 We're back to episode three of Wrapped Up Lesson. Okay success so far, we've had a three star and a four star. I'm one of five star, before the year is out, I need a five star. We need it, this is essential, this is a crisis. I just needed to deliver, so that's all we're hoping in this vlog. Low standards, we're not expecting much. So yeah, I don't think we have anything to say, welcome to this series, if you don't know, it's a series where I've wrapped up this time, wrapped up this time all of my 2021 new releases and I unwrap one and then we do a reading vlog of it together. So I hate it, I hate it, but I hate this. I'm going home. I'm going to go for this one, this book, I'm drawn to this book. Okay, oh my god, I'm going to cry. I cannot see anything, I need to find it. Okay, okay, interesting, interesting. Oh, I'm excited for this one, okay, we're going to be reading the ones we're meant to find by Joan He. This was very kind of gifted to me by Trinity, so thank you so much Trinity. I don't know much about it, I think it's about sisters being reunited, who have previously been like missing to one another. It's like sci-fi, I know one of them is trapped on an island, the other one is like a STEM prodigy, there's like eco-wilds. This has had very mixed perceptions, it's had some people really not like it. And I just don't know how I'm going to feel about it, but I'm really excited to read it. It is one of my favourite covers, you'll see a close-up probably later on in the video, but it's one of my favourite covers of the year, I think it's absolutely gorgeous. So I'm really excited to finally read it because sometimes with this kind of book, like a book that's a little bit weird, a little bit different, other people hate it but I love it. I think I'm just special, special. So that's what I'm hoping is going to happen with this one. Okay, I have good feelings about this, this is a great choice. I'm really excited. Okay, so now I'm going to roll the footage of us decorating our Christmas tree because I realised I haven't shown you it yet. Somehow I'd missed that out in all the other videos. So we're going to watch that and I'll be back in a little bit to tell you my initial thoughts about this book. Okay, let's do this everyone. Okay, let's go. Okay, so I am, let's talk about it, 100 pages into the ones we're meant to find. So it's not going to be a five star. I want to preface this discussion, everyone. Let's chat. I had my booster yesterday. Today I've had a headache and I felt very tired. So like, I don't know how the energy is going to be in this clip and I want to read this whole book today. So like, you're going to get a lot of me like this today in this vlog. Hey, I'm not hating it. I'm enjoying it, but like, we've got our things to talk about. So let's talk about the synopsis first. So we're following these two sisters. We're in this sci-fi world and one of the sisters has been stuck on this deserted island for God knows how long. Well, I do know now, but I don't know if it's a spoiler. Struggles with memory. Can't remember certain things, you know, certain patches of memory are forgotten. The other sister is a STEM prodigy who lives in this eco city. So for those who have high rank, whoa, the hair is a moment today. Ladies and gentlemen. Well, they're speechless. Are my eyes bloodshot? What is going on with me today? This vlog is about to be a whole lot of shit. Anyway, she's in the eco cities, well, where they both lived there, but now one of the sisters is on the deserted island. The other sister is in this eco city where if you have a high rank, you're kind of like on these man-made cities with like eco habits that's built upon other levels of the earth. So it's like other levels and like you can only live on certain levels if you've got a high enough rank. And like, you're often in like pods. So like, if you want to like go shopping or something, you'll go into the pod and you'll imagine you're there or go to a party. Like, you're not supposed to go places physically that often, unless it's necessary, you're supposed to go digitally. And I'm really loving the sister whose perspective is on the deserted island. I think that's really interesting. The whole memory loss, the whole like survival, I'm enjoying that. The eco cities part, not so much. A big bunch of losers, you're wasting your lives. Get a job because a girl does something. I was a little bit confused, my loves. I was a little bit confused. I spent the first part of this book like, what the fuck is going on? Sci-Fi is hard, right? Sci-Fi is hard to explain to a dumb person like me. I mean, I did win the biology award for my year in year seven and I didn't win the physics award in year eight. So like, I am a little bit of a science whiz. I'm pretty legendary if you ask me. No, I'm joking. I, listen, Sci-Fi, you've got to explain it to me. I feel like Andy Weir is the best at explaining Sci-Fi to me in a way I understand. Whereas when you're just shoved world building and shoved, like, this is the situation. This is what's happening. I'm like, what am I supposed to do that information? You need to add some addition and equals, you know, symbols in there because I do not understand all the things we're talking about put together. Also, a problem that we're having is my life has been ruined by a certain book. I read a Sci-Fi book about two sisters separated, one living in like a kind of rudimentary setting, the other in like the top, you know, on top of the earth, in bubbles on top of the earth, literally the same thing, trying to find one another and I think Rebel City of Indra by Kendall and Kylie Jenner. It is almost the same. Was it on the mood board? Joan, tell me whether it was on the mood board because we're having some striking similarities here. And like, I hated Rebel City of Indra so much, so much. That book was a scar on my life, right? If I read a book that reminds me of it, even if it's just like in the plot, not the writing, I find it hard to like that book because it just, the feelings come back up again of reading Rebel City of Indra. So like, here's the thing. I'm really enjoying C's perspective, the one on the island. That's fun. We just had the whole element added in, I'm vibing, but the Ecosities, I'm not getting it. It's not clicking. It's not clicking. So hopefully when I come back to you next, I will have got a bit more understanding because I feel like I've finally just got a grasp on the whole Ecosities situation. So hopefully when I come back to you next, I will understand everything more. Oh, also I just wanna say, the reason I'm loving the island one so much as well, as well as loving C's perspective is the way that like the C is described, not like C, the character C is in the water. The way it's described is like this almost added element in the story. I think it's very beautiful. I think the writing is very beautiful so far. So there's a lot to enjoy about it, but like Rebel City of Indra just peeking over my shoulder like staring at me. And I'm like, go away, like fuck off. You know what I mean? Like it's a scar on my experience of this book. So anyway, I'm gonna go ahead some reason more and I'll check in with you and maybe like another hundred pages in I guess. Two, three, six, okay? It's been hard to get through. It's been really hard for me to read this. Like it's been so hard to get through. My number one gripe with books. Maybe there's multiple gripes I say on my number one gripe, but you guys know if you watch a lot of my vlogs, one that is up there is if I can't picture it, what's the point? I need a drink. I hate nothing more than when I cannot visually imagine what is going on. When there is a sequence and I've missed out on contextual information, then able me to understand what is going on. So you say without spoilers, say something is happening underwater and then something happens and you're like, well, are we still underwater or has something else happened? Do we have air now? Are we drowned? Like if I don't know that, then I can't understand anything. So like what are we doing here? So that's been a bit of a problem. The whole book is I still haven't understood a lot of what's going on. I'm looking at the sci-fi I've read, right? We've got the Illuminati files, which is pretty simple. Like I feel like the sci-fi on that is pretty like standard sci-fi. Like there's not much new in that or especially at the start. Then we have got Project Elmeri by Andy Weir, which is so, you know, Andy Weir I feel like is the best at explaining stuff in digestible chunks, you know, in a way that you understand, in a way that you really like feel like you're fucking clever when you're not. And the history of what comes next by Sylvain Nouvelle, where nothing's explained, I can deal with that. I can deal with sci-fi where I actually don't have the foggiest what is going on, but I'm not supposed to. This book, like it's almost there. Like it's so complicated, not complicated, but you know, it's his complex system. Ecosystem, all kind of ecoscience, everything that's going on around that. But like, please just let me understand what's happening. How? How I? Like why? You can't invent this like really complex scientific world and get me like nine tenths of the way there in terms of understanding it and just let me fall at the last hurdle because what's the point? What's the point? It hasn't been the easiest reading experience. However, I will say that literally two pages ago, like in what I've been reading currently, we've had a big twist. We've had a big twist and I had to like step away from the book for 20 minutes to just actually digest what's happening. And I love the twist. The twist is great. The twist is amazing. The twist might, you know, up this, you know, up this half a star a star because it's made me very interested and very excited to read on and it's changed the whole situation and I love where it's gone. So like, but does that excuse how hard it's been to read the rest of it and how lost I've felt in the reading? And like, I'm reading people's reviews. This had a mixed reception, right? I know Kayla gave this two stars but loads of my friends have given it four, five stars and then loads are given it two, three stars. It seems very mixed. I'm reading the four and 4.5 and five stars and parts of it I agree with but parts of it I'm like, what are we reading here? Are we reading the same thing? So I don't really know what to think. The twist has made me interested to read on in this last like 130 pages but Casey's section is just on it for me. Yeah, that's it. See sections? Yeah, yeah, I like those. I like those sections but Casey's sections, something's not clicking. Something's not clicking. So I'm gonna go dim the lights. I'm gonna go read some more and I'll check in with you in the morning when I finished it but like, I'm kind of disappointed and I'm kind of sad and this ain't the room we wanted this vlog to go down. It's not good news, besties. It is not good news. I am so sorry. Fuck! I wanted this episode to be like a five star. Wrapped up needs to give us a five star but no, two stars. I need a cigarette. I know but. I'm sorry, this was not it for me. Personally, personally it was not it for me. Here's the thing, I loved the premise of this. I loved the idea of it. I loved the whole, you know, sci-fi that is inspired by climate change. I thought the whole discussion around climate change and where our world is gonna end up if like the world doesn't start getting its shit together that I enjoyed but it just did not do it for me. The biggest problem was the disjointedness, the not being able to picture it. I just, I mean, I couldn't follow the story. I've read some of the five star predictions and they're like, oh, you know, it's such a heartbreaking book. And I'm like, we were getting that attached to the characters. Like, how did you read this book? Like, it's brutal, it's overwhelming. And I'm like, why are we reading? Like, I just don't understand it. For me, because I had found it so hard to read throughout and I was not attached to the characters, by the end, like the ending, the ending's a bit weird. Even if I think you like understood what was going on. By the end, I was just like, what are you saying? What are you saying? As a character, what are you going on about? What is happening here? What the heck is going on? So I actually, through all those cases, I had this recently with the death of Jane Lawrence. I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened at the end. I don't know what I'm supposed to think. I don't know what I meant to think. My brain had checked out. I have not got the foggiest what happened. So how can I write this if I don't know? I don't even understand what's intimated. I don't understand what I'm supposed to think. I'm completely lost. So it just wasn't it. And I'm so sad. You know, I sometimes thought the writing was beautiful, but like, for the most part, I just had to force myself through this. And like, honestly, beautiful gowns, gorgeous gowns. Great, great gowns, beautiful gowns. The cover, beautiful gowns. But like, it just didn't do it for me. I don't like this trope, this like classic YA trope of two sisters, one who's got it good, one who hasn't got it good, one who's pretty, one who's like logical, you know, clever. I just, I'm past that. I'm past needing that in my life. So everyone, that's episode three. That's episode three, I've wrapped up Dan. Great success we've had so far. A two or three and a four, less than, less than. We would like a five. Next week, we're gonna get a five. Please send me all your positive energy for the last one in December that we're gonna get a five star, because I need it. I'm sorry I didn't love this, but let me know if you have read it. I know it was a bit controversial, not like as in the topics discussed, but just people having different opinions on the book itself, like on the rating. So let me know if you've read it down below and thank you so much for watching this vlog. I hope you've enjoyed it. If you've gotten to the end, comment the C wave emoji, because obviously the C plays a big, big role in this book. So comment that if you've gotten to the end and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye.