I read Cara Delevingne's book so you don't have to... 🫠 📖

So, I find celebrity books fascinating. I've done multiple videos in the past reading celebrity books, discussing celebrity books, and I think I want to do it more because I find the discussion around celebrity books, the ethics of them, the morality of them, fascinating. You know, I think there's some celebrity books out there we just kind of accept. Like, everyone loves a Britney Spears book, although that is not written by her. She doesn't even read read the audio book. I want to start reading some more celebrity books. So, you don't have to talk about what's good about them, what's not good about them, the plot, what it does successfully, what it doesn't do successfully, why I think the celebrity has written that book. I mean, it's usually to make money, but like there usually is a reason behind it. You know, there's usually like an inciting incident that means they want to write a book. So, today we are going to be reading, ladies and gentlemen, Mirror, Mirror by Cara Deivine. Did you know Cara Deivine wrote a book? So yes, Cara Deivian wrote a book. She wrote a book. Before we get into reading this book, my favorite part of these videos is I like to do some research. I sit on my computer typing out typing, watching videos, reading articles about what I can find out about this book. What Cara Deavine herself has said about this book. So before we get into reading it, let's chat about Mirror Mirror. Who wrote it? Who didn't write it? What's it about? Do I think Kine knows what it's about? Let's discuss it. So, Mirror, Mirror is very openly co-written by an author called Rowan Coleman. It says her name very tiny tiny font on the cover and also there's an acknowledgement at the start of the book and the first person that Cara thanks is Rowan Coleman. So, Rowan Coleman is a fairly well author most wellknown for her book We Are All Made of Stars. So like at least this isn't car is not claiming to have written this book all herself you know she's very open that there is a a ghost writer but like she claims to have written this with her you know at the front my deepest heart thanks go to the amazing Rowan common who made the writing of this book such an incredible experience common even has an author blur they both have an author blur at the front so she's pretty open about that now in the interviews that caravine has done about this book there are times where I feel like she has such a clear vision of what this book is about what this book is doing. >> It was to to live in the point of view of someone who, you know, is writing a diary and is a teenager and is is lost um and is in that time of their life when life when they don't know who they are and are being put under lots of different pressures by friends and by teachers and by by family members. >> You know, even if she's only coming up with ideas for this book, she's really um putting herself in the mindset of teenagers and what is important to teenagers. This is about a group of friends who like don't belong and she's talking about how, you know, there's so much pressure put on teenagers to decide who they want to be when they're 15. You have to pick your subjects and like that is a real feeling that you have when you're a teenager. Like how on earth am I supposed to know what I want to do, what I want to be when I'm 14, you know what I mean? So, there are elements of that that I think are powerful. And she's like writing about what is important to teenagers rather than telling them what should be important to them like some other books. There are other times, however, that scream to me she barely had anything to do with the process. Like it barely had anything to do with the process. She's asked where did the name come from? Like when did you come up with the name? The idea to call the book Mirror Mirror came quite far into the process. It was after the characters have been decided and after their personalities had come alive. It was kind of like Frankenstein. >> Baby girl. Baby girl. Baby girl. Anyone who's ever read a book knows that the characters being decided is like minus onea of writing a book. That screams to me someone who sat down with the president. I sat down with her co-author. I remember with the Kylie Ken Georgina one, there was actually a good amount of information out there about the the process. And in that one, they'd written a two-page double-sided information of what they wanted the book to be, like a plot, character, vibe, what they want the book to be. Here is her announcement where she kind of speaks about it and she says, "The process of putting this novel together has been life-changing and something I hold really close to my heart. The process of putting this book together." So that sounds, you know, like a process between her and Rowan of if I had to have conjecture saying, "I want this from the book. I want this from the book." Maybe reading a draft and saying, "I want it to be more like this. I want the tone to be more like this." You know, it doesn't scream, "I wrote this book." I think Cara Deavine is such a fascinating person to have published a book and we'll talk about why in a second but she's not who first comes to mind. I think there's people who make sense to like they have an audience and it makes sense to capitalize. Like as much as you want to say Kendall and Kylie Jenner doesn't make sense. I think there are elements of it because she they have a fan base, they have an influence and they were younger at the time. They were like 14 when they published it. Like I think it made sense as a project to give them from like Chris Jenner's mind. Whereas Cara at this point, I don't know how old she was, but in her 20s, like it kind of did make sense to me why she would publish a book. But actually, I think there are reasons which we'll get into. And also, if I just had to guess from the way she's speaking about the tone of the book, there are times when her tone is very rooted reality, like I said, what teenagers want to be reading. There are other times in these interviews, the way she's talking about this book, the way she feels about this book and like what the book is where it seems pretentious and it's she's kind of like pseudointellectually speaking how an author should speak. I wanted to give an honest depiction of how crazy being a teenager really is. The turbulent mad hormonal roller coaster. I also wanted to show my readers that life is a beautiful mix of wonderful disasters, but learning to truly love yourself and accept yourself is the most important thing. And it sets me off. It sets my alarm bells off a little bit. So, I'm a little bit scared of the tone of this book if it's going to try and be like, you know what I mean? I don't know. Like really, the meaning of life from Cara Deivine. Now, the reason I think Tashi wrote this book in 2015, she starred in the adaptation of Paper Towns by John Green. This came out in 2017, and it screams to me she saw, "Oh my god, look how great this book has done by John Green. Paper Towns. It was made into a movie. Maybe I could write a book and it'd be made into a movie, and I could make all this money." And like, I don't know. I think there was part of her that wanted to cling to that kind of identity that came from being in Paper Towns. And I'm not going to lie, the plot of this sounds a lot like Paper Towns. In that one, for my memory is a guy going to try and find this girl who he kind of loves who's gone missing. In this one, it's a group of best friends and one of their best friends has gone missing. >> Does anyone want to connect the dots there? >> I've connected the two dots. >> You didn't connect [ __ ] but >> I've connected them. >> So, to me, this seems like she wants to be in her John Green bag. you know, she wants to write YA that's hard-hitting, emotional, meaningful, but I fear that like John Green is almost one of one in what he I mean, you can say what you want, but I actually think he's a great YA fiction writer. Like, I think The For Stars, you can take the piss out of it, but I think it's a great book. So, I fear that that won't be achieved and it will be like this hollow substitution of that. But anyways, shall we get into it and read Mirror, Mirror? I will let you know my thoughts as we go, but um we shall see. We shall see. [Music] >> Um I haven't even thought about what I'm going to say to you. I'm 50 pages in. So, let's talk initial story line, initial impressions. Um guys, I wish I could be nice. I wish I could be a nice person. Listen, it's too easy. Why wouldn't I take the piss? I mean, that's what I do, right? Probably get me in trouble, but so lovey. I don't want to inherently hate read this, but it's not making it easy for me. It's really like, okay, so the plot of this is we're following this group of friends who have a band together called Mirror, Mirror. We are so lucky, we are so lucky that we get um snippets of their song lyrics. So, we've got one called Where Did She Go, which you'll understand in a second is a little bit on the nose of the plot. The lyrics are, "There was always sunshine in her step, power in her smile. She never lived with one regret, but she only stayed for a while. Where did she go? The girl I want. Where did she go? The girl I haunt. Where did she go? I can't find her, but I won't stop looking. I'll keep on looking until I find out." Wordsmith, lyricist of a generation. So, um, it will surprise no one that the plot of this is that one of their friends goes missing. Um, where did she go? The girl I want. No, one of their friends goes missing and she's missing for about 20 pages. like it's really not she's missing in story line for I think for about 2 3 months but yeah she's missing about 20 pages in the book and she's found and she's close to death like she's got a head injury she's almost died we're not sure if she's going to live and we're dealing we're watching them deal with that basically and guys the way that this is written I'll take a quote for you guys I'll take a quote you ready the four of us in our magnificent misfit fit family just >> in case you haven't noticed. I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. >> It's cringe. It's cringe. It's cringe. It's pretentious. It's up his own ass. It's like these characters, they're so cool. They're cool teenagers. It's pretty out there with some of the stuff these characters doing. They are doing drugs. They are drinking. They're 16. They're whatever. I I don't think I can explain to I don't think there's a quote that could explain to you the egregious of it. Everything's [ __ ] And I know I swear a lot, but it's like, >> "Oh man, [ __ ] [ __ ] this [ __ ] man. Oh man, this sucks, man. [ __ ] shit." >> The really the most egregious thing is that they go find their friend in hospital. This deaf fur in the air. They go find their friend in hospital and as they're leaving, one of them goes, "This is [ __ ] up, so we should go get [ __ ] up." Can you imagine? Sit with it for a second. By the way, this is going to be spoilery. this vlog for this book. Um, can you imagine can you imagine can you imagine can you imagine your best friend finding them near death? Near death. Near death in a hospital room and going, I'm going to go get [ __ ] up. I don't know. Maybe that is a reaction for some people, but for me, I would be sobbing, crying, throwing up, not thinking about, I'm going to go get [ __ ] up. I go sit in a playground and go like, what pills do you have, bro? Uh, it's just I don't know. I don't know. I don't think I enjoy what it's trying to do. And I get what it's trying to do. It's trying to have Cara Devine's edgginess whilst also having like a discussion on mental health and like how difficult it is to be a teenager and they've got often got difficult home lives, which I'm sure we'll get into a second. The writing style though just slaps to me of like Miss Rowan Coleman is being asked to do a writing style that is so opposite of her and her writing style. Do you know what I mean? And I think that's hard for an author. I think often authors have a very distinct writing style. Like when you read a book by an author you've loved, I've heard this before and some of the writing style is very different. It's a little bit jarring and it just smacks me of like they're like, "We want edgy misfit teenagers and we want you to write like them." and she's like, "Okay." When you look at all of her other books, they don't give that vibe. They're very cutesy, you know, like contemporary romance. I don't know if that's all they are, but that's the vibe I get from the covers. It's It's not great. It's really not great. I'm like I'm willing to hold out hope. I'm willing to give it a go. I mean, I'm intrigued by the mystery element. Like, why is she near death? What's happened to her? There's already characters I don't trust. But, um, it's not the best. It's not the best. It's pretentious and but at the same time like anti-intellectual. Everything's like, "Bro, man, [ __ ] this [ __ ] man. What pills you got, man? Let's go get [ __ ] up cuz our friend is, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. My hair's [ __ ] up. I actually am the same person, guys, who filmed the intro this morning, and I did my hair for that, and then I've had it up in a bun, and it's just completely [ __ ] it." Also, like, Megan, your makeup's different. Yes, I made ministrone soup and I cried like I never have cried before while chopping onions. Like, you don't want to hear this. Snot dripping down my nose. It's more interesting than the book though, let's be honest. Snot dripping down my nose. Crying, crying, crying. Three different times I had to go cleanse my eyes. So, I had to redo my face. Anyways, I'm going to go read some more. I'll check in with you again, but we're not off to a great start, needless to say. I am now 150 pages in. I decided I'm going to check in about every 100 pages because if I'm suffering, you have to as well. To say you suffer would be lovely, darling. I don't think there's words to explain to you how bad what I'm reading is. Like, it is awful. It's really bad. The characters are so one-dimensional. The characters are like so The characters have not come alive. Car, I hate to break this to you. The characters have not yet come alive. They're so onedimensional and so just like the first characters you think of when it's like a group of misfits or group of unknown misfits or whatever. And you know, she speaks about in the videos that I watched, you know, this book wanting to be a message for teenagers struggling with mental health and trying to encourage them that it gets better, life gets better, you'll get through this moment. But at the moment, it this feels very, very heavy to read. All the characters are struggling a lot with some deep mental issues, deep, deep traumatic experiences, you know, engaging a lot in alcohol and drugs to kind of numb the pain that they're experiencing. That is their coping mechanism. And I don't know, well, I do know it's not being handled with any kind of care. I don't know if I should expect that in a book like this, but it's just a lot of these topics that we're talking about are being treated kind of flippantly just as like a oh my god drama moment or like isn't this so crazy? Are our lives so crazy? We're just crazy misfits. We don't belong. No one understands us. I don't know. Just the way that it's discussing things I am not enjoying. By the way, plotwise, nothing's happened. Basically, they're they're like, "We should really find out what's happened to our friend." And then nothing's happened and they're just running around getting drunk. There's nothing to spoil in terms of plot. Our main character, Red, their gender is purposefully not being addressed, described. Um, and it's not that they're like non-binary. It's not that they're they them necessarily. It's I personally feel that the writing is purposely avoiding addressing their gender. And not that gender is something need to be like addressed, but with a lot of characters, it's just something that you naturally kind of like say she, he or they, or whatever. But I feel like the book is purposely skirting around that when it comes to Red. And so I fear that's going to be like a twist or a reveal. And I don't know how I feel about that being used as a reveal in the best of times, but especially in a book that I don't feel like is taking care with anything and it's kind of just like a shock book, you know, like drama shock book. I'm a bit tentatively nervous about how that's going to go down. This reminds me of the book that I would pick up in the school library when I was in year seven and we'd read it because it's like drama and it's like shock like, "Oh my god, isn't this crazy? And aren't they so naughty?" And oh my god, oh my god. I mean, I maybe grew up quite sheltered, which an all girls Catholic school at the point in age of these characters are. We were all very good good girls. Um, but this doesn't jive with even the kinds of lives I knew of people who weren't necessarily good girls. I don't know. It just feels like a an exaggerated a real exaggerated version of a teenage experience, you know? I don't know. Anyways, I'm going to keep reading it. I'll let you know my thoughts when I'm another 100 pages in. Might be today. But uh it's bad. It's bad. It's bad. I just feel like every opening clip of this is me just like deeply sighing. I am now 250 pages in. We are nearing the end. Well, they're speechless. What is there to say? I feel like I'm actually developing a sort of Stockholm syndrome with this book cuz I've been reading it for so long. I've been reading it for like a week because I haven't wanted to read it. has put me in a little bit of a slump. Part of me is going, "Well, the mystery element is kind of interesting." You know, I want to find out what happened to Naomi. And then I then I sit and I I go, "Megan, be [ __ ] serious. Like, be serious. It's so bad. It's so poorly poorly poorly written. Nothing is happening. The characters have no development. Nothing. There is actually no plot for me to spoil. When I read the Kendall and Kylie one, sorry to keep comparing it, but when I read that, that was like a sci-fi dystopian book and so there's so much whack [ __ ] that goes onto this book. There's like this debutant ball where she goes up on a pedestal and spins around really fast. I remember in that book there is nothing to talk about. It's just people going around each other's houses and talking about how much they hate their life, but not actually really talking about, oh my god, our best friend, like what happened to her. It was revealed. It was a twist like I anticipated that uh Red is a girl and I believe identifies as a girl. There's a moment where she's like, I don't feel like a boy. I'm not a boy, but I'm I don't identify with like the gender norms that were expected of me as a girl. It wasn't handled the worst. It could have been worse. It could have been worse, but I am just not a fan of that being a twist and being like a gaggy moment because like I think throughout the book, Red fancies girls and you know, you know, wants to kiss girls, wants to be with girls. And so I think you're supposed to think like your hetronormative brain is supposed to think, "Oh my god, Red is a boy." But um I I don't think I I don't know if I ever thought I don't know what I thought. I wasn't trying to theorize. I wasn't here for the twist, but it wasn't the worst that it could have been. I do want to find out what happened to Naomi. Like where has she been? Why did she disappear? Why is she almost dead? I do want to find that out. So, I mean, it's doing something, but I just like if it it never ceases to amaze me that if your book is ghostritten and like this is published, who is trapeze? Is it Hashet Penguin? Hashet Hashet has money. This is not some rinky dink operation. Hashet has money and they want Caravine to be on the front of their book and this book is going to make you money. You know what I mean? I I imagine actually Rowan Common is a good author because she's published a lot of books that have high ratings. She's a professional like well-known author, but um she's not right for this because she's having to write, it seems to me at least, in a way that is not natural. And so if you have that amount of money, hire someone who can write the project you want them to write well and it suits them. You know what I mean? I realized also when I was editing, I sounded a bit like a prude. I was like, "They're drinking alcohol." As if 16-year-olds don't drink alcohol. I promise that wasn't hell. I I stopped drinking at 18 and I haven't drunk since. So, you know, that's not what I'm saying. It's the way like in the book they're very reliant on alcohol. They're getting drunk at school right after school, getting arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct, then turning up to school hung over. Like, I think that's another level than just like drinking, you know? I mean, that's what I was talking about. I'm not like, "Oh my god, the youth of today drinking alcohol." I just want to pop in and clarify my thoughts because I've spoken way too much about this drugs and alcohol element of this book. It's made it a bigger deal than it needs to be because I keep trying to clarify my previous thought and doing an awful job every time. I just want to say, you know, I'm very aware that Cara Devine has been open about her addiction issues and you know, it's great that she seems to be in a good place with that now. You know, I'm sending her me doing this video. I hope it's not like, you know, I'm sending her love and hope and anyone who's in that position, I I want them to, you know, be better and to live a life that makes them happy, you know. And I'm not saying that any book that has teenagers who do drugs have alcohol is bad. I just feel like in this book, it is used as a cheap way to add character to the characters. And it's never really like explored. It's never really condemned or approved of, but it's like used as a way to make them seem edgy. I that is what the book is doing with this. And it's not told in like an an interesting way or an introspective way. It's just kind of used as shock value again, which is why I feel like the problem is a lot with this book. And I don't want to like invalidate, you know, if Kavine maybe had similar experiences and she's a teenager and wants to put them in the book, like I'm not invalidating that. I'm not saying no teenagers do this cuz God knows they do or whatever. Like I'm not not saying any of that. I'm just saying in this book it often felt like easy way to kind of like create the characters of the characters. Do you know what I mean? Without adding much depth. So that's I hope I've done an okay job there. It's made it a bigger deal than it needs to be. It's really not. I just keep bloody talking about it trying to put my thoughts better and failing every time. But hopefully that's better now. We'll see, shall we? Let's see what this twist is. I'm literally going to go and read the last 100 pages right now. So I will let you know my thoughts. But I don't have a ton. It's just awful. And like I said, I don't think it I think if I was like a young teenager reading this who is struggling with mental health, I think when you're struggling with mental health, and I experience this even now, you need to consume media that like helps you towards a good side of it, right? That helps you out of the dark. What helps me when I'm struggling is like maybe this is different for everyone but it's kind of like positivity is hope is belief is consuming that kind of messaging. There is no hope and no belief in this book. It's just like everything is [ __ ] Life is awful. Life is terrible. You know Red has her her family life is very um dysfunctional. Her mother is an alcoholic. Her dad is never home. I think in an interview actually with Vogue, Cara Devine spoke about uh her own mother being alcoholic and how that inspired elements of this book. So listen, there are parts of Cara in this. But yeah, just what the book it book is what what the book is shooting for. Not here for it, but I'm ready for it to be out of my life. So let's go read the last 100 pages and I'll let you know what I think of the ending, guys. It's over. It's over. War is over. I have finished Mirror Mirror by Car Devine, so you don't have to read it. And I'm giving it one star. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. The end reveal is that Nomi was groomed and abducted by their music teacher who has played a role in the book. And that all happens in the last 100 pages. Like there really has not been much of that apart from like you knowing that some of the girls particularly Rose who's one of the friends in the friend group is in a relationship with an older man which she she turns out then she's also being groomed by the teacher. It's not really like a suggestion of that an investigation line until like the last 60 pages. It comes at you fast. And I think so much interesting stuff could be said about that, about, you know, like how young girls are treated in society, particularly by teachers, how prevalent that is, how girls are unsafe in like every avenue of their life. It could be really something we delved into and discussed and like there was an inkling of that from the start, but we kind of investigated different lines of it, whereas it's just kind of plonked on us at the end as like a twist. And I think if you're going to write a book about that, like let's let's handle the subject with some care again and kind of like I don't know discuss this whole phenomenon as um as something throughout the book. Also, there is something earlier in the last 100 pages that I just read. There's a lot just there was no plot and then suddenly there's a lot of plot. Red tries to kiss her friend Rose. And Rose freaks out and because of I understand why she does because of trauma that she has, she kind of feels vi violated by her friends trying to kiss her. But she then goes on social media and accuses Red of trying to rape her like for the whole school to see and the whole school, you know, understandably turns against Red. And Rose, I understand why Rose freaks out cuz she does feel violated because of stuff she's gone through in her past. But like there's never any confrontation of how it's not good really to accuse people of rape when they haven't tried to rape you. Do you know what I mean? And also she could be telling the truth for all everyone knows. And the teacher comes in, the teacher who then turns out is grooming her and is whatever, you know, but at this point we don't know that. He's like, "Calm down. Calm down. Stop messing about or something to her when she's saying she was raped." Which is also another element I'm not sure about. This whole book, I just don't enjoy a single element of it. And I am so glad to be putting it down. So glad to be putting it down. But it basically is caring trying to be in her John Green back. I said it from the beginning. I knew what it was. It's a poor man's paper towns. I saw one review of it. It absolutely is a poor man's paper towns. >> You're going to look at me and you're going to tell me that I'm wrong. Am I wrong? >> Absolutely is. Absolutely is. No originality. She said, "Oh, let me write a book like that. Let me write a book like that." I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's what this all stems from. And um I wonder if all that Cara wrote was like the song lyrics that are occasionally through it. Like did they give her that task to keep her happy to write the song lyrics? I don't know, guys. It's not good. There are some celebrity books out there that are good. Technically, Thursday Murder Club is a celebrity book. I know he's not celebrity worldwide, but Rich Osman was a celebrity going into that. They don't have to be bad, but this one is bad. is awful. It's I feel like a little bit beaten down. I can't wait. I fear whatever book I read next will suddenly be incredible because it's just not this. Like I fear whatever I read next will be five stars even if it doesn't deserve it because it's so much better than this. This is so bad. It's so bad. And we don't get any of like Naomi, the girl who went missing and is in a coma only wakes up at the end. and we don't get any like satisfaction of her story and her speaking. I'm like, "Oh, I'm gonna love you and leave you. I'm gonna love you and leave you there." But yeah, let me know if you've read this. A few people, some of my patrons have read this, it turns out back in the day. Uh let me know what you thought. Or let me know like a YA heavy-hitting book that you've enjoyed recently because I'm not in my YA bag these days. I don't know why things that's a phrase. I guess, you know, sometimes I get stuck in a phrase. Let me know a YA heavyhitting book that you have enjoyed recently. I'd love to know that. But anyways, thank you so much for watching. I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye. [Music]