 So today we're going to be embarking on a vlog project that puts my entire fate in other Booktubers hands, which is never a good idea. This is a style of vlog that I did many times a couple of years ago, and I've always wanted to bring back, but it's called Booktubers Scavenger Hunt because I'm being sent from one Booktuber to another. The idea is I go to the first Booktuber, they give me a reading prompt, and then based on what I think of that book, they give me the next Booktuber to go to for the next reading prompt. So Booktubers are giving me reading prompts that decide what I read, and I also have no control beyond the first Booktuber what Booktubers I'm going to see. I think this is always really fun. I like putting my fate in other people, so let's just get into it. Okay, hi. I don't know if I'm looking big drag old. I'm feeling it. It's the end of a very hot day here in the UK. But more importantly, it's time to find out what the first Booktuber reading is and what the first prompt is going to be, because I'm so nervous. I was just on a Zoom with some of my patrons, and I was saying like, how nervous this makes me, like not knowing what I'm going to read. Past Megan will have already explained this whole situation, but we're going to have a reading prompt from a Booktuber. Then we'll read it back, then they'll give us the next Booktuber to go to. And the first Booktuber I've chosen is Gabby. Oh my god, I'm so excited. I love Gabby's videos. Gabby's one of the Booktubers I watch the most. Gabby also runs Summerween, which like Iconic and all the weens, ween readathons. And they always have really good reading prompts, but also like accessible reading prompts. That is part of the reason why I chose Gabby first, because I feel like I need someone to go a little bit easy on me. Like I don't want someone, I feel like once Aaron gave me, Aaron from Booktube Busy, gave Busy. Sorry, I'm like so hot I can't speak. This is where once Aaron gave me the prompt, like read the longest book or most intimidating book on a TBR. And I was like, this is a great fight. So I'm hoping Gabby's prompt will be like accessible and easy for me to do, kind of, but still a bit challenging. I don't know. In terms of the books we're going to be prioritising, these are the books that I need to share. Apart from this top one, these have all been on TBR Cluedo and I still haven't read them. So I really should prioritise those. And then this month I have got to read this book to be great if I could fit it into a reading vlog, because I'm a guest host on Kayla's Literary Dead Book Club, which I'm very excited for. So I'd like to vlog this book, The Devotion of Suspect X if I can. Other than that, I'm kind of fancying short books at the moment. Like I feel like I'd be reading a lot of longer books and I'm in a bit of a slump. And I just want good books, to be honest, but I mean we can't choose that ahead of time. Let's just watch the video. I am so nervous. You guys don't understand how nervous doing these make me. Hey Meg, how's it going? I hope that you're doing well. And thank you so much for asking me to be a part of this little experiment that you're doing. I think it sounds so much fun. I know you asked me for a book prompt, and instead of being, you know, basic and just giving you one prompt, I thought it would be fun to give you six different prompts. And basically like the idea that I had behind this would be, it would be a little bit more interactive for you because I thought you could roll a dice. And depending on which number out of the six that you get, that would be the prompt that you would have to complete. And if you don't have a dice, I figured you could just use like a random number generator to pick like one through six. But anyways, so, oh my God, okay, pause, pause, pause. I thought I actually had a heart attack. Oh my God. Oh God, my heart hurts. I thought Gabby was gonna give me six, but prompts I was gonna have to find a book that fit all six. I was ready to leave. I was ready to say it's sorry Gabby, I'm not making the video anymore. Thank you for your time, but it's not happening. We've got six. I think I'll just Google roller dice because I can't, we've got Lizzie Dice in the house. My dad is big gamer. Big gamer. So we have a lot of dice in the house. And so does my brother as Lizzie Dice, but I can't be bothered to go find them. So we'll just do roller dice on here. Okay, so we have six prompts. This is heartbreaking because there could be some prompts that I really want and then I don't get it. Or there could be prompts that I don't want and then I get that one. Okay, right. The six different prompts that I have, so if you do end up rolling a one, then your prompts would be to read a thriller with orange and black on the cover. Okay. If you roll a two, then you will be reading a horror book with red on the cover. Okay. If you roll a three, you will read the first book that you see on your shelf that has green on the spine. That's on your TBR of course. And then if you roll a four, then your prompt will be to read a book from my 2022 favorites video that you have not yet read. What? And then if you roll a five, it'll be to read a thriller with black or white text on the cover. And then if you roll a six, it'll be to read a horror book with trees on the cover. What? And so I figured this would be a little bit more fun and you know, kind of like raise the stakes to see if you'll have to like roll a dice and just figure it out. I think it would be fun for you. And thank you so much again. I hope you have fun with these prompts. I'm scared. I'm going to record my screen. Don't judge me that my phone's on like 8% battery. Okay. We'll just signal that. I don't even know which of those prompts I want. I don't want the one that's Gabby's, like a book from Gabby's favorites. Not that I don't trust Gabby, but like that's specific, right? The other books we can work around, we can figure this shit out. That's so specific. 10 books. And I could like own none of them. Okay. Alrighty. So if I just say roll a dice, Google do it. Two. Oh my God. That was so fast. There's like no suspense there. Oh Jesus Christ. Okay. What is prompt two? What is prompt two? Read a horror book with red on the cover. Oh no. No, no, no. Okay. Let me record my screen. I don't have a ton of horror on my TBR. I think it'll be easier to go because I, sort my own TBR into all the genres as well for TBR Cluedo. When I get a prompt on TBR Cluedo, it's easier for me to go and look. So I have all the horror books listed. Let's record my screen and go see. I think this will be an easier way to look at it versus searching through my TBR. Horror. I only have like 24 books. Right. I had the audiobook for last final girl. A lot of these are going to be audiobooks. White Horse by Erica T. Worth has like red as the, the text. Okay. None of those are really red. Playing about her is an audiobook. Oh, wait. What color is my copy of the drift? And is that class as a horror? Because if so, maybe we'll read that. Yeah. Okay. Goodreads. The first genre is horror. Oh my God. Shit. I put my drink there. Mary and Joseph. The drift. The drift. The drift. The drift. The drift. The drift. Okay. We're going to read that. I'm so excited. Firstly, this is a 2023 release, which I have not been getting around to enough. So we've got a 2023 release. There was no horror with red on the cupboard over there in that stack that I showed you. Was there? No, there wasn't. We're going to read the drift. The drift. The drift by CG Shooter. I've been so excited to read this. I've heard such great things. I think it'll be really fun. Quick read. Gabby. You've done me well. Let's begin it. I am so excited. Okay, my friends. I am halfway through the drift. I'm just using the dust jacket. It's a bookmark. I don't know why. When I was adding this to Goodreads, the other day, I noticed that Gabby gave this one star. I'm reading it for her prompt. I feel like I vaguely remember watching the vlog. Maybe when Gabby read this, but I've like, I forgot about it. But yeah, I picked a book that she gave one star. But I am really enjoying this. So this is like a dystopian thriller, horror, mystery, hybrid. We're actually at SEP after slash during a pandemic. We've got three different storylines happening. We've got an overturned coach full of students. All of them are trapped. A stranded cable car full of strangers. One of them is dead. An isolated chalet full of friends. Soon there'll be enemies. And it's all through this lens of this pandemic. So they're like, is someone ill? There's these things called whistlers who are like, people who have been infected with this disease are still alive because it's like, named after the sound they make when they're breathing or whatever. And yeah, three different storylines, which you may be thinking, Megan, usually don't like split timelines. But actually I'm enjoying it in this because my problem is when there's two, I really don't like two, where they're like supposed to be equal but one is obviously better, right? Whereas all three of these are actually intriguing me, which is hard to do. See, she just out here doing the impossible. All of them are probably intriguing me equally or there's like phases where maybe one of them is intriguing me more but they're kind of all each taking a turn in that. And I'm really enjoying it. I think CJ Tudor is just a great writer of like a fun thriller. And this isn't going to be a five star. I don't think for me, but I really love the pandemic setting. I think it's very interesting. It's so hot in the UK at the moment. And this book is set in the snow, which I mean, it would be fun to read this in the winter. But also I think sometimes it's fun to read a book in like the opposite setting than what you're in. So when it's really hot reading a cold wintery book and when it's really cold reading a summery book, I think that can be fun as well. Like the juxtaposition and really putting you in that world is if they can do that, it's really fun. We're halfway through, but I feel like we're just starting to find out answers about the different timelines and like more mysteries are being opened up. I'm wondering how they're going to come together because they've got to somehow, right? Part of me is wondering and I don't, this isn't a spoiler because there's been nothing that suggests this. I've just read a lot of thrillers. But part of me is wondering... I'm a little bit suspicious. I've got my magnifying glass out. But yeah, I'm reading it really fast as well. It's a very quick, fast-paced read. So I'm really enjoying it. I'm going to go ahead, I need to edit a video today, but then the aim is to probably finish this tonight. And it's a pretty quick read, so I'm hoping I will be, I'm going to like edit my video as quickly as I can because I want to finish this. I'm enjoying it. The moment I would say, it's a solid four star, you know? That's what I would say it is at the moment. So yeah, I'm going to go ahead, finish this and I'll check in with you probably this evening. Maybe I'm hoping to finish it before I go bed tonight. So probably late this evening with my thoughts. Okay. So in the last clip, you would have seen there was a moment I've had to bleep out because I basically tell you the whole plot of this book. I tell you the big reveal. I had it like completely down. And I thought to myself, like, should I just include it? Because I mean, I read the book. I already read half of it, but I can't spoil the book for you. So it turns out the big twist in this, like I knew it. I knew the big twist. I didn't quite figure out how all the different characters played into that twist, but I knew the big twist. And then here's the thing. I think it's a fairly obvious direction for this story to go once you start it. Like once you've kind of got the initial plots of each of these scenarios, you kind of go, okay, I can see where this might go. Like it's fairly natural. I'd say within the first like 50 pages to think this, but I basically told you the whole plot of the book. So I had to bleep that bit out. I like the twist, but I feel like the ending, like the end scenes, because the twist happens, I would say like a maybe 100 pages, 80 pages, like we start to get an inkling of it from the end. But then like obviously the ending is like, it's whole thing. And I'm not sure the ending completely worked, slash was satisfying, slash all the dots were joined up by the end, you know? And I don't think it was necessarily trying to leave dots open, like for fun. I just think maybe certain dots were left in the wind. I don't know what the fuck she's saying, but girl, I am living. So I finished this last night and I've been really debating what to rate it because I had a great time reading it. It's such a compulsively readable thriller. I feel like I haven't read one like this in a long time, where it's just so easy. It's so easy to read it and get through it and like you're turning the pages. So I had a great reading experience, but the ending didn't quite do it for me. So I was hovering between a 3.5 and a 4. And by the end I was like, it's like maybe a 3.75, like a 3.8. It will be, it will be in picky. So I'm just going to go ahead and give this a 4. I think it's fun, you know? I can't believe I read the most wintry book ever in summer. But like I said, I think that's fun sometimes. And I just want you to be warned. There is some strong body horror in this. Like strong ass body horror. If you're squeamish, here's the thing, right? I, when I get to those scenes, I kind of just like read it really fast so I know vaguely what's going on, but I don't like pour it everywhere. Like then the blood gushed or whatever. I don't want to know that. But those scenes, they were strong. There was a few moments in this book with body horror that made my jaw hang open. Hang open. Hang open. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I think it's fun. I'm not necessarily going to like remember it for years to come. But I think C.O. Judo just gives me that quick fun, like good vibe, what I want, you know? So I asked Gabby which Booktube I should go to for my next reading prompt. Plompt. Plompt. My next reading prompt. And she said Katie Coulson's. I have messaged Katie and I hope you're going to get that maybe later today or tomorrow. So we'll just wait and suspense. Nervousness now. I don't know what to expect. I don't know what prompt Katie's going to give me. But I'm excited to find out. I do like getting reading prompts, guys. I think it makes reading fun. I'm such a planned reader. I guess it gives me anxiety. But there's something fun about just being like oh, I have to read this book now. Let's go with it. So anyways, I'll check in with you once I've got Katie's video. Hi. This is like a K on it. I just, oh my God. I just was out. It's my mum's birthday. It's my mum's birthday. And we were out at my grandparents and I got a notification come through. So it's sort of really prompt. And it took all my willpower not to read it right there. And then so I rushed home. No, I didn't leave early. Just to find out the prompt. But it's time to find out what Katie's prompt is. And Katie, you said something to me when you were talking on DMs. Sorry, this is crooked. Oh my God. Like you might not want to do what I've chosen. Don't make me nervous, Katie. Okay, right. I've got it right here in front of me. We're going to watch it. I'm so excited. I just love getting reading prompts, guys. Okay. Hey, Meg. Hey. Katie Coulson here. Thanks for being with me in this video. And also thank you, Gabby. Yeah. For pushing Meg in my direction because I'm here to promote my agenda. I want you to take the Enneagram. I want you to share the pie chart with the class once you're done taking it. And then you can do one of two things. You can either look up book recommendations based on that Enneagram. But what I would suggest more than that is looking up book characters that are blank Enneagram. And finding a book that's on your TBR that has a character that people think is that Enneagram type and reading that book. Or you can send me a picture of your TBR and I can tell you which books I think you should read based on your Enneagram. I just love the Enneagram and I'm here to force everybody to take the test. And the amount of people that I have gathered into this army is vast. Okay? But I will say that if that's too difficult, then do you remember in Booktuber Battle when you made me find a book that had all the letters in my first name? Yeah. Everybody's gonna be screaming like, Katie, there's one right there. Oh, have it turned. Tables, Megan. M and a G and an N? Yeah. All in the same title? Tricky. Enneagram's looking easy now, isn't it? But that would be my second prompt if the first one is too complex. So thank you for letting me be in this video. And I hope to hear from you very soon. Okay. How long? I've done it before. I feel like the Enneagram thing. I'm not down with this kind of stuff. And I found out what I was. Do I screen record this? Or do I just go away and do it? I think it's gonna take like 15 minutes, right? You don't need to see all my answers. You don't need to know my deepest thoughts and feelings. Okay, I will... Oh, there's a lot. Okay, I'm gonna go away. I'm gonna do the test. I found one on truity. I don't know if that's the best one. And I'll be back. And then we'll find a book together. My problem with this, right, is for a book to be on, like, Enneagram lists, it's gonna be a popular book, right? It's gonna be a popular book. Okay, right. I'll be back in two minutes. Five minutes later. Okay, this says I'm a three. Okay, that means... I feel like I've done this before than I've gotten a one. Maybe? I don't know. I don't know if... I just couldn't feel like the best, but I wanna keep going on and doing other ones and getting... But this is what it says. This is a three. Okay, three is defined by their desire to achieve. They want to advance the world and will sacrifice almost anything for success. See, I don't think that necessarily is me. Yes, succeeding is a very important part of my life and, like, achieving my goals. I always have very strict goals for what I want to achieve. But I don't know if I am a three. What is one? I don't know. But let's go with three. Apparently I'm a three. Apparently I like to stand out and have a burning need to be admired and see life as a game where winning is... See, I don't think that is me. Should I do another quiz? I'm just gonna keep doing quizzes until I get one right. Trust. That's because all of the questions were like, do you have goals? Do you succeed? I'm like, do you want to succeed? I'm like, well, yeah. But like... Let me go do another one. Hang on. Right, I did another one. It turns out I'm a three. I didn't think I was a three, but I'm a three. This one says I'm a three as well, okay? I can't believe that. I do like to accomplish goals and I plan things out far into the future. So I'm like, I'm a big planner. I like thinking about what I'm going to achieve in years to come, you know? I guess. Okay, right, right. Let's Google book recommendations for Enneagram type three. Let's find some lists. Oh my God, I'm nervous. What if there's no book that's on my TBR? Best books for type... Is it all going to be... I don't trust this list. We're not. This is... Oh, book riot. Book riot. I know I have good ones. Okay, okay, okay. Severance by Ling Ma. I don't own. Burnout. I don't... That's it. Okay, well... This is all going to be nonfiction though. I will read a nonfiction if I have it, but it will be like... Burnout. I have to prevent burnout. Oh my God. Oh my God. Wait, let's do what Katie said. Characters who are Enneagram three. All right. Number three. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Oh my greatest fears of being worthless. Oh dear. We're getting deep tonight guys. Okay, let's try another book riot one. This is... This is... This is crazy. The achiever. Oh, okay, okay. I've read Ace of Spades. I've read Seven Husbands of Hugo. Haven't read... Oh... Oh, Poppy Wall. Jade... God. Yeah, I can see that. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh, we have to do that then. Wait here. Guys. Guys. It's time to read the song of Achilles. I was going to put this in another video I've got coming up, but let's just read it now. Why not? Oh, look at that. I love this edition. Isn't it the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen? I enjoyed Cersei. Cersei was a four star. But everyone's told me I'm going to love the song of Achilles even more. Oh my God, we're reading the song of Achilles. And here's the thing. It says... Three is a very... I'm not jealous and competitive. The lies. There you go. The lies, bitch. The lies. I don't feel like I'm a three. There's certain parts of this that aren't meshing with my idea of myself. But here we go. I'm a three everyone and we're reading... Oh my God, we're reading the song of Achilles. Thank you, Katie, I guess. I'll read like a hundred pages maybe. And then I'll check in with you. Oh my God. I was supposed to read Lowe's yesterday. I read 50 pages. And then I read another 50 pages. I'm a hundred pages in. I love, I fricking love it. When a book has a ribbon. Oh my God. We just talk about, I think it's one of the most beautiful books I own. Like I am slightly obsessed with it. I think it's just so gorgeous. Okay, so if you don't know what this is about, which I'm sure most of you do, we are following Achilles and his relationship, friendship, relationship with Patrickus. I shouldn't say friendship. They're gay. It's like when there's like women in history and the story is like, they were really good friends. Like Pompeii, like two women and an embrace. They were really good. They were besties. And they were roommates. Yeah, it's their love story basically. I don't know if I've said Patrickus. Listen, I can barely speak English guys, as we know. My pronunciation is terrible. It is their love story. And so at the point I'm at, they are both about 16. So we've kind of had their meeting and had them growing into kind of young men together so far. I've got to be honest, there's a lot of pressure riding on this. Like I rarely, when I post, I'm reading a book on Goodreads, have people going, oh my God, yeah! Wow, you know, in the comments. But this got that. And that got me feeling a little bit like, whew, shit. It's a little bit riding on this. I didn't immediately feel grabbed by it, but I'm enjoying it more now that I'm 100 pages in. I got a bit rattled. The first 50 pages I was kind of bored. I was like, nodding off a little bit. I was like, oh God, I don't know. But I feel like I'm slowly growing into it. This is going to be this slow, epic story of their love, I feel like. And I'm here for it. I'm growing into it. But it got me thinking, right? There's certain styles of writing that accompany, like, styles of books. So like fairy tale-esque stories that draw their inspiration from, I feel like, English folklore, or like Russian folklore, or like they often mirror perhaps some of the writing style of the original, you know? If it's a book set in Victorian times, I feel like often they can have similar writing styles because you're mirroring stuff that was written in that time, right? And so this is obviously Greek myth retelling. And I do feel like having now read, I've read Cersei and I read Silence of the Girls, I'm sure I've read more, but those are two that I've read recently. I'm not sure the writing is entirely for me because I love fairy tale, right? Like writing, you know? I love Russian folklore, like writing. You know, I think The Bear and the Nightingale. But I'm not sure Greek myth, I think Greek myth retelling has some of that fairy tale likeness to it. But it also has like a hardness and a sharpness and a roughness to it. It mirrors the cutthroatness of what often happens in these books. And it's quite almost, it's somehow fairy tale like and to the point at the same time. And I don't dislike it, but I'm not sure that writing style is ever going to be my favourite. I'm not sure I'm ever going to have a favourite book of all time that's a Greek myth retelling at this point. Okay, this is the bottom line. Everybody was thinking it, I just said it. I feel like they're always kind of a four star, but there's something about them that isn't quite a five star for me. That's my initial observation. I almost wish I hadn't read The Silence of the Girls before I read this, because if you don't know The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, you follow Achilles and Patroclus in it and so I know what happens. Before that I didn't know what happens in their kind of myth. And I feel like the directionist book goes in would perhaps have been more emotionally impactful had I not known that. And they're not the kind of focuses of the book, but also the, it's called The Silence of the Girls. The women are more focused in that book. So I kind of wish I'd read this first and I think that would have been the better order to read them. I feel like it's perhaps taken away a little bit from this, but obviously the events of this have not yet caught up with the events of The Silence of the Girls yet. I feel like it's only going to be right at the end. I'm enjoying it. I'm going to try and get up to page like 200 at least, but maybe like 220 tonight. I feel like it might be reasonable. So I either check in with you tonight before I go to bed or first thing in the morning. But yeah, I'm slowly getting more into it, but I wasn't initially in love with it. Okay, hi. Here's the thing, the lighting in my kitchen, the window's over here. So we're kind of like half lit, but let's chat. I'm making lunch. I'm going to roast some potatoes and bell pepper. I know it sounds kind of weird, but I love it with some eggs all chopped up in a bowl together, some ketchup. It's so good for lunch. I have just gotten to page 220. So I'm not far off the end. I'm about 130 pages from the end. So I thought two beds, one stone, I would chat to you whilst I chop food. Potato. I love potatoes, guys. Potatoes are the best food ever. So the section that I just got up to, we have just met Bryceus. Bryceus has just turned up, and Bryceus, I feel like she's not going to play maybe a massive role. I don't know in this one, but she is who the science of the girls follows and is told from the perspective of. So it's just interesting to see different interpretations of the same character. I would say there's already quite a different interpretation between the two characters already. I'm really enjoying it. I'm really enjoying it. But I'm not, like, it's not five-star. And I feel like that's sacrilegious. Like, I feel like people are going to be mad at me. You better f**king take that back right now. You better f**king stop right now. Patroclus, if that's not his name, I'm really bad at pronouncing his. If that's not his name, like, that's really bad because, like, half the book is him telling people, like, how to say his name. He's a very interesting character to follow. He's kind of very introspective and just the way that he kind of, you know, looks at Achilles and looks at everything in the world. I don't know, he's very interesting. So I like reading from his perspective. I have come to the conclusion with what my problem is with Greek myth retellings. The problem is, right, any Greek myth retelling that is, like, is staying pretty true to the Greek myth in terms of the events that are happening. It has certain plot beats that it has to reach. This myth surrounding Achilles, like, these are predestined plot points. And so it kind of just feels... I don't want to say unoriginal. It kind of feels predestined. Like, the book, I'm never feeling surprised at where a plot goes. That's not because I know the plot. Basically, other than having read Silence to the Girls, like, pre-this, I knew nothing of this story, basically. But I feel there's no surprise. I feel like there's no... Because it's not something the authors necessarily come up with themselves, it just feels like we know what we've got to reach. We're filling in the blanks and we're doing it at our own writing style. The writing style in this is beautiful, right? But I think I would perhaps prefer Greek myth retellings that, like, re-imagine and go on a different plot beat or, like, whatever, because it just feels constrained by its past and, like, what has already been written. Does that make sense? It feels constrained. And that's why it can't be a five-star. It can be a four-star. I can recognize that this is incredibly written. I really like the reading experience. It's a great quality book. But for me, I don't feel like it can be a five-star because it just feels constrained by what it's retelling. So that's how I'm currently feeling. I'm gonna go ahead and finish it. If I cry, I'll show you. If I don't cry, I don't cry. But I will see you. I hope you don't finish this. I'm gonna finish it this afternoon. Finish song of Achilles. I cried a lot, but I'm still gonna give this four stars. Like, no one be bad at me. I'm very sad that I read Silence of the Girls before this. I still think Silence of the Girls is a great book, but it's serving a different purpose. And I think it's not going for that emotional impact as much. And I think the emotional impact of this would have been greater had I not read that book and I didn't know what was gonna happen because I would have been gagged, you know? But I knew what was gonna happen. It's the same story. A lot of people probably go into this knowing what's gonna happen just because I have like knowledge of Greek myths, but that's not me. I have no knowledge of anything. So listen, I really enjoyed it. It made me cry. I think it's the first, like I said, I think it's the first book that's properly made me cry this year, which like it feels good, you know? It feels good to get that emotional release because it's been lacking a little bit this year. I love a good cry to a book. I'm easy pickings and nothing has been making me cry. I really enjoyed it. I'm really excited to read more that Madeline Miller puts out in the future, but I'm yet to read a Greek myth retelling book that is five stars to me. And I think it is those conventions of the genre and of the style that kind of prevent me from giving it five stars. Maybe I would have given it five stars had I not read Silence of the Girls first. But I still think Silence of the Girls is a great book, but like I said, they're going for different things. They're telling this story in completely different ways, but with the same plot points. So like I know what's going to happen. So I need to now message Katie to find out who our last booktuber is going to be to get the prompt from. Sometimes I do four booktubers in these videos. Sometimes I do three. I was aiming to do four, but I don't think I've got time. With the amount of time it takes me to like get the prompt from the booktuber. It usually is like a couple of days or three or whatever. I don't think... I think we're going to fit four in because it's currently Wednesday afternoon and I want to get this video up by Sunday. I just feel like it won't happen. We won't quite fit two in. Unless the next prompt, I end up reading a graphic novel in which case we might consider it. So this will probably be the last booktuber, but like it might not be. Anyways, I'm going to go message Katie and then I'll check in with you when I have the next prompt, whatever that may be. And actually I'm back. Just a quick comment. I actually haven't moved. It was like two seconds. Do I see myself in Achilles? No, absolutely not. There's a whole point. The whole reason I read this obviously is because apparently I'm the same type as Achilles. I don't think I'm type three on the enneagram. I just don't. I don't see myself in that. Do you like me? Yes or no question. So yes or no question. Do you like me? So yeah, I didn't see myself in Achilles. Like his kind of cutthroat ambition. Here's the thing. I have ambition and this is something, okay, we're getting into this here, but I have ambition, but it's not through competition with others. I find that really like soul destroying. I remember when I moved to the school where I met Tom, it was like all boys school from year seven to 11 and then the girls couldn't join for the last two years. So I was there for the last two years and I feel like they're like the way that they were taught to like measure their self worth and like measure how good they are is like, am I beating everyone else? Like where am I in the pack? Like, you know, what's my position in the pack? And like constantly measuring, am I doing better than this person? Or like, I mean, not saying Tom's like this, but it's what I saw in other boys at the school and like just the attitude of the school, you know? And I'm not like that. I think I only measure my ambition. Of course sometimes I compare myself to others, but in terms of what motivates me, it's only comparing myself to myself. And I think that's what differs from like the perception of a type three from what I've read because I don't identify with it. Anyways, that was a little bit of a segue. I'm going to go make some dinner, message Katie and see what prompt I'm going to get next. Okay, friends. I don't know why I did that. It's late. I don't know why I did that. I don't know why I did that. I don't know why I did that. I don't know why I did that. It's late. I've just washed my hair, but right before I washed my hair, I got the prompt from my next BookTuber, our last BookTuber. I'm not reading anymore. Yeah, I got the prompt too and I was like, okay, it's going to be late by the time I react to it, but I need to find out tonight what it is. So the next BookTuber reading the prompt from is Isabella from Throne of Pages. I love Isabella. Isabella is one of the BookTubers I watch the most. She's actually one of the BookTubers I watched the most before I started my channel. So I've watched her for years and years and years and I'm excited to see what she's going to come up with. I kind of don't trust her though. I'm nervous. I'm feeling nervous. I'd rather I'd like to have an easy book, please. Like I'd like something fun, quick, short. That's what I'm feeling at the moment. So let's see how we go. I'm shaking. I'm literally shaking. Shame for shaking and physically shaking. It's too late to question Isabella and her iconic lines. I'm shaking. I'm physically shaking. Hi, how are you doing this fine evening? I hope you're doing well because that's about to end. You're legally required to not hate me for what I'm about to tell you, but for my reading prompt, I'm going to be taking you on a little scavenger hunt. I have gathered a couple of words that are based on my favorite books and you have to read a book or several books where you find these words. I know. I know. My mind. Here are the words that I want you to find for my little scavenger hunt. Picture, seven, C, normal and throne. Five words. It can't be that hard, right? So best of luck. I'm glad I'm not you and have fun. Does she mean the title? I'm just going to text her to clarify what she means because if it's the title, I'd have to read five different books. Okay. I just got clarification. So it's not in the title. It's whilst I'm reading the book. Okay. So like I have to read a book and it has to have all those words in it. Now, here's the thing. Let me... Oh my God, this prompt. Look at what she just sent me. She's laughing at my pain. I can't take this. Okay. Here's the thing. I need to read the Defotion of Suspect X this weekend. Like over the next couple of days for Kayla's Literature Book Club. So I have to read this. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go with this. But like I don't think this is going to have throne in it. Like it's a detective Japanese thriller. Like I don't think it's going to have throne. I feel like I'm going to read these words and then just like forget that I've read them. Okay. We're going to read this because I have to read it this weekend and then hopefully we'll take off most of the words. Holy shit. Most... He's experienced for me to go through how I want to. Hopefully we'll take off most of them with this book. And I just like want to skim it and see like... How many of them are in here? I haven't seen any of them yet. We could get none of them from this. I mean... Right. I'm going to start this. Guys, I literally haven't moved from what I told you. But I just... I haven't read any of this. I opened the first page. The first line is at 7.35 a.m. That's literally the first thing. 7.35. And I checked with Isabelle. I said, does that count? And she begrudgingly admitted that it counts. We've got one. Tick tick. Tick tick tick. 7. It doesn't say the word 7. It says the number 7. It's the same thing. Oh my god. It's fate. Okay, bye. I am over... I'm very red. What the hell? It is hot, but I feel like I don't... I'm not actually that red in real life. I am over halfway through the devotion assessment X. I'm actually... I'm on page like 250. So I've read that much, got that much left to read. I've read quite a bit of it. And that's just like this afternoon. I've like not been able to put this down. But I don't know what's... I can't put my finger on what is like grabbing me so much about it. It's just like an easy read. Firstly, I know we'll get into plot in a sec, but I know the most important thing is what words we've ticked up. So out of Isabelle's five words, we had 7 right at the start. We have had picture. I noted down where they were. Hang on. A picture of the illustration went up on the nightly news that evening. And we have had normal. If she didn't have a particular reason not to go, wouldn't it be normal to accept a friend's offer to go to dinner? So we've got three out of five. Oh my God. Jesus Christ. Check out the label. They've blessed me. Sea and Throne. I don't think we're going to get thrown in this. I think we're going to have to read another book for it. But Sea... I don't know. We haven't been near the Sea yet. And it has been pretty self-contained. But I'm feeling happy that we've got three. Maybe if we can find just a really short book that ticks off Sea and Throne, like I'm okay with it. Uh, kind of Isabelle may read two books probably. Anyways. So yeah, we're following this woman who's a single mother and her ex-husband. What do you know in the synopsis? Her ex-husband turns up. You know very little synopsis, but I feel like I can tell you. It happens like what I'm going to tell you about happens in the first 40 pages. Okay. That's what I can tell you happens in the first 40 pages. So mom, her ex-husband turns up. She's been trying to run away from him. He was abusive and he turns up and he won't leave her alone. He's threatening her and she's like, you know, and so the rest of the book is kind of following her and the neighbor who helps cover it, who helps her cover it up and the police trying to figure out this crime. And it's just such a compulsively readable thriller. I read some reviews before I started reading it that said the characters, they didn't like it because the characters were like very, very different characters. And I think that's true. But I just think the plot is really good. Like a book doesn't have to give me everything. I think it's going to be a five star it does. I don't think this is going to be a five star. But for a solid four star thriller, you don't have to give me characterization. You know, it's like I can let things go, you know? If I can't put you down, I'm okay with the characters being a bit, you know, I think we've got intriguing characters though. And really the push and pull of this book and stuff that's happening in some of the characters, like conversations that they're having. But like what is harder? Devising a crime that is impossible to solve or trying to solve that crime. Like which is a harder thing to do. And I think that's a really interesting thing to think about that you don't often see. And I often read thrillers more as you guys know where like you don't know who done it. That's the whole point of the book. Whereas in this you know who done it. The whole point is hoping. I mean I'm like if I can kill that guy, I don't care. Death to all of them. I'm here for it. I want Gally, her and her little girl, her little daughter to succeed in life. I don't, if, he's collateral. I don't care. So I'm like rooting for them. And so you're hoping that like the crime isn't solved but then like a little thing about them and you're like oh shit oh shit oh shit you know. And there was just something to happen in the last chapter that like I feel like the whole book is going to go in a completely other direction now. And I've been, things have changed. And it's going down a slightly more sinister route than I expected. But yeah, I don't know how, I'm feeling a bit nervous about talking about this for Kayla's book club because I feel like I'm just enjoying it and just kind of reading it. And I'm kind of like no thoughts head empty you know what I mean. So I don't know, we'll see. But I'm going to go ahead and finish it tonight. And then I will check in with you in the morning with what I'm thinking. But yeah, it's a fun enjoyable read so far. Okay, last night I finished The Devotion of Suspect X and I've ended up giving this a 3.5. I didn't love the second half as much. I felt like that kind of, I mean I still read this in one evening. I started as a three o'clock yesterday and finished it last night. So like I didn't put this down. However, I didn't feel like it had that same pace, that same intrigue. I felt like the questions that, I don't want to spoil anything, but the questions that kept me reading in the first half excited were kind of dissipating in the second half. And there is a twist right at the end of this. But I don't know if it's really a twist. Like I feel like you can kind of see it coming. And I just feel like it's kind of forgettable. It's kind of forgettable. You've been very very harsh. Nice to meet you, Kelly. I mean like I read it fast but I feel like it's going to go for my brain fast. It was fun while it lasted. We had a fun time together. It's like a little fling, you know? A short summer fling is what me and this book are. Like it was fun. You're not the love of my life, you know? I don't really have many thoughts about it other than that. I'm really nervous for the live show because I'm like, what the hell am I going to say? It was fun. It's kind of like my overwhelming feeling. The one I woke up, I was like, I kind of already am forgetting what happened in this, you know? So I'm glad I read it, but it wasn't perfect for me. But bad news, this didn't have sea or throne in it. So I've been looking through my shelves for something that's quick, that I think will. And we're going to go with The Lives of Saints by Lee Bardugo. This is really short and it has loads of illustrations. That's a weird one. It has loads of illustrations. Actually, sea. Oh my God. I saw the picture. I was like, oh my God, that's a boat. Sea. Okay, so we know this has sea in it. It just needs to have throne and because this is Grishaverse, I feel like it's going to have throne in here somewhere. If not, we really are in trouble. But I'm just going to go ahead and read this. I got the audiobook, actually. I got it a while ago. So yeah, we'll just read this. It's just about all the different saints in the Grishaverse and their stories. And I think it will be a fun quick read. I'm not expecting this to be incredible. This isn't a five-star prediction, but I think this will be a fun quick read and hopefully we know it already ticks off sea. We just need it to tick off throne as well. This had sea and throne. Success. I couldn't take reading another book for this vlog. So we had sea. Where was that? We saw that together, didn't we? A captain took his crew to sea and then I wrote the other one down, throne. Where are you? As the king grew older, he worried that his death would be chaos for the kingdom if each of his sons vied for the throne. We did it! In terms of this, it's a little book. It took me maybe an hour to read because it has the pictures and any time that a short story doesn't end on this page, like it has that kind of filler page. There's like, it's like half the pages than it actually is, you know, in terms of like reading. I'm gonna give this a 3.5 as well. I think for what it is, it's nice. It's lovely. It's an enjoyable read. Basically just following all these saints. I found it quite interesting reading the story and then seeing what that had made because at the end it said, St. Nikolai is the saint of... You know, like it would say what they're the saint of at the end. And I thought it found it quite interesting seeing what the story was and then how that related to like what people in the Grishaverse prayed to them for. I don't really have many thoughts about it. Listen, I actually... I quite... Listen, I'm not a Grishaverse girlie as you guys know. I mean, I know Six of Crows in the Grishaverse, but to me they're not steeped in the Grishaverse law as much as other stuff. And I did enjoy this. It was a version of Grishaverse law that I did enjoy. I just don't think it's anything particularly special. I listened to the audiobook just to like help me get through it. And Ben Barnes narrates some of them and then the usual audiobook narrator of the Grishaverse books narrates the other ones. But yeah, I enjoyed it. Like, there's not much to say. It's a nice quick read. I think if you're doing a read-a-thon at any point where you want to read loads of books, this is a great option. Like if you're trying to read a book a day for a week or something like that, this is a great option. And listen, they got me seein' throwing. So I am eternally grateful. I do like a book that's kind of like not a book in itself, but it's like a teaser or like a... It feels like bonus content or an Easter egg for the rest of the world that has been built up. So there we have it everyone. That brings us to the close of this vlog. Oh my God. This was an experience. This vlog. I feel like I went through it. But all of the books were like kind of just okay. Or like good, you know? We didn't really have we had a four or four, 3.5 and 3.5. It's like very similar ratings throughout. But I had so much fun getting these booktubers to help me choose what to read. And I feel like the books that I got to read were a good mix of like newer books on my list and books I've been meaning to read for a long time. So yeah. I hope you enjoyed this video. Let me know what you thought of any of these books down below or what you would have read for any of the problems that had been given. And I will see you guys soon. Bye.