 Like it's been a week and he goes, oh, so I'm competing with a dead guy? Like, hello friends. Stuff has happened. I have been putting off this particular video for months. I bought these books back in like December or January for this video and I've just kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off because I didn't wanna read these books. And I decided, all right, I'm gonna do it this week. I've got no choice. And then, a momentous, a momentous thing has just occurred. Stephanie Meyer has announced Midnight Sun. I'm sure everyone knows by now, but basically Midnight Sun is Twilight but from Edward's point of view and it's just been announced by Stephanie Meyer as being published in August. Twilight was my Harry Potter. Like Twilight was the most formative book for me. I read it in year four, so I was about eight. I thought I was it sitting there while everyone else was reading like kids' books and I had Breaking Dawn out on my desk during reading time and I'd like look at my teacher and be like, I'm grown, I'm grown. I just thought Twilight was a work of art. I thought it was literature like excellence. It is brilliant American literature and I don't care what anybody, it is. It should be taught in schools. And a while back, I did a video reading some of my childhood favorite books. This is part two. What this video is, is rereading the Twilight ripoffs. After the Twilight, there was a big wave of this kind of like paranormal romance, bad boy fiction. When I said Twilight was formative for me, it meant that this was what I read for a good two to four years. Like this was it for me. I didn't read anything else. So I've got three of the books that were my favorite during this period and we're gonna be rereading them. I've been picking this off because I think these books are gonna be bad. I don't think I'm gonna like any of them. These are all series and between them all, there's 14 books. I read all of them. The one that is probably most well known of these three is Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. I remember the vibes was very forks like the Twilight setting. I think they were very similar in that regard. And Nora is such a beller. Whereas in the other two books I'm gonna be reading, the girl does have some kind of like powers. But in this Nora is just your average girl waiting for a guy to walk into science class like Edward does or I guess Bella walks in and Edward's like. I remember there's a scene of Fairground. I don't know if that's in this one but like I think she goes on this ride and she almost falls off. I think everyone agrees now that it was hot trash. Well, just as I thought, trash. Like this was bad. This was objectively, well, all these books were probably objectively bad but this one I think I'll have the most, you know, popular opinion agreeing with me on it. And then the one that is most obviously trying to copy Twilight and its cover is Evermore by Allison Knowles. This is about a girl named Eva, evermore, get it? Whose family, is it her whole family? Yeah, her whole family dies in a car crash and she is able to see people's auras from it. It's so stupid. I have distinct memories of like going to my library and hoping the next one was gonna be available. I was obsessed with this series. And then the last one is Beautiful Dead Book One, Jonas by Eden McGuire. Now this series, I think I even may have read this series through twice because I loved it that much. Also it was in my school library, like that's how I discovered it. And I got everyone on it. I would go around like all the tables going, guys, you have to read this book. I got so many of my friends to read this series. Like it was constantly booked out of the library. They got extra copies of the books. And I think that was all down to my influence. That was my first taste of influencing other people to read books. This is essentially a book about a girl, boyfriend dies in a motorcycle accident and he's one of four kids from this high school who have all died at similar times. And that's why there's four books because kind of each one follows a different one. She begins to see them. I think she begins to be able to talk to them and see them as ghosts. I thought this was such an original concept. I was, I just thought Eden McGuire had hit it with a home run. So I think I'm gonna start with Beautiful Dead. I told you we're a lot. But I did tell a bit of a lie there. I was wrong. So Phoenix is her boyfriend and he's the last book. Jonas is the one who died in motorcycle accident. I don't know how our boyfriend died. I'm three pages in and she stumbled across this abandoned barn. Like she's just been on this walk in the countryside. Stomped across this barn and inside there's a cult resurrecting her boyfriend and all the other dead kids are there as well. And she just thinks she's going insane. But she just runs away. Like she just goes, oh that's weird. And like runs away. That's getting weird. This book is more of a toilet rip-off than I could have anticipated. She stumbles across her dead boyfriend being resurrected into this thing called the Beautiful Dead. And it turns out that they are all the kids who died in the area, who have unfinished business and they get to come back for a year and try and solve their shit, essentially. And so in this book, she is kind of semi-reuniting with a boyfriend but she's also like doing detective work to try and figure out who killed Jonas. Let's talk about the toilet similarities. They're kind of like a found family who have to hide out. No one can know that they're there. No one can know their identity, which is very the Cullens. You can't have vampires again because it's too obvious rip-off. Like with all of these things, they take the vampire aspect and they go, oh okay, I'm gonna make it zombies, which is apparently what these guys are, even though they're not really zombies. And the zombies, the Beautiful Dead, they're very pale, they're cold to touch and they sparkle in the sun. Are you kidding me? And the relationship with her in Phoenix is a bit iffy. She's very like, oh my God, you're all my life is. I'm nothing without you. There's nothing in my life I care about. I would do anything for you. No, I've always done anything for you. You know that you rule me and all this shit. And I'm just, it's bad. It's badly written. There's like, I don't know if anyone proofread this because what keeps happening is they keep being speech marks where there shouldn't be speech marks like at the start of a descriptive paragraph or they forget to put a speech mark at the end of a part of speech, it's so stupid. A profound silence has entered the chat. But it is bad. Like it's worse than I remembered. I'm pretty sure I already know who the baddie is who killed Jonas. Like I'm pretty sure there's only really one suspect. So I'm pretty sure I already know who that is. I started just writing Lowe in the margins. So Phoenix says to her, look at me and rude what's in my heart because he's like saying, listen sis, I'm being real with you. And she goes in her head. I saw nothing but a blaze of love there. The flames swallowed us both and I was helpless. I'm really sad. I was hoping I would love this. I'm so sorry to all the people I made read this in secondary school and thought I was it. Jonas' girlfriend that she just started having a mental breakdown. And her mom rings up Darina. I still can't say her name. She rings the protagonist up and she's like, yeah, we couldn't get hold of her psychologist. So we need you to come down and supervise her. Have this mental breakdown. What part would call in an estranged friend of your daughter because she's having a breakdown. And you're like, well, I can't handle this. She goes, hurry, I'm scared. Zoe's falling apart in front of her eyes. That's your job. What is Darina gonna do to help? It's like I'm reading fan fiction. It should really be one star. But I don't know if I can bring myself to give it one star. This is some of the worst writing I've read in a long time. Like this writing is horrendous. To get through the last 60 pages of this, it was a struggle. Like it was not easy to get through the end of this. I have suffered. I don't even start. The main character is insufferable. And I know, listen, her boyfriend has just died but like whatever. There's a scene for example where they're with Jonas and they're talking about how he's only got three days left to find his killer. It's a really serious scene. Like if it doesn't happen these three days, he's not gonna get his closure. And she turns around in her in a monologue and goes, by the way, if I haven't mentioned recently how much I love Phoenix, I love him so much. My heart is about to burst. I'm like, girl, read the room. This is not the place or time. It is some of the most info dumpy writing I have ever read. Like we just learn everything of him asking these dumb ass questions. It's so infuriating. Also, no one seems to be paying this girl any snack considering her boyfriend died a week ago. Like her mom is really on her case, like hating on her. And then her boy best friend is like, I wanna go out with you, I love you. And she goes, listen, like I'm not over Phoenix yet. Like it's been a week. And he goes, oh, so I'm competing with a dead guy? Like, what? Who says that to their best friend when their boyfriend died a week ago? Like again, read the room. Part of me wants to give it two stars with a nostalgia. And I finished it last night and I was like, I'm gonna give it two stars. Like I can't give it one star. But now, having slept on it, I think I can give it one star. And I think I'm going to. It was bad. It was so bad. I've started evermore. I'm only 30 pages in, but already the writing is so much better. I mean, this isn't well written, but already I feel like I'm stepping into the light. Listen, the writing here isn't great, but it's much, much better than what I had been experiencing. She's also able to read people's thoughts. Damon turns up at her school and he's like, so fit. She can read everyone's thoughts as he comes into the room going like, oh my God, he's so hot. I want him, like all the guys and all the girls. She freaks out because she can't read his aura or see his thoughts. She's like, girl, that's never happened. The only time we're able to do that is with people who are dead. Is Damon dead? This is very, am I right in thinking that Edward could read thoughts and then Bella was the only one who he couldn't read her thoughts? I think I'm right in thinking that. So we've stolen that trope from Twilight because it wouldn't be fair if we didn't steal something from Twilight. I don't hate it. The writing isn't bad. Like it's not the best I've ever read, but it wasn't about to be, but it's like tolerable. And I'm reading it fairly quickly. Damon is obviously immortal. Oh Lord, again, a fucking game. Nothing new, nothing changed, same old shit. Like, I'm just waiting for the reveal. He is a bit shitty. He goes around flirting with all the other girls at school. Making flowers appear from behind their ears. When she calls him out on it, like you really treated me like rubbish. He's like, I'm just not really good at this dating thing. I'm really bad at it. Like no, you weren't picking and choosing who you wanted to like pursue. Stop making her think that she's a bad one. Like I'm so about dating. You've probably had hundreds of years to practice. The friends are interesting. There's this whole situation with Drina who is Davin's obviously ex. Oh, that's why I wanted to say it. This is really reminding me of Bucket of Empires there and Damon is so angel. Like this is such an angel situation. And Drina is, oh my God, what's her name? The bird's dead, Drew. I think Drina's killed someone. Like one of her friends, friends. It's very complicated. We've got a lot of lines of contact here. I want that to be the big reveal that Drina like used to be Damon's side piece for hundreds of years. And now she's out killing Eva's friends. Like that's a bit of a spike. If you get it, you get it. If you don't, you don't. If you know, you know. If you don't know, like I honestly feel bad for you. Like I cannot explain it. Like I don't have the vocabulary to sit here and explain it. Like either you get the vibe or you don't get the vibe. So I finished evermore. It wasn't that bad. I think I'm gonna give it three stars. It was a fun read, but there are problems with it. It is much, much, much, much, much better writing than The Beautiful Dead, but that wasn't hard. I remembered what I loved so much about this series and it was because it had the trope of she kept being reincarnated in like body after body throughout history and he kept trying to get her and then she'd always die before they could properly be together. And I love that trope. And when Drina, who was the baddie, remember she was like the gal from his past, like we guessed, she was trying to kill her like multiple times at the end because usually that's what she does. She kills Eva and then her and Damon get back together a bit, which was never really explained like why that was okay for him to keep going back to her. Like why are you doing this after she keeps killing your soulmate? We all make choices, but that was a choice. At one point Drina was like, oh, I did this to you. I did this, that was because of me. I'm not gonna explain why or how I did it because we don't have the time. And just whenever anyone says something like that or whenever a character says something like that, it pisses me off. Either don't say it at all because then I won't realize necessarily that you're like not identifying plot holes or just explain stuff. It was much better than The Beautiful Dead. It was much better. And I don't feel like Damon was the worst. Like he wasn't great. He did go to school just to be with her but like it's a forbidden love through the ages. It's not just some old, well there is an old guy with an obsession with a young girl. At least there's been the history between them for hundreds of years with her soul and him. I mean, do you know what I mean? Like at least this has been going on for a long time. It's not like he's just kind of like turned up and is like, I want this to be my new hoe, you know? And also remember the flower thing I was learning about? One night right at the end, like not related to anything else that's going on the end, she decides to go online and look up meanings of flowers. Red tulips means undying love, which is what he was giving to her. And then white rose buds, which she was giving to all the other bitches and like the mean girls, means the heart that knows no love, heart ignorant of love. And she goes, ha ha, Damon was trying to fool me the entire time. Ha ha, he's so funny, oh my goodness. Why did he have to give him flowers in the first place? Also, the sequel to this is called Blue Moon. New Moon, Blue Moon. I mean, it's just asking for it quite frankly. It is just asking for it. You do not tell me what to do. Or what? Are you gonna hit me? Do you want it? I don't want it. But you're asking for it? You're dying for it. I have also started hush hush. Patch is the most problematic, isn't he? So he's just basically stalking and taunting her. A big part of the initial course is that they have to sit next to each other in biology and they're like biology partners. And look, okay, is this American thing? Why is the coach teaching like adult biology? Like why have you not got actual science teacher teaching you biology? I don't understand that. Is that an American thing? Is it quite common for your coach to teach biology? They're learning about sex essentially. That's the biology lesson we're learning about. And the coach will be like, what's your ideal partner? And the coach will be like, I like them intelligent and vulnerable. You're like, Nora here. You can tell she wants it and all this stuff. I'm like, oh my God. Nora goes to him with the staff student handbook. It's like, it says if a girl, if a student feels uncomfortable, like you shouldn't leave him in that situation. I feel really uncomfortable around him and all the comments he's making. And the coach is like, I'm not going to let you move. And I want you to chew to him. Bye. I'm like, oh my God. I have been outside reading all day, but the neighbors just started playing really loud music as I was about to start filming. So I can't film out there. Patch ain't shit, is he? Like, but just... But one thing I think it actually does quite well is whereas in the other two books I read, like you know who the baddie is, like you know who the aggressor is. There's like at least four people in this who I think could be like the ultimate baddie. And you're thinking, are they all baddies? Are some of them goodies? Without too much difficulty, it's managing to have a lot of suspects, which is something the other books couldn't do. They're like, we're having one and we're sticking with it. I think the psychologist who has come and moved to the school is Patch's ex. And like they're immortals obviously at an age, but like hundreds and hundreds of years ex. And so why does that always have to happen? Like why have we always got to have this like other woman who can't get over this immortal or this fallen angel and like has it out for any future partners, this crazed woman. Why does crazed woman always happen? I'm too angry to talk, I want to slash someone's head in. Oh, lastly, I took a photo on my phone because I knew I wouldn't find the bit again. Nora's having a fight with like the bad girl, the mean girl, the mean girl, Marcy. Marcy's such a mean girl name. And Marcy keeps going on about how fat V is, her best friend. And so she's like, grrr, I hate you. And then she calls Marcy an anorexic pig, which ain't great. And then Marcy goes, at least I know how to exercise a little self-control. Now listen, I know that's coming from the mean girl. Like I know we're not looking at her and supposed to be going, let's mirror her morals. Like I know that's not what we're supposed to be doing here, but at the same time, equating those two still feels a bit dodgy to me. And the fact that she called her an anorexic pig when Nora is the one who's kind of moralized would kind of be like, oh yeah, I see myself in her. When she's fucking bland, hang on, that's another thing. Why are the lead girls in all three of these books are blandest characters ever? It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland where all the other characters are interesting and Alice is just boring, like so boring. Why? Why are all these girls so bland? They are literally all each other. Like you could swap any of them in and out. Somebody lied to her several times and told her that she was fly, hot and sexy and beautiful and she's nothing like that. She's nothing of this sort. I think in terms of the stuff it's encouraging, like Patch's behavior is much, much worse than Damon's in Evermore. I don't think I'm enjoying it that as much because that keeps taking me out of it and I keep going, hang on, hang on. This ain't it, not this. I know I just used that in a clip recently, but not this. Not this. So I finished Hush, Hush. And here's the thing, I'm giving it 2.5 stars and although I gave Evermore three stars which may have been a bit generous. This was better written. It had a better plot, better writing style. It was a bit more complex than Evermore. However, I do have problems with Patch, like I'm not gonna lie. He intended to kill Nora. That is how he met her, that is what he's planning on doing throughout the whole thing. He's planting stuff in her head, making her think things are happening, making her think that she's dying when she's not. And then he just changed his mind. He's like, but I love you, I could never do that. But I love you. Like I haven't killed you yet. If I wanted you to be dead, you would be dead. Well, I think it's all forgiven. Then it's fine, it's fine. I guess he's very emblematic of what YA fantasy paranormal romance was like at the time. And seeing a lot of people's discourse on Twitter about how Edward is abusive in Twilight, it's been very interesting for me because I had never seen it that way. I read the books and I was like eight. I guess I don't have a great memory of them, but I had never seen them like that. And so it's interesting, seeing everyone talk about it like that makes me think I need to reread and also makes me think like all these books kind of have their root in that and whether or not they've taken that concept further. Do you know what I mean? Where there's more problematic tendency isn't something I can say because again, I haven't read Twilight in ages and ages and ages, but I'm glad that we've moved away from that in general. As much as I gave these books one star, two star and three star, I did enjoy rereading them all. It was a bit nostalgic and it was interesting to see how my tastes have changed. So that is all for this video. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know if there were any other kind of like paranormal romances that you loved back in the day, any like trashy YA fantasy that you loved. And I hope you enjoyed the video. I'll see you very, very soon in another one. Bye.