Alright pals, I know it's been a little while, especially since I talked about
books, so today we're gonna play catch-up. today I'm here to talk to you about all
the books that I read in the months of August and September. there aren't too many so
hopefully we can get through this in a reasonable amount of time. let's go. the
first book I read was None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio and this is the story of
a girl finding that out that she has AIS or essentially that she is intersex and
not only does she find out that she's intersex and has to come to terms with
what that means to herself but also she is outed to her school and to her
boyfriend and everything and kind of the repercussions of that. as far as I know
the author herself is not intersex but she has done a ton of research on the
topic and she is actually I believe in the medical field, in addition to
being an author, so she did come from that sort of perspective of it and it
deals with kind of the conflicting ideas of gender essentialism and also what it
means to be a woman for this sixteen-year-old girl who is coming of
age and learning so much about herself now having to deal with not knowing what
her body means to her. I really liked the perspective especially because it did
come from someone who was kind of pretty ignorant to the nuances of the gender
spectrum and things like that so it was really interesting learning experience
for her and seeing it from her lens. I will say that I did not like a lot of
her choices, like the characters choices. she is young but I was just--she gave a
lot of people too much credit and I didn't understand why she was doing a
lot of things she was doing, and like, the the things that motivated her actions I
didn't like a ton. especially considering that, for instance, her boyfriend was
a dick and I didn't understand why she-- I mean I understood from the character
perspective-- but I was like he's not worth it, girl, move along. I think I give
this 3.5 out of 5 stars. I think it's a very important piece of literature in
the YA spectrum and I think that's great, did not love the character as much
as I wish I would have, but I loved the idea of the book and the story itself.
number 2 was quite a controversial read but that is Ramona Blue by Julie
Murphy. I thought Ramona Blue was a really
nuanced, diverse and realistic illustration of a girl's messy life and
trying to put together pieces and figure out what all the pieces mean to her.
Ramona is 6'3", with bright blue hair, living in this
crumbling old FEMA trailer that they received after Hurricane Katrina and she
lives there with her sister, her sister's shitty boyfriend, and her dad. her mom
left after Hurricane Katrina, her dad works really really hard for very little
pay and Ramona is kind of a stabilising influence to her sister and
has to work a ton to help pay for daily essentials. she's really taken on the
role of her mother. when her sister becomes pregnant she has to then take
all her savings that she'd saved to go off to college and start providing for
her sister. meanwhile, in addition to that, the controversial plotline is that
Ramona has always thought that she was a lesbian but she begins falling for a boy
and realizes that she's actually bisexual. I feel like this story took a
lot of situations and instances that could have been really upsetting and
just a sad book on the whole and makes them really insightful and you see the
growth and it's a really great family story. It's a story of sisters, it's a story
of love, and I just really liked it. Ramona has always put a lot of limits on
herself and what she can do and what she can feel and you see those kind of
shattering as she's allowing herself to be who she really is. I will say that
there are a few lines that I didn't really like that Ramona thinks/says
throughout the story. for instance, she makes a comment about how
she's not a sex-crazed maniac but she is a human being and that she feels like
sexual impulses or she thinks about sex essentially. she also often equates money
with being an asshole, but I also feel like that's something
that she kind of grows out of as the story continues on. early on she kind of
assumes and if every one of money is gonna be a jerk just because of her, like,
where she's grown up and the kind of lifestyle she leads, but she does grow
out of that. there are just so many important discussions to be had. there's
a lot of discussions on labels and how important they are to some people and
how less important they are to others. the main romantic lead calls her
out on her white privilege and makes a comment about how she doesn't understand
how certain scenarios are completely different for her versus for him, a black
man. I feel like there aren't a lot of YA stories about people living with little
to no money, so I thought that was a really
interesting perspective, especially given the circumstances, and also just
Ramona is really brave and hardworking and humanity changes all the time and we
grow into different things and our sexuality changes as we grow and I just
really liked this story. I see the problems, I know there are a lot of
hurtful comments made in it, but I do think that Ramona learns a lot from the
shitty things she does and says and grows from them, so I really liked Ramona Blue.
that's-- that was a long winded explanation. The next book I read I'm gonna try and talk about very
briefly because I really didn't like it and I don't like harping on about things
I don't like. that is To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han. I know this is
a very well loved series so I'm very happy that other people loved it. it was not
for me. This story you've probably heard about it before girl writes love letters
to all the people that she's loved in the past all those letters get sent out.
that's actually not at all what the story is about. I felt a little bit lied
to with that blurb, which is fine, I actually liked the idea of the story
better that it's about this family, it's about three sisters and growing apart
and kind of their relationship to one another, also their father after their
mother dies and kind of the relationship between everyone. in theory, this is my
kind of story. however, could not stand the main
character. I just found that she had the emotional complexity of a ten-year-old.
in fact, I'm pretty sure that she has a ten-year-old sister who seems to be more
emotionally and mentally everything mature than her. I just found her like,
insufferable. she whines constantly, and cries constantly, like every other page
she was crying about something and not something like worthy of tears. she
slut-shamed her best friend for literally hundreds of pages before we
even meet her there. are so many gender-based generalisations constantly.
The only good thing I guess is that she gets called out on a lot of her bullshit
by people around her, but still I just found it insufferable and also the boys
in this story were not worth the drama that they caused. also I tried listen to
the audiobook for a certain an amount of time because I was like maybe this is less
painful if I listen to it: it wasn't. don't listen to the audiobook, the
narrator is just as annoying as the main character. not for me I respect that I'm
sure other people found this a really great story. in fact my roommate Monica
really likes these books, they're just not for me. I found
them really annoying. cool, moving on. the next book I have to talk about is Lily and
Duncan by Donna Gephart. I've had this book on my shelf for a couple of years
now I think pretty much since it came out because I was like it's a middle grade
with a trans main character and then the other character has bipolar disorder,
this is such great representation, especially for middle grade, gotta read it
and I picked it up and I hadn't read it. so I finally got around to it back in
August the biggest concern that I found when researching this book especially is
the representation of bipolar disorder. what Duncan experiences is a
very specific form of bipolar disorder, that not a lot of people experience,
because it includes I believe the difference was that includes certain
psychosis and that is not the experience a lot of bipolar people have and so
there's a big question whether or not that is good representation because of
the fact that it's such a specific form. the author has expressed that this is
the type of bipolar disorder that her son experience, and so that's why she
wrote Duncan in this way, which is awesome it's great representation for
him but just for a lot of young people reading this, that's not going to be what
they experience so it might not be a great representation on the whole. there
were other little things throughout the story that kind of upset me. there's a
lot of like a cheerleader hate. just, like, it's so boring.
Duncan really encourages Lily to come out to be an inspiration to other people,
but it's really not a trans person's obligation to inspire other people. even
if, you know, that is often what happens is that when a trans person comes out,
other people feel more comfortable doing the same, totally get that, but also it's
not their responsibility to do that. I don't know. all in all, I think it's a
very important book to have and there were a lot of elements that I liked but
from what I've seen from, at least, I'm not sure about the trans side, I haven't
been able to find a lot of trans ownvoices reviews, but from the bipolar side,
it's not great representation. it's not very representative representation, I
suppose. I liked it, didn't love it, and glad I read it, glad it exists. I will
also say trigger warning for homophobia, transphobia, and also assault. the next
is Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Steiefvater. the third book in The Raven cycle.
I have been slowly reading the Raven cycle throughout this year. I've actually
finished now, I'll talk about The Raven King later in this video, I think, but
slowly been getting through them the main note I have for Blue Lily Lily Blue,
especially, is that I cannot wait for the television show. like, obviously I'm kind of
nervous because it's always nerve-racking when books you love are put into new
mediums, but I can't wait for the show cause I can't wait to visually see the things that
I kind of can't quite grasp when reading it. all of Cabeswater, especially. I just
can't wait to see that visually, it's gonna be awesome. But I liked Blue Lily, Lily
Blue probably my sec--, actually it's probably my third favourite. I think I'd go Raven Boys, Raven King,
Blue Lily and then the second one that I'm completely blanking on. the next book
I read is one that you've probably heard so much about that I'm not gonna
linger on to too long and that is They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.
this book broke me. I found this book physically painful to read. if you don't
know what the story is essentially it's a story of a world in our future where
on the day you're gonna die, you get a call from something called death cast
and they tell you that within the next 24 hours,
somehow someway, you will be dead, so these two boys get a call. one of them is
Cuban and one of them is Puerto Rican, one of them's Bi, one of them's gay. and it just
follows their final day as they meet each other through this friend service
and also fall in love on their final day. it's every bit as sad as it sounds. I have
a really sad note here that's, "Mateo's love for mornings is breaking my heart." I
also think that if you liked the Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. it's right
over here on the shelf and if you like Sun is Also a Star, I think you'll really love
this story as well because it has a really great multi-perspective narrative
situation going on. you kind of meet different people along throughout these
boys day and it shows how their interactions change the course of their
day, things like that, which I love. I love that device. this book was amazing, I
think I gave it 5 out of 5 stars. the final book I read in the month of August
was Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali and I really liked this book. before I
say anything I am gonna give a trigger warning for attempted sexual
assault because that's really what sets this story into motion.
pretty much Janna is a hijabi teen dealing with the aftermath of kind of
one of the golden boys of her mosque attempting to assault her. he's memorised
the Quran, he's very well-respected and one of the stars of their mosque in
general and he does this horrible thing to her and she has to live with that
every single day knowing that if she says anything, no one will believe her
because of who he is and what he represents.
Farooq is kind of given the title as the monster and that title is continued
throughout the story as he kind of follows her around and monitors her
actions and stalks her as she gets into relationship with a non-muslim boy and
just really haunts her every waking move. not only with the actions of his past
but also with what he is presently doing. Janna knows that no one will believe her
and so she's forced to carry the shame of what happened with her every single
day and I thought it was such a beautiful betrayal of that shame and
that guilt following sexual assault. I just really loved this story. I'm sorry,
I'm not crying my voice is just going. one of the most moving lines is, "how do
you wash off what cannot be seen" and I think about that regularly since reading
this book. I thought it was a really beautiful portrayal of that feeling and
that experience and I think this is a great novel for that reason it also is a
really great novel if you're trying to read more about the perspective of
Hijabi teens, practicing Muslims. I feel like that's not often in a lot of YA
literature. I feel like a lot YA literature if there is kind of Indian
representation, Muslim representation, they are often separated from their
religion and it's like the old way whereas she is practicing but also is a
modern teenager and there are ways to incorporate both of those things, so I
think this was a really wonderful debut. I can't wait to read more from S.K. Ali.
I don't know her full name, I should have looked that up, sorry. super recommend it,
has a beautiful cover, check it out. and now we're into September. I read four
books in September, let's talk about them. the first book I won't say too
much about because it is the finale, The Raven King
by Maggie Stiefvater. I can't say much about the plot itself but I just love
these characters and I really fell for the characters in this story and how
their story concluded and I just love them. plot wise, I feel like it was a bit
underwhelming but I was always a bit underwhelmed with the plot of these
stories. I just think it's all about the dynamics of the people in these
characters lives, from Blue, Gansey, Adam Ronan, Henry, Noah, everyone just the
way all of Blues family, the way everyone connects and it's just so interesting
and beautiful. the ambiance and the setting are really cool.
I love with series, I do. I am not like a super fan like a lot of people on
booktube, but I do really enjoy it. the next book I read I really really loved
as well I gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars I think and that was Marie Lu's Warcross.
the main reason this gets such a high rating is that it really excited me.
it was one of the books, one of the first books in a while that I was like oh I'm
so excited for every single page. I feel like I'm more of a character reader a lot
of the time so I don't find myself reading really fast-paced plots and so
this made that a little different and it was pretty fun. if you don't know the
story is about it's a story of this game called warcross that kind of
incorporates all different people from all around the world, disabilities
different languages, religions, everything, everyone can be a part of the same
experience of this virtual reality game. our main character accidentally hacks
her way in and glitches her way into one of the biggest games in the world and
the creator of the game flies her out to help him figure out who else is hacking
the system sort of and it follows her and her experience in the game and also
with the creator. I guessed a lot of what was going to happen throughout the story
but I didn't really care I was still so into it and I really liked the
characters. I loved that our main characters father,
Emika Chen's father had a different profession he used to be an artist and I
loved that Emika herself was a very different character. she was another
character like Ramona Blue that deals with poverty and kind of having to make her
way through the world with very little money, having to do certain things for
money that you don't see a lot in YA. I love that the villain was really
interesting and relatable and you understood the motivation,
it wasn't just like a big bad. I just really liked seeing a YA heroine with
different experiences and a very different fun story, so check out
Warcross. the next book I read was oh my gosh I'm
so sore from sitting on the floor the next book I read was Tiny Pretty Things
by Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra, oh sorry. this is
the story of a school in New York, a ballet Institute and kind of drama
that goes on in it. That's kind of just the vaguest way of saying it, but it's a it's
a thriller I'd explain it, described it as a thriller. very different from what I
normally read. there is a lot of girl-on-girl hate and it can be very
petty. for better or worse, I feel like it felt really realistic to a certain
extent. I loved that it's told from the different
different perspectives and but they're all kind of unreliable narrators which I
was really into really enjoyed reading about the ballet world especially with
the diverse experiences of the different characters. I'm not sure when I'll get
around to reading the second one, if I ever will... and a final look I have to
tell you about I know this videos was very long his Carry On by Rainbow Rowell.
you've probably heard about Carry On at some point over the past few years.
if you don't know Carry On is... Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell was the story of a girl
who's obsessed with a book series and writes fanfiction about the book series.
carry on is that fanfiction. that she writes the story itself is very similar
to Harry Potter it's kind of that's kind of what it was a riff off of and it is
essentially Harry/Draco fanfiction in a certain way but with like obviously it's
not Harry and Draco, it's a different world, but that's kind of the basic idea
and I will say that so much of what I love from carry on is its relationship
to Harry Potter but also that's kind of like it seems easy to give a higher
rating because of the fact that it's like Harry Potter which is this thing I
already like that Rainbow Rowell didn't create but I still really loved it and I
totally get the love for this series or this book series meaning the Simon Snow
novels. I understand the love for it and I do wish there was more with
characters but I also was really satisfied with the ending and where we
leave our main characters. I also wouldn't really want like prequels
where Baz and Simon weren't in love because that's the beauty of it. I will
say that I don't think that Simon's side of the romance is very well developed,
just me personally but I really like this story it was very fun they gave it
a high rating I can't remember what but I liked it and that's all.
finally! I've been recording for a while now hopefully I can edit this down to
be a manageable length. I will be back with another video soon. I want to
do a room tour, I still want to do the Q&A with my realtor, and need to work on
that. I want to do-- I'm gonna have to do an October wrap up pretty soon. I hope
you're well and have a wonderful day. let me know if you've read any of these
books or what you read over the past couple months. Bye!
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