at least a little bit but wonderful absolutely wonderful hi so I realize I'm always filming in this position but this is my reading spot so this is what you get it's Monday night and I just picked up and started rules for vanishing by Kate Ellis Marshall I'm currently on page 60 I know I didn't really explain the plot at the beginning of this video because I didn't know it but now I kind of do so I want to kind of catch up on that basically this book follows this young girl called Sara she's a teenager in high school and her sister Becca disappeared a year ago after being obsessed with the myths not miss but with this like ghost story of Lucy gallows who was this girl in the 1950s who disappeared apparently after following this mysterious road into the woods now Sarah suspects that the same happened to Becca and since her disappearance has been really obsessed with the story and is trying to basically find out if she can somewhat track her down and at the beginning of this book everybody at school gets a text message saying that the game has started and they should find a partner and the key and find the road and to play this game and apparently it's just about this road they have to find the road and then travel down it there's like seven gates or something that they have to pass and when they reach the end if they reach the end that I get price or something I've done I don't know that much about it but so far it sounds really intriguing and kind of spooky and I'm really enjoying it hi friends it's been a minute since I've logged I'm not feeling too great right now my boyfriend got sick and now I'm sick it's not a fun time but I did just finish rules for vanishing it took me about two days this was an interesting one I really did enjoy it I think it had a really strong start specifically because there was a lot of mystery and suspense and I really didn't know what was going on for a long time but I think at some point it kind of hit a little bit of a formulaic Ness and it stopped being like super groundbreaking in the little things like it stopped trying to mislead you as much maybe that's you know just me but I felt like I could tell a lot more clearly what was happening than at the beginning and overall I think it's a well-written book I think it's a fun story I just don't think it went far enough for me personally this is definitely one of those books where I feel like it would have been better if it had been an adult book because as an adult book it could have gone further and done more extreme things kind of with this premise but I think it's still a good book I still recommend it but it's not a new favorite I would say so it's about a three star I am still really glad that I picked it up because I wouldn't have done it if it weren't for this video and I enjoyed it my next rate is gonna be funny by Moana a watt or a watt I'm not sure that both ways I'm interested to see where this goes I know it's gonna be really weird hopefully I'm gonna like it so how about 70 pages into bunny and I actually really enjoy it I think it's a little bit of a slower read mainly because I have to read it really closely because otherwise I don't get what's going on it's written really in like almost like a flowery style I'm not actually sure how to describe it but the author is like really like tongue-in-cheek satirical and so if you don't pay attention you don't really get what she's doing and a lot of it is like really like quick and kind of you know rapid-fire so you definitely have to read it very closely I do enjoy it for some reason like it's it's definitely weird it's really weird but I don't know I kind of relate to the situation in a sense the main character is like in grad school and like this really fancy your writing program and you just really know where her life is going and she feels kind of like an outsider because the other four girls in her workshop are like the bunnies they're like this really tight knit group of interesting women they're College of the bunnies and so she's like kind of on the outside of that and while she like this stay in stem she's also drawn to them I don't know I just kind of relate to that I guess and yeah it's interesting I'm interested in intrigued to see where this goes because I'm heard that it gets even weirder so I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle it as much but so far I'm definitely enjoying it yeah it's weird but it's good so I finished bunny and I'm just I have no words this book is a fever dream I don't know how to articulate how I feel I just know that I fucking loved it I loved every second of it I don't understand why I don't understand what I just read I feel like this is one of those books that I could read like five more times and I'd still like catch on to new things I just straight-up don't know honestly I've never been this lost for words when it comes to reviewing a book I don't know I don't know who to recommend this to I don't know like what I loved about it I just I don't know I like kind of I saw myself in this book but also not because it's so wacky that there's no way that you could like relate to it but you still trying relate to it and it's just it's fucking amazing I mean what I'm honestly blown away by how much I enjoyed this this is a five-star hands-down Thank You Kayla I probably would never had this without you and without this video but this is freaking phenomenal I don't know I don't know what to say I don't know what to say this obviously also means that we're nearing the conclusion of this video which is really hard to believe because it's been about two weeks since I started it and honestly thought I would take much longer to go through these books but I've just been so in the mood to eat that I was very quick but I'm already on my final book which is girls with sharp sticks by Suzanne Young this book came in yesterday's it's perfect timing I'm gonna read this over the weekend and then hopefully have this video up for you sometime next week so I didn't actually get to reading much throughout the day but I picked it up now at night and I'm like what am I like 70 pages sixty-five ok 65 pages and so far I like it the only thing is I'm not really convinced of the book it's like really leaning into its own premise enough because the idea is basically this is just like prestigious Academy for girls or they're being trained they kind of reminds me Handmaid's Tale like they're supposed to be really quiet and beautiful and well behaved and poised and not really share their opinions so that's kind of whole thing like they've been brought up all their lives with that is like the goal the gold standard is like obedience especially to men and not talking back not asking questions that whole thing and yet I feel like a lot of the characters a lot of the girls actually do ask a lot of questions and there's a lot of instances where they don't really behave how they should and it doesn't really fit to me was this idea that they face clippin rain washed the lives into thinking that this is how it should behave like I feel like like kind of more like in The Handmaid's Tale i Keefer brought up with this idea and the disbelief then you would probably adhere to it you know more than the characters in the book do like they sometimes will just kind of like act like normal girls and it doesn't really work for me so I'm not sure if the book overtime is gonna kind of commit to the premise more or like decide what it wants to be more because for now I feel like it's a little conflict that on that point other than that I like it like did you behind it I like the writing I think you have some theories already as to what's going on exactly and I think it's good I think it's good so far I just wish it had kind of been more like commit it more as I said to the premise also kind of with regards to some of the rules that are in place for the girls and then they're still allowed like kind of not follow them sometimes a lot of times they're really really strict and like a hundred percent have to be followed like for example they're all supposed to only like consume organic food and like essentially live extremely extremely healthy like no added no additives no chemicals like not even salt much of salt but the main character is kind of like a candy freed sighs how she can she will like buy some candy but for some reason that's not a problem you when the teachers find out they'll just kind of rolled their eyes at her like oh this is just another thing but like young women do but then for other rules they're so strict that to me that doesn't really add up like they're either that you don't want complete obedience in all areas or don't but it seems like they make these arbitrary exceptions also they're supposed to be brought up like with this strong sense of like doing the right same kind of thing like just behaving obediently whatever as I said like some of the characters just randomly steal things at a gas station like how does the set up like why would why would somebody who's been brought up all their life to be like obedient like that's you know why would they steal a pack of gum at the gas station like I don't understand hi friends so it appears that we have reached the end of this long and winding road throughout this vlog slash video and I finally finished girls with sharp stick by Suzanne Young young the last book on my list for the video I will say I'm kind of disappointed in this book well I'm quite disappointed with this book I ended up giving this about a 2 star the things I said earlier about the book being kind of inconsistent within its own premise kind of kept persisting throughout the book and just got a lot worse in my opinion there's a lot of different behaviors that the characters in the book exhibit that don't really add up to what we've been told about them and then add to that that I literally predicted the not the ending I guess like the plot twist I think like 50 pages into the book and that's just really frustrating and it kind of made the book feel really really slow throughout the rest of it I honestly skim read the last like 150 pages because I just lost interest like it was just basically waiting for the characters to catch up to something that I was already pretty sure I knew and he was really dull and boring the book does tried to like tackle the misogyny as an issue it kind of reads like an apocalyptic book as I said it reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale I'm just not really sure exactly what its purposes of doing that I didn't feel like this added anything new to the conversation or really was revelatory in any way shape or form so unfortunately I didn't really enjoy it but I do see other people liking it a lot more since it is why maybe if there's like the first time you as a young girl have like encountered this type of a story maybe that could be good for you I don't know but for me it just didn't really hit the mark and that brings us to the end of this video I had a really fun time reading these books and filming this for you guys and I'm really glad it did it because even though I didn't enjoy everything I was reading it was a fun experience and I totally see why the people would enjoy these books more they just weren't see and at the end of the day I had to DNFs unfortunately both by Merphy, on Luna time and the Troop, of the two I definitely enjoyed the Troop more but it just couldn't keep going and I didn't want to force myself to either I've no one Stars which is good but then I've three two stars which honestly wasn't expecting the first of which is lock every door by Riley Sager then also girls with sharp sticks by suzanne young and if we were villains by ML Rio I also have three three stars which were recursion by Blake Crouch rules for vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall and spinning silver by Naomi Novik which is more of like a 3.5 and I really really did enjoy this one I also have no 4-stars but two five stars and those are obviously the wonderful skyward by Brandon Sanderson as well as a bunny by Mona Awad I had an absolute blast of a time reading both of these books and I think especially bunny I probably would never have picked up if it weren't for this video so this is like really the whole reason even if I just found two new favorite books that's more than nothing and I'm really really happy that I did this video but that concludes our time together for this video for this little challenge I hope you guys enjoyed the video let me know in the comments down below what you thought of it let me know if you want me to do something like this again in the future and please don't forget to Like subscribe let me know your thoughts of the books that I talked about in the comments but do be aware of like mentioning spoiler so like mark them as spoilers so people don't get spoiled if they don't want to be but that is it check out more videos on the screen right now and I hope to see you soon have a lovely week bye

Channel: ivymuse

Views: 22,323

Rating: 4.8829269 out of 5

Keywords: booktube, book review, book talk, book discussion, author, literature, books, reading, ya, yalit, book haul, bookworm, booklover, fiction, fantasy, crime, mystery, thriller, novel, novelist, discussion, feedback, best books of 2019, favourite books of 2019, reading booktubers' favourite books, bookswithemilyfox, merphy napier, katesbookdate, riley marie, booksandlala

Id: vVu6orjJ6Tg

Length: 55min 33sec (3333 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 20 2020