 Hey guys it's Leon and I'm here today with some read-alikes. What's a read-alike? It's reading things because they're alike another thing. So these read-alikes are going to be YA to adult but obviously like with any read-alikes the other way around it's like it works too because it stands to reason that going from one direction to the other you can also go the other direction. So I happen to write these down in going from YA to adult but if you've read the adult book then you should read the YA one because what I'm saying is if you like the one you'll like the other. Yeah great cool. So some of these I'm quite proud are going to be slightly unexpected and so far as like I've heard of them in read-alikes but not with these combinations and I think mine are better. Let's let's do this. So my first read-alike is for Six of Crows. If you've read Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo which you really should read Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo if you have not it is amazing. Cow's Breaker is my spirit animal. Love it so much. But so Six of Crows if you're not aware at all even though this is a read-alike so basically I'm saying if you've read it so you have to know what it is in order for this to apply to you but regardless Six of Crows is a young adult story obviously because the first on my list is a young adult in the order of these read-alikes but whatever. It is following a crew of six characters who are that is five of six characters who are trying to pull off a heist in the first book and in the second book there are repercussions from that heist that they are dealing with. It takes place in a fictional well it starts out in a fictional city called Ketterdam which is in tone and an aesthetic quite similar to Amsterdam in terms of like the way people are dressing the way that the the foods they're eating like the vibe of it seems to be very heavily drawing on Amsterdam. So this this ragtag crew get together to pull off like the heist of the century. There are a bunch of sort of criminals and misfits and it's a sort of a deep dive into the characters as well as kind of this like gray and dark and moody world that's kind of like dreary and again this criminal underworld. It's combining a lot of different talents from a lot of sort of different areas a sort of mix of backgrounds in terms of who these characters are and where their expertise and experience lies and kind of bringing together joining forces to pull off the impossible. So what I've mostly seen people compare it to is the lives of La Climora and I think that does both a disservice because I like both of those books a lot but I think they're very different in tone and I am not at all surprised if somebody says they like one and not the other because I don't think yes there's criminals doing heist-y things but like that's kind of it. So my read-alike is The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. If you're gonna come at me in the comments about how I'm not allowed to recommend Sanderson books, leave. I really liked The Final Empire. I also like the Well of Ascension but The Final Empire itself is a heist story and the world of Mistborn is very dreary and dark and gloomy and there's this sort of like criminal underworld that is coming together to try to pull off an impossible I guess not a heist but trying to pull off the impossible and you have a like a crew that represents diverse backgrounds, a crew that represents diverse interests and skill sets, some people are magic users, some are not, just like in Six of Crows some are magic users, some are not. There's people who are kind of there for the muscle, there for the scheming, there for the personal vendetta, there for the for the cause like you've got a variety of things and interests coming together to want to pull off this heist or this pull off this impossible thing in this really dark and dreary setting that is very urban at least to start out with. So like Ketterdam and like the urban setting of Mistborn I feel like are similar in vibe obviously they're not the same but you get this sort of like gloomy overcast vibe from Ketterdam, everyone's bundled up in coats, they're drinking a lot of coffee, like it's like it's kind of cold and like they're a bunch of criminals in these like you know dirty streets and in Mistborn the city has like ash falling from the sky all the time and so like people dress to accommodate that and like there's extremely wealthy people but there's also like a lot of really poor people so I really feel like the the vibe of both and as well as the appeal of the ragtag crew coming together to pull off a thing is is very similar and I think if you once again reverse is true if you've read Mistborn I highly recommend Six of Crows because I think they're very similar so yeah that's the first one. Next up I have Harry Potter. I am not gonna say the reverse is true but you should now go out and read Harry Potter so this is more of like a if you're sad that Harry Potter is not a thing we are reading anymore and I'm not telling you you can't read it if you've decided that you want to still read Harry Potter books but like I'm not here to promote anybody picking up Harry Potter books and spending money on Harry Potter books but if you miss Harry Potter and you want a book series that has a similar vibe once again this is not going to be the one that you think. I've seen people say that Name of the Wind is like you know Harry Potter for adults but I don't think that's a good comparison, I don't think that's true, I think the vibe is really different. I don't, I don't like that comparison honestly. I think a much better comparison is The Farsier Trilogy by Robin Hub. I think the comparison between Fitts and Harry Potter is far greater than between Kvoth and Harry Potter so if you haven't read The Farsier Trilogy I recommend it just generally I think it's fantastic but Fitts is a poor orphan boy who is like bullied and tortured by people who hate him because of the fact that he is a bastard and but he has magical abilities and he's kind of like not a chosen one per se but he's got kind of chosen one vibes insofar as he's got like quite a few magical abilities that people find unusual and there's also like an element of like beast magic which like Harry speaks parcel tongue spoilers, Harry speaks parcel tongue and and Fitts in The Farsier Trilogy is witted and the witted are able to kind of like form bonds with animals and kind of talk to animals. The vibe also of like the setting like Hogwarts and then Buckheap where the the beginning at least of Farsier Trilogy takes place. I think there's a Hogwarts-y kind of vibe to Buckheap because there's like lots of people working in this castle, there's cozy kitchens with tasty treats, there's all these people doing their own things, there's like lessons in magic because like Fitts is supposed to learn how to use his magic although that doesn't necessarily go well because there's some meany teachers you know think Professor Umbridge. There are people in Fitts's corner but he is this kind of like lowener orphan who is kind of you know traumatized a bit by that but he's also like a little bit dim and you kind of want to strangle him a bit kind of like Harry Potter. If you're looking to scratch the Harry Potter itch but you're like I don't want to be reading Harry Potter, read The Farsier Trilogy by Robin Hop. Next up I have The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. Maybe this comparison has been made? Probably? Possibly? This is a sort of Russian inspired trilogy um very loosely but it is Russian inspired. It's got magic and magic users in a fictional version of Russia called Ravka and so it's got a lot of like Russian aesthetic like Russian foods, Russian sounding names. That's a lot of the appeal of it kind of like with Harry Potter where like a lot of the appeal of Harry Potter is the aesthetic like people writing with quills and having a parchment to use instead of computers and like everything being kind of like it's you know it's the aesthetic and the vibe. So with The Grisha Trilogy like it's a chosen one story with MacGuffins but like a lot of the appeal of it is this kind of like Russian aesthetic and so if you want that but actually done a little better a little more accurately would be The Winter Night Trilogy by Catherine Arden. Conversely I do think if you like The Winter Night Trilogy the Grisha Trilogy may appeal to you like if you're okay with it being a sort of more like you know less accurate and more YAE, more simplified, more tropey, cliche version of that. I feel like that sounds really harsh. I like The Grisha Trilogy but The Winter Night Trilogy kind of goes out of its way to be very very like in tone and in aesthetic and in references and even transliterated Russian words being Russian. It doesn't take place in fake Russia called Ravka, like it takes place in Russia but there is magic. So if you're interested in reading a story about I mean I think there is a comparison to be made between Vasya and Alina. I think I would like The Grisha Trilogy better if Alina was a little bit more like Vasya because Vasya is badass. I love me some Vasya but Vasya is kind of like the person who has kind of a magical calling that makes her stand out that it causes her to be othered but she's not like Alina who kind of like mopes about it a lot. Vasya is kind of like up yours to the world which I am here for so but if you just like the idea of a very magical Russia and having just just living in a world that evokes that on every page then and if Grisha Trilogy gave you that and you want more both in terms of additional books and also a book that does more of it then read The Winter Night Books by Catherine Arden. Next up I have The Raven Cycle by Maggie Steve Otter. These books if you're unfamiliar are I mean somewhat I would say any Maggie Steve Otter. If you're a fan of Maggie Steve Otter but in particular The Raven Cycle but just generally speaking she has a very quirky writing style which is kind of like I would say an acquired taste or very niche taste like it's either going to be your thing or it's not. The way that the settings of her books and the way that she tells her stories it feels very like there's just magic on the fringes of things and everyday life becomes magical because there's magic hiding under everything and unexpected places and unexpected corners and like it's not like magical artifacts it's very mundane things that are suddenly becoming magical. Everyday objects everyday people people who are not special there's no like ancient like I feel like a lot of like magic that's brought into like our modern day or the present day or like the real world will often be like something a very very expensive old something and Maggie Steve Otter will be like this pencil is now magical because I say it is because it you know there's something about it that makes it magical or because the people who are around it have a weird like connection to the world around them where they see beyond the curtain of what is apparent to the rest of us so it just kind of like takes reality and makes it magical not by saying it's not a portal fantasy it just makes it magical and so the author that I would recommend is and this is I guess the highest accolade of them all Neil Gaiman who is my favorite author and I have often said that the thing that I one of the things that I love so much about Neil Gaiman's writing is that he makes the everyday things extraordinary he makes ordinary mundane life and objects he imbues them with magical properties but not in a gimmicky way it's not I don't really know how to explain it because I am not the wordsmith that Gaiman is but he transports you to a world where everything around you has the potential to be more than it seems where a window a doorway an old like used boot all these things might be more than that and they make the reader it just makes the whole world come alive because it's not like it's a normal world but there's this magic thing no everything really has the potential to be magical if the author turns their gaze on it and that's how Maggie Steve Otter's writing is so once again if you like Neil Gaiman a lot I would recommend trying Maggie Steve Otter because they're the the prose itself it's quite different in tone but that quality to it where like the where everyday things become so much more but magic itself becomes almost mundane I think there's a very similar vibe in their handling of that and last and I guess at least is the sky in the deep of by Adrienne Young if you run this because you're trash for vikings like I am it does deliver some viking vibes but this is again more similar to my recommendations for Grisha a recommendation for Grisha where like if you liked that but you want to see it done properly then I recommend you try the golden wolf saga by Linnea Hartzweaker her name is the bane of my existence I don't know how to say it this is a well researched extremely well executed retelling of the saga of King Harold and it is like viking vibes to the max it is the viking aist viking series that I have that is ever viking like if you like watching the tv show vikings like also recommend the golden wolf saga so sky in the deep to me was like a lot of viking window dressing and I love viking window dressing I like aspire to live in a place surrounded by viking window dressing but that is also what it is like at its core it is just kind of like a YA romance adventure with lots of viking window dressing and again it's kind of I don't say about Grisha trilogy like it's a YA adventure romance with a lot of Russian window dressing I do love me some aesthetic window dressing not gonna lie and if you are okay with that with what that that is what it is then I still recommend this guy in the deep because it hardcore delivers mega window dressing of the viking variety but actually like through and through beyond the skin through the muscles sinews and bones all the way deep down vikings the golden wolf saga violin a heart speaker is proper vikings so let me know in the comments down below if you've read any of the books that I'm recommending here if uh you have inspired you to read YA books or adult books or both or neither neither is also an option let me know whatever you want to let me know I post videos on saturdays other random times as well but definitely saturdays so like and subscribe join my patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you