Everything I Know About Love Powerless and Reckless Crying in H Mart Bride The Spanish Love Deception Piranesi Sally Rooney’s books - i just can’t get past the lack of quotation marks 😢
My time to shine with a rant about Divine Rivals because the world building is atrocious. Like, I’m actually mad about it. We learn about the details of the war because Iris has writers block, so she writes out a summary of the war. Then we learn about the background of the gods because Iris sends a note to Roman to ask him what he knows. He responds by essentially typing out a textbook chapter about the lore. Besides it being extremely lazy writing, what makes me mad is that the main characters are JOURNALISTS! Wouldn’t it be more interesting if we got excerpts of their newspaper articles at the beginning of each chapter that slowly reveals all the details about the war and the gods?! We’re constantly told about how amazing the articles written by Iris and Roman are, but I guess it’s easier to tell than to show. I am so mad that this book is hyped for its writing.
Absolutely. I personally quite liked the first part until they get to the frontlines, then it was ridiculous. It feels like a very bad version of a children's movie about WW1. The love story was completely ruined by how insanely quickly it progresses and obstacles disappear because reasons ??? And the gods thing was so intriguing and is never ever elaborated upon. Such a disappointment.
interview with the vampire was groundbreaking for it's time and for people such as myself, as that was where they encountered queer desire for the first time. I think it's one of those things that inspired a lot of other things and pivoted a genre - vampire fiction - into a new direction, but newer things have improved on these themes and ... so the older one seems lacking. not all classics hold up.I love the book to heaven and back for what it did for the genre and for myself personally. that said, I also only find the writing just okay (now) and the ideas better than the execution in these books ;D
also, I ... find a thousand books overhyped. song of achilles, nope. sometimes I know that hype is detrimental for me, because even though I try my best I get so influenced I expect a nebulous "better" and a book feels worse because it is not what I expected, or as "good" as I expected. but without the hype and those weird expectations, I may have loved it.
Demon Copperhead hits a bit different if you’ve grown up in poverty or in Appalachia. She really nails the joy and cruelty and the way she treats the opioid crisis is exactly how most people here view it. You can tell she was born and raised here.
I have a hard time affording Kingsolver much authorship when it mirrors Dickens so closely. I was also really uncomfortable with how she wrote the mixed-race characters.
I wonder if she read David Copperfield, given this is a modern retelling of the classic. Or is Dickens resigned to the same shelf as Sir Author Conan Doyle?
I think one of the reasons why some of these were popular is, just as you said, they are very readable. People who don't read books often or first time readers could reach for them. And we as human have the tendency to have extreme fondness for our firsts that we always think of them as favorites. Like a sentimental value of sorts. And with the ease of tiktok and filming on phones, these feelings could easily be spread including all the hype and amazement that was magnified by lack of experience. That's also why more experienced reader would almost always find these "tiktok sensations" underwhelming.
Hear me out, I am autistic, I am not trying to be degrading. I am just wanting to have a conversation. First off, Doyle’s detective is not my favorite detective. However, I understand where he stands in the cannon of Detective Fiction. As someone who actually has studied Detective Fiction, I find your rant about Sherlock Holmes to be a bit uneducated. Tropes that you may love nowadays are first introduced by Sir Author Conan Doyle in his series. The sidekick being the most important one, which in this case is the narrator, Dr. Watson. Forensic science and ways they use and handle evidence to find the killer is also in these books. Even Scotland Yard uses H.O.L.M.E.S computer system (now vers. 2) to analyze evidence. Modern day detective fiction was first introduced by Edgar Allen Poe, but Doyle expanded upon it. Also a first, that the sidekick is the narrator in Doyles work. Not many sidekicks get that prominent of a role, most are some comic relief, or somewhat ambitious to get promoted, or just a general mess that they will never get a promotion. You should understand that the average reader/TV watcher has only an 8th grade reading level. On par with maybe Nancy Drew books, or the Box Car Kids. Maybe up to the Outsiders. So they are spoon fed information as ‘obvious clues’ on these shows that you berate Doyle for not doing, even though these characters are based on his characters. They are no longer his characters. If Andrew Horowitz did not write it, it is not part of the cannon, since the family of Doyle does not recognize any other writer to continue their ancestors writing. So basically you are mad that Doyle did not spoon feed you the clues? As for The Last Thing He Told Her, complete rubbish.
Same ! Buying new books cost a lot and buying a book to find that you didn't like reading is a bummer . My DNF get donated to one of the little free libraries about town .
I agree with Red Rising. I feel like it was brutal just to be brutal and shocking and found the MC just annoying and this typical young adult perfect but annoying hero. Maybe I (we) are just not the target audience of this book 😅
The problem isn't even the YA feel of the book, the problem is that almost none of it is believable and the writing is absolutely atrocious. Somehow a kid without any real skills and cultivated intelligence beats masters with a bunch of other kids and this continuously with little effort and less help. I don't know how this youtuber compared it to Game of Thrones when it doesn't even have 20% of the depth of game of thrones, and besides GOT involved multiple families vying for the throne, in Red Rising it's just 2, very different in scope and style.
I really like Red Rising but I completely agree with the unnecessary fridging and Darrow having no flaws. However I think that Pierce Brown realised the issue of fridging because * spoiler for the first trilogy* ** ** ** ** *** *** *** *** *** He ended up writing a backstory into the latere books showing that her wife died on purpose to start the revolution. It's almost certainly retcon but at least gives her more agency
I completely agree about Red Rising. However, the Sherlock Holmes stories are some of my FAVORITE stories. I highly recommend them for anyone who loves mystery and Victorian-era writing. The short stories are better than the longer ones though, in my opinion.
First: THANK YOU for talking about how bad that trope about the start of a hero's journey is. I'm so sick and tired of women having to die, be assaulted, or tortured and whatnot to get the hero started. There are other ways for this to happen, women are not there just to help the man find a purpose. I agree with "Divine Rivals." I read both of them, and while I think they're okay (I think I gave them a 3.5 out of 5 rating), I really don't get why they got the hype. I heard everyone raving about the letters in the books, and they felt really underwhelming when I got to them; I think "The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy" actually did the letter-writing better, no one's talking about that one.
It takes a lot for me to DNF a book, but Red Rising broke me. I have no idea how he managed to make the 'games' so utterly dull. I found myself reading and rereading the same page multiple times and taking none of it in. It felt like the author had already run out of ideas by that point, so how the series keeps going...I just have no idea. But I'm intrigued as to what the trope you didn't care for in the second one was...
The farther away I get from reading Lessons in Chemistry the more it festers in the shadows of my heart. It was very readable! That's the kindest thing I can say.
I also DNF'd it. It felt like there were no stakes, no characters development, and the writing read like "This happened. Then this happened". Really didn''t like it. Such a shame because the blurb sounded amazing. Maybe the TV show is better
@@sophiel.7930 I had high hopes for the TV show and I think they're doing not interesting things with race than the book but, I only made it through like 1.5 episodes and didn't give it interesting enough to continue
I certainly did agree with you on Red Rising. I gave it a 3 star ... didn't hate it, but didn't love it either. I was very "meh" about it. Nothing in particular stood out about it. I am still on the fence on whether or not I'll proceed with the series. A book you didn't mention that I absolutely hated was "When the Moon Hatched". I DNF'd that one. I've read some difficult books in my time, let's use Dune as an example, which you need to perhaps go over some of the information again to absorb and interpret, but with When the Moon Hatched, nothing made sense. It was nonsensical, flowery writing. I'm sure some people would love it, but for me it was a huge NO :) LOL
Agree with your opinions on Demon Copperhead & The Last Thing He Told Me…I have Interview w/Vampire on Libby (audio) list because I thought I might watch the Netflix show after…so not super invested…but I’m avoiding Frieda McF’s altogether-thanks! I would add Normal People
Red Rising, for me, certainly belongs on this list. I made the mistake of reading on into the second book, having heard that it's much better. No. Nope.
I stopped reading at the 80% mark in book 2. Honestly even till that point I had to struggle not to roll my eyes every 2 minutes. And I still couldn't force myself to finish that last 20% to finish book 2 😆
It's so clear often with Stephen King books that he came up with a cool premise and could not come up with a way to resolve it (I'm looking at you The Dome).
I would have to pick out ‘Seven Days in June' by Tia Williams which it seemed to me that everyone loved but I just couldn’t get over the trauma bond that the 2 main characters had, that was actually the basis of their relationship.
I 100% agree with Red Rising. It's not a bad book but I really don't understand the hype. For me it's a 3.5 star book (and series) but for so many people that's on their best sci-fi series list.
I also didn’t get the love for Divine Rivals. My issue was actually that I thought the MFC spoke to other women in a way that felt like people don’t really talk like that?? I also felt like things happened sooo fast, but not in a good way?
I (tried to) read Red Rising way back when it came out. And I DNF'd it. I was bored. I wasn't familiar with the "fridging" trope, I just knew that was bored.
I feel very validated that you didn't like "demon Copperfield". For as popular as it is, I thought there was going to be more to the book than a bad Dickens fanfic
Red Rising was one of those books that GREATLY benefited from being made into a dramatized audiobook. I doubt I would have continued the series of I had read it or it was one narrator. The acting was just superb and if anyone is going to try and read it, just do the dramatized audiobook.
If you want to try another Harlan Coben book- I prefer his Myron Bolitar series over his stand alones. Deal Breaker is the first in the Myron Bolitar series.
Totally agree with you, this happens to me all the time where I’m like why does this book have so much hype, I don’t get it. In divine rivals the romance was so bad at the end😂
the thing i remember the most about The Last Thing He Told Me is that the mom and daughter were “investigating” and the way they were able to get information was questionable at best 😂 don’t know how it won the GR choice award that year or how Frieda’s book won last year. she’s a fraud in my opinion and her books are weirdly similar to other books and movies. i’m a proud Frieda hater 😂 edited to add: i also thought Divine Rivals was overrated…the relationship moved waaayy too fast while being boring at the same time
I had The Ward on my tbr for a minute... Then I saw your review of The Housemaid and I was like NOPE! You are outta here! 😂 No plans to read any Freida McFadden books now, so thanks for saving me from bad books! 😆
I'll toss powerless by lauren roberts in here. I was okay with how bad it was until alcohol abuse showed up as a coping mechanism. I wouldnt stand for it in adult, and definitely not in a book marked YA. Even then, it wasn't introced until at least halfway through the book and suddenly the character always started appearing on page drunk or alcohol in hand. Just no. *I had plenty of other issues, but this one definitely made it 1000× worse.
Hi Emily! Your interpretation of demon copperhead makes me wonder if you have read David Copperfield or no of the story? It’s quite clever and is almost a perfect modern day retelling of that story. I listen to David Copperfield before reading demon copperhead and I feel like it made my experience a lot better.
Personally I do not get the hype behind Babel, it had so much potential but I thought it was way too long for such a flat story and I found the characters very two dimensional
This is basically a list of books I've never had interest in reading, lol😂 I remember when Divine Rivals came out, I was confused by the hype, at which point I realized I already owned a copy of A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross. So I tried that, and I thought the writing was atrocious. Now I want to steer clear of the author, but I've also found out I have ANOTHER book by her (Dreams Lie Beneath) that somehow got onto my shelves?? I feel like I'm being hunted. As for Red Rising, I think I just missed when it came out and I wasn't aware of it till the original trilogy was completed, and now I'm just confused why it seems like so many people are just getting into it now and going crazy for it.
I haven't read it yet myself but one potentially 'good' Harlan Coben I've heard good things about and have on my radar is 'I Will Find You'. Prison break, miscarriage of justice, sounds like it could be campy fun.
I read Interview with the Vampire in High School during my hard core goth phase and loved it. Picked it up again this year at 33yrs old. And yeah I think I've outgrown it. It just wasn't as good as I remember.
I thought the Red Rising trilogy was just fine. It had its moments. I listened to the full cast audiobooks. But then I tried reading the sequels physically and I couldn't do it. I think I like science fiction, but not space opera.
The way I cackled when you mentioned French age-gap relationships. My mum and I were talking about this the other day ☠ Rene Angelil and Celine Dion, oh, and mon oncle Gilbert lol
I enjoyed the first book in red rising saga. Second one was so bad !!!! Like every page had some kind of shock or deciet. It was too much. It felt like every character wanted to decieve our main character just to shock the reader. They literally had no other reason to do so. The third book was a bit better.
I didn’t understand why people liked the romance in it… book 2 was better but the book 3 was boring so I never finished the series and I don’t get it at all. Very readable but it’s not good.
I really liked the first half of Divine Rivals. Bur I agree, after she went to war it became so boring and stupid and felt like her character changed completely
I have been burnt by Resse's book club so many times.. I read them to tell people not to fall into the hype. And Emily wanted to say that I was watching a video essay on how booktok has "ruined" reading and literature. I thought that Emily Fox doesn't do it; she doesn't fall into those popular booktok traps and does not believe in buying books as an "aesthetic." All this is to say that you should keep doing what you do and how you do it because I love it! The video essay I am talking about this " Booktok brain rot; it is ok to be a hater" by alisha and not alihsha. It will explain why The Housemaid is so popular and also Rock paper Scissors..
Interview with Vampire was meh for me. I thought the last thing he told me was ok but I don’t see why it needed a sequel. I DNFd Red Rising. I got I think 40% in, maybe more. And just didn’t care. I liked the Alice feeney book in the end. But at first I wasn’t impressed
I’m feeling the same way about Harlan Coben. My mom loves him and even met him. I’m trying out Six Years which has a good premise. It’s ok. I haven’t finished so it could have an awesome twist at the end. If not he has so many books to try. I don’t know why Frieda is so popular except her books move fast and are very readable. I liked Never Lie but not the Coworker. I haven’t read the Maid and now I’m thinking I might not
Okay bu honest with us, you solely shot this video to complain about Freida Mcfadden🤣 (İ am on your side btw. İ read “the İnmate” by her and will never pick up anything else)
I want to read a novel or story having a love triangle with both equally good love interests. However, female lead who is insecure loves the main lead and vice versa and she never notices the pure love of the second lead. There should be suspense and mystery. Any suggestions?
I thought the stranger by harlan coben and six years were really good. Those are from his backlist like far back. Apt pupil was so good! It takes a while to get going and its really long for a novella but i love his characters. I dont think anybody writes a better character than king..they are so deep and fully fledged out but i agree with you 100% his endings arent the best.. his books are more about the journey than the ending but it would be nice if the endings werent so anticlimactic
I agree with you about Red Rising! I also hate that particular trope and the gender stuff in general just... wasn't great. I did start the second book in the series but ended up DNFing it because it just started feeling repetitive and boring and I wasn't that invested in the characters. I don't know why so many people say that the writing improves in the second book.
My DNF/could not do it book list contains, among others, City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, the once very popular Bridget Jones’s Diary and A Song of Ice And Fire
@@ladansemakabre to be honest, reading it as a 33 year old, the writing was not for me. I tried it 2 times and really wanted to like it, but couldn’t get into the story. I know everyone raves about it, and I actually recommend trying it for yourself.
Yeah Anne Rice (rip) is problematic. I read The Witching Hour last year. I gave it 2 stars. There were no witches. I mean there was one maybe but she was dead... so... I did like the Interview with the Vampire movie from the 90s. I'd highly recommend watching it, Emily!
I couldn't wait to get Fairy Tale by Stephen King. I am a big Stephen King fan. But honesty I got to page 240 and put it down to read something else and I'm not sure I'll ever pick it up. Does it get better? Should I give it a second chance.?
Fairy Tale is the only Stephen King book I’ve ever read, and my review is that it is just mediocre. For a writer of horror books, I was never scared or really shocked. My biggest problem is how slow it moves. As a reader, I never felt a sense of urgency even when the characters were fighting for their very lives. You can try and pick it back up again, but my recommendation would be to find something else to read.
I’m a fan of King (my favorites are probably The Dark Tower series, The Stand, Pet Cemetery, It and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon) and I listened to Fairytale on Audible. It was only a 2 star for me, it’s so slow in the beginning and instead of focusing on the magical elements of a fairy tale (what I was hoping for) he focused all his efforts on the dungeon and torture (which was also just kind of boring). Yeah, not his best work, you were probably right to DNF it- I spent an Audible credit so I trudged through all 24 hours
What was the other Sherlock Holmes you read? I'm not sure anybody actually likes A Study in Scarlet. It's interesting in some of the character info it provides, but the story is disjointed and at times just plain weird. The short stories are generally much more entertaining. "The Speckled Band" is usually considered the best of the bunch. I'm an outlier in that I thought it was kinda ridiculous, but I've really enjoyed nearly all of the stories. I'd encourage you to try another story or two, especially if you've only tried the longer works.
Also Verity was sooo dumb to me. I was waiting for the end to be so much better, was waiting for something jaw dropping and then nothing happened (yes i read the added chapter)
If you didn't enjoy Interview With The Vampire, I highly recommend you check the AMC series. It changes many things for the better and it's overall wonderful
Red Rising is SO OVERHYPED. It's so... blah and yes, of course the beautiful, perfect, delicate. wanted-by-everyone wife has to die for MC to give a fuck all of the sudden. In my review I call it a badly written male centric version of the hunger games.
