 Hey guys it's Liana and I'm here today with my following reading recommendations. I also find comments in some of my older videos and I was like I used to hold a cup of coffee in my videos and it was so cozy for me and I think for you if not if you're like thank god you stopped drinking coffee in our videos sorry but yeah I mean I have this witch's brumag which I just thought was appropriate. I have recently become a rapper for Fable Grounds Coffee. I have their code in the description of my all my videos even before telling you all that was a thing it was just there and they have like a bunch of fall coffees that I've been enjoying and getting into the fall spirit and I was like I need to bring that into the video. I have some new mugs from creatively crafts that are kind of fallish this isn't one of them but I'll have a creatively crafts mug in another video. I just thought witch's brew with my sweater and the theme of this video would be appropriate. Anyway I'm calling this following reading recommendations because I toyed was doing a separate video for fall reading recommendations and for like spooky Halloween reading recommendations. I decided to do them all in one video because I am lazy and because some of them I would have had to spend so long trying to figure out which list it belongs on. Do I put it on both lists? Is this like fall vibes or is this creepy? Does it need to be creepy to be an October like fall spooky read? I don't know it was just too stressful so I just made one list that I was like these are books that you read in October and November done. I have written it down so that I can read it off and hold my cup of coffee and put up pictures of the books because I cannot be holding this and this and books don't have three arms. That would be nice and creepy for spooked over or fallowy you know whatever the fuck you want to say. Alrighty I originally have 15 on this list and then I remembered one that I was like how did I forget that um and it is starred at the top of my list so it is item zero so I guess we'll start there. And that is the Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kristen White. Oh also I think in the past I've done videos like this before recommending fall spooky creepy etc type reads so some of these might be repeats. I didn't bother checking what I said before so you're welcome. I guess seeing it down here means I just still think it's a great read and I still think it's a good Halloween read. Okay yeah so the Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kristen White. This is just one of my all-time favorite books. It didn't make my all-time favorite books of all-time video because I had to narrow it to 10 for some reason that I arbitrarily decided. It's such oh my god it's such a good book. I mean if you've read did I put Frankenstein on the list? Did I not? Why did I put Frankenstein on the list? Okay well I guess now there's 17 books because also Frankenstein. I really love Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I read it twice I think. I've read it twice. I've seen the play like three times three and a half and then I've read The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein. I think I like The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein more than Frankenstein but the one is not possible without the other and so and I think the one is improved by the other so uh because if you're only familiar with Frankenstein in the like you know laboratorial zipper neck kind of way that is not Frankenstein. So one you need to read Frankenstein so that you are disabused of this notion and two it is the real authentic original Mary Shelley Frankenstein that Kirsten White is playing off of is is messing with and is altering and yeah retelling I guess. Retelling that's the word. I don't mean you can't not read is that can't not? I hate double negatives. Okay you don't have to have read Frankenstein I don't think to understand I'd appreciate Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein but I think if it's like a one to ten scale that I've decided to use for this question even though I never read books on a tens scale. I think if you read Dark Descent without having read or without being familiar with your original Frankenstein it would be around like the six to seven mark because you'd be like that was really good but like it was fine but if you've read real Frankenstein it's like 11 out of 10. Oh so good so good. Like the original Frankenstein again I like it a lot. I think it's amazing for its time and like historically speaking like discussing like the progress of women in literature and like the genesis of this genre at all like Frankenstein is just like fucking Frankenstein but it is older and Mary Shelley's a product of her own time so that bleeds into the text some cultural social mores some biases just the nature of the way it's told is wordier a little slower a little more on the philosophizing less on the driving creepy plot it's still excellent it still holds up in my opinion but Dark Descent with the Frankenstein it's told by a modern author while still paying great respect to the original so it is she's a little better for a modern audience to have this like spooky creepy edgier seat type of narrative even though you would think if you read the real Frankenstein you know already what Elizabeth doesn't know which is I think so cool because Elizabeth Frankenstein it's all told from her perspective so she obviously doesn't know it doesn't occur to her that Victor is reanimated human flesh because that doesn't really tend to occur to people as an option about what someone's up to so watching her put the pieces together is so much darker and more satisfying when you know and watching her figure it out and then watching her decide what to do with that knowledge once she has figured it out and just like her relationship with Victor in the original it's it's very simple it's very she's just like the girl he grew up with she's a plot device more than a character but telling it from her perspective like it's it's a genius move it didn't mean for this whole video to be about Dark Descent Elizabeth Frankenstein I don't think I've ever posted a review for it when I read it which is a mistake maybe I'll reread it this year no I can't because I have a tbr that's like insanely long anyway yeah so Dark Descent Elizabeth Frankenstein if you take nothing else from this list read that but only if you've read the real Frankenstein and if not take those two from this list read Frankenstein and then read the Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein chef's kiss next on my list is Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Leni Taylor one that I'm not sure you would have expected I don't know what y'all expected maybe you're like of course it's on the list I don't know I shouldn't presume oh my god I forgot another one from this list what am I doing why even have a list oh god okay hopefully I'll remember but no I've committed to talking about Daughter of Smoke and Bone so we're doing that first Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Leni Taylor it's such an amazing book but it's also got this like creepy dark weather mysterious supernatural goings-on type vibes it takes place in Prague in the modern day at first at least and it's got there's this uh this restaurant or this cafe that uh that Kiru and her friend Susana go to they frequent it's got like gas masks and everything because it's playing off of the world war two vibes it serves goulash like the best goulash in Prague I forget the name of the cafe I remember it being a kind of a macabre kind of name for the cafe anyway so all of that and then like the magical creatures that come into it are also kind of a little creepy a little unnerving in their aesthetic and the story is just so dark and twisty and beautiful and magical and one of the best things I've ever read um the back of the international edition is Blurb by Patrick Rothfuss and the Blurb is just I wish I had written this book from Patrick Rothfuss so let's yeah just fucking fucking read it um okay before I go to the next on my list actually no the next one is Name of the Wind and I did just mention Patrick Rothfuss so let's fucking do it Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss uh I feel like even if you haven't read it if you've seen the cover you're like this looks like a fall book and you would be right I like the US cover this kind of blue tones with like shadowy dementor looking figure gives you more of the sense of the slightly creepy quality of some of the aspects of the story whereas the UK cover the like orange and green gives you more like the fall vibes of the book both are accurate both are true so it's got sort of like creepy monstrous figures in it that is good for like the spooky part of the season but it's also got taverns and cider and all of that kind of thing in a university that teaches magic like what's more fall than that we're not reading Harry Potter anymore because we are not reading Harry Potter anymore read Name of the Wind if you haven't already like do it okay circling back to the one that I remembered while I was sitting here reviewing my list going why is that not on here the woman in black by Susan Hill since not on my list I'm not sure but yeah I'm pretty sure it's Susan Hill it's very short very creepy very dark uh it's like on the side of like horror is it I don't know it's creepy to me got the so you've got this like haunted house that's being haunted by the woman in black the man that goes to visit it it's completely remote and isolated and it can't be reached other than by this causeway that gets gets covered by water at night so you can't even believe and this guy trying to figure out he's just trying to sort out the papers of the person that used to live there but it's like obviously being haunted and it's just so atmospheric and so spooky and if you have a chance to see the play I highly recommend the play the play is so cool and I screamed I literally screamed in an actual theater next on this is The Secret History by Donna Tard I feel like in general dark academia is I don't need to explain why that is a good following type of read the academic setting always put I mean September October is back to school season so it puts you in mind of an academic setting where the academic setting puts you in mind of back to school season whichever way you want to say it but it's also a really dark story about students covering like working together and covering up the collective murder of one of their group and you don't know why and it's so deliciously dark and so pretentious so really like this is the season to be wearing like cardigans and to be having wood paneling around the scent of tobacco wafting in the air so it's the it's the time of year you want to read something equally pretentious so read The Secret History by Donna Tard uh next on my list is this savage song by Victoria Schwab uh I feel like I probably put this on a list before it's kind of a dystopian a near future dystopian where monstrous deeds manifest themselves in actual physical living entities there's three different kinds of monster so they follow two main characters and one of the main characters her father sort of like in charge of defeating all these monsters and protecting the city and he's kind of not not a good dad and then the other main character main POV character is a monster is is one of these beings that was whose origin is the sin of another person and it's such a unique idea for a story and like I don't I feel like just telling you that premise you'd be like yeah well of course that's a following reading work I think it's really cool it's um kind of a slower book like it took me at least a hundred pages to really get into it but when I did I I did the duology is called the monster's a verity it's really good in general but I feel like it's a good one for the season next on my list is Blackwing by Ed McDonald this has made a few of this I don't think I ever did a dedicated review I don't know why I don't do dedicated reviews for books that I love but the entire Ravensmarch trilogy is amazing but yeah so Blackwing by Ed McDonald is criminally underrated I've mentioned it a few times so you probably recognize it if you've watched me for a while but it takes place in this sort of very industrial nuclear fallout vibes kind of setting with these monsters that are shaped by the sort of fallout zone this very air is poisonous the creatures in it are like kind of grotesque and terrifying and our main character kind of part of his job is ferrying people across this wasteland called the misery our main character himself he works for one of the nameless which are sort of these godlike entities and his boss his sort of avatar is a blackbird a crow or raven I get to mix them but he's got a tattoo of one on his arm so Markham has a servant of the nameless but in order for him to get instructions from his boss an actual physical live bird bloodily explodes out of Ryholt Galharrow's arm when his boss has a message for him and like it's not like a magical like a bird appeared like it crawls out of and explodes out of his arm and then his arm heals which is the part that's kind of magical because that should like ruin your arm it heals up okay but the experience is like a normal bird exploding out of your arm as if it wasn't magical so I mean every time you complain about emails from work in your future life just be grateful you don't have a raven bloodily exploding out of your arm email doesn't seem so bad now does it next on my list is the graveyard book by Neil Gaiman this list oh I have another Neil Gaiman on this list I also put in tiny writing next to the graveyard book I put also anything by Neil Gaiman so the graveyard book by Neil Gaiman is a retelling of the jungle book but instead of a boy in a jungle it's a boy in a graveyard and instead of him being raised by the animals of the jungle there he's raised by ghosts and goblins and ghouls that inhabit said graveyard and it's exactly as like strangely charming and creepily heartwarming as you would expect from that premise and from that author and I didn't expect I expected to love it because Neil Gaiman is my favorite author but I didn't expect or wasn't prepared for how emotional I would feel reading it I'm not the whole time but like at the end of the book I like I legit teared up and I was just like oh this is happening again it's about a little boy being raised in a graveyard and his guardians are ghost schools and coblins and then the reason that like sort of like I said the sheer con type character in it is so creepy to me I mean I don't really read horror so I mean I'm a woman but it's this is a kids book this is middle grade and the man jack who is basically the sheer con character creeps me the fuck out so just saying I'm just saying I guess we'll just skip ahead to my other Neil Gaiman because why split them up but my next Neil Gaiman recommendation is one that I've never talked about on my channel before other than maybe in like a wrap up or something and that is truth is a cave in the black mountains this is a really short picture book but I highly highly highly recommend the audiobook I mean the you should also get the picture books you can look at the pictures as you go but the audiobook is it's told is a read by Neil Gaiman which is true of probably the majority of Neil Gaiman's audiobooks are read by Neil Gaiman not all but a lot anyway so it's read by Neil Gaiman but there's a string quartet that actually like wrote and like plays music throughout this sort of haunting kind of dark music and it's really short because I mean it's a picture book so the audiobook is uh two hours maybe maybe three hours it can't be it's definitely not longer than three hours I don't even think it is three hours I think it's two maybe even one I don't it's really it's really short but it's so atmospheric and dark and it just has the feeling of this like old tail that's this older than the earth and it's I don't really have words for it it's if it's so game and I love it and I've listened to it several times because it's it's short so it's like watching it's like the length of a movie you know so instead of watching a movie I just listen to truth is a cave in the black mountains it's oh it's so so good highly recommend next on my list is night house by Lee Bardugo I do have a review on my channel for night house which the thumbnail I think would make you think that I hated it oops but I didn't hate it I thought it the beginning was hurting itself but I feel like it was really hard to get into and I struggled to get into it and I think that's not my fault I identified in that video some reasons that I think some ways that I think some choices that were made by Lee Bardugo and how she was going to be introducing this world introducing these characters to us and I was just like why you could have done it this way and it would have been instantly more engaging and interesting for the reader why wouldn't you do that but no one asked me and I'm not a professional author so whatever whatever but if you didn't know ninth house is Lee Bardugo's first adult novel it is dark academia but unlike other dark academia such as the secret history by Donna Tartt ninth house does have fantastical supernatural elements in it it's not just straight up an academic setting with realistic people and realistic events going on it's not that so if you went into it expecting it to be a little more like the secret history it is not there is very like it's not even just like is this possibly mad it's like 100 definitely magical page one tells you this is magical oh okay it takes place in Yale and it has to do with the secret societies at Yale which the secret societies that's a thing that's real like there really are secret societies in Yale and Lee Bardugo based this on her own experience at Yale because she went to Yale and this is what inspired this she just took the idea of these secret societies and was like what if they did magic supernatural creepy dark demonic stuff okay and there you have ninth house ninth house is the first book in a series I have heard conflicting reports as to how many books are going to be in this series it is very dark it is very triggering it is very very are rated like if you're worried about the kind of thing if you don't just dive into just about anything like if there are certain things you avoid if you know that about yourself check out what people have posted for trigger warnings etc because it's in there if you don't worry about that kind of thing like don't worry about it but it's it's all there's a lot of things like that in there then be mindful of again I think the start the beginning is so slow and I think that could have been avoided well once I got into it I was into it and I think the again the dark academia setting added to that the demonic supernatural of course has a good fall spooked over a following time read I don't need to explain why that fits this time of year next most is silver in the wood by oh god I didn't write down the author and I don't remember well I'm assuming I put a picture up so y'all can tell me who the author is whoopsie dobsie anyway um it is really really short it is a novella technically I think I don't really always and I'm not always clear on what defines is it length only that makes something a novella I don't know it is I think a novella and it is part of a duology the second one just came out I have it on my Kindle I have not read it yet but silver in the wood it's basically like a queer Tom Bombadil in a dark forest it's like akin to uprooted but like if uprooted was good spoilers I hated uprooted but you know how it uprooted the forest is like it's really dark creepy place if that had been done well I would have been all about well the silver in the wood and I actually saw the author of silver in the wood say something about how she loves uprooted and it's kind of like uprooted and I was just like oh honey but you did so much better than uprooted so beyond that herself compares it to uprooted and I would say that's a fair comparison it's just way better it's really short and really atmospheric and I kind of ate it up because it just kind of sucks you right in and it's a short read you can read it in one sitting I highly recommend next on my list is one that will probably surprise everybody and that's Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson I'll give you a minute despite the victory all thrown my way I don't hate everything Sanderson has ever written and I did not hate Mistborn I hated I hate the strong word I had extreme issues with how Mistborn the trilogy ended I have a video on it and people hate me for that video whatever I do think Mistborn like the first two books I loved them and I feel like I expected to love the trilogy and for it to be a favorite trilogy the ending really soured me but not like dark dawn dark dawn literally ruined all of it every night for me and I hate never night I'm hold all my never night books so fuck that the end of Mistborn didn't do that it did not completely ruin the first two books for me I still like the first two books I'm just a little less keen than I was when I went into it because now I know where this is all going and I got issues with it but anyway um yeah so if you don't know Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson the three books the final empire the well of ascension and the hero of age is well of ascension 10 out of 10 but final empire the first book I quite like to think I give it four out of five stars and it's this one of the dark lord one is kind of the premise and it takes place in this really dark like the fantasy version of Gotham it's like always dark there's ash falling from the sky all the time which like honestly living in California right now I'm just like Mistborn it's a really hard magic system which Brandon Sanderson is known for it's to do with ingesting metals and people who have the ability to do things with those metals then using the metals they have ingested to achieve different magical results Mistings can do this with one kind of metal Mistborn can do it with all the metals hence the name of the series but the again the whole vibe of it is this sort of like dark ash falling from the sky the dark lord is in charge I mean it's honestly feeling quite relevant these days yikes yeah so it's it's just got those dark vibes and then the story it's the first book at least is kind of a heist story which I like heist stories I know a lot of people don't but I also weirdly think that heist stories are good fall reads because I just feel like the idea of like a group getting together to like pour over plans and documents and scheme that feels like a fall activity because I hope that's what we all do in fall you know we carve jack-o-lanterns and and we plot heists it's just how it feels to me though so maybe it's kind of like one step removed from dark academia where I just it's sort of like an academic endeavor when you have to do so much research and planning it's like a group project to steal a thing or to kill someone so yeah I do recommend Mistborn for the fall and generally I recommend Mistborn so all y'all people who want to murder me are now liking the end calm down uh next one which is my plane Jane by a trio of authors Cynthia Hand, Shoddy Meadows and Brody Ashton oh did I remember them all oh my god I'm so proud of me unless I'm wrong in which case don't tell me they have a series I think it's just a trilogy I have all three I've only read my plane Jane but each one is a retelling of a Jane of some kind so the first one was my Lady Jane which is about Lady Jane Gray I haven't read it but that's what the first one was the third one that just came out that I have not read is about Calamity Jane so my plane Jane is about Jane air which actually like occurs to me that it's the only of the three that is not about a real person because Lady Jane Gray was a real person Calamity Jane was a real person but Jane air was not but my plane Jane is focused I don't remember if she's just like a really main character or if she is the uh POV character but it focuses a lot on Charlotte Bronte who's in it it's that Charlotte Bronte and Jane air are friends and like the implication is that that Charlotte Bronte was inspired by the events of this book to write Jane air except we added in it's like Jane air meets ghostbusters and it's really like funny like it's not intended to be taken seriously so I don't mind that it's being absurd because it's not it doesn't take itself remotely seriously again like there's like a literal ghost it's like a friend and then she can see ghosts so I guess it's like the sixth sense and there's they're like trying there's like a secret society that they want Jane to be a part of or they want Charlotte to be a part of I forget which is which because they're kind of together all the time but they they want to be a part of want them to be a part of to like catch ghosts and that's why they go end up in Thornfield Hall in the first place because there's like a ghost paranormal situation thing we need to get due reconnaissance on like it's just like a fun quirky spooky ghost filled story that isn't scary it's not a remotely scary it's just a lot of fun especially if you read Jane air there's like a lot of little nods to Jane air and just little nods to just the Bronte's in general I just thought it was a lot of fun like it's not like great literature but it's a good time next on my list is the Seven Deaths of Evil in Hardcastle by Stuart Turton I didn't write down any of the author names if that hasn't become apparent so whoops any hill this is a book that I did actually maybe post a review for it's been a while and I once again had issues with the ending but not so much that I wouldn't recommend it I just think if you're gonna read it know that in my opinion the ending like the nature of the premise of the book makes that it's really it's always gonna be an ending that's it's a really hard landing to stick and I'm not sure that he did stick the landing but I kind of don't blame him because what he set up there while I was reading it I was just like how are you gonna end this bro but I should probably tell you what it's about so that you can appreciate what I'm saying so the premise if you don't know the Seven Deaths of Evil in Hardcastle which they changed the name in the US to the Seven and a Half Deaths of Evil in Hardcastle because Americans are too stupid to know that it's a different book from the Seven Husbands of Evil in Hugo so adding a half to it that fixes it like if they think we're too dumb to see the difference I don't know what adding a half would help you know what I mean like maybe we are too dumb but that's certainly not going to make the difference the Seven Deaths of Evil in Hardcastle is a closed circle isolated like fancy house murder mystery which isn't all that original as a concept however it's like Groundhog Day because our main character he or she doesn't know who he or she are they just they are sentient and inhabiting the body of one of the people at this house until they realize that they are waking up each day experiencing the same day over again as a different person in that house experiencing this day of the murder of Evil in Hardcastle as a different person so they get a different perspective on the day that she died and so the person needs to solve the murder and the person themselves they don't know who they are or where before they started waking up with the bodies of these people they just exist now in these different bodies and whoever they were before has been erased from their memory so again you don't know if it's a he or a she or a they or or what but they're waking up in these different bodies and you don't know how they ended up there why they ended up there who put them there but this is what's happening they're waking up in these different bodies on the day of the murder and reliving the day of the murder over and over from the perspective of a different person who was there which has a concept like well Groundhog Day meets Gosford Bark like hello yes I'm here for that but again because of the premise that I just explained to you like that's a really bizarre premise and of course the audience in addition to wanting to know who killed Evil in Hardcastle which is the what an audience once and every who's done it is to know also the mystery of who this person is and why they have this mission with this quest a supernatural like thing happening to them and that's the part that's really hard to stick the landing on and again I I don't know I don't have a better idea ever how they could have stuck the landing but I'm not the author so I the way it ended I was just like okay I had my druthers and that was an awful but like so if you go into it don't expect too much from the answer to the question of why this person is waking up in the different bodies but overall the experience of it is quite atmospheric especially if you like watching but like all those like BBC masterpiece theater close circle who done it type things goshford park and this marble and floral and all that kind of thing it's an eerie close circle mystery with this added supernatural element so it's a very spooky atmosphere book which I think is great for this season the next book on my list is deathless girls by god damn and I didn't write on the author welcome I'm guessing you know because I'm gonna put it right here anyway deathless girls is a retelling or a imagining or whatever but it's about Dracula's wives and I don't like Dracula the original Dracula I hate Dracula a lot but I like so I'm like Dark Decendals with Frankenstein where I was just like Frankenstein is great and this is even better fucking hate Dracula but this book it's a very like feminist queer dark earthy ancient feeling story that I just it's mainly a vibe it's a mood and the book itself is gorgeous and I just feel like that's the experience of reading this book it's I mean there is a plot and it is to do with how they become the like brides of Dracula but the experience of reading it is more just kind of like sinking into this world and into the experience the lived experience of these characters which is not a happy one but it's just it's very much atmospheric it's kind of like if you've ever seen crimson peak the way I feel about crimson peak the movie is that it's less to do like my enjoyment of it is less to do with the plot or the characters it's more just like existing in the world of crimson peak the vibe the aesthetic the mood deathless girls is kind of like that to me where it's this the book is a mood so yeah I just feel like if you feel like existing in this dark eastern european creepy vampiric world for a bit I recommend next to my list is deathless not deathless girls but deathless by kathryn valente I love this book and it is so good I heard a lot of praise for it uh so I was kind of like when I went to it I was just like there's no way you can live up and you kind of like did okay so what is it it's about costia the deathless which is a figure from russian folklore and like it's taking the it's a basically retelling of the story of maria moreevna and costia the deathless which again figures from russian folklore but it's blending it with like with russian history so you've got like Stalinist house elves while you also have like actually costia the deathless showing up and it's just blending it so seamlessly to where it feels like this ancient old mythic story but also historical fiction and you don't know where the line is and you're not meant to know where the line is there is no line it's oh it's just so delicious and it's I mean costia and maria's relationship is is so toxic and so not healthy but it's all it's just this like dark deliciously velvety story that I just ate it up I am eastern of eastern european descent myself so my my sensibilities lie that way anyway so I'm just naturally more interested in it I grew up on russian fairy tales in addition to latin fairy tales that aesthetic that vibe calls to me so I'm obviously inclined towards it but it's just it's so well done it's so well done like oh and the prose it's just luscious oh so good next on my list is a book that I forgot to put on my list when I was looking at it I was like god damn it put that on let us be there that is the phantom of the opera by guests on the room people hate this book I read it like three or four times in high school I loved it it's a classic that even um even andrew woodweber kind of low key hates it that's why he changed it so much for his version which is the version that everyone now knows so it's just like fuck you guest on the room people know phantom of the opera from my musical not from your actual story which um I don't feel about me I love the musical too it's not like I don't but the original book again I read it like three or four times it's this old creepy gothic story I don't know why people I hate it I don't so basically if you're familiar with the musical it's not vastly different from it is basically that plot where there is this man who's sort of like haunting the bowels of the opera house and he's in love with this young ingenue named christine dyay and there's a rich dude who wants to marry christine and this monster who who haunts the opera house is jealous and causing problems so like that is still the plot it's not like it's not the plot but there's just more to it and the phantom himself like he was very much prettified for the musical he's got like a death's head like he looks like a skeleton his entire skin is like parchment and falling off of him he looks like the horned king might as the horn so from the black cauldron he's not like michael crovert or jerry butler he is literally the stuff of nightmares so it makes sense more so than in because I mean the way he's portrayed in the stage musical and in the movie is just like he's like a burn victim but like this is all very attractive nope I don't think that I don't know the guest on the roof had any particular condition in mind when he wrote this character I don't know that it's referencing a actual medical condition but he's not looking good and he is a genius and so that's lip services page that in the musical again where they say that he's a genius and like it's implied that like obviously he's able to haunt the opera house so effectively because he must be a genius but the book really goes into it and about how he learned his craft and the it really paints him as this kind of it's both more and less sympathetic to the phantom than the musical the music just romanticizes the phantom the book doesn't romanticize the phantom but it is oddly more sympathetic to the phantom because it's definitely the it's kind of akin to frankenstein and the sort of if you treat someone like a monster then they become a monster kind of narrative and then again the setting of the opera house and I love it people who hate it I don't understand what your problem is what were you expecting it's great and I recommend it all right last on my list is a book is actually on my list and that is house of salt and sorrow by god damn it who wrote it erin a craig books up there this book I like way more than I expected to because a lot of hyped nine 90 percent of the time lets me down so I just go into it going like well I'm gonna hate it but let's find out I really liked it and maybe was helped by the fact that I went into it with like bottom of the barrel expectations I was just like I'm gonna eat it but let's do it and then because it surpasses expectations and I ended up loving it if I went into it with high expectations I don't know that I would have loved it but I would have still liked it I'm pretty confident it's a less frequently seen retelling it's a retelling of the 12 dancing princesses which again I don't think I've ever read a retelling of the 12 dancing princesses other than that but it was kind of one of my favorite fairy tales when I was a kid and house of salt and sorrow it takes place in this I don't I don't think it might be an island but it's definitely on the coast so there's like a lot of um it's a a spooky that I don't think of that often but it is obviously very spooky um I usually think of spooky as like in a rural countryside or a forest or mountains or the moors like very inland where like there's ghosts or something it doesn't occur to me but it should and this book has it the very like ghostly nature of like lighthouses and being near the water and like that is also very creepy and this book is so atmospheric it's so atmospheric and it literally creeps me out of it I mean I was by myself house sitting in a house that had no internet so I was reading it like in utter silence completely isolated with no internet so like that's probably like also helped me with being creeped out but there were definitely moments in it where I was just like oh this is like actually kind of freaking creepy it's a standalone which is refreshing because most YA books in particular and fantasy in general is a moderately long series that you have to try to keep up with it's a standalone the the romance in it is like I think the weak point in it uh it was kind of thrown in there it felt like it was thrown in there because like the publisher was like you can't have a why you fantasy without romance and the author was like see you go so that seemed a little shoved in there but the rest of it I ate it up it was so creepy and dark and atmospheric and mysterious and cool and I've overhyped it now you're gonna hate it but if you were avoiding it because you're just like just another YA fantasy I would say check it out because I think it's better than most that I've picked up recently and that finally does it for both what I wrote down and what I thought of while I was going through what I wrote down let me know in the comments down below if you have any particular favorites for the season if any of the books that I listed are on your lists of favorites for the season if you've read any of these books before if you want to read these books if uh you know whatever you want to let me know I post videos on Saturdays for sure and other random times but definitely Saturdays so like and subscribe and I'll see you when I see you