 I was just, my phone is unlocked and it would start playing. I'm watching Mike's Mike's Recap of Glee. Let me be known, I was on Mike's Mike's stand, like before everyone else was. Welcome back to the next episode of series Wipeout, where this year many of you are like, I'm trying to finish the series. Yeah, whoa. I thought it sucked. I thought the song was horrible and I couldn't believe she thought she was gonna get the number one hit out of any of those songs. I feel like the levels are a bit low. Hang on, let's pump it up, get to pump it up. Would you know, pump it up. Also, let it just be known, we're entering like our iconic era. Look at the shoes I just bought. Are we crying? I've done so much. I have decided to, in this episode, read the most popular series on my TBR that I'm currently in the middle of. So like, not a series that I haven't started, but we're gonna go on to, hang on, let me start the screen recording. On my Goodreads, I have a shelf called series to finish, which is where like all the next books, well, now I only put next books in the series that I need to read. So whatever the next book in the series I need to get to is, that's on that shelf. Now, there are a few first books in series on there. That's what I used to do, but now I only put a book on there if it is the next book I need to read. So we're gonna go on this shelf. We're gonna sort it by number of ratings. So when I say most popular, I don't get confused and think I'm talking about highest rated. We'll probably do that again in the future at some point, but we're talking about the most amount of ratings, okay? We want the most amount of ratings. And I have no idea what it's gonna be. If I had to guess, I would say maybe Robin Harp, maybe The Raven Boys, maybe, what are the popular, maybe N.K. Jemisin, maybe, I don't really know. So we're gonna sort by highest number of ratings. The first few, my guess would be they're gonna be like first books in series because they're obviously gonna have more people reading them, but we're gonna scroll down until we find like the second or third, whatever, installment into the series I am in, probably a second book, logistically speaking, and then we're gonna read that series. So that makes sense. I feel like I'm in my flop era, actually, not my iconic era. I feel like I've messed up already. Okay, okay, okay. So we've got a Core Thons and Roses. First book, we're not reading that. Cruel Prince, first book, not reading that. A Dark Potato Magic, first book, not reading that. Uprutid. I don't even know if Uprutid is technically part of the series. I put it down as it was, but I don't actually think it is. Okay, not reading that. Death on the Nile, okay. Not reading that because I'm reading the Urquiporo books in order and I'm not like gonna read, I'm not gonna finish the whole Urquiporo series. It's not really a series like that. So we're not reading that. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. So we're gonna be reading The Raven Cycle. We're gonna be finishing The Raven Cycle, but look how close it was. Hang on, my mouse is like, flop era, excuse me. Do you wanna move? That's very rude, isn't it? Look how close it is between the Dream Thieves and Royal Assassin, like only like nine K ratings. It was close. Also, I should have thought of Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Lenny Taylor, but anyway, we're gonna be finishing The Raven Cycle in this video, which I'm nervous about because I only gave The Raven Boys like three stars. So I am nervous about, yeah, how it's gonna go, but that's what I'm glad we're gonna read it. I'm glad we're gonna finish it. So let's get into me reading The Dream Thieves. Oh my God. Hey, hey, hey, just realized I never gave a synopsis of The Raven Boys, but I figured you would all know anyway, basically just a group of friends obsessed with these things called lay lines, trying to find a dead Welsh king and doing strange magic XOXO. Hey, now they learn, let's be honest, sounds like home. Okay, so since I last saw you, I bought some books, which you saw, I popped into all those. I went into pick up two books that I had like ordered into store and I bought three more. I'm fashion, I'm style. And if they can't keep up, then let's say proper. Listen, you'll see them all in the book hall that's coming soon. And then here's the thing, right? If you watched last week's vlog, you know, I was sick all of last week. There's like horrible cold that made me dizzy and shit. And like took me the whole week to get over it, right? Then on Monday, it's now Wednesday, on Monday, I finally felt well enough to go for a run. That was like a big deal. I was like, oh my God, I'm so proud of myself. I'm going for a run. So me and Tom go for a run. Right at the end of the run, I sprained my ankle. I fall over, sprained my ankle, start crying in the woods. Tom has to like carry me up this hill. Like I'm half limping off the upper half him carrying me up it like a kid walking past says, oh my God, I think she's broken her foot. Like I just wanted to disintegrate. I actually just wanted to disintegrate. So I feel like the universe is working against me. So the past few days, I'm only halfway through this book. I haven't done much apart from read the past few days, but I'm still only halfway through this book. I feel like it's taken me forever. I've been trying to rest up. My ankle is now very purple, but I can walk kind of again. So at least there's something. Anyway, I'm halfway through the dream thieves. Like I said, it's taking me a lot longer than it should be. Here's the thing. I just don't know if this series is for me. I'm going to stick it out. I'm going to read all the books because I want to just finish the series and get out of the way. But these books kind of feel like nothing happens. They all feel like prequels for the next thing. Or like it's just a lot of nothing. And whenever I start to get excited for the plot, like I start to really get into what's happening, I lose interest again. There's a moment, like it's keeping moments where I'm like, oh, it's going to get good now. Oh, I'm getting into it. And then I lose my interest like instantaneously. I don't know what's wrong. I feel a bit down, actually. I'm enjoying the audiobook. A lot of people say they didn't like the audiobook, but I'm actually quite enjoying the audiobook and the audiobook narrator and like the accents he does. I think he does a good job. I just, yeah, I don't feel... It feels like older fantasy where not as much happened. I'm very much a plot girl. And I feel like modern stuff is like a detailed plot, a clever plot, but I feel like this is just a lot of sitting around and I don't understand. Also, I never feel like I believe in the characters, right? I feel like I believe the characters are real in the sense that I always feel a separate mood from them. Like when I'm reading a book, I wanna be like, I wanna know the characters so well, especially by the time I'm reading a second book in the series, I feel like I should feel familiar with them. And they just, they constantly feel like strangers I am meeting for the first time. Does that make sense? I don't know. I really like Maggie Stevewater's writing. I think it's very imaginative. I think it's very different. I think it's like my kind of thing that I always say I like. But something about the characters, like Ronan and Gansey, Adam's kind of anonymous in this book, but blue is probably my favorite. But like, I feel like I don't know them. I feel like they're in a book. I know books are fictional, but I wanna feel like that's a real person. Oh my God, the lighting. And I just don't, like I just, I don't buy into it. I can't vibe with it. So I'm really, I have to finish this today. I've been reading it for long enough, which is like three days, but considering I have been nothing, doing nothing else since Monday afternoon, like I don't have an excuse. I have reading spirits on my patrons tonight. So like hopefully I can make a good progress through it then. Yeah, enjoying the audiobook, but like all of these books just feel like this series could have been a duology instead of a four book series. They all feel like half a book to me. Oh my God, I feel like I'm being so harsh. Oh, the lighting. I like the audiobook, Kayla. I know it's got a bad rep. I quite like it. That's like the one thing I like. No, there's more things that I like. I like it. I didn't want to hate it. I quite like the accents he does sometimes. Some of them are a bit like, yeah, should I stop, should I stop audiobook? I could not listen to the audiobook for the live and see if I feel differently. Okay, yeah, okay. I could see that actually. I'm gonna, do you know what? I'm gonna take you up on it and I'm gonna not listen to the audiobook, but I didn't listen to the audiobook at all for the Raven Boys. So I thought I'd try and switch it up, but I can see you're probably right. It's probably a book you should read with your own brain. So yeah, okay, let's do that. I'm gonna just read it physically. I actually can't remember the last time I spoke to you about this book. Like, it feels like it's been forever. I feel like I read this book forever. It's been 84 years. It was like probably like five or six days, but it's not that long a book. Like, I don't know how it took me that long, but I finished the Dream Thieves and I'm gonna give it 3.5. But I'm still holding our hope that the rest of the series is gonna improve me. I have great feelings about the next one that we're about to start, blue, lily, lily, blue. For some reason, I feel like it's about blue. I'm just ready for it to focus on blue. I don't know if like Ronan was really my vibe in this. Caleb, I was talking on my Patreon live stream and Caleb's there. I just felt so bad. Caleb told me off for listening to the audiobook, right? Which I had been listening to it predominantly. And I know the audiobook gets a bad rep, but for me, it was like getting me through the book. But I do think, right? Often in this book, I just felt like I was missing information. I felt like a paragraph was missed out every other couple of pages. And I was just missing out on key parts of information about the book. My brain was just like, anyways, so. So I would often just get really confused and would be able to follow it, but I feel like the audiobook helped me with that. However, the moments of like brilliant writing in this, of magazine, what is writing that is just like, the flavors of my town. You know what I mean? Like it's just so good. Don't read as well by the audiobook. They read like magic when you're reading it yourself. So that's the trade-off. It swings around about. I'm gonna try and start this off not listening to the audiobook and see if perhaps by doing that, I'm like into the book from the beginning. I just feel like not a lot happened. I don't know. I feel like again, my main critique is I feel like I don't get these characters. Like they don't feel like real characters to me. Like I should know them so well, but they're like rough ideas to me. They're not like real characters, but I do love the writing. And there's moments, I kept having so many moments in this book where I was like, right, this is it. This is it. I'm into it. I'm into it. And then like two pages later, I wouldn't be interested again. Because all I'm gonna do is disappoint me. But that was like a constant cycle I kept going through. So to tell you the truth, I don't know. 3.5. Because of what elements of it I did really enjoy, there were points where I was like, this could be a four. If this really turns around, this could be a four. And like the way that magazine wrote a riot says like a lot of like hidden meanings behind stuff. And you're supposed to just like understand what she's saying. And I just don't. I don't think me and Maggie are on the same wavelength. The whole time I'm reading this, I'm like, this should be something I love. It should be, it should be something I loved. You know what I mean? It should be like me and it like, you know? But it's not, I'm gonna start, I'm excited to finish this series. Let's just say that I am excited for this series to not be on my TBR anymore. I don't know what's wrong with me. It's taken me like a week and a half to get up to the halfway point in like, read Dream Thieves and read and like, I'm not about to let the second half of this vlog take a week and a half. It's just not happening. So I read the first 130 ish pages of this, just physically. And then I went back to some audio book and I don't care what everyone says. I think I preferred the audio book. I think it helped me retain some of the information about the book a bit better, like figure out, I don't know why, it's something about this book in my brain just don't connect. It's not like it's the most complex book in the world. Like it's not like an adult high fantasy, but like something about it, I'm just like not a hundred percent vibing with. And it's a really weird reading experience because I'm looking at like objectively, I can see that good books and they're like imaginative and they're bringing something different. But like something about the writing or just the characters just isn't working for me. I think I often like in my series for there to be, there either to be changes in locations in the books or for there to be kind of a growth of the world or like a growth of the, like a marked growth in each book of the responsibility or power. And although we're getting new elements, I feel like that hasn't been really happening. I feel like the book, the series has kind of been one level in terms of its expanse, in terms of its goal. I feel like the whole goal of the series is the same. Do you know what I mean? It hasn't really changed, sorry, my chair is squeaking. So I just end up feeling like, like, what is the fucking point? Like, I feel like this could have been a duology or like, I don't know. I want different goals, I think in each book and each series not the same one throughout. And so I think that is perhaps why I'm just not vibing with it. Like, I'm not reading it quickly because I don't have a great desire to pick these up. I just don't. I just don't have a great desire to pick it up and I'm sorry. Sorry. At least don't like you mean it. I'm gonna go try and finish it and hopefully I'll have more to say to you but the series and me just aren't vibing. Okay, I finished Blue Lily Lily Blue. I only took me like 10 years. I finally finished it and it's my favorite in the series so far. Success. I just feel like something really clicked for me, finally. Like, I finally get the characters. Like, it only took me like three books but I feel like I finally, you know, got to know the characters, especially Adam and Blue. I would say are probably my favorites but especially Blue, I really love Blue. There's not nothing nowhere though. Justice for nowhere. But yeah, I feel like I've finally like broken a wall with these characters because I was so struggling to know them and to connect with them. I still think I misconnected them as like a lot of other people are but I feel like I'm finally like on the same wavelength that only took me three books but I really loved like the new characters that were introduced in this one. We have a lot of new characters and I feel like stuff finally happens. I was reading through some reviews because I go on my reviews and everyone's giving us five stars. We'll get into that. We'll get into that. Some people are saying, oh, not as much happened but I feel like more important stuff happened in this. My problem with the series and this problem still stands is I feel like it didn't need to be four books because I don't think enough important stuff happens to like justify it. Number one, please judge me. Number two, please hate me because number three, I love it. And I read, I would say pretty much the last half or last night like in one go and I just was really into it and I finally get it. I feel like I've been like talking quite negatively about this and it's not about the books itself. It's A, my disappointment that it's not a five star because I can feel innately that I should love this. Like this kind of magic, this kind of like whimsy, strange magic is like my favorite thing. So it's partly that and partly that I have been struggling to like read it like to find the motivation to pick it up and to actually read it. So that's been frustrating me and like the amount of time that I've been doing this vlog and how like I feel shit about the vlog because I feel like the vlog's been all over the place and I haven't done anything and I haven't like filmed stuff, haven't been interesting. So that's partly I think coloring my attitude towards the book which I'm trying to unpack but I really, I really, really liked this one. I feel like I finally got into it. I do just wanna say I can't really understand why these books are so popular. I don't mean that in like a bad way, that's not a dig but this feels like niche. This doesn't feel to me when I'm reading it like something that everyone's gonna love. Like it feels like kind of like weird like underground like weird fiction. I wouldn't expect this to be as mainstream and as popular as it is but so many of my friends have read it and they've like all fucking giving it like five stars. Like I don't know, I don't get it. And the fact that this is like the most popular series like continuation of a series on my TBR it's just like crazy to me. I kind of can't get its populace from that not because it's bad but because I would expect this to be a niche market. You get what I mean? But yeah, more no is needed. I love the family. I love Persephone. I love, oh, I love all of Blue's family because like YA, especially YA of this period had a tendency to like, you know families are relevant. Families are dead. Death to all of them. Oh, Jesus. I mean, to be fair, the boys, their families aren't really part of the story but I love the family element. I think I like this book so much because it focused on Blue a lot more and her family setting and that is just my favorite, one of my favorite parts of the story. Oh, by the way, I've transitioned back into reading it with the audiobook and my physical. I know a lot of people don't like the audiobook but I actually think it's working really well for me. So I read them together and there's certain lines get and they're like a one in a million line but then I fill my connection to the book kind of like go. It's a very strange reading experience that I can't really explain but yeah, I really, really enjoyed this one. Four stars. I feel like we picked it up a bit. I'm feeling a bit more positive. So now we're gonna get into the last one which I feel like sometimes gets a bad rep, The Raven King but I'm really excited to read it. Now I need to try and read the whole thing today because I want this video to go up tomorrow and I need like tomorrow to edit it. So we're gonna try really hard to read this whole book today. I feel like I can do it. I've done this in the past so pray for me that I'm gonna manage it. I'm gonna go out for a walk now and listen to the audiobook and I'll check in with you probably when I'm halfway through this one as well. I was lost in the woods on the dust and the fairies found me. They clear the way. Okay, so I'm halfway through The Raven King and I feel like this last book is pretty difficult to talk about. A, because we're like deep into me trying not to give spoilers territory now and B, because I have just felt like two steps behind this book, the series, this entire time when reading it. Like I've felt like I've been trying to unpack the weird reaction I've had to the writing and the story and why I haven't been 100% vibing with it and like I've been struggling to understand things that like it's difficult for me to draw any conclusions. I'm just like, but I am enjoying it and I think it is setting up the ending quite well. Like finally, finally we're getting in the fucking somewhere. I think that is a problem how there's kind of one purpose, one aim throughout the entire series and they wanna like, you know, you know a little bit more. I think having the last log being the Jade, Greenbone saga, JCC Jade War Jade Legacy vlog where it's so fucking complex. Then I read this and it's like, give me something, I need more. I need more plot, I need more characters, I need more depth. Like I feel like that is now the standard. I'm like looking at what other series I've got to read. I'm like, huh, have I ruined every other series myself after reading the Greenbone saga, possibly. Yes, yes. It's a concern and a worry. I will say, I will say there is a relationship developing for one or two or three or four, no. A relationship developing for some characters that I am like, 100% on board with. I hope it happens cause like it would be perfect. I'm really, really hoping it happens. And I will say there has been quite a few good twists so far. Like there's been a few twists where you're like, oh, gag nation on this. So we all gag nation on this. My problem with it with the whole series is like something romantic has revealed and then it's kind of like forgotten about. Like it's kind of like, okay, you found it out. Let's just forget about it now for like 150 pages. Cause when was this revealed? Okay, 50 pages ago, this big thing that I really liked, this big reveal I really liked was revealed. But then it had like almost no bearing in reality. Like I thought this was gonna shift the entire book and it didn't, like it didn't really change anything. And like we just forgot about it. And so that is not how I like my stories to be told. I don't know, there is something, there is something as much as I'm enjoying it and appreciating these books, there is something about it in my brain that don't mesh. That just don't go together and don't want to go together. And I'm like, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, like we're not gonna vibe. So I don't know, it's difficult, it's difficult, but I am enjoying it. And not enjoying it as much as blue, it might be another like, at the moment it's like another 3.5. But yeah, it's like half sixth of the moment. So I think I am gonna be able to finish this tonight. I think I am just gonna be able to like speed through this last book and the series and just like finish the series. And the first two books took me like forever to read. So anyway, I'm gonna grab dinner, got a paella. And then I will check in with you probably in the morning once I have finished the book. The ending, didn't do it for me loves. It really didn't do it for me. It didn't, it didn't deliver. It did not deliver. I was angry. I was angry. Fuck off. Okay, no. Now do you see Walter? You accept me to believe. Hang on, I haven't even focused the camera. Let's, let's do that, shall we? Hi. You expect me to be happy with this? Like, I have read these three books right here for that ending. Are you, are you kidding me? Fraudulent, fraudulent. Okay, now I wanna clarify. I like the aftermath of the book, the ending, but like the denouement that that's what we've been waiting for, that's what we've wanted all along. Outrageous, frankly. Outrageous. Out. I've decided by the way, I've amended my rating. I'm giving the Dream Thieves three stars. I look back on books I've given three stars and I feel like I felt similarly about it. So Dream Thieves three stars, blue, literally blue, which I say really badly, four stars, this was a 3.5. There was a lot I really enjoyed about it. I was finally livid with the characters, like we were finally getting along. But that ending, I'm like falling over. I am furious. I've literally just finished it. Like, what was the point in me reading this whole book? This whole series. What was the point in me reading this whole series? I can't even talk about it because it'll spoil it. But what was the point? I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand why this is the most popular like series out there. I don't understand why everyone loves it. So I don't get it. I don't get it. And I think it's some of you raven cycle galleys in the chat are gonna be like, bitch, you just don't understand it. You don't get it and you're right. I don't. I don't. It's not for main part. I don't get the mass hype and love for it. I'm not saying people shouldn't love it. Like I understand why individual people love it. I can totally get that. I can totally get that. But I can't get why everyone does. Do you get what I'm saying? They're different things. I think in terms of the writing, the characters, the plot, I was like, well, no, it's not quite the characters because I feel like we're missing some of the characters that we grew to love in blue li li li blue. And I feel like we had like few added to this book out of nowhere that didn't make as much sense. But on the whole, I loved as much as blue li li li blue. I feel like this is still a pretty strong book but the ending has infuriated me to no end. I'm actually furious. And I feel like the villain, like the enemy, the like malevolent force in this book, shall we say, was not as good. It was pretty weak. It was pretty like, it just felt like the series didn't go in the direction that I wanted it to or expected it to or that it should have done. How's that? How's that, everyone? How do we feel? How do we feel? Listen, I'm free. I'm free from the series. Not, I didn't dislike it. But like, I also think my reading of the Greenbone Saga, like in one go, really enhanced my reading experience. I think perhaps in this case it took away because this is a lot. Like Maggie Stewart is writing is a lot. It's a lot to the reading in one go. And so I feel like I've gone kind of crazy. I feel like my brain is not, she's not thriving right now. Like thoughts are strange. Thoughts are like kind of starting to become like the characters and I don't wanna think like them. Like that I'm not vibing. So I'm free. I can finally read other stuff. This vlog is finished. I'm about to go finish anything. It dusts my hands a bit and we will never think of it again. But I hope you've enjoyed watching it. I feel like it's been shit. Like I sprained my ankle. Bad vibes have been all around. We're into good vibes now and I just wanna leave. This is the last of the bad vibes. I'm excited. I enjoyed it. So like I'm gonna go. But it was just disappointing and it was hard to read all of these books knowing I should have loved them so much more. But anyways, if you go into the end comment a bird emoji, any kind of bird emoji will do if you go into the end. Let me know what you thought of the Raven Cycle if you finished it or if you've read like one or two what you thought of them. I would love to know kind of what your thoughts are considering you watch me. I'm intrigued to see whether we have similar opinions. So let me know that down below and I'll see you very soon. Bye.