 So, how often do you hear someone review a book and they say that they liked it because they could relate to their characters, they could relate to the main character, they saw themselves in the main character, a lot. I'll answer the question for you, a lot. I can't relate. I can't relate. I don't see it for me, but okay. I very rarely look for that in books. Look for being able to relate to characters, but I want to know whether there's actually something in it. Whether I would prefer books with characters similar to me. So I asked you on Twitter and I got you to tell me some characters that you think I'm like and I'm going to read some of the books and we're going to put it to a test, basically. Someone... Rude. Someone said Bunny from The Secret History. That's a bit rude. Don't be fucking rude. Are you kidding me? So Sara said that I remind them of the main character in Sorcery of Thorns and said that she is funny, optimistic, brave and cute. Somebody lied to her several times and told her that she was fly, hot and sexy and beautiful and she's nothing like that. She's nothing of this sort. A common theme with some of the characters you guys said, they were funny characters like Nina, some other characters we've got and I'm just like, listen, you guys give me too much credit. I'm not doing all that funny. I just pretend like I think I am and it gives me an aura of selfishness. But I'm really excited to read this as a standalone fantasy as far as I know. I barely know anything about the plot. I think the main character is grown up as a librarian. There's these books called Grimoires which are like different levels of sentience I guess and something big happens. I think someone is killed maybe and she is like framed for the murder and has to travel with this sorcerer and his demon servant and like sorcerers and demons are tied together. I don't know. I don't know much about it but I'm very excited to read this. It's been on my TBR for a long time now. I think my grandparents got me this as a gift to start last year of uni and I just finished last year of uni. Okay, so Kayla from Books and Lala caught on to what I was doing and so she said Blue X Noah from The Raven Cycle or The Raven Boys. I wanted to choose three books that we could look at for like different reasons. So this one is just like straight up and I like this main character. This one we're looking for like Blue and Noah combined in this. I have read the first maybe 80 pages of this before. I had to stop because it was for a video I was doing and I wasn't going to finish it in time. And I liked it but I wasn't obsessed but I did really enjoy it. So we're going to see how this goes. Kayla I think just said this that I would read The Raven Boys finally. It's one of it's like probably her favorite series. There's ulterior motives in this recommendation. It's not pure. I found that comment to be very suspect. And then the last one a lot of people said Pippa from A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and I agree. That's probably one of the only times I've had a reaction to a book where I'm like that's me. Especially how I was during A Levels when it's just when the book is set like when you're 16, 17 you do these big exams that your final big exams before uni in the UK. How stressed I was, how organized like the kind of student I was and like that kind of like annoying know-it-all that was me. So I definitely saw myself in Pippa in a way I never really have with a character before or recently. So I feel like every good science experiment needs, is it called a litmus test? That is not correct. You need like a controlled variable, right? So we know that I loved A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. I gave it five stars and that I thought I was like that character. So I think in this video we're going to read the sequel Good Girl Bad Blood. And we're going to see do I like this book as much? Does the character change and maybe we're not as similar anymore? You know, she maybe, I don't know if she finishes A Levels or yeah, maybe she does. Like goes beyond that and I don't see that similarity in ourselves anymore and so I don't enjoy the book enough. Or do I still see myself in the character and I still love it or whatever? We're going to use this, I think this is a key, a key book in this experiment. They're the three books we're going to be reading in this vlog to see whether you actually do prefer books with characters that are similar to you. I think I'm going to start with Sorcery of Thorns. I have the audiobook for this and update you on a bit of the way in about whether I'm enjoying it and whether I can see myself in this character. Hello, good evening. I haven't focused the camera, hang on. This is... Oh no. I am already a third of the way through Sorcery of Thorns. I have just been listening to the audiobook so I haven't actually read it physically yet. Basically the synopsis that I told you is pretty much the synopsis. She lived at this library, one of the most powerful books. It was released and her kind of mentor was murdered and she intervenes but everyone else was under a spell and so it's assumed that she committed the crime because she was awake and everyone else was under a spell to be asleep. She has to go on trial so she travels to the trial and she's given to a Sorcerer, a young 18 year old Sorcerer. Is it a co-incident? Is it a co-incident? I ask you. Is it a co-incident? I'm about 150 pages in by the way. I'm enjoying it but here's the thing. Because I've only listened to the audiobook so far, sometimes that does impede my enjoyment. Can you hear how I'm tired? Hang on, let me sit up. Sometimes that does impede my enjoyment of books. It has really good world building. For it to be a standalone fantasy novel, I feel like I really understand what this whole fantasy world is, what the rules of it are, what kind of like a setting environment and what kind of time and history we're inspired by, all of those things I feel like I understand really, really well. But I was obviously excited for this book quite a long time ago and I went on Goodreads and so many people have given this five stars. And for me, it's like a 3, 3.5 but I don't feel disappointed by that. Like when I gave Legend Born in the last vlog a three stars, I was really disappointed and sad about that. But I feel like because I'm a bit removed from the hype of this and I was just kind of like, okay yeah I'll read that, you know? Like I wasn't like, oh that's one of my most anticipated books. It just feels like a nice fantasy palette cleanser. It doesn't feel like a new favorite book and I'm not disappointed that it doesn't. At the moment, in terms of if the character is like me... I know a lot of things but I don't know about that. I'm not sure why. I don't feel it yet. I don't feel like we have the same sense of humor. Listen, I'm not... When I'm saying like, I feel like the character should be funny, that's just because of what the tweet said. That's not me saying I'm funny, I'm not. Let's preface that. But the tweet said she was funny and I'm like, maybe that's still to come. And I don't think I'm brave. Like I don't think, if there was this powerful book monster in front of me, I don't think I'd be like... I'd be like, shit. So I don't know if I see myself in this character. Maybe that will change. So I'm now just under 300 pages of the way through. I haven't read a lot this week, in the past week or so. I have just been like at home, seeing my family again, like settling back in. It's taken me a moment to like settle back into reading again. I just haven't felt the desire to pick this up. No judgement, please. Like here's the thing, I don't think it's bad. Like I think the the concept is everything I want. This is why I'm so confused. Because the concept, the whole librarian, like love of books, like heist and adventure and mission of set around protecting these books, like it's so amazing and so interesting, but it's just not paying off. Like I just, maybe it's something about the writing, like it's just not keeping me interested. Like it's fine, but it's not bad, but it's not great. Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave? I don't really even have anything to say. I just want to finish this book. I've been reading it for so long. I feel really bad. Everyone and their mum gives this five stars. Not me, not me. It's a fine book, but it's not going to be something I remember or pretty much ever talk about again. And I also don't feel like the character is like me. I just don't see it, respectfully. I don't, I don't see it. So I finished it. Oh, it's up there now. I don't even want to talk about this book. I don't even want to talk about this book. I don't want to discuss it. I don't want to entertain the thought of it. I just want to leave it in the past. It took me far too long to read. I don't know why it took me so long. It was such a struggle to get through. And here's the thing. This book is unusual in the sense that I'm going to give it a 2.5. Okay. I'm giving it a 2.5, right? Cue the horror, cue the gasps, cue the outrage, whatever. I can see with this book so clearly how someone could give it five stars. And usually when I give a book like 2, 2.5, I'm like... That was a choice. We all make choices, but that was a choice. But with this, I can see how someone could love it. I could see how people could love the bookish element of it. I liked that the relationship in it was a really cool relationship. There's also another relationship in it that has very interesting dynamics. There's a lot going for this. And I can see thus why people love it, but I didn't. And I was so fucking bored. I was so bored. I was so bored. I did not care. I started seeing a bit more of myself in the main character towards the end, perhaps, in the way that she interacted with the other two main characters and stuff. So I could see that towards the end, but I still didn't really feel like, oh, that's me in a character or whatever. You know, I didn't really relate. So I don't think it's actually a test of that fully, because I don't think I fully related to the character anyway. But yeah, sorry about it. If you loved it, I apologize. I'm now going to pick up Good Girl Bad Blood. I'm going to make you wait for my opinion of Raven Boys until the end, because I'm terrified. I'm not like... Don't worry, I'm not going to give any spoilers for the first book. In this log, I'm not going to spoil any of the series. I'm not going to spoil this one. I'm not going to spoil Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Oh my god, why did I forget that for a sec? But I'm really excited to read this. I want to try and read the whole thing today. They read Super Duper Fast, this series. So I'm just going to try my best. I feel like I'm going to go sit out in the garden, love my life. This first book was a five star. We know that I do relate this character probably more than Evan. Probably more than any character I ever have. So yeah, let's see if that continues or whether I still love the second book in this series. The cutest kid in the world. The cutest kid in the whole wide world. Okay, I'm about a third of the way through this. I'm on page 135 and you guys, I love it. I love good news. Love good news. I just love good news. I love it. It's so good. Miko's standing up. Miko, he's annoyed that I've come in inside speaking when he's been sleeping and he's all relaxed and he's ignoring me now. He's sitting up. He just did a... He just went... It's just such good. YA murder mystery. Like it's so good. It's so good. The way that you could already start to see all these little clues starting to be laid and like you can just see it's all going to come together and she's going to figure it all out and I'm just obsessed. Like I am obsessed. So just to quickly kind of summarize the plot. So in the first book, there's like this murder case that Pip is pursuing and trying to figure out. In this one, she has promised herself that she's not going to do that ever again. That she's not going to act as a detective in any kind of case ever again. But then one of her closest friends comes to her saying his brother has gone missing and so she takes upon the case to find his brother basically. And me and Pip are definitely still very alike. He's the thing. At school, this is set at sixth form and I at school, I was just such like a... Not nerd. And that's not the right word, but like academic and like stressy about like revision and like doing a lot of work and doing well. You know what I mean? And so I can definitely relate to that aspect of that. We're becoming more and more like each other because this has just started a podcast where both content creators... Who that girl thinks she is? I mean the difference here is that Pip is like number one on the iTunes chart with her podcast and I'm this. No, I'm joking. I feel like we're becoming more and more like each other and also I think it's actually realistic with how the podcast would work. Like we've spoken about hate comments and we've spoken about particularly like sponsorships and how that works. I feel like the author has done a really good job of researching this and like knowing also like young people. Like it definitely reminds me of when I was 18 and how we'd act. I just love all these clues. Like the way that it works whether she does a lot of interviews with people and that's transcribed in like a script format. We have so many multimedia elements. I feel like because that was so loved in the first book they're doing that more now. So we've had like floor plans, pictures of notes. There's so many different layers to the story. There's so many different elements to it. I'm having the best time. I'm just sitting out in the garden chilling. Miko, why don't you come out in the garden with me? He's sleeping again now. He's chosen to ignore me. So I'm just gonna go carry on reading. That's what you're going to do. We're hey. We're now on page 254. And you guys it's just so good. Like if you enjoy murder mysteries, mysteries, thrillers just read it please. I'm just begging you just do it. I can't do it. You can. You can do it. You can. You can. Specifically YA because I feel like sometimes it's hard as well to find good YA murder mysteries or thrillers. Like some of them are a bit... I don't want to say basic but basic. One thing I want to say with this one is that the first one is dealing with a cold case, right? So stuff that happened years and years and years ago and a lot of the evidence is like buried with time, right? But this case someone has gone missing like three days ago, four days ago. So I feel like because Pip is releasing a lot of the information that she finds out to the public in this one. And I get nervous when she's doing that because like do you ever watch... I watch a lot of true crime documentaries and like the detectives and the police will release information to the public that they just should not. And I'm like you are dumb bitches. You bitches are stupid. Because it's something that allows the killer I'm not saying there's a killer in this case like or anyone involved in the case to cover their tracks and to change what they're doing if they know that Pip is on their case. So like there hasn't been a point yet where she's like oh I'm not going to release that information because I don't want anyone who's involved to know I have information. I don't know there's just been points where I've been like do we want everyone like the 600,000 people that follow you to know this? Something that's also really fun in this whole series is the way that technology is used like GPS or like social media. Like we look for clues in really interesting places and it's not always just social media that I feel like other thrillers don't do but because she's like a 17 year old, 18 year old detective she knows how much value there is in like Snapchat stories and Instagram stories and stuff like that. And so that's been really interesting as well like all the different modern ways that we're finding evidence in this. I finished Good Girl Bad Blood last night and I had to take a moment to collect my thoughts because I have a lot. There are so many things right? There's so many aspects of this book that are so improved upon from the first book A Good Girl's Guide to Murder which I gave five stars. I loved it. There's so much more fun had with the mixed media like that is even more explored. I feel like Pip's character development is so much better and she goes on this really interesting character storyline. It wasn't a route I expected the book to go down and I feel like the writing's better. So there's so much that has actually been improved upon from a five star, right? But I knew and predicted and was not happy with having predicted one of the big reveals basically. There's a couple big reveals but this is one of the key ones. I just think it was too obvious. I really, I think it was too obvious. I don't think it was done well like setting it up. I don't think it was hidden at all. I think it was completely obvious. Now bearing in mind, as I read more mysteries, I may become better. I've never been very good at predicting shit, right? I'm dumb. But as I read more, I may become a bit better at doing that. However, I just don't think it was hidden at all. I think it was so, so obvious what was happening. So when that happened, I was not happy. The more I think about it, the whole thing is a five star apart from that one aspect. But it's a mystery. Like the big reveal is such an integral part of the book. It's what the whole book has been leading up to. It's what all the clues have had to be pointing towards, right? I gave it a 4.5. I still felt very connected to Pip and this is still like one of the only books or now series where I've ever related to a character and it has improved my enjoyment of a story. I feel like me and Pip became even more similar in some ways and definitely towards the end, she went through stuff that I haven't gone through and so that meant that we differed a bit. But I feel like if I was put in that situation, that's probably how I wish I would act as well. So yeah, I feel like this is still proof that when I relate this strongly to a character, I can enjoy a book more. But like I don't, I don't think that's a rule across books basically is what I'm trying to say. So now we're gonna finally read the Raven Boys and I'm, I'm really scared. A picture fight. A picture fight. Who did Kayla say I was like? Blue and Noah. Okay, so I am blue and Noah combined, apparently. I still think Kayla just said that to get me to read the Raven Boys, but hey-ho, I will be on the lookout for blue and Noah and whether I can relate. I'll preface this by saying I am GMI, I'm sorry. And the past five months on my period, I have felt sick, like really, really sick or thrown up the first day of my period. I think I need to go like see a doctor or someone about it. So I just feel so sick today. Today is not my day. So it's taken me about four hours with a nap in there on the sofa to read the first hundred pages of the Raven Boys. If you don't know, this is the story of Blue who lives with like a family of psychic women. She has been told that if she kisses her true love, he'll die, basically. And she is in a cemetery and she sees a ghost of one of the boys who goes to the local school, which she calls the Raven Boys. And basically anyone who is there at that day, those ghosts, I'm sorry if I'm incoherent. I don't feel very well. Those ghosts on that day are people who are going to die within the next year. Ganze is the one she sees and Ganze and his friends are the Raven Boys. We have Ganze, Ronan, Noah and Adam. I've struggled to get into this. Oh my God. Because I'm not super with it. Like I need to recognize I'm not, I have come over a bit shit since I sat down and tried to start reading it. Because I feel like Maggie Stevewater is constantly not speaking like with hidden meanings, but everything is like, it's all said very indirectly, right? What is actually said is meaning something else or is signifying something else. When I'm not feeling very well, I think you can kind of miss that stuff if you're just reading the words. You know what I mean? I, I don't know what to tell you. It does, it does have potential for me to fall in love with it, but I'm not into it yet. I can see the comparisons of Blue and Noah. They're very different characters, but I feel like Blue is more my like outward persona and then Noah is my more quiet persona. I can actually see it. I can actually, I can see the comparison. They're kind of like the two sides of me. One very outspoken and direct. And then another side of me where I like to be on my own. Oh and there's, oh, how do I forget? There's this whole thing with lay lines, like Gansi of the Cess was finding these lay lines of energy that have some ties to like ancient Welsh kings. I don't, I don't understand. I can't claim to understand. Like page 240 something, I'm on of the Raven Boys. And I, I still don't know how to feel about it. I don't think I'm gonna know if I like this book until I've read the whole series. Does that make any kind of sense? Like I think there's so much hidden and so much set up for the other books. It feels like we've only just gotten into the swing of things really and we're like two thirds of the way through the book essentially that I just feel like I don't know what I think yet. And that's, that's very rare with a book. Usually I've kind of made up my mind. This, this could be anything. This could be any rating really, yeah. I'm really enjoying the way it's written, but I'm also like kind of like, am I? In some ways I love it, but in some ways I'm always conscious I'm reading a book. I don't think I've necessarily bought into the idea of the lay lines and, and also the characters. I don't think I've bought into them yet. I think I still see them as book characters, which is kind of like the first step is like believing what the fictional thing you're reading in a way. We haven't had a lot of Noah. Noah hasn't really been in it yet. So I can't really testify to, you know, if I'm like him or not. But I can see myself in blue a lot, but I was also thinking, and I also think blue is the kind of female character who you can transplant your personality onto. Like I, that happens a lot in YA, particularly around this time. When was this written? 2012, yeah. That's like pretty common of books of this era is the girl character hanging out with all the boys is meant to be like a your name in fan fiction. You know what I'm talking about? So I'm like, oh yeah, I can relate to blue, but I feel like she's written in a way that, that makes, she's just got just enough individuality to be a character, but everything else is like, you can put yourself onto her. It reminds me of when One Direction said their girlfriend does five foot something. You know, most, most, not all, but most girls fall into five foot something. So you're like, oh my god, he's talking about me. Okay. But yeah, I'm enjoying it, but it's a strange reading experience. It's not like anything I've read recently in the way that I feel about it. I'm going to give it three stars. Yeah, it's a three star. It's a three star book. I'm sorry if everybody loves this book. I didn't love it. Oh my god. I can't get out. I didn't love it. It was okay. It was fine. You know, it was okay. I never felt like this had a plot. Like I never felt like it actually had a structure that kept me engaged. I'm not saying all books have to stick to that kind of like, you know, the story arc that you see, but it didn't have anything that I felt like we were chasing towards and we're actually going to achieve in this book. To me, I'm so excited for the rest of the series because this feels like a prequel. This didn't feel like a book in its own right. It felt like a prequel to the rest of the series. I also just feel like some characters acted out of character towards the end and it didn't really make sense and I felt like the ending was a bit rushed. I have been waiting a long time to read this book and I just didn't love it as much as I was hoping to. But I'm still excited, like I said, to read the rest of the series because I think it has a lot of promise and no one was barely in it, but I could definitely relate to little bits of him I saw in my quieter side. So if you're gonna be like, Quieter side? I could not believe it. But I'm actually quite reserved when I'm not on, like when I'm not on filming or when I'm not on like in social situations, when I'm just relaxing, I'm quite a quiet person. I'm like, I can go to two extremes basically. Again, I could see elements of myself in blue but it's not the same as with Pip as a character where I really identified with that. I can only, I think, see elements of myself in blue because I was looking for it, if that makes sense. So basically, the question was, do I enjoy books more when I am similar to the characters? And I think the answer for me is no. I don't think that's something I look for or that I need in books or that I particularly want in books. I think it's cool if that is something you want. I know it's something a lot of people like to be able to relate to characters but it's not something that I think is necessary for me or even necessarily wanted for me. So this, this video's a fail in some regard. Yeah, this kind of proves that apart from that series, it's not something I look for and not something I can necessarily identify easily. I hope you've enjoyed this video. Anyway, let me know down below what some characters you think are similar to you, if you've ever read that before. And if you go into the end, comment a bird emoji. I've done that before for the Raven Boys but comment any bird emoji down below. And yeah, thank you for watching. I will see you very, very soon in another video. Bye.