 Would I recommend it? If you like dystopian YA with a bit of a twist, a bit of a twist day, then are you want a day twist day? Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel. My name is Megan if you are new here and there is quite a lot of you new here. So basically what I was thinking of was, oh fuck, I can't believe you've done this. My last video that I posted, you'll see it on my channel, I don't really need to plug it. But it was my reading my favourite books on my childhood video inspired by Kayla, Books and Lala. And she shared it on her Instagram and it's been pretty crazy so there's quite a lot of you here from that. Welcome! If you are new here, this is going to be a bit more of a chill video. Usually I try to do quite like, I don't know, not imaginative but like a lot of videos I'm trying to come up with are slightly original. Or inspired by the people or whatever, you know, like I'm trying to give them fun. I don't want to call this not fun but like I'm trying to do fun videos. And today I'm just bound to pressure and I'm doing a wrap up. No, we love wrap ups. I'm also doing it because I need an easy video to film because I have so much work to do for uni. They ask you how you are, you just have to say that you're fine and you're not really fine but you just can't get into it because they would never understand. Thank you to, you know, everyone who has shared my content over the past couple of days and thank you to everyone who has come and clicked subscribe, you know, liked it enough to click subscribe. Before I actually get into the wrap up I just quickly want to give a couple shout out slash recommendations for people that I think you should be subscribed to. I'm trying to keep all people like under 1k for now and I want to start doing this more often. This will be really quick, by the way. Don't be like, oh my God, she's taking so long. We're gonna speed. The first one who I want to shout out like individually is Nicole from Nicole in her book. She's just hit 700 subscribers and she's incredible. She was like the first person that made me feel such, such, like such a part of the community. Like honestly, when Nicole interact with me for the first time and she started coming to my videos I felt like I'd made it. Like I felt like, okay, I'm here now. Go on any of my videos and look for her comments. She doesn't leave paragraphs, she leaves essays. This bitch writes an essay on like everyone's video. She is just unparalleled. She is just, there's no one like her. So her content is incredible. I love her vlogs and she's created quite a few like tags I think. She made the readers journey tag which you've probably seen a few people doing. She's amazing. So yeah, definitely go subscribe to her. Her link will be in the description. And then the other group of people that I want to shout out is actually a group that I'm in on Twitter, like a private group. And it's called Under 500. That's what it was named. It's all people who at the time of making it or since have joined had Under 500 subscribers. And they are just the loveliest, loveliest people and they all make such great content. Hopefully I'll have like all of their faces, almost their faces up around me. And we actually have a playlist which we use to like watch each other's videos. I'm gonna link that down below so that you can go on there and like just watch a few. Like if we all just watch a few, give everyone a bit of a sprinkle of love and everyone will get loads of love. Do you know what I'm saying? I'm not asking you. There's like 30 people. So it would be wrong of me to go, go subscribe to them all. But you should do that. But it would be wrong of me to expect that. So what I'm gonna say is just go have a little dabble. Just go have a little dabble. You might find that you stay there. But they are all so deserving of so many more subscribers. They all work so hard on their content. So in the month of October I read 10 books. Now this is probably gonna be tired of my most successful reading month. That's a bit of an arbitrary statement. Is that the right word? Who knows? I never use the right words. But it's a bit of like a... I've tricked you a bit. I read the most books I've read. Ten books is the most books I've read in a month. But I read a lot of short books. So it's not the most pages I've read. And it's not the most like five stars I've read or anything like that. But in terms of pure books, it is my most successful reading month. I read six physical books and four audio books. I usually don't actually read that many audio books in a month. But I listen to two quite short ones. Also I've joined the book club at my uni. And all the books we've read so far, three of them were in that month. So three of them were the audio books. And I've listened... I've read every book club book as an audio book. Because essentially what I'm trying to say, I can't get my words out. Starting off, I don't want to spend too long on these three. This is Love Aubrey by Suzanne Lafleur. Girl Missing by Sophie McKenzie. And Ginger Snouts by Kathy Cassidy. These are all books that I read in my last video which I just put out. And I would love for you to go check that out instead of I'm not going to say anything about this. Other than it was an experience. It was an experience. It was an emotional rollercoaster. So everyone has been saying, girl, like you went up and down so much in this video. And yes, yes I did. So if you've watched that video, if you're new here, you've probably watched that video. And if you haven't, I don't want to spoil it. Because I'm quite proud of it. I'll just tell you there was a five star, a three star and a one star in the mix. So it wasn't what I thought it would be. So now I'm going to go through chronologically because I think that's just the best way to do this. So the first book I read in October was Truth to Power. Seven Ways to Call Time on BS by Jess Phillips MP. I also have a video on this. So I'll link that up above. I met the author. It was my first ever book signing or bookish event I ever went to. And it was a great experience. Now this is a great piece of nonfiction if you're looking into getting into more nonfiction. It essentially takes you through how to either be an activist and call BS on those in power. Oh my God, and call BS on those in power. Or how to support those kinds of causes. She has a lot of great interviews in this. I think it's essentially seven chapters. And each chapter speaks to a different individual. She spoke to people who led the campaign to legalize abortion in Northern Ireland. She spoke to Harvey Weinstein's ex-assistant who wasn't part of the big reveal on him. But years and years and years before that. He had raped her assistant. No, he had attempted to rape her assistant. And so she went at him with all the power she had in that moment. But obviously she didn't know what a large scale problem it was. And how long he'd been doing it. And how long he would continue to do it. So she wasn't able to like go public. But in terms of her situation at the time she did a lot. She did really, really well. I would recommend this to everyone who is living in a hostile political climate. Which is many of us at the moment. We are all living in troubled times. And I saw it as like a beacon of hope. To say yes, horrible people may be in power. But we have the power to call BS on those in power. I just really like her writing. It's super easy to read. You could read this in like an hour probably. You could just go and read it. Next I read the picture of Dorian Gray on an audiobook. Can you not? Can you not? I've seen quite a few people like this. I didn't hate it. I gave it three stars. Oh, I should have said this was four stars. Sorry. This was four stars. How unprofessional of me. I gave the picture of Dorian Gray three stars. Now I didn't hate it. But I've seen... Who did I see? Oh, Isabella, the author of Pages gave it five stars I think. I just didn't feel the same. I didn't like the really long chapters of it going through like history. Like ancient history. I don't understand the purpose of that. I didn't understand the way the certain characters acted in it. I mean, I didn't mind the ending, but to me it was just like meh. It was fine. She just doesn't have the vernacular that she thinks she possesses. Somebody lied to her several times and told her that she was fly hot and sexy and beautiful. And she's nothing like that. She's nothing of this sort. I thought it raised some interesting questions about who we idolize in our society and who we appreciate most. If you don't know, picture of Dorian Gray is about a man who everyone really admires. He's seen as very handsome, very young, and a portrait is painted of him. He hates the fact that he's going to age and the picture isn't going to. And at that point something happens that causes the painting to age and change as he does certain actions, and for him not to age. But did I have a really enjoyable reading experience? No. Did it feel a bit like a slog that at times I just had to get through? Yes. Did I really up my listening speed to just get through it? Yes. The next book I read this month was Validate Me by Charlie Cox. Now again, I don't want to say too much about this because late this month I will have a video coming out about this. It's just been pushed back and back with I don't want to have a reading vlog consecutively because I'm a weirdo. Like I want them to be spaced out like every two or so videos. And so because I've got other vlogs I wanted to get up before this, this has just been pushed back. Boiler alert, I gave it five stars. This man has ability. He has reflexes. He has legs. This is a poetry collection by Charlie Cox who is my favorite poetry author. She is incredible. She writes kind of like millennial poetry, what it's like to be a young woman. She speaks very openly about her mental health and a lot of her poems sent on her mental health. And this is split into four sections which are objectify me, love me, suffocate me, validate me. So if you've ever seen me on Twitter using a line, won't you please, please just validate me. That is in like the first poem in this and I went to a book signing in for this which there'll be the vlog of. And there was that line and it just like resonated me. Like won't you please just validate me. We all feel like that. I guess like we all want validation with the healthily or not. And when I say that I am joking, like I am being sarcastic. But it's refreshing for someone to be so honest about our need for attention and validation and to feel like we're being appreciated. Not just like I'm not just talking on booktube. I'm talking in all areas of life in our romantic relationships and our family relationships and our friends like everything. We all feel that this is just so good. I want to reread both her poetry collections really soon. And just like as a bit of a teaser, this was the best author experience I have ever had. I think it was a really special moment when I got to speak to her and she is such a lovely and down-to-earth person. And if you like poetry, definitely, definitely, definitely pick this up. She is incredible and the way she writes is so refreshing. It's a very accessible poetry. I've never read poetry before. I would recommend either this or She Must Be Mad, which is her previous book. I've spoken about that before on my channel. If you are thinking, Megan, it's coming through the air and I am not close to finishing my Goodreads reading goal. And you want to finish it. There's nothing wrong with that. You want some quick books. Give me a second. Just give me a second. I'm partially lying to you. There are pages that are entirely like this. But there are also pages that are like this. You can't tell me it doesn't excite you as someone who wants to finish their reading goal. You can't tell me and look at that and go, Yeah, I'll give it a try. Yeah, come on then. Don't thank me now or thank me later. Or thank me now. I'll take either. The next book I read was Every Heart Adore by Shawna McGuire on audiobook. I actually really enjoyed the audiobook for this. This is essentially about a school for wayward children who are children who have entered portals and gone into other magical realms and then they have had to come back and learn how to kind of reintegrate themselves in society, but they don't want to. This is the school for the kids who don't want to reintegrate back into society. And we just kind of learn about all these different worlds. It's a very, very short book. It's a very short audiobook. So again, if you're looking to get close to that reading goal, I'm your girl for recommendations because I read short books this month. We follow. Oh my God, what's her name? I've forgotten her name. Nancy. Okay. So Nancy is our kind of protagonist for this group and she went into a world of the dead, of skeletons. They're all kind of confusing and never really stated, but that's where she went and she desperately wants to go back and she comes to the school and people start dying. So it's kind of like a murder mystery. And throughout most of this book, I was thinking of giving it five stars. However, towards the end, not towards the end, probably like three quarters in, a little bit less than three quarters in, I figured out what was going on. And I remember thinking if it's that easy, if that line has given it away, because there's one line that made me realize everything that was going on. And I just thought if that one line has given it away, I'm going to be so pissed off and it had. Like I had got it right. So I ended up giving it four stars. I loved the writing. I loved the universe. I loved the world. It was so imaginative. It was like everything I crave. I love that kind of whimsical, odd writing. I love weird shit. I love weird shit. In case you hadn't guessed this about me already, the weirdest shit, bring it at me. Just my kind of thing, but I got annoyed at the ending. What can I say? It pissed me off. I think if you have had a lot of things about this and be interested, definitely look at the audiobook on screen because it's really well done actually. It is really well done. The music that opens it, like you can imagine it opening a film. And you're like, let's go. We are moving on. Did anyone ever go to Universal Studios in Florida and there was the disaster ride? Anyone? Anyone get my references? And they go, we are. And you'll go moving on because it's like a walkthrough thing where you film a film and then you're all in the film at the end and it's brilliant but it got knocked down by some furious ride which is the worst thing in the world. They have never been on the worst ride in my life. Is there any Universal in Disney World's Florida stands? Let's talk about it in the comments because that's me. I'm like, Anna. Yep, that's me. Next I listened to The Perfect Nanny or Lullaby. It's called Lullaby in the UK but it's called The Perfect Nanny elsewhere. On audiobook, I gave this three stars. It's kind of like a 2.75. It opens up telling you the baby is dead, the other child dies soon or whatever. And you know from the beginning that the nanny who's with this family has killed the child. Dun, dun, dun. What was that? Dun, dun, dun. We follow the family, the parents as they figure out they need a nanny and have the nanny and things start getting weird but only towards the end. And this was my main issue. Are we the nanny to be crazier? Do you never really get the sense that she is capable, in my opinion, capable of killing these children? There is one scene with a chicken that has been taken out of the bin and I really use the spoiler but like maybe it is so I'll put a picture of me looking bad up again. The mum put the chicken in the bin because the meat was off and the nanny had a thing about not wasting meat so she made the children take the chicken out of the bin and they all ate the chicken together and when the mum gets home just the bones of the chicken corpse are sitting on the table just like perfectly aligned. That was the only moment where I was like oh shit she's crazy, she's crazy but is doing that making you crazy enough to kill a kid? I don't think so, I wanted more just as I felt like we were starting to ramp up and get going it ended I was like, is that it? Is that it? I wanted more. I just felt like it was meh, meh I didn't really care about any of the characters I didn't like them, I wouldn't recommend it it's a very popular book particularly like in France I think where it's an original translation it's translated into English which I think Maya may have been part of the problem but even then the plot was like The next book I read was probably one of the most exciting books I read this month and that was Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson now this follows Stevie who has gone to an elite kind of boarding school for special individuals like people with talents in very specialised areas and hers is kind of murder mystery she's very into true crime her kind of project is she wants to solve the murder that took place in the boarding school in the 1930s and that's what it's kind of notorious for but when she gets there, shit starts happening there you go through both timelines trying to get answers in both timelines I thought this was good it was four stars I have that it was just good, it was just really good but it's definitely a character driven story and you wouldn't think that me tell you that but I think the plot suffers from there being these two timelines which not equal attention is paid to but very similar attention is paid to I think that's a very difficult thing to do successfully especially in more of a light YA novel something like Ninth House which is a lot heavier which I'm reading at the moment I'm hoping better with it because A, the timelines are closer together so they're kind of answering questions from each other and B it has that kind of more heaviness to go into depth if you get what I'm saying I just felt like I wanted a little bit more I'm still going to read all of the series obviously I gave it four stars and last book I read in October was The Quiet at the End of the World this follows two children, two teenagers who are the last humans on earth there was a mass virus that wiped out the fertility in the human race so the human race has been slowly dying off and there has been embryos saved and they were the last two embryos to be born and there's only 300 people left in the world and they're all living in London together and things start to go wrong for this pair and for their community a lot of people start falling ill a lot of the elders in their community and it's them kind of figuring out their relationship with each other and also how to help kind of save humanity I guess there were times where I was a little bit bored in the audiobook it wasn't I gave this three stars it was good there were times I really enjoyed it there was a twist I was shook I couldn't it was the one of the weirdest twists I I've ever I've ever heard like I remember just sitting there like I didn't like when things were in turmoil how they acted towards each other there was a romance section and I just felt like they were getting all lovey dovey at the wrong moment where it just wasn't realistic like people need your help and you are just wasting time snogging like I don't I I hate that I hate that I hate it like something something that the Scythe series does well is there's a kind of romance in that but it never comes in the way of the shit they need to get done this it does and it will arguably a more urgent situation they were just like like you've known each other since you've been born and you're choosing now you are really choosing now and that just pissed me off so much the twist was good could have made it a four star that three star three star I got so angry would I recommend it if you like dystopian YA with a bit of a twist a bit of a twist a then you want today twist a maybe I recommend it see what you think and don't blame me if you don't like it because I only gave it three stars so there we have it that is all the books I read in October let me know what your favorite book you read in October was down below again sorry it's late I thought about you know uploading it at a normal time but then I thought no I can do what I want let's upload it late so that's what I did and yeah make sure you let me know what your favorite or least favorite book of the month was thank you as always for watching I cannot emphasize just how much I appreciate it I am always so thankful and yeah I will see you soon with another video bye