 good evening good evening okay so welcome back to another episode of wrapped up where i have wrapped up some of my books and i'm gonna be unwrapping them in this and i read whatever i unwrap so here's the thing in the past five i don't even know what month we're in however many episodes of this i have been like i've been not reading slump i need a short book because i've been busy with uni i've been a busy gal i'm no longer a busy gal i've finished uni i finished yesterday don't ask me how i and it hasn't really sunk in yet but that means literally i've got like two days until this video is up i have nothing to do well of course i have things to do but i'm gonna like so like i could read anything into like two and a half days i can read anything well let's not let's not be cocky but i can read almost anything sure jan so i am no longer scared of the bigger books on here i'm not saying i'm gonna choose it but i'm no longer scared now i'm not asking for like a classic which we could unwrap i'm not asking for that that's you know i'm not quite at that level but i'm no longer scared of the longer books and i just want to get into bed and relax and read a book i still feel stressed what he's got into me why am i crying why am i crying i have nothing to feel stressed about but you ever get this i got this when i finished gcsc's i got this when i finished a levels whenever you're done with like this big stressful thing that you've been working on my body's like we're supposed to be stressed so let's be stressed and i always get sick i always get sick after like finishing some kind of academic thing so we're trying to nip that in the bud and just have some good time and read a good book so the past couple months i have been and letting myself unwrap two i think this book here is the devil the dark water by stewart tertin which is like a mystery which i'm kind of in the mood for but i also don't want to pick it because i think i know what it is i could be wrong i could not be what it is and also i think i want to read the seven deaths of evan hardcastle before i read that this one no i don't fancy this one no not you okay i'm gonna unwrap this first oh i don't know about this i i feel like i've made a poor decision here if i don't want to read this we'll just unwrap what i think is the devil the dark water hmm so this is pages and code tilly and the lost fairy tales which is the sequel to tilly and the book wanderers this is a middle grade series where these like tilly's grandparents own a bookshop and these literary figures come out of the books that she's reading and she can like travel between books now i'm kind of in the mood for this because it's a middle grade it's easy whatever but um i'm currently reading another middle grade so i was i wasn't like i wasn't fancying a middle grade and because there's only one video like this is a what am i even you can tell my brain is a bit fried okay listen give me some time i think you can tell by my face that i'm extremely tired today because this is only a one book reading vlog i kind of don't want to read like a sequel because people who like haven't read the first book have no idea what i'm talking about or whatever like it's i'm fine reading sequels when i'm reading a couple books in a vlog but i feel like what it's just the one people won't be interested so let's unwrap one more i'm i am kind of in the mood for it if that's what it is it could be that it could be that it could be that it could be any of these but i feel like it's the biggest one is that cheating no no listen i just finished my degree i think we're gonna do it if it's not it i will just you know have to bite the bullet but i feel like this is probably it oh my god this is a big book whatever i'm picking to read but i think this is a devil of dark water okay oh my god is it oh my god yeah it is i was right that's just the way god won't oh my god look at the look at the edges you guys look at the edges i think i am gonna read this you know what i think i'm in the mood i think i'm in the mood for a bit of historical mystery gorgeous i mean look it is gorgeous now this isn't cheating because it could have not been that uh it is a big book so i feel like this is the opportune moment to tackle a big book on here before i start doing more videos and like being stressed about reading again like i know i can tackle this in the next couple days so let's go start it i'm gonna read this i'm gonna read this before i read the seven desert seven hardcastle who am i yesterday i read the first like 180 pages of the devil in dark water i'm really enjoying this rightfully so here's the thing i have not read this year a lot of long books i don't want to know what my average page count is i mean i read house of lees and i read six of crows and kookingdom i'm looking over there i think that's like the only long gish and six of crows and kookingdom aren't even that long yeah there's only like long gish books i've read and so now that i'm gearing up to start doing that again um i've realized something i've missed is like the complexity that you're able to have by having a longer page count and there's just so many layers to this story i'm actually loving it like i'm actually a bit obsessed like she she slaps maybe she snapped so this is kind of like an historical mystery thriller but it's a very like slow like gentle thriller i don't want not gentle but like it's not your typical psychological thriller whatever in this we're dealing with the colonizers honey we're dealing with the colonizers it's set in 1634 thrillers this is a common theme thrillers are always about rich people because we don't mind seeing them die like we don't mind seeing their lives fuck up so i find like thrillers are almost always about rich people genuinely um so like the rich people in 1634 um the colonizers so there i think i looked it up they're traveling from their home which is now indonesia and what is it called is this real the uh what's it called like there's something trading company you know what i mean that thing that went out and colonized in the name of countries whatever uh so we've got the like governor general on this ship and like his family and they're traveling to amsterdam and it's supposed to take eight months on this ship we also have when i tell you when i looked there's like a character list in the start and i looked at it and i thought sis too much drama for me i'm not going to know who these people are but by now i've gotten into it like i've gotten into the vibe of everyone and i understand what we're going for um so we have them we have like the nobility traveling on this ship um but the kind of main perspective that we're following is aunt haze who is the bodyguard of this detective called samuel pips and samuel pips is kind of like sherlock heim's this is kind of a sherlock and watson dynamic here samuel pips is a very renowned detective um aunt has written about their like travels together people have read about it and all the cases that they've covered he's just like really good at like remembering things and picking people apart it's a super memory very very very sherlock heims but he's now in prison the governor general has imprisoned him wants to like execute him wants to put him on trial but no one knows for what no one knows what he's actually on trial for he's just like in the ship locked up so it's up to arne to kind of figure out what's going on and our mystery i told you it was so relate to this right i haven't even gotten to everyone yet but the mystery is that when they're all about to board the boat there's this guy standing on a crate and he tells them all that they are cursed the boat is cursed you're gonna die because he had his tongue cut out he shouldn't have been able to speak and so samuel is like to arne like there's gonna this is real this is some real shit going on there's a plot you need to figure it out whilst i'm locked up and arse like sis we've tried this i'm not gonna do it god you do it's really interesting there's also this is so much going on right there also the governor general's wife is very is trying to figure it out too with his mistress they're bezie mates okay uh it's off it's time um and she's belly mates with her husband's mistress and they're they're trying to figure out too and they kind of like team up with arne a little bit to figure it out um that's how he says his name isn't it arne a rent it may be a rent i can't say i know it's pathetic you are pathetic and there's a little bit between him and the wife like they fancy each other this is what i like about romances said in the past is that it's all very like just looks like they can't say anything she's married to the governor general who's in charge of his operation but they're like you know that's the vibe here i'm guessing the mystery is gonna progress and more things are gonna happen that we need to figure out sarah the wife just saw something at her window which shouldn't have possibly been able to be there i won't say what but that was like how the fuck is it happened so now we're trying to figure out how that's happened uh the governor general's a very interesting villain um because obviously he's like he's a colonizer we hate him like yeah he's very interesting because of how i won't spoil anything but like his relationships to everyone else on the ship we also have like um kind of his staff and the captain as characters are very interesting there's all these characters that are very well fleshed out i think like i really know who their characters are um in a way that i sometimes struggle when you have such a large cast of characters but it's done so well i love the detective element i love how um samuel is like still managing to like figure out some parts of the story and figure out some parts of the mystery whilst captivate like in captivity for most of the time there is some problematic element not why i don't know i should call it problematic but like i remember people had issues i haven't read it yet but with the seven deaths of ebb and hard castle which is this author's first book um with like kind of the fat phobia in that and in this book there is the is it the first lieutenant or like basically the captain's first in command here's what the the book calls him a dwarf which i know is a term that is still very much used today but i know a lot of people take offense to it um and he's he's very much like subjected to abuse because of his height but he's also like in a position of um great authority within the ship and i am uncomfortable when he is made fun of because of his height in the book and the way that he's referred to and spoken to but because this is set in 1634 i think sometimes with historical fiction it's difficult to know when to draw the line between that is historically accurate and that is just not needed like does it add anything to the story i'm not sure like the abuse towards him does we could have just had him in this position of really high authority within the ship he's not a major character so it doesn't happen a lot but yeah i just thought i'd mention that but on the whole this is a really well written like there's moments where i'm like this is good like i'm reading it and i'm like holy shit evidence by the fact that i've been speaking for like 10 minutes i never speak for 10 minutes on my first check in like who the fuck is she i just have so much to say it's really well written i'm reading it and i'm like wow this is how i'd want to write like just certain passages of it um also i don't typically like books set on the sea um actually the last episode of this was fable which was also set on the sea but for some reason i'm just picking all the sea books and i just don't like it like books set on ships i find them boring but because this has a mystery thriller element you know i love isolated mysteries and so these people are trapped on the ship together for eight months like if there's some dark demon devil shit going on you're trapped on there for eight months so you're fucked so i'm really enjoying that element of it and i'm actually because i felt like in fable like you had a crew of like five people right and i'm like this is not realistic it's just not realistic it's not realistic it's just not realistic whereas in this one there's 3000 people on this ship so it just feels a lot more realistic i think and like how it would actually be so i'm really enjoying it i'm gonna go carry on i'm actually gonna go make some lunch and then i will carry on and i will check in with you a little bit later because it's really good i'm really really enjoying it i hope i continue to enjoy it as much as i am now under two-thirds of the way through i'm on page 358 and i'm still really enjoying it and there's elements of this that has only just happened those in the synopsis and it always like shocks me when books do that like stuff that was happening at the halfway point of a long book was in the synopsis hang on i might turn the mic on yes i have and that just really surprised me so but it means i can tell you about it at the very least so basically the devil who we believe is a foot the the the boat that's quite dramatic he's now whispering to everyone on the ship telling them they'll get their greatest desires if they do something for him basically it's like a trade-offs they're like the devil's like what do you want what do you desire the most and then it's like i'll give you that bitch if you killed this person or whatever um and so people are getting tempted and the kind of tale that has been told is that people are going to start turning towards the devil so i think this is paranormal at first i was like okay are we actually dealing with a devil here or is this going to be some bullshit and it's going to be like a person behind it oh but i think it is paranormal because like the way everyone speaks about it it's just accepted that the devil is legit and like it was talking to everyone in the exact same way so i don't know i feel like it i feel like the devil is legit in this and it's going to have possessed someone but i was thinking i would actually i mean i haven't finished it but as of right now i would really recommend this to anyone who enjoys The Diviners by Libba Bray which is you know really popular booktube classic because it's you know historical fiction obviously it's set a lot earlier than The Diviners but it has that historical fiction element you have a mystery you have that paranormal element you have a group of characters who are trying to figure it out together i mean the lines of the group are much less clearly divided i would say than in The Diviners and The Diviners you got that scooby gang vibe because it's YA whereas you know this is adult so it's a bit more complex but if you like The Diviners and wanted to read like an adult equivalent or you're wanting to get into adult for the first time it is quite complex but i feel like if you want those vibes with maybe a more adult storyline i would really recommend this i'm loving how trapped they are i am just a sucker for like characters being trapped in a shitty situation i just love it i'm like let's put them to their paces like there's nowhere to escape that bitch is so fucking evil why would she say that i want to know what the more i think about the bitch the more i think that she must be straight up evil there's nowhere to escape other than the sea where which means death so like i love how trapped and isolated they are in this problem i think i think that works best with a lot of mysteries like you have nothing but your own devices to rely on and to depend on i really enjoy sarah the governor general's wife and how she's like conspiring against him because that is an odious man that is an odious odious man i really like his mistress i really like his his daughter like we just have some good characters here and the mystery is really building for me really high stakes the kind of pressures of the devil are increasing and i'm vibing i'm really really enjoying it like this could be a five star i don't know it depends on the ending like all of this depends on how good the payoff at the end is because it could just fail and be shared like that's the thing with mysteries like you have to well i don't know i i struggle to know whether to judge a mystery solely by its ending because if you do that an ending can really let it down but another part of me thinks if you've enjoyed a book right if you've read this book and spent hours reading it and enjoyed the vast majority of your reading experience then like a shitty ending can sometimes be okay because that's like a small part of it whereas the vast majority you've enjoyed so a shitty ending doesn't have to be for nothing if you've enjoyed the rest so i'm in two minds about that we'll see this makes me really really excited to read the seven desert ebb and hard castle this is a five star prediction for me i put it in my most recent five star prediction video if you want to check that out and this makes me like all the more certain i'm gonna love this because i really enjoy the writing i really enjoy the way the mystery is set up i don't think this is gonna be a murder mystery in the way that this is we haven't had a murder yet maybe we will but i feel like it's the mystery itself even if there is a murder the murder will be part of the wider mystery rather than being the mystery if that makes sense it's felt like such a page turner i've been so engrossed which is difficult with big books like to keep me motivated especially when i've been in a bit of a reading slump but i really feel like i'm getting out of that now so i'm gonna go make dinner and then after that i'll get into bed and get all cozy and try try and finish this so good morning i finished it last night i still don't know what to rate it i'm hoping speaking to you will help me to figure it out because i am so stumped like i genuinely don't know what to rate this the ending if i speak i am in big trouble in big trouble the ending was bonkers like the ending was fucking crazy like i don't want to spoil anything but if the ending was a noise it would be like ending was the weakest part it took a turn i would say 80 pages 70 80 pages on the end it took like a it just went in a direction it wasn't expecting and then at the end we found you know everything out and it was bonkers but it wasn't a fizzle out it wasn't a pathetic ending it was it aimed high so it wasn't completely successful in my opinion well actually it maybe it was see this is the thing i can't make up my mind about the ending did i love it like i kind of love it i kind of admire it for what it was trying to do i'm like what it aimed to do and how i kind of love it i really don't know how i feel about it i just want to sit here on me over a minute gather my thoughts it was just so unexpected like so unexpected like i could never have predicted it the ending probably wasn't a five star it wasn't perfect but does that prevent the rest of the book from being a five star in this case i don't think it does i actually don't think it does i think i'm gonna give it five starts i've been toying with like a 4.5 but i think i'm gonna go ahead and give it a five star i really really enjoyed it i loved how complex and clever and just completely unpredictable it was and yeah everything did kind of fit into place by the end i just really loved the characters there was so many interesting dynamics from this huge cast of characters i really enjoyed reading a bit of a longer book again it just had so many layers to it and i really enjoyed it one thing i would say i did read the author's note at the end and i know i've been referring to it as historical fiction but it's like kind of not quite historical fiction the author's note at the end says the history that snuck into my book often happened differently much later are not at all the technology is far more advanced than it should be as are some of the attitudes and the speech definitely the speech this is all intentional i did my research then i threw away the bits that hindered my story see what i mean this is historical fiction where history is the fiction so if you're going to come into this wanting like a completely accurate account of like the 1630s you're not going to get it it is like a modern historical fiction if that makes sense but yeah everything says everything i said about the recipe it still stands the characters the plot the complete i don't know i'm slapping my front of my leg the complexity um i loved it all but the ending was like i actually couldn't believe what i was reading like i actually i closed the book and i was like what the heck like what was that but i think i have to admire it for trying and like for going there like i love brave books i love books that like try and push a little bit and this was really imaginative and really really interesting totally unpredictable so i'm gonna give it five stars i would really recommend this actually i really enjoyed it i think had a lot of great elements to it and it makes me all the more excited to read the author's other book so that is it that is the end of this video i hope you enjoyed it i really like this video i've really enjoyed this vlog i feel like i'm getting myself back now that uni is over oh my god it's over i'm so happy so i've got so many exciting videos coming if you've gone to the end of this video comment a wave emoji so on the scene and yeah i will see you very soon in another video bye