 So you can be forgiven for thinking, Megan you never do five star predictions. This booktube staple video five star predictions, the books that I think I'm gonna give five stars and that's because I refuse to do a new one until I have read the books from the first one. The last one I did was almost two years ago and I still haven't read all the books. Oh my goodness I'm so embarrassed. You could also be forgiven for thinking, Megan if you think you're gonna give them five stars shortly they're the books you're gonna read the quickest and that would make logical sense but it's not what's happened. So I realized that I've still got about three books that I haven't read from five star predictions video that I did two years ago. I was still living in Leeds my little old flat there and I just decided enough is enough. Enough is enough we're gonna read the books okay. So the three books that we're gonna be reading this vlog are five star predictions but I have been putting them off for so long that they've also become the books that I'm very nervous to read now. So let's chat about them. First we have got Mexican Gothic by Silvia Marina Garcia. I put this on the list because it was like such a big book at the time everyone was reading it everyone was loving it and I was just convinced that I was gonna love it too. If you've been here you know it's become a book that I'm terrified to read. All I know about it is that we've got a protagonist and her cousin has recently married the sky and the cousin writes to her saying oh I think he's gonna try and kill me there's stuff to do with the family there and she goes to live with the cousin and try and figure out what's going on that's all I really know. So yeah five star fiction everyone. Sure I'm gonna be nervous. Then we also have Snow White Lens Witchcraft by Theodora Goss. Theodora Goss as you guys know is the author of my favorite series ever and this is a collection of short stories and poems by her and I put it on here because everything I've read by Theodora Goss I've given five stars and I don't feel like that's gonna stop now. So I believe I this one is probably the one that I feel most confident about about the three that we've got left like I feel like it's Theodora Goss you know but the fact that it's a short story and poetry collection I feel like that's also difficult to get a five star because you're not gonna love every poem and every short story like five star. Do you know what I mean? So we'll see and then we have also got Wild Beauty by Annemarie Mackamore. I put this on the list I remember because everyone told me I was gonna love Annemarie Mackamore's writing and a lot of people told me that this is where you should start this is like the best book. So that's why I put it on there. So those are the three books it would help if I got them all the right way around. Those are the three books we're gonna be reading in this vlog. Old five star predictions so that I can be freed from that old five star prediction video and eventually in like a couple months do a new one because I feel like two years ago Megan and me Megan are very different people and readers so we want to be freed from the shackles of that old five star prediction video. So yeah I don't know what order we're gonna read them in but let's just go ahead and get started. Now this is gonna be five stars this is gonna be five stars YA magical realism is my shit it's my shit and the fact that I still haven't read a book by Annemarie Mackamore like honestly it's over for me. Today I decided to start with Wild Beauty. I thought about it I asked my patrons they were like start with Mexican Gothic. We are going to pretend we didn't hear that. But I just feel like Wild Beauty is gonna like ease me into this difficult journey of reading these books that I've been so excited for such a long time but have been avoiding. So I'm gonna start this but we are going out me and Tom are going out to do some shopping today I want to get maybe some more exercise clothes maybe some trainers maybe some more lounge wear that kind of stuff. So we're going out shopping today and hopefully we're going to go to a restaurant that I've wanted to try for ages. So I'll take you along with us but yeah that's the plan for the day and maybe this evening or tomorrow I'll check in with you with my first chicken for Wild Beauty. I'm hoping if I say it quick I won't think about it and think about how long I've wanted to read this and that I'm finally reading it and the pressure of that can't take the pressure of it. Anyways let's go. Something about the video but I thought I would check in with you about Wild Beauty. I am halfway through and I'm really enjoying it. Here's the thing it doesn't oh squeaky chair um it doesn't feel like a five star yet so but I am really enjoying it. No that sounds bad guys and forgive me for saying it but that's how I feel. So we're following uh this group of cousins so within this family lineage they all live on the same property they can't leave and there's always five daughters born so we have like five grandmothers five mothers and five daughters. Anyone that they love disappears and they can all like make flowers. It's all very magical fantastical listen and there's a boy who turns up they don't know where he's come from is he like a lost love from hundreds of years ago from someone in their family that's like come back for some reason that's kind of what's happening and they have to save their house. There's kind of like an insidious man who might try and kick them off the property and they're only really safe living on this property because of magic and magic reasons and a lot going into this book. I don't want to tell you all of it. Anyway that's enough. There's something about Annemarie Mackamaw's writing that is unlike anything I've ever read before and I can't quite put my finger on what it is. It's got this like the way it looks at the world is so unique the way it articulates in this it's got this beautiful writing right it's lush it's vivid and the way that it articulates feelings and emotions and desires is really interesting. It's really interesting. I'm enjoying it. I'm not like wow this is five stars which you know this is a five star prediction video but I'm having a lovely time reading it. I'm loving I think this kind of concept of this family of all these women with all these relationships is very interesting particularly amongst the cousins and also the cousins all love the same girl and that's very interesting and their relationship with one another and the boy the boy kind of doesn't remember where he's come from and him learning and them teaching him stuff. I'm just really enjoying it like it reminds me of when I read Gallant which was a recent four star where I read it and I was like oh I just this is a good four star. Like this is like great enjoyable four star and I love that. Not every book has to be a five star and I'm glad that I'm finally reading something from anime macaw because I want to read all of their stuff. The writing still feels like unknowable untouchable to me. Do you know what I mean? It still feels like I don't truly I'm not truly like acquainted with the writing and I don't feel like I'm gonna be that until it gets to the end of the book. It's still a bit unusual and I'm still like figuring it out so yeah I'm gonna try and finish this today. I have the audiobook which I'm enjoying as well so hopefully I'll see you this evening with my final thoughts. But yeah at the moment it's not a five it could become a five if it's an amazing ending. I don't know we'll see. Okay so I just finished Wild Beauty. I don't mean to make you nervous that much. I don't know why I paused so much then. I'm gonna give this four stars. It wasn't quite a five but I did enjoy it so let's talk about it. So I found this book really difficult to talk about. I feel like sometimes you just come across these books that just seem you just struggle to articulate talking about them. There's something about anime macaw's writing and this book I don't know how else to describe it other than it feels nostalgic but I don't know I don't know what that means like it feels like timeless. It feels how I would feel when I was younger reading a fantasy or a magical realism book for the first time and like how that feeling that untangible feeling what that would bring up. I felt like this brought up as well and I don't want to spoil anything but I didn't predict the direction that this book could go in and I really appreciated it and what it was saying and I'm just really excited to read more anime macaw. I feel like I just have to say to you. The reason that it is a four and not a five is that I have I literally finished it like one hour ago and I still feel like there's something about it that was like unknowable to me and not in the like a not in the good way like I was before. There's like I'm like I don't what did I just couldn't see that story like I always felt like a little bit of a distance from it and there were some moments where like I felt like okay I had a picture in my head of what's happening and then like an action what was described that a character was doing and I was like wait a second are we how are we doing that you know what I mean like I missed the part where maybe like so say they were standing up having conversation and then suddenly they're lying down and I missed the part where they went from standing up to lying down stuff like that kind of just took me out of it I was like hold on a second so that's why it's a four and not a five but I'm really excited to read more from anime macaw more I want to read all of their books like I'm so excited to try them all I own the mirror season but I want to try a lot of the other stuff but yeah I would recommend us to people who like you know beautiful lyrical writing it's different you know and it describes actions and thoughts and feelings in a very interesting a different way so yeah I'm glad I finally read it it has been on my tbl for forever this feels like you know kind of a what's the word not momentous enough for what a momentous moment this is but yeah no I enjoyed it didn't love it but I enjoyed it so I actually need to go away from this vlog bye bye and read the video for this month's wrapped up which you will have already have seen but once I've done that I'm gonna start Snow Whitelands Richcraft I'm making you wait for Mexican I'm making you wait we're gonna read that last this feels like a good middle book you know I don't feel like I should end on this this was like a oh I just really got bunged up then this feels like a good you know middle book to read so I'll check with you maybe when I'm like halfway through this it's not very long I'm hoping it won't take me that long to read Theodore Goss wrote The Strange Case of the Alchemist Daughter which is one of my favorite series eight short stories and 24 poems and it's uh retellings of fairy tales so like Theodore Goss can just do like retellings and reimaginings like I just I can feel it her writing is some of my favorite writing I've ever read like it's witty it's funny but it's deep and I love how she explores things that we already are aware of and already know and like kind of picks them apart puts them back together hello hello hello so I'm currently on midday reading spits my patrons and I have gotten I feel like you need to raise up a bit you raise me up so I can stand I'm halfway through Snow Whitelands Richcraft and I'm kind of obsessed I'm loving it guys so I'm halfway through yeah I said that and you can see tabs who is she I have been writing my rating of each one on here eight short stories and 24 poems in this I'm pretty sure all of the short story so far I've given five stars right poems I think are harder to rate like can you really rate a poem I don't know I think I'm gonna judge my rating more on the short stories but we've had like in terms of other ratings like a three a 3.5 and then I'm pretty sure everything else has been a 4 or 5 I am obsessed I am obsessed all you need to know about this is that it's basically fairy tale retelling so one of the early short stories is it's called what is it called the rose in 12 petals this was a five star it's a retelling of sleeping beauty but it's told from 12 different perspectives so we have the witch the queen the magician the king the queen dowager the spinning wheel we read from the spinning wheels perspective the princess the gardener the tower the tower the hound the prince and the rose how cool is that like this story of split into these 12 sections I just loved it I am loving it so much it reminds me of what I loved so much about strange case where Xerox was taking these characters or you know character adjacents that we knew so well from classic guitar and literature doc jekyll mr hide sherlock and reimagining it and keeping the magic and the you know what we love about classic victorian literature the vibes but making it new and making it feminist and making it cool and that's what she's doing with fairy tales like she's reimagining these in such a cool way and I I don't even know how to describe to you how obsessed I I've never felt such an affinity to an author's writing like I do with theodora gas the obsession that I got with it was was borderline unhealthy I don't know how I'm going to integrate in society there's just something about the way that she uses language and words that makes me believe in life it makes me believe love is real I don't even know how to describe it to you it's not like lyrical beautiful writing like say a lany taylor on erin morgan stone but it has especially this one because it's fairy tale retellings got this like fairy tale like clever wit imagination it's giving me a production it's giving me a moment it's making a memory like that is what I want and she's doing it I'm so enjoying it you guys you don't even understand like I'm obsessed I'm really really enjoying myself so I'm just going to go ahead and read the second half it doesn't take that long I'm actually reading it slower than I would usually so when I'm not reading along physically I'm listening at 1.5 speed and when I am I'm only listening at a 2 and usually I would say my listening speeds are like 1.8 and 2.8 for with the book or not with the book so I'm reading it a lot slower than I would usually but I'm just wanting to savor it and take it in and take in the meaning and take in the moment I'm loving it oh I didn't even tell you there's one of the short stories it has a family of talking cats and we have like one of the main characters of talking cat I just this is what it feels like to be god's favorite honestly like talking cats get out of here talking cats what what what more could you want anyways I'm gonna go get back on the sprints and read a bit more but I'm in love but yeah definitely preferring the short stories to the poems but the poems are still great but you can't really rate a poem but I'm just having the best time okay bye good morning good morning good morning I just woke up did my skincare finished snow white lens witchcraft and my immediate thought when I finished this was what the fuck am I gonna rate this because for me most of the short stories in this were like a four four point five five predominantly fives I would say it was the largest number out of all of those but the poems weren't I'd say I had a few five star poems but then most of them were probably like a four maybe even a three point five and I've been thinking about it and like I said before right when I read a poetry collection I don't rate every poem because you kind of just take everything as the whole right but when you read a short story collection I think it is fair to rate each short story to kind of figure out what rating you want to give it but I don't know but I've been thinking about it and my amazement and my love for this my wow and you know when you're just reading a book you go oh yeah like it does something different it does something imaginative was so much higher for this than wild beauty so much higher like incredibly higher so to give it a four point five I feel like isn't reflective enough of what I loved about this so I'm giving it a five I'm giving it a five it's not adding up it's maybe a five star short story and poetry collection which doesn't have the same enjoyment level as like a five star novel for me perhaps do you know what I mean but I just love Theodoric Roses writing I don't know what else to tell you this woman I am obsessed there was so many cool short stories and so many the short stories all had different vibes to them like there was some that were more kind of like historical twisting what a fairy tale is but there was one also where it's like this witch and she goes back to the school that she studied at it's very like the school is set it almost was like what's the word of that show that everyone watches that I haven't watched but I've seen parts of Gilmore girls yes you know there's like a coffee book shop and it feels very quaint American town the school is in and she has to travel to this other world as a witch to find her shadow and that kind of had that like I don't know yeah like American Gilmore girls vibe to it whereas other ones have this like historical fantastical complete other world vibe to them which I really appreciated they all had this fairy tale element running through them but they had really different vibes to them which I really enjoyed so yeah apparently Theodoric Roses can't do any wrong and we got on we got a five star from five star predictions let's all dance everyone so yeah I really I loved it I loved it there's a really lovely one near the end that's kind of based on Ariel as well so anyways today I Mexican gothic is I didn't grab it it's over there somewhere um I'm hoping to read all of Mexican gothic today this video is up tomorrow and I just feel like I can do it I have got this evening a zoom call with some of my patrons and a quiz night with my patrons so yeah that takes up some time but it's about one o'clock now so I'm hoping if I just really focus I'll be able to make my way through a good chunk of Mexican gothic today Mexican gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia is gonna be five stars it's gonna be five stars so this is a horror I believe this one the Goodreads horror last year oh my god just holding this book oh I have just heard that this really can get into your head hello friends it's very late I'm in bed god this I have this feature on my camera that like means it's not as shaky for you and I'm holding it but it zooms it in so much I'm literally like as far away as I can get right now anyways so I am halfway through Mexican gothic and I'm really enjoying it I'm really enjoying it I love good news love good news I just love good this first section oh let's get comfortable shall we this this first section has been pretty slow but I get the feeling it's about to pop off in the second half so basically all you to know is kind of what I've told you is we're following no I mean she gets a letter from her cousin very distressed saying my my husband's family are trying to poison me yada yada noemi goes there the family's weird as shit they're like very into eugenics red flag red flag red flag they're just they're just like bad vibes like you're not they're not talking at the dinner like what the fuck is going on like we're not we're not vibing and can I just say I have a conspiracy theory that silver maria garcia played Nancy drew curse of blackmore manna it's a conspiracy theory that I'm actually interested in because it is it I mean if you played cast of blackmore manna you know Nancy's friend um everyone's convinced or she's convinced I can't remember like either the woman is convinced or everyone else is convinced that the woman Nancy's friend is turning into a werewolf hello what's going on Lucy hi well a cumbrose oh yeah that was it so she's a werewolf and she so you go to her house this like English house by the way they're like we're in Mexico but like the house is very much like English like white person aesthetics and in cusp of manna you go to this Victorian house and you can't see her much because she's like oh I need to sleep I'm convinced I'm becoming and so you're like talking more to all the weird people who live in the house with her that's exactly what this is like this is so curse of blackmore manna coded it's so true so we're going to see her please tell me did you play cusp of manna I have to know I'm just loving the vibes of this I'm loving the writing noemi is such like a great character to read from the perspective of I'm just obsessed I'm having so much fun it's got this eerie spooky gothic oh god it's got this you know eerie gothic vibes to it and I really feel like every chapter really serves a purpose do you know what I mean like every chapter is important to the story I feel like the plotting and the pacing is really good there's also I didn't know like a little romance between noemi and one of the guys at the house which part of me is written for because he's kind of awkward and cute but also the family like you don't want to get involved with that you've seen what's happened to your cousin you don't want it to be you so also I'm kind of anti it I don't know I sat outside and I read like the first 100 pages whilst my family were doing gardening and it was kind of like it was only just warm enough to sit outside so it was kind of like chilly and I'm like you know in the book there's like this mist around everywhere and I'm like I'm so in the vibe right now the vibe is me and I am the vibe you know I'm gonna try and read some more before I fall asleep because I'm really enjoying it and I would like to get as far through it as possible tonight so we're about to you know that's about to be the vibe anyways night good morning good morning so I read most of the rest of Mexican Gothic last night I have to finish off a little bit this morning because it got really late it was like midnight and listen I'm a grandma that was too late um I've decided I'm gonna give it a 4.5 I know loads of you're like make it just give it a five if you gave Snow White those witchcraft a five when you'd given poems in that like a 3.5 you can give this a five like it's just not quite five that had some of my favorite short stories ever in it whereas this I just had a great time but it wasn't a five that's the truth a five is a feeling a five is a moment a five is an instinct and I don't feel like this is a five but it's a 4.5 I could not put this down I could not put it down this babes it took a turn the first half and this is very slow atmospheric haunting the second half fuck me that was intense it goes places I'm not sure I ever wanted to go I'm not sure I ever wanted to go I just like this is a book that I can recommend to so many people I can see why it's been so popular I can see why so many people have loved it why it's been so widely read because I just think it's a great book you know when you're booking like this is just like perfect well not quite perfect because I'm doing it before I stop that's just me that's me but I did tell a bit of a lie there in terms of writing craft it's it it's it do you know what I mean oh it just did it it did what it needed to do I loved it I'm so glad I have finally read this I was worried as well about reading it all in one day I was like am I gonna be forcing myself through this book that I've waited so long to read am I gonna be doing it a disservice but I could not put it down I would have read it probably in a day whenever I'd read it it is just a solid horror haunted house a little bit roman it's a little bit of an intrigue I'm still convinced it's cursed like my man I coded because there's like a woman in this who's just like a woman in that gate like it's just it's a little bit freaky a little bit freaky if you ask me I think the writing is incredible I think no only is incredible I think the atmosphere created in this the haunting the uncomfortableness like throughout the book you can't really leave the house much as kind of like one of their rules like you know we'll just stay here all the time and I'm like oh my god how are we like I can't imagine like just in the house for your whole life like what oh my god it was just it was such a solid book and I am so glad that I have finally finally read Mexican comic only took me like two years you know no he took me two years so yeah listen let's get the other book oh I do I don't know not as good news I have decided I could just like not say this and then I would have to explain myself but I have to lower my rating for wild beauty to a 3.5 because I only finished this a couple days ago I can't remember anything about it it's like it left my brain and left my memory so I just like to lower it to a 3.5 I still enjoyed a lot of it but I think me losing track of what was happening and not being able to picture certain stuff affected me more than I realized and I gave it the four because I wanted in my heart to believe it was a four but the more I think about it and I think about how much I enjoyed these compared to this I just feel like it's a 3.5 so yeah listen we got a five we got a five it is a bit of a tenuous side it's a short story in poetry collection five it has some of my all-time favorite short stories in it and they just touched my heart in such a way that I couldn't not give it a five but like you know and we had a 4.5 I'm so glad I finally read it so let me know what you thought of any of these down below I would love to know let me know some five star predictions that you have put off for two years if you have you may have better self-control and discipline than me so it might not be a problem but yeah let me know what five stars you have been holding off on reading if you got to end the video or comment an apple emoji comment an apple for snow white down below if you got to the end thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another video bye