 I wanted to film this on another day, but I ran out of time and couldn't and so if the lighting is weird That's why it's much later than I normally film. So for quite a while now I have been curious and I've been searching around to see if I can find a Twilight clone that is actually good and I made a video about what I mean by Twilight clone a while ago You can check it out here if you haven't already seen it Basically, it's you know after Twilight came out there was a huge boom in books Which also kind of spilled over into movies and other stuff where a teenage girl finds some sort of supernatural boy and they fall in love and There may be some other adventures outside of that. They range from being Absolutely horrendous to just kind of boring and dull to kind of okay But I have not found any good ones until now see I recently read the elemental series and I will say right now It's pretty good. You know the characters are not just two-dimensional blank slates They have actual personality and actual depth to them And so you understand why they are the way they are and why they do what they do Even if you don't agree with them and even if you find them frustrating it makes sense for the magical world to be hidden in this because part of the Criteria for being a true Twilight clone at least to me is that it has to be in the real world with some sort of hidden Magical underworld there and the story to the series has real twists and it has genuine moments of tension in it Like I'm being dead serious here. I'm not being sarcastic and I'm not even really grating on a curve or anything I just I genuinely liked the elemental series by the time I finished the first book I was what one I was like genuinely really shocked by the quality of this Even if it's not like mind-blowing the greatest thing I've ever read I was shocked that it wound up actually being enjoyable and actually being good But I also knew from that moment that like yeah, I'm going to have to make a video on this at some point so several months later here we are and basically I'm going to summarize this whole story and Review it as I go kind of similar to my other super long in-depth book reviews Except this one is not going to have as much detail and it is going to be generally positive There's criticisms that I will make but it's generally going to be positive The short version of this if you don't want to watch the whole thing is just that it is genuinely a good series It's not as focused as I would prefer it to be but the characters do have Genuine personalities and they do have chemistry with one another and like I said before the story is actually pretty good So if that interests you at all, maybe check it out and like I said, I'm not going to go into Excruciating detail so there will be some story beats. I don't touch on which may still Interest you and also the timelines in these books can get a little weird So if I do things out of order or if I accidentally mess up on small details I just apologize in advance for that but they're just there are a lot of events that Admittedly get kind of repetitive after a while and they kind of blend together So me going over them in this format may be confusing. I apologize in advance, but anyways Spoilers from this point on so let's go into the first book which is called storm. Just trust yourself man Trust your instincts. My instincts are telling me to throw this controller through the fucking screen This book starts off with a bit of a bang I'm not gonna lie it starts with the main character whose name is Becca Leaving a self-defense class at night and she's thinking about how oh She wasted her time. She wasted her money and when she's in the parking lot going to her car She sees a boy getting beaten up by a couple other boys She knows she has to help him but unfortunately her phone is dead and she can't call the police or anything So she just gets in her car drives her car at them threateningly until they run off And then she picks up the boy who she sees is one of her classmates at school She doesn't know him super well. His name is Chris and One she sees that he is very very badly beaten. He's very is barely conscious. He's clearly injured pretty badly This wasn't just a couple of bruises and some cuts like this kid's in trouble She wants to take him to the hospital, but he insists on her driving him home So that's what she does. So I just want to say right off the bat This is pretty good and it's a massive improvement over what you would normally expect from this genre Like it one pulled me into the story. I was wondering, okay What's going on here? But two it actually made me like Becca, you know it in so many of these books the heroines are just weak and I I think you can blame twilight for a huge part of that But you know in that story Bella doesn't really do anything to save the day She doesn't really do anything to help Edward and that carries over to so many of these other Clones let's say But in this case it starts off with Becca the main character actually doing something and actually helping somebody out and doing something kind of heroic so right off the bat, I liked her and I realized that she wasn't just going to be some sort of passive wallflower in their relationship because you know, obviously The first dude she meets in the story has to be the one she falls in love with that's just the rule Now like I said, chris is beaten pretty badly But she knows Becca notices that when He drinks water and when he gets splashed with water It seems to heal him a little bit and energize him a bit and Becca thinks that's weird But she doesn't dwell on it too much and she takes him home to his brothers because He lives with his three older brothers their parents died a couple of years earlier The oldest one is named Michael and he has custody of his other brothers because he was 18 when his parents died and I believe he's 23 during the events of the series So it's been about five years And then there are two twins named Gabriel and Nick who are both 17 years old And then there's chris who's the youngest at 16 years old. So there are four brothers here And elemental is in the title I think you can figure out what goes on from there in terms of at least what sort of powers they have But you know, not a big deal. It's just a thing I had to mention So when she brings him there, his brothers are concerned about him, but they also know he'll be okay soon And we find out that they have actually had trouble with the boys that beat him up before One of them is named Seth and one of them is named Tyler Now as Becca is telling them about everything that happened Gabriel one of the twins thinks that she's Suspicious and he tries to keep her from leaving and basically tries to interrogate her and almost physically blocks the Her way out and then she just runs off and gets in her car and drives away now Honestly after finishing the series and hell even before finishing the book this was a weird moment because Like it does make sense that Gabriel would be kind of suspicious of her But him like physically blocking someone from leaving when she's clearly scared and just wants to leave Does not fit him at all and it makes him seem like much more of an asshole than he really is Like I don't know. It's just a very out of character moment and I think it was put there to try and make this seem like more dangerous and more tense and more mysterious, I guess, but I don't know. I I feel like You should have gone through and rewritten that a bit. So anyways, right after this we follow chris for a little while and We find out pretty quickly what's going on. Basically Some people in this world are what's called elementals and they basically have power of one of the four elements water air fire and earth and All four of the maric brothers. That's what they're called. That's their last name's maric Is one of them chris's water gabriel's fire nick is air and the oldest one michael is earth It's nice for them to tell us pretty early on because rather than just dragging us along for a very long time because You know, we know from reading the summary and everything what's going to happen at least in broad strokes We know what's going on So it's nice that both the audience and bekah also finds out pretty early on as well It's nice that we just skip over that and get to the actual story But you know, I like that obviously you can overdo that and just have it be right at the beginning Everyone already knows everything but you know the way it was done here was pretty well And anyways chris wakes up and him and his brother gabriel Decided to get back at them at tyler and seth for beating him up So they place some bags of fertilizer at tyler's house and some lightning comes and strikes the fertilizer and there's a big explosion Obviously the police show up when they hear about this and they just tell them. Yeah, it was an accident It was a prank gone wrong because you know, they can't just tell them. Hey We're we're magical and we were Not exactly trying to kill this guy, but we were trying to do something very dangerous near him and his property And that is actually one thing I feel the need to mention as well is that when crazy shit goes down the police actually show up And while there aren't a whole lot of major characters who are involved with the police or government or anything like that It is nice that they don't just Disappear so you're not left wondering wouldn't Someone show up if there was this giant battle with explosions and stuff like no they they do show up And it is a consideration that the heroes have to take Take into account Now as we're learning about the elementals and what they can do we also learn that They used to actually rule over humans like way back thousands and thousands of years ago in ancient times They used to you know conquer cities and destroy armies and cause earthquakes and shit. So having elementals around was Kind of a very serious problem And so what happened were these guys called who call themselves the guides They're another secret society came along and decided to Police the elementals and we don't get a whole lot of specifics about like how all this started It's just you know kind of vague legends that we hear about but It sounds to me like the guides tried to commit genocide and just kill all of the elementals and My theory there is backed up based on what a lot of the guides do throughout this series But because of that all the remaining elementals have just decided to keep a low profile And basically they just don't make a big deal out of having powers. They don't kill a whole bunch of people They don't destroy a bunch of stuff And the guides either Well, there's different factions of them But basically they will either not notice them and so they're safe or they'll notice them But they will see that they're not making any trouble until they'll leave them alone because they have bigger fish to fry So it actually makes sense why all the magical stuff is hidden in this series You know like I've mentioned this so many times and so few authors ever taken into account, but like Even if in the modern world modern technology would allow humans to fight whatever magical creatures or magical societies There are that are mentioned in the series Uh, they wouldn't have been able to do that in ancient times at least in most cases So I'm always left wondering well Why didn't the vampires or whatever just conquer all the humans back then and rule over them forever and prevent them from Even trying to develop this kind of technology like that's a question I always ask and this is one of the few series that actually answers it So Becca gets harassed a bunch by Seth and Tyler like well She's at her job and while she's at school and stuff and a bunch of kids at school Keep calling her a slut for reasons. We aren't totally sure of at the beginning, but they become clear later We'll get to that and uh while Seth and Tyler, Seth and Tyler are Harassing her at her job. She meets a new kid who starts going to her school named Hunter And they become pretty quick friends because Hunter Helps her out and drives off the other two Hunter not only has a very well-trained dog who used to be a police dog His name is Casper and he's a good boy But he's also just a very good fighter himself And he actually shows her a few self-defense techniques over the course of the story And she thinks about how wow this is much better than that class I tried to take Now from here a lot of the story is kind of mundane I don't want to say high school drama because that just sounds dumb But that's basically what it is like we're getting to know these characters and the difficulties they have in their lives And like they're hidden secrets. They're hidden flaws. They're hidden Torments, I I don't know the things that cause them problems and that They hate about themselves and about the world and It works really well like all the magic stuff is just kind of building in the background like it's there Like I mentioned after this Becca does find out about the magical world and the elementals and everything And her and chris start growing closer But it's not the main focus of the story at first and then about the halfway points they go to a party And Tyler and some others like just straight up attack it like they shoot at people With a fucking gun They throw fire. There's like kind of an explosion, etc and No one dies from what we hear, but it seems like I don't know. It just seems stupid on Tyler's part We also find out that something really bad happened to Becca over the summer But we don't know exactly what and as I said before we will Get into that as the details are revealed So during this whole altercation chris actually saves Becca's life And he later explains to her that basically his parents and Tyler's parents all died in the same house fire and We don't know the exact origins of this whole feud, but basically they're both elemental families and they were fighting for some reason and Tyler and Michael chris's oldest brother were fighting with each other and it escalated and eventually Tyler's sister died in an accident and this is all covered in one of the spin-off novellas, which is just called elemental And I will say right now the novella doesn't really add anything because we learn all this backstory throughout the regular series but whatever not important and basically tyler just blames Them not just for his sister's death, but for his parents death And the only reason this hasn't erupted into all-out war is because both sides are worried that the guides are going to come after them And chris specifically vocalizes thinking like yeah, he's making a big show of this. Someone's gonna come after us. I'm worried. I'm scared Coincidentally, this is also when Becca's deadbeat dad shows up who she hasn't spoken to in years and when she Gets out of her house and first sees him She sees that there's a pentagram painted on their door and her dad's cleaning it off He just says oh some kids are messing around I guess But the pentagram is a sign that people put up when they want the guides to come after someone there So she realizes okay. I'm in the crosshairs now too now what Becca and some of the others nearly die when a bridge explodes underneath them while they're driving over it And officially it's an accident, but they do blame the guides for it and they think okay They're coming after us. We don't know who they are or where they are But they're somewhere around here. What are we gonna do and they try to Live their lives as normal like they try to keep a low profile because You know these aren't people that are members of a secret society where they can Ask all their fellows for help and they know all these safe houses and stuff These are basically just regular people who happen to have some powers that they don't get all that much practice with after this Becca is Talking to Gabriel at his soccer practice because he's on the soccer team And so is her ex-boyfriend and you know, they're all running around and We've seen her ex-boyfriend a few times at this point But he's not been a major character, which is why I haven't really mentioned him and while she's talking to Gabriel she She doesn't come right out and say it but She very heavily implies that she got ganged by her ex-boyfriend and some of his friends including Seth who remember was the one of the guys beating up chris at the beginning and Her ex-boyfriend like is nearby when this happens and Gabriel Again, she doesn't outright say it, but he clearly puts two and two together and he just immediately Knocks him unconscious. It was at this moment I knew that okay Gabriel while he can be a bit of an ass is overall an okay guy like he Gets in trouble for it. Like we don't see a whole lot of specifics But you know, there's a fight on the field so their coach runs over other people run over and at this point Becca Gets taken away by one of her friends so we don't see specifically what happened but it's pretty clear everyone overhears what went down and Things escalate from there, but it's basically it's bad news for ex-boyfriend and Gabriel like I said, he becomes a much more likeable character from this point forward for the most part, but Again, this really does not mesh with his Spat with her at the very beginning of the book. I still don't like that moment Now like I said word does get out about what Becca's ex and his friends did to her and she clarifies to Her friends and the other characters that no, no, they didn't actually hurt her. They just almost did and I I don't want to get into Super detail about it because it's unpleasant to read and it's even more unpleasant to talk about but basically Yeah, they they didn't actually hurt her But they came pretty close and so she's still pretty freaked out about it and pretty traumatized about it But everyone in the school just heard that okay She had sex with like five dudes at once and that's why she's been getting called a slut a bunch So later and we're not quite at the climax of the book yet But we're near the climax and there's a school dance and everyone's there just trying to have a good time And she goes outside where her ex is smoking a cigarette by himself and she tries to confront him and She sees there's some people nearby She doesn't really pay attention to them though And so she thinks she's safe, but then while she's yelling at him And he gets kind of physical with her the other people run over she sees. Oh, that's his friends and This is going to sound weird, but they basically her ex Decides that well everyone already thinks I do so I may as well actually do it And then they'll just drag her off and it um, they don't actually do it But that they're about to it's made pretty clear and at this point I I'm so torn on this moment because it sounds even stupider saying it out loud quite frankly, but I'm torn because on one hand it's like they're becoming fucking cartoon villains at this point Like what kind of person thinks that way but on the other hand I feel like It's a frighteningly accurate depiction of how a lot of Entitled young men act. So I just I I don't know what to make of this Let let me know in the comments below Especially if you've read the book like I don't know how I feel about this, but that that is what happens So while she's getting dragged away She does fight back and injures several of them like you know because she's fighting dirty Which is what you should do in a situation like that, you know bite their fingers kick them in the face just Be dirty be mean and um chris shows up and he does save the day which I'm okay with in this instance because she saved him at the beginning. He saved her at the end They're they're even it's not like one of them is carrying all the water in this relationship And the other one is helpless. I I'm actually okay with them both saving each other. Uh, but anyways around this time, uh A guide also attacks and there's a huge elemental battle Out on a soccer field. There's a miniature tornado that shows up and long story short chris And his brother nick wind up getting taken somewhere And being held captive after this hunter admits that he was actually working with the guide that was hunting them down But he has changed his mind because he didn't realize that the guide was going to go this far with it And he's also gotten to know you know Becca and chris and them and he wants to try and make things right The others are rightfully pissed at him both for doing this and for keeping a secret But they also realize they need his help Nick and chris are being held in some sort of dark concrete cell. They have no light The guide is actually feeding them at a few points. So he clearly clearly doesn't want to just execute them but Whatever plans he has for them. They know are unpleasant But while they're in there, they have very little air so nick can't do much and they have no water So chris can't do anything eventually chris finds a crack on the floor and he cuts himself and Squeezes blood down in there because you know magic and makes it freeze and breaks open and he's able to get out This is around the same time that all the others finally track them down and arrive there So him and nick are getting out just as the others arrive And that's also when we learned that the guide is actually becca's dad Very shocking. I mean the way I described it earlier probably made it a little more obvious But it did genuinely catch me off guard We also learned that becca along with hunter and her dad Are what's known as a fifth now a fifth They are elementals, but you can also think of it as being like spirit elementals And basically they can use all four elements and they also have a little bit extra like they Just have more connection with the emotions of others and stuff Which they don't go into a lot of detail about how it works But basically they are even more powerful than all the others upon realizing what's going on becca's dad decides Okay, you know what? I don't want to fight you anymore. I don't want to hold you prisoner But more guides are coming and we need to be aware of that and that's how the book ends and uh I'll be honest. That's a very solid intro to the series. Like it's way better than others in the genre and While yes, uh, uh, a lot of people would prefer for a series uh to have a first book which is Pretty self-contained but with potential for sequels. This one is pretty clearly just okay cliffhanger ending, but I don't mind because like I said, I really enjoyed it becca and chris have lives like, you know without the other one there They wouldn't just be blank slates, you know, they they have other relationships with their family and friends and loved ones They have uh actual hobbies. They have hopes and dreams and stuff Like they are individual people and at the same time they do have genuine chemistry There is I didn't really mention it But there is a love triangle with the two of them and hunter But it does end amicably and basically becca just tells hunter like look I'm I see you as a friend But you did lie to me right at the beginning of our relationship You didn't tell me about how you were a guide or anything And I don't think that we would be able to Start anything based on that and then for the rest of the series It just never even comes up again. Like the two of them aren't compatible. So They just are friends and I'm glad that they didn't drag that on for the entirety of the fucking series Like I said, there is genuine tension at a few points in this book Especially at the climax because first we're like, oh, I really hope becca doesn't get And then after that we're like, oh, okay, I hope nick and chris get out of their situation. Okay And it it just it really works probably the biggest issue I have with this story wise and this goes for all the books in the series really Is that the first half is pretty slow and pretty dull like it the intro is great And there's a few little scenes that are interesting sprinkled throughout Uh, but it's just not that good for the first half and then once you reach the 50 mark, it gets a lot better and it just I don't know. I read the whole thing in one day after that. So Make of that what you will and that goes for pretty much all the books in the series like first half Dull kind of slow second or not completely dull But you know much slower and less interesting in the second half is a lot better The first book is also the one that is most obviously a twilight clone The others are less so but I still feel like the label fits and anyways, let's go to book two, which is spark All the titles start with an s. It's a little annoying, but whatever Unlike the first book. This one actually follows Gabriel, you know, it chris's fire brother and It almost entirely focuses on him and his life and his relationships like chris and becca Are basically background characters not just in this book But for the rest of the series which really caught me off guard Like I think becca despite seeming like the protagonist in the first book Has like three lines of dialogue after the first book is over. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that Like it it ends with that revelation that she's a fifth and that she has these crazy powers and then Nothing becomes of that like she she never has to learn to use them. She never really does anything with them at all. It's it it's weird and in fact all the rest of the books in the series focus on different characters, so I I don't know I it caught me off guard at first and I wasn't the biggest fan But honestly each of the characters is Done pretty well like it focuses on all their own unique struggles their own relationships Etc. And the story does still continue It's just continuing while we the audience are learning more about these different people who were previously side characters that weren't Like they weren't two-dimensional. You know in the first book Gabriel and the others do have some personality But it doesn't really come out until we see things through their eyes The main thing at the beginning of this book is that Gabriel just sucks at math, you know He's not good at math tests And he's just he would be failing that class if it weren't for the fact that He usually switches with his brother Gabriel or excuse me with his brother nick for tests because remember Gabriel and nick are twins and after doing some class work in school one day Uh, they hand their papers to another student to grade and the girl next to Gabriel Her name is lane sees that he got every question wrong And she actually changes some of them for him to help him out like that is You know that's cheating and so is switching with your twin But you know, that's something she does because she feels bad for him screwing up so badly And basically the teacher realizes that Gabriel has been cheating this whole time And while he could probably go to the higher ups and have him held back for at least a year or thrown out of school Or something he decides to allow him to make it up instead and he just hasn't okay. Look look you can Take your last test yourself and if you do well, I won't tell anybody basically which is A really good deal all things considered now the thing about this is that Gabriel isn't stupid It's just that after his parents died, which remember he was like 12 years old when that happened and it was in a house fire which his powers Started and after after they died he was just super stressed out He fell behind in school and he just felt super isolated and his brother nick wanted to help him out So that's how they started cheating and they've just kept it up for so long that he has fallen Five years behind in school and it would be almost impossible for him to catch up at this point and excuse me, I should mention that He doesn't feel guilty over starting the fire that killed his parents and nobody excuse me nobody blames him for it but he does have these Really negative feelings about how he can't control his powers and about how there's nothing good that can come of them He doesn't feel guilty about this. He's just lost, you know, which honestly makes sense given all the shit He's gone through and that's why he is a bit of a hooligan and he gets into fights at school and stuff and basically to put it very short He studies with the girl that sits next to him laying and they fall in love And she also has trauma from a house fire, but in her case it wasn't a magical fire She just got burned really badly all along the side of her body and there's scars covering a bunch of her and she has not been able to Show that to people and she just feels gross and ugly about it, you know, that sort of thing So this book folk gives her a fair amount of focus and it also Explores all that but it also explores her parental issues because her mother is a terrible person and her father Is kind of distant, you know, he provides for them and he's not a bad dude necessarily But he is not therefore when she really needs him and she also Has a brother and it focuses on his issues because he's deaf and that causes problems But he's also gets bullied about it and and her father dislikes Gabriel because he thinks he's a hooligan and he's a bad influence on lane and like Look, there's just a lot going on here. None of this is bad individually. In fact, like I've been saying I think it's handled quite well all things considered But there's just so much from these new characters and every book is the same every book introduces A couple of new characters and we learn basically their entire life story and their entire inner world I mentioned earlier. There's a couple of spin-off novellas about this and yeah, there are which I personally think would have been better for some of these characters because they don't really have enough to fill an entire book and Having a spin-off novella which explores a beloved side character and their inner turmoil That that's kind of what spin-off novellas are for but Whatever while all of this is going on. There's also a huge spate of fires that are starting all over town and people believe it's an arsonist, but they don't know for sure at first and basically Gabriel and hunter start going around and Gabriel actually steals a fireman's uniform And he starts trying to save people that are trapped in the fires like at the beginning There's a little girl trapped in a basement somewhere that the firefighters can't get to he grabs her and gets her out because you know He he has fire powers the fire can't burn him and in some cases he can actually hold it back But he also notices that this fire seems to have actual intent behind it It's like someone's pouring energy into it and he notices that going forward as well So it's it's pretty clear early on that an elemental is doing this at another point a fireman breaks his leg and gets trapped but Gabriel drags him out and Basically, he's doing this and people realize. Okay. There's someone Going around saving people and they immediately assume he's the arsonist because he's just trying to play hero and Later they figure out that it's Gabriel. He gets arrested as a suspect but he gets Gotten off without any charges by Lane's dad who is a defense attorney now. I do want to mention real quick Because this is a small thing, but it did really bother me. So Gabriel is 17 and Lane Well, at one point it says she's 16 at another point it says she's 15 I guess the editor was just sleeping when they got to that bit. But whatever the point is Lane's father at a few points threatens to have Gabriel charged with statutory rape for Being in a relationship with her even though they haven't actually had sex. So I don't think that would count as statutory rape, but also It's not statutory rape. There's only a two-year difference and they live in Maryland, which I I looked it up like My search history now includes Maryland age of consent laws. Thank you spark But basically I looked it up and yeah, they there's nothing illegal there Whether she's 15 or 16 the age gap is not big enough that there could be criminal charges brought forward And you'd think that as a defense attorney Lane's father would know that Maybe he's lying. I I don't know. It was just a it was a weird detail. Okay So whatever elemental arsonist is going around causing trouble While Gabriel and Lane are hanging out at a horse barn. They start a fire there and Gabriel saves her and One thing about the powers in this series is that when they Are surrounded by their element or where their element is nearby it energizes them and it heals them But they can also take that energy and use it to heal other people So fire for instance it fire actually seems to be the most powerful in this regard But basically Lane seems like she's injured So Gabriel takes a bunch of the energy from the fire that's nearby and uses it to heal her and she winds up being okay And when he does this it actually heals all the scars that have covered like a third of her body for most of her life and I'm gonna be honest I don't like this like I thought Lane's whole character arc was gonna be about how Her scars are basically a physical manifestation of her trauma But they aren't a big deal and they don't her trauma her scars don't make her a Broken person or anything like that. She can just learn to accept it and learn to get over it But instead it's just healed and all of a sudden like oh, okay She's all better now and I mean she does learn about elemental stuff pretty quick after this But the doctors that examine her and see that the scars are gone and her parents don't so I'm not sure how they ever got around to explaining that to them. But whatever the point is I I dislike that this whole Thing boils down to yep, we magically healed your scars and now you're pretty again. I just I didn't like that so the climax of this one is that there's a big fire at their high school and Gabriel goes in and saves a whole bunch of kids and he learns that there's an elemental that goes to their school Her name is kala and she's the one that's been starting fires She's specifically doing it to lure the guides, but basically Gabriel, you know saves I think they mentioned was like 30 kids or something that he pulls out who would have died or at least been seriously injured Uh, if he hadn't done anything and everyone sees that and they realize oh, okay This guy we thought was an asshole loner Actually is a good dude and he finally realizes himself. Oh, okay Not only can I use my powers in a good way, you know to help people from fires, but I might actually have something to offer the world and That's basically the end of his character arc Which is how every book goes, but I I do kind of wish that this had been Spread out across the whole series so that now we're not just okay like this character's done Let's move to the next, you know, you know what I mean, but I don't know There there's basically a moment near the end where the firefighter whose leg broke who his life he saved Gets wheeled up to him and thanks him for saving his life and Gabriel decides after that You know what? I don't know what to I want to do with my life. I think I'll become a firefighter And it's a very touching moment It really is because this kid who has no idea what he's doing and feels like he has no value is realizing he has value Now again, it's a good character arc, but the story barely progresses at all You know, we don't learn anything more about the guides who are coming like they talk with Becca's dad once I think and he just says yeah, I'm gonna go into hiding And that's basically what he does the rest of the series like he's barely even mentioned And then we find out okay, there's a group of elementals who are trying to start some sort of war But we really don't learn anything past that and Well, that's kind of annoying, but let's go to book three which is spirit. This one follows Hunter and I'm gonna have to be brief with this basically He meets a new girl at their school named Kate who it turns out is a guide He doesn't know that at first, but she is also a fifth. She's a spirit elemental and he finds out pretty quickly Okay. Yeah, she's a guide. She's here to hunt us down What now and she is working with another guy. She's basically an apprentice guide, but she's working with a full fledged one whose name is silver I assume that's a nickname or something, but they never say his real name. So all right and silver is a fucking psycho He just straight up Wants to kill all the elementals that he comes across he doesn't just want to go after the ones that are dangerous or causing trouble like he just wants them all dead And at this point I realized like okay, so there are different factions among the guides And that's why they have to be wary about them, but there are also people like Kate and like Becca's dad who are Not as Enthused of the idea about the idea of killing people who haven't really done anything So Hunter is really struggling at home because his dad Both his dad and his uncle were guides by the way that was mentioned earlier I didn't really bring it up because it doesn't really tie anything into anything until now But both of them died in a rock slide A couple months earlier and he's struggling really hard. Eventually he gets kicked out of the house which he lives in with his mom and his grandparents, which is It's honestly kind of forced, but whatever he does Stay on his own. He's homeless for a couple of days, but then he goes to stay with the Merrick brothers And that's just where he lives the rest of the series Which you might be thinking like wouldn't cps get involved or something and well His mom does give her blessing after a while and it's only a couple miles away. So it winds up being okay So Hunter and Kate are getting a little closer throughout all of this and we can see by this point like okay This is how the pattern goes like they're becoming closer. They're gonna fall in love Presumably Kate being a guide is gonna cause some tension and then we'll see where it goes from there It's it seems like it'd be really obvious where it goes But it actually isn't because there's a big attack on a carnival by some elementals You know Kala's there and she seemingly dies in an explosion But they never recover the body that becomes important later And this is also around the time that hunter learns that Kate is a guide And he's like well, what the hell are you doing here? And she finally tells him about like, okay like Silvers here we're hunting you down Etc. And Silver comes after them and there's a battle that ensues and he shoots at them And they flee but Kate does die You know, she dies of her wounds. This really caught me off guard. Like it made me realize Okay, so this isn't just going to be the same formula every book like bad things can still happen The love interests aren't always safe. That's That's not good and Kate was also like in the middle of her character arc such as it were like admittedly She got a lot less depth than a lot of other characters in this series did but still like she was clearly trying to Come to terms with the fact that being a guide is probably Not entirely a good thing and how was she going to figure out her own shit and try and Find a way to protect people from bad elementals while also not being a complete psycho like Silver is but She just never gets the chance to do that. She dies. It's also during this point that Hunter tries to shoot at Silver like just with a regular gun, but it won't work because Silver is using members Spirit elementals have all four elements plus a little bit extra and using his fire powers Silver is able to prevent a spark from Forming when Hunter pulls the trigger. So the gun just won't go off and I love little shit like that You know, I love little Things in magic systems that you probably wouldn't think to use them for but then you think about you're like, oh, yeah That's a clever way of doing it. I just I love those So Hunter and the others learn of a plot that Kala and some other elementals had started to blow up the school using some tunnels that were underneath it and again They're trying to learn as many guides as possible so that they can start a war And when they get there they see that most of the people involved in it are just kids You know all the elementals are just kids. They're not Adults that are running things and they realize oh, okay, maybe we should just Tell them to stop and hopefully we can nip this in the bud before it gets too big and then Silver shows up there's a battle there's a huge explosion and all four of the Merrick brothers and Hunter kind of enter into a circle which apparently they can do and Hunter is able to direct all their powers to stop the explosion and then Silver gets arrested and that's the end of that book Then we go to book four, which is secret and this one focuses on nick who is the air elemental Merrick brother and I do just want to note that like I said There are spin-off novellas the first one is a prequel which at least has some reason to exist But then there are two others which one follows hunter And it kind of introduces his character art But doesn't really do anything with it because it needs to happen in his actual book which follows him so then we get to the actual book and It also introduces his character art, but this time it actually follows through on it and brings it Not to a conclusion, but very close to a conclusion because this doesn't conclude until the last book So it doesn't really have a reason to exist and same with nicks novella, which follows him and there's just there's just those three But it's just weird, you know, it introduces something then does nothing with it So it has no reason to exist. So the main conflict of this book is that Nick is gay and he's in the closet and he doesn't want his family or friends to know about it because I mean obviously it's a difficult thing to tell people about but We as readers know that his family isn't really going to care So it just feels like a waste of time honestly Now in the last book silver was introduced and I did like him Because he's just a massive threat, you know, again, he kills a major character and he has these crazy powers He apparently knows how to use them much better than the merrick brothers do and he's willing to do pretty much anything to kill them And in the prologue he's in prison and another guy shows up and I think Okay, he's gonna break him out of prison and then they're gonna have more guys after them But no the other guy would actually just kill silver and then he goes after them And I don't even remember what this dude's name is but He's not nearly as interesting like he's equally as psychotic sure, but we don't spend as much time with him So it doesn't sink in as much and I don't know. He feels basically the same story role So I would honestly rather they have just brought silver back and had two of them go after them That would seem more dangerous. It would introduce more tension. I don't know I just I just didn't like the way they handled silver's character Now I'll just say right now secret is the weakest book in this series. Like it's not terrible but Like with all the others the first half is much slower and much duller But the second half also still takes a while to pick up it's only at the actual climax where things really get tense again and the only good bit here is that we see more of tyler who remember was Part of the feud between his family and the marics and he blames the oldest brother for his parents death and his sister's death And basically we learn more about him and we see that he's not Like a horrible guy really like he's not a good person necessarily because he has done some really stupid stuff But then they also realized like okay He was a teenager and he didn't have complete control of his powers and we also did stupid shit at that age so Maybe we're not in the greatest position to judge and we also learned at this point that When he found out his friend Seth and some of the others attempted to get Becca he just cut off contact with them and decide. Okay. I don't want to be friends with those people anymore So basically we realize okay. He's not an awful awful person he's There there's depth to him at the very least not that being resentful for someone Almost kind of sort of being involved in your sister's death makes it okay to attack them and their family It's it doesn't it just doesn't but it is at least kind of understandable and we also realize that he blames himself partially because basically the way his sister died is that there was a big rock slide which Michael the earth elemental brother didn't cause it but tyler and some others think that he did and uh tyler and his sister and some others all get uh Pulled underwater by the rocks and michael dives in saves a couple of them and tyler is one of the first people He saves and tyler was saying wait no go save my sister and he goes after But by the time he gets to her she's already dead and so tyler has some survivors guilt about that It really speaks to this series ability to write interesting characters that this guy who is barely in the first three books only kind of a secondary character in the fourth and fifth books and He still has this much depth to him and this many facets to him and there's so many different interpretations you could make of him and his character like This author i've never read any of her stuff before but she really does know how to write characters if nothing else like I have criticisms of this series obviously, but she is fantastic at that one thing anyways, there's a climax where that other guy attacks them and he gets killed and nick has a boyfriend and he tells him about all the elemental stuff and Everyone's happy and then they find out he's gay and Gabriel's kind of a dick about it for a bit, but then he realizes okay He nick is my brother and I love him so I guess it's not that big a deal Which is exactly how I knew things would turn out in the beginning and then it's just everyone's happy That's the end and finally we will go to the final book in the series Which is called sacrifice this one focuses on the final maric brother michael the oldest the one who has had to become a parent to his younger brothers since their parents died and I'm going to be honest. I think that was a mistake like Michael has actually been the only brother who has been somewhat prominent in every book up until this point And so we have gotten his development. We've gotten his personality. We know about him as a person We know about his backstory. We know about his inner turmoil and so this book doesn't add all that much To him as a character See I personally feel that the final book in the series after all the other characters have gotten their own Which is focused on them so we really know them as people I feel like the attention of this one should have been split amongst all of them So that they would all finally get their chance to shine when they're going into the final battle and finally Defeating the bad guys, you know So basically in this one the guides are becoming extra aggressive and attacking them even more and more and more And they start blowing up restaurants and they start blowing up houses nearby and they destroy the marics house And no one dies, but it's destroyed and they have nowhere to stay now And so because of that social services come after them and they take the younger boys to a foster home And michael is really really freaked out about this. He's thinking like, okay They're taking my family away from me which kind of makes sense because you know, his parents did die violently and he's probably very Nervous about losing his brothers as well. But at the same time that they're 16 and 17 years old And they're going to be nearby Like even if they got taken away to a foster home or something They wouldn't go that far from him. So it does feel like he's freaking out over something. That's not the end of the world And of course, there is michael's love interest for the story who is hannah now hannah has actually been around since the second book She's been his girlfriend that whole time But she just hasn't been a major character And she actually had a son when she was like 17 and she's only 23 now So, you know, she has a little guy running around. It's hard for her to Day it's hard for her to have friends and stuff and her whole arc is basically about how She loves her son more than anything in the world But she's just not totally satisfied being a single parent because of that isolation and that loneliness that comes from She also makes friends with a new fireman where she works because she is a fireman for this whole series And his name is irish and while it kind of feels like they're trying to hint at a love triangle at a few points It that doesn't go that way. She's just friends with him, which was the best way to do it But I mean, this is like I was saying earlier, you know, hannah's character and character arc are really good and I did enjoy them but like This is the climax of the series and we're still introducing these new characters and spending all this time on that Or not a new character, but we're spending all this time on side characters When the climax is coming up like the guides are coming after them What are they going to do like that that should be the focus of this final book to me So michael is stuck in an explosion at a restaurant along with tyler and they're both injured, but they survive and a bunch of other people die and because of this the boys like I said, they got taken away to a foster home and tyler and michael just Decide to try and go after the guides, but then they also find out that the foster home was destroyed and seemingly everyone in there died so michael thinks oh shit my brothers are dead now and Obviously he's upset about that So michael tyler and hunter all go to the woods where they think the guide is and they find kala who is still alive But she's been tortured for weeks and then healed and then tortured and healed By the guide and then he shows up and he immediately shoots her and she dies And they see who it is. It's hunter's uncle which I mean this twist may have worked really well If we had gotten to know his uncle at all Or had him even be mentioned more than like twice, but He just shows up and hunter's like what oh my god, you were supposed to be dead and he's like, yeah I faked my death now. I'm gonna kill all these people And then the other americ brothers also show up and it turns out they're alive they They could using using their powers They were able to sense that something bad was happening And they tried to get the other foster kids out But they were unable to do so and now they want revenge on this dude So they form another circle and they're attacking hunter's uncle and they nearly kill him But then they notice they has an explosive vest on and that if they do that it's going to go off and Probably kill them but also destroy a huge area and This part's not explained super well But it seems like it would also all the magic energy they're using would go out of control and cause like a tsunami or A big storm which would kill a lot more people than just a bomb would I I don't know It's not explained super well, but basically a bunch of people will die if they just kill the dude So hunter Acting quickly just redirects all the power to himself And he instantly dies like he's vaporized. There's nothing left of him He sacrifices his life to save the others and then Michael grabs a gun shoots his uncle and Kills him and that's the end of that Also Hannah and her friend irish are watching this and this is when we learned that irish actually is also An elemental and his father tried to raise him to be a guide But he left and he mentions that a lot of the new generation of guides are Less psychotic than the old ones and they are trying to change things But he also just wants to leave that life behind and I mean, it's fine. I guess but it doesn't really add anything and like I said There's so many characters that already get all this development. We don't need to add one more And then at the very end of the book they're at hunter's funeral And it turns out that michael actually did lose custody of his brothers like yeah, they're going into foster care for a while, but I mean remember gabriel and nick are literally months away from turning 18 When they'll be gone. So it's not that big a deal. I guess and chris is 16 So he'll be there longer, but it's still not forever and it's not like he's going away and they'll never see him again It's just they won't be able to see him as much But michael seems to realize this at the end as well And he's come to terms with it And basically That that's it other than that a bit of him losing custody It is overall a happy ending and obviously I did skip over a lot of things But that is the gist of it That was the elemental series and like I said, it was pretty good. It wasn't perfect, but I did really enjoy it I mean I'm just gonna have to bring up some of the issues I have now with the whole series and We'll just go from there. I guess so one big issue is that like I said after the first book Becca is barely in this Now I would still say a twilight. It's a twilight clone because it's a young adult's urban fantasy with a lot of romance and It works pretty well, but again like this was the protagonist for a while and then she just disappears and Excuse me. We also hear about how she has these crazy powers, but she never does anything with them So what was the point of even revealing that I I don't know Like I don't even know if she shows up in the last book at all and again She was supposed to be the main character, but you know, this story of this uh of this story is A little weak at times like it gets really good at most of the climaxes Like I said, there's genuine moments of dread and tension and panic which work really well but This series would just not have worked very well at all if it was not so character driven By the end of it I really felt like I knew all of these people very very well Even if I didn't necessarily want to know them very very well The romance is all have genuine chemistry and the only one that is a little iffy Is one with tyler and I didn't really mention her but Becca spent friend Quinn which starts up in the fourth book And basically he's 21 years old and she's 17 so that's a bit of an iffy age gap, but I mean it's Like I said, it's not illegal in Maryland So I guess it could be worse and I mean again This is a genre where it's not uncommon for men who are like hundreds of years old to be in relationships with teenage girls. So By the standards of this genre, it's really not that bad and things don't really get sexual between them either So I guess it I don't know it I'm going on a long tangent now Basically all the romances have genuine chemistry and none of them are really toxic or anything like that So I appreciate that The villains all have a point like the only ones who are again really cartoonish are Becca's ex-boyfriend and his friends who just decided. All right. Let's get At the end there But all of the other villains like the guides have a point even if they're psychotic in the way they go about Doing it like if you leave the elementals alone Some of them are going to do some pretty nasty things And it when you consider that there are like house fires and rock slides and stuff near where the marics are It's easy to see how character or how people might think. Okay, they're up to no good Let's eliminate them so they don't hurt anybody and then like I said, there's people like tyler who Again, they act. He acts way over the top in his violence toward the merit brothers But when you realize that his sister was killed and he not only feels some personal survivor's guilt about that but his He kind of blames the others for it. You realize, okay, like this is why he's acting this way So all of the villains kind of have a point and the relationship between all four brothers all the merit brothers is great It really is because I've mentioned this before but a lot of people don't seem to realize just how complex Dynamics can get between siblings when there's a lot of them like in most movies and books and stuff There's usually only two and so we know their relationship and even if that's done. Well, which it is in many cases It really does not get into how complex it can be So there's four brothers like we have to know how chris feels about michael nick and gabriel But we also have to know how about how all three of them feel about him Then we have to know about how gabriel feels about chris nick and michael And how all three of them feel about him and it so on and so forth like it's a complex web And this series does a really good job of drawing that up like they obviously all love each other But there's more to it than that and I don't know the only other series I've seen that did this Well was maximum ride where there were the six or excuse me There are six members of the flock in that and This had a very similar dynamic All of the individual books in this series are too long Like none of them really overstay their welcome because they're not that long But they all could have been trimmed down at least like 10 i think and we wouldn't have really lost anything for the story More characters deserve Focus I think like I know I was complaining about how side characters and stuff got too much But I mean the first book is really split between chris and becca Whereas the other books are like all on one of the main characters So it does feel like the two of them got left behind a bit Honestly, if this whole series had been much shorter books and everyone focused on a different character So we got one for becca one for the other five Characters who all got focused on in this series and maybe one or two more Then I think that would have been great But we just I don't know we wind up in this situation where the individual books are a little bit too long And the series itself is a little bit too short because People like becca and chris just didn't get enough time to shine And the characters all just kind of disappear after their arc ends, you know Like I mentioned becca and chris a bunch before but in After the second book gabriel pretty much disappears after the third book hunter largely disappears until like, you know the climax And it's not that they're gone completely but They just kind of are in the background and have a few bits of dialogue and conversations and don't do all that much really to affect the story so I feel like this could have benefited from maybe being outlined a bit better before the author started writing but I mean, it really could be worse and I don't know. I was Overall, I'm just impressed that this could be done. You know, I'm impressed that you could take A setup for a genre, which is almost universally just bad and mocked for very good reason But they could take that and genuinely make it good And I don't know just check check the series out if you're curious Like I said, I did leave out a lot of important details So there should be stuff that surprises you and stuff that Interests you if any of this catches your attention and I just want to end on this one last note Which is always be willing to give things a chance You know, even if something is in a genre you don't normally like or it's from an author You don't normally like or a director You don't normally like or just anything if something seems like it might be interesting. Give it a shot You know, I'll always be willing to try out new things because that's how you find diamonds in the rough like this You know, like I don't want to be one of the people on booktube Who only focuses on like the new releases in order to try and maximize views. I don't care as much about that I just Pick what interests me and sometimes what interests me is something that looks stupid But turns out to be enjoyable. So I don't know. I don't have a strong Closer for this, but I hope That I may have brightened your day a little bit because the elemental series certainly Brightened weeks of my life and I'll see you later. Goodbye Hello for everyone who watched this far all these names. 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