I believe A Certain Hunger has not been released in many countries yet, that probably explains the rating (and how difficult to find / expensive it can be). To the UK for example it is coming in a month
Yep, no sign of it coming to Brazil, and importing it gets quite expensive. I'll probably read the e-book though, cause this channel really made me want to read it.
I watch many booktubers but Leonie's calm and cozy energy just hit different. 😍 Thank you for making these beautiful videos. I always respect your opinions about books. ❤️
I was curious and check my own worst rated readings and I rated 5 stars on the 10 worst XD I can not understand people, unless some of these books wore some kind of poetry that people don’t get into it because they are so serious xD
This looks suits you, you kinda look like a pride and prejudice character (Keira knightley version) with the half up half down hairstyle and no makeup. A cottage core dress would complete the look ahah
I hated "beautiful world where are you" not because it had a happy end but because every single character was obnoxious snob and didn't feel any empathy for them.
Ooh, I was intrigued by this concept - and was kinda shocked at some of the books that ranked under a 3.5! Only 'kinda', though, since I can see how some are "niche": 10) "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorn (me: 3, Av: 3.43) Probably all the people forced to read this for school is what is dragging the rating down! I HATED how our teacher covered it, but I suspect I'd like it better if I read it now as an adult. 9) "Madam Bovary's Ovaries" by David Barash (me: 3, Av: 3.36) I rated this 3 because I remembered liking it but didn't remember it very well. 8) "The Final Solution" by Michael Chabon (me: 4, Av: 3.36). A very old Sherlock Holmes tries to solve a last mystery: finding the missing number-spouting parrot of a Jewish refugee child. It is quite sad, and I can also see why 'Holmes has dementia and Watson is dead' might not appeal to some hardcore Holmes fans! 7) "Death comes to Pemberley" by PD James (me: 2, Av: 3.30). A cute idea for a mystery novel, but just read Pride and Prejudice or PD James' other books! 6) "Outfoxing fear: Folktales from around the world" by Kathleen Ragan (me: 4, Av: 3.30). I like folktales, these were pretty good. Maybe other people didn't like the editor/author talking about herself in between? *5) "Peaces" by Helen Oyeyemi (me: 4, Av: 3.29)* An admittedly deeply weird book. But a surrealist train journey with cute pet mongooses that is extremely gay? Sign me up! ajungleoftales.blogspot.com/2021/09/first-impressions-review-peaces-by.html 4) "The divine husband" by Francisco Goldman (me: 3, Av: 3.25). This was a fine historical fiction, but it is another I gave 3 stars because I don't remember it that well. 3) "Avoid boring people: Lessons from a life in science" by James Watson (me: 1, Av: 3.23). I almost NEVER give books 1 star, but this book made me hate James Watson (yes, the DNA guy) SO MUCH. He makes himself look like such an asshole. How much of an asshole? Well, he admits to trying to pick up undergrad girls as a professor...and complains about failing. *2) "Gingerbread" by Helen Oyeyemi (me: 4, Av: 3.06)* This is not as weird as "Peaces" so I don't know why it ranks lower! But I love the magical realism, the way it has a black bisexual MC without either of those things being a problem for her, the messiness, the way it subverts at least two different romance tropes... ajungleoftales.blogspot.com/2020/10/first-impressions-review-gingerbread-by.html 1) "Pamela" by Samuel Richardson (me: 2 Av: 2.78). Technically a classic, but a lot of people even at the time didn't care for it (a parody called "Shamela" came out shortly after). These days the main issue for readers is that the girl ends up with the rich employer who's been sexually harassing her!
A Certain Hunger was good but not great, IMO. I have books on Goodreads I had to add manually because they were not there, mostly because they were in languages other than English
Helpp I´m reading the Picture of Dorian Gray (I have 70 pages left) and I´m really not liking it :( maybe it´s because I´m in the middle of exams and I can´t read a classic rn loll but everyone loves it so much
Glad to know you are a vegetarian. I became a vegetarian on Jan 1, 2013. It was the healthier choice for me. I live 5000 miles from you in an extremely rural location about 100 miles from New Orleans.
There are also a bunch of genuinely great books that have few ratings because they are not written in English and goodreads it's a platform prevalently used by English-speaking people (at least on my shelves half of the least popular books are by french and italian authors). My least popular shelved book on goodreads has 6 ratings 😂
My least popular has 2 ratings, understandably so cause its the vol 17 of a manga lol i didnt even rate it tho so maybe more ppl read it and just didnt rate it?
Oh, for sure! I often want to recommend one of my favourite books ever to native English speakers but unfortunately it's in my native language (Finnish) and has not been translated into English, not yet at least. It currently only has 29 Goodreads reviews :') tbh as a beginner translator I kind of dream of translating the book myself, but whether I'll be able/allowed to remains to be seen haha
5:53 The exact same thing happened with Lorde's latest album, which was super fun and up beat. Everyone was just complaining that it wasn't heart-wrenchingly depressing :/ It's like people have a harder time giving praise to stories and art that is unabashedly joyful and without misery.
The most "no plot just vibes" book I've ever read was Untold Night and Day. It takes place in the space of 24 hours during a heatwave in Seoul and absolutely nothing makes sense. You can't even tell which character is which sometimes. There are a lot of theories about Korean shamanism and such, but if you just read it expecting it to feel like a dream, you're in for a good time!
Oh my I actually love Twilight so, so much. I've reread the books multiple times, and honestly, I do not think they are well-written AT ALL, but there is something just so hilariously ridiculous about them that I can't help but love the whole thing. The movies though...totally another issue XD
This is why I gave up on Goodreads and now just have a good variety of Booktubers who I know love the same books I do and see what you all recommend! I trust you guys way more than Goodreads!!😆😆😆
I know that a lot of youtubers are going off Goodreads, changing to Storygraph for various reasons. I'm curious if it may skew some of the results, especially for the newest books, since people who read them first are the very influencers, not present on the platform anymore. Btw, the lowest rated within my read books is a book, which is a required reading in high school. I also couldn't stand how boring it was, when I was 17, reread it recently and it is brilliant. So there is one more variable - if the book is required reading, it is likely to get a lot of one stars!
I was thinking the same thing and i checked and it has 1307 reviews on Storygraph. I also think many people don’t always review the books the read so that might also be a factor. Because I have involuntarily heard so many influencers talk about this book so I find it hard to believe that so few people have read it 😅
what you said about recommended reading is so real - i find that classics tend to fall among the mid-three star range because of the sheer amount of polarising 1 star and 5 star reviews lol. i think thomas more's utopia was only something like 2.7 on storygraph then i read it
@@bibliophilecb "The boundary" bo Zofia Nałkowska, Polish classic from 1920 or 1930. Discussing social issues (class, gender) as well as ethical ones. Suprisingly leftist and feminist, since most of what we are reading in schools is about dying for you motherland, not about abortions and responsibilities of young man towards maids they bang.
as a woman who never wears makeup, it makes me so happy to see my fav youtubers be comfortable filming w no makeup on!!! ppl dont realise how important it is to be comfortable with their own bare face and what an impact it makes on others :D
Another highly underrated book that's dark academia (with a low-ish score that I think is way too low for what it deserves) and many people will adore if they loved these violent delights is "summer sons" by lee mandelo! I cannot recommend it enough 🥰
I’ve read a book that’s only been rated 53 times yet Good reads still recommended it to me. I gave it 4 star along with the majority of the 52 other people
I also picked up A Certain Hunger because of TikTok and I was under the impression that it was super popular and I was shocked at how few people had actually rated it. I was sold on this book by the cannibalism plot but in the end I had to give it 2 stars, I didn’t think it was very good :/
Today I sat down at my lunch break to read the first couple of chapters of The House by the Cerulean Sea, which I recently did a book swap with my friend for. So a few hours later I looked up at my whining dog's face who was pawing for my attention, realised that I was halfway through the book and needed to finish my work hours for the day. Welp. Good job I'm on flexi!
Oh my god me too. I love Catherine house. I randomly read it one day and I didn't have expectations, just the blurb on the back. I can understand why people might not like it. They said it's too artsy and vague. But i think i love it for that. It's a diff kind of dark academia vibe
i want to read a certain hunger so bad!!! I have visited multiple different bookstores multiple times and it's never been there!! tried to buy online but it cost like 35 Australian dollars (over 20 euros) like bruh, this is misogyny at play!!
A Certain Hunger was initially released on audiobook and got an updated physical release in the US in 2021, and I believe a UK publisher just picked it up a few months ago, so it’s still a pretty new book but under half a thousand review? That’s pretty crazy
I personally didn't enjoy Beautiful World Where Are You because I thought it was just super boring 😬😬 I'm a big Sally Rooney fan but this book just was not it for me
As someone who DIDN’T read Twilight as a 15 years old and read it later to see if Twihards were right about the book being amazing… I can totally see why it’s not super highly rated, because that book is just… not great 😅 It’s way too long for the little content it actually had, it’s boring, it put me into a reading slump, the characters have no personality, it’s full of that good old « early 2000s romance sexism » that we love… Yep. I feel like it’s the type of book that’ll disappoint just about anyone who isn’t a teenager at the time of reading 😅
beautiful world where are you is my favorite sally rooney book! I listened to it and I remember staying up all night listening. it was like listening to your friend tell you all their deepest thoughts. haters just be hatin lol
I find it hard to rate books that I've read on Goodreads, because the 5 star rating system is a bit restrictive without half stars. But I consider 3 stars to be a good rating. 4 stars can seem a bit too near to a perfect score, and then 5 stars is reserved for perfect books (which, to be fair, I think I am a bit over-generous with). I think it would help if you could rate books by the half star. 😋📚
I know you said you don't want to reread this but I would watch the shit out of a video series of you re-reading Twilight series. It would be grand (and maybe you would realise why it has such low ratings lol)
As usual, your energy is just such..... a specific thing haha I think the difference between Goodreads review and personal opinion can be especially big when it comes to non-fiction, especially once personal subjective opinions on politics/history etc enter a review. Plenty of chuckles to be had from reviews like that!
Did you leave out the j in shoujo? The j isn't pronounced as shoyo! Haha it's actually sho - Jo. Jo as in Josephine. Love the video and yes I agree My Immortal is infinitely entertaining! Have you watched The Internet Historian's adaptation of it? 😂 It's incredibly funny.
There's a Czech book that has 4 ratings and a 2.5 average. It's literally the worst book I've ever read. There's this 17 year old horse girl who stands up for a girl that her "best friend" bullies, the two turn against her and make her life a living hell. Her parents decide to make her feel better by sending her to a prestige horse school and she becomes very good at horse rather quickly so she gets sent to a great race. She gets training with another guy (who has the hots for her) at a ranch, but they're not alone. There is a primary school there at the same time and the girl (called Amelia) meets the teacher and is immediately interested. The teacher (whose point of view we also get) is named Rosemary and she's 40. The two fall in love and there is a really bad s€x scene involving math problem directed at Amelia and a scene where Amelia's mum gets really angry because Rosemary is 1 year older than her. And the worst part is that this is perfectly legal over here. Ew.
I 100% aggre that the 100 derves only one strar but omgggg I read it recently and I have never had so much fun reading s book ever I was lafing out loud it’s trach at it’s finest I strongly recomend this book!!!!!!!! Thanks for my rant
Most of the time on GR you have mid books within a genre rated 4.5 stars and masterpieces rated 3.8 because if you read a trashy romance you have certain expectations and you don't really put in a lot of effort to understand the story.
i was so baffled to hear that 9000 ratings isn't much, bc i have a book with 23 ratings on my shelf (its orange is for anguish blue is for insanity by david morrell)
I work at a Bookshop in Colombia that specializes in books in English, and we were able to get 2 copies of A Certain Hunger. The other bookseller and me bought them because it was a really lucky find. Hahaha
I went through my books with the lowest average rating (all below 3.5 stars), and it was such a mixed bag! Absolutely bad: Sam & Ilsa's Last Hurrah by Rachel Cohn and David Levitan, Ship It by Britta Lundin, Serpents in the Cold by Thomas O'Malley, and This is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kheryn Callender Absolutely disagree: The Fever by Megan Abbot, The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy, and Slimed! An Oral History of the Golden Age of Nickelodeon by Matthew Klickstein (although I think the author is a dick) Mixed feelings: Dear Emma by Katie Heaney, 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne, The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg, and several Meg Cabot books from her recent Little Bridge Island series
Sally Rooney is very divisive, I personally *loathe* her books and cannot understand how people like them. So I don't think it's about expectations about her books, it really is about one's character and taste. I find it offensive that she's regarded as "the millennial writer" because ...well, millennials are better than that.
i think that the over-dramatisation of human emotion in most books gets old really really quickly, so her writing style and plot structures are so so refreshing to me, especially for literary fiction. i feel like we've reduced feelings in books, stories themselves even, to a single plot line that boils over in an epic confrontation, when in fact it's more like constant simmering, with dips and peaks and all of that. that and the fact that she's just a better writer in general than a lot of these grand-and-dramatic-premise-but-no-actual-development-or-follow-through types of authors
I adore The Bedlam Stacks and found the Watchmaker of Filigree Street to be slightly boring, which is pretty funny since the later has so much more action than the first. The Bedlam Stacks is a great atmospheric book I find, kind of something quiet to read when its raining outside and you have something warm to drink. I understand its not for everyone, but it sits very solidly in my personal five star list :) Loved the idea of this video btw! I think sometimes we all get caught up in the bandwagon of books that are best for large audiences, but some of my favourite books are stuff I can't necessarily recommend to people because they were just so perfect to me at the time I read them, but I know they can be a hard match for others.
I read a lot of Welsh Language books, so they've often only got 2-50 ratings, and I want to read this one books, Trwy'r Tonnau by Manon Steffan Ros just because it has NO ratings and I wanna be the first
The Dog Walker sounds like an American rom-com version of The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain which took three attempts for me to finish because it was so boring but also ridiculous because a man falls in love with a woman by going through her handbag and living in her flat (looking after her cat while she is in a coma) and she is totally fine with it all and falls in love with him at the end too
The 100 the show is a fun drinking type show. My Mom and I binged it in like two-ish months and had so much fun with it. I will say don't try to rationalize it too much, just go with it.
I am not into dark academy. I have decided that solely by not enjoying "Ninth House". Nonethless I will give "These Violent Delights" a chance. I put it on my wishlist on Audible. (I do own Chloe Gong's book but have never finished it :D)
My least rated book on Goodreads has a 0.0 average rating, because no one's ever rated it lol. I'm one of two or three people who've read it on Goodreads. It's just a book that showcases the sharks and rays of the Arabian gulf, I got it at an aquarium gift shop.
i feel like the 3 star range for books is a lot like thrifting. most of the stuff probably won’t be for you, there might be stuff you don’t like at all, but you still wanna look for the chance that you find a gem that absolutely consumes your life
Hi Leo! You're so funny and insightful💕 I tend to get frustrated by reviews and rates I try to not read at all sometimes and just go with my mood and instinct, then I read the sample and go for it or not.🙂 💕🌻☕🇦🇷
I actually liked the first book in the Twilight series. But I read it like 5 years back so I have no idea how I'll feel now. I'll probably like the first one but I'm sure I won't like the rest😂😂
Okay, so The 100 TV show is definitely better than the book series. I read it and watched the show. Only downside of the show is that the last season was horrible. The 100, like most CW shows, didn't know when to end. They just kept on going and there is only so much you can do with a dystopian sci-fi show with the world ending. Js. I only watched the last season because I knew it was the last season and I made it that far and I did genuinely love the show up until the last 2 seasons or so when they decided to do some wild shit instead of just ending.
