unwrapping books picks what i read 🎁 christmas reading vlog! wrapped up retro - episode one

Hello friends, welcome back to my channel and welcome to the first episode of Wrapped Up Retro! Oh my god, I'm feeling so nervous! If you didn't watch the announcement video, this year's Wrapped Up is Wrapped Up Retro, which is the 50 oldest books on my TBR. Wrapped Up, and Wrapped One, and we read it. I'm feeling sick. I might not go back in. I'm gonna go home actually. I'm feeling probably more nervous for this than I ever have for Wrapped Up because I know there's quite a few sorts of series. I know there's a lot of books that I am no longer as excited for because they've been on my TBR for four or five years. I'm feeling like my world is ending. Why have I done this? So yeah, we have to unwrap a book and we're gonna read it in this vlog. It's the first episode. I want it to be a good one. I want it to be a good one. I also don't want it to be a super long book because your girl has just been- you won't have seen the vlog yet, but um your girl's been going through it. So what do I want to read? I'm feeling drawn. There's these two that I'm feeling drawn towards. Oh my god, I feel sick. Um god, I feel nervous. These are the two I'm choosing between. What am I gonna go? I keep changing my mind. I'm like, I'm gonna go for this one. No, I'm gonna go for this one. No, I'm gonna go for this one. No, I'm gonna go for this one. I'm gonna go for... I'm gonna go for... I have no idea. Oh my god. Okay, I'm gonna go for the red one. Am I? Yes, I'm gonna go for the red one. No, you've made the wrong decision! Oh my god, I'm gonna throw up. I'm not looking at what it is. You can see what it is, maybe. You're kidding me. Okay, our one for the first episode is The Cousins by Karen M McManus. This is- this was just in my video where I was like, these are the books I was supposed to unhaul in a year and I didn't. Um, now I'm- I am gonna read it. Oh my god. Get a grip, wee man. A lot of you told me this was trash and I should have just unhauled it, but we're gonna be reading it in this video. I told you there was a reason I was saving all those books. It was for Wrapped Up Retro. Oh god, I've never read any Karen M McManus. Everyone says this is her worst. If I hate this, I'm not gonna hold it against her. Maybe I'll try out her books in the future. They don't super excite me. Um, I got this in a book box. It's the only reason I own it. We've got cousins who were invited to spend the summer at their grandmother's resort. There's four children who were dropped by their mother with a single sentence. You know what to do. I don't understand. Are those cousins the- the children's children? I don't- I don't understand. A lot of you have told me this is ----, but I was kind of hoping not for a mystery though, because I've just read so many mystery thrillers. Spoiler alert. Um, but I guess we'll see how it goes. It's not too long, and at least it's not the start of a series, thank the lord. Um, okay. We're gonna read The Cousins, everyone. I'm not holding out hope that I'm gonna love this, I'm not gonna lie. So I am 100 pages into The Cousins, but before I chat about this book with you, I want to say a big thank you to the sponsor of today's video, which is Serious Readers. You guys know how much I love my Serious Light, and I just wanted to share my love for it again, because it's genuinely my favorite thing. I love it so much. So this is a reading light, and the great thing about this reading light is it uses daylight wavelengths technology, which mirrors the daylight spectrum as closely as possible. So it's not a harsh blue light on your eyes, it's very gentle, it feels very natural to our bodies. Our bodies are like, yeah, I know what's up here. And you know, it's December, here in the UK, it's dark babes. It's dark babes, it's dark. Divorce, babe, divorce. It's really dark, and so I just find I'm using this all day, every day. Generally, I struggle with seasonal affective disorder, and I do have a special lamp that I use for that. But this has been really, I think, a bit of a game changer as well for me, in terms of helping my mood, helping, it's just a lovely light. It's a very warm, comforting light. And guys, honestly, if you have been thinking, I don't know what I want for Christmas, I'm struggling a little bit on my Christmas list this year. My family are a list family. Are you a list family, or are you like a surprise family? Because Tom's family are a surprise family. But if you're a list family, and you're like, I don't know what to ask for, I would 100% recommend asking for a serious light. It makes me want to read more, it makes me read quicker, it makes me read easier. I don't get eyestrain anymore, I used to get eyestrain all the time, back in the day, because I'd read so much. And I'd read often at night, because I'd like to do other stuff in the day. And it's just a lot on your eyes, particularly, I like dimly lit rooms, but that's harsh on your eyes. Whereas this light, babes, it's like a breath of fresh air, as I always say. So I have a code, which is amazing, which is SR439, and that will get you £100 off your high definition light, plus free delivery. Guys, £100 off, £100 off. So if you want to help, if you're asking for a Christmas list, if you want to help your loved ones save some money, you can use the code, or give the code to them. Or just get yourself, just treat yourself, get yourself a Christmas gift. Honestly, I cannot recommend it enough. I use it every single day, and I love it. So I will leave a link down below, if you check out Serious Readers. Honestly, do it. I love it so much. I think it's so great. I have the high definition light, which I really like about this, is it has a dimmer. Can you see that? So I can really choose how bright or dim I want the light to be. And yeah, I just can't recommend it enough. So check out my link, check out the code down below to get £100 off. I cannot recommend it enough. But let's chat about my thoughts about the book. My thoughts are, it's fine. That's all I have to say. It's fine. I, you know, I'm not loving it. I don't feel like it's offensively bad. It's, it's fine. So basically, all you need to know about this is there's this rich-ass family, there were four kids, and the mother dropped them one day, you know, disinherited them, said, you know what you did. Is that what he said? Yeah, you know what you did, bitch. That's what she said, bitch. And then the three children of some of those children, so the cousins, receive a strange invite to like the family resort on this island, and they're going to work there. And that's basically it. And I'm 100 pages in. I haven't told you, I'm 100 pages in. It's fine. There's something about this that is reminding me of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. And I think that just could be like the family on an island thing. I read We Were Liars when I was like 12, 13, something around that age. And I am recently discovering I have a very bad memory, which we need to improve. I don't know what's wrong with me. I can't remember things other people can remember. But there's something about it that is like scratching the part of my brain that like remembers reading We Were Liars. Is it We Were Liars? No, it's We Were Liars. I don't even remember the title. I don't remember, love. I don't remember at all. I really don't. It was an awful long time ago. It's such a faint memory. It's like really, it's not even really a memory anymore. It's like a shadow of a memory and it's scratching at it. But it could just be because family on an island, which I think that book has. So don't take my word that they're similar. We did just have a plot twist that I did not see coming. Maybe I should have, but I did not see coming and I enjoyed the plot twist. Listen, I went into this with such low expectations because when this was in my books I should have unhauled video, loads of you told me you've read this and then it's your least favourite Karen McManus, you think it's ----, I should just unhaul it. Yeah, so I'm going into this with like probably the lowest expectations I probably could for a book that's on my TBR. But I'm not hating it. I think the writing's okay. I think the mystery is okay. I think the setting is pretty good. I will say we have got mixed perspective. We are alternating between the cousins, three cousins perspectives. We also had one flashback so far into the past, one of the siblings perspectives, but for the most part it's the cousins. And I will say there is no difference between the perspectives in terms of narrative voice. And that is a bit of a bugbear for me. Is that the right word? I'm having a bit of a mare today, guys, if I'm honest. That is a bit of a pet hate. That might be the right word for me. When if you're gonna do mixed perspectives, there has to be a reason. And like part of that reason has to be they're each giving me a different flavour, they're not. It's the same writing, it's the same voice, it's the same thought processes. I guess for this one, the reason is they might have secrets, but like you can reveal, you could easily do that with one perspective, right? I don't think the three perspectives is adding anything to this. And I don't think the different perspectives are done well in this. Yes, that is a thought I'm having. So, you know, it's okay. It's my prevailing thought. I'm intrigued to see what happens. I'm glad that I am finally reading this. I do think that if I was 12 or 13, I would have eaten this up. So like, we have to remember YA, at the end of the day, it's written for young adults. And I think there is a space for older YA and younger YA, like I think there's space for YA written for 11, 12, 13, because let's be honest, once you're in secondary school, you're reading YA, you're not reading middle grade anymore. So there's a space for YA for 11, 12, 13 year olds, and there's a space for like 14, 15, 16, 17 year olds, right? But I always do have a bit of a problem with younger YA, because there's something about it, I don't have an issue with middle grade, that I do have an issue with. And we know this, this is a terrible time, right? And I think sometimes I struggle to separate, is this a book written for younger YA, or is it ----? Because it's ----! Because we think of YA as one blob, right? With middle grade, I know what I'm getting, and so I never feel like middle grade really, uh, unless the book is bad, like I never feel like middle grade disappoints me in that way, that younger, what I call younger YA, that I often term as like, oh I think this must be younger YA, uh, often is ----. Me. I find that a difficult thing to balance, but it's fine, I'm enjoying it somewhat. It's an easy read at the end of the day, and I'm glad that Wrapped Up has forced me to read this, because otherwise, you know, this would have been on my TBR forever. Never, never to be read. But I don't think it's gonna get above a four, it might, it'll be lucky to scrape a four. I think it'll be a three star middle of the road, maybe a 2.5, maybe a 3.5. It's not offensive to me, but it's not great. So yes, I'll see you in the morning when hopefully I've read some more, but uh, it's just fine. It's just a bit boring, isn't it? It's just a bit boring, what do you want me to say? BORED SHITLESS! Uh, here's the thing, I'm 200 pages into this now, babes, it's not bad. Do you know what I mean? It's not bad, but it ain't great. One thing I do have to say, it has a trope in it, uh, that is common throughout some way, I really don't want to say what it is, because it was actually a gag, right, an element of this trope. But it just has a trope that's a little bit icky, and I don't like it, and I don't like, I don't like, I don't want to say what it is, because I don't want to spoil it, but I don't like whenever this is done. If you've read the book, you probably know what I'm talking about. Between Jonah and Millie, and like, the implications, and like, early on in the book, and I... I don't like it. I don't like it, I don't like it, it makes me feel uncomfortable, I don't like it. Really the biggest problem with this is there is absolutely nothing, nada, zilch, moving this plot forward. There's nothing. There's nothing that I care about, there's nothing that I am invested in. It's just a... it's just words on a page. There's nothing moving the story forward for me. It's the trope. I guess the mystery is why the grandmother cut their parents off, but I don't really care about that because we don't know their parents. We don't really know anything about their parents. We have Alison, who is Millie's mother, one of the cousins. We have Alison's perspective in the past. So Alison's the one I'm most interested in, but she's the least we hear about in the present. This makes zero sense because we now know why they were invited to the island, so that's no longer the mystery. So the only mystery is what... what did they do? What did their parents do? But like, I'm invested in... in these children and they don't even really care about what they get out of this, like, if they get inheritance. They don't really care. So no one cares about anything, I don't care about anyone, and it just leaves us in a bit of a sticky situation. Does anybody care? Oh my god. Do you care? Like, I don't think the writing is bad. I just kind of don't see why this exists. No, I'm... I'm being genuinely truthful. I don't... I don't get it. I don't see why this exists. So, maybe because this is a standalone and I believe Karen McManus is used to writing series, at least that's my assumption, maybe she didn't really understand how to pace a standalone, but like, this is a classic example of YA that I don't like where just nothing is happening. There's... nothing is happening. How have you got, like, a fast-paced YA thriller with a lot of scenes and yet not much is happening? Anyways, I'm gonna go finish it tonight. Apologies that there hasn't been anything really Christmassy in this first Christmassy vlog. We haven't done anything Christmassy yet. But in all the other Wrapped Up vlogs there will be Christmassy activities. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know. It is what it is. It is what it is. But I am not loving it and I'm just excited to finish it and be done with it. At the moment, it's probably sitting at a three star because it's not offensive. It's like a 2.53 for me at the moment. We'll see how it ends, but it's just aggressively mediocre. Well, that was fun. Chat soon. Guys, we need to be honest. It's really bad. I've turned bitter and spiteful. Don't even like myself. I'm gonna give it a two star, okay? I'm giving it a two star. And the biggest thing I have to say is, I... when you see me in those earlier clips being slightly positive, that's because at different stages in a book, you expect different things from a book, right? A third of the way and you're like, right, we've just set up the scene. This could go so many places. Two thirds of the way through the book, you're like, wow, the ending could really amp up and so many amazing things could happen. And at the end, right now, I'm like, well, nothing happened. You expect... you still have some expectations of what a book can do and how a book can save the day a little bit. And this, it didn't do that. It didn't do that. We were at page... this is 320 pages. We were at page 260, 270 before they were even thinking about trying to figure out what's going on. And then everything just happened in two seconds and it was the most unsatisfying ending ever. But at least it's another book off the TBR. We just got to view it in that way. And I want to talk about the thing that I was referencing earlier that I didn't want to spoil. I'm going to spoil it. So I'm going to put spoilers up on the screen because we need to talk about it. Right. Okay. So you go into this thinking they're all cousins. Okay. Millie and Jonah, when they first meet each other, she's like, oh my God, my cousin's so hot. And he's like, wow, she's so beautiful. And you're like, then the twist is that you find out that Jonah is not the cousin. It's one of his cousin's friends or not even friends, like a guy from his school who he's paying to impersonate him because he didn't want to come. Right. And then Jonah and Millie fall in love and start making out. And there's a ball where they're making out and everyone sees them and everyone's shocked because they're like your ******* cousins and they end up dating. Okay. And here's the thing, obviously they're not related. Right. But I feel like YA, and this is like a big, you know, Cassandra Clare did it, whatever. Like I feel like YA, it likes to like play with an incest trope and I'm not here for it. You are rotten to the core. Call the police. Like, even though they're not related, it's a little bit like, oh, but you thought they were. You know what I mean? I feel like YA just sometimes has a bit of a problem with this. And I don't, I don't want to even tease it. I don't want to even think about it. I don't want it to even be a discussion. Like why? There didn't need to be romance in this. They didn't even fall for each other. There didn't need to be this, you know, oh, I thought he was my cousin, but he's not, which means I can fancy him now. Like, do you know what I mean? YA does this a lot where like, it's not like, oh my God, it's actual incest, but it's like, you know, playing with it. And I'm just not here for it. Okay. Spoilers over. Yeah. I, this doesn't make me, you know, very excited to pick up a future Karen and McManus, but I probably, I mean, if I have to, I'll try. One of us is lying or whatever it was. You all told me this was the worst one and I should just not bother reading it, but it's just so nothing. Like this did not need to be published. Well, did this need to be published? I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Karen, but it's the truth. What? This did not need to come out. This, it's going to stay in the drafts. Like it's just so unremarkable that, yeah, I'm giving it two stars. It's not a one star because it could have been worse. There were moments where I was like, this is okay. So I'm giving it a two. Tom also said, if your name was Karen McManus, why would you add your middle name initial? Because then it's Karen, mmm, anus. He wanted, he wanted me to tell you all that. He thinks that's a very important philosophical question. Two stars. Well, it's not a great start to wrapped up, is it besties? I'm sorry there wasn't a ton of B-roll in this vlog. I didn't do a lot these past couple of days, but more exciting stuff will be happening in the future, in the future wrapped up vlogs. But thank you guys so much for hanging out with me. Let me know what you thought of this. Hopefully, I feel like last year, our first book was a two star. So maybe we just, the first book is not good vibes. It's not good luck in wrapped up and hopefully next week's episode will be. So I will see you then. Again, make sure you check out Serious Readers down below. And thank you so much for watching. I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye.