 Hey guys it's Leanna and I'm here today to talk about My Life's Spy John Gwynn. This is a book event that seems universally loved by everybody that's read it, with extremely few exceptions. So I am prepared for this to be my next wave of kings where I don't get it. And I don't know and I really hope that the fan base isn't rabid and isn't going to come after me for not liking it. But if they are, well come at me bro. This book gets like 4 and 5 stars of reviews from pretty much everyone that reads it. I have been looking forward to reading this series ever since I first saw the covers. I bought all 4 books in this series, all at once because I was so sure that I was going to like it. And it was so bad, it was so boring and so juvenile and so just so painfully mediocre. It reads like a bunch of cardboard cut out characters walking through a cardboard world that's like every single high fantasy trope. It's like larping. It's like... Okay so I was talking to a friend about this and it kind of, you know I'm going to insult like every single person in the universe but here we go. The way that Sarah J Mass Books I feel like appeal to girls in a way that like it doesn't make for a good story, doesn't make for quality writing but makes for like feeling a need. Like things that girls want to see, want to read about, want to see themselves in. It's delivering that in a way that like is satisfying to its intended audience. It doesn't again make it objectively good writing but it's doing that. Malastany reads like that for boys where it's not good writing, it is not good story or anything like that, not good character building, anything like that. But it's delivering, I mean in a different way but the same kind of thing where it's a feeling, an emotional need for like a guy wanting to see themselves and things they'd want to see happen. Wish fulfillment, placing themselves in the story and then if that's what people are getting out of this then I guess I get it. I just feel like there's so many better books out there that do what this is trying to do and failing utterly to do better and I don't know why this. Some people that like it, I was being told when I first picked it up and I was like I don't know why I like this. A lot of people who do like it said oh yes the beginning is like very hard to get into and I almost to get after it but you know by the end of the book you really get into it and I was like okay all right if that's my expectation going in great then I will keep pushing through and I'll wait for that moment when I finally get it, when it finally hooks me and that never happened. It is horrible throughout and there are so, so many instances of characters just like being told things by other characters for wish fulfillment reasons like some old mentor type person coming over and saying like I see the potential in you and you know like the first like some guy like picks like the young Corbin he's like there's a lot of characters in this book and a lot of POV characters which is like and the chapters are really short so I'll come back to Corbin in a second. George R.R. Martin has a ton of characters and their POV characters but they're kind of trickled in slowly and you're given enough time with each one to kind of sink your teeth into them before you move on to the next and you get to know them all and then he introduces more characters throughout the books and you kind of like begin to add to your collection of characters that you're familiar with and following. This is just like a bajillion characters with like two page long chapters and you keep jumping from one to the next the next the next the next and so many of the characters are like in the same place in the same situation possibly in the same family and they're like two different POVs that you just like jump back and forth and all over the place and like none of them are fully fleshed out so we'll like I don't really give a shit about any of them and we just like even if there was any possibility any chance of me getting into one of them we just moved on to the next one too quickly for me to even borderline attempt to give a middling shit about any of them but yeah back to the wish fulfillment like Corbin is one of the main characters he's kind of the young the quintessential like kind of poor guy who's like learning to fight and might may or may not have a destiny and like this his father's like the like every single like fantasy dad like the dad of the poor guy who's the hero of a fantasy that's his father like that character like without changes is the hit that's his father and then like the wise mysterious man who is teaching him how to fight with a sword and like saying every time like Corbin he's like no I should have done better we're like I will never be that good and he's like but you are already better than most people at this age I saw something in you the first moment I was like why do you think I agreed to teach you because there's something about you there's something special in you and like oh my god like there's so many times in the book where something dreadful happens like you know first time you've killed someone and of course that's emotional and it should be handled that way by the author and too many fantasy books gloss over it because you're just like heroic guy kills bad guys and we move along and like they're morally wounded but they're already up and running like fantasy is kind of filled with a lot of like that so stopping to take a moment to be like I've just killed someone and dealing with the emotional like dealing with the fallout of that like should be incorporated and I love it when it is but in this book like he kills someone and he's like it's handled in such a cookie cutter cardboard way of like these are the things that you should say when the character experiences it and like him you know like when he like faces battle and is afraid but he does it anyway and he comes out of the battle and be like you know I wasn't the hero that you have been thinking that I am because I was afraid the entire time during the battle and then old wise mentor dude being like but don't you know that fear facing your fear is what makes you courageous because if you you know all of us are afraid when we face battle but because you faced your fear then you are already better than all those people that just ran away because you didn't run and being like oh wow I guess I am brave I'm just like oh my god like oh my god like if this was a kid movie if it was like for 10 year olds I'd be like all right but this is adult fantasy this is not why so I was just like this has been done and done so much better by so many other authors like are you fucking getting me right now like are you serious like this guy went into battle came out and was just like but I was afraid so I am not a hero and old mentor because you faced your I was just like are we doing this right now like okay and then him saving this like wolf cub and then of course that wolf cub becomes his like companion animal and I'm saving him later like I was like is this an asops fable is that what this is because like are we doing this right now you're not subverting any of my expectations you're not doing anything original you're not doing anything creative and even if you're gonna have like so you could have like a totally trope filled unoriginal fantasy world where everyone you know is like knights and heroes and damsels and wizards and everything is just like absolutely the most like cookie cutter fantasy ever but if you write compelling characters that I feel for like honestly like a the farce or trilogy I've only read the first one it's not especially original like you have a really extremely traditional fantasy world with the traditional setup and everything is in that sense it's not remarkable but she's written characters that you really care about a main character that you really feel for that you really do a deep dive in in what they're thinking and feeling and and that's what hooks you this book if you're not gonna have good characters you better have a good world or an interesting story and this every like sinister character is sinister like every twist that you think is probably going to be the twist is the twist to the point where you're just like is the twist that there is no twist like every single it's like paint by number fantasy I don't understand I don't understand why you will like this book I don't I don't I don't because even if you want that kind of wish fulfillment even if you want like to like see yourself in a character who like was young and picked up a sword and somebody saw the potential in you like even if that's like what you're getting out of this I swear to god there are better books for that there are better examples of like that kind of wish fulfillment the dialogue here no one talks like this like oh my god the the world building like expository dialogue in this the world is already a cookie cutter world that I was bad but the way it's delivered to you as a reader the characters sound like like the author wrote world building notes for himself like this is what this object does this is what this magic does this is what this place is known for this is what this people is known for this historical event happened like he's written all these notes for himself which is fine but instead of like finding organic interesting ways to slowly filter that information into the reader he copy pasted the notes into somebody's quote in terms of their copy pasted into somebody's dialogue and then threw in words at the beginning and end things like I have heard that copy pasted notes and end with or so they say no one talks like this this is not dialogue this is not expository like world building this is just like you're regurgitating your notes but you peppered in some like or so I hear like what what is this nobody talks like this like if it was a first draft if it was your first draft and you're like here is where I want the characters to dump this piece of world building information and I'll come back later and like make it sound like an actual conversation but for right now I'm just gonna copy paste my world building note here and like highlight it so that I know that like in this scene is where the reader and the characters learn xyz about the world um but then he never came back to me just watch it like that people don't talk like this like they don't it feels like you're playing like some kind of a quest game where you're just like and here we've come to this quintessential fantasy part and will the hero choose to do this or this like it's so bad it's so bad I want it so badly to like it I want it so badly to like it it's got this kind of like viking-y vibe and everyone seems to love it and I love a good high fantasy that I can just chew through and like have a million books and just like sink my teeth into and get lost in that world yes give me that this was atrocious this was horrible like I kept oh my god it was I wasn't so miserable reading it it just and it was endless it just wouldn't it went on and on and on and I was like will it never end let me know comment down below if you're one of the people that loves malice and they're going to tell me I'm an idiot one for not seeing what's so brilliant about it and I should go back to reading twilight which I've never read it's my favorite comment or if you like me read it and are so confused about why people are liking this book or if you did like it but you get why I'm a little frustrated and you liked it despite those things like you know let me know that um let me know all the things I post videos on Saturdays sometimes Wednesdays so like and subscribe and I will see you when I see you bye