**DNF (Did Not Finish) Discussion**
As part of our Diviners Club read-along, I'd like to discuss some books that didn't quite resonate with me. First up is "The Thousand Floor" by Katherine McGee. This book was a disappointment for me, despite its promising premise. I really thought I would love it, and many other readers have expressed enthusiasm for it as well. However, my experience was vastly different. The writing felt amateurish, and the story just didn't grab me. I also found myself struggling to connect with the characters, which made it difficult for me to become invested in their journey.
Another factor that contributed to my decision to DNF this book was its length. As someone who prefers shorter e-books (under 200 pages), I think I may have bitten off more than I could chew with "The Thousand Floor". The fact that it was a long, hefty book only added to my frustration. When I picked it up, I had also rented the e-book through my library, which meant I had a tight deadline to finish it within two weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't make it past 10% and didn't have access to it again when I wanted to continue.
The writing style in "The Thousand Floor" was not particularly impressive, and the pacing was slow at times. I also found myself feeling somewhat disconnected from the story, which made it hard for me to care about the characters or their struggles. The book did tackle some heavy themes, including a low-key incest plotline that I felt coming, but it didn't quite resonate with me.
**A Book Hangover**
For question number 7, we were asked to pick a book that gave us a "book hangover". For me, that book is "The Way I Used to Be" by Amber Smith. This book tells the story of a young girl who was raped by her brother's best friend when she was 14 and follows her through four years of high school as she navigates the trauma of what has happened to her. The weight of carrying this secret is crushing, and the book explores themes of grief, guilt, shame, and healing in a way that is both raw and powerful.
As I delved deeper into the story, I found myself becoming more and more invested in the protagonist's journey. However, it was also a very emotional and heavy read, and I have to admit that I wasn't feeling it at first. The writing was excellent, and the author's portrayal of the trauma and aftermath of rape was handled with sensitivity and care. But I think what really drew me in was the way the story unfolded over time, revealing the complexities of the protagonist's emotions and experiences.
One of the most memorable moments for me was when I finished the book and listened to the remaining three hours in one sitting, driven home from a long drive on the island. I was so engrossed that I forgot to eat or rest, and I just couldn't stop listening until it was over. The final scene left me sobbing uncontrollably, and I had to take several breaks to collect myself.
"The Way I Used to Be" is definitely one of the most memorable reading experiences I've had in recent years, and it's a testament to the author's skill that she was able to leave such a lasting impression on me. If you're interested in books about serious topics like this, be aware that they can be heavy and triggering. But if you're willing to engage with them, "The Way I Used to Be" is an important and powerful read.
**Tagging for the Diviners Club Read-Along**
As part of our Diviners Club read-along, I'd love to invite anyone who's interested in participating to join me! Whether you've already devoured the entire series or are just starting out, I encourage you to tag along and share your thoughts. If you're a new reader to the series, don't worry – we'll be discussing the books together, so feel free to jump in at any point.
If you'd like to participate, please leave a comment below with your response to one or more of the questions I shared in this video. And if you have any thoughts on "The Thousand Floor" or "The Way I Used to Be", I'd love to hear them! Let's discuss these books and share our experiences as we make our way through the Diviners Club series together.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey, what's up? Hello, my name is Emma. And today I am doing the diviners book tagThis is an original tag created by myself along with two of my very best booktube friendsMonica Kim and Sarah without an H and we have created this tag inspired by the diviner series by Libba Brayif you have not heard of the diviners, it is an incredible YA paranormal series set in1920s New York City and it follows a variety of different characters who haveSupernatural abilities as there is what seems to be a ghost that isCausing some murders around Manhattan. The diviners is one of my favorite books seriesSo I'm super excited to announce that Sarah, Monica and I are hosting a read along for the diviner series leading up to the 4thAnd final installment that is coming out this February. We are calling it the diviners Club. It is a1920s jazz club inspired read-a-thonAnd if you guys would like to read along with us and partake in some of the discussions you can use the hashtag#divinersclub these are the official months that we are going to be focusing on each individual bookBut please feel free to take it at your own pace start whenever and with whatever book you would likeWe also are going to be having some diviners club live show discussions so that we can all discuss each book togetherSo these are the dates if you want to mark them down and be sure to follow all of us on Twitter and InstagramIf you want to find out these specific times and what channel they will be on and one more exciting thing if you areInterested in joining in the read along but you don't have copies of the books yourselvesWe are each hosting giveaways for the first three books in the diviner seriesthe giveaway is open to US and Puerto Rico only but if you would like to enter there is a Rafflecopter link in thedescription and from there you can sign in using your email or Facebook account and you can do a couple other things on there toGain, more entries and better your chances of winningI am super excited to read the spectacular series alongside all of youAnd I hope you're interested in coming to the diviners club. But today we are doing the diviners book tagAnd so because the final book in the diviner series that is set in 1920 comes out in2020 we thought we would make it a twenties themed tagThe first question is roaring 20s a 2020 release that you are super excited for obviouslyKing of crows by Libba bright is on this listBut I have to go with chain of gold by Cassandra Clare and this is the first book in the new last hour seriesY'all know my love for the Shadowhunter world, but this is now the fourth series set in this universeIt takes place in the early 1900s and it follows the children of some of the characters from the Infernal Devices seriesBecause Cassie Clare just loves to bless her fans with extra content from her booksI have already been getting to know a lot of the main characters in this seriesFirstly from some of the novellas like tales from the Shadowhunter AcademyAnd ghosts of the shadow market and she's also been releasing some like chain of gold flash fiction on her newsletter every monthSo we get like some snippets and scenes from the book have to be honestI was not super excited for the last hours a couple of years agoI was like very focused on the dark artifices and I wanted those characters in that storybut now that that's done I am likeBrimming with excitement for chain of gold. I adore these characters alreadyI'm super excited to get a new novel from just Cassie because her last couple of releases have all been co-written with other peopleSo I'm excited to see what she has in store just herselfThis series is going to be so fun. And so heart-wrenching and I just really cannot waitOur next question is our first bit of lingoThat's the berries that is for a new release you loved and I'm going to go withSerpent and Dove by Shelby Maher in this is a book that just got released this past SeptemberBut I've been talking about it for a couple of months because I read it before release and it has truly stolen my heartThis is a 16th centuryParisian inspired fantasy that follows a witch named Louise LeBlanc who is on the run and a witch hunterSoldier named Reed and the two of themBasically get forced into marriage but Reed has no idea that Lu is a witchThis book only came out in SeptemberBut I have been gushing about it for months because it is truly one of my favorite books of the yearI feel it's been a while since I've had a fantasy story that IReally fallen in love with I think sometimes it's just really hard to like get close to all of my absolute favoritesBut Serpent and dove is really up thereIt has such rich world building and the magic systemIncluded in here is very complex and different from like any other YA fantasyI've read I fucking love Louisa block so muchI recently gushed about her in my fictional crushes video because Lew is totally fictional girlfriend materialAnd one of the things I appreciate the most about this book is that it really goes on a journey itselfLike where the story starts is so far from where it ends they charactersGo through a lot of development the plot changes courseWhich is always exciting and it was just a really really well-written debutI truly love this book so muchAnd if you were also a fantasy lover on the hunt for like the next big fantasy, this is definitely oneYou should try out question three is now you're on the trolley which essentially translates to now you've got it, right?This is for a series where it took until book 2 for it to get good nowIThoroughly searched not only my bookshelvesBut also every book I've ever marked on Goodreads for the past like five or six years and I could not find a single instancethat I thought was strong enough to answer this question where I liked book 2 and theSubsequent books in more than book 1 I am notorious for loving the first book in a seriesbut it is the following books that typically don't strike me as much and there definitely have been a few instances of me liking thesequel more than the first bookBut typically if it's a series I won't like book 3 or book 4 as much so I feel like thoseSituations also can't fit for this question. So I don't I don't have an answerQuestion number four is blue nose or a killjoy so a book that put you in a reading slump for this answerI'm gonna go with era fire by Sarah J, MaasWhich I don't think I've ever actually used for one of these questions, even though I think it applies pretty wellI've read an arrow fire for the first time back in2014 and it took me a full monthTo read that may not sound that long like I'm sure there's a ton of people where it would take them a full month toRead a book like this maybe even longer but at the time I was finishing like bigfantasy books like this in like no more than five days like three to five days was my average at the time for completing aBook, so this was like a true anomaly. I just really was not vibing with itI was not the most attentive reader at the time there were tons ofPerspectives and different storylines and I really was only interested in a lot of what was covered in the first two booksSo it just didn't resonate with me at allI was like forgetting everything as I was reading it and it was not an enjoyable experience and then back in like2016 IDecided to give throne of glass a second chance because I really did like the first two books and everyone loves this seriesSo I tried againI was listening to the audio books this time and even in a different formatLike I had the very similar experience with arrow fire and I still have not finished the series because of itI feel like I've never been in like an actual reading slumpI might have like a week where I don't reach for my book as frequentlyBut I've still been consistently reading every single week since like 2013So I don't have a lot of experience with series reading slumpsbut arrow fire definitely slumped me with this series where I don't think I will ever finish it just because ICan't get past This book. question number five isHotsy-totsy which I feel has a few definitions, but the one we're going with is attractiveSo we're picking a book with a beautiful cover and I'm going to go with Wilder girls by Rory powerLet's take a moment to appreciate it. It's so freakin beautiful. I cannot get over itI got to do a small sword post with the publisher where I did my very best toRecreate this cover with the sort of face spiralIt was a big processBut I'm pretty happy with how it turned out actually got to attend a really cool event inspired bywilder girls and there I met the author Marie power and we were talking about how much we all love this cover and she toldUs that this actually isn't like a person I had alwaysImagined it was like a photo and then they had an artist go over and like draw over it but it's like a totally originalConcept I thought this book was goodI was a little let down near the end of itBut the cover never fails to blow me awayQuestion number six is let's blouse that translates to let's get out of hereSo pick a book that you DNF im going to go with the thousand floor by Katherine McGee. now this is a bookI really thought that I would love and a lot of other people thought that I would love but I think I might have onlyGotten like ten percent through the e-bookThere are definitely a few factors that are my fault which caused me to not finish the bookBeyond the fact that I just really wasn't vibing with the story number oneI picked it up on eBook and I have learned now that I just cannot read really longEbooks. ebooks for me gotta be super short. And this is a really really long hefty bookSo, I don't know what I was thinking trying to read it on eBookI have not picked up an e-book in a whileBut I used to really enjoy reading one in addition to my physical reading and my audiobook listeningBut I have learned that I really don't care about an e-book if it's too long. It's got to be like under 200 pagesSo that was a mistake on my part. And also I had rented the e-book through my libraryso I only had two weeks to read it and I just was not picking it up a knot so I got to 10% andMy loan was upSo that's the main reason i DNF'ed the book I didn't have access to it at the time that I wanted to read itBut I was not interested enough to seek out a copy and start reading it elsewhere. The writing was amateurIt was really slow in the beginningI didn't care about any of the characters andalsothere was like this low-key incest plot line that I felt coming and I justReally wasn't feeling it, which is like a weird hell for me to die on considering my favorite series is the Mortal Instruments seriesBut not the point overallIt just didn't retain my interest and I don't think I'll ever give it another shotAnd finally for question number 7 we have zoozled. Zoozled means drunk. So pick a book that gave you a book hangoverI'm going with a classic answer for me. And that is the way I used to be by Amber SmithThis book follows a girl who was raped by her brother's best friend when she was 14 and it follows her through her four yearsOf high school showing how the trauma of what has happened to herManifests and also the weight of her carrying this secret that she's never told anyone. This is a very heavy and emotional bookIt's something you really got to be prepared for going in and honestly, I was not loving it in the very beginningBut as I got further into the story and realized how truly brilliant it isI was absolutely hooked but nearing the endI listened to the last five hours of this audiobook basically in one sitting which if you are not an audiobook listenerThat is a lot at once. I had really started getting into the book when I was driving further out on the islandSo I had a very long drive home where I just was so engrossed in the story and when I got homeI still had like three hours of the audiobook left and I was like I cannot stop hereSo I actually listened to those last three hours in the dark. I finished at 1amI was sobbing so hard. I couldn't breatheIt was a super moving and impactful read it is definitely one of the most memorable experiencesI've had as a reader in the last few years and it's not that like I couldn't pick up any books afterwardsBut I just physically could not get this book out of my mind once I had finishedtruly left a lasting impressionAnd if you were interested in reading books about serious topics like this go with cautionBut I highly recommend it so that concludes the diviners tagI really hope you guys enjoy it and are interested in joining us for the diviners Club read alongCheck out Monica and Sarah's videos. And also don't forget to enter my giveaway for a set of the diviners books in the descriptionI'm going to tag anyone who wants to participateAlongside me in the diviners Club read along whether it is your first time reading this series if you're already massive fanOr maybe you read the first book or two and just fell off along the wayYou are tagged and also let me know your responses to any of the questions or if you have any thoughts on the books thatI shared in this video, but that is itThank you guys so much for watching and I will see you soon for a new one. Bye\n"
