 Hello and welcome to my week of reading from blood and a ash by jennifer l armand trial. This is the blades and bodice rippers book cliptick so I have until today is monday. Today is monday after work after ish. I mean I stopped a little early shh don't tell anyone. And I gotta read this chunky book before Saturday before our live show. And I kind of thought that it would be fun to vlog me reading it. So this won't be like my usual reading vlogs. Like I don't really intend to like it's a work week so I don't really intend to be like filming like me cooking and like aesthetic shots of the candles and lighting. I just kind of want to capture my real-time thoughts as I make my journey through this book that like I'm given to believe based on what people who I know that have read it and who know me have said about this book basically that they are like 99% sure that I'm gonna hate it. I really hope they're wrong. I really hope that this vlog is like kind of boring because it's me just being like this is great. I am loving this unlikely but ideal because this is the longest book to be hating. So I'm I hope that this turns into like a shatter me infernal devices situation. Be quiet out there. I am talking to the camera nage all to be not driving your trucks right now. Yeah do what I say. Yeah I'm just gonna be reading this this week and sharing my thoughts as they come to me and I just found out today that they're coming to fix my kitchen sink on Wednesday in the middle of the day which means and I have to be not present at all like in my apartment for this for some reason. I think cuz there's gonna be like on a desk or something I don't know. They're like yeah you can't be here and I'm like okay well it's pandemic so we're supposed to go home. Fortunately my parents live close by so I'm gonna go to my parents house. I'm bringing up because I'm gonna bring you along in case I have time to read while I'm there so that I can continue keeping you abreast of my thoughts and feelings. So yeah that's what we are doing. Well for you it's today for me it's this week. It's a long week it will be if I hate this. Okay I'm only on page 23 and I've just learned her name is Penelope spelled P-E-N-E-L-L-A-P-H-E. I had to read it like four times because I was like I don't fancy books like to have like weird names but Penelope. Doesn't even sound cool. I don't like it at all. I'm also not really like I mean so far I'm finding it very difficult to pay attention because I don't care about what's going on. This is gonna be a long book. This is gonna be a real long video if I didn't pick this much this often but I just couldn't. This sentence like how did an editor let this slide? It's after all if they had been paying attention they would have already taken me to task over numerous things I've already done that were forbidden to me. The double already is like that's like a first draft mistake. That's like because you've forgot you wrote one already already. Oh man I'm on page 24. There is no end in sight for my nitpicks so I'm just gonna share them and then I'll just keep whichever clips I find the most interesting but I'm gonna record everything that bothers me which is basically a real line. So this sentence the left and this is not this is not plot things this is just bad sentences. The left door led upstairs to more private rooms where Britta had said all manner of things occurred. Now the construction of that sentence leaves it like I mean obviously from context because you can figure out what she was meaning to say but the construction of that sentence makes you stop and go wait. To more private rooms where Britta had said all manner of things occurred makes it sound like what you're saying is that these private rooms are a place where Britta said something not that these private rooms are a place where all manner of things occurred and you know this because Britta told you that at some point that wasn't in those rooms but the way this is constructed to more private rooms where Britta had said that makes it sound like you're telling me that what Britta said in those private rooms that's a bad sentence your sentence shouldn't be up for debate like that. And then okay so according to them there were many things a woman could do that brought pleasure while retaining their purity. So we're very confused here on the number of people and who these people are so you could say many things a woman could do that brought pleasure while retaining her purity because we are talking about a singular woman because that's how the sentence began there are many things a woman could do or you can say there are many things women could do that brought pleasure while retaining their purity. So pick one and stick with it. If we want to talk about the singular female and what she can do sure or we can talk about women at large and what they can do but many things a woman could do that brought pleasure while retaining their purity no that is just wrong. I don't know who edited this and let that slide because we're on page 27. I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it I don't even know what's happening because I'm just like that's not how sentences work. Okay cool we've made it two sentences further and I'm pissed again. Purity I hated that word the meaning behind it as if my virginity determined my goodness my innocence and its presence or lack thereof was somehow more important than the hundred choices I made every day. I mean other than the fact that this is like not the most is very unoriginal to be like talking about this like a bit fine whenever. As if my virginity determined my goodness is virginity sentient? Is virginity like a consciousness unto itself that it has the power to determine things? I think what you mean to say is that your goodness is determined by the presence or lack of virginity not that virginity independently is making determinations about your goodness because that is what this sentence means don't think that's what you mean it to mean I hate it. I was generously going to skip over this passage but then it got worse so now I'm sharing it. What had Britta the servant said about the kind of dancing that took place at the Red Pearl? For context we were told who Britta was I think that sentence that I complained about had Britta's name in it if not we've been introduced to the existence of Britta already and we know that she's a servant. So this reiteration of what had Britta the servant said about the kind of dancing that took place it was just it felt very like the servant. It was just kind of I felt like I felt offended on behalf of Britta like why are you gonna bring that into it again like like they know you know gotta keep saying it but then she lowered her voice when she spoke of it and the other maid Britta had been speaking to had looked scandalized. Now the way I read it out loud I knew what I was reading so like it was clear but when I read it the first time like instead of saying and the other maid Britta had been speaking to you could just say and the maid Britta had been speaking to. When you say the other maid I thought she was saying the other maid Britta and I was like okay so was she saying Britta the servant before because she's distinguishing between two Brittas and there's a Britta the servant and a Britta the maid that's hard at the first time so I was like okay well I don't know why you're driving home the point that Britta is the servant and then we got to and the other maid Britta I was like so there's two Brittas and then I read it again I was like oh no the other maid that Britta had been speaking to but why I got a phrase it like that why can't you just say and the maid Britta had been speaking to you know Britta the servant oh man oh man I'm on page 29 oh my god still on page 29 but this is the second time this has happened which is why I'm bringing it up because the first time I saw it I was like that's stupid but whatever now I'm seeing it twice and so now my problem with it is twofold one that it's stupid even if you use it once and two to use it twice within such a few number of pages like back-to-back like that even if it was a good thing to have said it's repetitive now so earlier I think yeah two pages before she said she rose a skirt for a lilac hued gown falling like liquid around her legs and here Abercrombie put it very very well when he said that when he first started writing his mom asked him when he came up with some flowery metaphor for like the stars in the night sky being like velvet with diamonds or whatever his mom was like is that true and he was like what and she was like is that true is that what the sky looks like does it look like velvet cloth with diamonds and he was like no no it doesn't and now he asks himself that when he writes everything is that true and that's all I could think when I read that line I was like is that true is that what a gown looks like I mean I get what she's going for that it's this really slinky silky flowy gown but does the gown fall like liquid because liquid would just continue falling off you know so like you could bring liquid into it and say that he had like a liquid like sheen or something like that but just to say that it's falling like liquid like the aspect of this gown that most resembles liquid is the way that it is falling meaning that is falling right off that's what I could out of that that's bad and so surprise surprise two pages later the red gown she wore with sleeveless cut low across her chest and the fabric clung to her body like liquid so these are the two things that liquid does that most resembles these dresses it falls and clings like liquid again the thing that I think would be the takeaway to say the liquid how to involve liquid with these dresses would be most likely the sheen the shimmer the like flowiness of it then you could bring liquid into it but apparently liquid falls and clings and these dresses fall and cling like liquid find a new new word because this one's getting old and it's bad need to get off page 39 but I'm pissed again I'm gonna leave a low in her description of the dancers because it's stupid but it's fine but I sucked in a sharp breath my eyes swinging back to the woman before me is that what eyes do do eyes swing because girl you need to get that checked out if they are falling out of your skull and swinging like that is just such a weird imagery like I know what she's going for she was going for her being like what but then it is the head that is swinging not the eyes by themselves so you can say my eyes darted back to the woman my head swung and my eyes darted back like these are all options but eyes swinging it was weird and now I'm just picturing her with her eyes hanging out of her skull being like it's not good it's not good okay it's just a grammar it's just bad writing oh my god this is so painful okay so so many things to unpack here in these three pages okay so some women so okay for context also this video filled with spoilers which I think is apparent since it's like my thoughts as I go any who sees so Poppy who her whatever was her horrible actual name Penelope but she goes by Poppy is that this ball that she shouldn't be at because she's like the maiden and we're not super clear on what that is yet but obviously she's like like this protected privileged person who has to sneak out Allah jasmine put a mask on and to go to this party where the scandalous things are happening and some woman approaches her and says something about how dancing is like sex and she's like whoa but um and this woman is like it's your first time here and she's like what no I don't know but she's like I'd recognize everyone's face and I know you haven't been here before and I also know the maidens never been here before and she's like I don't know what you're talking about I'm not the maiden and she's like yeah you are and she's like but don't worry your secret's safe with me and she's like why would my secret be safe with you and this lady is like you know well why wouldn't it be and she's like because if you go and tell the Duke and Duchess you could earn their favor it's like she's trying to convince her to give her away which like that's a bad strategy but okay so she's like you could earn the favor of the Duke and Duchess and the lady's like I have no need for a favor from them and Poppy's brain is apparently a sleeper cell for info dumping because as soon as this lady says I have no need for a favor we get all of this followed by all of this info dumping exposition about the hierarchy and the war and the all of this so that we can catch up with Poppy on why Poppy thinks it's ultra suspicious that this lady doesn't want a favor from the Duke and Duchess and like this book chose to dump us into the middle of the action without telling us anything which is an absolutely valid choice to make but you can't like that doesn't mean you just postpone the info dump that means the nature of your storytelling is the kind where you trickle in information as we go that doesn't mean when someone says something then now you info dump for two pages to catch us up you're going with the whole we're picking it up as we go along so the way this should have gone is for Poppy to just have her suspicions but not explain them to us just her obviously be worried and upset about this and be like oh my god like if she doesn't want to favor might she be one of these things and then the these things aren't explained to us but then we're sitting there with what are the these things and then later at some point we'll get more of a hint of like what the these things are and how this all works and we can be like oh not like two pages of info dumping so we can catch us up on this conversation like if you wanted to info dump why don't you start by info dumping why wait why be asleep herself and and also why this is stupid aside from the info dumping if the immediate suspicion of a person in this universe upon hearing that somebody doesn't want to favor from the Duke and Duchess if like the conclusion that you can so boldly leap to is that they might be on the side of like the baddies why would this lady who is very confident that this girl she's talking to is the maiden why would she tell the maiden that she's got no use for the Duke and Duchess that like that seems like a poor strategy on this lady's fault i mean i was criticizing Poppy for being like but you should tell on me and now this lady is like i don't need to tell on you because like i low-key hate the government and you're like why why are any of you doing the things you are doing right now all of you are stupid and this is so stupid oh no okay well let's let's carry on show us cracker on it's very hard to know but i'm fairly certain this world doesn't have electricity because that's the vibe i get so it's very immersion breaking to have her think to her or to have anyway to have the text say i froze utter shock rippling through me shorting out all common sense shorting out like electricity was there no other way that you could say this that would make more sense for this universe and with what you have access to in this universe no this is just it's weird it could have been the sense of authority that seems to bleed from his pores pores don't bleed it you can see it oozes from his pores drips from his pores you could say that the sense of authority that seems to course through his very blood or something but bleeds from his pores and i'm just like picturing him having a bowl of oh my god he's like visual metaphors but i'm not working for me i would just also quickly like to say that now on page 38 and these first 38 pages have had a criminal amount of telling over showing like the amount of like infoderms that we get the amount of like just this whole paragraph where we had the bleeding pores is a massive info dump about this fella that just showed up his name's hawk wouldn't you know it and like it's it's not subtle and we just he shows up and now we get a giant paragraph that takes it more than half the page info dumping about him being like a wild cat with bleeding pores of authority and it's bad it's bad sorry uh it wasn't just this paragraph that info dump about this man this info dump is carried on to the bottom of the next page and let me take a quick peek okay so it ends on the top of the next so like three pages of info dumping or sorry two whole pages of info dumping about this guy like i would like to know what's going on in the scene is he just waiting for her and she like goes all matrix and like has an info dump in her head like it's it's a lot it's a lot and it's the most cringy cliche stuff that i have read in a long time wouldn't you know it he's got amazing eyes and an amazing jaw and if everything's chiseled and everything's piercing and everything is just like male as fuck but he's beautiful and she's just like all jelly over him and like uh i don't know what i expected oh but sorry let's not forget this first info dump about this fella with the chiseled everything is also already telling us that he's in pain my god was there just like a checklist for stuff that make women wet and this is just going like point by point going got the eyes got the jaw got the cheekbones got the height got the bleeding pores of authority and he's always in pain are you wet yet i rescind my earlier criticism about electricity because apparently on page 62 i've learned that there is in fact electricity in this world and i must say as much as i like i don't especially love heavy amounts of description of the how places like how people look whatever i'm just i am nothing's being described within the liquid dresses and the sexiness of the people like i am not picturing this world at all and i realized it's because none of it's been described at all and like it's quite a shock on page 62 to hear that her quarters like she stays in them because of like because she's able to sneak out of them and then that more than makes up for the fact um she said that the door was one of the reasons i'd never asked to be moved to the newer renovated parts of the stronghold it more than compensated for the lack of electricity and the constant chili draft blah blah blah so apparently there's electricity but they made me fight with daggers like what she's got to protect herself with is a dagger not a gun and like the guards that she's described training like they've got swords swords and electricity no guns no electric weapons of any kind like tasers nope i'm just i'm very very confused so it's been a minute since i checked them with you so i figured i should check in because i haven't um and it is nearly thursday it is it's wednesday but it's almost midnight um i am at my parents house as i said i would be um reading blood and ash tonight um i've just been reading for a little while before bed and i'm not far into it i'm not even at 200 pages because last night unlike tonight last night after i filled a couple clips of me reading i got sleepy like immediately i went to bed at like 9 30 like and then today i had a very busy day so i didn't get much reading in during the day um so and i'm about to go to bed because it's half midnight um so i have a lot of reading to do tomorrow and friday and i am not looking forward to it because this book is not getting better i can't keep filming clips every single time a sentence is badly written because it's every sentence literally every sentence like not all of them are so egregious as the ones that i singled out for um execution but none are good like literally none it's so it's pretty painful to read and then the plot like isn't a plot yet and i'm almost 200 pages in so this was a movie like the inciting incident has not yet occurred this by the way used to be my mug i bought it at disney world and brought it all the way home to california um but my dad stole it so i only get to drink from it whatever my parents have and use these um yeah so there really isn't a plot yet there's just like lots of cringy character moments and um this whole thing about the maiden like the world is like already complained is like not described at all basically basically at all what is explained is poorly explained so i can't really like extrapolate from what's explained any further like assumptions about the world or what i meant understand about it and okay so like we've been told over and over and over again and the fact of the book fucking tells you that she poppy penelope is the maiden and apparently that's a big fucking deal and it needs must needs be protected and guarded and kept pure and like woe betide you if you besmirch her maidenhood and we're told over and over again that her being the maiden is like tied to or important to or related to the ascension and there are ascended that have gone through ascension and something to do with gods and that's all i know i'm not being vague i'm not like skipping over bits that's literally all that's known basically and i just found out on page 160 that apparently the ascended i.e the people who went through ascension are nocturnal for some reason i guess they're vampires then because also it's been alluded to that the ascended are immortal but it sounds like it's just like human people that go through ascension and become ascended and for some reason our main character is the maiden it is it remains entirely unclear why like her virginity in particular is tied to mold it's and they they keep making it clear to that it's not just her ascension that is tied to her virginity it's everybody's ascension this go round like this and like this graduating class needs to have its valedictorian be pure basically is how it comes across and like the world is like is fairly medieval-ish i mean obviously it's purity conventions seem archaic and then the swords and daggers and guards guarding the maiden but they all talk like they're on the cw and there's again as i mentioned before electricity so like i'm just like i don't even know what i'm supposed to be picturing i don't care about anything there isn't even a plot to keep me going well i wonder because i'm just like nothing is happening like stuff's happening but it's just like you know she's like going about her days feeling some kind of way about some guy that she had like explicit encounter with who was like the most cw described guy ever like some people getting murdered she's like going about her day wondering stuff and it's like almost 200 pages and like i'm what what is if i was reading it for the romance there's not nearly enough of that and i mean i'm frankly i'm delighted about that because the bit it opened quite early with romance i was like oh my god we're starting here like is it just gonna be like this the whole time but no we moved away from that but we're not really doing anything else and if i was reading it for the romance i'd be like where's the romance i would like to read it for the plot there is no plot there certainly isn't any character work being done no incredible themes are being explored it's just a bangle fat bunch of poorly written nothing but i have to read 400 more pages so i just thought i'd let you know before i call it a night and uh yeah i'll be reading the rest tomorrow and Friday but i can be ready for the live show it will be spicy there have been so many things that i almost got up to get my camera to tell you about and i was like uh whatever like i can't keep stopping i need to fucking finish this book i have so much of it left to go i was like i can't keep stopping to complain about shit even though everything is stupid but this one i was like nah i gotta i gotta so hawk mr sex man has become poppy's newest guard everyone's surprised because previous guard died in some mysterious tragic way and i felt nothing so uh he's like talking all flirty and and you know how they do the purring and the the flashing eyes the blah blah blah but okay so he i've just learned her nickname is poppy uh because her friend said poppy and he's like poppy and she's like yeah it's her nickname poppy he repeated in a way that made it sound as if my name was wrapped in chocolate and would roll off his tongue um the the name poppy is quite short and in fact it's quite like um there's a word for that but like there's not a lot of like vowel sounds in it not a lot of soft sounds like if it had a lot of L's in it or something you could i mean it's still a really dumb way to put it but poppy how did something that was all like there's a word for it again or like words that are like mainly in the front of your mouth versus like the tongue versus like the back of your throat anyway that poppy is like all here so how did he make poppy sound like it was gonna be wrapped in chocolate and rolling it off his tongue poppy that's a neat trick sir i'm not gonna lie that's a neat trick most impressive i am now wet for you as well so friends i did it i finished from blood and ash by jennifer all arm and drought and i'm about to well i'm about to i mean this morning we're doing the live show for it so i decided to sneak in like a wrap up of my thoughts before that in case my friends changed my mind or something i don't know yeah so i stopped filming clips because every sentence maybe want to die every plot point i use air quotes because there isn't really a plot uh maybe want to die um and i hadn't i had to finish this like if i this wasn't a live show thing like if i was just like for some other reason picking up a book that i did not want to read and blogging it and i had my i could take my time i probably would have kept going and just stopping but i needed to finish before today so i knew that like the sentence structure was gonna kill me so i got it on audio and just knocked it out on audio yesterday all the way through and i thought about breaking out my camera because like while i was in the kitchen i was like you know i had my headphones on and i was like doing stuff in the kitchen and i was like stirring my tuneless tuna salad well um there were some you know r-rated things happening and like i could feel my face while i was stirring being like but i was like what like two like seconds of me stirring and grimacing like i don't know if that's that's worth it i'll just tell you about it like i just did so just imagine i have a bowl and headphones and you've got it this book was uh everything i hate a while ago i filmed or i posted a video called like what makes a book bad uh brought to you by the air awaken series by alice cova um and this reminded me and it had a lot of the things in it that the air awaken series has so i would say if uh you're watching this and you haven't read it yet and you are still interested in reading it um even though i've spoiled things i would say if you like the air awaken series by alice cova you would probably like this and vice versa if you like from blood and ash then i recommend the air awaken series if you haven't read it because i hated it but they're quite similar and both are quite popular so i feel like i am clearly not the target audience for this i don't understand those like what people are getting out of these but clearly they're getting something out of it because both series are very popular so okay so nothing was a surprise uh except for like how much i hated it how bad it was like i was quite nervous that like i wasn't going to love this but it was worse than i thought it was going to be the writing i've covered extensively how bad just the prose the prose is bad like borderline improper grammar at times it's not borderline it is actually an incorrect sentence a lot of the time but so then the the plot um it felt like it was just we were jumping from wish fulfillment to wish fulfillment to wish fulfillment it was just like a collection of scenes that the author like felt some kind of way about and wanted to write so it's just like orchestrated events to like get us to the next one and then to the next one and then to the next one and not everything felt contrived for that reason it felt like it was just there to like create the opportunity to have this scene that the author wanted to have uh to create this moment or even to give the opportunity for characters to say a line because the line was like you could tell like the scene was here to have this line because we're all going to cream our pants over it or something that certainly wasn't and then like the mystery was it was basically like i said it was like thrown in class i was like so the twist is that there is no twist because it's basically okay so like the plot if there is one is this girl panellope poppy just like going about her day every day not knowing diddly about like her own world and feeling some kind of way about this like mister like re-sant hotness dude who's like acting real sus all the time and everyone who's handling her is acting real sus all the time and everything in her life is real sus all the time and she's just like but that's just how it be and that feels so chapped and let me just soapbox about feminism for a second internally let me soapbox about women's agency let me soapbox about women's autonomy of their on their over their bodies but then let me go back to being dumb and ineffectual and like oh oh my god uh air wagons do this all the time and this book did it too where like it's just not believable or realistic and it's unearned when your main character shows up and like does something and other characters comment on it and you're like once in a while for a Karen to be like damn like you're kind of badass but every time she did something there had to be another character around to be like oh i wasn't expecting a girl to be so skilled they're like wow she could really hold her own or like she's brighter than you thought isn't she just like someone shining in from the chorus to be like she's the shit like that's not character development and that's not building up her image because it's not believable or realistic that all these characters are just like singing her brazes all the time and she's just like and then the main guy oh my his lines were so so cringe and like i am here for it and i agree that it should be there that like romances should have explicit consent it's not even if it is slightly unrealistic it isn't nice to have a dude who like cares about her first and her needs first her pleasure first whatever but i have had it with these like absurd scenes where like in the middle of like love making the dude'll just stop to be like if you ask me to stop i will because i would never do anything that you don't want and i want you to say that you want me and if you don't say that you want me then despite the fact that i need you and it might kill me to not now be inside of you i will still like just like you're like oh my god please fuck off like please fuck off no one talks like this this doesn't even like it can't even fill a like a fantasy need because that it's too unbelievable i'm like no like if that happened irl i'd be like chill dude chill and again like the characters like they constantly talk about how much they are into each other and need each other or they are banging i mean i don't mean actual banging but like like i mean they do do that but or doing something touchy kissing and like or wanting or thinking about how they want to and it's all that's lust like news flash that's not love that's lust and the amount of times where they conflate those things is navigating and when they're like oh but you know i think i love him like why why do you love him you lust for him and that is understandable because he's been described as a god among men chiseled everything so sure you want to hit that girl you know i feel you hit that and when he like what does he see in her like apparently i guess she's pretty apart from the fact that she's got some scars on her face that she feels very like embarrassed about which there's some justification for that even though the the way it was handled by the book the scenes that were written to establish this that she's been abused by abusive bullies like physically abused and verbally abused by them um and you know it's really toxic like that type of situation like that would be an absolutely interesting and relevant and important thing to portray but the way it was portrayed was just as hamfisted and unrealistic as everything else so i i couldn't like appreciate what it was doing because what it was doing was just like it felt less like it wanted to explore like the trauma of long-term abuse and more like it wanted to establish that abuse was going just so that we could have a scene where the dude finds out about the abuse and he's like how dare they touch you that's not acceptable let me kill the person that was touching you like that um so she can be like wow like what a guy it didn't you know what i mean so like i couldn't be like wow like good job for like handling abuse because i didn't feel like for handling abuse i felt like you just wanted to make main guy look even better because he's against this like obviously reprehensible abuse this is not a gray area most people like would be like damn that's fucked up you know like the bar is quite low at this point but yeah so like i guess he says i mean he says you're beautiful and she's like wow he thinks i'm beautiful he's probably just saying that and he's like no like i think you're beautiful and she's like wow he said it again like i guess maybe he really means it or something now i'm in love because he gave you the time of day because he didn't treat you like an object or like a doormat and she's like in love which like again if i felt like this book was trying to explore how messy and complicated emotions like that are when like the first person to show you to treat you like a human being is like you know that you'd latch onto that that makes sense but the book doesn't feel like it's saying like like it's just portraying the situation and all its messiness it's romanticizing the fuck out of it being like oh isn't he swoon worthy for giving her the time of day and you're like no no he's not but again i don't know what he sees in her either because like all he ever has to say about her is you're pretty and also like how dare they treat you like this you deserve better but like what is it that you love about her because we went we escalates very quickly i mean i say quickly this is a long-ass fucking book but in terms of like where they're at in their relationship it's very quick when we get to like it'll kill me to be without you and i can't live without you and i'm just like but why that y'all want to bang i get that hormones pheromones all the moans i get that well love no no no no honey this is not love this is uh this is like an abused person latching on to like a savior kind of and it's not healthy and it's not romantic and it's not handled well because again you can tell a story like that because that does happen and it's not like that those stories shouldn't be told but this story isn't telling us the messy ugly tragedy of that type of situation it's just setting up all these other people to be like cardboard cutout baddies so that by contrast despite all of the villainous things that hawk does he's not as bad as these guys who were literally abusing you so you're like guess he's better boyfriend of the year and yeah and then again like aside from the romance like the the foreshadowing or the clues that are left for the mystery of like who who is who and what's going on and who has the power i don't know i'm being i mean mainly i'm being vague just because i don't want to bother explaining it but not so much because i'm trying not to spoil it but like okay so we find out pretty early on that these people the ascended are kind of immortal and they're nocturnal and they're real sus and they keep taking children from other families and those children never see those children again because they're given to the gods and you're like and then you're also told that there are okay so the ascended those are like that's the team we're on even though they're real sus but the dissenters not d-i-s-s-e-n-t but dissenters because ascended and desend but like also sounds like dissenter and they are anti the ascended so like i want to give it credit for wordplay but i also don't because it's stupid where they're obviously anti the government and they keep screaming from blood and ash we will rise which like every time that happened i was like this doesn't feel like an organic cry for revolution feels like it was there so we could call the book this which great but yeah i was like okay so the people who are controlling her life everyone it's not like everyone in charge seems really nice except for this one abusive guy they all are kind of horrible and she's like why can't i do anything and why can't i have friends and why am i not allowed to have human things and my life is the worst but i'm the maiden and i get abused physically by these people but i gotta do it because we're the goodies because they wouldn't be doing these things they didn't need to i as the reader i'm like okay so the people in charge of you are baddies and possibly vampires because they are immortal and nocturnal and then i was right they are basically vampires and like early early in the book we get told that wolven are extinct and she's got like a wolven bone dagger and i was like okay wolven are not extinct you bothered to tell me about this in the beginning of the book because they're definitely not extinct they're definitely gonna come into it and they did so it's basically vampires and werewolves this is what we're going on and i was like oh it's twilight i got you and then the reveal that hawk is actually like the dark one aka like the prince of like the atlantians oh and let me just say this book didn't bother to world build at all because in addition to not explaining this religion that is like a pseudo religion that's actually vampires just wanting like a ready steady supply of victims they reference Pompeii, Macedonia, Atlantis like real places but we're just like gonna say that there was vampires and shit i guess why not but yeah also like the fact that okay so the beginning i was asking my fellow reading buddies i was like did i miss something and i said it in my vlog i think too when i was like did i miss a page because i don't understand who these ascended are like why what is the ceremony what is the ascension and why do they need a virgin maiden who's veiled her whole life to be given to the gods like none of this is explained like why that's necessary and like my reading buddies are like oh like it's it's like kind of part of the mystery like you'll find out later kind of and like the reveal is like you know you're not supposed to know because poppy doesn't know because there isn't really a reason for it because they're the baddies and i was like that's so horrible like that's bad writing for us to go with this and for us to feel like it's a big reveal that they aren't really what they say they are and that this is actually like they're the baddies you can't just give us no information other than blind faith and then the reveal is they're actually the baddies i'm like yeah well no shit why couldn't why couldn't she write like poor reasons or some kind of reasons that the maiden poppy believes are the reasons why this has to happen because realistically for them to be so successful at pulling the wool over people's eyes for so long they would have to have a more solid explanation for like the foundation of this faith so that the and then the reader should be told it as well to be like well you need the maiden so that she can do this and even if it's a lie then that's what she believes like i need to be sacrificed so that i can you know so that this happens so that this is how it works like people can't ascend and they need me about because this because they even point out that like she's the first maiden in like centuries and like but it's really important that she's like that she ascends she's like well what did they do all the centuries and they didn't have a maiden like what's the big deal what if i don't ascend like what will change how will that be different because again they didn't have one a while for all this time and she doesn't know the answer to it i'm like yeah but she's like that i have to commit to this what if i'm unworthy i'm like what does any of that mean like again she's like it felt like lazy writing i get that the reveal is that like always because it's a fake religion like but even a fake religion would have to have actual tenets of their beliefs for people to go along with it so it was bad and stupid and cringy and i wanted to die okay i think i'm i'm out that's all i have to say so yeah nothing was surprising nothing was shocking nothing was romantic nothing was epic the prose was bad the dialogue was bad world building was non-existent it was terrible it was one of the worst things i've ever read like one of the worst like i think i might like airwagons better little teeny bit like half star better um and i think i i definitely like i serpent and dove i gave two stars i gave this one star i serpent and dove at least had moments that kind of had me laugh like there was actually like occasional humor that worked for me and i'll never this whole book i was just like so do do not recommend will say ten out of ten love this cover and i didn't draw attention to it before but that is the maiden always has to wear white so because she's you know virginal maiden or whatever purity et cetera so i decided to go with this because i felt kind of made any and then the cover you know and the blood i decided to go for like a blood red lip so i hated it but i did dress for the occasion also this kind of has vampire vibes and they're basically vampires so yeah that does it let me know in the comments down below if you've read from blood and ash how you felt about from blood and ash if i've convinced you not to read from blood and ash which how could i not blowing all the things i post videos on saturdays other random times as well but definitely saturdays so like and subscribe and i'll see you when i see you