 So I was hoping I would be coming back here today and eating my words, but I'm not. Okay, so listen, fuck. Everyone, hello. Hi. So this is the start of a new series on my channel. This is inspired by a popular kind of trend of videos here on YouTube where booktubers read other booktubers' favorite books. But I want to change it up a bit. I am turning this into a competition. So the idea in this series, booktube twin test, is to find my booktube twin. I don't want to be like, oh, you know, nicey, nicey. Let's just read everyone's favorite books. I want to find out who my top booktube twin is so that I always know to go to them for like any feature recommendations. They're just someone I can rely on, right? So we're just gonna test out loads of booktubers. Basically, I am going to read three books from each booktuber that they personally recommend to me. So books that are their favorites that they think is going to be one of my favorites too. And obviously I'm going to rate that book out of five. Now my rating would then convert to points. So there's a maximum amount of 15 points available and there will be a leaderboard as we go throughout this series of how many points each booktuber gets. Now I wanted you guys to end up picking basically who I do this video with. So I asked you guys on Instagram who my reading taste is most common to on booktube. And it's not a surprise that you all said Kayla from Books and Lala. Now the reason you say this is because I get all my recommendations from her. Like she is the number one person I go to for my book recommendations. I just trust her. We have had pretty similar opinions on a lot of books that we have both read I think. Pretty much all of you. Like I would say 90% of you named her. She is gonna be who we test out in this first booktube twin test. Kayla has sent me over a video recommending me three books she loved that she thinks I'm gonna love too. I haven't watched it so let's watch it together and find out what I'm gonna be reading in this video. Hello Meg. Thank you for inviting me on this journey to discover our four book twins. I have selected three titles for you. I actually gave all these 4.5 stars. Hear me out. But a lot of the five stars you have already read of mine and loved, which is encouraging. And a lot of the other five stars are too risky. So I selected some books that I have loved and I hope that you love and I have reasons for them. Okay first up because of our mutual enjoyment of podcast. Oh my god wait wait wait wait. Kayla's coming with the receipts. Kayla's like I know what you are. Just related stories and insular small town mysteries. I am giving you The Night Swim by Megan Golden. I highly recommend the audiobook for this. It's a very straightforward mystery with a good cast. Lots of entry and you kind of get to discover the mystery and solve it as you go. Oh so excited to read that. Next up because of your already established love for Kate Inkram and a mutual enjoyment of existential sci-fi. I'm recommending you The Weight of Our Stars by Kate Inkram. This is Moody and Pluffly and I think I cried a little. Next up, going for safe bets here. Because we have both enjoyed YA hard-hitting and sapphic stories with a little bit of weirdness and because you've already enjoyed a Katrina Leno, I'm going to have you read Summer of Hope by Katrina Leno. This story is a little bit darker than depicted on the cover. It's again a moody but lovely story. Here are your three books. They're all a little intense. I'm now just realizing I didn't give you anything light. I'm sorry but I would like to see you cry so we'll see what happens. Good luck. Oh my god they're all blue. How beautiful. I can't believe that. I actually can't believe that. I own all three of them. Let me go grab them from my TBR card. In this video, like Kena just said, we're going to be reading The Night Swim which is one of my most like anticipated literary books that I own. The Weight of the Stars. I loved Kian Krum's other book, The Wicker King. Sorry, The Wicker King that I read. And I've been so excited to get to this. And Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno. Katrina Leno is an author that I loved again when I read from them. And this is on my Summer TBR. So I'm finally gonna like check off some because I don't think I'm doing very well on that Summer TBR. Oh my god, Kayla's picked so well. And she was right. Look at the spines together. That is a vibe. Oh my god. Let's read them in the order that she recommended them. So let's start with The Night Swim by Megan Golden. All I know about this. Oh my god, Megan. I am just so excited. I'm in the thundery mood. I've been wanting to read this for so long. So I am actually already halfway through The Night Swim. It's kind of flown by it. Like I am really really enjoying it. I'm obsessed. Podcaster who's gone to this small town to cover this rake trial of a really high profile defendant. He's like a swimmer. He's been accused of rape and she's covering the rape trial for the new season of her podcast. And she's also been contacted by this girl who believes that her sister was murdered 25 years ago and it was chalked up to being like an accident. My first thing I would say is that if you can get your hands on the audiobook, do it. Do it. Because the audiobook is amazing. Now I was heartbroken because I'm in the UK and I looked everywhere. I looked everywhere and you can't get the audiobook anywhere on in the UK. And I'm like why not? Like you can't even get it on Audible when I thought Audible had like everything. So I don't know what's going on there. It's a conspiracy theory that I'm actually interested in. I tweeted about it and Ali from Hardback Holder pulled through and pulled the strings for me and has helped me get the audiobook. And I am loving it. It has chapters from Rachel who's the podcaster from her perspective. Then we have letters from Hannah, the girl who sister was her drowned. And then we have chapters that are the podcast itself. And when it's a podcast itself, there's the music. It's told in this, the narrator really like makes it feel like it's a podcast. The one of the episodes she's out in this field and it has all the sound effects of the field and her feet walking in the field. It is such a good audiobook. It's up there with like Sadie. And I'm really enjoying this book. I think it's a really good look at sexual assault culture, rape culture, how girls are routinely failed and their lives destroyed in insidious ways through rape and sexual assault. I love the podcaster kind of detective format. I need, if you guys know any more book recommendations with this kind of format where you have this podcaster investigating this situation, like please recommend it to me because I'm obviously like completely into it. If you get it, you get it. If you don't, you don't. If you know, you know. And if you don't know, like I honestly feel bad for you. Like the pacing is wonderful. The small town claustrophobia where everyone knows each other is wonderful. And I think this is one of the first dollars I've read in a while that has like courtroom proceedings. Like she's following this, the court proceedings that she's in the court every day. I don't think I've ever read anything like that. And it's also very interesting how this differs from the UK. Because like if it was the UK, I doubt you'd even be allowed to do the podcast. Like the jury are not allowed to like speak to anyone. They're not allowed to like, no one's allowed to introduce. Like it's so much more, trial can be so much more publicized in the US where there's a lot of strict rules. I know because I did a journalism degree. In the UK, there's so many strict rules about how you're not allowed to identify like even a suspect and stuff. It's crazy to me how like this isn't allowed. But I'm loving it. It's a great thriller. I think it's really well written. I think the protagonist Rachel is a very compelling protagonist. I'm really liking how there's information from the rate trial of the happened that Rachel knows and everyone else knows, but we are being fed very slowly. So there's like things that are common knowledge to Rachel and the public, but we don't know it yet. And they're kind of like, shocking us. Kayla, not gonna lie, is kind of pulling through with this first recommendation. If I had a wig, I would throw it. Imagine if they're all like five stars and then it's just like the competition's over because Kayla will be top of the leaderboard. Okay, so I finished the night swim and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I'm gonna give it, I'm gonna give it 4.5 stars. There was a reveal at the end that just wasn't like completely satisfying to me. It wasn't unsatisfying, but it wasn't like, oh my god that's a five star feeling. You know what I mean? But I loved like everything about this. I loved the podcast that was such a cool element of it. If you can get the audiobook where you live, I would recommend you do it, but I couldn't find it in the UK. But for those of you like in America, I think you should be able to do it. I loved the courtroom setting. I definitely want to read Martha and Liz with like a courtroom setting because I actually can't remember any other one that I've read and I really enjoyed that kind of dynamic. And you know, the number one part of this is kind of highlighting the legacies of rape and the ways that it like has existed throughout the years and ruined so many girls' lives and how I think particularly maybe like small towns such as these which are so insular, like rumours can ruin a girl's life and a girl can be blamed for like something that hurt her, you know, that she didn't want to happen and that she was forced to do, you know, that she can then be blamed for that. And yeah, I just thought this was such a great thriller. Like this is one of my favourite thrillers I have read this year maybe. I really, really enjoyed it. We did it! Yes! We've won! Yes! I just thought there was so many interesting ways that this was told also with like Rachel and Hannah's perspectives. I just thought it was done so, so well. And I thought Rachel as this main character with the podcast was a very interesting and nuanced character. I felt like she was constantly surprising us with like what she was doing and her attitudes and like how she thought about stuff and her actions. I thought she was kind of constantly surprising me in a good way. Listen, Kayla picked well with this first book. I am so happy I finally read this. This has been one of the books I've been most excited to read I would say for a long time. Kayla has 4.5 points starting off which is pretty good. Like that's a pretty good starting point. I am now going to read The Weight of the Stars by Kay Ancrim. I am so excited to read this you guys. I have been wanting to read this for so long it's another one I've been super excited to read and I'm just excited for like more of Kay Ancrim's style and so many of you have told me I'm gonna love it. Of the stars. By the way I haven't mentioned how much I love this cover and the spray edges. I just think it's like an amazing cover. Here's a thing! No, it's not bad. It's not bad. Don't get worried. Don't get worried. It reads so fast right? Because this is told entirely through like one to two page chapters it reads faster than a 380 page book should. So I still feel like I haven't really got my bearings and I definitely felt like that with The Wicker King as well by Kay Ancrim. It keeps me on my toes so I find it hard to know what I really think about it until the end and even then I still I still feel very confused about how I felt about The Wicker King so I'm like you may not get answers from me today. I know that's the purpose of this video but like working is just it's not my top priority. It's it's never going to. I am really enjoying it though I think. So basically we're following Ryan Baird who here's a thing. Kay Ancrims books are so weird they almost don't follow like normal social norms so like Ryan has kind of built this gang of misfits and the teacher like tasks her with looking out for this new girl Alexandria and kind of befriending her like her friends are like let's fucking taunt her like that's how they that's how they take her in and I'm like okay I think I get it but like do we basically Alexandria's mum was part of this like space mission where she is gone forever like it's kind of this space research mission where you're going to be on that ship for your whole life and she left when she was a baby and Alexandria through their taunting gets injured and Ryan starts to like help or like takes over trying to find the radio signals from her mum every night she has to go and listen out for radio signals from Alexandria's mum and I... huh. How do I explain it? So it's kind of like a budding romance between Ryan and Alexandria and then there's like this weird friendship found family dynamic and also the family dynamics Ryan's parents have died years and years ago and her brother like stopped talking this plot is quite complex isn't it this is a quite complex plot and then one day he came home with a baby so he's like got a baby that they look after their their relationship I really enjoy I don't know I can't put my finger on it but there's something about their relationship that I find very touching even though James doesn't really speak he'll sometimes type things in his phone for her to read that's really my favorite aspect to the book actually it's not even necessarily a big bit but their kind of like familial dynamic and situation is probably one of my favorite things about the book I think I'm enjoying it but like I'm also a bit lost I'm also a bit like whoa but that's the fun of a kanko book you're kind of like take along for the ride a lot of what is said as well you have to like infer certain things you know something will be half told to you like a secret we half told you and you have to kind of like figure out what you think that means but the fun of a kanko is that you're confused and you actually don't know what's going on and that's how I feel right now I don't think it's going to be a five star honey you've got a big storm coming but everyone say hey well how many people were scared I need to I was really really scared okay so I listen fuck um I I'm so torn I'm so torn I was out here saying I'm not getting another five stars the last half of this was five stars it was five stars um fuck there's I loved the second half of this I loved it so much I can't tell you why because it would spoil it I I can't tell you why but I loved it I I hate kanko I hate I hate them because they have this like beautiful writing like this beautiful almost like quotable writing like some of the some of the lines and this I can just imagine on tumblr back in the day and that's like not not shitty quote tumblr not that slide but like good beautiful quote tumblr I'm obsessed I'm obsessed kanko's books also have this strange quality to them that I cannot describe I do not have the words to describe but there's nothing out there like them is wistful the word I'm looking for and strange and uh fragmented but beautiful like I I'm obsessed I am giving this book five stars what what I could I could not have predicted it I'm gonna give this book five stars I'm really happy today yeah this is for all of us the characters in this are so nuanced like they're so so many layers to all of them and it's just the ending is like fuck I I I am a wreck I am a wreck I am a rag also I feel like this book if I got a little bit of a brain epiphany in this because a big theme of this without spawning anything don't worry how quickly our life can change how quickly the our life as we know it can go how quickly the people that we love in our lives could not be in it and the thought of carrying on without them and like that being survivable although unpleasant is something that I need to like develop in life because I think I'm definitely the kind of person who wants to like hold on to everything I haven't you know had a lot of loss in my life and very lucky touch word and so I think I do struggle with the idea of people not being there all of a sudden like the thought of losing someone from my life and I thought that the view that this had on that as characters who had lost time and time again was something that I could learn from personally so it was just amazing kankrim you have my heart I am obsessed like I am so emotional like you guys you don't even understand how many times in the last like a hundred pages I almost cried so many layers there's it was outstanding so now we're gonna read summer of salt by Katrina Leno and I think I'm gonna try and read this whole thing today like it's only 250 pages and part of me just thinks let's just go for it let's just go for it and read this whole thing today because why the fuck not you know what I mean rawr is up for it aren't you give me a sniff she says hell yeah listen Kayla I didn't I didn't even want Kayla to do well in this because I didn't want Kayla I didn't want like the first episode that's mean I shouldn't say I didn't want her to do well but like I would like to defend myself but sadly that's the truth I didn't want this first episode to be like right there we go conclusion Dan you know but we've had a 4.5 star and a 5 star and I'm gonna even say like if I could rate these lower I would but Kayla knew what to recommend so let's see if she hits a home run because these are like amazing books pardon me even okay this is I am tempted to raise my rating of the night swim to a five star oh my god T central over here looking back on it it feels more like a five star because I think I enjoyed aspects of it more than this this just got me more emotional so like can I do that that's not very fair but I'm gonna do it because it's the truth I can't lie I can't tell a bit of a lie there I have to tell the truth and I'm gonna I'm gonna I very rarely do this because I was trying to be harsh but I'm gonna raise my rating to a five star so we've had two five stars is it even fair to carry on I don't know but we're going to 110 pages into summer assault I have read part one I think there's three parts I don't know how I feel about it yet basically we're following these twins who come from this family of like magicians or witches like female magicians this kind of family of them and one of the twins hasn't got her powers yet and you're like supposed to get your powers by the time you turn 18 and that's in like two months they live on this island where there's this obsession with this bird that comes there every summer and that's like the tourism industry like her mum runs the inn where all these people come and stay and that's kind of how they make their living and this summer the bird is not showing it's all the drama mate I just love it and it's been sapphic as well the protagonist is very interested in one of the girls that has arrived at the island and something terrible has just happened I'm not gonna say it because I feel like it's kind of a spoiler but something terrible has just happened and I am intrigued to see where the story is going to go from here this is very different in tone and in writing style to you must not miss and I just don't know if I am enjoying the writing so much also I think I have a bit of a problem with books set on a tiny insular island and I don't know why like this kind of like summer island like tourism thing I don't I feel like I read like two when I was a kid like you know when I was like 12 that I didn't like and in my head I just like have those negative connotations now so that's where I'm enjoying it I think like the sisterly relationship is very interesting but when I started you must not miss I was like obsessed instantaneously with the writing and I don't feel like that with this yet but I mean things can change very fast we saw with the weight of the stars my opinion can change instantaneously but it just feels not quite right to me it feels like a couple steps away from being right it feels like a three star at the moment and that feels very harsh and I can't really tell you why but I'm just not 100% vibing with it so I was hoping I would be coming back here today and eating my words but I'm not I'm gonna give it like three stars I just didn't really connect with it I don't really know why the story took on a very different route than when I first checked in with you like from that point onwards it stopped being so much about like what it's like to live in this small town and we had this kind of incite incident and trigger warnings for rape in this and I felt like that was all handled handled very well and I still liked Katrina Leno's right I can you tell I'm sorry I've just woken up and I still liked Katrina Leno's writing but something about it just didn't like come together for me and I don't really know why part of it feels like wrong place wrong time I think maybe I just wasn't in the mood partly still feels like if I read this at a different time when I was more into it I would have given it five stars which I think is strange but I think a book like this a book that's a little bit weird you have to like be in the right mood for and you have to click with it straight away and if you don't you never truly break this kind of barrier that you need to break with the book I've also felt like a lot like how I feel with Lee Bardugo who if you don't know I love Night Pulse Six of Crows and Queen Kingdom but I really don't like the original Shadow and Bone trilogy and when I read Lee Bardugo I can see you know in the original trilogy I can see the roots of what I love in her writing now but just not quite fully like fleshed out and to the point where you know that I want it to be at you know not quite um fully formed and that's how I feel with this I can see a lot of similarities to you must not miss in the writing in the plot in the ideas behind it in the magic but it just didn't it didn't quite all come together and that is kind of a beauty of writing right is that writers improve and they learn and they develop their craft so you know it doesn't put me off reading any Xenoleno in the future in fact it probably makes me want to read her future stuff more because I can see kind of the progression but I am sad I didn't love it more so I am going to give it three stars and I don't really know why because there's nothing wrong with it I just didn't get into it at the end of this video Kayla has scored 13 points which is honestly a mammoth point total I really don't know if anyone's going to be able to top it I really don't know because we have got some amazing books here I feel correct with raising my the night swim rating to a five star in retrospect that feels right and the weight of the stars was definitely a five star I am sad about this but like I said I feel like if I was to reread it maybe I would like it more I just don't think the timing was right I hope you enjoyed this video I'm going to be doing loads more of these so let me know down below what booktubers you think I have a super similar super love Megan let me know down below which booktubers you think I have a super similar reading taste to I would love to know for future editions of this video and if you've gotten to the end of this video comment the C wave emoji thank you so much to Kayla as well for sending me the video for this I really appreciate it and listen I read some great books because of it so yeah I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you very very soon in another one bye