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

megwithbooks
324 followers
Oct 25, 2024
whoa
okay oh no i'm so sorry it's okay
just relax just relax
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okay so hi everyone
this stack does not want to stay up but
anyway welcome back to the 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 of christmas and
i'm kind of continuing it in the new
year these are all 2021 releases that i
own but did not read
that's that sound you really hate it and
every absolutely 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 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 no that
does raw
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 easy to read 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 on me i don't know what it is me
it's probably just cause it's on top
this one or this one or what we're gonna
go with because they're both like
semi-short hardbacks
hmm
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okay no we're gonna go for this one
oh no
oh
no oh
it's been the worst
week of my life actually
no no no
okay
so let's all take a moment shall we
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oh it's all full oh
it's all falling apart
so i kind of asked for this i asked for
a thriller uh this is survive the night
by riley sega 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 gonna read in
this vlog okay this will be fun because
i feel like this is the kind of book
that if i'm gonna 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 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 sega
trying to have a go at no exit
like oh maybe i could do that but me and
ronnie sega 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 o'reilly sega 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
no
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 100 pages and survive the night i
read 100 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 hallett i read recently was that
i think that's 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
of that book that it was disappointing
this book i'm going into it expecting a
one or 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 gone 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 1980s by the way and her
roommate was recently murdered by the
campus killer and she blamed herself a
lot for that and she's kind of fleeing
university and she gets this she agrees
to have this like uh 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 and makes me
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 palmy was like
how is how is riley sega gonna sustain
this tension or just like this location
of the car for the whole book you know
how is that not gonna 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 rip off no
exit for me and i don't like that it
feels like runny sick is trying to do no
exit i feel like we're gonna be out of
the car soon there's gonna be a cat and
mouse chase i'm just
[Music]
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 and
boring
[Applause]
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 and then maybe 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 like
i knew that when i heard the synopsis of
the book you know what'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 like what's real
what's not how do i escape this when i
don't know what's wrong and what's not
like that's gonna 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 was
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
specially 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
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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
things in its favor is 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 a decision and
why it's gonna 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 eddie uh it's actually
infuriating i'm sorry but it's actually
infuriating as i
oh
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
book that's gonna make me fuming i am
[ __ ] fluent mega mega [ __ ] view me
hey how idiotic it's probably gonna be b
at how like stupid like stupidly written
it's gonna be i'm torn because i know
it's gonna be it's gonna be it's gonna
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 gonna think
it's good no and it is by far already my
least favorite of all the riley sages
that i've read it's probably like i
don't know it depends how offensive the
ending is because i can already tell
it's gonna make me angry the route we're
going down of like the type of girl our
main character is
like
i i just don't i just already know
i'm gonna be angry
it does feel like
riley sega 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 the milk is curdled i don't even
know what goes in pie
pie is not very english thing but yeah
it's like annoying and it's gonna get
even more annoying like i know i'm gonna
be like
screaming in frustration at the end so
what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna light a
candle to try and relax i'm gonna i'm
gonna 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 gonna have
during these twilight hours reading the
final 100 pages back will i survive the
night
who knows who knows
haha laughs 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
[Music]
do
[Music]
if i wrote you a song
if i got every word
perfectly waited 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 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 to the whole list 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 says 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
edge lord
extravagant extravaganza
j kristoff who so
much to discuss
i just don't know where to stop
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 hand 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 the twists in this
book are awful the big end twist the end
and 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 know i
never
ever predict anything like i never get
thrillers correct 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 it was so
bad i i can't explain to you when i read
through those 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 a
vulnerable like
woman axe who's trying to counteract it
like and then let's talk about how roddy
sega is not his name marty sega is a
pseudonym right ronnie sega 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 gonna tell
exactly what happens but like this book
espouses to be
for the women that have been abused by
male power and her have been killed by
male serial killers like that's kind of
like what it's what this message is
trying to put out is but then some of
what happens at the end is like it tears
all that apart like like takes out and
shits on it so
i just don't know
i i mean i'm still probably going to
read stuff from my sega because like one
of the easiest 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 edge lord
extravaganza jay kristoff 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 jay kristoff which
i'm not continuing with that series like
kind of like edgy girl written from
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 three like for something that
like i have moral kind of objections to
and the twists were really bad
giving it three feels wrong so i'm gonna
round it down to a two on goodreads but
like in terms of my rating it 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 gonna
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
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 um 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
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