 prepared to hate me, prepared to be sick of me, prepared to be outraged. I think it's only gonna get darker and horrible. My opinion has changed a bit. For our first episode of Wrapped Up, how are we feeling? Apprehensive, nervous, bit scared, also weirdly calm, perhaps on the verge of hysteria. So if you haven't seen the announcement video, I will link it here. Basically all you need to know is that we're doing Wrapped Up again and this year it's even riskier because we've got 25 of the books I'm most excited to read and 25 of the books I'm least excited to read off my TBR. So great, extra risk. Well done Megan. But I'm excited, I love Wrapped Up, I love the feeling of unwrapping books. It's a great joy in my life but it's time to pick our first book. Now I'm hoping that we're gonna beat the odds and like all four books I read for Wrapped Up in December are gonna be ones I'm most excited to read but honestly who knows? Like who knows anything can happen. So I have to make my choice. And I'm very scared. I don't know what to pick. I feel like I'm feeling the gold today. I really like the little, is it nutcrackers? These men, I don't know. Absolutely not. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I'm just gonna go for a gold one. Oh my God. This one was like sticking out so it got my attention. Okay. Right, let me try and unwrap it so you can see. This is our first book for Wrapped Up 2022. It has to give us good vibes. Wrapped Up Risk 2022. Is it gonna be a winner or a loser? Oh, I can't tell what that is yet. This is the book by Erica Waters. I recently got this and I just know it's about a serial killer who's now dead, true crime podcast. It's pitched as Sadie meets Wilder Girls which are two five stars me. I've never read anything by Erica Waters but I'm super excited to read this. And I just like, actually this can be like a quick good read to get us into good vibes. I'm feeling so good about this. I'm feeling amazing in fact, about. Success. That will be our first book. Are we all excited? That's what we're reading in this vlog. Okay Megan, let's go do it. We've got one girl who's a serial killer's final victim, another who's a true crime fan who feels her own rage, another who's a psychology student with a little too much to hide. Oh my God, I'm gonna eat this up. I'm so excited. Okay, we've got to win. We're one, one, Megan won, wrapped up risk nail. We're winning. Whoa, can I have a kiss? You're the best boy. I'm trying to read. Oh, it's my hair. He likes to bite my hair. Okay, okay. I'm gonna sleep there. Good idea. Morning. I have gotten 100 pages into the rest of the stock but before we chat about this, I wanna say a big thank you to the sponsor for today's video, which is Serious Readers. I love my Serious Light so much. I've spoken about them quite a bit lately, but if you don't know, Serious Readers make reading lights and I genuinely use mine every single night if I'm reading. I generally use it every day. I love it so much. It's completely revolutionized my reading. I've been trying to get family, friends to get it. I've been recommending it to other booktubers when I see them. This is my Serious Light as you can see. Whoa, it's adjustable and it helps you read. It has special daylight wavelength technology that replicates the sun's rays. So it feels really natural in the eye. I think other reading lights can feel like a bit of a glare, but this feels so natural in the eye. I've described it before as like a breath of fresh air for the eyes. It just makes me feel more alert, more awake, makes it easier to focus in the evening when I'm reading. It's getting dark so quick now. Like I feel like it's just dark all the time. So I'm just using it all the time. I genuinely didn't expect it to kind of change my reading so much. But I just find it really helps me read more, helps me stay focused, it illuminates the page, it gives me less eye strain. I love it so much. And I have a code for you guys, which is MEG22, which if you use it, you get free international shipping. They can ship any in the world. They can make any kind of plug that you need because they make all the lights themselves here in the UK. So you can make any plug that you need and get free international shipping. And if you use my code and buy any of the lights in the Serious Lights range, you will get a free compact light worth 150 pounds. It's a crazy deal. I would really recommend you guys go check them out. I am being genuine when I said I recommend this to everyone. I use it every night. I love it so much. It's genuinely, I love it so much. I have the high definition light in case you're wondering. And yeah, I mean, it has like a dimmer so you can have different brightness levels. And it's like a part of my life now that I can't imagine reading without. So go check them out down below. I 100% recommend them and make sure you use my code for free international shipping and a free compact light. Amazing. Okay, let's talk about the rest of this dark. So I'm 100 pages into it. Just realized my jumper is inside out when filming these clips. So MG, please ignore so embarrassing. And basically the plot of this is that we open following Lucy who was almost the final victim of this serial killer called the Cloud Kiss Killer. There's this event being held kind of at the woods or nature place. Oh, hang on, I got a bit crooked, I think. The nature place where she was almost his final victim. And what happened was she was being chased by him and the police found them. And rather than going to the police, he jumped into the canyon that they were around. And there's now an event being held by a true crime podcast with like 50 guests who are all trying to find his bones. It's very strange, okay? So. Hmm, funny. Yes, but not funny, ha ha. Funny, weird. We have Lucy's perspective. We also meet Carolina who is kind of like a true crime obsessed girlie who has something going on in her past. She has definitely some issues with rage and anger. And then we have Maggie who's a psychology student there to kind of like look at these people and figure out what kind of people they are, essentially. So what I think this book is doing well so far, I feel like I was kind of a convoluted plot to describe to you guys. Is that I feel like it's simultaneously critiquing true crime podcast in a good way. I feel like it's like beyond surface level critique. I've happened to have read, I've got stuff in my eye. I think it's Miko hair. Oh my God. Ew. Does anyone else who have cats just have cat hair just like floating in the air sometime? I think I've got his hair in my eye. Yep, okay. Oh my God, that is horrible. I happened to have read a lot of stuff like looking at the true crime genre in the past couple of days, which you'll see soon. And I just, I feel like that critiques of it were okay but kind of surface level. So I feel like this, it's simultaneously critiquing the genre, even like true crime podcast who espouse to be like for the victims and for whatever, like can it ever be truly moral and ethical? Whilst also being understanding as to why some people may be drawn to the subject and why it may be like not a good thing, but like why humans are drawn to true crime? Why humans are like innately interested in it? And I think it's doing a good job of both of those kind of views. You know, we have a character who was almost a serial killer's victim. And yet we have other characters who are kind of like interested in this and like interested in the world of true crime. I don't know, I think it's just interesting to have both those two views like equally looked at. There's characters like characters who are like beyond obsessed like in a weird way. There's also some characters who are just interested in true crime. And how that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think it's just very interesting. And it's gonna be sapphic, I already know, and I'm into it. I'm into it. And it's for God and for the gays. I think it's only gonna get darker and horrible. And I'm just, I'm excited. I'm really excited for it. I've been struggling with some YA lately. I don't know if I've ever really read a YA horror that I've loved. And I just thought this could be it. So yeah, anyways, tonight I'm going to Christmas market and we're setting off those Christmas vibes. I'm very excited. So I'm gonna go head out to that tonight. But yeah, I'll read some more of this today and I'll check in maybe tomorrow with some more thoughts. So, do I look any different? I got my hair done since I last saw you. I just got my roots done and I got it toned a little bit more warm for like the, you know, winter time. I'm feeling my own, let me feel my own. I love it. Also if I look weird, I've got like a different kind of eye makeup on today. I don't know if I vibe. Usually I do like the same kind of style of eye makeup with different colors every day. And I'm just like, I'm not sure how I'm feeling about it. But anyways, new hair. And the Christmas market was so cute. I got perfidges, which is all I care about. But anyways, I'm up to page about 250 in the rest of stuck. And I gotta be honest, my opinion has changed a bit. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just don't know how I'm feeling about this. I don't know. I just feel like in the section that I've read since I last spoke to you, the characters have not had any development at all. At all. Like they haven't changed. They haven't grown. They're just these same characters. And I feel like I'm not believing them as real people. Obviously it's the three of them, right? And they all kind of fancy each other. But something I think it is doing a good job of showing the tension that often arrives from a group of three girls being friends, whether you fancy each other or not. Go say that weird girls. You know, three's a crowd. Some of my worst friendship moments were from when I was in a three. Cause you always feel like the one who isn't important. And you always wanna feel like the one who is important, which leads to you making someone else feel like the one who's not important. It's horrible. Don't be in a group of three friends. But like there's one of them that the other two keep like talking down to and keep being like really mean and just like shutting down all her ideas. And I'm like, girls, let's be nice. I don't know. And I feel like a lot of the dialogue just feels so stilted to me. It just doesn't, sometimes I have this problem and I just don't like, just the way they're talking just feels cheesy. I'm sorry. Okay. What do you want me to say? It feels cheesy. I feel like not much has happened, right? I like a book that feels, it doesn't matter how long it is, but feels like we're pacing it while, you know, like everything that happens has to happen. And like, this is a 400 page book. It does not need to be a 400 page book. We could have cut it down to 300 very easily. I'm just kind of bored. Okay. I would like to defend myself, but sadly that's the truth. I think I'm gonna listen to the rest about the audiobook because I'm liking the audio book a bit more. But at the moment it's for them like a three. I'm gonna be honest. I'm gonna be honest. Don't yell at me. I'm sad about it. I thought I won with getting one of the books I was most excited for. And then I've been betrayed. But then I guess that's part of our top risk, right? You could even be betrayed by the ones you think you're most excited for. One's I'm least excited for could be a five star. Who knows? It definitely is reminding me of Wilder Girls though. If you read Wilder Girls and there's that kind of weird tension between the girls and like the way that they treat each other in the three, it definitely is reminding me of that. But I just, yeah, I don't love it. I don't know what to say. Everything that I said that's good about it in the first second still stands, but I just haven't found much else that's good about it. And I've found stuff that isn't good about it. You know, I'll finish it today though. Prepare to hate me, prepare to be sick of me, prepare to be outraged. I'm giving it two stars. This is what trauma looks like. Two stars, two stars, two stars. I, I hate at the ending of this. I can't tell you how much I hate it. It actually has made me angry. Did he? The fact that this is pitched as Sadie meets Wilder Girls. Mm-mm, mm-mm. I had such high hopes. This is criminal. No, not wrapped up being like, you can have one of the ones you're most satisfied to read, but it's gonna be a two. One thing about them tables, they turn. Okay, right, let's talk about the ending. Obviously I can't spoil it for you. I don't want to, but like, it's so fucking stupid. It's so stupid. And like, what it says, because obviously one of my main characters is there because she was almost the final victim of this serial killer. And the whole book is kind of unpacking like, society's obsession with serial killers and true crime and what have you. What the ending then means? Like the repercussions for all of that? Mm-mm, it's not it, chief. You think you did something, but you didn't. It's not it, it's not it. And yeah, I just hated the writing of this, right? The first 100 pages, I was like, okay, I'm willing to forgive. The first 100 pages of the book, I feel like I can look past writing. Oh my God, Mika was getting mad at me for being loud. Let's keep it down, keep it down. You know, the first 100 pages of the book, I'm willing to forgive, like the writing not being the best because you think, oh, we're just getting to it or whatever. Ooh, the writing, mm, not for me. Ooh, not for me, really not for me. And I just like these three main characters that we have, these girlies, like they are all written to like times 1,000. Like she's like, okay, this one's blasé, doesn't care about anything. This one's overprotective. This one's scared, whatever, you know? It's like times 100. They're like ridiculous. They are caricatures. They are not real characters I can get invested in and care about. The last like, I don't even know, 60 pages, 80 pages. I was listening to a book on three times speed whilst I played 2048 on my phone, which I am in like the top 6% in the world, and let it be known. Maybe even better, am I in the top four? Hang on. Let's clarify that. Let me not undersell myself. What percentage of the world am I? Top three, bitches. I know this is an old game. I just like playing it while I listen to audiobooks sometimes, and especially when I'm struggling to get through a book. I'm just like, Jesus, take the wheel. Let me play some 2048. So yeah, wouldn't recommend it. And I'm very sad. And I have, there's another book wrapped up by Erica Waters, which is Ghostwood song, which was only on the, that's in the not anticipated list, but it's only on there, because I kind of forgot it was about. One of my patrons loves it and gifted it to me. I'm still like, here's the thing. When I say, oh, the 25 I'm least excited to read. Like I'm obviously still excited to read these books because I haven't unhauled them. Like for example, there's one on there, Concrete Rose Byron Thomas. I've given energy Thomas five stars whenever I've read from her, but it's on there because I read the first chapter once ages ago and I didn't like it. So that's why it's on there. So each of those books on there have their own qualifying factors as to why they're on there. Do you know what I mean? It's not as simple as like, oh, I'm not excited to read them. I am excited to read them because I still own them, but like I'm nervous for some reason essentially, which I will say if I unwrap any of them, but we're hoping that we don't. But anyways, that has made me even more nervous to read Ghostwood song because I hated the writing. Oh God, I'm just hoping to forget that I read this book if I'm honest with you. It can go, it can be in the past. So there we have it everyone. That was episode one of Wrapped Up. I hope you enjoyed it. Got you in the Christmas mood about Christmas markets. But yeah, we have a bit of a fail for the first one, but I already know actually today I unwrapped what I'm gonna be reading for number two and I think it's gonna be an interesting one. I'm trying not to give away what I've unwrapped. But yeah, make sure you ring the bell if you wanna miss any episodes of Wrapped Up and all the videos I'm posting in December and posting four videos a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday. I've got a really exciting vlog coming this weekend. I've got a lot of videos I think you guys are gonna like for the end of the year. So yeah, make sure you subscribe and what have you liked the video. Thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you very soon on another one. Bye.