 It was like my dessert. It was like my cookie. I'm sorry to be able to tell you this, but you're wrong. It's a bit, do I regret reading it? No, but is it good? Also, no. Okay, so I said that I wanted lower, smaller TBRs in 2022, partly to have more time to do other things, but also to have time to just like read other things as I happen to feel like it. So I really, really went for it. In January, I ended up reading 17 books here. I read 16 books. And when we get to number 17, we'll get there. Anyway, yeah. So January wrap up, so let's do the thing. Also, just this is facing the other way because it's a placeholder. I don't have the physical book of this. So I will not be holding anything up for this, but this is just like here in my stack when I was going through the months so I wouldn't forget about it being something that I read. Even though I'd love to forget that I read it. Oh God. No. The first book that I read in January was the third book in the All Souls Trilogy, which is called Book of Life by Deborah Harkness. And the All Souls Trilogy just got progressively worse. So I read Discover of Witches and was like, it's not great. It's not my favorite thing, but there's some things about it that I enjoy. Like I really love the Oxford setting and the idea of how it seems to be handling our real world, having witches and vampires and demons. I was like, there's some pretty interesting like lore building here that like, you know, this is the first book slash also I think the author's debut. So I was like, yeah, like I could read some more of this. Especially if like the next books get better and then they just got worse and worse. The second book was like on my worst books of the year in 2021. And then people are like, why are you reading the third one? I read the third one because I was like, tiny bit hopeful, not really. But tiny bit hopeful and maybe it's better. Maybe like the series was like three, two, three to four. But it was three to one. All right, but so for, I really, I do enjoy, I don't wanna say I really like but I really enjoy the show for Discover of Witches because it's shot so beautifully. And one of the main things that like for the same reason that I enjoy the Outlander show and I don't like the Outlander books is that it's not from like when you're in the show it's not like the internal monologue and perspective of the main female character who isn't sufferable. I like Claire and Outlander even in the books a lot better than I like, what's her name? What is her name? Diana, Diana Bishop in The All Souls Trilogy. But like, it's not a great story but the show has good actors in it, gorgeous cinematography, wonderful costumes and music and like you're not in Diana's head. She's not the one telling the story to you which like helps a great deal. Also the actress playing Diana is like just less annoying. So like it's not my favorite show but it's like a fun show to watch. And I read the book before watching the season that is based on the book for the first and the second and there's only three. There's three books, three seasons. So like for the third season of the show I was like, I want to may as well I want to have read that one too before watching it just like finish it out. And who knows, I might like it. And I didn't, it was, it was awful. It was truly awful, so bad that I'm very like I really kind of hope that the show decides to take massive liberties with it and not be a faithful adaptation because it's such garbage. It's truly garbage. It is the most like OP, Mary Sue wish fulfillment author insert nonsense. While also just being like nauseating. And I also, okay so like author self insert this is their fantasy. But also why is this your fantasy? Who's fucking fantasy is this? Like it's that possessive obsessive kind of love story that like I can, it's never really gonna be my cup of tea but like I can kind of get it. Like I can kind of see why that would be a thing you'd be into to a point but this goes beyond that point and then some to where like who finds it interesting in a romantic partner, in a romantic lead or a love interest for them to be so single-mindedly obsessed with like you if you're inserting yourself into the main character that like they've got nothing else going on. Like that's boring. Like I can't build a life on that's why their conversations like it just feels so repetitive cause it's all just about how obsessed they are with each other and how much they need each other and how much they love each other. And I'm like, okay but like what do you talk about over breakfast? Cause it can't always mean I love you forever. And if you die, I will die. Like over coffee, like what, you know what I mean? So it's just, and then again it gets to the point where like not just boring but like concerning like the kind of choices that you have to be worried about this character making because that's literally all I care about is you. That's when it's just like how is this romantic? How is this a fantasy for anybody? Because the idea, you know oh this man loves you so much that he'll move heaven and earth for you. Like yeah, I get that. Like that's, it's fun to think about some hot dude being that into you I guess. But when it's like to the exclusion of every other possible concern. I don't know, it's just more interesting to watch a character that might be struggling, you know with that where like the world or a war or their duty as a king or whatever it may be requires them like would in theory require them to do something that could hurt or harm or upset the person that they love and to like watch them struggle with that and to actually have to like grapple with this is like a these conflicting interests this internal conflict, right? Where they're like they take their duty seriously or they take the interests of like their people seriously or you know like I love my family or I love my people or I know this is for the good of the nation or whatever, but it will hurt Mary Sue who I love so much rather than like Mary Sue is all I care about fuck everything else. It's not a concern to me. It is not a moral dilemma for me. It is not an interesting exploration of conflicting priorities. I will choose Mary Sue at all times to the exclusion of all else. Like that's not even interesting to read about. You know what I mean? So I'm gonna watch the show. I'm planning to bend it with my mom just like I bingeed the first two seasons with her. We're big fans of Matthew Good. So looking forward to just like watching Matthew Good again. Sad James Purefoot won't be in this third season, but yeah. So zero to 10 do not recommend Book of Life. What a way to start the year. So the next book that I read was the play itself. I mean, I knew I had to read this for the podcast which the first episode is up and I'm not, no, we know we will by the time this video is going up I don't think we'll have even recorded the episode about before they're hanged yet. I don't know what time is. Anyway, so if you wanna see the podcast episode about me and Bethany talk about the play itself that's available to you. I will try to remember to link it down below. I knew that she wanted to record it like early in January. So like I knew I should read it first but also after having read Book of Life I was like, I deserve to have a cromby. You know, it was like my dessert. It was like my cookie. Even though I don't like dessert or cookies. This was my chips and guac. It was my like, I've earned this. And it's just like such a sigh of relief. After reading the garbage that was Book of Life to be like in the hands of a master and I could just like relax and let him take the wheel because this is amazing. It's always amazing. My fifth time through, it's amazing. I've talked about this book to ebnausium. I talk about it for like a full hour with Bethany on the podcast. I have a full review for this on my channel. I bring it up at every opportunity. So I don't think I need to say too much about this. I gave it five stars again. Have a cromby as the coat and I will be talking about this book in future again. In fact, in videos that I have planned I intend to talk about this book again. Anyway, read this again. It was great. Next up was another reread. Actually, like, well, pretty much all the books that were on my TBR were rereads but so there's just some books in here that were not planned to read. There are not rereads. But anyway, there's a lot of rereads. So, Guns of the Dawn by Adrienne Tchaikovsky which I chose for plays and bodysurfers as the book club pick even though I hadn't read it before because Alan made me read it for a one-week TBR swap. I was pretty sure the ladies would like this so I picked this for book club. And so the discussion for that was on my channel at the end of January. Replays available to you. If you would like to watch it we'll encourage slash caution you that while we did talk about Guns of the Dawn for like, I would say the solid majority of that chat we offroaded into very unexpected territory. So just if you haven't seen it, buckle up. But anyway, Guns of the Dawn is flintlock fantasy that is sort of like, what if like a Jane Austen character like went to war, was drafted into war. And so I like it and I thought the ladies would like it because it's kind of got a bit of everything. You know, you have the sort of like a drawing room politics and social etiquette going on at home with the family and the main female character. And then you also have like a lots of like battle and battle tactics, battle strategy. And you also have magic in this world and there's some humor, there's some drama, there's tragedy, there's comedy. So it's just kind of got a bit of everything. Enough to where maybe you're dissatisfied because you'd like a book to be only about one of those things but there's enough things in here to where I feel like most of these readers of like speculative fiction would find something here to satisfy them at least in some part. And that's kind of what happened. I mean, I like all of the parts so like it's just like perfection. Yeah, the ladies, they did like it basically for that reason you know, that had enough things in there to satisfy even if like they weren't as interested in some of the other aspects of it or didn't feel it went far enough in the parts that they did like or things like that. So we had a good chat about it. And yeah, I would definitely read this again, again. So I still recommend this very, very highly. Next up was a book that was not planned or put on my TBR. I've kind of not decided that's very like aggressive but I've kind of been liking the idea of just kind of since I don't have such long TBRs, requesting from the library, audio books for things that I've just been sitting and gathering dust on my shelf that I've been like meaning to get to. And I just like requested them all as many holds as I can possibly have. And then as they come in, I can just kind of like read them in a month along with my TBR and just like finally polish them off. So that's kind of what I've been doing. One such book was Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angelis. I heard Bethany really, really hyped this and I got this gorgeous edition from, I think this is Alcrave. I used to be subscribed, I am no longer but back when I was still subscribed, I got this gorgeous, gorgeous edition. So I really wanted and hoped to like this because this was a pretty book and I would like to like pretty books. And again, Bethany really, really, really liked it. And it's inspired by things. Well, I don't really like Mulan Rouge but I love Phantom of the Opera. And it is like loosely inspired or at least I heard that it was by both Mulan Rouge and Phantom of the Opera. And I don't, I feel like I get why that, they say that about it, but no. Like I don't really see how like, oh, if you love Mulan Rouge, you'll like this or if you love Phantom of the Opera. Like the things that people like about Mulan Rouge and about Phantom of the Opera like are not really here. It's like a bit, like not really. Or like it's like a surface level understanding of those things that that's not really what people get out of those stories or those musicals. So anyway, I am interested in the second one more so than I think Bethany I think would have not really liked the second one, but she told me that the second one is inspired by Bluebeard and Hades Town. And I'm going to see Hades Town, I'm very excited about it. I've been like so pumped about this for like, I mean, there's no reason I would have brought it up on my channel, but I've been like just like bubbling with like excitement over seeing Hades Town, but that'll be in the spring. So I have a long time to wait. But so in the spring after I've seen Hades Town, I'll probably pick up the second one cause it'll be like freshly in my brain and I'll be interested. But anyway, this just was very, very basic YA to me. Like it wasn't the worst thing I've ever read. Like this isn't like Espertine with one of my worst books of the year or like one of your deception that was like on my worst a couple of years ago. But it wasn't great. It was, it was just really, really lackluster and boring to me. I don't think the characterization was that good. I don't think the magic was well thought out. Like for all of its promise of vibes and promise of atmosphere, I think it lacked promise and atmosphere. There were a couple moments in it that I did think were kind of original or interesting or hooked me with like some sense of mystery. So like it wasn't a complete loss. It wasn't garbage, but it was very, very forgettable. So like I'm glad I got around to it now cause I've had this for a while. But I'm sad that I didn't like it more because this is so pretty. I would like to be able to hold this book up and say, this is great cause I'm so pretty. But if I ended up loving the third, the second one because of Hades Town, then by association, then I will like the first one because it's connected to it. So fingers crossed for that. The next book I read was another reread. That was Good Omens by Terry Brouchett and Neil Gaiman. This was my second time reading it. And I listened to the new audio book that was recorded by the cast of the show, which I guess it's kind of the same vibe of like putting a movie tie-in cover on a book except I absolutely approve of this because the cast is phenomenal. So it was an absolute, it was kind of like having Andy Serkis narrate Lord of the Rings. Having Michael Sheen and David Tennant and everybody else be the readers of this was just such a fun experience. But it kind of felt like watching the show again except like a more faithful adaptation because it is literally the book of the most faithful adaptation. So I just, I had an absolute ball reading this again. Like I didn't forget how much I loved it. I just forgot how good every single line of this book is. It was sort of like reading it and feeling vindicated because I'd always like thought of it as like fondly a book that I recalled thinking was brilliant. You know, specifics fade with time and coming back to it and revisiting the specifics, which a lot of them are in the show. But I mean, really like some of the charm in the wit is like just literally the narration, which would be much harder to put in an adaptation because like what you have in the adaptation is usually the dialogue. There is a narrator in the show, so some of it's in there, but any who's either. I was just talking, this was my patron buddy read. So I had my chat with my patrons about this and everybody loved it. For some people it was new, some people it was reread but this was one of those rare times when the patron buddy read was just like a knockout. No one complained, I didn't complain. No one's ranting about this. There isn't like that one person that hated it or like we all hated that one person that liked it. It's brilliant. We all think it's brilliant because it is brilliant. And if you don't think it's brilliant, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you're wrong. Every, and that's what we talk, it's hard to talk about it because like, and then I brought up a quote that me and Hillary talked about for American Gods, which is also in the stack. In American Gods, there's this amazing quote about how like a map of a territory is trying to be an accurate representation of the territory and the more accurate the map is, the less useful it is because the most accurate map of a territory is the territory. So like you're gonna be further and further removed from it as you try to represent the whole. And a story is the map of itself. To try to talk about a story is like trying to draw a map of a territory and the most accurate map is the thing itself. So anyway, the quote was better than that. I should have just read you the quote. I did read it in the live with Hillary, so go watch that. But anyway, I brought it up during the chat with my patrons and I bring it up now just to say that like every single line of Good Omens is brilliant. So to try to like sum it up or talk about it, nothing I say is as good as like any single line that you just like randomly flip open to and are like, brilliant. Every single line is brilliant. I can't even like marinate in the brilliance of one line because I'm already a gog at the next line. So if you haven't read Good Omens, do yourself a favor and read Good Omens. And I'm also very excited to see what the show will do in season two, because as far as I know, Terry Pranchett and Neil Gaiman had begun to like think about and plot out a sequel but while Terry was still alive. So it's not like completely coming out of nowhere. Like we should still have like Terry's ideas in there as well in season two. So I have faith that they'll do a good job, but we'll see. Next up I read Pride and Premeditation by Terza Price. And I mentioned, or not mentioned, but one of the books in my anticipated release for the year is Sense and Second Degree Murder. And I was like, I'm excited for this but I haven't actually even read Pride and Premeditation. So I kind of was like, oh, what are we about since I put the sequel on my anticipated releases. So I got the audiobook for this from the library and it's a really good audiobook, I recommend that. And I really, really liked this. I really, really did. I was worried because I've read so many books, particularly if they're YA, but they're not always YA, that purport to either just be generally set in like a Regency time period or to be specifically retelling or to be like weaving in something that's either reminiscent of Jane Austen or he's literally Jane Austen characters or like not Jane Austen, but like a similar vibe, like mysteries to do with like the Bronte sisters. And like I always want to read that. That always sounds amazing to me and that it's always so poorly and painfully and badly executed that I'm just like offended. They're so often filled with like these try-hard but like completely wrong attempts and making it like historical or like the dialogue is just like really wordy for no reason. And you're like, okay, people were wordier back in the day. Like people, like the sentences were longer and like older books, it was just more verbose, but it wasn't just extra words in a sentence. Like that is not the same thing as the way that people used to write and speak back in the day. And so many of them to make that mistake, they're like, I just put in a bunch of extra words in there to like make it a convoluted sentence. That makes it old-timey. And like it does not because this is poorly constructed and grammatically borderline incorrect and sometimes actually incorrect. And then that too, they'll use like awkward turns of phrase that I almost sound like how they talked back then, but that is not how they talked. And I know what you're going for, but that isn't it. That's not what they would have said. That's not what they did say. That wasn't the expression. And it just like infuriates me. This book was great. It didn't do that. It was amazing. And it does take liberties, which it acknowledges that it takes those liberties. And I feel like it didn't just take liberties in the sense of like, you know how historical times were something like do whatever? No, it was very deliberate and very conscious about what liberties it was taking. And the authors know it explains what liberties were taken and what. And so it didn't feel like this author doesn't know what the shit they were doing. It felt very intentional and purposeful. And for the purpose of telling this particular story that would be like a fun project. So I had no problems with liberties taken and I thought it was really fun for anybody that is familiar with Pride and Prejudice to like to know the actual story it's based on so you can predict something. But other things were like, well, this has to be a little bit different because of how you're telling it. So like, how is it going to be different? Like you're still, it's fun to like have a Pride and Prejudice story where you don't necessarily exactly know how things are going to unfold just because we're telling a murder mystery story. So it has to necessarily be different. I recommend this. And now I'm relieved slash even more excited for sense and secondary murder because this was great. I would like more, please. Next up I have American Gods by Neil Gaiman which I've already read with Hilary from Bookborn because we're doing a little swapping of favorite authors. So we talked about ostensibly American Gods for three hours. In reality, we talked about American Gods for like an hour, an hour and a half and we all feroaded conservatively. So if you missed that live, that's available to replay on my channel. We will be reconvening on her channel to talk about Murakami in this month in February. Anyway, we both loved American Gods. This is my second time through. This was her first time reading American Gods. I mean, it's a classic for a re or a modern classic for a reason. Neil Gaiman, he's done something extremely unique here. And I think the conclusion that we both came to, she doesn't feel as strongly this way as I do, I don't think. But like the magic of this book is in its whole. So like it's really appreciated. I feel like you can only really appreciate it as a whole. Like once you finished it and like you're not currently reading it. That's how I feel about while I'm reading it like I don't think it's a bad book. Like I very much enjoy American Gods. But while I'm reading it, you can only engage with one piece of it at a time. And the thing that makes it brilliant is when you take it all together and see like the portrait that Neil Gaiman has painted in its entirety. So I likened it to an impressionist painting that like if you come up really close to it and you're looking at the individual brushstrokes, it's kind of a mess. But when you step back and you take it as a whole it's a glorious impressionist painting that is impressive and amazing and a masterpiece. So yeah, I think it's great. If you haven't read it, I'm not gonna say everyone should read this because it's, you know, everyone would like it. It's a very unusual book. Not just unusual for Gaiman, it's just a weird book by any metric. It's strange. So I get it that it, I get it not being everybody's cup of tea but I do think regardless it is brilliant. I think it would be hard to say that it's a bad book even if it's not your cup of tea. Like even if it's not something that you enjoy it would be hard to say that it's a bad book. So if you do think it's a bad book, once again, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but you're wrong. Next up was another reread and that was A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin. The discussion of this is on my channel again. This was continuing on the buddy read, read along with Jimmy from the fantasy network and Alan Sineadis. We are, we are loving A Song of Mine is in Fire. And I actually, it was extra fun for me to reread Beast for Crows because I recalled hating Beast for Crows. We're not hating it but like thinking it was by far the weakest of all the books. So it's partly benefiting from extremely low expectations but I did bump my reading up to a full five stars. And like I almost think it's my favorite but it's also partly because like all the other books I went in being like, I remember this being great. So let's see a great book. This one I remember being garbage and reading it now I was like actually some of my favorite things of A Song of Mine is in Fire are in this book. How did I, like what was I thinking? So it does suffer a bit for like very obvious reason that like it doesn't have all the characters in it and that the way that they split the events instead of chronologically, they split them by character between this and Dance with the Dragons which is, it is still a strange choice and it does suffer for that a bit. But again, some of my all time favorite things in A Song of Mine is in Fire are in Beast for Crows. It is still a brilliant book and it actually kind of has more time to sort of I guess marinate in things because like Storm of Swords is so much plot that like you don't even have time to breathe and Beast for Crows really gives you that time to breathe and kind of like sit with some of these ideas in these events. I don't know if it's because I'm older or because of my going in I have spiritual expectations or because now I have the benefit of hindsight because I know where this like I know what's in dance so I can read this with that foreall. I don't know which of those things if it's all of those things, if it's none of those things but like this experience with Beast for Crows was so good for me. Anyway, I talked about it with Jimmy and Alex for three hours almost four hours and unlike with American Gods we did say on topic we talked about Beast for Crows slash A Song of Mine is in Fire pretty much the entire time. So if you missed it the replays available to you you know maybe break up your viewing an hour a day but anyway I'm very much looking forward to Dance of the Dragons February. Oh and the live show for that will be on Alex's channel. Next up I read I'm Ask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick which I believe is a pair of authors. This is the book that my patrons chose for me to read and review and vlog for them and I low key hated it. Obviously like I talked about it a lot in the vlog I did for my patrons. Suffice to say I feel like deep, deep, deep in here somewhere is like the germ of a good story. A kernel of a good story. But the authors have so self indulgently puked a bunch of world building onto the page that it's an utter mess and it's not compellingly written or artfully written or interestingly written or even really competently written. I know a lot of people like this and I think that at its core there is something in here to like. There's so much to dislike overshadowing that that I just I struggle to find anything positive to say about this. Next up I read Ash Lord's by Scott Rankin. I had been meaning to read this for forever. I got it from Book of the Month for forever because again my hope this year is to when I have extra time to read or extra slots to fill to get through my backlog of Book of the Month book books. So we did that and plus I loved Nixia which was also by Scott Rankin that I read when it came out and I've been meaning to finish the Nixia series. But anyway, I have not finished the Nixia series but I had been interested in also seeing what this other series was about. And this was fine. It was, I feel about this. It's a very, very, very different story from Where Dreams Descend but I feel similarly about it. And it's not bad, it's not. There's nothing that I hate about this. It just feels very average and quite forgettable. Kind of forgot that I read it till I just pulled it out of the stack. It's just, it feels like very basic standard YA. There's a few things in it that I mean, I think it's a, because there's sort of this, I mean the whole thing is about a race basically. And I do think that these like Phoenix horses that I actually have no idea if he entirely invented this concept or if he, if it's actually from some kind of mythos or lore. This was my first time seeing something like this. So that the, so I think it was very, very clever. That part I enjoyed the most was just the concept of like how these Phoenix horses work and how riders manipulate the Phoenix horses. Like their ashes. I thought that was very unique. And so that, for that it gets immense credit and points from me. But I have not seen something like that before and I thought I was pretty cleverly done. But the story itself is like very simple and basic and kind of tropey. It was short and it was like exciting and it kind of like gets going right away. And there's a race and there's, you know, this built in tension when you have something like that. The world building aside from how the horses work, I think it was pretty shallow. This didn't feel like a lived in breathing world where I like, I really buy the different political factions. It felt very surface level. But the horse thing was cool. So I don't, I might read this second one. I think it's a duology. So I might read the second one, just wrap it up. But I think Nixia was a lot better. So I'm more excited to finish Nixia than to read the second book of this. Next up I read Fan Girl by Ray Morrell. And I gave this book five stars. I know, who am I? I really only read this because, well, I own it. And because, and the reason that I own it is because I really, really want to read Karrion and the Simon Snow books. But I know that Karrion and the Simon Snow books are basically a spin-off from Fan Girl because Fan Girl is about a girl who's like in our real world but she's a fan fiction writer. And the fiction, the fan fiction she's writing is inspired by this like existing IP in the universe of these books that is similar in tone and vibe to like Harry Potter but it's Simon Snow who's also like a wizard and like goes to a wizarding school and whatever. So she's like, it's like the vibe of somebody writing Harry Potter fanfic. And so like I know that the Karrion books are the, basically the fanfic she was writing because which I didn't realize, I actually thought that the Simon Snow books were meant to be the story that she is inspired by to write fanfic. But I came to realize in reading Fan Girl that it's the opposite, that the existing story that she's inspired by is not the books that are the Simon Snow books because the main character, she's basically writing slash fiction and that's what the Simon Snow books are. So anyway, point being, I only read Fan Girl because I know people told me you don't have to read Fan Girl, you could just read Karrion, but I was like, no, I must read Fan Girl. And so then I kept not reading Karrion because I kept really not wanting to read Fan Girl. So earlier this or in January, in mid January, my big plans to like do a bunch of physical reading went out the window because I had the worst attack of allergies. Like in a long time, I was just in bed all day. And when like, when it's like your eyes and nose like you can't really read. So I was just in bed, marathoning audio books because I couldn't really do anything else. So I marathoned Fan Girl like that. And it was honestly the perfect experience. I think the audio book is really good. And I really, really liked this. I thought it was really compelling and interesting and I just enjoyed it a whole lot. I think the main character was a really interesting and fun one to follow. I really identified with her. And I did not expect to like contemporary fiction about a fanfic writer in college who has like crippling social anxiety. Like that sounds like my worst nightmare, but I really enjoyed this. I thought it was very charming. So I had a great time with this. And I was like, I don't feel like I can give this five stars, but also I can't think of a single reason not to give this five stars. It was kind of the same thing with Skyward. I was like, I can't think of a single reason to not give this five stars. So yeah, I was like, fuck it, five stars. And I'm very excited to read Carrie Anne now. So anyway, yay, yay for Fan Girl. Next up, I read History of Wild Places by Shaya Earnshaw. This was my book of the month. So hence me reading it. And I feel about this very similarly to how I feel about The Maidens by Alex Michael Liedeges. Very, very different stories, but in the way that like the experience of reading it is one that I enjoyed. It's a compellingly written book. It's written in a way that's like page turning and has mystery to it if you don't know what it's about. I don't, I actually, I knew it less than I thought I did going into it. I knew that there'd be a guy going to some like remote place, some wild place, and that there would be some kind of a mystery and that it would have like possibly magical realism. So it is about that, but it's mainly about a cult, which like I ended up here, like learning that, like right around the time I was starting this book. So like I didn't know it technically before I started it, but I did know it pretty early on before the book actually gets to that point. So basically like it's, this book is definitely drawing on the village from M. Night Shyamalan. I'm almost like not quite, but almost to the point of like feeling like it's plagiarizing it. But then like the speculative elements are like both the thing that I, there is something else I hate more, but it's a very spoilery thing that I hate the most. So I can't talk about it. So then the thing that I hated most, it's not spoilery was the speculative part of it. And the cult part of it and the mystery part of it, like that's why I feel about this, the way I feel about the maidens. We're like reading it, being in this cult, that the mystery that's going on, like, I was like, oh, like this is eerie and I want to know the answer and I have questions and like, is it that and is it this and is it you and is it her? Like I was interested and I was, I was fully like immersed in the experience of reading it. But while I was reading it, I was like, okay, some of this like, oh no, that's very good. Like I'm super like into this right now, but I'm like, oh that's very good. And then the ending annoyed me a great deal. I have huge problems with the ending, massive problems with the ending. So I gave it three stars because I was like, I had a good time reading this. The ending is not good. And the book itself, even before the ending, isn't that good. So do I regret reading it? No, but is it good? Also no. So like if you were interested in this, I would say pick it up, but don't expect too much. And also you can come rage with me about the ending because what the fuck? Next up, I read Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Groudon. This has been on my shelf for a fucking century. I've been monitoring this for forever. So I finally did. And what I didn't realize was this book, just like Ash Lords is about a race. I knew that this is an alternate history to do with like what if Hitler won and this alternate universe where like it's kind of, you know, kind of like the man in the high castle. Like not at all the story of the man in the high castle, but like that kind of idea. This alternate universe where like, what if the Nazis won? I didn't realize that there would be a race. Basically this entire book is about a race. I don't know how I missed that. I don't feel like it's like a secret that it's about that. And there is what I also didn't realize, which also I don't think is a secret, is that there's a heavy kind of speculative element and I don't just mean the alternate historyness of it because that to me is I guess speculative anytime you want to alternate history, but that isn't like magical. And in that sense speculative. So here there is in addition to this alternate history and this alternate timeline. Like it's explained as it's like pseudoscience, but it's the kind of science we get in Marvel. We were like, because science, you are now a superhero. We're like, that's not how anything works. You can't like fall into acid and become a superhero. You just die. So no one falls into acid, but like there is the like, like the Nazi concentration camps and the way that like they did do scientific experimentation on like the people at the time. So like that's true. And the fact that like there was a way like you would, the story would have to end up going differently. And from where this ends, like I feel like this would fall up. This would no longer work for where I think the story is going to go next. But for this story alone, what I would have preferred. So this isn't really spoilery to tell you because when I looked it up after, I was like, it's like in the description, like it's in the blurb, but she's basically able to like the shape shift after experimentation has done on her in the Nazi camps. And like that bothers me. I think that's stupid. And it makes this whole feel really unreal. Whereas like if it had just been where, because the reason this happens is because the Nazis are like trying to see if they can like make you look like what they think is ideal humanity, i.e. Aryan. So can you turn the like the Jewish person that they believe is inferior into the ideal, which is Aryan and it ends up accidentally making her into a shape shifter. Which is the best part that I think is stupid because she's obviously able to use her shape shifting ability is to like infiltrate this race and like try to kill Hitler. You know, this is a let's kill Hitler book. But it would have worked for me so much better if it had been, it would have felt more real and therefore more compelling to me. If like they had succeeded in altering her appearance but not so she could be a shape shifter. You know, like if they had like made her look Aryan which was their intent. And so that she was, and then if she like escaped the camps but now she looks Aryan so she can pass for, you know a German citizen that is non-Jewish and thereby infiltrate like German society by passing as just German. Instead of shape shifting into somebody who looks like a specific German. You know what I mean? That part of it really didn't work for me. But aside from that, like cause like once she shape shifts into the person that she's going to look like for this race she can't really change much again cause that's what she's here to do now is to play that person. So instead of like if the story hadn't been where she shifts into looking like a specific person for this race, if she had just been like able to like through her Aryan appearance more like slight spoilers for Red Rising like Darrow just infiltrate gold society. If she had just infiltrated German society Nazi society by just looking like an Aryan person not a specific person that she shape shifted into and like slowly get her reputation to be in this race and then you know what I mean? Like that kind of story but I accepted that this is about shape shifting so like we move on. And aside from the shape shifting I do think it's well written. I do think the characters are well written. I think that the tension of the plot is really well written. I had a really good time with this. So aside from my irritation with that part of it I thought it was well done and I'm looking forward to reading the second book which is called Blood for Blood. Definitely has blood in the title. I think it's Wolf by Wolf and Blood for Blood. Okay, that literally the cover says win the race, kill Hitler or die trying. She's on a motorbike which I just realized like I only ever noticed that there's a wolf. Didn't notice the motorbike. So I had every clue at my disposal to realize this is about a race but I just didn't. So the next book that I read was Pachinko by Minjin Lee. I had no idea that this was gonna be adapted or is being adapted or is about to be released as an adaptation. I found that out after I read this. I was picking this up because it's again it's a Book of the Month Club book that I got a while ago and was like I would like to get to my Book of the Month Club books and everybody says that this book is amazing. And I thought it was pretty good until the end and it's not a situation where like a specific thing about the ending ruined it. I just thought that like by the end it just got kind of weak. The storytelling got a bit weak. So I gave this four stars because I thought on balance like very strong at the beginning it just kind of like fizzled. So what this is is a multi-generational story. It's historical fiction about Korean family. So like across multiple generations. And I just felt like the later generations were like much more service level and poorly characterized and we didn't spend that much time with them and they just began to feel like caricatures by the end. Whereas the earlier generations in the beginning of the book were much more fully developed and felt like authentic complicated human beings to me. And I just kind of started to feel like lazy grab bag of archetypes and stereotypes at the end which kind of annoyed me. And then the thing that kept me also even when I thought it was really, really good kept me from like fully loving it is that the storytelling is a little bit too arm's length for me. Like at first I thought it was kind of catching us up on the situation and that's why it was arm's length but that we would eventually kind of like get in deep with the characters but we never did. It was always this arm's length kind of narration which like I came to like I realized after enough time I was like okay this is just gonna be like this for the rest this whole book is gonna be like this. Okay. So once I accepted that I stopped expecting it to change and could accept it on its own terms but like I would have preferred it to be a little bit more close third person, a little bit more closely connected to the characters and not feel so much like very, very arm's length telling. And then the arm's length telling of it really didn't help when the characters got to be a bit more like characters and archetypes. So like the even though it was quite arm's length I did feel much more connected to the characters in the beginning, like the first couple generations. Overall I do think it's really, really good and well written and fascinating to sort of like peek into people in a culture and a time in history that I personally don't know that much about and I feel like a lot of people don't know that much about in the West. So absolutely worth reading and I would be keen to see the adaptation especially because like the later part of this would be hopefully kind of helped by the fact that actors bring more nuance to a character than an author sometimes gives. So yeah, I would recommend this. I just, I expected it to live a little bit more because of the hype that it gets I expected it to be five stars and I'm crying. I made four stars and was like, that was quite good but I couldn't fully love it the way I wanted to. Next up was another reread and that was Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkine. The chat for this is on Bethany's channel as you should slash may or may not know. She and I are doing a read-along all year long for the sort of truth. Obviously starting with Wizards First Rule. So we chatted about that on her channel. We will be chatting about Start of Tears on my channel at the end of February. This was my third time reading Wizards First Rule and it's a bit oof in the beginning. When I started reading this, I was like, I don't remember it being this badly written. It got better and I definitely think the second Bookstone of Tears is a lot better. His prose is quite bad in Wizards First Rule and part of it is also that it's not good at intro-ing you to the world. I mean, it's good how to in terms of it's quick so that's why I still recommend this as an intro to adult fantasy because it's easy to read. And I was talking in there if you missed our chat or if you don't wanna watch it because it is spoilery. I was telling Bethany that like, it's kind of jarring to read Wizards First Rule because the prose at times felt kind of middle grade to me but then like the content, it's so R rated that it's kind of jarring. I do think that Carrie Good kind of strong suit is characters and some of my favorite characters, like they aren't really themselves yet in the beginning or you haven't seen them yet. Like Richard, the main character is such a like, he's basically Christophe from Frozen in the beginning of Wizards First Rule. And in reading that, especially after you know how much he levels up even by the end of the first book, it's so like awkward and cringy, he's such a goober and I'm just like. But like my favorite literary, like fictional wizard of all time is Zedek Azul Zirander who is in this book and in all the sort of truth books. So like as soon as Zed showed up, like I started immediately to like engage that more and be like, okay, I'm having a good time with this and then like Richard stops being such a goober, like kind of points through and like the prose is still weaker in this book I think than in the second book, but I had a good time. I gave it three stars this time. My previous rating was I think five stars. And I was like, yeah, no, I can not get this five stars because like if I didn't already love these books, like I would have ripped to shreds the beginning of this book. And like I think it still like grabs you, like I still find it compelling. And even the parts that were bad in the beginning I was like, but I still feel like pulled to read it. Like I'm interested to read more. So like credit words do like that is a thing. It was interesting to read, even if I wasn't very good. So anyway, like a bit of a rough start, but like I'm super excited to read Stone of Tears. And I did read Stone of Tears very recently. So like I'm confident that like I had been much longer since I read Wizard's First Rule. And I was like, oh, oh, Stone of Tears I read last year. And I was like, it's love it. So can't wait for that. The last book that I finished in January was Small Favors by Aaron A Craig, which again I had been, well not as long, but so like I loved House of Salt and Sorrows for debut. And I didn't actually know that she'd written another book until I was talking to somebody about how much I loved House of Salt and Sorrows. And someone was like, well, have you read her newer book? And I was like, she has another book? And then I intended to read this around Halloween time because even though this is covered in like butterflies and bees, I had heard that this was like, I mean House of Salt and Sorrows was quite creepy and atmospheric. And they had told me, oh, you have to read her second book because like it's even more creepy and even more atmospheric. I didn't quite manage to read it in October. I had like 30 blocks on my TV in October. So I've finally read it now. And this ended up, I felt it, this was a better book than House of Salt and Sorrows, but it ended up feeling almost the same because House of Salt and Sorrows was amazing at creep and vibe and atmosphere. And then like the sort of answer to the mystery slash the love story really kind of kills it for me at the end. Not so bad that it utterly ruins it, but I'm just like, mm-hmm. And this one I thought we were on course to like that not ruin anything because there is a love story in this, but it's like a slightly then even more unsettling one than in House of Salt and Sorrows. And I was like, I thought it would go a little differently. And the book ends in a way that I was just like, like first the answer to like kind of what's been going on. I was like, wasn't that great an answer? It wasn't that it was, it was better when I didn't know. And then the love story part of it got to be a bit cringe and a bit YA-ish. So like I couldn't, I expected because I gave House of Salt and Sorrows, I think four stars. And I was like, this one will be a five. And then it did that. And I was like, it's four still, it's another four. A better four, like I think she's grown as an author and you can see that this is her second book because like it's like she's polishing and refining her talents. And like this is very creepy and very unsettling. And so like credit vibes immaculate, but by the end, I was like, okay, I don't love that. But I still would recommend this. And I still had a really, really good time. And I was genuinely unsettled by it multiple times. So I absolutely intend to read whatever she writes next. I believe she's working on another creepy, vibey book. So I will, and they're all stand-alounds, which is nice too. So anyway, I would still recommend. It's just like, you know. And to the last book, which I did not finish, but I will be finishing in February is For the Killing of Kings by Howard Andrew Jones. So I said in like my announcements video and also in the beginning of January, that Heather and I were given the trilogy by the publisher and intended to do a read-along of the trilogy and talk about the trilogy in a live show at the end of February. We will be talking about For the Killing of Kings at the end of February because we do not plan to finish the trilogy because what we've read of For the Killing of Kings is horrible. So we'll finish it and we will talk about it. We will not make ourselves read two more books of this nonsense. But we will read this and we will talk about it because I have a lot to say already and I haven't finished this book. I haven't finished it because I was like, Heather, have you read this? And it's pretty bad and she was like, oh dear. So like, I was like, okay, well, I have the rest. I mean, I have time now because I don't have to like cram in the next two books for the end of February. And also this is awful, but I will finish it and we will chat about it. And yeah, that should be real spicy. So yeah, those are all the books that I read in January. Let me know in the comments down below your thoughts and feelings about my thoughts and feelings. If you've read these books, if you haven't read these books, if you plan to read these books, if you never plan to read these books, whatever you want to let me know. I post videos on Saturdays, other random topics as well, but definitely Saturdays, so like and subscribe, join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you.