 I still don't honestly know how I got her to bring her down the hall. Boring. It's not like I know about it and I don't read it. I don't even know about it. All right, let's Google it. So as you may have just seen, I dropped the whole stack. Hey guys, it's Leon and I'm here today with my August wrap up. Where am I gonna- Oh no, oh no, oh no! So as you may have just seen, I dropped the whole stack. I was already gonna tell you that like normally I do it in the order that I read them because I stack my books as I read them throughout the month and then I just reverse the stack. I mean, that's how I do my wrap up. So I can tell you in the order in which I read them. But my stack was so big I didn't feel like doing that. So I was just gonna do it in reverse order because that's how they're stacked. Now I dropped it. So now it's in no kind of order. I just kind of stacked it by size so that the big heavy ones are on the bottom. So, these are in no particular order. You wanna see what order I read them in then follow me on Goodreads because you'll see it there. But first and foremost, oh yeah, how many books did I read? 15, 16, 17 books? I wasn't purposely trying to like one up myself from last month. Be like, why would 16 last month read 17 this month? It's also not equivalent because like, so I read four things on my Kindle. So I have my Kindle here with little sticky notes so I remember and I'm doing those first so that I don't forget. Two of the books I read on Kindle are novellas. Not like tomes. So, I mean, technically that is how many books I read but full disclosure. Like I said, let's do what I read on Kindle first. So I read A Dead, Gin and Cairo and the Haunting of Tramcar 015 by P. Dejalee Clark. And that's because I would like to read his full length novel, his first full length novel, which I own and the name of it escapes me. It has the word gin in the title. I am 90% sure. And I don't know where I put it. So I can't really check. All right, let's Google it. A Master of Gin. There we go. I want to read the master or a master of gin and I understand or I was made to understand that you really do need to read The Haunting of Tramcar 015 and A Dead, Gin and Cairo first because they kind of introduce you to the world and I guess to some of the characters because the first chronological, the first one is A Dead, Gin and Cairo and then in The Haunting of Tramcar 015 one of the characters from A Dead, Gin and Cairo appears. So I'm guessing that the full length novel either focuses on both of them or they will appear or maybe it's just the world. I don't really know. I just know you're supposed to read those first. So I did. I got them from the library. No, that's not true. I got one of them from the library and the other one I got on Kindle like from Amazon because it was like 99 cents. So I read those. I didn't love them. I feel like this is a situation that's similar to how I felt about Murderbot where because it's so hyped and people are just like, that's so good, it's so good. And I'm sure that Ring Shout is genuinely wonderful and I really want to read that but I feel like all the just general Peter Jelly Clark hype kind of made me expect too much. So I didn't hate the Dead Gin or a Dead Gin and Cairo or Hunting of Tramp are 015. I just was very disappointed. It didn't really grab me. The mystery didn't feel very mysterious to me. I expected it to be more, to feel more like a detective story and then just like have the trappings of like sort of Cairo and like some gin but it was just like in such a short novella there's wild magic going on that like even if it was a full length novel I'd be like, this was a bit much but it was a novella. So we're like, we barely had time to get to know the main character before we had like apocalypse level, Avengers Endgame level things going on. And like Marvel took its time building us up to Endgame which I've never actually seen Endgame. Please don't kill me. By the time you get to Endgame it doesn't feel like it's like 0 to 11, 0 to 60 or whatever you're supposed to say overnight or instantaneously kind of builds up like the first few movies like the first Iron Man movie like, there's a big bad but it's not that big. And then the first time the Avengers all got together there was a pretty big bad and then when the Avengers got together again it was an even bigger bad and then by the time we get to Endgame it's like, okay, well the apocalypse. So Adenton and Cairo got like, it went from like introducing you to the main character to apocalypse in like two pages. I mean, more than two pages but not much more than two pages in the novella. I don't even, I didn't have time to feel invested and so I couldn't even care about the apocalypse because I was like, I still don't even know where we are or why this matters. So not my favorite but I am still looking forward to a Dead Jin and Cairo and I'm very much looking forward to reading Ring Shout whenever I get to Ring Shout which is nothing to do with these books it's just also by Peter Jayleigh Clark. Yeah, not. I think I gave haunting and Dead Jin three stars each because I was like, it's a cool world. Just, I felt nothing about these stories, nothing whatsoever or the characters. It was just an interesting enough world that I was like, I'd like to see a story that I like be set in this world but this wasn't it. And I also read Ace, which is a nonfiction book that I've seen a few people recommend. Hence why I picked it up or hence why I even knew about it because I don't really know about nonfiction because I'm a terrible reader. So I'm not even aware of it. It's not like I know about it and I don't read it. I don't even know about it. So anyway, specifically I think both Bethany and Mara read Ace and I think Jess from Jess Owens read it. Maybe Jishana? I don't know. I just feel like I saw a bunch of people reading it and all praising it. So I read it also very short and it is nonfiction about, well about the Ace identity. But moreover, like it is about asexuality. It is, that's what it's about. But a lot of the book is kind of contextualizing asexuality in our modern day society and how the modern day society doesn't really, like the way that stories are written, the way that people are represented in media, the way that people talk, like conversationally with each other, the expectations people have of each other or casual things that people say, they all kind of like don't allow for asexuality to exist. Like it's like it's invisible. Like it is just not acknowledged at all. And this isn't like, it's not like other queer identities where like we need more representation but it's certainly like people kind of like acknowledges existence. It's more of these like subtle ways in which everyday speech just presumes that you are sexual. Like that is the default assumption and there's never any language. And like it's not even like conversations about sex. It's just assumptions about what people want like in books and movies. Like it's not even that there isn't an asexual character. It's that people say things like everyone wants a love and you know, you don't want to be lonely or like it's viewed as like something that needs to be corrected if somebody is alone. Again, in media but also in conversation like if a person isn't dating anyone, the assumption is like, oh well you need to put yourself out there. It's never like, oh maybe you don't want to put yourself out there. Maybe you're not interested in putting yourself out there. And if that is the case, it's usually like Tapan is like, are you like unwell? Have you been abused? So there's just like, the book does a lot to kind of unpack how we think of sexuality and how we think of love because again, a lot of words people tend to use a lot of like sexual words as synonyms for love and affection. And so that again, doesn't allow for an ace identity because asexual people, if the only language that we have to describe love is sexual then that like by implication means that asexual people don't experience love because if love equals sex and they don't have sex then they don't have love. And like, that's not true. So the way that again, everyday speech just kind of like acts like asexuality doesn't exist and isn't an option. So it's just a really fascinating read for that reason. It really, really eye-opening just in general in terms of how we talk about relationships, how we talk about people, how we talk about sex, how we talk about love and how we kind of need more words because there's all different kinds of love and like making it all just kind of like, oh, you're like friend-zoning, you know, you're like my friend-zoned basically like brother from another mother, sister from another mister or there's like a sexual component and those are the only options versus like the spectrum of love because like we talked about, we talked about the gender spectrum a lot more but having love be all that spectrum of physicality from not at all to like only sexual because then there's also that there's people that are aromantic, which the book also talks about and about how like it's again, treated by society as like, there's something wrong with you because you just want sex and it's usually regarded in, especially in media as like a character flaw. Like this person needs to learn to feel. They need to learn to love and not just have throwaway casual encounters. It don't mean anything, but like some people are aromantic. So what do you want them to do? So yeah, it just, it did a lot to unpack how we talk about these things. So I highly recommend it. It was a really fascinating read. It's not very long at all. It's a very short book. So I do definitely recommend that. And the last book that I read on Kindle was sort of Kaigen by, oh God, who's the author? M.L. Wang I want to say? M.L. Wang. And I read this because my patrons picked it for me. I mean, a few months ago I was planning to read it and then I never got around to it. So my patrons picked it for me now to vlog and review for them. So I have done that. But briefly, it's not a new favorite. There are things about it that I very much enjoyed, but there are an equal number of things that I also thought were deeply flawed or not executed very well. So it was a mixed bag. Like it wasn't like all blah or all great or all horrible. It was just very mixed. Like certain aspects of it were like, wow. And other aspects I was like, I don't know. I mean, I can see why it struck a chord because it certainly stands out. But both the world building and like the choice to center a mother as the main character makes it stand out from the pack because adult fantasy doesn't tend to have a setting like we have in sort of Kaigen, which again, this is something I never heard anybody mention. So I want to mention it because I never heard this and it completely like threw me for a loop. The world of sort of Kaigen is modern. It is a fantasy story and it doesn't take place in the real world. It's not urban fantasy, but this fantasy world has like cell phones and televisions and that kind of thing, which again is refreshing because we tend to only ever see fantasy that if it's taking place in a fantasy world, then it is an archaic world. There's a spectrum of how archaic from like prehistoric to like vaguely Victorian and vibes. Usually if it's a modern setting then it's urban fantasy taking place in our real world. And this is not taking place in our real world, but it is a very modern setting. So that's refreshing. And again, centering a mother as the main character. But yeah, I had no idea. Like when I was reading it and I first got to the first reference to like cartoons or something on TV or in video games. And I was like, what? Which like when I got used to it, I was like, okay, that's fine, but I just wasn't expecting it. And if you're not expecting it, like it's just like ripped me out of the story because not because it was badly written just because like I'm trained to not expect that in fantasy. So, oh no, yeah. I think I gave it 3.5, so rounding up to four as I believe the conclusion I came to. So yeah, I recommend, but I think it's deeply flawed. Okay, so now going to the stack. I may say the phrase next up I read because it's just habit for me, but I've already explained how this is not in the order that I read these books. So I'll try to just say next up, but I might say next up I read just so you know it's a lie when I say that. So next up I have the drawing of the three by Stephen King. This is the second book in the Dark Tower series. I buddy read both the first and the second books with Bethany and we had a live chat on my channel talking about the first and second books and our impressions of the both first and second books. And I do plan to go on with the Dark Tower series, even though I felt very similarly to Bethany. I gave the books slightly higher ratings and I did slightly better with them. And I am more curious to see where this goes and to see honestly less the story, not really into the story. Again, we went in depth into why we had problems with these books in our live. So if you wanna check that out, the replay is available. I know that Stephen King wrote these books over a large span of years. And so watching Stephen King as an author grow over the course of this series is something that interests me. Again, not really the story so much. I just kind of am curious to watch the progress of this author over the course of this series. So for that reason, I'm not in a hurry, but I do want to read the rest of the series. And the super-duper Yikes on Bikes thing that is in this book in particular is like it's over. So that might be new, horrifically awful things. And I don't mean horror or I don't mean horrific in terms of it being horror. I mean like it's just Yikes. And that thing is like ended and resolved and is not a thing anymore by the end of this book. So there might be new fresh things that I take issue with, but that issue is done with and we won't have to see that again. So at least there's that. The next books in the series, they may not get better but they won't have that in them and that's a relief. So anyway, check out our live chat if you want to hear our full spoilery thoughts about these two books and why they did not work for us. And again, and we talked, I came to the conclusion based on what people were saying in the chat and like by talking through it with Bethany that I would go on with the series and that she would not. So anyway, check that out if you're interested, but otherwise if I have to say not a favorite. Next up I'll do these together, Othello and New Boy, which is the Hogarth Shakespeare retelling of Othello. I have a live chat on my channel where me and Heather discuss these because as I mentioned me and Heather are going through all the Hogarth Shakespeare's, which is this project of authors being commissioned to retell Shakespeare plays. So we're just kind of doing one a month. I mean, the play and the retelling, the play and the retelling. And in August we did Othello and New Boy. Othello is definitely my favorite Shakespeare tragedy and perhaps my favorite Shakespeare play. That's tougher because it's hard to compare tragedy and comedy, but it's for sure my favorite tragedy. So this was, the pressure was on. And if you want to watch again, me and Heather chat about Othello and we honestly spent a lot of the live talking just about Othello like unpacking the play, but we did talk about New Boy and why it didn't necessarily work for us. I think of the Hogarths, we think this is one of the better ones but it's not great. And I think we both agreed that a much better and a much more successful modern retelling of Othello is the film O with Julia Stiles and Josh Hartnett, which I'd never seen before but I watched after reading these books and yeah, that worked a whole lot better. The translation of like the characters and the situations into a modern setting worked a lot better in that movie than in New Boy. So if you're looking for an Othello retelling and you're trying to decide, I say watch that movie and skip New Boy. Oh, I did not read these back to back but I have them in my stack back to back. So we're gonna do them together and they look so nice together. The fourth book in The Raven Cycle, The Raven King and then the first book in the new spin-off series called Down the Hawk, which is about Ronin. Is there a name for the series? The Dreamer trilogy. Concluding The Raven Cycle, that was exciting and I loved The Raven Cycle and I love The Raven King and I gave this five stars and it was just an excellent conclusion. I had many feelings. It is a weird series. It's kind of hard to explain and discuss and I've also like previously when I've talked about the series I've struggled to kind of articulate what it's like and what I get out of it. It is just like a thing where Maggie Steve Otter's writing style is very distinct and unique. So it's either your thing or it's not. And so just Owens who hates The Raven Cycle, I don't know how but I convinced her to read Call Down the Hawk with me. I think because like she just told me she hated it and I was like, but why? I just gave the book five stars and she was like, but why? We were talking through it and we both agreed that the best part of The Raven Cycle is Ronin Lynch and I was like, well, the new spin-off series is about Ronin and she was like, okay, I'll read it with you. And again, I'm not sure how that happened but it did. So she read this with me. She hated it. I didn't hate it. I definitely liked it better than just it but we both kind of agreed that for a book about Ronin this is very similar to the King of Scars experience. If you've read King of Scars by Lee Mardugo where the side character of Nikolai Lansov from the Grisha trilogy is now centered as the main character and from his perspective and that didn't really work out so good. And also Nikolai wasn't actually in it that much for a book about Nikolai. And so Ronin Lynch is once it is kind of the Nikolai here where like he's not actually in it that much for a book about Ronin and it kind of taking Ronin out of The Raven Cycle and focusing on him alone kind of takes away some of the magic. He kind of works better as a counterpoint to the other characters. The same problem with Jack Sparrow where like he works as like a side character in small doses that is juxtaposed against the more like normal main characters. And when you just focus on Jack Sparrow when you just focus on Nikolai when you just focus on Ronin well for one of these books, King of Scars and this one doesn't actually focus that much on them but even so focusing the book on them kind of takes away some of the fun enigma of them because that's kind of what makes everybody love those characters because they'd be kind of wild card characters that show up and cause chaos. So I liked it. I enjoyed especially the parts with Ronin and the ending, by the ending I was like started to be more interested in and into it. So I'm definitely gonna read the next one because a lot of this book is set up because we're not in The Raven Cycle anymore so we have to set up a whole new situation kind of catch us up on where the characters are now what they're up to and like what the new big bad is gonna be what this whole thing is gonna be about. And so there's just like a lot of setup and introducing you to new characters that now Ronin is gonna be interacting with cause we don't have the Raven Cycle crew anymore and by the end of the book, like the plot lines that we were seeing the different POVs we were seeing were kind of converging. So by the end of this book everything has kind of converged and I feel like the next book which is considerably shorter will be tighter and it will not be so all over the place introducing you to stuff we can now just kind of focus on the story and ideally Ronin. So I'll let you know how that goes when I read it but yeah, Jess will not be reading the next book with me and I don't blame her. I still don't honestly know how I got her to read Telldown the Hawk. I don't even feel like I made her. I don't feel like I tricked her. I just, I don't know how this happened. I had a great time reading with her but I don't know how, how, yeah, anyway. So yeah, I thought it was good. The Raven Cycle is better. Next up, I almost said next up I read. Next up I have Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I love this. I don't think I liked it as much as the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo or Daisy Janssen six. I heard a lot of people say they didn't like it as much but I heard more so people being like, oh, it's not nearly as good versus me. I'm like, I don't think it was as good as those but it's still real. I definitely gave this five stars. And once, I mean, picking it up, I was like, I'm only picking this up because it's Taylor Jenkins Reid. Like the, I wouldn't have picked up a book about a Hollywood star like except that everyone said, Starlet, a Hollywood star except that everyone said seven husbands was like the most amazing book ever. And then after that I was like, okay, well, this is a great author. So Daisy Janssen six. I mean, I'm slightly more interested in rock stars but I still probably wouldn't pick that up but Taylor Jenkins Reid wrote it so I will read it and it was great. And Malibu Rising about like people in Malibu like by the sea surfing and whatnot. I was like, I have a zero interest in that but it's written by Taylor Jenkins Reid. So if anyone can make me interested in that, it's her and she did and it was great. And it was fantastic. It's so many feelings. She's just so good and making you feel feelings about characters and so quickly too. When I was reading this and I was just thinking about the way that much longer books like by the end, I still don't feel like I know the characters in here. There are a lot of characters to get to know and they all just feel like messy, complicated, three-dimensional characters, every single one of them. So by the end, it feels like you've been through a saga even though it's like, is it five, not even 500 pages I don't think, not even 400 pages. So just wowza, she just packs a punch. So in general, like everything I've read from her so far has been amazing. I know she has some backwards books of people who they aren't as good. But I can't imagine they're all that terrible because man, this woman can write. I highly recommend. Next up I have The Forever King by Ben Galley or Galey. This was sent to me by the author for a few. So thank you very much. And this is a spin-off series from his original series or takes place in the same universe. I have not read that series, although I do own the first book. It's called The Written. So this is the Scalucin Chronicles and they take place in the world of Emanesca. Is that, am I saying that right? Yes, Emanesca. This is a very, very long book. Where's the original? It's not that long at all. And I feel very mixed about this. There are things about it that I really liked and things about it that I really didn't care about at all. But I've come to realize something about myself after having read this and after having read a few other books. And this is a me thing, not the books thing, but I really actually don't like stories where like Norse gods or really any gods, but in particular Norse gods are interacting with people as like active participants in the story. I like Norse mythology, like where it's just about the gods. And I love stories about Vikings, but like stories about people, fantasy, Vikings, whatever, where the gods are playing an active role, like showing up and doing things and talking. And they're like active players and what's going on rather than like something the characters refer to as like, oh, you know, but what is it? Does Odin will it where they're just kind of like, that's their faith? Or again, a retelling of the myths themselves. But I don't really like it when it's in between, when they're active participants in like real world events, like characters. I don't like it. And that a lot of books do that. And I've just come to realize that like, it's not the books fault. I just don't like that. This isn't actually Vikings, like this is a fantasy world where the gods are very Norse inspired. We'd also kind of like threw me for a loop where I'm like, it's not actually taking place in Scandinavia, it's taking place in this fantasy world that there's a god named Loki, who's like a trickster god. His name is literally Loki. He's not like inspired by Loki, it's Loki. So like stuff like that, like I just already wouldn't like, Loki interacting with Vikings, even if they are like in Scandinavia. So anyway, like that's just a me thing. So if you're into that, there's a lot of gods interacting with people here. I just, I don't know why, I don't like that. And so there was a lot of like, this is the first book in a new series. And similar to Call Down the Hawk, I feel like this is probably doing a lot to set up what's to come and like explain who the new players are since the first series, because I mean, I haven't read the first series, but I'm presumably like some status quo which changed by the end of that series and character. Now we need like a fresh batch of characters and a fresh situation to be dealing with. So I had to catch us up on that. So it was kind of a lot of information catching you up, setting up the scene, introducing you to who the kind of players are gonna be. So yeah, it's a lot of setup. There's things that like basically the thing that I liked the best about this was the writing itself, because while I felt like it was kind of info don't be at times. And again, doing a lot to catch you up. So like that kind of throws off the pacing and also just being irritated with gods showing up because I personally don't like that. But there are definitely like parts multiple times when like the way something was phrased, I was just like, oh, I like that. Ooh, I like that. That's a really cool metaphor. I really like that the way he phrased that. So the writing itself kept me kind of going, ooh. But the story, it just like wasn't my jam for the aforementioned reasons. So I recommend it if you like that kind of thing. It's more than I just don't. It's a lot of the books fall. And so I previously I read Northern Math by Till Coldholt and it also does that. And I realized, cause I was trying to realize this is a Viking book, why don't I love this? I'm so upset, I wanted to love this Viking book. And I realized it was like mainly me being irritated with gods showing up and being active participants in a story about Vikings. I apparently don't like that. So anyway, yeah, so retroactively Northern Math, like I guess I recommend it if you like gods interacting with people. Same Z's for the Forever King. If you like gods interacting with people in like a Viking fantasy world, then this will be your jam for sure. Anyway, thanks to the author for sending it to me. Very much appreciate it. And I had just have to shout out how I love the cover art, all the books in the M&SK series. They all have this style of cover and I just really like the style of cover. So just a shout out to whoever designed this cover. Next up, I have A Little Hatred by Joabra Crumpy which is of course a reread. This is my third, yeah, my third time reading it cause I read it when I came out. Then I reread it before Trouble with Peace came out. And now I reread it again in anticipation of the race of wisdom of crowds. And it's just so good. And this is my first time reading it since having read The Trouble with Peace. And it was fun rereading it for that reason because now that I have like the first two times that I read it, I had not read anything that comes after. So now having read Trouble with Peace and now I'm coming back to this again, there are definitely things that are recontextualized by the information that you get in Trouble with Peace. So I highly recommend if you've been reading these books and you're all caught up to go back and read this if you haven't after reading Trouble with Peace because there's just a lot of scenes, a lot of moments of dialogue. They're kind of, he's really good at just slipping it under your radar, just like in the first original trilogy where if you go back and reread the trilogy after you finished it, so many scenes take on new life because of your new information. So similarly here, after reading Trouble with Peace, there's a lot of moments where you're like, oh my God. I didn't even notice that that was going on. And now I'm like, how could I not have noticed that? I mean, of course you didn't notice it because you didn't know to look for it. It was already an amazing book on my favorite Abercrombie book one I read it the first two times. And I mean Trouble with Peace dethroned it, but also it's still amazing like it always was, but also now like fresh perspective from the new book. So I am honestly really excited after I read Wisdom of Crowds, which like it's gonna be good, right? Like there's just like no doubt it's gonna be good. And I think I'm gonna want to pretty much immediately re-read the trilogy with that fresh perspective that I'm sure I will get from the Wisdom of Crowds. So anyway, needless to say, love this book. That is no surprise. So highly recommend to Abercrombie in the first law series. Next up I have Fable by Adrienne Young, which I've been meaning to read since it came out because honestly this cover, this cover and it has a seafaring story. So I was last year I thought it was a summer read and this year I thought it was a summer read and it was fine. I just, it wasn't very interesting. And I mean, a lot of people have said is kind of just more like a people story, just kind of a slow burn story about this young girl. And it is, I just don't think this young girl is very interesting and I don't think any of the side characters are very interesting. So I don't really mind a slow pace story that is more character driven than plot driven. I just, with that comes interesting characters. Otherwise like, why are we here? So it wasn't a very exciting plot. It did have like, it sort of attempted to kind of have like political machinations between kind of like seafaring, piratey kind of peoples. But it just like, it wasn't all that complex. And then the main character, Fable, is just kind of boring. And there's obviously like a romance being set up here that I felt nothing about. Don't think I'll be reading namesake because I've heard that it's not even as good as Fable. I didn't love Fable, so. It wasn't bad. And if you really connect with the character of Fable you probably enjoy it. But Fable was just, just wasn't very interesting. Along the back gripping, immersive and absolutely masterful. Disagree. It's just, it's fine. Next up I have The Lesser Devil and we may as well at the same time. Talking about The Demon in White, both of which are by Christopher Rockio and these are books in the Sun Eater series. This is the third book in the Sun Eater series and this is a novella that takes place kind of in the midst of the events of the first book. So it's a different perspective, but like timeline wise it takes place kind of during the first book. So Alex Nieves and I caught up on the Sun Eater series so there's a live show back to my channel on these two books where we discuss them at length in depth. We remain big fans of the series. We highly recommend it. We just kind of gush about it every time we talk about it. And the novella is also very good. Christopher Rockio is just a really good writer. It's an epic space opera that is wild and takes so many unexpected twists and turns. It's a very smart series. There's so many references, so many illusions, that you don't have to know what it's alluding to or paying homage to to appreciate the book. But if you do, it's just an added level of enjoyment. And yeah, it's absolutely new favorite series for sure. So if you like space operas that are like complex and epic and are written very well, then I highly recommend the Sun Eater series. And as does Alex, you can trust us. We both agree on this. Next up I have only two left. The Unbroken by C.L. Clark. This is the Blades and Bodice Rippers book club thing for August. It was Bethany's pick, so the live show for it was on Bethany's channel. And I did not like this book. Surprise. Again, we went in depth into why we, some of us liked it, some of us didn't like it because we were kind of split on this one. It wasn't like all of us hated it. Or it wasn't like all of them liked it and I hated it, which also happens a lot. Me and Mara were pretty lukewarm on this. And then Bethany and Amanda really liked it. If you want to see a spectrum of opinion on this, that's available to you on Bethany's channel. But suffice to say, I felt like this was a lot of wasted potential. Like the project of this book, the conceit of it, the type of thing that it aspires to be is the type of thing that I would very much like to see well executed. I just don't think it was well executed. So I was both not enjoying the book and also very frustrated that something, that's such a good idea is being done such disservice in my opinion. Cause I don't think the writing's very good. I don't like the plotting was very good. I don't like the characterizations very good. I don't think that the pacing is good. Basically the one thing that's good about this is the idea, the concept. And then I just, everything else about it was like, I do not plan to continue with this series unless for some reason I hear somebody who felt exactly like I did about this book and they for some reason picked up the second book and they say, oh, but it's actually like everything is fixed and this is so good. I might pick it up, but that seems unlikely. But I'm also not especially interested in anything else by this author because the thing about this that I was interested in is the concept. And what I've seen is that this author's writing, nothing about it works for me. So it's not a situation where like usually if I'm willing to try something by another author, it's usually because I liked their style. I'm just not drawn to what they're doing with that book. So I'd like to see them write something else. This is the opposite situation. I like this concept. I don't think that writing is very good. So why would I want to pick up another book by an author when I didn't like anything about their writing? I feel like I'm being really harsh, but I mean, I really didn't care about this book at all. I don't, I don't like it. So yeah, that's my take on the Unbroken. And last but certainly not least, and also not last in terms of when I read it, I read it pretty early in the month, is The Neverware by Neil Gaiman, which is a reread. The Neverware was the patient buddy read. So we chatted about it throughout and also at the end when we'd all read it. And it's, it's not my favorite Gaiman. I always feel like a traitor, like a fake fan because I feel like Neverware is very beloved. And I just, I basically, I feel like it suffers from its origins because it was originally written for television and it was then translated into novel form by the author or everything that he wanted to put in, it was put back in. But nevertheless, it being written for television by necessity, it has a very sort of episodic style, which just like it never gets a flow. It doesn't really have an arc. The main character isn't much of a main character. He's just kind of like your eyes into this world. So it's just kind of like stuff happening and stuff happening. So it never like grips me into this story. It's just kind of, yeah. So honestly, I feel like it would make a really good TV show, but not the TV show that they make because I've tried watching it and it's awful. Partly because it's dated and partly because of everything they cut out, but like the effects for back when it was made, it's like, oh no. I would like now that they're doing new Gaiman adaptations, like Good Omens on Amazon or American Gods when off the rails, but the production quality is certainly up there with American Gods. So something with that level of production quality with Neil Gaiman at the helm, I would love to see them like it went from TV to book and I want it to be back into TV, but this time with everything in it. And ideally produced by somebody with a big budget so that we get all the great effects and everything. Cause a lot of this like, I feel like it works. It's also written feelingly like it's for the screen, which I was. Where like a lot of the scenes you're like, ah, I don't know what's this narrative purpose this serves, it feels like it was written to have a visually cool scene, which for TV, you need to think about that. I didn't know book, you're like, okay. So there's a lot of things about Neverwhere that I do like. I used to get horse dars. There's a lot of quirks in the writing. There's a lot of pieces to the world of Neverwhere to the world of London below that are really cool, that are clever, that are unique, that are quintessentially Gaiman, but it just, I feel like it's a little bit of a mess in terms of like the structure and pacing, which I think is the result of how it was originally conceived, like the fact that it was for television. So it's kind of not, it's fault, but anyway, Neverwhere. Yeah, that does it for all the books that I read in August. Let me know in the comments down below if you've read any of the books that I read, if you plan to read any of the books that I read, if you agree or disagree with me about the books that I talked about, if you have read them, whatever you wanna let me know. I post videos on Saturdays, other random times as well, but I think Saturdays, so like and subscribe. Join my Patreon to feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you. Bye.