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hiyah! so this video inspired me to pick up the book since it’s on kindle unlimited. my thoughts are fairly similar, it’s a pretty good 4 stars, it kept me wanting to come back but no way am i reading the rest of the series its fine where it ended 💀. thanks for the rec!

This is the first youtube criticism of this book ive seen that actually felt genuine and thoughtful rather than a moral panic about bad things in a book. I relate to you in this book finding you "at the right time" the same happened to me and it was spooky. Thank you

I just struggled with this book. It felt like it was trying to be SHOCKING and INTELLECTUALLY EDGY, but it was written in a way that made it feel like a new/young author trying to make a jumpscare in book form. It had a lot of opportunities for talking about how we decide someone's humanity, or treatment of women, or how sexualizing someone can be just as objectifying and dehumanizing as other forms of seeing someone as what they are and not who they are, but it just didn't go anywhere. The main character not having a name for most of it was fine with me because some authors do that so it can feel like it really is everyone and anyone in a society; but you've gotta give them actual depth to form that connection with if there's no name. There was no depth with this guy. And same with the very concept of eating people; if you're going to make the massive leap that eating humans is the only possible option, you have to have some worldbuilding depth to help with the suspension of disbelief. You don't have to do massive summaries, but you have to give some idea of WHY we don't use manufactured meat or insects/insect meal or go vegan. Because all the dry attempts at drama or edgyness in the book really don't land when I can roll my eyes and say "just go eat some chickpeas about it, ffs"

It took me so long to read The Housemaid because of all the hype and finally read it a couple of weeks back and had a great time. My first Freida McFadden was The CoWorker (loved it so much!) then I read Never Lie (Her Best Work in my opinion). So glad you enjoyed this read. You're gonna have so much fun reading her catalog. Happy reading!

Recommendations are always good way to find a solid book.

really enjoyed this book but I thought it gets too crazy and stupid by the ending lol. and I agree that it works better as a standalone book.

Enjoyed the video, I'll check out the book. The cover does not really do anything for me either, it's so boring and cheesy looking. I do find the sound on your last two videos a little quiet, might need to tweak some volume settings. :)

Never judge a book by its cover. It is the story inside that counts. Great book review!

I am finally ready to leave my thoughts: I actually liked the real mundane parts of the book that were “less interesting” because in those parts I felt at ease for the characters. Loved: The friendships and fights in those friendships, moments that showed reciprocated intimacy, career talk, family. Confused: JBs kiss with Jude also confused me and didn’t think it served a purpose in the story? Nothing came out of it after either. I will not be hearing you out about Jude’s and William’s relationship. I actually always got the vibe from early on in the book that they were going to have intimacy. I also think it’s okay if William saw a bit of Heming in Jude because you gravitate towards people who feel familiar and give you comfort. Jude: the frustration was so bad at points for me too. I would be screaming why why why!!!!!????? Andy frustrated me…. But in his defense everyone knows too but is so scared of Jude being a flight risk. Fav character: Harold. His parts of the book broke me the most. The promise just knife to the chest. My overall rating is 4.5/5

I enjoyed this discussion about the novel. You grappled with your emotions quite eloquently, excited to watch more reviews! *Spoilers below!!* In terms of Jude's trauma, I thought it was a realistic representation for two reasons: 1. the fairytale-like nature of being saved and then something bad happening captures the way a child views the world - there is a sense of childlike naivety and hope that maybe how they are safe, only to be let down. It is a very brutal depiction of what, dreadfully, many many children experience every day. 2. I think the repetitive almost "mundane" nature of the trauma allows the reader to really feel what Jude experiences. When you are so deeply traumatised and abused, your whole worldview changes and you are unable to keep your head above water, even in situations where others might. The hopelessness and helplessness of this character and extreme pain he feels for so much of the book felt so poignant and realistic to me. Also the way people reacted when he tried to take his life and Andy failing him- that felt honest to me. For me, Caleb was the most unsettling part of the whole book. I still think about that scene and shudder. All of that said, I absolutely take great care when recommending this book to people - and I love it. It seems like a modern masterpiece (with many problems) so I always enjoy talking with others because it gives you so much to think about. Take care.

"Look mom.... he's crying" LOLOLOL kids will be kids

Great review. I remember watching that long Odyssey movie. Never actually read greek mythology. And when you mentioned she was the one who turned the men into animals I immediately remembered her character from the movie LOL

do you have a good reads ? i would like to see your thoughts and reviews since we read similar books :)

Have you read anything by Clarice Lispector? Interested in your thoughts!

I loved this book too! I think it does a really good job fleshing her out. Throughout this whole video, I jusr had snippets of EPIC the musical, a musical about the Odyssey, playing in my head. There is a whole Circe saga. If you like musicals, I HIGHLY recommend it.

The cover of this book is beautiful.

Fully agree!!

Great video like always !

Billie, I hope you and your wife are safe during the wildfires California is having. This was a great review.

In this life, everything has its downside. Even being way tall.

Love your list and input! Stormlight is a lot to jump into, but it's excellent. I recommend reading other Brandon Sanderson first, like the Mistborn Trilogy. But if you liked Babel, you may like R. F. Kuang's fantasy series The Poppy War. It's a military fantasy that explores some of the ideas in Babel within a fantasy setting.

do research, it's better to waste your time on a book you might potentially like compared to the ones you don't have any idea of. also avoid modern books, they're mostly trash, it's a lot better to read books written in 18th - 19th century and early to mid 20th century, they have substance even though sometimes the entertainment aspect of it is hit or miss

I love Verbatim 🫶 I always try to go whenever I visit. I got a tote bag as a reminder ☺️ Where is that thrift store?

That book wall looked really cool.

Lovely bookstore vlog.

LOVED this video! the seven year slip by ashley poston is one of my favorites! not sure if it's similar to the dead romantics but i'm sure it still embraces ashley poston's style. my favorite book is also a little life - so beautiful but so devastating!!

😇

From everything I've heard about A Little Life, you've got tear ducts of steel to not cry reading it. That's wild. Good luck on your 2025 reading goal!

Really like the way you concisely review!! I don’t care for most romance either so maybe I will pick up The Dead Romantics!

its dope to see a bro do book reviews...subbed

Omg this exactly!!!! I always loved reading for fun but hated all of my required reading in school. I eventually became a middle school English teacher who was forced to TEACH the books that I hated and I still continued to hate 😖 seems like the system is created to make students hate reading. I just started my own booktube channel to share my own journey of falling in love with reading again and I've also been re-reading the required books that I hated. Some of them, I still hate, but for many of them, I don't see why middle and high school students should be expected to understand them at that point in their mental and emotional development. I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts and look forward to seeing more!!! 😀

About The Four Winds, I DNFd it at the end of the 2nd act (googled the ending). However, I read The Women and The Nightingale and they were both 5 stars!!! Had I started with The Four Winds, I also wouldn’t want to read other book from KH. But I’m glad I did because The Nightingale is the only book to ever make cry my heart out!!!

I'm so honoured! Happy New Year!

That’s a good amount of books in a year.

I own the dead romantics I just couldn’t get into it!!1 A little life changed my life though !

👍🏻

I know lot of people (myself included) who read Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom and that duology got them back into reading. Why not have high school students read books like that? Because you better believe Leigh Bardugo was s a y i n g t h i n g s about neoliberalism. Most great American novels are about how much capitalism sucks anyway 😂 And there’s tons of other themes to talk about in Six of Crows besides

My 10 year high school reunion is still a couple years away but I’m already thinking about whether or not I really want to go. I don’t want to have to boil down the last decade of my life into an elevator pitch to impress people I didn’t care about back then let alone now. I’ve been unemployed for over a year, which I don’t want to try to justify. And I changed my legal first name. I don’t identify as trans or non-binary and my gender presentation hasn’t changed. I don’t want to spend a whole evening being dead named or saying “well in HS my name was…” I feel like reunions are just fraught if you’re not following a very normative path in life. But it’s still expected that everyone goes. Maybe closer to the event I’ll call up my HS friends and ask if they want to ditch it and grab dinner instead.

Another thing that frustrates me about Andy is that he kept continuously blaming Jude’s friends for Jude’s worsening health and stating and threatening that they should have more responsibility over him meanwhile he’s the doctor who should of admitted him

I read it first at 13 then recently re-read it at 17 and I feel like the first time I was sad after finsihing it and didn’t really have any criticisms but now I see a lot of stuff to critique in terms of the depiction of suffering

fun fact the dude who owns/runs? the publishing company is practically in hiding cause of the highly controversial book they published.

That book looks very cool. I would read it just from the cover alone.

I am glad you liked the book. Happy New Year!

that cover is beautiful

I read my first adult horror this year, I Am Legend, and the writing was so good that I was too scared to it read it at night. I love suspense too. I dont have a stomach for Stephen King- incredible writer but dude is unhinged. Do you enjoy scifi horor? Thanks for all the recs!

I avoided it as trauma porn with zero regrets based on the many reviews :)

Hi Billie, Funnily enough, Barbara, also sent me a copy of the same book; and like you I was utterly gobsmacked that an author would endeavour to contact my small-but-slowly-gowing Booktube channel. And I was at first unsure as to whether it was some kind of scam. But like you, came to realise, Mz Avon is totally legit. So I did a Deep Dive review... Have been watching your video and I'm pretty impressed - it's just a pity that both of us are not up there with the more popular booktubers, but I reckon we are the stars of tomorrow and RUclips will recognise our unique abilities in due course... In case you were wondering, the link to my review of Sacrilege I: ruclips.net/video/YzgJUkY-T2w/видео.html Best Wishes... Kris Stopher - Head honcho at SmartBookWorms...

Thank you SO much for your review, Billie! I'm thrilled that you enjoyed it!

2nd

Very cool! Book mail is the best mail. 💌