 Hey guys it's Liana and I'm here today to talk about my favorite underrated books. So yep that's pretty much, I don't think I need a huge introduction to this. I'm going to talk about books that I really like that I think are underrated. They're in no particular order, they're just in the order that I listed them and we're going to go through the list and I'm going to talk about each one, why I like it and why you should read it. So the first on my list is one that I feel like I don't need to spend that much time on because I've talked about it a lot. However if this is your first time hearing me talk about it because you haven't seen my channel before, I shouldn't tell you. So the first is The Wolf by Leal Coroup. This is like my new lives of La Clamora in that it's the one that I constantly bring up and I'm like yeah it's that one again. If you've heard me talk about The Wolf multiple times now just skip ahead. But if it's your first time The Wolf is an amazing amazing story and I just finished book two and I adored it as well. It's an imagined history where more than one humanoid species survived the Ice Age to form culture so now we're in the Dark Ages and there are humans like us but there are also other species that have language and culture. So in the way that you have in a Tolkien style world more than one race that's kind of humanoid but they're not all people you have elves and dwarves and things. So Neanderthals and whatever survived the Ice Age to develop language and culture. So most of the book you follow the Anakim which are these developed Neanderthals and it's the book does a hugely deep dive into the culture and politics of this whole other people. It's brilliant just the the construction of it but then also the plot is filled with battle and conspiracy and politics and backstabbing and mystery and just everything that I could ever want out of a book. Other people have picked this up and not enjoyed it because I think a lot of if you don't want a lot of world building a lot of battle a lot that kind of thing it probably won't appeal to you. It's not a love story I mean the main character he does marry someone and I think he has a very good relationship with his wife and I enjoy that part of it but it's not a love story that's not really what it's about so you won't like it if you want that. Some people have criticized it for being kind of unemotional. The Anakim are a very rational people they value relying on rational thought over emotion a lot so they actively try to kind of suppress emotional impulses which could come across as being quite unemotional. I don't think that is unemotional I think it's actually an incredible examination of emotion because this active suppression of emotion necessitates emotion but that is also a criticism I've seen so if you like a book where everyone is being very overtly emotional this book will not be for you because there's not that way but if you want incredible politics, world building, culture building, battles, battle strategy, all that then you should read The Wolf. It is brilliant. Next on my list is Blackwing by Ed McDonald. I've read the first two books in the series I have yet to read the third one because I'm in the middle of my reread so that I can get to the third one. This series takes place in a very dark very very grim dark world where the magic is very industrial. Magic is used to sort of power machines there's sort of this like nuclear waste type situation called the misery our main character he's sort of works for the one of the nameless which are sort of these godlike entities and he works for one of them and he has a black raven tattoo on his arm and whenever his boss wants to talk to him an actual raven bloodily explodes out of his arm just walk instructions at him. He has to frequently cross the misery because there are waystations in the misery and he's sort of as a guide and it's again it's a very like nuclear toxic waste kind of feeling to it. There's these really horrifying creatures in the misery and there's this sort of in the backdrop this sort of political conspiracy that our main character Galhara was following up on because the way that the government is reacting to things does not make sense so he's it's it's a very political dark grim bloody kind of book. I really enjoy all those aspects of it if you don't like something grim dark if you don't like something industrial like that then this is not the book for you it's very dark. That said there's a lot of humor in it but it's Galhara's humor so it's not for the faint of heart but I think it's brilliant. Next on my list is a madness so discreet by my name beginners. This book I'm frequently whenever I remember that it's not widely read I get angry. This book I picked it up shortly after reading Stocking Jack the Ripper which was a huge letdown and if you were let down by Stocking Jack the Ripper then you should pick up a madness so discreet. The madness so discreet is historical fiction but it's sort of a sort of a thriller I don't want to say that because it oversells it but it's a bit that way. It follows a girl in America I think it was in Boston she's been locked in an insane asylum because she has an unwanted pregnancy and you know that's what she did with women back then you put them in an insane asylum so she ends up not speaking anymore that's sort of how her sort of her emotional reaction to her situation she stops talking but she ends up meeting with a criminal psychologist who recognizes that she's not insane that she's just been placed here by her family for reasons so they end up teaming up because she can be his eyes and ears while he's following up on a serial killer so as an inmate she is denied the kind of agency and freedom that a person who has their liberty and is regarded as sane and a male has but she's able to see and do things that the male criminal psychologist is not able to do so the two of them team up to solve this crime or these crimes or this to catch the serial killer so the book is really it's dark and interesting because again you're following these murders but it's also it does a lot to speak on women in society how they've been treated the agency that's been denied them what it's like to lose the ability to be taken seriously to be believed and what that feels like i mean the rage that i felt reading this book i don't understand in a good way but like it was well done to where just the frustration of that to where you know you're not crazy but because society has decided that you are a woman and you're insane so it does not matter what you say it there's that you have nothing you can do because nothing you say will be believed or taken seriously and just reading about it it's frustrating but it's brilliant and i really enjoyed reading it like i felt that kind of rage i also felt interested um i felt the suspense of following the serial killer because that part of the story was well done i never felt any suspense reading stocky jack the river i felt a lot of suspense reading i'm at so discreet it's it's great i really love it um it's a standalone so low commitment it's brilliant i think i'm saying that each of these is brilliant but you know it's true for all of them so suck it next on my list is the diabolic by sj and kade i've read this book a couple times now it was originally a standalone but then that you did end up writing a sequel and there's a third book coming out soonish this is uh y a sci-fi type thing which i think was kind of hyped when it came out but it has since died down in attention and interest and i love this book and i don't understand why more people aren't reading it and raving about it it follows a character who in this in this future society is sort of genetically modified humans who are built to be like super physically strong they're sort of created but for the purpose of being bodyguards for the rich so a rich person can buy a diabolic and then they are also they are part of the purchase is them being forcibly brainwashed into loving the person that they are going to be the bodyguard for so that their whole purpose for living is to to preserve the life of this person who's purchased them so they love and adore them and willing to sacrifice themselves for their bodies on the line for the person that owns them so the main character nemesis she's a diabolic and she's been purchased as a child to be the bodyguard for a rich child sedonia and the main plot of the book it revolves around the fact that there's trouble in the capital political trouble and sedonia's father is in political trouble so in sedonia this rich girl is called to the capital the parents fear that it's probably for bad reasons to be a hostage or something like that so they disguise the diabolic to pretend to be their daughter so this creature that's been created to be super powerful and strong and whose only purpose in life has been to to love and serve this person that owns them now has to pretend to be a fully fledged human being but hide her strength so she has to pretend to be a fragile human and also to feel the array of human emotions that have been denied her and i think it's brilliant to use my favorite word i loved following nemesis character i think um i complained about the portrayals of femininity or females as being either super feminine or being strong and nemesis was just such a layered character and the fact that she was physically so strong stronger than anybody else around her but at the same time there was a fragility to her because she does not have has not access to the full spectrum of human emotion until recently that i just i think a lot of those ideas were examined so brilliantly in this book and then there is obviously when she reaches the capital a lot of conspiracy and politics going on that she has even more trouble navigating because because she doesn't understand everything going on around her she was never meant to and she also has to protect her own identity and hide her strength so the thing that should preserve her life the thing that should keep her protected from the people that would do her harm she has to hide it because if she was to protect herself it would give her a way and put her in more danger so i just i just think it's brilliant i think it's brilliant um so i think more people should read it i don't know why they're not i loved it next on my list is the hazelwood by melissa albert this book i think for part of the reason i think it's it's not been as positively received is because i feel like it could have been marketed to adults rather than as ya um it's very game and esk it's very dark and twisty the story is it's bizarre and strange and dark i mean it follows a girl who there's this mystery about this book of fairy tales that her it's been a while it's either her grandmother or aunt that wrote it and there's a cult like following for this book which is out of print and you cannot get it and her mom and her have been sort of on the run and these fairy tale elements have now sort of come to life and they're stalking our main character and she has to now go to this forbidden house of her i think it's grandma but regardless she has to sort of put together the pieces of why these fairy tale things are sort of real and stalking her and coming after her and they're dangerous and they sort of kidnap her and it's it's very game and esk which is why i love it so much which is again why i think a lot of YA readers wouldn't necessarily love it because it's not the kind of thing i've seen a lot in YA and perhaps i mean i don't know if the solution here is to market this as adult or to start doing more of this in YA because i think it's great writing which i don't see a lot of in YA but if you're a fan of gay men then i think you should read The Haste of the Wolf next time this is Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dowl this is a evil queen origin story retelling set in um fictionalized china i don't really like fairy tale retellings or villain origin stories generally which is why i put off reading this one but i loved it it was so deliciously dark and the asian inspired the sort of china inspired setting was fantastic and done much better than i've seen most other books do it follows this sort of evil queen and she's never painted i that's one of the things i hate the most is when the origin of a villain is that their heart was broken and now they're evil that's not a good reason to be evil it's not a good origin story so this character she's from an early age painted as somebody with great ambition and intelligence ambition as we've seen can lead to dark things it depends on how far you're willing to go to achieve your ambitions so she's offered multiple opportunities to turn away from her dark path and to choose a more simple life to just be happy instead that's not who she is so she's not set out to be evil it's not like she woke up and is a villain she just has ambitions and is willing to go further and further and do darker and darker things to achieve those ambitions and it's a slippery slope so even though when she started out like she did not intend cruelty but you follow her on this dark path of how far is she willing to go to get the kind of power that she wants to get the kind of agency that she wants to achieve the extent of what is possible for her to achieve and it's a gloriously dark journey that was unapologetic and gorgeous and so dark so deliciously dark i think it was great and i've heard the second book mainly follows the snow white character and is boring i haven't read it yet and that's why but the first book which again follows our evil queen on her dark journey of becoming the evil queen so so good next on my list is enchantment of ravens by margaret rogerson this book is whimsical and fun and i think that's the reason why a lot of people didn't really go for it or pick it up because it's not the sort of angsty fei romance that a lot of fei books have been and that people seem to be wanting i am a little over it when it comes to the angsty fei romance because there's usually just a lot of problematic elements that go with that and it's really just an angsty romance then instead of a story about the fei so an enchantment of ravens is more about the whimsical nature of these fei creatures it's very magical it's very colorful it's very filled with whimsy and there's literally a place called whimsy in the story so it's a very different kind of book and i think that's why it was not so well received but i think part of that is just the expectation versus reality so if people were told this is more what it is and went into it expecting a whimsical fei story that's magical and quirky and has some darkness to it but and yes there's some romance in it but it's not a romance book people would have liked it a lot better because the people reading it would have been going into it expecting what it is and what it is it does really really well if we went into it wanting a dark angsty brooding romance for the ages you were destined to be disappointed because that is not in any way what this book is or ever purported to be but if you want a whimsical magical story then this is really good and it does it really really well it the it does whimsy really really really well so yeah last one of this is the smoke thieves by sally green it's been a while since i read this one so i can't go too in detail but i do want to reread it because the second one just came out this book is another one that i feel like it could easily be marketed as adult it's a little on the on the simple sign to be adult fantasy but i often heard that fallen kingdoms was sort of painted and spoken about as being the YA game of thrones because it's this expansive world with multiple perspectives and a fantasy kind of thing fallen kingdoms was terrible where i personally did not care for it smoke thieves i think is more deserving of that kind of a comparison because it's multiple perspectives in this large sort of larger fantasy world where there's a lot of politics and you have these these these multiple perspectives do sort of converge but is expansive and each of them is telling you about a very different part of the world and telling you important information each of the characters and parts of the world is distinct the the whole what i recall from the smoke aspect of it is that they're basically they're killing these demons to get this this smoke that comes out of them when they die because the smoke is like a drug so it's like a it's an illegal drug trade but one that the government definitely knows about and it's they sort of turn a blind eye to a lot of the time so it's a really interesting concept the magic in it is very well explained and and fleshed out and what it's done with it is more interesting than the usual just magic just magic things like it's woven into the politics of the story which i really appreciate and just overall like it took me a little bit to get into it it starts with a little slow but it it's definitely that sort of expansive large world with multiple parts to it coming together with politics and there's some romance in it and magic in it and it does expansive epic fantasy in a way that ya so rarely does so that's another reason i think that maybe it wouldn't go over so well is because it's not a romance and it's not angsty and it does start out of it slow but if you read a lot of adult fantasy a lot of adult fantasy starts out slow and you just because you kind of have to get your bearings in this new world so i don't mind that about it i think it's great and i think it's a good sort of gateway to adult fantasy because it is a little bit simpler than adult fantasy usually is but more complex than why i typically is so i think it's a good sort of training wheels in between if you're making looking to make the lead to adult fantasy it's a good one to sort of step in between so yeah those are some of my all-time favorite underrated books let me know the comments down below what are your favorite underrated books if any of the books on this list are on your list if i have convinced you to pick up any of these books if you hated these books you can tell me that too bye post videos on saturdays so like and subscribe and i'll see you next saturday