 And today, we're returning with another episode of Booktube Twin Tests. I hear you all screaming! I hear you all getting so excited! How I feel every time I start a new Booktube Twin Test episode. Hey, fancy another one? Do you want another one? I go between for Booktube Twin Tests in this series. The people, the Booktubers that the most of you have said, I have a similar reading taste to. And then one's like the one or two or three of you have said. Because I like seeing how those kind of different Booktubers do. So the next Booktuber that we are, we are, we are, we are. The next Booktuber that we're having on this series, I think was the next most after Kayla and Riley. Am I right in this? Hang on. Let me not lie to you. Let me not lie to you. I should have fact-checked this before I came and started filming. Yeah, this Booktuber was the next most recommended to me after Kayla and Riley with 10 people telling me we have similar reading tastes is Gabby Reads! So I love Gabby so much and I have super high hopes for this because I feel like we have very similar reading tastes. Gabby reads a lot of like thrillers so I really feel like we're gonna tap into like my thriller mystery. Maybe some horror maybe? Kind of flavors, tastes in this episode. And I'm just really excited to read books that Gabby has recommended to me. I feel like we're gonna do really well. So this is the leaderboard so far for the first three episodes. In order to beat Kayla, a Booktuber has to get a 5 star, a 5 star, and then at least a 4 star. I suppose you could get like two 4.5s and a 5 or something like that but I don't give out 4.5s that often so it's more likely to be a 5 star, a 5 star and a 4 star. So let's just watch the video that Gabby sent over to me together and see what we're gonna be reading in this vlog because I am I'm so excited. I really I really am just like so excited to read what what Gabby recommends. Meg, what's up? How's it going? First of all, I just wanted to say thank you so much for even asking me to do this for you. I think this series on your channel is so much fun and I just adore you in your videos so much so this is so exciting. I was so stressed out thinking of which books to pick for you because I know we have pretty similar taste when it comes to thrillers and there's just so many things that I was trying to think like what could you read for this video and I came up with three books that I think are pretty fun and most of them kind of have like a mystery thriller vibe going on. So the first book that I wanted to recommend to you is one that I saw on your want to read shelf and I've been trying to push this book on literally everyone lately because I read it in December and I'm freaking obsessed with it and that's a history of wild places. This book is just freaking phenomenal and I think something that's fun about this book is that it not only has the like magical realism aspects to it but it also has a really good mystery at the heart of this story and we're kind of following this group of people who like live out in the forest and they have this like very different belief about life and things and it's just very very interesting. It made it into my top 10 favorites of last year because it's just so freaking good. Some of the best writing to you like the writing is just really like haunting and atmospheric and gorgeous and I was just really invested in like the lives of these characters and the mystery that was going on and the plot twist. Dude the plot twist. It's so good. Oh my gosh. So I highly recommend this one. I think I hope you'll enjoy it. And then another book that I also saw on your want to read shelf on Goodreads is Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice. Oh my god. This one I'm recommending it to you because this one ended up being one of my top favorite thrillers of last year and I don't know if you've read Alice before. I haven't checked out on your Goodreads but if you have I'm curious what you rated them because this one's actually my favorite from Alice from me so far. She's always kind of been like a infamous author for me but this one was just freaking amazing. It has really great like spooky vibes you know like this couple's going to this chapel that's like out in the middle of nowhere in this like snowy ambiance and the chapel may or may not be like haunted like there's just like weird stuff happening at the chapel and they're like what the heck and it's just really atmospheric and there's some damn good plot twists at the end of this book like dude your mind is gonna be blown you're gonna be you're just gonna be blown away. I just did not expect anything that was happening at the end of this book and I'm just like I'm so excited for you to read this. I hope you love it. And then the third and final book I'm recommending to you. I don't know if you have this one on your read shelf and I actually forgot to check if you've read this one or not but I'm recommending this one to you because I saw on your favorites shelf you had The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware which great taste. This is also one of my top favorite thrillers of all time like I'm obsessed with this book. So because you love The Turn of the Key I think you might also like The Nesting by CJ Cook and this is one that I'm kind of nervous to recommend to you because I feel like anytime I've recommended this book in the past people seem to have either loved it or hated it. But clearly as you can see from all my tabs I love this book so much. It's one of my favorites. I gave it 5 stars. It's just a really great story and it has very similar vibes to The Turn of the Key. I mean you know we're following Manny who's like taking care of these children and then this house like may or may not be haunted and this one takes place in Norway. It also has kind of like Bly Manor vibes. I don't know if you've watched The Haunting of Bly Manor but it has like those kind of vibes to it as well and it's just so freaking good it's everything. This one can also by the way it can be described as a modern gothic thriller. That's what the genre says on the back and I would definitely agree with that. I just think it's I just think it's so good. So hopefully you enjoy it. And so yeah these are the picks that I have for you to read and I'm so excited to know your thoughts if you don't enjoy them like no hard feelings you know but I do think these could be winners for you. Maybe I'm hoping for at least one five star. You know I feel it you know. But yeah again thanks so much Meg for asking me to be a part of this video. I really appreciate it and I cannot wait to see the end result and thanks I think you're awesome and yeah I'll see you around. Okay okay okay okay there's a lot to talk about. Oh my god okay fun picks. It won't be a flop. I'm confident. No the trophies. I own Rock Paper Scissors and here's what comes next but I don't own the nesting. I've never heard of that so we have to get our hands on that. Oh my god I don't want to start with. I wasn't expecting these if I wanted. I don't know what I was expecting but I wasn't expecting these books. I probably should have done though but I wasn't. So I don't know what I'm gonna start with. I'll check back in with you once I've like found all the books and gotten my hands on them and stuff but what the hell. Okay so I'm in bed because I literally you guys I have the worst stomach cramps known to man. If I look strange it's because I have a hot water bottle here underneath my hoodie. I'm capable of talking though. Just about so. I'm halfway through Rock Paper Scissors and I don't know if I'm liking it. If I'm honest I don't know if I'm liking it. I realise I barely ever read like domestic thrillers about husbands and wives. I'm like looking at my thing. I unhauled my lovely wife. Didn't really like that. What other thrillers have I read that are about a husband and wife? Don't mind me just adjusting my hot water bottle. The couple next door. I liked that but I can't think of any others. Oh my phone's going off. I'm popular. Anyway I just listen it's just a husband and a wife who hate each other and like I almost don't have any sympathy for that. I'm like cut the cord. Cut the cord and I it's written away that makes you think they're trying to do that but with more permanent consequences and I'm like well that's not the way. Just get it get it get it get it divorce. So it's not a radical concept. Clap if you've ever wanted to kill somebody. So basically we're following these two characters as they go to this like isolated trip in Scotland right and it's you're flashing back and letters that she wrote to him throughout their marriage and we have both of their perspectives. I tried out the audio bit by the way. The guy is narrated by Richard Armitage, an icon, a legend but I didn't really like it so whatever. They're both written in a way that makes you think they're planning to basically kill each other. I don't think that's gonna be it. It's gonna be twist on turns but like it's written away that they're both their perspectives are like they end on these like cliffhangers each chapter and it's like basically the same them saying I don't understand like bro I don't like reading these people. I don't like reading them like I don't know if it's just me. I don't know but I'm not loving it. It's like a Gabby, not not me being... there's a thing. I do feel mean. I mean I will do it but I feel mean rating Booktube Twin Test picks low. I just don't have domestic theresa for me. At the moment it's like a 2.53. I said it. I said it. I don't like the music. I'm entitled to my opinion. And like there's all this mysteriousness and twists and turns already like being laid in but like I just don't know if I like the writing. It all just feels a bit on the nose for me right now. Oh also the husband has got face blindness. Like he can't remember faces so like he can't remember her face. He only knows her through like sound, smell whatever. You know she exists but he couldn't recognize her. He could walk past her in the street etc etc and I just feel like that's gonna be exploited. I hate... I had the same problem with Survived the Night where the protagonist or one of the protagonist has like some kind of disorder or disability or whatever that is exploited for plot. You know what I mean? It just irritates me. It irritates me. It irritates me. So that's where we're at. I'm just not enjoying it. So I'm gonna go finish it because I have nothing better to do. I'm gonna finish it this evening and then I will check with you in the morning on what rating we're giving it and whether Gabby is gonna disown me and never speak to me again because that is a high possibility. Okay. The world had more of your smile. What if the wind could spread your love? What if your sweetness could be to everyone there being awards? Okay so I obviously wasn't planning on speaking to you again tonight but you know needs must. Duty calls. Gabby. Gabby. Gabby. Gabby. Gabby. Please don't hate me. Please don't hate me. Please don't hate me. Two stars. What happened? You alright? No. I'm not gonna cry. Maybe I'll cry. I'm so sorry. I hated it. I hated it. Two stars. Two stars. From pretty much when I stopped talking to you. I mean like it's obvious. It's, it's, it's, I didn't predict the end two twists but what I would say is the biggest twist of the book. Is that a twist? Like that, that was, it was so obvious to me. I was dead on correct what was happening. So much so that I wasn't even just theorizing. I just read the book as if that was what was happening. Sometimes it did make it a bit confusing to follow what was happening in terms of people shall we say. But like I read the book knowing that the twist was the twist. It's not a twist. It was so obvious from the way that certain passages were written, from the way that certain characters are written, what was happening. I'm sorry. And like here's the thing. We've had this two in a row. We've survived the night and now this where I have predicted it. I know what's happening and let it be known. I never know what's happening. Remember to breathe. Okay. I never, I never get twists and thrillers. Never. I'm dumb. Maybe I'm just getting cleverer though. Maybe the books aren't to blame for my sudden big brain energy. It's that daily wordle. I got wordle in two today in my first ever. Can we just talk moment of silence? Moment of silence. Moment of silence. A profound silence has entered the chat. But like it was so obvious. It was so obvious. I hated the writing throughout. I didn't really like any of the twists. They all felt kind of cheap and obvious to me. I didn't like the characters. They felt like, like ridiculous. Like I know thrillers are a bit of fun whatever. But there needs to be some element of believability to your characters. Right? There needs to be a little sprinkling of it. None. None of that. None of the zilch. Zilch. And I think I've realized I prefer thrillers with a bit of a bigger cast. I would say we only really, even though the names are like one, two, five characters in this book. Like it's such a small cast of characters. The same problem has survived the night. And like that means that your theories are very small. Do you know what I mean? Like what could be happening is very small. And it's just, it was so obvious throughout. I'm getting chest pains. Stressing me out. Oh yeah, I just really didn't like it. I don't know if I'm going to read any more Alice Feeney. Let me know what you think if you've read this and other Alice Feeneys. If I didn't like this, am I going to like other stuff? I may give her next book a go just because I really like the cover and the synopsis. Or I may give his and hers a go because one of my favorite author tubers, Lindsay Puckett, rates that really highly. But this was two stars. It was two stars. And I, yeah. Boring. Not yet. Boring. Tomato. Tomato. Oh. And just the fact that like, I, I, is it a twist or are we supposed to know this? Because like it was so, it was a twist. It was so obvious to me that that was happening. I read, I can't emphasize you enough. I read the book as if that was what was happening. Do you know what I mean? I wasn't like, oh that's a theory and the recess is my mind. Like every little thing that happened, I was adding that to my evidence tally of like, yeah, that's what's happening. And in the end, whatever. Gabby starts us on two points. So she's not going to overtake Kayla or Riley in this video. We know that. I'm going to sleep. But what are we going to start tomorrow? Because I feel like we've started on a bum note. And maybe I'll love these even more. We have the nesting, which is more like gothic thriller, horary kind of thing, I think. And a history of wild places. I'm going to go with this next, I think. I have gotten more nervous about this. This was one of my most anticipated releases. And then Kayla read it and really didn't like it. So I'm very nervous. But also a lot of you have told me I'm going to love it. But yeah, I'm going to read this next. And hopefully we'll be a bit more successful than we were with Rock, Paper, Scissors because it wasn't, not for me loves, not for me, just not for me. I just want to check in because I've read the first 80 pages of history of wild places. And I thought I'd check in because this is kind of where the synopsis ends. It's the end of the first two parts. Apologies if I sound weird, by the way. I've had another flare up of costa chondritis, which is inflamed rib cartilage. I get it like every now and again. I've had it now for like, I would say probably like four days. And it's just like annoying me now. It's just painful to breathe basically. I never feel like I get enough breath. So talking is not the easiest thing in the world. But anyway, yeah, we're kind of up to where we got up in the synopsis now. We met Travis, who can find missing people by having an item of theirs told. It's like, what he does, he's trying to find this missing woman and he stumbles across pastoral. And then his perspective ends, we jump what seems to be a few years. And we meet Theo Kalla and Bea, which is Theo, his wife and her sister, and them living in pastoral as people who have always lived there. It's like, this phrase is a community. I've called it a cult before. And like people have told me it's not a cult. And I'm like, I'm getting all the vibes of a cult. Pastoral being revealed is a cult rather than a commune. There's like a leader called Levi, and they're not allowed to leave. Although it's not that they're not allowed to leave, well they are. If you go, not allowed to come back, because they're told a disease permeates the borders and you'll die with this rot if you leave the borders. Now it could be like magical realism where that is actually true, or it could be just like contemporary real world stuff where like, it's a cult. So I don't know what's going on here. Like the vibes of you can't leave spells cult to me, but I don't know, I don't know, I could be wrong. I would say I get the sense now, I mean Travis has gone missing, they found his car. And I get the sense that we're not going to see him again. We're not going to hear from him again. And so I feel like it was a bit of a strange choice to have the first 40 pages be his perspective and then something that's gone. It took, it thus took me a little bit longer to get into the story. I feel like perhaps it would have worked better if those first 40 pages were kind of interspersed throughout the kind of maybe first 150 pages of the book. Perhaps I feel like that could have worked better, like them finding his car and then us learning a little bit about him and what brought him to pastoral. I thought maybe pacing wise that would have worked a bit better because I didn't, I didn't love that aspect of the beginning. And I would just say it's just taken me a little while to get into it. Now I feel like I could get into it now, but there's just something, the writing's very beautiful, it's very lush. I would describe it as very lush, but I think because of that kind of half and half beginning, it took me a while to get into it. Now I am excited to read on tonight. I really need to relax because this like costa chondritus can stay. If a bitch wants to stay, a bitch is gonna stay. You can't get rid of me bitch. I've had it before where it's lasted like a month and a half and already four days I'm like I've had enough. I don't think I've ever had it for like longer than a few weeks when I've had my channel and it was hard to talk and film when this is going on. So we want to nix it in the bud. There's not really a way to do it, but like if I just try and chill out hopefully it may go a bit. So I'm hopefully gonna get quite a good chunk of this read tonight and then I'll see you in the morning with my thoughts. I'm enjoying it, but I'm not loving it as much as I initially thought I would, but I'm hoping now that we're into the story where with the characters I think we're gonna stay with the rest of the story that I may enjoy it more. The lighting in here is so weird today. Hang on. It is like simultaneously too bright and too dark in here. Whoa! It's a mess! I am on page 200. I was too lazy to go get a bookmark so I marked it using the end of pages. Yeah 200 pages into issue of wild places and I'm feeling, I'm feeling many, many different ways about this book okay? I'm enjoying aspects of it. There's this very like fairy tale kind of writing and atmosphere to the book which I think is very unusual in a thriller right? You get a lot of infantasy but I can't think of many times I've read a thriller with this kind of atmosphere, with this kind of eeriness I think nature is brought into the thriller so well and into the writing like they're obviously living in this very isolated community where they are literally just surrounded by the woods and the way that like water and the grass and the insects and like you could, you really feel like not an oppressive atmosphere but this all-consuming atmosphere with the nature is done really, really well. So I think if you're a kind of person who really loves nature, who loves, I think of a lot of people in my life who love nature and like who love descriptions of it in stories I think you would really like that aspect of this and like I said there's this like fairy tale aspect nature to the story. Now I will say I think it's pretty fucking obvious what's happening. Oh no, this has now gone downhill. Here's the thing with thrillers and mysteries right? There's been some thrillers and mysteries that I've loved that I've rated highly that have had you know some bad reviews and the bad reviews always say oh it was so predictable. Oh it was so obvious. So I'm always like in what world? Like no it wasn't. Like I'm trying to think of examples but it's definitely happened quite a lot where I just like everyone else said they realized the twist and I'm like I certainly didn't. I mean who's we? Not me. But like I don't know I think it's pretty obvious what's happening here. I've seen quite a few reviews say that they guessed the twist early on and is it even really a twist? I think it's pretty obvious what's happening and like you know at least like the biggest mystery was happening so I don't know what's going on wrong with I don't know what's going on with me perhaps we've just hit upon two thrillers that like I can connect the dots but usually I can't. I've connected the two dots. You didn't connect shit but I've connected them. Usually I can't and I think it's it is interesting how different people you know we all figure out some thrillers and don't figure out others. Figure out some issues and don't figure out others which I think is interesting but like I think we know. I think we know. It reminds me of like a version of the year of the witching that I'm not enjoying as much. Like anyone who told me this isn't a cult like they they I was gonna spoil something then but like come on come on like okay I mean people probably don't realize they're in a cult but just some of the stuff they're doing it's not sitting right with me. This isn't moral. So yeah I don't know it's a very slow story. It's a very slow thriller. I'm gonna be intrigued as to how what I know is happening is kind of like explained for. I haven't figured that out yet. I haven't figured out like how that is possible necessarily so I'm gonna be intrigued to see that but like I'm not loving it as much as I was hoping to which is like devastating. I will tell you I just listened to the first 30 pages whilst I was getting ready of the nesting on audio and I loved it so that might be coming in clutch at the end. I really want to try and finish this this evening as well. I've only got like 150 pages. Can you hear the rain? We had a storm yesterday in the UK and it's like still kind of here. Like what the hell can you hear that? Anyway I still want to try and finish this tonight so hopefully I'll be checking in with you. Excuse me. The rain says I'm a main character so I finished it and I didn't love it. I think I'm gonna give this one three stars. Oh my god I feel so horrible. I feel so mean. Here's the thing it was pretty obvious what was going on throughout. So much so that I question was it a twist or were you just supposed to know that that was what was happening the whole time? But then if it's not a twist what's the point of the book? Like what's the point in going through all of this if it's not for that reveal which was so obvious the entire time? What was the reason? What was the reason? I will say for me this is a three because I did really love like nature in the book and the setting and like psychology behind everything in the book but it did just feel like the year of the witching but not as good. I don't know some of the characters I really liked. I really loved Bea. I thought Bea was the like the top character in the book. I thought she was amazing. She is Calla's sister so she is like there's a husband and wife and she's the sister of the wife. Just her storyline what she goes on throughout the book and her character development I found very interesting but at the end she was kind of like she peed it out. She was kind of forgotten at the end which pissed me off because I was like she was the main one I was here for. I don't know I don't really actually have many more words to explain to you why I haven't like why didn't like this book. Other than that I didn't feel like it enough happened like I didn't feel like it bought enough and I felt like it was so so obvious what was happening the entire time. So yeah I didn't love it. I liked it more than rock paper scissors but I still didn't love it and I'm disappointed because I thought I was gonna absolutely like eat this book up. I thought I was gonna be like totally obsessed with it but alas. Alas. Anyways so now I'm going to carry on with the nesting. I'm only 30 pages in so I don't really have any thoughts yet other than I am enjoying it the most out of all these books so far. Now in order for Gabby to be equal with Aaron i.e for Gabby not to be last this has to get four stars. If it gets more than four stars Gabby will overtake Aaron. If it gets less than four stars Gabby will be bottom of the leaderboard. So there's a lot resting on this book yeah I'm enjoying it so far but I'm only 30 pages in so I'm gonna go read some more and we'll see what I think when I'm actually a fair way into it. Hey okay so I went away and I read the whole of the nesting because I don't feel very well and I don't want to speak on camera I still don't feel very well but this video needs to go up so here we are because I'm not very well at all I've been in a lot of pain. My description of these books may not be the best but I'm down with her. I'm sorry is that too much? Okay yeah I'm down with her. So I read the nesting. Essentially we're following Lexi who recently attempted shut up. She recently attempted suicide so that is a trigger you need to know right off the gate going to this book. Let me just say it doesn't have much you know bearing to rest the book but the people around Lexi in her life are fucking trash trash fucking trash fucking trash. This happens within the first like 40 pages of the book if that yeah 40 pages of the book so like this isn't a spoiler basically her boyfriend breaks up with her kicks her out like a couple months after this she's homeless for like a couple nights but friends are her best friend it's like can I live with you and she's like here's a thing I'm moving in with your ex and we're together and then and then she has the nerve to like she's like okay I'm gonna bring you loads of your stuff so you can take it you have some of your stuff but everything else I'm gonna give to the charity shop oh my god anyway so Lexi is a kind of character where it's obviously framed as that kind of thriller character who doesn't have much tying her back outside of the perilous situation that she eventually finds herself in so like these characters often have like you know they're more likely to stay in these situations because they have less to lose is the kind of idea of this trope and she's nannying for two sisters two baby child children in Norway whose mother recently committed suicide for this architect and things just start going weird the darkness the strangeness the looming the what's the truth what's happening is looming over the whole story firstly I'm going on a holiday on a cruise unless I'm with my family it's like a summer holiday um to the Norwegian Fjords and it was so cool to read about a book set in a setting I kind of wish I would like read this on the cruise because can you imagine like being in the middle of the Norwegian Fjords and be like oh my god I'm reading I'm reading the setting like can you imagine I wish I had done that but it was really fun I've never read a book set in Norway before it's very hard to describe what happens in this book it's a very slow book now I listened predominantly to the audiobook was how I read this and I really loved the audiobook our main character is Jordy and the narrator puts on a Jordy accent she puts on like Norwegian accents from the Norwegian characters does a really really good job I actually like couldn't really read this physically I really enjoyed the audiobook though I liked it oh no you can see it's going bad you guys dear god where did you go I liked it but I didn't love it I enjoyed it but the story just felt it felt slow and I feel like we needed to ramp the atmosphere up like one or two notches for how slow the book was you could tell it was trying to do that it was trying to give slow building atmosphere but I needed a little bit more just a little bit more to keep me entertained and at the end I felt like the resolutions were kind of like flat I feel like the ending kind of fell flat to me I didn't feel like there was many twists at the end there wasn't really any twists it just felt like everything kind of pitted out into like a slow ending and if I don't mind a book being slow but I want the ending to be like a bit explosive but I bet you're wondering what I rated this book I'm ready to tell you as soon as I finish the book I just feel like I'm gonna forget about it immediately it doesn't feel like it's gonna have any bearing over me or any like I'm gonna look back on it in any kind of way I feel like I'm just gonna forget it immediately so my rating is a 3.5 I'm so sorry I'm so sorry because you all know what that means you're all shaking crying you know Gabby's like shut the laptop lid like that means that Gabby is bottom on the leaderboard at 8.5 so half a point below Aaron I'm so sorry I did not see this going this way so many of you recommended Gabby I always thought me and Gabby had very similar reading tastes I still think we do I think this was just bad luck with the three books it also means that we've done four episodes this now and each time the person has got lower on the leaderboard so good luck to whoever's next because you're gonna break the cycle I'm not having anything lower than 8.5 I'm sorry it's not happening that's the nesting that's the end of this vlog I hope you enjoyed it I'm sorry that this last clip I didn't talk too much about this book but listen your girl's been going through it I'm still going through it I didn't want to record this but I hope you enjoyed it let me know what you thought let me know if you thought me and Gabby would have similar more similar reading tastes in this let me know if you're shocked I'm shocked you're shocked you're shocked anyway um if you've gone to the end of this video comment is there like a stag dear something emoji something along those lines woodland animal emoji comment that down below if you've gone to the end thank you so much for always watching and I'll see you very soon in another video bye