 i felt like everyone who was driving along could see me crying and were looking at me like i don't understand why i'm getting daggers thrown at me this morning i woke up and now everyone's throwing daggers! hello everyone welcome back to my channel today i thought i would do a bit of a different video and i thought i would do a books for when you're sad video all of us struggle with our mental health right it's something that we all have to live with and deal with and it can be really tough sometimes and sometimes certain books just aren't the right thing to read when you're sad and sometimes certain books are the right thing to read when you're sad so uh today i just thought i would recommend some of my books that either i read when i was sad or i wish you know i i feel like would have been really good in those moments books aren't gonna fix our mental health but um i think there are right and wrong things to read when you are sad so um before we get on make sure you like the video if you do like this video after the end and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on any more of my videos so but let's get into it let's get into it let's get into these flops this yes girl get into these flops yeah these flops the first book i wanted to recommend was remember this when you're sad by Maggie van Eyck i've spoken about this a few times on my channel um i read it quite a while ago i read it right at the end of 2018 and i really really loved it the author is very open about her mental health struggles she takes you through everything she's been through and hearing that someone else was going through stuff maybe not exactly similar to me because we all struggle with different different things when we're sad but um she gets she gives really actionable steps she gives better points throughout the book on each section on how to deal with that particular issue so i know there's i remember this when you're maybe struggling with your your image or maybe read this when you're when you're depressed maybe read this when you're when you're in a relationship there's all these different sections talking about how our mental health intersects with so many parts of our lives and i've said before fiction is really helpful to read when we're sad because it does take us into this other universe other realm other story other than our own and that's what a lot of the other books i'm gonna be recommending um are but i think it's also helpful to sometimes read stuff that makes us reflect on ourselves and make us want to nurture our mental health even more so i think this book is really great for that and i would definitely recommend checking it out if you can it's she's just brilliant she's just great and um i follow her on instagram now and i just think she's a really refreshing person so this book definitely helped me you know the winter of 2018 um going into the start of 2019 was a really rough one for me touch wood this this winter has been great um i think i have a booktube and you guys a lot for that but um it was definitely a really tough one and this didn't fix everything straight away in fact it kind of got worse after this before it got better not because of the book obviously just because of the way my mental health was but i think it was a stepping stone another book another non-fiction book i'd recommend i'm not going to spend longer than this because i actually i've only just thought of it but i used to love the book don't sweat the small stuff and it's just like super short two page chapters on why you shouldn't just get stressed about little things i used to always get stressed about the listless things especially when i was kind of like 14 15 i'd work myself to the ground on like school work that meant nothing do you know what i mean do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what do you know what there's one like one little chapter because they're kind of just little thoughts the book is like that big and they're only like two page chapters but uh one of them he talks about like whenever anything is stressing you out and it seems like it's a big deal in the moment think to yourself is this going to matter in a year or six months or even two weeks like Is this gonna have any real impact on my life? And if the answer is no, then don't stress out about it. And that's something that I definitely have tried to adopt in my life, in the rest of my life. So yeah, that's another quick recommendation. I didn't plan to recommend that, but that is a good book as well. Let's get into the fiction now. So my first recommendation is, I think sometimes when you're sad, you need just like the purest, sweetest, like, oh, it's just, you need something that's like, just happy and positive. And even though it can deal with difficult subjects, it just has its core, this really positive feeling. So that would have to be for me the Heart Stopper Graphic Normal Series, but I was wondering, this is volume two, volume one is back at home, but wow. Now I believe, especially in volume three, I haven't read it yet, but I think it may deal with some heavier topics, so be warned for that. I know Insolitaire, which is one of Alice Oseman's novels, it's set after these are, I don't think the graphic novels have caught up with Solitaire yet, but Insolitaire Charlie, it's Charlie's sister that the book is about, and he is dealing with an eating disorder in that book. So I think that may come up at some point in the graphic novels, I'm pretty sure it will do, but for now it hasn't. And these books make me squeal, and the books never make me squeal. Like, this has me going, oh, Tom, my boyfriend, who lives with me, we turn around and go like, what the heck is going on? What? And I'm just going, I don't know, I'm like, oh, ah, you know, it's just so cute. Their facial expressions, oh my God. Hang on, hang on, hang on. I don't wanna spoil anything, but let's just like, look at him, right? Just the way that you look at each other is just so pure, and I think if you're sad, a graphic novel is something that's really easy to tackle because sometimes when you're sad, big books or reading in general can kind of be scary, right? Like, it can be difficult to get yourself to read, but a graphic novel won't take you long, so it's super easy to pick up, it's not intimidating, and it will just have you like, ah, did they just, oh my God, oh my God. It's the perfect thing to read when you're sad because you can't help but like, hurt in your chest from how much you love these characters and how much they love each other, and it's just the best. It's just so good. So both of the series, I've read one and two, I haven't read number three yet, but both one and two have been five stars for me. The only reason I haven't read number three is because it's gonna be in a video I'm filming soon, and so I just have to wait, but I keep looking at it like, I wanna read you. But it's true. I'm the best one. I just want Anna's Oathman to produce. I mean, it takes a long time for a graphic novel, but I want like 50 volumes right now. I haven't even said what it's about. It's a boy meets boy romance at like kind of secondary school in the UK, and it's just the purest thing ever. So if you haven't picked these up yet, please do, I will defend them with my life. I just think they're incredible. I think they're an incredible series. So I just think if this isn't just cheer you up a little bit, it always cheers me up a little bit, even if I'm feeling down. I think this is the perfect thing to pick up when you're feeling a bit sad. The next book I also don't have with me, and that would be The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. So this was very almost, almost almost almost my favorite book of last year. In it we follow a character who finds this kind of old book and when he starts to read it, he realizes one of the chapters is about him, about something that happened when he was a child that no one else was there when it happens. They happen to anyone possibly know about it, and it takes him into this underground world of underground libraries and cats and the Starless Sea and pirates and people lost in time. And it's just one of the most immersive books I've ever read, and that's the reason I'm recommending it in this video. I think sometimes when you're sad, you need a story that completely envelops you and I've never had anything that's enveloped me as much as The Starless Sea does. I think it just completely takes over everything and the world is so vivid and yet so confusing and yet so like you know everything all at the same time. It's incredible. It's so good. Again, I would have ended to the death. It just has this softness to it and this like magic to it that I think is perfect when you're feeling a bit down. And also if you love books, then this has a library in it. It's set partly in a library. And so like, how can that not cheer you up a little bit? So I think if you wanna get immersed in the world when you're feeling down, you really wanna escape everything. I know a lot of us wanna do that. Then this book is perfect because, what the fuck was that? Yeah, this book is perfect to kind of escape into this magical world that there's nothing out there like. You know when sometimes you reach fantasy series and all the fantasy worlds kind of blur together, you're like, this is very similar to something I've read before. To me, this world is so different to anything I've read before. So I'd really, really recommend going and pick this up if you're feeling a little bit down. The next series I'm gonna recommend is a bit of a weird one, but I have my reasons. The Trudy Devious series. This is the second one. I haven't read this one yet. I've only read the first one. So in this we follow a girl, I think her name's Stevie. Yeah, Stevie who is really into true crime, really into detective stuff. And she goes to this special school. It's a school for kind of people who are really good in very specialist areas. And her task is to solve a murder that occurred about like, I don't even know, 70, 80 years ago. Not her task, the teachers haven't gone, you can come to our school if you solve this old mystery. It kicked out if you don't. But like, because of her interest in true crime and how kind of good she is at figuring stuff out, that's why she's gone to the school. She turns up and things start happening, things start going wrong. There's a lot of murder in this series, but it's like light murder. Everyone always makes fun of me for this. But like, sometimes a bit of light murder can cheer you up. The reason I'm recommending this is because it's set in like a boarding school situation. And I think those kind of old school boarding school books just like cheer me up. I think it's because we all kind of associate it with like a non-magical Harry Potter. And Harry Potter cheers us all up. I think that's another recommendation. If you like Harry Potter, just go reread that if you're feeling a bit down because I think that will definitely like, take you back into that world. And that world has such good feelings for so many of us. But I think reading a detective story where your brain is having to work kind of fast to figure out who's done what is a good distraction. And I think that really helps me when I'm sad. Reading books where I have to figure stuff out. But this is YA, so it's not a super heavy mystery. So it's not like it's super difficult to work out what's going on. So it's kind of the best of both worlds where your brain is working like hard to figure it out. But also it's not too heavy. It's not too daunting on you. So I think it kind of is great for when you're down because it kind of fulfills a, you want your brain to work hard and be distracted but you don't want something too hard that it's intimidating. It meshes those two together really, really well. So that's why I'd recommend this series. The last book I have to recommend is that, it's because sometimes I think when you're sad, you just need a good cry. Like you just need a bit of a cry. I wanted to pick a book that wasn't sad throughout. Like you're not going to be crying throughout. I actually cried like 70 pages into this book and then never cried again. I don't think the story as a whole is sad. I don't think the ending is, well the ending, no, I don't think the ending's sad but there's a bit kind of 60 pages in. I just felt like it just broke my heart. But sometimes I think when you're sad you just need to let it out a bit. And so I think a book that isn't sad the whole way through but has little parts that could make you cry a bit and could let you get out a good sob is kind of what I wanted to recommend. So I'm going to recommend Daisy Jones and The Six. I haven't heard many other people say that this made them cry but it made me cry. It's so hard. I was reading it in the car on the way back up to uni and I was just stopping in the car and like I felt like everyone who was driving along could see me crying and were looking at me like, I don't understand why I'm getting DACA thrown at me this morning. I woke up and now everyone's throwing DACA. And like I was crying silently so I was sitting next to my dad in the front and he didn't even know I was crying. So Daisy Jones and The Six is about a kind of super, not superstar, but like a really big star, Daisy Jones and a band, The Six and they kind of merged together. I always thought the band before I read this was always Daisy Jones and The Six but it's kind of the story of them coming together and having one really, really massive album and tour together. And it's a story of all the relationships within the band and kind of the reasons why they broke up while the band broke up. Another thing that made me cry was actually to do with Billy Dunn who is the lead singer of The Six before Daisy Jones joins at all and one of his relationships. And it, I just sobbed, I just sobbed but this story is so well written. If you don't know, it's an interview format so I don't know if you can see but basically each of these little paragraphs is a different person talking, a different member of the band and what I think it does so well is there'll be times when on certain elements of the story they're telling because they're all telling the story of the band they will disagree on little elements and it's just so cool. Like, it's seemingly trivial things but you realize that it had a big impact on maybe the band breaking up or how the band's story progressed then disagreeing on these little elements and so I just think it's such a cool story. I almost gave these five stars but it just, I'm trying to be a bit harsher and it's like a 4.75, like it's so close, it's so close. I actually, this was in my five star predictions video which I'll link if you haven't checked out. I did it with five stars and it was very close. It was like a 4.75 but just something stopped me from giving it a five stars. I don't really know what, something just stopped me. I loved it and I would really, really recommend that you pick this up and just have a good cry and then you're so attached to the characters that again you're absorbed in that world and just can't wait to finish it. So there we have it. That is all the books I recommend for reading when you're feeling a bit down, when you're feeling a bit sad. Again, I think there's so many good books out there but I think you'll also need to be careful when we pick up when we're sad because it can like maybe impact us in a good way. I hope you enjoyed this video and I hope if you are feeling down then maybe some of these books can help you out a bit and yeah, I will see you very, very soon with another video and I hope you're well until then. Bye.