 Hello friends! Welcome back to my channel. It is time for our May Wrap Up. I'm already overheating in this top. I'm not enjoying it! I'm not! I hate it! So welcome, it's time for our May Wrap Up. We're going to chat about the books that I read in May. So if you haven't watched my Wrap Ups before, we do reading statistics first, then we go through our disappointments, surprises and hits. I don't talk about every book that I read in the month because I think that's boring. I get so bored! And some books I just want to read. For example, I read two of the forward collection this month, which is like a sci-fi novella collection I'm reading. I've only got one more to read before I finish the series. But for that, for those, like, I don't really want to talk about them. They're 50 page novellas. I don't have a lot to say. I kind of just want to read them for my own enjoyment. So I only really talk about what's notable, like what we really want to talk about. So let's just get straight into it. Let's talk about the reading statistics first, then we'll talk about the books afterwards. So in terms of books read, I read nine books this month. It was not the greatest reading month for me in terms of how many books I read. I read 16 in April and it burnt me the fuck out. I was like, I don't want to read reading. Who is that? I don't want to read. So I just wasn't really in the mood in May to read a lot and I kind of just honoured that and didn't make myself read, which I feel like was the right thing to do. Then hopefully this month, oh my God, it's June, fuck that. But hopefully in June I can, you know, get ahead and read quite a bit. So I feel like it was the right thing to do. So I read 2,169 pages. So that's an average pages per day of 70 pages, which is below my preferred amount of 100. I prefer to average out on at least 100 pages per day. But you know, 70 isn't to be sniffed at, but you know, that's 70 with me, you know. I very rarely read 70 pages a day. I probably mostly read zero pages, zero pages, zero pages, 300 pages. Like that's typically how my reading goes. I had an average book length of 241 pages. So I think this is my shortest of the year so far. I read quite a lot of short books. So not only was it nine, nine books, it was nine short books. Well, guess what people? I get excited about small things. I just like didn't want to force myself into reading if I don't want to because I think that's when, you know, it becomes a chore, not something I love to do. You have to honor how you feel. You can't just be like, oh I have to do this now with anything in life. You have to kind of honor how you feel. I did however have an average rating of 3.72, which is pretty high. So out of the nine, we're getting to this, I had quite a few five stars. But I feel like a lot of five stars and then like quite a lot lower books. And the average time a book had been on my TBR was two months, which is really short. I think I read a lot of books that had like literally just come on my TBR that I was kind of buying for videos that happened this month. And in some ways that's good because you're like getting through them quickly, but also there's some poor books here that have been here for a long time. And I don't seem to be getting to them every month. So I guess a goal for me next month is to try to have a much longer average time on TBR. Okay, then let's whip out the bar charts and the pie charts in terms of rating. Like I said, I had three five stars, one four star, four three stars, and one 2.5 stars. So I would say great that I had three stars. It's a really high proportion, like a third of what I read were five stars. We'll get into that at the end of the video. But um quite a lot of three stars as well. They're kind of like meh. You know, it was like five and three stars was kind of the story of our month. In terms of genre, I read one fantasy, one horror, three mystery, one romance, two sci-fi, and one thriller. So I'm pretty happy with that. It's a really nice mix of genres with mystery being the highest genre because I love mystery. So I get happy when I can read more mysteries. You know what's the most exciting thing about winning? It's when you win. I love that feeling. In terms of format, two audio books, four were mixed media, which means I had the audio book and the physical or e-book, and three were just physical books. So again, mixed media is usually kind of my highest pie chart of that now that I've added that because I do really like if I can to have the audio book with the physical. It is expensive, so I often, well I have Scripps. If they're on Scripps, that's great because that's free. But in terms of getting them on Audible, I try not to do too much. There was a few books this month I think of that I purposely didn't get the audio book for even though I couldn't because it's like that's expensive. That's really expensive. In terms of audience, I read seven adult books, one middle grade, and one YA. So very much adult skewed this month. I feel like that is the way that my reading is tending to go. And I think I need to be more conscious with that with the books that I buy because I'm tending to reach for a lot more adult than I think I have in previous years, which is interesting. I still think of myself as a lover of YA. I love YA. I think last month it was pretty much 50-50. But it's hard because I'm like I want to read older YA. I'm not really interested anymore and I've had a lot of issues this past year with picking up YA and it reading as really young YA and that just not being what I'm looking for. However, it's very difficult to tell that before you buy the book or when the book's coming out and you get excited for it because the book doesn't say like young YA, do you know what I mean? So it's hard to know until you get into the book if it's gonna read as older or younger YA. In terms of how I acquired the books, one was a book of the month, one was a gift, two were from Kindle Unlimited, three were books I bought myself, one was from Audible. So that is how the mix there. In terms of series stats, five books were part way through series, which is a great set. You know, part way through series, I'm getting series finished. One was the first in a series, so I'm happy with that. Five series I made progress in, one new series that I started, and three were stand-alones. And then finally, in terms of author status, one was a debut, three were authors I'd read before, and five authors were new to me. So yeah, I'm pretty happy with all those stats, I think. Interesting, interesting stuff to be cleaned from them. And I feel like even though I didn't read a lot, I'm not upset with my reading this month. Right, time for the disappointment. So my biggest disappointment of the month, and this one's actually tricky, but my biggest disappointment was How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao. This one's tricky because objectively I can see this is for younger YA audiences. This was my book club pick for April. I always tend to read them in the next month because I like to read them really close to our live show, and our live show is usually like the first weekend of the next month. And here's the thing, I know if I had read this when I was 12, 13, perhaps 14, but pretty much when I was 12 or 13, I would have eaten it up. Essentially, we're at this like prep school, like gossip girlie kind of school in New York, and there's a murder and the kind of friendship group all trying to figure out who's done it, and it's very like backstabby and stuff like that. And the fucking drama, it reminds me of like Disney Channel movies where like the mean girl is very much a mean girl and everything's simplified. I mean, it does with more deep topics that a Disney movie would, but kind of those vibes where like everything is very distilled into archetypal characters, and there's just so much drama and so much like, you know, I know I would have eaten this shit up when I was 12 or 13, but now, I read it and I go, oh, God. I'm getting older. I don't know if I can, if I want all this drama all the time, if I'm being honest. The ending for me of this was particularly disappointing. There were elements of this that I liked, perhaps earlier on. I struggle to remember much about it now. I've like cleared it out my memory. The ending of this, the reveal of the villain of the book, if you will, was ridiculous. Perhaps one of the most annoying endings I've read in a long time. I was like, oh, is this really the root? This is really what we've chosen, huh? This is the root we're going down. This is the root we're going down. So I originally had this author's next book, as well as my anticipated release for this year, but I think I'm going to take it off. I don't think I'm interested in it anymore. I don't want to like shit on it because I think it's good for like 13 year olds who want that like scandalous drama. Like I remember being that age and wanting to read books that were kind of like scandalous. I felt like, but like are written for my age but still feel scandalous. Do you get what I mean? That's what you want to read at that age. And I think it's great for that audience, which probably is its intended audience. But for me, it wasn't it. And then my other two disappointments of the month were just mentioned quickly because they're not strictly disappointments. They're both three stars. I just expected more for both of them. So the first one is Dark Waters by Katherine Arden. So this is Katherine Arden's middle grade horror series. This is the third in the series. I've only got one more. It comes out in August and then I finish this series, which I'm so proud of. But we're following these kind of group of friends who keep having these interactions with this ghost. I don't want to spoil much because you don't know much in the first book. But anyway, in this third one, they kind of get stuck on this abandoned island. And we were following, we have this kind of main girl who now the name escapes me. I can't remember her name. I can't remember her name. Get a job, learn a trade, get some education. We've had this main girl who the first two books have focused on. And this last one focused on the kind of boy of the friendship group. And I just didn't feel like that switching focus really worked. Like the main girl is barely in the book, which is there. But like the focus is really not on her. And I just didn't feel like it worked. I just wanted like the kind of vibes we had from the first two. And this just felt like a bit of a departure from that. But we've got one last book to come and I'm going to read it and I'll finish the series and I'll be so proud of myself. But I just need Catherine Arden to come out with some YA or adult. Okay, because that's what I'm waiting for. If you don't know, Catherine Arden wrote the Bear and the Nightingale series which is one of my favourite fantasy series ever. And I'm just like, yeah okay, I've had enough of the middle grade Catherine. I've had enough of the middle grade. I've had enough. And then my last disappointment was Suck With You by Ali Hazard. I gave this three stars. So this is a disappointment because my other two Ali Hazards that I've read, the Love Hypothesis and my brain. I can't remember what the first one's called. But I gave it 4.5 stars. So I've given it a 5 and a 4.5. And I was expecting this one to be along those lines. This is another of her Seminist novella series. It's the second one. Can't remember what the first one's called but I liked it. And this one... I just didn't feel the romance. Um, but it's not what I paid for. It's not. It sucks. I didn't feel any kind of like connection between the characters. The sex scenes didn't do anything for me. I just didn't feel it. I didn't feel it. In this one it's uh, they're stuck in an elevator together and they kind of had some history like a couple months ago. And it's kind of flashing back between what happened months ago and what happened now. And now they hate each other. And I just didn't, I didn't like that. I think I like to be taken on the journey with my romances and like build up, build up, build up. But this one we were kind of like, the build up was in the past, not in the present. So that didn't really work for me, I feel like. But you know, it's still, Ali Hazel's still good. I'm still gonna finish probably this series this month, hopefully with Below Zero. But um, yeah, my least favorite Ali Hazel would that I've read so far. And it had the whole he's so big, she's so small trope again. And I know the last one's gonna have it. And Ali Hazel, I've just had enough, please. Please say the next book doesn't have it. I just like, once I can deal with it. But like every time. Oh Lord. Again. A fucking game. Nothing new, nothing changed. Same old shit. Right, so I only have one surprise this month. And the last three books I'm going to speak about in this video all come from one vlog, which is my Mara from Books Like Woe, booktube twin test video, which I will link. So if you don't want to be spoiled for that vlog, go watch that vlog now. Because I'm going to speak about all three of the books from that video. Okay, time to leave, time to leave if you want to, time to leave. Okay, let's get into it. This surprise can be classed as a hit as well. This was five stars, but I didn't really have any other surprises this month, so I wanted to pick one. And it is The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. So this is one of the books Mara chose for me to read. And I've never heard of this book, ever in my life. I've never heard of this book. And so I wish he quickly, and I was like, okay. But it's a very interesting fantasy mystery where the main character wakes up and she has no knowledge of who she is. No knowledge of who she is. And we find out that the person whose body she's in knew she was going to lose her memory and she's left extensive notes for her to tell her how to live her life and kind of pick up as if nothing has happened. And she works at this like secret, intelligence, magical, it says MI5 for wizards on the front. So that's like the vibe that we're going with. And I loved it. It was such, such, such, such a clever fantasy. It was so intelligent, so detailed, so, oh, it was just so incredible. It's very difficult for me to describe concisely in a wrap up. So I would really recommend you go watch the vlog if you haven't already because it's just a lot. It goes on so many different pathways. We have so many characters. We have such detail of this magical world and these magical powers that these people have. I just haven't really read anything like it. I haven't really read anything on this level lately. Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing showstoppings. It took me forever. It took me like two weeks to read, but I didn't mind. Like it was, you know, you really need to take your time with it, but it's just so funny. It's so, you really love both of these kind of main characters that you end up having. You kind of end up having two, even though they're the same person. And it was just so, so interesting. So it was definitely a surprise because I'd never heard of it before. This was Mara's pick that I was most nervous for and it delivered. Okay. And then finally, our two other hits. That is a surprise and a hit. These weren't really surprises necessarily, but they were hit. So we're five stars as well. Another hit was Death of the Nile by Ag Christy. I loved this. So I've only ever given two other five stars to Ag Christy, which are Murder on the Orient Express and the Murder of Roger Accroyd, which they're coming out this year with one of these editions of the Murder of Roger Accroyd. And I'm going to get it straight away. I think it's like November, October, November, they're coming out with this. I think Harper Collins tend to come out with like two a year. This is the third one I've given five stars to. And a lot of people know the story. You've kind of got a cast of characters on the Nile and Murder ensues. Actually, the first part of this book, we're kind of like meeting the cast of characters in their kind of separate locations and they all come together. And this to me, I actually think is the best writing I've read from Ag Christy. It's her latest book I've ever read because the other ones, I'm obviously reading the pro series in order and I broke away from that just for this book. And it's her best writing. I really feel like you can, it was really interesting to go from that to this because you can really see the development. Perhaps the Murder was predictable, but I didn't care because I just loved the mystery and I love these kind of isolated, they're all stuck on a boat together. We don't know who's done it. There could be more murders. I just think it's like the epitome of Agatha Christie. And there's just something about these classic mysteries that she does so well that are so comforting to me and just something that I absolutely love to read. So I loved it and I need to read. I want to read at least my next two in the pro series this year, which are Perala and Taos and Lord Edgware Dies. I would really like to read at least both of them this year if I can. Then my final hit was The Broken Girls by Simone St James. We're following two timelines. The main timeline is present day with a girl whose sister was murdered 20 years ago and she's dealing with that and in the 1950s in a past timeline we have these four roommates at this very strict sporting school essentially. And then on the grounds of the boarding school is being renovated, another body is found. And so it's all like intertwined and wow, like I love it. This is my first Simone St James and it was so good. Her writing was beautiful and haunting. I got so attached to the characters. It's such like a compulsive read. I actually get a bit emotional talking about this book and I haven't quite figured out why but I think it's just because I really love books that highlight the shit that girls and women have been dealt throughout the throughout the centuries, you know? And I think it just does such a wonderful job of exploring that. There's little paranormal elements sprinkled in which I thought were great. The reveals at the end, there's like one or two reveals. I thought they were pretty predictable but I didn't mind because that is how I would have wanted the story to go. It was just such like it felt like a pleasure to read this book. I actually think part of the reason I haven't read a lot since I made Mara's video and I think it's because I had three five stars and such quick succession and then I've been a bit like overwhelmed. I've had to like chill out for a bit before I dived in something else and just think about these books because they were just so so so wonderful. I just loved it. I can't wait to read more Simone St James. I need to get all of her books. Even her backlist I'm still interested in reading even though I know they're a bit of a different vibe to her present day stuff because I just love this so much. So there we have everyone. That is my May wrap up. Let me know what you thought of any of these books if you have read them before. Let me know how your reading went in May. Let me know how many books you read. Let me know what your favorites were. How many five stars you had. I want all the info. If you want to give me your stats in detail, give me your stats in detail. I love reading that kind of stuff. So let me know that down below in the comments. If you've gotten to the end of the video, comment. Comment the otter emoji. I love otters. I just love otters. Comment the otter emoji down below if you've gotten to the end. Thank you. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye.