reading the books tbr cluedo FORCED ME to read ๐ reading vlog

megwithbooks
324 followers
8 Video ViewsยทJan 26, 2023
tbr cluedo picked these books for me to read... did it do a good job?๐
๐Join me on Patreon!
- Including a book club, podcast, weekly live shows + more!! https://www.patreon.com/megwithbooks ๐
๐งUse my Scribd link to get 2 months free! https://www.scribd.com/g/7dsg54
lets be friends on:
๐Book Twitter: https://twitter.com/megwithbooks
๐ธBookstagram: https://www.instagram.com/megwithbooks/
๐Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/megwithbooks
support my channel:
โ๏ธKo-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/megwithbooks
๐ซAmazon Wishlist: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/2LARIUX5QLYL7?ref_=wl_share
Hello my loves, welcome back to another reading vlog.
And today we're gonna do a chill reading vlog
for those of you that are here a lot.
We are gonna be spending this vlog reading the books
that TBR Cluedo picked for me this month.
So excited.
So not all of them, we're gonna be reading three
that they picked for me.
We're gonna be reading the three
that the Super Prompts picked for me.
So a goal this year is to read more
of the Super Prompts from TBR Cluedo.
So these are the ones that aren't the little books
that are on these spaces,
but they are the weapons that I can pick.
And I basically have not been using them enough.
So it's a real goal for me to use them more.
And so I thought it would just be fun
to do a dedicated vlog for the books
that have been picked for me this month
using the Super Cluedo Prompts.
And then we'll just integrate them into other videos.
But I thought this month it would be fun to do.
So I will leave this month's January TBR Cluedo
linked down below if you wanted to go back
and watch the whole experience.
You're a little bit crooked.
Yeah, if you wanted to go back,
and I feel like you're still crooked.
If you wanted to go back and watch the whole experience,
because for some of these it was an experience.
So first we have The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson.
This was picked by the magnifying glass,
which is recommended by the viewer.
So I have all my unread books video that I do every year.
When I get the magnifying glass,
I have to go randomise the comments from that video.
And the first book that appears that someone loved,
I have to read.
This is in a list with a few other books.
So if that does happen,
I do get to pick whatever book from the list I wanna read.
But I'm a little bit nervous about this
because me and Tiffany D Jackson,
I have read two books from her
and I gave them three stars and I think a 2.5.
Tiffany D Jackson's synopses excite me like no other.
I get so excited for her books,
but then I'm seeming not to love them.
But I feel like I should get a five stars.
I feel like if I don't give this
like at least a 3.5 or a four,
I kind of have to stop reading D Jackson.
I don't know.
I just feel like it's not fair to her
to keep picking up her books and reviewing them badly
and rating them low.
So I really hope that we're gonna have success with this one.
I just know it's a Carrie retelling
focusing on like racial inequality and injustice.
Then we have The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey.
This was picked from the rose prompt,
which is if I get that,
I have to pick a book out of this jar
that my patrons have chosen for me.
It's very full now.
And two of my patrons had picked this
when I pulled it out.
It was either one of them.
I don't know whose it was,
but it was one of theirs.
I don't really wanna know much going into this.
I just know it's a very weird book
and we are following a woman
and her husband has left her
for a younger, better, newer woman.
A woman that looks just like her.
Okay.
That's suspicious.
That's weird.
It's pitched as Big Little Lies meets Black Mirror.
And I loved Big Little Lies when I read it.
So very intrigued about this.
I feel like I could fall on either side
of loving or not liking this.
And then finally we have The Dagger,
which is a random number generator.
I have to go to my TBR and pick a random number.
And the one it picked after a few attempts
of picking books that were already on TBR Cleaner
was The Cartographers by Peng Shepard.
This one has had mixed reviews.
I know it's like magical realism-y
and we're following a girl
who her and her father were really renowned map makers
and her father has been killed
and she thinks it's to do with this particular map.
I've heard not the best things about this
but I'm really excited to see what I think
and to give it a go.
So those are the three books
that we're going to be reading in this vlog.
And let's just get into it
and see what we think of TBR Crudo's picks.
So I have started with The Weight of Blood
by Tiffany D Jackson.
I don't know what I said to the intro
but this is me and Tiffany Jackson's last chance.
That's quite dramatic.
I just kept feeling like it's not fair on her really
for me to keep reading her books
if I keep writing them low.
So this is my last chance.
I have read the first 100 pages
and we've got to the end of part one.
I'm loving it.
I'm really enjoying this.
This is by far the best initial reaction
I've ever had to a Tiffany D Jackson.
Oh my God, okay, it's happening.
Everybody stay calm.
What's the procedure everyone?
What's the procedure?
Stay f***ing calm.
This is a Carrie retelling
but very much focused on kind of racial injustice
and racial injustice.
So we know kind of from the beginning
there's a podcast set,
I think about 10 years in the future
from the events that we're reading about in the book.
And from the podcast,
we know that at the end of the book,
there's going to be a prom where most of the kids,
you know, and everyone says that Maddie did it.
And then in the past,
we're following Maddie who at the beginning
is trying to pass as white,
but then there's a rainstorm that she gets caught in.
Her hair becomes like an Afro.
She had straightened it previously
and everyone kind of finds out that she's black
and she's bullied for it.
I don't want to say much more
because I think there's a few elements to this book
that I didn't realise were going to be in it
and have been a pleasant shock.
So I don't want to say too much,
but I'm loving it.
I'm really enjoying the audio book.
So I think the audio book is the way to read this.
I'm debating just listening to the whole rest of it
just via the audio.
I'm going to go cook dinner.
Now it's my night.
I'm making an enchilada mix.
So I'm going to tell you a bit while I do that.
And then I have got reading sprints
to start with my patrons,
but I could just like play some games on my Switch
and listen to the audio book in the sprints
because I read probably the last 20 pages
physically and audibly
and I didn't quite enjoy it as much as just audibly.
So we've got a podcast section I'm really enjoying.
We've got like a full cast for this.
It's really, really good.
And then we're following different storylines.
We're following Maddie's storyline.
She's got a very strict, racist, essentially, dad
who's forced her to pass as white.
We're following a black,
I think he's an American football player in the school
who kind of doesn't want to get involved
in like race and stuff like that.
He wants to focus on going to university.
And then we're following one of the girls
who kind of bullied Maddie
when it first was revealed that she was black
and they were throwing pencils into her hair.
And we're kind of following her grappling with,
she wasn't necessarily the ringleader of that,
but she did participate in it
and think at the time it was funny.
And now she's kind of looking at what she did
in a different light.
The writing in it is really great.
I think all the character voices are interesting,
are, you know, there's characters in this
that you don't like,
but they don't always feel like unrealistic, you know?
As terrible as it is to say,
I've met people like this
and not quite on the same tone
because obviously I live in England
and I think this kind of like America, South racism
is like a different,
it's not something we necessarily have an equivalent
of here, but you know,
I've met people with along similar lines
and it feels,
I feel like Tiffany Jackson is writing this
from a place of not,
this isn't like something that I would wish upon anyone,
but of experience and of living something similar.
I will say I have not read Carrie
and I feel like there's probably a lot
of direct parallels to Carrie.
All I know about Carrie,
I think is that there's like mixed media,
like news reports and stuff.
And I guess that's the function
that the podcast is serving in this.
But I think I've heard people say
that there's like real direct mirroring
of some scenes and that is going over my head.
So there could be aspects of this
that I really enjoy that are like,
I really enjoy because they were something
that Carrie did first
and then this is kind of copying.
Not that that's a bad thing,
but I just don't know where the references begin
and end, if that makes sense.
But I think this could be me
and Tiffany Jackson's like our success story.
We're finally gonna be friends.
Hello cuties.
How are we doing?
I have to apologize to you.
I have to apologize.
Okay, I'm sorry.
I last checked in with you when I was a hundred pages
into the weight of blood
and then my mental health,
she had an episode, okay.
I actually can't tell you the last time I was happy.
I literally can't tell you.
Nothing bad, but just the past few days,
I just had a bit of a dip
where like I did not wanna film.
I did not wanna be on camera.
When I get like that, I don't wanna be perceived.
I don't wanna be seen.
I don't wanna have to come on here
and I don't know.
I don't think I'm very good at acting
like everything's okay when it's not.
I think you guys know by now a bit of an open book
and I don't know.
When I'm in that mood, I just don't make myself film.
Is my shirt?
Okay, good.
Sometimes I put this on inside out when I film
and it's so embarrassing.
So yeah, I just don't make myself film
when I get like that
and I was still okay to read
and so I finished the weight of blood, okay.
Now, what rating am I giving this?
Drum roll please.
Five stars.
I'm giving it five stars.
I knew, I knew Tiffany T. Jackson
had a five star in her for me.
I knew it all along.
I just kept trying.
I kept searching.
Oh, five stars.
I'm so happy.
So I actually listened to all of this,
I think by the audio book.
I was really enjoying just the speed of the audio book
that I was listening to
and I wasn't reading it physically.
I was just really enjoying consuming it that way.
So I just let myself play my Switch game,
unpacking where you're unpacking a little house.
So cute.
Yeah, I listened to all of this via the audio book
and I'm so glad I did that.
I think the audio book is great.
I would recommend reading this via the audio book,
like the podcast, the sound effects.
I think all the narrators do such a wonderful job
and I just loved it.
I thought it was great.
Now, I do just wanna preface this review
by saying I have not read Carrie.
I have not seen Carrie.
I know nothing about Carrie, right?
And some of the reviews that I've read on Goodreads
and seen people say from people who have read Carrie,
are like, it's a bit too close.
It's a bit too direct an adaptation.
And so when I, in this, there were moments I was like,
oh my God, like gagged, a little bit gagged by stuff.
I think my enjoyment is probably higher
because I have not read Carrie.
I think people's enjoyment will probably be higher
if they have not read or consumed the story of Carrie.
Cause I was kind of shocked at moments,
but obviously you wouldn't be if you have read Carrie.
And what I thought this book did so well
was just showing the different levels of racism that exists.
Because I think something that people often say,
I mean, in this book,
there's like outright terrible racists,
like evil human beings.
But there's also people, a lot of people in this book
that like would just say, oh, I have unconscious bias.
Oh, it's unconscious bias.
But unconscious bias is still racism, right?
It's still racist.
It's still rooted in racist beliefs.
Unconscious bias, oh, I have unconscious bias.
It's still racism, right?
And I think this book did a good job of showing that
and unpacking, I guess, the beliefs that people can have,
especially when they grew up in a small town like this,
it doesn't question biases
and just allows them to fester and rot,
kind of the assumptions that people can have.
And I think it had a good job of having characters
who were kind of like villains that we could just hate.
And then having other characters that like,
I feel like Tiffany D. Jackson was kind of
trying to get you to sympathize with
or to connect to in a way, but like, I didn't want to.
I was kind of resisting that.
And I think that was an interesting play
for her to kind of use.
But I really loved the way that this hopped
between like perspectives, like we'd be in a chapter,
but there'd be lots of different scenes in a chapter
and lots of different perspectives.
I loved the podcast element.
I loved the full cast audio book.
I thought it was incredibly well-written.
I loved it, I loved it.
I knew me and Tiffany D. Jackson would be besties one day.
I kept trying, this is my third go
and we finally got a five star.
And also this was the first, I think, YA
like set at high school, like YA high school book
that I've really loved in a while.
Like at the last one I can think of
is maybe Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers.
Like I haven't been having the best luck
with like YA books set at high school.
I felt like the characters were really realistic
for that kind of age.
Maddie, our main character, was a very interesting character
because she's grown up so sheltered
and given so much misinformation.
And I just thought, I don't know,
I just really loved seeing her character develop.
So yeah, I loved this.
The audio book was perfect.
Unpacking was great to play with it.
So yeah, I'm so glad that I finally got around.
Well, it hasn't been out that long,
but I really wanted to get to this last year.
So I'm really glad that I finally got around to this.
I think next we will read The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey.
I don't know if I'm gonna start it today.
I do have some patron reading sprints later.
It is Saturday today,
but I don't know if I might read other stuff
where I've got some like patrony bits I need to read.
So this will be the next book I'm starting for this vlog,
but I don't know if it'll be the next book
I start in general.
But yeah, I don't know what to think of this.
I know it's gonna be weird,
but I've only really heard good things
and it's pretty short
and pitch is Big Little Lies meets Black Mirror.
So it's made for me.
So hopefully we'll have good luck.
We are gonna go head out on a new walk today
that we've never been on.
It's nearby, so I'm very excited of a new walk.
And I just got the audio book for The Echo Wife
to try and make myself read it quicker.
Cause I'm not feeling super motivated.
I'm hoping the audio book will help me
because it usually does when I am like
struggling to get into a book.
So I'm gonna try and read some of that in the car
and I'll see y'all later.
I always am way more chaotic when I film on my phone.
I'm like, whoa.
โช Don't you hurt me, I want you for myself โช
โช Cause you're no one else's โช
โช So tell me you miss me โช
โช Or tell me just how it is that you're someone else's โช
โช First tell me lovingly in your arms โช
โช The kind that she is to us โช
โช Then I'm not surprised โช
โช I really thought that you'd be different โช
โช But sure you don't got no โช
Okay, hi.
I am halfway through The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey.
And I'm really bored.
You better f***ing take that back right now.
You better f*** you.
Stop it, stop, stop right now.
I'm really bored, I'm really bored.
Okay, here's the thing.
I don't think you should know much going into this.
I didn't know much.
I don't think you should know much.
Just know her husband has left her
with this other woman who looks just like her.
And our girlie is perhaps a scientist
who is renowned for cloning, basically.
And I'm just bored.
I don't want to spoil much for you,
but I don't think I'm really enjoying the narrative voice.
She's very cold and hard and scientific.
But I feel like that, I mean,
that's a perspective I've enjoyed reading from before.
But it's without much,
when I've read from it before, it's like,
oh, I'm this, but I'm something else.
And I feel like we're not getting much nuance
or variety to her character.
And here's the thing,
a lot of this book is she's reflecting
on the way that her ex-husband viewed her
and the kind of perception he had on her
and why that meant that he has this new wife.
And I just don't,
I don't like throners about husbands or wives.
It's pitched as Big Little Lies
and I liked Big Little Lies
because it was like about mothers.
But I think I like reading about that
more than always talking about
how she was perceived through his eyes
and bringing the male gaze into this.
Yeah, I want women.
I want women.
Enough of this man.
Women's stories matter.
Yeah.
They just matter.
They do.
I liked Big Little Lies
because the husbands were kind of irrelevant.
It was all about the women and their relationships
and their interactions with each other.
And yes, this is about the two wives,
kind of, I don't want to spoil anything,
but interactions, I want to say.
But there's a lot about her through her ex-husband's eyes
and how he viewed her and how that's left her here
or her dad's eyes, the way that he perceived her.
And I'm just not into the male gaze.
I don't want to hear about these men.
I don't want to hear about what they thought.
I don't want to hear that.
I'm bored.
I'm really bored.
I had to get the audio book to make myself get through it.
I'm going to edit what I've got of this video so far,
and then I'm going to go ahead and finish this today
and just speed read it.
I'm really not enjoying it.
I don't know what to say to you.
I just think it's so boring.
And I also think it's about cloning her.
As a scientist, she's known for cloning.
We're not really questioning
whether cloning's a good idea.
I don't know, perhaps subliminally we are,
but I think there's more nuance and conversation
that we could open up about cloning isn't the best.
And I feel like we're not questioning certain aspects of it
or what kind of person is that.
And we are, but I feel like it's surface level.
Even if it's subliminal, it's surface level.
We're not getting into the nitty gritty.
And it just makes me a bit like, oh, I'm just bored.
I don't know what to say to you.
I'm really not enjoying it.
It's a short book,
so it shouldn't have the time to leave me bored.
We should just go, go, go.
I feel like nothing's happened.
I'm really bored.
So I'm having to make myself read it.
I have no inclination to read this.
I have to read it in order to get this video up.
That's the only reason I'm reading it.
So yeah, I'm gonna go edit for a bit
and then I'm gonna finish this book.
And hopefully I'll like it a bit more,
but I don't know if that's gonna happen.
Hey.
So I just finished The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey.
And I'm actually gonna end up giving this a three star.
I much preferred the second half,
particularly I would say,
oh, am I gonna give it a three star?
It is teetering on 2.5.
I'm not gonna lie to you, but I'm feeling generous.
I feel like the last 50-ish pages kind of got it a three.
I did like the ending of this.
I thought that we got into some more interesting questions.
I thought that, particularly like the ending ending,
I thought where it left our main character
was very interesting,
but it doesn't shake the fact
that I felt bored the whole time I'm reading it.
It's the truth.
Maybe not that last 50 pages,
but like other than that, I was so bored.
I was thinking about it
and I was thinking about how this felt to me
like a book that was published in like 2018.
It wasn't, it was 2021.
But it felt like a book that was published in 2018.
And if I had read it in 2018, I would have loved it.
I would have thought, oh my God,
this is the most like crazy thing, amazing premise ever.
But I feel like, you know,
A, with the times you have to keep innovating
and keep doing something new, keep doing something fresh.
But also like I've become much more well-read, you know,
and particularly in like thrillers and stuff.
It just felt a bit commonplace.
Do you know what I mean?
I never felt like I was reading
something particularly exciting.
Also, I don't think it helps that so much of the book
is in our protagonist's head with her thinking over things
and talking us through her inner feelings.
It just got a bit repetitive.
I just got a bit bored of it, okay?
I also think it's a difficult book to discuss
without spoilers, like to discuss in depth
without spoilering.
But I liked that it left certain questions unanswered.
I do appreciate that.
I'm trying to think of nice things to say.
I don't know if I would rush to pick up another Sarah Gailey.
The writing just, I don't know if it was my flavor
and that's fine, you know?
Like not every book has to be for everyone
as we know in this life.
I'm glad that I've read it,
but it was a slog for a 250 page book.
I'm probably not gonna think of this book much,
but that last 30, 50 pages did enough to push it over
into a three star.
So it is about six o'clock, I think.
I'm gonna try and rouse myself to do yoga.
I've just been reading this in bed
and I've gotten way too comfy cozy.
So I'm gonna try and rouse myself.
I've been doing yoga every day in January
and I know I'm like tired now,
but I know I'll thank myself for it later
because I'll feel so, I love yoga,
particularly yoga with Adrienne.
I've been doing yoga with Adrienne on and off
since I was probably 14 and I love her.
I think my mental health is like entirely dependent
on Adrienne, I'm kidding.
But yeah, I've got two installments to do tonight
because I missed yesterday's.
So I need to do that and have a bath and have dinner,
but then I'm gonna start the cartographers
and I would really like to,
I'd like to finish this by tomorrow.
That's not happening.
So I would like to get at least 100 pages in tonight
and have a little chatty chat with you,
but we'll see how it goes.
One thing that's exciting me that I've noticed already
is that there's like logs throughout
and let me find, let me see if I can find an example.
Yeah, there's pictures of maps throughout,
which really excites me, that's different.
Oh, there's a cat hair in my eye.
The cats have been cuddling me a lot today,
which I'm very lucky for, but oh my God, their fur.
I feel like I am, I don't know if you can see,
I'm probably covered in it.
I didn't change my top before coming and speaking to you.
Ah, okay, I'm gonna go, gonna try and rouse myself
to do some yoga, have my dinner, have a bath,
and then I might see you this evening
or I might see you in the morning, 100 pages in.
I've also got the audio book for this one
and it looks like it is full cast in some way
or it does have multiple voice actors.
Oh, the maps makes me excited.
Okay, I know this is gonna be iffy
because it has been controversial,
but I'm excited to get into it.
I am 100 pages into the cartographers.
I wanted to finish this today.
It is only half eight,
so I can get some good reading done this evening,
but I'm not feeling super motivated to read it.
So, so, so, so, so, so,
our protagonist and her father are both cartographers.
They both love maps.
They both love looking into maps, learning about maps,
but her dad and her had this massive argument
about seven years ago where he got her fired
from the library that all the big cartographers worked at
and she's been kind of blacklisted because of that
and they've never spoken and then he dies, he dies.
And when she goes to the library
to kind of go to see the police and stuff,
she finds in his briefcase the map
that caused him to have this big argument
that she found one day amongst other maps
and that's why he like blew up at her
and got her fired over this map.
It becomes clear that perhaps there's some people
who want this map.
It is a very ordering map.
It's like a map of like some old gas station,
highway in America.
Like it has, we can't understand yet why it's so important,
but it becomes clear that people are willing to kill
for this map.
Too much drama for me.
I do wanna say 100 pages in, we don't yet,
like people have been listening to this fantasy,
magical realism, that hasn't come into play yet.
It's all very much our world,
our world's rules at the moment.
And I'm just like, hmm, where's this gonna go?
It's not bad, I'm enjoying it,
but I don't feel connected to it.
I don't feel like inspired to read, you know?
I'm just, it's fine.
If I had to rate it now, I'd say a 3.5.
You know, that's my current enjoyment.
Where when I'm reading it, I'm like, oh yeah, good, fun.
You know?
But, hmm.
But when I'm not, I don't feel particularly,
yeah, excited to read it, I guess.
So I just, I don't know.
I think what some people have not liked about this
is the ending.
It doesn't really succeed with what it wants to do.
And I think this is gonna go off the rails a bit
and get a bit weird.
I'm excited that I'm finally reading it.
I just don't know if it's not what I necessarily
wanna be reading at the moment,
or if I'm making myself read,
because I really just wanna get this video done
and move on with my life.
Because this video, for some reason,
has been really delayed.
I don't really understand why.
Or if it's just not grabbing me, you know?
I don't know.
The audio book is fine.
The audio book isn't making me get through any quicker.
So anyway, I'm gonna try and chill out this evening.
And I guess we'll just see what happens.
We'll just see how it goes.
Oh, hello.
Apologies if I look a bit rough.
But it's the end of the day.
If you're a One Direction fan back in the day,
that is gonna give you more flashbacks.
I'm on page 270 of the cartographers.
Miko, I just sat down.
You don't wait like two minutes for me to let you out.
Miko.
Whenever the door's shut,
he acts as if he's never gonna escape.
He's like, let me out.
Come say hi.
Yeah.
Me and Miko have been having so many cuddles lately.
But he doesn't like cuddles if he's not in the mood.
If he doesn't instigate them,
he says, no way, Jose.
Right, should I let you out before I start talking?
Come on then.
Apologies if you hear noises from downstairs.
I've left a gap.
Oh, he's now rubbing up on the tripod.
Oh yeah.
We love the tripod so much.
My dad's watching a video downstairs.
Apologies if you can hear the noise.
But he couldn't decide to leave or not.
And he loves the tripod so much.
Yeah.
But you don't like being on camera, huh?
You say, that's not my job.
Cut the cameras.
Dead end.
Anyway, yeah, I'm on page 270 of the cartographers.
And I keep oscillating between being really interested
and like interested in the concept
and what's going on and what's happening.
And then being really bored.
I actually feel like the last section.
Hi.
I'm just gonna get distracted by your beauty.
I actually feel like the last section
was pretty good.
I've really enjoyed.
I've just been making shepherd's pie.
And I've really been enjoying the last section.
Oh, we love the book.
Yeah, I keep going between the two.
I think the pacing hasn't been the best, right?
I think the pacing needs a little work.
And I think it's waited too long
to get into the fantastical element of the book.
I feel like, I don't know.
I feel like there was a section,
a good maybe 80 pages where that needed to come into play
for the book to be more interesting.
It just kind of has.
It's quite a late stage in the book.
And this whole other storyline is kind of happening
that wasn't happening at the start.
But I love, I do love the kind of map studying setting.
Like they're at the public library
and it's described as like ornate and detailed.
And like, it reminds me of how I loved Babbel
and the study of linguistics.
I think I love reading about like people who are scholars
who are passionate about their area of study.
Like I just think that's something I do really enjoy.
I don't think the writing is incredible,
but I don't dislike it.
But I'm not, sitting here right now,
I'm not looking forward to reading it.
When I'm reading it, I'm like, okay, yeah, fine.
You know?
But I'm not like, oh, I can't wait to read it.
I am gonna read it tonight.
I'm gonna finish it tonight
because I'm a determined woman.
And this video has to finally go up.
It was supposed to go up on Sunday.
Now it's supposed to go up on Tuesday.
Now it's hopefully going up on Thursday.
This cannot, this vlog, I don't know what's happened.
Like my life has fallen apart a little bit
in the past couple of days.
But that's kind of my prevailing feelings on it
is that, yeah, it's enjoyable.
I have a lot of,
like I think it's fairly obvious what's going on.
And all the reviews that are negative
don't like the ending.
So I'm intrigued to see where I fall on that line.
But I would say I'm enjoying it.
Like I'm not hating it.
Yeah, I feel like the ending is either gonna be
the kind of ending that I love and everyone else hates.
Or I hate because everyone else hates.
I don't know.
But I will see you probably in the morning
with my, do we wanna do this?
Or should we just like cut the video here
and pretend that this hasn't happened?
No, okay, right.
Let's talk about it.
I finished the cartographers.
I feel like you're very close in to me.
Oh, that's even closer.
I finished the cartographers and I'm giving it a 2.5.
Oh no, this has now gone downhill.
And that's like a very conflicted 2.5
because here's the thing,
there's elements of this that I love.
Like I keep saying this,
I kept going back and forth between loving it
and being so incredibly bored.
I don't know what the next book I'm reading yet is.
I might be unwrapping it today
and finding out, wink wink, what's coming next week.
I need the next book I read to not be one that bores me.
Like the last two books, they haven't necessarily been bad,
but I have not felt excited to read.
And that's all I ask for
is I wanna feel excited to read, you know?
A book doesn't have to be good
for me to be excited to read it.
I can be like, hate reading a book.
Survive the Night is always my top example.
But like, at least get me feeling something.
The ending to this just wasn't, it wasn't good.
To be honest, I have like almost zero understanding
of what actually happened at the ending of this.
Like what actually was the resolution?
I just feel like the book, the pacing was not good, right?
We'd go through moments where like,
oh great, I'm finally so excited to read,
I had to know what happens.
And then we'd like go on these long, guess what?
Dual timeline stories and it would all be ruined.
The ending, it was incredibly obvious.
Once you got to a certain point, you're like, hang on,
I'm connecting the dots here
and it's pretty obvious what's about to happen
and who's gonna be the bad person here, you know?
And the like resolution just like makes the whole rest
of the book feel pointless to me, right?
And if you want me to care about the characters
and like what all these different characters
have gone through and the pain and the trauma
and the tragedy, tragedy.
Tragedy.
Yeah, if you want me to care about that,
don't make the ending something
that just makes that all a waste.
I also think it's forgettable.
I don't think I'm gonna remember much of it.
But like I said, it's a conflicting review.
It's a conflicting rating
because there were elements that I loved.
I loved the scholarly vibes.
There were moments where a plot twist happened
or we were given some information.
I was so into it.
I was like, yeah, let's go.
And then I was like, oh.
The feeling quickly dissipated.
It was a roller coaster, me and this book.
In this vlog, out of what TBR Kudo picked,
we had one roaring success.
I am so happy that I finally got round to.
And then we had two pretty disappointing books.
I mean, it was like a three star, but I was bored.
These were boring.
I'm just really hoping whatever book I have to read next
is oh, it's exciting.
It gets me going, you know?
So that's it.
This vlog has been going on forever for no reason.
By the way, I've had the weirdest week
in terms of productivity and getting stuff.
I don't even know what's happened to me.
It's been a weird week, okay?
So thank you for watching it.
I'm glad it's done.
I'm gonna go edit these last few clips
and then it's out of my life
and I'm pretending this vlog never existed
because for some reason it was very painful.
I feel like I'm getting ill
and it's all this vlog's fault.
No.
If you've gotten to the end of the video,
what should we comment?
Comment the map emoji or the push pin,
like the location push pin emoji.
Comment any of them down below.
Thank you guys for watching.
We will see if we ever trust TBRgluedo again.
And I hope you have a good rest of your day.
Bye.
