LOTS OF 5 STARS AND A DISAPPOINTING OVERHYPED BOOK ✨ august wrap up

Hello, welcome to my channel. My name is Megan and this is my first video on this channel. I just want to say a massive thank you for watching this video and for being here because obviously I'm just starting out so I really appreciate you taking the time to click and watch this. So today we're going to be going through my August wrap-up. I didn't read loads of books in August, I actually read the joint and least amount I've read in a month but I had a great reading month in terms of the ratings I gave. I don't give five stars out easily and we have a lot of five stars this month so it was a really great month in terms of the quality of what I read. So the first book that I read this month was Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. So this follows a mother and a daughter who move into Shaker Heights and rent from the Richardsons. Shaker Heights is the kind of town that does everything a certain way, everybody knows everyone and there was definitely a right way and a wrong way to do things. Pearl, the daughter, becomes very close to the Richardsons but soon a topic divides the community and divides their families too. We find out at the start of the novel that the Richardsons' house has been set on fire and then we travel back in time to find out how it led up to those events. I loved this book, I thought the characters were so interesting, I thought that the way the plot developed was really natural and the way that you would imagine something happening and the kind of situation, the kind of place they're in. I flew through the second half or probably more than the second half of this book in a day, I just became so engrossed in what was happening and I couldn't wait to read on. I don't have the physical copy because my boyfriend's mum lent it to me but god, part of me wants it, part of me wants to read it again right now, it was a really great reading experience. It definitely says something to me about how detrimental that want and that need for that picture-perfect life is, particularly in something like suburban America. It creates a really toxic environment I think and I just really enjoyed exploring it in the book so I would definitely recommend it. I think a lot of people would have read it already but yeah, I would definitely definitely recommend it. So that for me got a rating of five out of five, the first of many this month. There was nothing I want to change about it really, maybe I feel like the ending I would have liked a bit more explanation for why people did what they did but then I also think you almost don't need that and you had enough explanation but I would have loved to found out what happened to the characters afterwards but also part of the beauty is not knowing what happened right, so yeah. The next book I read this month was Natives by Akala. Akala is a really famous poet, public speaker, rapper, he's a really famous individual in the UK, if you don't know who he is it's probably maybe because you live in another country. So the full title is Natives, Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, so it focuses on how I guess the remnants of the British Empire, how that affects you know race and class living in the UK today and it particularly draws upon his experiences growing up in the UK as a mixed race boy living in London I believe he lived in, yeah he lived in London. So I think stories like this told from perspectives other than our own, learning about perspectives other than our own are so important and Akala, I mean just I recommend even if you don't want to read this book going and listening to him talk, watch videos on YouTube about him talk because he is so knowledgeable so insightful and really inspirational as well when he speaks. I definitely think that a subsection of British people have a really troubling and dangerous attitude towards race and class but particularly race and this definitely exposes the roots of that kind of way of thinking. I particularly enjoyed the sections on the pressures on black athletes in the UK and how the British population views them and also a section regarding the British population's perception of and viewpoint towards different people of ethnic minorities in the public eye depending on what their political affiliation is, how closely they view their beliefs to the other person's beliefs right because I think it's interesting how the British population aligns themselves to some people and doesn't to others when their reasons for not or for doing so is actually quite hypocritical just based on whether it agrees with the political affiliation of the day I think in a lot of cases so yeah I did read this a while ago but I really enjoyed it. I gave it four out of five stars, it's more like a 3.75 rounded up only because at some points I did find it difficult to follow what he was saying and I mean it's written fairly basically sometimes I wished I was just listening to him speak rather than reading it because that's what almost like reading it felt like but I was just losing my point sometimes I don't know but other than that that was the only kind of critique sometimes I just found it a bit difficult to follow and a bit difficult to understand what he was trying to get at sometimes but yeah on the whole I would definitely recommend this. The next book I read was The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden. This is the second in the Winter Night trilogy, otherwise known as just Burning Light and Girl trilogy. Oh my chest, my chest. I love this trilogy so much I'm gonna get into the third one in just a second. This follows Vasya who is our lead character throughout the whole of the book kind of going further than just her town and trying to save her people and her city. I love the character of her horse, I love the winter king, I love her family, I love everything about this book. This is definitely the middle book in the series. I'd say the least happens in this book and it's a lot slower than the other two books but I quite liked that. I liked the change of pace, I liked how we had a bit more time with some of the characters to get to know them because we have some new characters in this book from the first one. The thing I love most about this this series of books is how beautifully they're written. It's written almost in a way like Russian folklore which is what this is based on. It's set in medieval times in Russia and sometimes when you're reading it you just feel like you're reading something from medieval times in Russia translated for you. It's such beautiful prose, just the environment and the world you're in you're just in totally like encapsulated in it, you just feel like when you're reading it you're just like in a little bubble and everything is just happening around you. It's so so incredible. I can't wait to read more of Katherine Arden's work and you know I would recommend nothing more than to pick this up right now. If you're gonna pick up any series right now, I beg you pick this up. I've already put my mum onto it, I'm putting my dad onto it. I want everyone, everyone to read this because it's just, it's just incredible. It's just so so so good. So I gave this five stars obviously. The only thing I would say is a lot happens at the end and there is a big portion where it is a bit of a slower pace but there's nothing wrong with that. In the middle book I feel like sometimes you do need to change the pace a little bit so yeah that's that one. Please go read it now. And then the next book I read was The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden. I couldn't wait to dive into it. Isn't it like one of the most beautiful covers? They're all really pretty covers but I just think this is so gorgeous. I think it's so pretty. In The Winter of the Witch, Vasya not only has to save her family, her village, her city, her people, she has to kind of save the whole world. It puts a lot of pressure on her shoulders but we've seen her grow from a child into a woman and when you're reading it you don't doubt for a second that she's capable of doing what she needs to do. You just hope that she's going to be able to do it. I cried so much in reading the last book and this book. It's just, it just pulls at your heartstrings so much and I just found myself like holding my breath or just like hoping for something good to happen because this is definitely, you know, the story gets darker and darker as you as she grows up, as she has to face more and you just kind of just hope that everything will end up okay but at the same time when you're reading it you're thinking well this can't all end up okay. It's going to have to have somewhat of a bittersweet ending because, I don't know, you just feel like, you know, this story isn't the kind of one that's going to be wrapped up in a bow. I can't say whether it was or not but just brilliant. I loved the ending. I felt like it did the story and the trilogy justice. It really did the characters justice and I feel like it worked. I love how Katherine Arden incorporates so much of traditional Russian, even Russian because Russia didn't exist at this time, but, you know, of the area, the tradition of the area at the time, how she incorporates it in so seamlessly, so beautifully and I feel like I learned so much reading this trilogy. I learned so much about, you know, the spirits, the house spirits, their existence, what people believed they could do, about Russian dress, about customs, about politics. That is another thing I loved about this series is the politics is so well done. Obviously you get the sense that in real, you know, in real Russia at the time the politics would be a lot more complex, like you can't fit it all into this fantasy book but you get the sense of what it was like and how people had to live in political climates in order to survive and I just love this book. I think it's gorgeous and I can't wait to re-read it all and to experience it all again because it does hurt my heart knowing I'm never going to read a Vasya story again. It's really sad to me. I found the magic in this as well. I'm just carrying on because I could just speak about this forever. If you want a separate video just on the Winter Night trilogy, tell me because I could go on forever. I could go on forever. The magic in this series across all develops in such a natural way and so does a lot of other things. I'll get on to that in a second though but the magic is never fully explained to you and I really enjoy that. You're supposed to just kind of discover the magic as you go along and guess and your things are hinted at and just kind of figure out how people are able to do what they do. It's never written out for you and I really enjoy that. I hate when books just tell you things and it makes it seem all the more magical not knowing truly the story behind it all and that's why I just want to live in this world forever because I feel like there's still so much to learn and so much to discover but the magic really, you know, you feel like, oh yeah of course that can happen, of course they can do that because it just grows so naturally from the first book. Also I felt like the stakes grew in a really natural way, you know, her world and her responsibility expands as the stories go along and I never felt like, you know, things were being forced but I also felt like it was separated between the books really nicely. Each of them opens up a new realm and it doesn't feel like, again it doesn't feel forced that, oh a new book, a new stage. The books lead up to each other perfectly so I could just talk about this forever but yeah I gave it five out of five stars again. If I could have given it 500 out of five stars I would have. It's definitely up there for my favourite books of the year but I don't really know how to separate them. Do you ever get that with a series, like they're all just so perfect together but I don't know how I'd rank them differently. I don't know. Anyway we'll get to that at the end of the year but yeah please go read these books. The next book I read this week, this week? This year? This month? The next book I read this month was The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware. I have done a special reading vlog for this which is going to be my next video out so I'm not going to say too much about this actually because I say a lot more in that video. I did that reading vlog because this is the first real thriller I have ever read and so I felt what better way than to document it. In this book we follow Rowan who applies for a nanny position at this house and gets it but when she arrives there she discovers it's all a smart home, all the lights are controlled, all the music, all the sound, all the doors, they're all controlled by this app that she has. You find out at the start of the novel that she is accused of killing one of the children that she looked after in the house and she is adamant that she didn't kill this child. Things start going wrong in the house, it's very ghostly, you feel like it may be supernatural but you don't know and this thriller is just incredible. It's such a page turner, it leaves you on the edge of your seat. I gave this five stars so if you're counting that's four five star books this month. I don't think I've had any other month where I read four five star books, that's crazy to me. The atmosphere that Ruth Ware creates in this book is incredible, it's so atmospheric, so creepy. I had moments reading this where I was home alone and I kept hearing noises and I had to like go creep over and like look around my house and be like is anyone in? Because I was spooked, I was so spooked. I just want more people to read this so I can talk to them about the ending because I just want to know what everyone thinks happens or is going to happen it's just it's just so good. It's also all told in letter format, I think she's writing to a solicitor. What's really great about it is you forget that you're reading letters quite often but if you make yourself think oh I'm reading a letter then suddenly you're like well how did I forget that because it all makes sense, it's all written how you'd write a letter. I think that's really really really well done, I loved this five stars five stars five stars. If you want to know more about what I thought about it and follow me freaking out then make sure to check out my reading vlog for this when it comes out. Now I'm pretty sad to be ending this on a bum note but the last book I read this month was Wicked Fox by Kat Cho. I believe in the UK it's normally called Gumiho but I read it on script, I listened to the audiobook so for me it was called Wicked Fox. In Wicked Fox you follow Mi Yang who is a nine-tailed fox who has to feed off the gi or the energy of other people in order to survive. Basically she kills them in order to survive, she has to kill in order to live. She meets a boy Ji Hoon in the clearing and events occur where she loses her bead that is inside her which I think essentially stores her energy within her and then we kind of develop a sort of will they won't they romance and you know from her losing the bead that's what drives the plot on and things occur. I gave this two stars. Now I've been here watching booktube, watching everyone, everyone give it four or five stars and just sitting here like I listened to this on audiobook for over a month, for over a month. I usually get through a few audiobooks you know a month. I listened to this from July, end of July right up until the last day of August where I just had to force myself through it. I do not understand, I don't understand how people liked this and I feel bad saying this because it's a new author and I want to support new authors telling different kinds of stories from different backgrounds but I mean I have no subscribers so who is it gonna hurt me saying I didn't like it. I was watching Isabella from Throne of Pages, one of her most recent reading vlogs and she read Town of the Key, Wicked Fox and then Secret History which is one of my favorite books ever and I messaged her going oh my god I can't believe we're reading these books at the same time and then you're reading Secret History she goes we love having taste yes but you're really enjoying Wicked Fox and I'm not. I was so bored, I was so bored, I was so bored and I didn't care about any of the characters. I didn't care, I didn't care what happened to them, I felt no connection. I become so attached to characters and I feel for everyone in the story and I cry in books when no one else cries but in this one I didn't give a whatever. I didn't, I didn't care, I didn't care and I felt like at the same time so much happened where I'm like why is all this happening? Why is all it happening? But then nothing happened. Okay let's let's rewind and let's go through this slowly. I didn't care about the characters. I felt like I didn't really know who they were and I didn't understand their motivations for doing some things and then with the plot I felt like I didn't understand how we got to places we got to, how things had to happen and it felt like some things happened for no reason but at the same time too much was happening. I didn't get time just to sit with the characters and I'm I have no issue with a plot driven book. I enjoy plot driven books but sometimes I just need a little bit of time to sit with you and to like learn about you but then I feel like if we had any of that that time with them I just like blocked it on my mind because I was so bored with these characters. I think it's just a me thing if you've heard other people saying they really enjoyed it maybe listen to them. It might be the case that I read so many five star books this month obviously I just wanted to read them I just wanted to get through them and because I wasn't loving this it just got pushed further and further down my list and I just didn't want to listen to it so it might be because of that also when I was like I could be reading x book you know that I gave five stars instead of reading this which I wasn't enjoying all that much it may have been a three star if I read it physically um but who knows I don't know I just did not enjoy it I didn't enjoy it and so I'm glad it's out my life I'm glad I can listen to other audiobooks now because I'm the type of person who can only read one physical book and one audiobook at a time really like that's my limit so as soon as I started this I was in for it because I don't really dnf books either like I stick it out I don't think I've dnf'd a book this year I don't do that and so I had stuck it out I stuck it out and I just sat there and I listened to it and I just I even ramped up my speed on Scribd in order just to get through it quicker so sorry if you love Wicked Fox but I didn't so that's all the books I read this month I hope you enjoyed this video please be sure to give it a thumbs up and to follow me on any social media that I have it's all linked down below that would really help me out really the main reason for me making these videos is to get to know people in this community to talk about books I've never buddy read with anyone other than my mum so I really want to maybe buddy read with someone soon I don't know I just want to get to know everyone on here so please comment down below so I can get to know you I really appreciate you watching to the end here if you have I really really just appreciate you clicking on this video to begin with so yeah just a massive thanks for sticking about I've got some really exciting videos lined up thank you for sticking about and I will see you in my next video which is the reading vlog so yeah just a big thank you for watching to the end and I will see you next week with another video bye