UNWRAPPING BOOKS PICKS WHAT I READ! 🎁wrapped up revamped - episode 5! february reading vlog

Whoa. Okay. Oh no. I'm so sorry. It's okay. Just relax. Just relax. Okay, so hi everyone. This stack does not want to stay up. But anyway, welcome back to another episode of Wrapped Up, which many of you will know is a series that I started at Christmas. Well, it's been going for two years, but I started this edition at Christmas and I'm kind of continuing it in the new year. These are all 2021 releases that I own but did not read. And every episode of these, we unwrap one and read it. So I'm very excited. I'm having good vibes at the moment, guys. It's currently the 5th of February. It's a Saturday. I'm having the weekend off. Like, well, this is still semi-work, but not really. But I'm having the weekend off, like fully off for like the first time in I don't know when. I feel like I'm doing a really good job of like working this week and then having a break, which is something I don't usually do. So I'm in a really good mood and I'm reading again. I have read two books in February already, which is pretty good considering I only read five in January. And I just don't want anything to slow that down. Neither does Rorah. So yeah, I want to be careful with what I pick. I don't want too long a book, but like a thriller would be nice. Something that's fast paced. It's fun to read. That's would be kind of what I would pick right now. But whether we're going to get that is something different. To be honest, I've kind of forgotten what books are here. So, I mean, it's a risk, but I don't want to pick like a short book. To be honest, I don't know why, but this is jumping out at me. I don't know what it is. I promise you. Yeah, this one on top just kind of jumped out at me. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's probably just because it's on top. This one or this one are what we're going to go with because they're both like semi-short hardbacks. Okay, no, we're going to go for this one. Oh no. Oh no. Oh. It's been the worst week of my life, actually. Okay. So let's all take a moment, shall we? Oh, it's all falling apart. So I kind of asked for this. I asked for a thriller. This is Survive the Night by Riley Sager, which has been panned. Everyone's been hating this book. Everyone who's read it has hated it. My patrons told me they like threw their books at the wall in outrage reading it. And this is what we're going to read in this vlog. Okay, this will be fun because I feel like this is the kind of book that if I'm going to read it, it deserves to be its own vlog. Some books can't carry being a one book vlog. This book can. Oh my god, this is so like panned. Everyone has hated it. You guys. All I know is that there's like this serial killer going around. I think it's set in the 80s and our main character gets in this car with a guy who's giving her a lift and she thinks that he's the serial killer and she's like trapped in the car with him all night. To be honest, to me, it sounds kind of like Riley Sager trying to have a go at No Exit. Like, oh, maybe I could do that. But me and Riley Sager have had an okay relationship. I think I gave both Lock Every Door and Home Before Dark four stars, and I gave The Last Time I Lied like 4.55, something around that. So like, I've never hated a Riley Sager, but maybe this is the time. But actually, I feel like, you know, it will be a fast-paced thriller, I feel like at the very least. I won't spend ages reading it. So I feel okay about this. Oh! But I did tell a bit of a lie there. But I don't, because everyone has hated it. I don't think I've really heard anyone have a good word to say about it. So, um, let's just go give it a read. Okay. So I'm a hundred pages into Survive The Night. I read a hundred pages last night in bed, and like, here's the thing. I don't hate it yet. It won't be a flop. I'm confident. No, the truth is, I feel like this is going to be different than some books, right? So like, The Appeal by Janice Halep I read recently. It was up, I think it was the last, yeah, that was the last wrapped up vlog I did. And I enjoyed the book. It was fine. I gave it a 3.5 star. You know, not amazing, but it was an enjoyable read, right? I just had some issues with it. But I had such high hopes for that book that it was disappointing. This book, I'm going into it expecting a one or a two star, if I'm honest. And it's not that at the moment. So I feel like my demeanor is going to be like, I'm loving it, but I've just like, I haven't read a book recently where I've got into it with such low expectations, but here we are. But I'm not hating it. To me at the moment, like, it's, it's okay. It's quite good. We're following Charlie. This is set in like the 1980s, by the way. And her roommate was recently murdered by the campus killer. And she blames herself a lot for that. And she's kind of fleeing university. And she gets this, she agrees to have this like, share a ride with this guy who's kind of going a similar way to her, but he's a stranger. And during the car ride, she starts to think he's the campus killer because of stuff he's saying. I don't know if it's a spoiler. I won't say what he's saying. But he said certain things that makes her think, oh ----, I'm sharing a car with the man who killed my friend. The whole book pretty much beyond page 30, they're in the car. And part of me was like, how is, how is Riley Sager going to sustain this tension or just like this location of the car for the whole book? You know, how is it not going to get boring? And we've got a lot of flashbacks. That's how he's kind of doing it. We're flashing back a lot in time to learn more about the murder, how it happened, why Charlie blames herself, etc, etc. And I feel like that's been done okay. Well, I don't know. It just feels very like a ripoff of No Exit for me and I don't like that. It feels like Riley Sager is trying to do No Exit. I feel like we're going to be out of the car soon. There's going to be a cat and mouse chase. I'm just, it took me a while to realize that, that you wanted to be me. Especially because I read Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams last year, which is like based around cars. Again, a lot of it is set in cars and I just like boring, boring, boring. So yeah, I don't know. I'm enjoying it. I'm reading it really fast and I'm not really putting it down. So that's a plus for it. Like, it's a good thriller for me so far. Like, I'm reading it really, really fast and I'm not like having to set timers or anything. I'm just like flying through it. It's an easy read. One thing I will say that has annoyed me from the get-go is that Charlie has this thing where when she goes through periods, it's like, it's literally described as this, when she goes through moments of extreme emotion, like fear, guilt, sadness, whatever, she starts imagining everything around her as a movie, right? She's obsessed with movies and she starts to see everything around her as a movie. So like, she can't be sure what's real and what's not. She can hallucinate people, things happening, and the kind of scene around her transforms. Although it may share some kind of similarity to what is happening, like around her, basically. Let me just say, we all ******* know. It made me roll my eyes. We all know at the climax of this, when she's going to be running away from him, because we already know it's going to be happening. I knew that when I heard the synopsis of the book. You know it's going to be happening. She's going to be imagining everything as a movie and she's not going to know what's real and what's not. That's my prediction. I'm laying it down now because, yeah, it's been like, what's real? What's not? How do I escape this when I don't know what's real and what's not? Like, that's going to be the situation and I think that's cheap. And I don't feel like it's been, like, tucked into the story very well at all. It's obviously just a plot device, like a device to, like, make the book what he wants. I don't feel like it's been blended in well at all. But I mean, like, it's an interesting dynamic between them in the car. Charlie's a fine character. It just feels fine to me at the moment. It feels enjoyable. It's probably like a 3.5 for me right now, you know? It's nothing special, but it's fine. But, like, that may go downhill because a lot of you said the ending is very bad. So I don't know. But, like, I'm reading it quickly, which is, you know, a big plus. So today is Sunday. I don't have too much to do today. I need to do a few bits and I'm just going to chill out and read this. So hopefully today I will be able to check in with you at, like, the 200 page mark. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So... Really, really sorry, Nikki. I'm really, really, really sorry. I didn't realise that it was... Why are you laughing? I'm 200 pages in to Survive the Night now. So... So, things in its favour. It's compulsively readable. I can't put it down. I'm not having to force myself through the book. At least it's not boring, right? At least it's not boring. Like, I can't stop reading it. So that's... That's a pro, right? But let's talk about the cons. Firstly, Charlie is a ******* idiot. Idiot. Making idiotic choices with idiotic justifications. Me every time Charlie makes a decision. I'm confused. I'm confused. I'm confused. Confused. Confused. If I don't buy your justification for why, like, why she's making that decision and why it's going to put us on the... on the course of the rest of the book, like, I'm... I'm not in this. Like, I... You have not convinced me that she would actually think that. Idiotic. Idiot. It's actually infuriating. I'm sorry, but it's actually infuriating. I was... I don't... Now, here's the thing. I know I'm about to get angry. I'm, like, certain that certain things are about to happen in the last 100 pages of the book that's going to make me fuming. I am ******* fuming! I'm ******* fuming! A, at how idiotic it's probably going to be. B, at how, like, stupid, like, stupidly written it's going to be. I'm torn because I know it's going to be... it's going to be... it's going to be infuriating. But I... I'm not having the worst time reading it. I'm enjoying reading it. Like, I'm reading it so fast. Like, I'm flying through it. It's so readable. But am I going to think it's good? No. And it is by far already my least favourite of all the Riley Sagers that I have read. It's probably, like, I don't know. It depends how offensive the ending is because I can already tell it's going to make me angry. The route we're going down of, like, the type of girl our main character is, like, I just already know I'm going to be angry! It does feel like Riley Sager saw the success of No Exit in this, like, cat and mouse game, you know, like, you know, stuck for the night, you know, counting down the hours of the night trying to find help. Like, it does make me think he saw that and said, I want a slice of that pie. But the ingredients are off, Riley. The milk is curdled. I don't even know what goes in pie. Pie is not a very English thing. But yeah, it's, like, annoying and it's going to get even more annoying. Like, I know I'm going to be, like, screaming in frustration at the end. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to light a candle to try and relax. I'm going to, I'm going to turn the lights off, just leave my fairy lights on, turn the other lamps off I have in the room, get in the dark, and I'll talk to you in the morning about the experience I'm going to have during these twilight hours reading the final 100 pages of this book. Will I survive the night? Who knows? Who knows? Haha, laugh, funny. That's funny to me. It's funny. Yeah. Do you have a sense of humor? I feel like I said nothing of note there. I feel like I just chat ---- throughout the whole of that clip. If I wrote you a song, if I got every word perfectly weighted on a thin piece of paper. Okay, so I finished Survive the Night last night, like I predicted. I could not put it down. So let's, let's discuss. So something I do is often if it, if I finish a book at night or when I can't film, I just write some quick thoughts in my notes app to, like, describe how I'm feeling and my initial thoughts, right? So I can, like, recapture that when I come to film. So let's, let's just, let's read what I've written together and then we'll take it from there, okay? We'll, we'll go through the whole list and then we'll discuss each of these items individually. So, low expectations, kind of better, but not, right? Man writing woman. Riley, that's not your name, sis, and it's purposeful and you're profiting off of it. We do not, and I mean, do not do what happens at the end. We don't do that. We don't do that in this house. It's not acceptable. We, I mean, we don't do that. We don't do that. And then the final two. Edgelord extravag- that's supposed to say extravaganza. Jay Kristoff who? So, much to discuss. I just don't know where to start. I had such low expectations going into this book, right? The bar was so low. The bar could not be lower. And it was, like, kind of better because I had an okay reading experience, but objectively this book is awful. Like, I don't know how to explain this to you. Like, I could not put this book down. You could not pry it out of my hands. I had to finish it. To be fair, I think I was, like, skim reading some elements of the writing because the writing was questionable in itself, which is our last point. But, like, the twists in this book are awful. The big end twist. The end, end, end twist of who is the real villain behind everything, right? I saw it coming, like, 60, 70 pages before that. And I never- we know, small brain energy. I never, ever predict anything. Like, I never get thrillers correct. If you're gonna play a game, girl, play it right. It was the most obvious thing I have ever seen happen in my life. It was- it wasn't even attempted to be, like, concealed well. Like, what the ****? Like, it was so bad. I- I can't explain to you. When I read thrillers or mysteries, I let myself be taken along for the ride. I don't spend a moment theorizing. A moment, a millisecond, and I still managed to know what was going on. So, that's bad. The next two points are kind of intertwined. Man writing woman. It was obvious our protagonist was written by a man. Written by a man, okay? It's obvious. It's- she's like- she's like- oh, the way she thinks is, like, how a man thinks, like, an axe who's trying to counteract it. And then let's talk about how Riley Sager's not his name. Riley Sager is a pseudonym, right? Riley Sager is a pen name. I think we should have that conversation. And it's- it's purposefully gender neutral, if not leaning more towards a woman. Like, I think when people hear the name Riley, they do think, like, a woman. That's purposeful, because he's trying to appear- appeal to female thriller readers, because he only writes female main characters. And, like, they all- they- they're- it's just- there's something a little bit insidious about it. I've touched it before. Like, there's nothing necessarily, like, wrong with men writing women. But when it's, like, he's purposely trying to make people think that he's a woman writing this, like, that's- that's- it's purposeful, you know? And it's probably getting him the success that he's getting him in some kind of subconscious way. And I just don't know if I'm okay with it after what has been written in this book. The reason people are so angry about this book, I'm not going to tell you exactly what happens, but, like, this book espouses to be for the women that have been abused by male power and who have been killed by male serial killers. Like, that's kind of, like, what it's- what its message it's trying to put out is. But then some of what happens at the end is, like, it tears all that apart. Like, it, like, takes that and shits on it. So I just don't know. I- I mean, I'm still probably gonna read stuff on my Sega because, like, one of the easiest sort of authors to read from. But it does just- it- I think it needs to be discussed, especially in the context of what happens in this book. Yeah, that's tied into we do not, and I mean do not, do what happens at the end. We don't do that, ladies and gentlemen. We don't do it. I'm not gonna tell you. I'm not gonna tell you what it is, but if you've read it, you know. We just don't do that. I need a cigarette. And then finally, Edgelord Extravaganza, J. Christophe Who, again tied into, like, how it was written. It's very, like, edgy and, like, I- I can't even think of examples. But the way sometimes Charlie thinks to herself and, like, makes decisions, it reminds me a lot of Nevernight by J. Christophe, which I'm not continuing with that series. Like, kind of, like, edgy girl written from a man's perspective. And just the way it was written, like, the author tone of voice was not good, okay? But now let's discuss my conundrum, because I actually don't know what to write it. I'm not 100% sure. I've been thinking about it all morning, right? I've been going back and forth, and I think because I literally could not put it down, and I, like, for some reason, I kind of enjoyed the experience of reading it, even if the book is objectively offensive in some regards. I think I'm settling on a 2.5, but I'm on Goodreads because I don't want to give it, like, a 3, like, for something that, like, I have moral kind of objections to, and the twists were really bad. Giving it a 3 feels wrong, so I'm gonna round it down to a 2 on Goodreads. But, like, in terms of my rating, I think it's a firm 2.5, I think. I think if you want to know what everyone's talking about, it's not going to take you long to read it. I read this in, like, two, three hours, probably in total time of reading. You know, it's a super quick read, it's kind of fun, but it's ----. So, like, swings and roundabouts, you know? But anyway, that's the end of this episode of Wrapped Up. I hope you've enjoyed this vlog. I've actually really loved doing this vlog. I thought it was a lot of fun to chat about this book, so maybe we need, like, really controversial picks wrapped up, even though I also want to really enjoy what I'm reading, so I don't know. But if you've gotten to the end, put a car emoji in the comments down below. And yeah, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!