Love your videos but I was wondering if you take suggestions for your reviews (I've been watching your channel for a while though I usually go right for the review
@@ReadswithRachel Ok instead of reading books that give you headaches maybe you could read something like Cemetry Boys (if you haven't already) or The Carry-On trilogy both are some of my favorites.....I also I wish you the best for fi you read, the next powerless, Skyshade, and Onyx Shade(i think that's what's the new Fourth Wing is called) and other authors behaving badly video (there's probably so many) or if you want more headaches you could read Jenna Moreci's books or the Cyborg Tinkerer
Also her being able to tell that the box was a ring box would mean that there was foreshadowing in the last book and it's silly that they wouldn't do that???
PLEASE, there's like one bookstore left in my small city that isn't just stocked to the ceiling with booktok romantasy and NOTHING else in the English section 😭
Ewww not the "soft brown hands" sewing the vest...idk that just really emphasized for me how "token black girl" Adina is in this narrative. Infuriating.
Okay the soft brown hands line really bothers me for two reasons: a) why do we need to remind everyone that she's black. It just feels so forced and out of place. b) she should not have soft hands. She's an experienced seamstress! All she ever seems to do is sew, so why hasn't she built up callouses? And even if she wasn't a seamstress, she's still extremely poor! I sew every now and then, and even I don't have soft hands!
Maybe she has a really good skin routine, or wears gloves nonstop. I work with linen all day, but I wear gloves so my hands are really soft. Maybe I'm giving the book too much credit, though.
Eh its just a descriptor? "Calloused brown hands." Feels better. Seems like incidental blackness to me. Her token bestie position was bad! But thats apart of that "white authors dont know what how to make black characters whole and human." Bad habit.
@@stardoogalaxie9314 I partially agree. "Soft brown hands" is a descriptor. Sounds better than "her hands" and gives personality to her by giving us a trait about her hands. Calloused hands, soft hands, these are indicative of the type of life she's lived. The fact that the author mentions she's black is not the problem, but her place in the story being the token best friend. That being said, I can see why people found it iffy. The few times we see her or even have mentions of her, her black identity is emphasized. It's almost like the author is saying "I'm not racist I swear!", but instead of actually giving her a character arc or a personality, she just describes her looks in a positive way.
Violet 🤝 Payden Characters we are told are super street smart and cunning but are actually so obtuse and oblivious to absolutely everything around them for plot convinence it makes me wanna scream into a pillow
ooooh this is how her name is spelled, I was watching with auto subtitles and it showed Peyton (and I was fan casting her as Hilarie Burton, who was Peyton in that old tv show One Tree Hill)
This trope is really frustrating. You're telling me you started going crazy after three days of walking? The author couldn't even care to do some research.
I go on weeklong camping trips for fun and I do talk to my surrounding... 😅 But mostly to my dog and not in a "I'm mentally declining" way but in a "oh hello beautiful dragonfly" "oh here did I leave you, my coffee cup" way. I have ADHD and that just keeps me on the tasks 😂
Minor point but his sister was four. He said she was too weak to do it herself but what healthy four year old is braiding her own hair anyway? Especially a princess
@@ReadswithRachel It's so weirdly specific too. You could just write that he used to braid his sister's hair. You don't need to include a justification
@@gooseguy8847it would’ve made him more human/sympathetic of a character if he did it just to DO it instead of needing a reason anyway! like “wow, i want to be closer to my younger sister and give her a stronger sense of companionship since she’s being hidden away and is terminally ill and doomed to a short life. i’ll braid her hair about it!” could’ve been SO much better. but nooooooo
i have a (very casually built, for a parody dating sim) fantasy world where sirens' eyes swish around like water, provided they're not looking at any living thing so if they're focused on you, they resemble human eyes mostly, but if they lose focus on you or they're looking at an object in the background the iris and pupil sort of appear to "dissolve" like a water-based screensaver. or reversely, if water-eyes resolve back into a solid pupil and iris, you can tell they see someone anyway, i'm picturing her eyes like those siren eyes when they're described as rippling.
Everyone: You have a book about an oppressed group of people? Great, you can easily speak to issues such as eugenics, genocide, harmful propaganda set by dictatorship, class discrimination, or toxic masculinity in family dynamics. Which will you choose? Lauren Roberts: banter
Why. Would you compare. Your LOVE INTEREST. to your dead SISTER. "I wish my little sister had grown up to be like you, person I find sexy and attractive and want to kiss". Does Freud exist in this universe too
I absolutely HATE it when a huge conflict hinges on one person being like "you killed my father, HOW DARE YOU." And instead of the other person being immediately like, "Oh your father? You mean the huge asshole who tried to kill me and all my loved ones? That father?" they just play keep away with the information until they're basically DYING. This book is doubly infuriating because he's the main love interest! He and his dad were directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocents, and he still has the gall to spend a good chunk of the book like "well well well little traitor, how well you lie and stab people in the heart". If I were Paeydan you would NOT get me to shut up about how Kai killed my dad and caused the deaths so many innocents lives every time he tried to act like he had the moral high ground. Like, be ffr. Also- it's not even good drama because they keep bantering and flirting with each other anyways! 😭The dead dad(s) thing only seems to come up when the author decides it's an issue.
24:20 Also, Rachel THANK YOU for recommending Strange the Dreamer! I absolutely DEVOURED this duology over the the course of a week. This series is a GREAT example of characters perpetuating trauma and violence due to the violence inflicted on them, but actually is able to make you sympathize with them. You even get a great antagonists who do unspeakably horrible things to innocent people. But you also are made to understand why their actions are justified in their POV.
Wait, it only takes 5 days to get to safety? She could have been over half way through before Kai started to look for her, if she didn't sat around waiting for the book to start
I feel like I should comment on this: do not attempt to 'cure' an allergy with exposure therapy _unless_ it is with proper medical supervision. Exposure to an allergen can make that allergy worse, sometimes fatally so. Thank you.
@@SilverDragonJay i feel like i should clarify 😭 *my sister cured her peanut allergy through oral immunotherapy that was directed by her board certified allergist. i assumed it was common sense that you shouldn’t do it on yourself but i suppose not everyone knows that
@@peanutbutterpandapuffss so happy for your sister!!! Thank you for clarifying it was under medical professional supervision. I've seen parents suggest to other parents they should just put a little peanut butter on their sons sandwiches to cure him... Which would've sent him into anaphylactic shock... 🙄
@@peanutbutterpandapuffssI accidentally did that myself as a child because I disobeyed but I was lucky my allergy was only the kind to give me rashes 😭😭 For anyone else. DONT DO THIS AT HOME CHILDREN and monitor your kids if they have allergies ❤️
Someone probably mentioned it before but I am sure the author looked up words for royalty in different languages, saw the german word Kaiser (emperor) and thought it would make a cool name for the character that will totally not become the ruler later on. So now we are cursed with the name 'Kai Azer' and I hate it every time I read it.
I hate when authors do this, it's always German too 😭 Like at least when anime does it it's usually balls to the wall and at least funny, but why did we have to take this into other media as well??
@@definitelynotashark1799some days you’re the essen, some days you’re the jeager DNAngel was the first time I heard German in anime, I tried to convince my German teacher (in high school at the time) to let us watch it in class because of the German. I’m actually really glad she said no 😅
Why did Ava (the princess with a hundred maids) need to braid her own hair even when she was weak from being sick ? What royal does their own hair or dresses themselves ?
Why is it that books like this, Lightlark, Fouth Wing, anything Colleen Hoover, or SJM get traditionally published with all of the fanfare and special editions, but genuinely good books with multi-faceted characters and complex plots are forced to go the indie publishing route???
Think of it in fast fashion terms. Mass audiences are attracted to cheap, mindless, trendy products instead of the ones that take time, thought, and originality. The publishing industry knows this and it usually takes advantage of it for profit
Rachel: that should have been caught in the editing phase. Me: Oh, I don't think there was one. I think they just uploaded her copy direct from her computer and hit publish.
@6:03 Sorry but as someone how knows a tiny bit about geography (and keep in mind -- I have like a 3rd grader's geography knowledge) that map is fucking awful objectively. I know fantasy authors' maps are not obligated to make sense but it didn't even fool me a little bit. I just looked at it and went "Wtf this makes no sense?" Why is the town like... Europe-coded and then the desert is RIGHT THERE but then there is a dense pine forest to the South? All without any other formations that would make the climate and weather change? Also, why does this map have no rivers near human settlements? Where are they getting their water then? Is that ocean freshwater actually? Why is the one river on this map splitting into a bunch of different parts? ALSO the mountain's location makes no sense either. I'm sorry. But it isn't even trying a little. I don't need geographic accuracy, but I just want my desert to be separated from my temperate forest by something and I want the mountain to have friends. Please D:
I mean, there ARE arid places even in Europe, very close to pine forests, if you look to Iberia or the Balkans and Turkey. But it's still a nonsense map for sure.
Even if it was realistic for people not to be curious about why their father was murdered in front of them, it also makes Payton a super boring protagonist. The audience is supposedly meant to care about her father’s death, it’s the driving force behind the conflict, but Payton herself hardly seems to care If the author wanted the journal to be the key to figuring out the mystery, she could have had the dad write it in a cipher that she can’t crack. Payton could be obsessively poring over everything she could get her hands on, but she just doesn’t know what the cipher key is. It isn’t until she trusts Kai enough to let him see it that she manages to get any headway, because the key was something related to the royal family or something. I don’t wanna write fanfiction about this or whatever but c’mon. It isn’t that hard to make it an active part of the story that shows the development between Kai and Payton I literally just finished rereading the Hunger Games, and the idea that Payton is meant to be anything like Katniss is frankly offensive to Suzanne Collins
Im talking notes from y'all and I'm just saying, the hypocritical fanfic in my head is sounding so much better and interesting than whatever this sequel is
Not to write fanfic about this book I’ve not read, but I’m really glad you mentioned how cool Kai getting his powers from other Elites and becoming weaker while not around them could have been. Imagine if Elite powers period were reliant and grew stronger when around others with powers. It would be at the very least a stronger reason to try and segregate and then remove Ordinaries from their society, if it’s to amass more and more power without considering who suffers (ie imperialism and capitalism). It also being a metaphor for patriarchy and toxic masculinity for Kai personally would have added to this.
That's an amazing plot... People being power hungry rather than there being a rumour of desease that doesn't even exist and everyone blindly believing it without questioning.... Which will actually keep people intrested of how the resistance will over come this ..
"Does death divulge deep-rooted devotion?! 'sHe SeLLs sEa sHeLLs bY tHE sEaSHorE', *SHUT THE FUCK UP*." Oh my god what a perfect reply, this had me dying❤
along with my other qualms abt this book/series, one of the biggest crimes was that Kitt wasn't the one to actually kill her father. They spent SO much time in the first book talking about HOW MUCH Kitt looks like the king (they even mention it in this book when the Queen says it to kitt). For Paedyn to think for YEARS that she had seen with her own eyes the king kill her dad, only for her to somehow forget it was a whole other person (kai) who looks nothing like the king, makes no sense. If Kitt killed her dad but she mistook kitt for the king since they look so alike, THAT would make more sense; ESPECIALLY because she specifically notes that she SAW the kings EYES when he had killed her dad. ugh also LR forgot that kai literally said that the first person he killed was not much younger than him (and he was 14 when he first killed). but suddenly paeyden's dad is the first person he killed? right.
So many inconsistencies.. that's why you dont write a book first and then out of nowhere decide to make it a trilogy... Without having any direction of where you're gonna take the story
Monaco is a monarchy and a city, so it's not impossible for a city to be a kingdom. But if that's what this world is based on then it should really be made clearer than it apparently was.
So look, as a freelance editor, I have a theory as to why self-published books keep getting acquired by tradpub (aside from the obvious easy money bc the author has already done a lot of work to market the book when it was self-published) which ties in with the rumors going around that tradpub is doing less and less developmental editing on the books they acquire. A tradpub editor might assume that a self-published book might already have gone through several rounds of edits on the author's dime when the author (presumably) hired freelance editors, and therefore it saves tradpub from having to do any edits themselves. It's why so many obvious mistakes slide by and aren't fixed between the selfpub and tradpub version. Not every freelance editor has the experience required to edit a book, and there's nothing that makes an author have to listen to any of the edits a freelance editor suggests. Furthermore, given freelancers can be expensive (it's a lot of work to be a freelancer, and you don't get benefits, so you often have to charge a bit more to make ends meet), it's unlikely an author is going to hire more than one editor of each kind (aka more than one developmental editor, more than one copyeditor, more than one proofreader). I've done copyedits after an author has said they've hired a dev editor, and I've been left a little shocked that a book has been seen by a dev editor because there are still huge gaps that need addressing. But if a book has already done well as a selfpubbed book, and the tradpub assumes that the author has already done rounds of edits with freelancers, they're unlikely to bother doing any dev edits themselves. If anything, they'll perhaps do some copyedits, but more likely than not they just do a proofread and call it good. They don't need to worry about more because the book will sell well anyway, despite the fact tradpub is going to charge a lot more than a selfpub would, and is thus basically robbing readers by giving them shoddy books at steep prices. It's fucked.
I like alliterations in books, but holy GOD that is so unbelievably excessive! Has anyone told her that rhetorical figures lose their punch when you NEVER STOP USING THEM??
I thought the Powerless cover was kinda cute until I was like wait...why are the forget-me-nots the same size as the ivy leaves?? Apparently it's an AI cover, so, that makes sense
2:22:12 ashamed to admit that I clocked it as a wedding ring instantly as soon as I heard the words "small box", because the "fake marriage/marriage of convenience" trope is the only thing this collection of cliches in a trench coat is missing
The “journal of *important character*” being misused irks me so much. It’s a chance to discover so much. Plans, psyche of a character, a great pound cake recipe. This happened in a book I was enjoying and the journal belonged to a witch. Luckily, it didn’t happen here, but I’m baffled it took her so long to read.
@@DarwinRoger893 Poundcake Recipe I use 3 cups of all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 sticks of unsalted butter 3 cups of sugar 5 large eggs 3/4 cup of milk 1 tablespoon of vanilla 1/4 lemon juice 1/8 lime juice(optional) Heat oven to 325°. Have eggs, butter and milk sit out until room temperature Whisk flour, salt and baking powder together (in smallest bowl of bowls are different sizes) Creamy butter in (largest) bowl Gradually add sugar to butter while mixing on low speed Mix in eggs one or two at a time Mix in the dry ingredients and milk, alternating between the two. Make sure you end up mixing in dry ingredients first and last Stir in vanilla, lemon (lime) extract Spoon batter in pan evenly. Shake and pat the pan to remove bubbles Place on middle rack for 1 hour and 10-20 minutes. Check completion by inserting butter knife and pulling it until it comes out clean Cool on rack
also with the whole like "the king is in love with her" storyline it could've been so cool to try to see him justify her killing his father. i am only 30 minutes in, so the author could've gone the route of him thinking that she must be so madly in love with him that she orchestrated his father's assassination to make sure he's put in power (even though that's not what happened) and him being so hellbent and delulu about "getting her back" would turn him into a villian tyrant drunk on power. or something. idk
Oh my god and with the dead or alive thing, what if it’s set up in this world that people who commit regicide can only be killed by a royal of equal standing (like a just desserts kinda thing). so even if she has to die she’ll be taken to the king/queen of the other city-kingdoms only for it to be revealed that the king/queen was in kahoots with the Ilyian king, making escape futile (sorry i forgot this dudes name lmaoo)
Because of course he killed her dad by accident. We can't have a love interest start off as bad and learn to be a better person. He has to be perfect from the start. Aside from boring, this promotes the idea that there is no redemption, no turning around, no capacity to grow. You're either born a good person (and tall and hot) or your bad.
sorry maybe i missed something but does Payton/Peidun/Paedyn cover her hair at any part of this roulette of side quests? cause if not, wouldn't the same bright silver hair that marks her as the special special™ make her identifiable even when they're making out in various alleys and sewers and such?
I believe she does when fighting in Door? She is wearing a scarf that covers her hair & face except her eyes. Kai pulls it off her head in order to get other people to try to capture her to get her to come with him. But that's the only time I think. Rachel mentions she should have cut and / or dyed it.
I just started the video and I’m not sure if you’ve mentioned this, but I found out that Lauren (author) wrote powerless when she was 18 and just made it an amalgamation of all her favorite tropes. (She basically just made her dream book) which explains why it’s so bad 😭
Anachronisms are possibly the best indicator that the author hasn't built a world even they themselves can get immersed in - they write this totally nonsensical shit and don't even notice. The total lack of care to give the audience a rewarding experience is on the same level of cynicism as something like the Emoji movie, or Boss Baby. Just braindead noise to keep you temporarily occupied.
Okay as someone named Malachi, hearing Malakyle (assuming based on phonetics) hit a nerve i never thought i had. (At the time of me writing this i’m not even 5 minutes in amd i had to rewind to male sure i heard that right.)
This had to be a first draft. I refuse to believe anyone read through this twice and someone just hit Publish 😂 This reads like one of my first drafts if I get busy with work and don't write for months and I end up repeating myself because I'd forgotten "Oh yeah, they already did the One Bed trope!" (I've learned to reread what I've written if it's been longer than a week so that doesn't happen anymore).
So the rule isn't hard and fast but usually what a land is considered is based on what their ruler is called. A duke oversees a duchy, a count county, emperor empire, king kingdom, prince principality. So if they're ruled by a king, then yes Illiya (sp?) is a kingdom. Sometimes authors bungle this (and make their king rule an empire) but they also fuck up who gets called highness and majesty.
Brb gotta go watch the first video for the third time because the story was so unoriginal my brain mixed it up with like three other series. Wonder how prominent sticky buns are gonna be since that’s about the only detail I remember
Never in a million years would I have thought it was an engagement ring. Are you kidding me?! I thought it was going to be something to remove his powers or it was actually a trap and Callum gave him a box with like a venomous spider or some shit. Although, now that I think of it, both of those might have been too good of plot points for this book. You're so right, this should have been condensed down to 2 books instead. This shit is so dumb.
There's a local donut shop that has boxes with a picture of Brad Pitt saying, "What's in the box??" on them, so my guess for what's in the box is either donuts or Gwyneth Paltrow's head.
This is one of the few times the word "Anatopism" comes into play. In our world, an anatopism would also be an anachronism as well, but it comes up in fiction a lot. Anatopism: a person, thing, or idea that is represented, for example in a book or movie, as being in a place where they do not or did not really exist (or would never exist). Whereas an anachronism is something out of its proper time period. I so rarely get to share this word because it can almost always be swapped out for anachronism, but in this case it works! I will now calm my excitement on that.
Would you consider doing a video comparing two books' writing? Good crafted prose vs purple prose. Since you mentioned it, I think Strange the Dreamer vs Powerless/Reckless would be good examples to compare. That'll be a really cool video as a lesson for writing craft.
The dynamics between all these different places makes absolutely no sense. Does not compute. Also, from Kai's POV: "She hasn't held that dagger since she buried it in the king's neck." Unless I missed something and she used that Dor guard's knife on himself, she certainly has used that dagger since she killed the king, and he should know that. And even if he didn't, why would he just assume she hasn't used it since then? V confusing.
I consider the entire concept of this Trilogy offensive. If it was a Satire of the state of YA Romantasy, it could have had redeeming qualities, but the author clearly doesn’t take topics like Genocide seriously.
It really annoys me that these romantasy books keep inserting heavy subject matter into the books and do nothing with it Almost like they think that touching on subjects like genocide and racism are extra things to make a book sexy Gross. (4th Wing comes to mind)
A city state and kingdom are not mutually exclusive. A city state is just an independent city and its surrounding lands, so in this case a city state could be a kingdom because it is ruled by a king.
Edit: I just realized the whole plot for this book is just a really bad version of The Wolf and The Woodsman by Ava Reid. So if those wanting similar ideas and plot points but better, read that instead. I feel like a lot of these romantasy authors don't go back and re-read their books before writing the next ones because they'll write something within the lore or worldbuilding but then totally rescind it in the next book. They don't know how to establish rules for their universes, or just don't try to establish any rules at all, and dig themselves into a hole by just continuously adding in new ideas but not thinking about the implications it adds to the already existing lore. These authors are too obsessed with hitting random popular tropes/story beats rather then making worlds that make sense.
It bothers me that for like one page in the first book they mention that Peyton hates the phrase” plague knows” or whatever but she promptly forgets this and uses plague Willy nilly throughout this book
This plot is literally like a trip to the mall. You go in, planning to buy 1 new pair of shoes, but spend the whole day meandering from store to store and 30 min before the mall closes, you remember you came to buy shoes 🤦🏼♀️
I went to a coffee shop earlier this week and they had a charity bookshelf - paperbacks of Powerless, Reckless and Powerful (the novella) were on this bookshelf with absolutely pristine spines, as if they'd been briefly read and then donated. I was so tempted to put some money down for them, just to see how bad they really are. 😆
I’m all for artwork and creativity but there comes a point when a piece of work not just a book but art movie music what have you exists and we have to ask did this really need to exist? A lot of this book is like my outline not even first draft
I watched the first video and I couldn’t place why the name Ilya sounded so familiar and then I remember it came straight from The Selection Series And the whole “her dad trained her to be a ‘psychic’ “ thing reminds me of the show Psych way too much
i KNEW i recognized the name!!! so not only is she trying to be Red Queen, she's also trying to be The Selection (which did an arguably better job of the classism trope than this poor excuse for a series)!!
I have a silly question: if Illyans are trying to create a city/state/whatever where having powers is normal, why aren’t people with powers called “Ordinaries”? Doesn’t calling the people without powers “Ordinaries” point up that having powers is unusual, thereby giving the lie to the idea that everyone should have powers?
I'm trying not to stray into fanfic territory but the "God" and the "thank the Plagues" bothered me too much. For a book about something as major as superpower-granting plague, you'd think the religion would be fleshed out just a little bit. It would make more sense if the Plague is meant to be something like a purging or a disaster akin to the Biblical flood meant to be seen as "divine". Like if in the doctrine the Plague is a test of faith where the worst sinners die, the people who can be redeemed live with little to no power, and the "good ones" are granted superpowers. It would make the books more layered and it'd fix the weird details. The people thank the Plague bc it's supposed to be a "tough love" from God. The king hating Kai's dead sister not only bc she's weak, but she's "sinful". The people believing the king because it's in the doctrine. Plus, it would make the kissing scene with the sin line way, way more impactful
i just wanted to say, i usually play video games like powerwash simulator while listening to your videos, but today i actually took a book cover sleeve and repurposed it into a sort of mini binder with pockets and a little notepad in it and i'm so proud of it!! i know a lot of your viewers make art while listening and i just wanted to share the unexpected art project i made! love listening to you always!! can't wait for the next video!!!
I did some math, and surprisingly you can get pretty varying weather within a five days walk. At least if you’re trained and prepared, but main characters get a bit of leeway when it comes to normal human limits. A well trained person can get 20-30 miles a day, 100-150 in five. I live in one of the hottest places in the US, we have hot days even in the dead of winter. Conveniently, it’s just barely under 150 miles from a town in a lush, green forest that regularly gets snow in the winter. Out of all the issues in the book, the climate and environment thing actually can work. Edit: 2:12:40 MR ED????
Third book predictions: She is the pre-elites only living heir (the lost princess) which is why Lenny calls her princess and why the king wants to marry her (Callum told him)…sort of I hate you but our marriage is the means to an end, to unite the people (yes, because she is so deep that changed the king and he wants to be different now). But she flirts with the other guy for about 90% of the book until she is free, gets pregnant, and they are happy ever after with their mixed babies.
the whole "Mixes" thing sure feels uncomfortable to hear of as someone who is irl mixed. like, come on it can't be that hard to find a word that isnt so close to a real life term right? maybe something that refers to the whole plague powers situation??? make it an alliterative thing if it'll help, the author sure seems to have no problem thinking of those
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Love your videos but I was wondering if you take suggestions for your reviews (I've been watching your channel for a while though I usually go right for the review
@@RhysScott-k5o i sometimes take suggestions! Reading powerless originally came from a viewer suggestion
@@ReadswithRachel Ok instead of reading books that give you headaches maybe you could read something like Cemetry Boys (if you haven't already) or The Carry-On trilogy both are some of my favorites.....I also I wish you the best for fi you read, the next powerless, Skyshade, and Onyx Shade(i think that's what's the new Fourth Wing is called) and other authors behaving badly video (there's probably so many) or if you want more headaches you could read Jenna Moreci's books or the Cyborg Tinkerer
I don’t think I have a dedicated video review for it but cemetery boys is one of my all time faves! I might try Jenna morecis book sometime!
@@ReadswithRachel OK! keep making that amazing content
"She is Shadow. I am Hedgehog."
So glad I read this before getting out of the car, because I just SNORTED in the most vile way
Kai would never have the self confidence to rock out to "I am all of me"
“She is Shadow. I am Sonic.”
"She is Hyde. I am Mr. Seek."
"She is Spy. I am Spychecking."
Turns out she wasn't Ordinary. Shes a Ringseer. She immediately knows the significance of every ring she's ever seen
Also her being able to tell that the box was a ring box would mean that there was foreshadowing in the last book and it's silly that they wouldn't do that???
@@sophdog2564sorry, that would mean that Lauren actually understands the concepts of writing beyond a basic comprehension of spelling.
honestly this entire book series could've been an email 🤷
It could have been an emoji
@@kbird6208 🔪🥰🔪👩🏼❤️💋👨🏻🔪🤬🛏️😍🔪👩🏼❤️💋👨🏻
HAHAHAHHAHAHA
Or a fic on wattpad
Honestly, I've read better on Wattpad. @@TheFran2555
We just need one really cringy and bad Romantasy movie to kill the momentum, a romantasy Divergent if you will
Please
PLEASE, there's like one bookstore left in my small city that isn't just stocked to the ceiling with booktok romantasy and NOTHING else in the English section 😭
Supposedly, that Lightlark movie is still being made.... That honestly might do it 👀
Diabolical comment, I love it.
@@dizzyella8204 It was never being made. The film rights were simply bought just in case.
Ewww not the "soft brown hands" sewing the vest...idk that just really emphasized for me how "token black girl" Adina is in this narrative. Infuriating.
Okay the soft brown hands line really bothers me for two reasons:
a) why do we need to remind everyone that she's black. It just feels so forced and out of place.
b) she should not have soft hands. She's an experienced seamstress! All she ever seems to do is sew, so why hasn't she built up callouses? And even if she wasn't a seamstress, she's still extremely poor! I sew every now and then, and even I don't have soft hands!
Maybe she has a really good skin routine, or wears gloves nonstop. I work with linen all day, but I wear gloves so my hands are really soft. Maybe I'm giving the book too much credit, though.
@ettaetta439 she should have been wearing gloves in this specific scene then, if she could afford to make or buy them, but she's very poor
Eh its just a descriptor? "Calloused brown hands." Feels better. Seems like incidental blackness to me. Her token bestie position was bad! But thats apart of that "white authors dont know what how to make black characters whole and human." Bad habit.
@@stardoogalaxie9314 I partially agree. "Soft brown hands" is a descriptor. Sounds better than "her hands" and gives personality to her by giving us a trait about her hands. Calloused hands, soft hands, these are indicative of the type of life she's lived. The fact that the author mentions she's black is not the problem, but her place in the story being the token best friend.
That being said, I can see why people found it iffy. The few times we see her or even have mentions of her, her black identity is emphasized. It's almost like the author is saying "I'm not racist I swear!", but instead of actually giving her a character arc or a personality, she just describes her looks in a positive way.
its from all the honey that they don't clean off their hands after eating sticky buns!
Violet 🤝 Payden
Characters we are told are super street smart and cunning but are actually so obtuse and oblivious to absolutely everything around them for plot convinence it makes me wanna scream into a pillow
@@frontporchcake7592 that’s so real
I nearly spit out my drink when your kid said "I can taste air" and your response was perfect. "That sounds like a sentence from this book" 😂 I died.
A girl goes on a hike for three days and starts talking to sand? Damn Paedyn really isn't made for the outdoors.
ooooh this is how her name is spelled, I was watching with auto subtitles and it showed Peyton (and I was fan casting her as Hilarie Burton, who was Peyton in that old tv show One Tree Hill)
This trope is really frustrating. You're telling me you started going crazy after three days of walking? The author couldn't even care to do some research.
I go on weeklong camping trips for fun and I do talk to my surrounding... 😅 But mostly to my dog and not in a "I'm mentally declining" way but in a "oh hello beautiful dragonfly" "oh here did I leave you, my coffee cup" way. I have ADHD and that just keeps me on the tasks 😂
Minor point but his sister was four. He said she was too weak to do it herself but what healthy four year old is braiding her own hair anyway? Especially a princess
i cut out a whole rant about this lmao
@@ReadswithRachel It's so weirdly specific too. You could just write that he used to braid his sister's hair. You don't need to include a justification
@@gooseguy8847it would’ve made him more human/sympathetic of a character if he did it just to DO it instead of needing a reason anyway! like “wow, i want to be closer to my younger sister and give her a stronger sense of companionship since she’s being hidden away and is terminally ill and doomed to a short life. i’ll braid her hair about it!” could’ve been SO much better. but nooooooo
Her EYES ripple? Dang maybe the whole "ocean eyes" thing is literal
i have a (very casually built, for a parody dating sim) fantasy world where sirens' eyes swish around like water, provided they're not looking at any living thing
so if they're focused on you, they resemble human eyes mostly, but if they lose focus on you or they're looking at an object in the background the iris and pupil sort of appear to "dissolve" like a water-based screensaver. or reversely, if water-eyes resolve back into a solid pupil and iris, you can tell they see someone
anyway, i'm picturing her eyes like those siren eyes when they're described as rippling.
@@elderflowerprince7559wait this is such a cool idea!
Everyone: You have a book about an oppressed group of people? Great, you can easily speak to issues such as eugenics, genocide, harmful propaganda set by dictatorship, class discrimination, or toxic masculinity in family dynamics. Which will you choose?
Lauren Roberts: banter
City of brass series does this topic really well
(really bad banter)
no plot, but she remembered to alliterate every other sentence😭
i commented this about 45 seconds before rachel said this exact thing in the video 🧍🏾♀️
As someone who uses alliteration I promise it can be use well 😅 It’s mostly that Lauren’s writing style does not lend itself to that kind of whimsy
@@aeneasvanillo7100 damn ur kinda right, her work is not nearly poetic enough for all that😭
Lauren Roberts really thought, "Good writing is repeating letters."
@@P0rk_Sinigang repeating letters and repeating sentence fragments over and over with one word changed out 🤦🏾♀️
Why. Would you compare. Your LOVE INTEREST. to your dead SISTER. "I wish my little sister had grown up to be like you, person I find sexy and attractive and want to kiss". Does Freud exist in this universe too
I laughed so hard at that last line 😂😂
If a man said that to me, I would be so weirded out. X _ X
The first book is named: Powerless
The second book is named: Reckless
Will the third book be named: Aimless?
@@davidofthenorth6531 Plotless, perhaps
unfortunately it's fearless
"pointless" maybe 🤣
Worthless?
Jobless
“call me sHaDoW” 💀💀💀💀 when i tell you the cringe I felt was LETHAL….i had to set my damn iced tea down lest i choke
"shadow" giving me flashbacks to zade meadows from haunting adeline, im ruined forever 😭
I absolutely HATE it when a huge conflict hinges on one person being like "you killed my father, HOW DARE YOU."
And instead of the other person being immediately like, "Oh your father? You mean the huge asshole who tried to kill me and all my loved ones? That father?" they just play keep away with the information until they're basically DYING.
This book is doubly infuriating because he's the main love interest! He and his dad were directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocents, and he still has the gall to spend a good chunk of the book like "well well well little traitor, how well you lie and stab people in the heart".
If I were Paeydan you would NOT get me to shut up about how Kai killed my dad and caused the deaths so many innocents lives every time he tried to act like he had the moral high ground. Like, be ffr.
Also- it's not even good drama because they keep bantering and flirting with each other anyways! 😭The dead dad(s) thing only seems to come up when the author decides it's an issue.
24:20 Also, Rachel THANK YOU for recommending Strange the Dreamer! I absolutely DEVOURED this duology over the the course of a week.
This series is a GREAT example of characters perpetuating trauma and violence due to the violence inflicted on them, but actually is able to make you sympathize with them.
You even get a great antagonists who do unspeakably horrible things to innocent people. But you also are made to understand why their actions are justified in their POV.
Wait, it only takes 5 days to get to safety? She could have been over half way through before Kai started to look for her, if she didn't sat around waiting for the book to start
my sister cured her peanut allergy by doing exposure therapy, maybe after all these years of reading terrible books you’ll one day become immune 😂
I feel like I should comment on this: do not attempt to 'cure' an allergy with exposure therapy _unless_ it is with proper medical supervision. Exposure to an allergen can make that allergy worse, sometimes fatally so. Thank you.
@@SilverDragonJay i feel like i should clarify 😭 *my sister cured her peanut allergy through oral immunotherapy that was directed by her board certified allergist. i assumed it was common sense that you shouldn’t do it on yourself but i suppose not everyone knows that
@@peanutbutterpandapuffssyeah girl, people don’t have common sense anymore and will try this with other peoples allergies all the time
@@peanutbutterpandapuffss so happy for your sister!!! Thank you for clarifying it was under medical professional supervision. I've seen parents suggest to other parents they should just put a little peanut butter on their sons sandwiches to cure him... Which would've sent him into anaphylactic shock... 🙄
@@peanutbutterpandapuffssI accidentally did that myself as a child because I disobeyed but I was lucky my allergy was only the kind to give me rashes 😭😭
For anyone else. DONT DO THIS AT HOME CHILDREN and monitor your kids if they have allergies ❤️
Someone probably mentioned it before but I am sure the author looked up words for royalty in different languages, saw the german word Kaiser (emperor) and thought it would make a cool name for the character that will totally not become the ruler later on. So now we are cursed with the name 'Kai Azer' and I hate it every time I read it.
I hate when authors do this, it's always German too 😭 Like at least when anime does it it's usually balls to the wall and at least funny, but why did we have to take this into other media as well??
@@definitelynotashark1799some days you’re the essen, some days you’re the jeager
DNAngel was the first time I heard German in anime, I tried to convince my German teacher (in high school at the time) to let us watch it in class because of the German. I’m actually really glad she said no 😅
That’s like kind of a funny pun at least? or it would be if the writing was better, it’d be like a bilingual bonus
@@snicketylemony you should've just watched Heidi (the anime)
Rachel please somebody stop them, I’m so serious when I say I cannot tell these books apart anymore
Me either
Why did Ava (the princess with a hundred maids) need to braid her own hair even when she was weak from being sick ? What royal does their own hair or dresses themselves ?
“I’m not a crazy king” says Kitt “to show you, I’m gonna propose to this traitor and king-killer!”
She was in a goddamn chimney and didn’t think to rub her conspicuous hair full of soot? Master thief, ha.
Stephen King: I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs...
Lauren Roberts: ✨AnNoYiNgLy✨
Reckless? Oh, you mean Wattpad ACOTAR? 🙄
Aren’t all book like that now?
@@jacobdavis3359
Sure feels like it
I just posted my story on Wattpad (Blue Rose and Raven) and I guarantee it’s better than ACOTAR and this book combined 🤣
@@sciencefantastic omg, I read your first chapter and it’s getting very interesting! Keep writing, keep writing more!
acotar IS wattpad acotar 😅
Why is it that books like this, Lightlark, Fouth Wing, anything Colleen Hoover, or SJM get traditionally published with all of the fanfare and special editions, but genuinely good books with multi-faceted characters and complex plots are forced to go the indie publishing route???
Think of it in fast fashion terms. Mass audiences are attracted to cheap, mindless, trendy products instead of the ones that take time, thought, and originality. The publishing industry knows this and it usually takes advantage of it for profit
Publishing buys what sells, regardless of quality. That's just how it is.
At this point if I see a new book get a special edition with sprayed edges I know it’s going to be generic crap and not to buy it.
Rachel: that should have been caught in the editing phase.
Me: Oh, I don't think there was one. I think they just uploaded her copy direct from her computer and hit publish.
Hey, you can't be here! You'll spoil your next read-a-long!
THREE HOURS? Dear lord what art am I gonna make this time-
@@Mushroomelixir I made a whole crochet vest to both part of this👍
@@a.ghostling Yoooo slay!!
I'm crocheting a halloween octopus.
@@easilydistractedauthor I LOVE THAT OMG
Something that takes more thought and effort than this book ?
Remember in Iron Widow when Zetian had no sympathy for the man who killed her sister? Good times.
Paedeighn: I know he killed my dad and is an active part in wiping out Ordinaries like me, but... dimples.
Wu Zetian: You're in my way.
@6:03 Sorry but as someone how knows a tiny bit about geography (and keep in mind -- I have like a 3rd grader's geography knowledge) that map is fucking awful objectively. I know fantasy authors' maps are not obligated to make sense but it didn't even fool me a little bit. I just looked at it and went "Wtf this makes no sense?"
Why is the town like... Europe-coded and then the desert is RIGHT THERE but then there is a dense pine forest to the South? All without any other formations that would make the climate and weather change? Also, why does this map have no rivers near human settlements? Where are they getting their water then? Is that ocean freshwater actually? Why is the one river on this map splitting into a bunch of different parts? ALSO the mountain's location makes no sense either.
I'm sorry. But it isn't even trying a little. I don't need geographic accuracy, but I just want my desert to be separated from my temperate forest by something and I want the mountain to have friends. Please D:
I mean, there ARE arid places even in Europe, very close to pine forests, if you look to Iberia or the Balkans and Turkey.
But it's still a nonsense map for sure.
Also why does the river flow down from the lake pond thing, then back up. That’s now how Rivera work
Not so much as a rain shadow smh
Even if it was realistic for people not to be curious about why their father was murdered in front of them, it also makes Payton a super boring protagonist. The audience is supposedly meant to care about her father’s death, it’s the driving force behind the conflict, but Payton herself hardly seems to care
If the author wanted the journal to be the key to figuring out the mystery, she could have had the dad write it in a cipher that she can’t crack. Payton could be obsessively poring over everything she could get her hands on, but she just doesn’t know what the cipher key is. It isn’t until she trusts Kai enough to let him see it that she manages to get any headway, because the key was something related to the royal family or something. I don’t wanna write fanfiction about this or whatever but c’mon. It isn’t that hard to make it an active part of the story that shows the development between Kai and Payton
I literally just finished rereading the Hunger Games, and the idea that Payton is meant to be anything like Katniss is frankly offensive to Suzanne Collins
Im talking notes from y'all and I'm just saying, the hypocritical fanfic in my head is sounding so much better and interesting than whatever this sequel is
Not to write fanfic about this book I’ve not read, but I’m really glad you mentioned how cool Kai getting his powers from other Elites and becoming weaker while not around them could have been. Imagine if Elite powers period were reliant and grew stronger when around others with powers. It would be at the very least a stronger reason to try and segregate and then remove Ordinaries from their society, if it’s to amass more and more power without considering who suffers (ie imperialism and capitalism). It also being a metaphor for patriarchy and toxic masculinity for Kai personally would have added to this.
No but for real, even such a small extra 'what if' would help SO much
That's an amazing plot... People being power hungry rather than there being a rumour of desease that doesn't even exist and everyone blindly believing it without questioning.... Which will actually keep people intrested of how the resistance will over come this ..
the audacity of this girl to stumble upon her murdered father's journal and even CONSIDER using it as kindling...
"Does death divulge deep-rooted devotion?! 'sHe SeLLs sEa sHeLLs bY tHE sEaSHorE', *SHUT THE FUCK UP*."
Oh my god what a perfect reply, this had me dying❤
I’m still convinced that the ring her father gave her is the special stuff that cancels out powers and that she’s had powers this whole time
But only if her powers are the specialist rarest one that was only ever theorized
along with my other qualms abt this book/series, one of the biggest crimes was that Kitt wasn't the one to actually kill her father. They spent SO much time in the first book talking about HOW MUCH Kitt looks like the king (they even mention it in this book when the Queen says it to kitt). For Paedyn to think for YEARS that she had seen with her own eyes the king kill her dad, only for her to somehow forget it was a whole other person (kai) who looks nothing like the king, makes no sense. If Kitt killed her dad but she mistook kitt for the king since they look so alike, THAT would make more sense; ESPECIALLY because she specifically notes that she SAW the kings EYES when he had killed her dad. ugh
also LR forgot that kai literally said that the first person he killed was not much younger than him (and he was 14 when he first killed). but suddenly paeyden's dad is the first person he killed? right.
Also the fact that if he was 14 when he killed her dad how on earth did she not notice that it was a teenager and not a whole adult king???
So many inconsistencies.. that's why you dont write a book first and then out of nowhere decide to make it a trilogy... Without having any direction of where you're gonna take the story
Monaco is a monarchy and a city, so it's not impossible for a city to be a kingdom. But if that's what this world is based on then it should really be made clearer than it apparently was.
So look, as a freelance editor, I have a theory as to why self-published books keep getting acquired by tradpub (aside from the obvious easy money bc the author has already done a lot of work to market the book when it was self-published) which ties in with the rumors going around that tradpub is doing less and less developmental editing on the books they acquire. A tradpub editor might assume that a self-published book might already have gone through several rounds of edits on the author's dime when the author (presumably) hired freelance editors, and therefore it saves tradpub from having to do any edits themselves. It's why so many obvious mistakes slide by and aren't fixed between the selfpub and tradpub version. Not every freelance editor has the experience required to edit a book, and there's nothing that makes an author have to listen to any of the edits a freelance editor suggests. Furthermore, given freelancers can be expensive (it's a lot of work to be a freelancer, and you don't get benefits, so you often have to charge a bit more to make ends meet), it's unlikely an author is going to hire more than one editor of each kind (aka more than one developmental editor, more than one copyeditor, more than one proofreader). I've done copyedits after an author has said they've hired a dev editor, and I've been left a little shocked that a book has been seen by a dev editor because there are still huge gaps that need addressing.
But if a book has already done well as a selfpubbed book, and the tradpub assumes that the author has already done rounds of edits with freelancers, they're unlikely to bother doing any dev edits themselves. If anything, they'll perhaps do some copyedits, but more likely than not they just do a proofread and call it good. They don't need to worry about more because the book will sell well anyway, despite the fact tradpub is going to charge a lot more than a selfpub would, and is thus basically robbing readers by giving them shoddy books at steep prices. It's fucked.
thanks I hate it
(but actually thank you for explaining)
Books like this are really inspiring. They make me believe that I can not only be published, but actually sell books.
I like alliterations in books, but holy GOD that is so unbelievably excessive! Has anyone told her that rhetorical figures lose their punch when you NEVER STOP USING THEM??
Can authors please stop chasing and bothering wild geese with their bad books.
this is how you get untitled goose game. the goose snaps and goes rogue
quick quick, someone call PETA ✋😒🤚 (please imagine the meme of neil degrasse tyson here)
I hate this cover of the book, I kinda actually liked the powerless cover but I have no clue what's going on with this one 😭
I thought the Powerless cover was kinda cute until I was like wait...why are the forget-me-nots the same size as the ivy leaves?? Apparently it's an AI cover, so, that makes sense
@@fionamclary7631 now that i know that, That's all im gonna see 😭 and why ai??? Come on, Canva isn't that hard to use.
It looks very... Christmasy. Like those even kinda look like pine needles
Exactly I thought the powerless cover looked decent but this one looks interesting...
Looks like ai booooo 😑👎
2:22:12 ashamed to admit that I clocked it as a wedding ring instantly as soon as I heard the words "small box", because the "fake marriage/marriage of convenience" trope is the only thing this collection of cliches in a trench coat is missing
This book makes me confident that if I were a writer wont be nearly as bad as this book
Well, people liked her more than they like my Encryption Straffe!
The “journal of *important character*” being misused irks me so much. It’s a chance to discover so much. Plans, psyche of a character, a great pound cake recipe. This happened in a book I was enjoying and the journal belonged to a witch. Luckily, it didn’t happen here, but I’m baffled it took her so long to read.
a great pound cake recipe 😂 i do want that one
@@DarwinRoger893 Poundcake Recipe I use
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 sticks of unsalted butter
3 cups of sugar
5 large eggs
3/4 cup of milk
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1/4 lemon juice
1/8 lime juice(optional)
Heat oven to 325°. Have eggs, butter and milk sit out until room temperature
Whisk flour, salt and baking powder together (in smallest bowl of bowls are different sizes)
Creamy butter in (largest) bowl
Gradually add sugar to butter while mixing on low speed
Mix in eggs one or two at a time
Mix in the dry ingredients and milk, alternating between the two. Make sure you end up mixing in dry ingredients first and last
Stir in vanilla, lemon (lime) extract
Spoon batter in pan evenly. Shake and pat the pan to remove bubbles
Place on middle rack for 1 hour and 10-20 minutes. Check completion by inserting butter knife and pulling it until it comes out clean
Cool on rack
@@bj71000you're a hero
@@bj71000oh damn that sounds good, thanks a lot fam 🙌
How do I always find myself in a chimney?! Says character who supposedly has severe claustrophobia 😂
"My many limbs" 🤣 I can't
Octopus rep!
also with the whole like "the king is in love with her" storyline it could've been so cool to try to see him justify her killing his father. i am only 30 minutes in, so the author could've gone the route of him thinking that she must be so madly in love with him that she orchestrated his father's assassination to make sure he's put in power (even though that's not what happened) and him being so hellbent and delulu about "getting her back" would turn him into a villian tyrant drunk on power. or something. idk
That is a brilliant idea and im disappointed that this was not what happened.
Oh my god and with the dead or alive thing, what if it’s set up in this world that people who commit regicide can only be killed by a royal of equal standing (like a just desserts kinda thing). so even if she has to die she’ll be taken to the king/queen of the other city-kingdoms only for it to be revealed that the king/queen was in kahoots with the Ilyian king, making escape futile (sorry i forgot this dudes name lmaoo)
@@DarwinRoger893brooo noo 😭 also thank you this was very sweet of you to say hahah
@@notmyrealnameanymore.yikessofc! Kitt being actually evil and dealing with the consequences would've been even better than whatever this is.
i completely lost it when you told your son "i can literally smell air" sounded like a line from this book
Because of course he killed her dad by accident. We can't have a love interest start off as bad and learn to be a better person. He has to be perfect from the start. Aside from boring, this promotes the idea that there is no redemption, no turning around, no capacity to grow. You're either born a good person (and tall and hot) or your bad.
City of brass does morally gray sioooo much better. Dara is what Kai could never be
HYPE! No way I'm doing a read along for this book, so I am going to let myself be spoiled... if one can be spoiled for such nonsense.
Love your Channel!
sorry maybe i missed something but does Payton/Peidun/Paedyn cover her hair at any part of this roulette of side quests? cause if not, wouldn't the same bright silver hair that marks her as the special special™ make her identifiable even when they're making out in various alleys and sewers and such?
I believe she does when fighting in Door? She is wearing a scarf that covers her hair & face except her eyes. Kai pulls it off her head in order to get other people to try to capture her to get her to come with him. But that's the only time I think. Rachel mentions she should have cut and / or dyed it.
I just started the video and I’m not sure if you’ve mentioned this, but I found out that Lauren (author) wrote powerless when she was 18 and just made it an amalgamation of all her favorite tropes. (She basically just made her dream book) which explains why it’s so bad 😭
Authors, crying over their MCs who are only handicapped or disabled when convenient for the plot: "she's so inspirational 😿"
"I've never kissed a thumb that wasn't hers" idk WHY that had any business being that funny, even in context
Anachronisms are possibly the best indicator that the author hasn't built a world even they themselves can get immersed in - they write this totally nonsensical shit and don't even notice. The total lack of care to give the audience a rewarding experience is on the same level of cynicism as something like the Emoji movie, or Boss Baby. Just braindead noise to keep you temporarily occupied.
Just handed over my child to Dad for the evening and sat down on the back porch with a Diet Coke, and this pops up. Thank you!! Best way to relax.
Okay as someone named Malachi, hearing Malakyle (assuming based on phonetics) hit a nerve i never thought i had. (At the time of me writing this i’m not even 5 minutes in amd i had to rewind to male sure i heard that right.)
What do you mean elite "blazer" babies always on FIRE???? WHAT?? This can't be real...
Jack Jack from The Incredibles vibes
Literally how do they get fed then lmao, are u really gonna burn your boob off to feed your kid
This had to be a first draft. I refuse to believe anyone read through this twice and someone just hit Publish 😂 This reads like one of my first drafts if I get busy with work and don't write for months and I end up repeating myself because I'd forgotten "Oh yeah, they already did the One Bed trope!" (I've learned to reread what I've written if it's been longer than a week so that doesn't happen anymore).
For your question, Kingdoms can be city-states, but usually they encompass a biiiiit more than that.
So the rule isn't hard and fast but usually what a land is considered is based on what their ruler is called. A duke oversees a duchy, a count county, emperor empire, king kingdom, prince principality. So if they're ruled by a king, then yes Illiya (sp?) is a kingdom. Sometimes authors bungle this (and make their king rule an empire) but they also fuck up who gets called highness and majesty.
As a teenager (who adores your videos by the way) I’m glad we can all agree Kai is a huge red flag ❤️
the kids are alright!
I don't know how you got through this book, Rachel, because I can barely get through the video. Peyton and Kai are so insufferable.
I just keep going OMG SHUT UP. It's SO overwritten
Paedyn* 😔
Brb gotta go watch the first video for the third time because the story was so unoriginal my brain mixed it up with like three other series. Wonder how prominent sticky buns are gonna be since that’s about the only detail I remember
same, I found myself confusing a lot of the details between this book and Serpent & the Wings of Night (which I almost called Serpent & Dove, oops)
@@berrymage. yeah and the fact that the kingdom’s name is straight from the Selection series really doesn’t help
Never in a million years would I have thought it was an engagement ring. Are you kidding me?! I thought it was going to be something to remove his powers or it was actually a trap and Callum gave him a box with like a venomous spider or some shit. Although, now that I think of it, both of those might have been too good of plot points for this book.
You're so right, this should have been condensed down to 2 books instead. This shit is so dumb.
There's a local donut shop that has boxes with a picture of Brad Pitt saying, "What's in the box??" on them, so my guess for what's in the box is either donuts or Gwyneth Paltrow's head.
thank you for your sacrifice o7
o7
o7
o7
This is one of the few times the word "Anatopism" comes into play. In our world, an anatopism would also be an anachronism as well, but it comes up in fiction a lot.
Anatopism: a person, thing, or idea that is represented, for example in a book or movie, as being in a place where they do not or did not really exist (or would never exist).
Whereas an anachronism is something out of its proper time period.
I so rarely get to share this word because it can almost always be swapped out for anachronism, but in this case it works! I will now calm my excitement on that.
Would you consider doing a video comparing two books' writing? Good crafted prose vs purple prose. Since you mentioned it, I think Strange the Dreamer vs Powerless/Reckless would be good examples to compare. That'll be a really cool video as a lesson for writing craft.
I'm thinking about doing this with fourth wing vs dragon fall
@ReadswithRachel I would love that!
@@ReadswithRachel Awesome!
THREE HOURSSSSS
RACHEL, you are magnificent.
The dynamics between all these different places makes absolutely no sense. Does not compute. Also, from Kai's POV: "She hasn't held that dagger since she buried it in the king's neck." Unless I missed something and she used that Dor guard's knife on himself, she certainly has used that dagger since she killed the king, and he should know that. And even if he didn't, why would he just assume she hasn't used it since then? V confusing.
I consider the entire concept of this Trilogy offensive.
If it was a Satire of the state of YA Romantasy, it could have had redeeming qualities, but the author clearly doesn’t take topics like Genocide seriously.
It really annoys me that these romantasy books keep inserting heavy subject matter into the books and do nothing with it
Almost like they think that touching on subjects like genocide and racism are extra things to make a book sexy
Gross.
(4th Wing comes to mind)
Or eugenics, or autocracies, or power, or greed…
Now I really want to write a ya romantasy satire :o
@@4cprocess It's going to be very hard to tell whether it is one at this point.
@@chrystals.4376 too true tho
A city state and kingdom are not mutually exclusive. A city state is just an independent city and its surrounding lands, so in this case a city state could be a kingdom because it is ruled by a king.
'The beast doesn't get the beauty'??? The entire point of the fairy tale is that he does!
Edit: I just realized the whole plot for this book is just a really bad version of The Wolf and The Woodsman by Ava Reid. So if those wanting similar ideas and plot points but better, read that instead.
I feel like a lot of these romantasy authors don't go back and re-read their books before writing the next ones because they'll write something within the lore or worldbuilding but then totally rescind it in the next book. They don't know how to establish rules for their universes, or just don't try to establish any rules at all, and dig themselves into a hole by just continuously adding in new ideas but not thinking about the implications it adds to the already existing lore. These authors are too obsessed with hitting random popular tropes/story beats rather then making worlds that make sense.
The publishers let them write just about anything these days
No plot? No problem! Alliteration to the rescue! I know publishing is a business, but how are these books getting published?
alliterations and plot, you can only have both or absolutely nothing of substance.
It bothers me that for like one page in the first book they mention that Peyton hates the phrase” plague knows” or whatever but she promptly forgets this and uses plague Willy nilly throughout this book
I misspelled her name but considering the author barely puts care into character names I don’t think it matters
This plot is literally like a trip to the mall. You go in, planning to buy 1 new pair of shoes, but spend the whole day meandering from store to store and 30 min before the mall closes, you remember you came to buy shoes 🤦🏼♀️
I went to a coffee shop earlier this week and they had a charity bookshelf - paperbacks of Powerless, Reckless and Powerful (the novella) were on this bookshelf with absolutely pristine spines, as if they'd been briefly read and then donated. I was so tempted to put some money down for them, just to see how bad they really are. 😆
I can’t take „Silver Saviour” seriously, I always think about silver surfer
I’m all for artwork and creativity but there comes a point when a piece of work not just a book but art movie music what have you exists and we have to ask did this really need to exist? A lot of this book is like my outline not even first draft
Mother has blessed us with another multiple hour video 🎉❤
I watched the first video and I couldn’t place why the name Ilya sounded so familiar and then I remember it came straight from The Selection Series
And the whole “her dad trained her to be a ‘psychic’ “ thing reminds me of the show Psych way too much
i KNEW i recognized the name!!! so not only is she trying to be Red Queen, she's also trying to be The Selection (which did an arguably better job of the classism trope than this poor excuse for a series)!!
HOW MANY HATS, PAYDEN??
ilya is just a normal real life name btw
1:23:32 The multiple God mentions in an unrelated fantasy world is giving Mormonism 💀💀💀
I have a silly question: if Illyans are trying to create a city/state/whatever where having powers is normal, why aren’t people with powers called “Ordinaries”? Doesn’t calling the people without powers “Ordinaries” point up that having powers is unusual, thereby giving the lie to the idea that everyone should have powers?
I see you got a new camera(?) and immediately chose violence. Can't wait
I'm trying not to stray into fanfic territory but the "God" and the "thank the Plagues" bothered me too much. For a book about something as major as superpower-granting plague, you'd think the religion would be fleshed out just a little bit. It would make more sense if the Plague is meant to be something like a purging or a disaster akin to the Biblical flood meant to be seen as "divine". Like if in the doctrine the Plague is a test of faith where the worst sinners die, the people who can be redeemed live with little to no power, and the "good ones" are granted superpowers. It would make the books more layered and it'd fix the weird details. The people thank the Plague bc it's supposed to be a "tough love" from God. The king hating Kai's dead sister not only bc she's weak, but she's "sinful". The people believing the king because it's in the doctrine. Plus, it would make the kissing scene with the sin line way, way more impactful
I love how watching more and more of Rachel’s reviews has me looking at my own writing to make sure my world building actually makes sense.
Editing smth I wrote while listening to this made me feel waaay better about my writing abilities
2:22:15 WTF? I THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA BE THE SISTER'S BODY OR SOMETHING and THIS is somehow worse... I did not understand the size of this box 😭😭😭
i just wanted to say, i usually play video games like powerwash simulator while listening to your videos, but today i actually took a book cover sleeve and repurposed it into a sort of mini binder with pockets and a little notepad in it and i'm so proud of it!! i know a lot of your viewers make art while listening and i just wanted to share the unexpected art project i made! love listening to you always!! can't wait for the next video!!!
I'm so happy to hear this!!
I did some math, and surprisingly you can get pretty varying weather within a five days walk. At least if you’re trained and prepared, but main characters get a bit of leeway when it comes to normal human limits. A well trained person can get 20-30 miles a day, 100-150 in five. I live in one of the hottest places in the US, we have hot days even in the dead of winter. Conveniently, it’s just barely under 150 miles from a town in a lush, green forest that regularly gets snow in the winter. Out of all the issues in the book, the climate and environment thing actually can work.
Edit:
2:12:40 MR ED????
"'You can literally smell the air?' That sounds like a line from this book" 💀
Third book predictions: She is the pre-elites only living heir (the lost princess) which is why Lenny calls her princess and why the king wants to marry her (Callum told him)…sort of I hate you but our marriage is the means to an end, to unite the people (yes, because she is so deep that changed the king and he wants to be different now). But she flirts with the other guy for about 90% of the book until she is free, gets pregnant, and they are happy ever after with their mixed babies.
It sounds like hell.
the whole "Mixes" thing sure feels uncomfortable to hear of as someone who is irl mixed. like, come on it can't be that hard to find a word that isnt so close to a real life term right? maybe something that refers to the whole plague powers situation??? make it an alliterative thing if it'll help, the author sure seems to have no problem thinking of those
My guess for what’s in the box is a MacGuffin.