Welcome to My Autumn Book List: A Cozy Reading Experience

I am Cari, and I am thrilled to welcome you to my channel as we dive into another video together. Today, I'm coming at you from August in Korea, where it's a cool day with a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius. As the seasons change, I find myself craving cozier vibes, and what better way to capture that than by sharing some of my favorite Autumn-themed books? In this video, we'll be exploring the books that have made my list as good Autumn reads, which might surprise you given their actual publication dates.

My Pumpkin Spice Candle: A Year-Round Companion

As I settle into my cozy reading nook, surrounded by autumnal decorations and the warm glow of a pumpkin spice candle – yes, I use it year-round! – I feel like I'm embracing the essence of Autumn. The soft flicker of the candlelight, the earthy scent of pumpkin spice wafting through the air, and the snugness of my sweater all conspire to create an atmosphere that's both inviting and intimate. It's a feeling I've grown to love over the years, and one that I hope to share with you through this video.

A New Challenge: Pushing My Reading Boundaries

As someone who has been making videos about books for four years now, I feel like I've gotten into a bit of a rut. Don't get me wrong; I love sharing my passion for reading with all of you, but sometimes it's nice to shake things up and challenge myself in new ways. That's exactly what I'm doing today: I'm creating this video in an attempt to read outside my comfort zone and explore some newer titles that might have slipped under the radar.

Autumn Books: A Seasonal Selection

So, what are these Autumn books that have made it onto my list? Well, first things first, let me just say that I've tried to organize them into slightly more specific categories than just "Autumn" – although, I must admit, that's a big part of the fun. I want to share with you not just the books themselves but also why they resonate with me on this particular season. It's not just about reading something that feels seasonal; it's about finding connections between the book and my own experiences, emotions, or surroundings.

A Peek into My Reading Past

Before we dive into the new additions to my Autumn list, I want to take a quick look back at some of my all-time favorites – those books that have stuck with me for years. If you're interested in getting a better sense of what makes my heart skip a beat when it comes to reading, be sure to check out any of my previous videos. You might be surprised by how many Autumn-themed titles have appeared over the years.

Reading Outside My Comfort Zone: The Challenge

For this video, I've decided to focus on books that I've read in the last two years – 2023 and 2024. It's a bit of a departure from my usual approach, where I tend to go back to tried-and-true favorites. But hey, being adventurous is all part of the fun, right? As I scan through my list, I'm excited to share with you some of these hidden gems that have caught my attention.

Organizing My Autumn List: A Little Bit of Fun

I've tried to organize my books into categories that feel a bit more specific than just "Autumn." While there's certainly an element of seasonal reading involved, I want to explore the connections between the book and my own experiences or emotions. It's not always easy to articulate why I love certain books, but sometimes it helps to have a little structure in place. And trust me, having all these books organized is almost as much fun as actually reading them!

A Quick Visit to Goodreads: Refreshing My Memory

As I delve into my Autumn list, I do need to take a quick trip to Goodreads to refresh my memory on the summaries of these books. Let's face it – sometimes our memories can be a bit hazy when it comes to all the details we want to recall. By checking in with Goodreads, I can ensure that I accurately capture the essence of each book and share that with you.

And That's It! My Autumn Book List is Ready

Well, folks, that's it for today's video – my Autumn book list is finally ready! I hope you've enjoyed this peek into my reading world, and I'm excited to hear your thoughts on some of the books I've shared. Happy reading, and until next time, stay cozy!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHi everyone, welcome to another video. My name is Cari, thank you so much for being here. I am  coming at you from August in Korea. It's currently a cool day at a whopping 30°. I am making this  video in an attempt to summon some Autumn Vibes because my body needs it. I have my pumpkin spice  candle - that is the candle I use year round - I'm wearing a sweater, I'm wearing autumnal earrings.  We're pulling out all the stops. You read the title, you know what this video is about. Autumn books.This is not my TBR - these are books that I have already read and I have checked them off as being  good Autumn reads. But I wanted to challenge myself because I've made this video, I've been on  book now for like four years, I've made this video let's say three times. I tend to go back to my  tried and true - there are just a couple books that are just ooh so autumn themed, so if you want to  know what some of my all-time favorites the ones that have stuck with me for years, those Autumn  reads, you can watch any of my previous ones. For this video I'm going to attempt to only talk about  books that I have read this year and last year so '23 and '24. And I've got a really good list! I have  tried to organize them into slightly more specific categories than just Autumn. I'm really happy about  it. I also definitely have to pull a couple of  them up on Goodreads to read the summary again  because I vaguely know but you know my memory. I am very much the \"they don't remember what you  said they remember how you made them feel\" - that's me with books. I remember how they make me feel and  I'm going to need a little bit help remembering what they said. So shall we dive right in before  I start sweating in my sweater even though I have the air conditioning on. Category is - oh  this is exciting, I love autumn. All right category is - back to school. I feel like Autumn is very much, we  are getting back into dark Academia or just school settings in general feel very autumnal  to me. The first book I will be talking about is Where Sleeping Girls Lie. I was lucky enough to  have the ARC of this, ate it up. This is by the same author as Ace of Spades which I also enjoyed but  I find that this one felt much...it had just like an eerier feeling to it, especially because it was  like boarding school. We follow our main character named Sade who has been homeschooled pretty much  her entire life. Now I believe it's like her junior year, her third year of high school and  she is going to school! There's a very prestigious boarding school. She's obviously nervous but she's  very excited by the fact that the dorm that she will be staying in looks like a haunted house,  turns out her like student buddy/guide is also her roommate and they seem to hit it off really  well, she gets introduced to another friend - like it seems like first day of school going as well  as a first day of school can go. Until her roommate disappears. We are now in the middle of a missing  person's investigation with Sade being like the last person who saw her, that's her roommate! And  it's a really interesting dynamic because Sade is thrown into this school where there's obviously  drama, backstories, a lot of these kids have known each other since kindergarten. But she doesn't know  anybody so we're getting all of these like interesting relationships and all of these  social dynamics piece by piece. I just thought the way the story was laid out was so good. Trigger  warnings abound - I'm pretty sure they are posted in the front of the book but it does delve into  some very dark topics so just be aware of that but it hit every mark in terms of this kind of eerie  dark academia, back to school, indoor swimming pools at night, running through the woods - Where Sleeping  Girls Lie. The next one I'm cheating a little bit, just a little bit. When you want to talk to me  about school settings, dark academia, autumnal vibes - I will have to talk about Ninth House.  The reason that this is only halfway cheating is because I did read Hell Bent in 2023. Ninth House is  by Leigh Bardugo. Fun fact, it was the first Leigh Bardugo I ever read and I was confused the entire time. It  wasn't until a reread of it, preparing for Hell Bent, that I actually felt like I understood it and now  it's like one of my favorite reads. Incredibly atmospheric, Ninth House follows a girl who is  attending Yale and she is part of one of the many secret societies - which Leigh Bardugo went to  Yale and was part of a secret society so is this based on a true story? Who knows - but without giving  too much away there are ghosts, there are demons, we are doing summoning circles, her mentor I guess  like the student that is slightly older than her who's supposed to kind of welcome her into the  society - may or may not be missing, may or may not be dead? Like we don't know, that's the thing that  screwed me up with Ninth House is that the it's not written chronologically and it's sort  of, you're sort of brought in in the middle of the action and then you have to kind of backtrack but  you're also...so like I said, it took me the first read I read it and I was sort of like not  sure but once you read it again and then with Hell Bent, I loved it so I know that that's  not much of a plot summary but very much just like Yale in autumn there's like breaking into  libraries, there's haunted houses, there's just - I've talked about it too much already so I'll keep  this brief but Ninth House, if you haven't given a try yet, do so. After that, this one's a little  bit of a stretch. This isn't necessarily autumnal, but it is starting a new school, academic, and then  I just find that dragons equals Autumn for me. I don't know why, they're definitely like an Autumn  mythical creature. I feel like maybe that's another video where I can make a whole chart of like where  I see - when mythical creatures should be talked about. This is a book I've also mentioned a  bunch - To Shape a Dragon's Breath. This is about a girl who finds a dragon and where she is living  dragons have not been seen in a very long time. There are dragons in other parts of the world but  like where she lives, where her family has always lived...and since it's been so long that anyone  near her has seen a dragon, her and her brother decide that her best chance of raising this Dragon  successfully is to go to the largest city that has a dragon academy. And this is a city within the  kingdom, empire, country that has been colonizing the land that this girl is indigenous to,right? The reason that a lot of their culture is not allowed to be practiced, these folks, okay? So  she reluctantly leaves her home and moves to this big city and I've mentioned this before  but one thing I found interesting about this book is that there isn't a huge central crisis. I think  that the books that I tend to read have like one incident or like one thing that we're going  to try and do you know? Like a heist or there's a mystery we have to solve, like there is something  concentrated. But in this case it was more character-based and really a study of this  experience and I think now as the series continues, we are going to have some more action and kind of  plot driven stuff but in this book it was really just a study of like this world in general and the  characters that inhabit this world. And I also mentioned this in my, I mentioned this I think in  my midyear freakout tag, that our main character is so interesting because she doesn't really go on a  hero journey. We don't see these typical character arcs that we see in fantasies because she is who  she is and I think that that's really important to like the essence of this novel, is that she  doesn't change. She might like grow naturally as like a person who's experiencing new things but  in terms of her character and what she believes and like right and wrong and things like that, she  is herself the whole time and I found that to be really, like everything about this book was really  refreshing in that. So it's not super dragony - that's like my only big issue with this book is  like \"to shape a dragon's breath\" and her Dragon was sort of just like a cat that followed her around  the whole book. So like I said, I think as this as the series continues it will get more plot  driven, more Dragon heavy hopefully, but I really loved it and so if you're looking for something  that is fantasy school with really interesting characters and world building - To Shape a  Dragon's Breath. I don't think my microphone's picking it up but it just started pouring. If I  don't think about the temperature it's like gorgeous and blustery outside. See the rain?  Yeah but it also feels like I'm underwater in a jacuzzi. Our final back to school book is one that  I read, I think it was just last month and this is an ARC but I believe the book just came out  this month and that is - Don't Let the Forest In. This is, ooh yeah this is autumnal, this is  creepy forest, boarding school, hallways at night, sneaking out sitting on the roof. Oh, how do I start?  How do I explain? So we mainly follow Andrew who this is his second year, I believe, at school. Him  and his twin sister Dove, they have moved from Australia, their dad is super absent very rich  so basically just like 'go to this private school somewhere in the US.' Andrew suffers from a lot of  like social anxiety, he's struggling with his sexuality, he is just having a generally rough  time with school and so he's really only friends with his sister and then his roommate Thomas. But  there's tension there because the last day of school before summer, he gave Thomas essentially  a love confession and Andrew hasn't heard from Thomas since -so reasonably he's kind of freaking  out. Andrew and Thomas's friendship is really interesting because Thomas is this incredible  artist and Andrew is an incredible storyteller so their friendship basically is just Andrew writing  these horribly creepy fairy tales and Thomas illustrating them. They're just kind of inseparable.  Thomas is just this tornado of a human, like agent of chaos and Andrew is just existing okay, trying  to survive the tornado of Thomas. What happens when they get back to school and something is  very off with, not just Thomas, but a couple of the other kids. And not only within the school  are things weird, but on the outskirts because the forest starts to kind of intreat on the grounds a  little bit. It seems to almost have a mind of its own. I really liked it, I recommend it definitely to  people who are fans specifically of Adam and Ronan of the Raven Cycle. I didn't love the ending but  I enjoyed the ride to get to the ending if that makes sense. So definitely if you like a kind of  forest that looks back at you and a creepy boarding school in the mountains of Virginia  -Don't Let the Forest In. Also really interesting talk about, I don't know if Andrew actually like  lands on an exact name or label that he agrees with, but there is Ace representation  and I thought it was discussed in a really interesting way like separating romantic love  and kind of physical sexual love and the struggle of explaining that to people and like and feeling  like your feelings are at war with each other other all the time. Dealt with like heavy and  complicated and interesting things in a beautiful dark and creepy way. Don't Let the Forest In. That  easily segues us into our next section which is Creepy Woods, a creepy forest. What signals autumn  more than that? So starting off with another book I've read recently which is My Throat An Open  Grave. I've mentioned that I think that this is very Ethel Cain-coded. We follow a girl who lives  in a very small town. I believe it's supposed to be Appalachia. And this small town follows a kind  of warped version of Christianity and it plays a role in every aspect of her life. But there's this  kind of fantasy element to it because the town has been suffering from disappearances/kidnappings  of very young children and they believe it's all linked to the - is it the god of the forest? - excuse  me the lord of the wood. In order to get those children back, they need to sacrifice a sinner  to Lord of the wood. Like they are sent into this haunted forest and they need to bring the baby  back, they need to find the lord of the wood, talk to him, convince him to give the children back and  wouldn't you know it - none of those Sinners, none of those sacrifices, have ever come back. And so when  our main character's baby brother goes missing and the town's people point to her as The Sinner,  we follow her into the woods. Obviously incredibly dark - read the trigger warnings but  I just loved the setting. I think that the maybe the kind of 75% mark it kind of lost me a little  bit but I thought that the ending, just overall a really excellent dark book that felt like it  had a fairy tale element to it but actually is heavily heavily rooted in reality. And yeah I don't  want to give you too much more but haunted forest, creepy small town borderlining on a cult - that is  My Throat an Open Grave. And if you love a sentient forest like I do, I want to recommend our next book  which is Your Blood My Bones. This is by one of my new favorite authors of the year and we follow our  main girl who is returning back to her childhood home only to burn it to the ground. We don't really  know what happened but we know that she has not been back to her childhood home, she left one  summer never came back. Until today where she's got a book of matches and she's ready to just  let it go. But good for her, she kind of searches the house inside before she plans to destroy it,  when she hears a noise coming from the basement. And who is there but one of her childhood friends  and he is chained to the wall which is crazy that he's still alive because no one has been to this  house for years. So, uh, care to explain? This is a book that delves into childhood friendship,  very much a kind of secret society Illuminati cult kind of thing going on, a forest that is  taking over, weird strangers that can turn into crows and fly away, talking about immortality and  love and just oo - it was real juicy. There's also a little bit of like a sentient house as well  like everything's alive - or everything's dead? Who knows! My only complaint about this book is it's  written as a standalone but technically once you get to maybe the last quarter  it calls upon characters that were in her first book which is A Whispering Dark which I  also recommend - that one is also very autumnal - takes place in Boston, magical school, dealing  with crossing the veil between life and death. So those characters are in this. I felt like  knowing that going in like, I felt like we were in a completely other world you know so that was  like a little bit of a hiccup for me at the end but I still did really love Your Blood My Bones -  just perfect creepy house, creepy forest, creepy boys, and a girl who's just like damn it let  me burn my house down, you know? Please! Your Blood My Bones. I'm going to try and be real quick with  this one because technically I think I mentioned it in last year's Autumn video and I bring it up  every time I can - Last Tale of the Flower Bride. Yes this although technically not autumnal, I feel  like because there's so much imagery in this of like rotting nature, I just always link this  to Autumn. This book is told both in present day and in flashbacks where in present day we follow  a man who is falling in love with, or I believe has married his wife? This very mysterious woman. And  she has to go back to her childhood home then we get many flashbacks to her childhood where she is  raised in this just absolutely insane manor. She befriends this girl at school and they decide that  they are Fae children. They are changelings, it's only a matter of time before their  fae parents come and bring them back into the fae realm and they will be queens of the fae right? So  they live their lives in this very just decadent way like they'll only drink milk and honey and  they bathe in the moonlight and things like that. So it's just very like a modern-day fairy tale  but also, like any fairy tale, it also has that rotting layer to it like everything looks  beautiful on the surface but then there's just so much darkness and just dirt and grime and blood  and murder death decay. Just, I don't want to go too far into it but it was just a truly decadent  book. I will recommend it till the end of time - The Last Tale of the Flower Bride. And last  with our creepy forest category is one that's borderline - this is a little more summery and  this isn't my favorite work by the author but I felt like it was just a really great palette  cleanser and also I'll try to find a picture of it but, spoiler it's Holly Black, Holly black  always has these really wonderful illustrations for all of her chapters and it was just so -  I read I remember reading it, I was at this window seat in a cafe...so good. And this is the Darkest  Part of the Forest. Again, not not a fave of hers but just really good to kind of pass the time  if you're looking for something. We are in just like modern day small town - I'm pretty sure it's  New Jersey cuz she always writes about New Jersey. The only thing interesting about this town is that  they have a fairy prince sleeping in their woods Snow White style in a crystal casket. And tourists  come all the time to try and wake them up, the local kids that's where they go to have their like  parties or whatever in the woods - he's just he's just a man around town, the sleeping fae Prince. And  we follow two siblings who are kind of obsessed with him, like he's just this mystery that they  can't get out of their heads and they sort of love him and idolize him as you would - like this kind of  town mystery, this beautiful Sleeping Prince right? But one day he goes missing. The casket, the  unbreakable casket by the way believe me people have tried - it's empty and what do we do? So we  kind of follow this story of these siblings, this very grumpy fae Prince, and it just had kind of like  these weird back to school vibes but also like relatively small town/suburban America but  also a fae Prince creeping out of the woods. I don't know what it was, I just remember it scratching an  itch that I needed it to scratch. I don't remember it changing my life but it's just one of those  things -Holly Black, she writes a good fairy tale. That is the Darkest Part of the Forest. Now  diving into our next category - this is actually one of my favorite recent reads, I've talked about it  in multiple videos, tiktoks, reels, etc. So I'll keep it brief because I think you only need the tiniest  bit of information about this book to convince you to read it. So our next category is vampires, yes  indeed we're bringing in the vamps for fall. The first book on our list is This Ravenous Fate. This  was a book that I remember seeing the concept of way before it was ever released and it's stuck  in my mind, so once it got released I was like finally hands on this thing. We are in Manhattan in  the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance, the Jazz Age but this New York City also has Reapers AKA vampires.  We follow two former best friends - one is Elsie who is the oldest daughter of this steel empire. Her  father figured out how to make bullets that kill these Reapers and he's like one of the richest men  in the United States at this point. She is the heir to that legacy. And then we have her childhood best  friend - oh it's not going to come to me, and then we have her childhood best friend who is now ex-  best friend Layla who is a Reaper. How did she become a Reaper? We don't really know. Why aren't they best  friends anymore? Again unclear. When they team up to solve a string of murders, it's just delectable.  This book has so many layers to it. It's also not a standalone, so just be prepared that we  have to wait at least another year for this to continue - fair warning. It talks a lot about like  political intrigue and shady business matters and things like that and how, you know, in the 20s New  York was heavily influenced by gangs and how the government secretly worked with them but also like  villainized them and all these things - so that in itself was really interesting. We're also dealing  with our main characters are two young Black women in the 1920s but Elsie's family has a lot of money  and she's living in this like Upper East Side compound basically so there's also a talk of not  only racism but talking about classism and it's a sapphic romance and there's everybody's wearing like  sequined outfits, there's a grumpy cat named Hendricks - there are just so many moving parts that  I felt like the the book isn't incredibly long but I just felt like I lived in that world for a  really long time if that makes sense. Like it was built so well and so immersively and it  was so visual that I was in it the whole time and if I remember correctly I believe we start at the  end of summer and kind of start this little Autumn in New York feeling. Just a great debut and I want  more vampire books, give me all of them always no matter the season, thank you. That is This Ravenous  Fate. Ooh next up I have a physical but where what the heck, oh jeez right at the bottom, oh no come  out. Okay there's a vampire in here right? Don't correct if there's not, there is, yeah there is okay.  I want to recommend When Among Crows. I read this as an arc and my main complaint about this  book is that it's not long enough. It's only 160 something pages. It should be longer. Which  strangely, okay I don't know where it is but I also read another one of her books called the  Arch Conspirator and that was also way too short. Like Veronica, run with it. Let your story breathe  girl! Like I so desperately wanted more. This is a urban fantasy, takes place in Chicago but  the fantastical underworld of Chicago of course. Where we have witches and these ancient Godlike  beings and vampires. I believe the vampires are in charge of the nightclubs if I remember correctly.  We're breaking a curse, we're breaking a curse. This calls back to a lot of Polish folklore, our  main character is from Poland and it's discussed a lot about the Polish language and immigrating and  the loss of the Polish language and things like that so there was this call back to all of these  just very old folktales but you're also like driving around Chicago at night. Like you've got  the street cars going overhead, you're in these like dark alley. The vibes - off the charts. Again  why wasn't this longer? I just want to I just would love to know why. But yeah this was just  wonderful. If it had 100 more pages I would be satisfied perhaps but that is When Among Crows. Oh  my gosh and finally my final vampire book in this category is one that I don't hear anyone talking  about for the life of me I don't remember where I heard about it from. Even Googling it is difficult.  You have to go, let me - before I say that let me look it up. Yeah there's a movie with the same  title so if you're going to Google it is it a no, oh my God there's also a book about it  Jesus sorry everyone. If you want to find it you have to Google either the author's name which  I have down below or up here but you have to Google Heart of Stone vampire book okay? Because  there are other books called Heart of Stone. Guys, this is like cozy, I think it takes place in the  in the 1700s. It's a story about a vampire and his secretary falling in love in the - it's 1764  it says \"The year is 1764 and following a glowing recommendation from his last employer Henry Cofe,  vampire, takes on a new personal secretary young Theophilis Essex.\" It's a period romance and  it was just cute. I think it was like plot - where? But it was one of those that's just so atmospheric,  the romance is just so funny because we have like the secretary is very, you know, prim and  proper and we're going to get these things done the way that I need to and then the vampire is a  little bit like but don't you want to like chat? Wanna hang out sometime? It's just the dynamic is  very cute. It was very unique and I enjoyed the setting so much and the romance was adorable -  Heart of Stone. Just a great time if you if you really do love vampire stories, this  was just adorable. So once again that author and everything all the information will be down below.  It's kind of difficult to find but she cute, she cute. Heart of Stone. For our next category I gave you  creepy forests, now we are going to have creepy/sentient houses. There's nothing I love more  than a sentient house story. I don't know know what it is but I love it, I would love more if  you have any great sentient house stories leave them down below. I don't care if it's like demonic  possession, I don't care if it's like a cozy happy house - I will read them all. All right, thank you. So  starting off with House of Roots and Ruin. This I do not believe is a sentient house but this is  a creepy ass house. This is by the same author as House of Salt and Sorrow. I only read it once and  it is due for a reread. I think I would like it more now just because of like my taste changing  perhaps. You don't technically need to read House of Salt and Sorrow to read House of Roots and Ruin -  they're very separate but you do get a call back to some of the characters like the main couple in  salt and sorrow, you know their ending. But in terms of like understanding the world, you don't  need, it's fine, you're good you can just dive right in. House of Roots and Ruin follows one  of the sisters from, like I said the original book, there were like 12 of them. Follows one of  the youngest sisters who is living with one of her older sisters in this manor by the sea. And she's  kind of like I want to go see the world, I want to get out of this house. And the perfect excuse  comes when she receives a letter requesting her presence. I need to - this is where, I was doing  so well and then I lost the plot. How? So okay okay okay okay oh okay I came back. So this sister is  particularly good at art. She is a painter and she received a letter requesting that she  come visit this other manor to paint a portrait of the family or of the son in particular and so  she is like, get me out of this house like yes I cannot be on this carriage fast enough. When  she gets there it is a creepy house, it's actually like a gorgeous house but the owner is a botanist  and so there's just like green houses, weird plants growing everywhere, very gothic feeling. She ends up  like needing to hang out with the son a lot so that she can capture his essence in a portrait  instead of just like painting him randomly you know? So they end up spending time  together, forming a really cute relationship, and then things just start getting weird.  We start to unravel some weird family secrets, she starts to see things out her window at night,  you know very gothic, creepy plants growing everywhere, like it was just really good. Theending? I've heard rumors - this has never been confirmed - but I heard a I think somebody  commented it that her editor suggested that she change the ending a bit and whoever that  editor is...it's on sight. Like what?! so this is meant to be kind of like house of Salt and  Sorrow a standalone within a continued world. If we don't continue this story, I - I'm unwell.Just like the balls to do what she did. Yeah this book is the reason why also - oh my God it's so dark  I'm sorry clouds, rain - the lighting is always crazy in my videos but I feel like just today  I'm noticing. This is the book that convinced me that I need to go back and read House of Salt  and Sorrow because I was like, she wrote this!? Why didn't I love salt and sorrow? And I again  I think it was maybe just like my taste changed but yeah not a perfect book but very atmospheric  very creepy - a House of Roots and Ruin. Better get a continuation of it, I'm actually going to  check that right now. Allegedly the next one's coming out in 2026 but it's following anothersister?! What okay okay I'm getting distracted sorry focus. Next sentient house, I think this  was my first yeah this was my first book of the year actually and that is Starling House. and  my battery is dying, see you in a sec. Starling House by Alix E Harrow. Hit after hit after hit  after hit. Starling House is an odd one because I loved the atmosphere and the general concept and  the setup but I wish she went a little deeper into the actual character relationship. After  I kind of like let myself calm down from enjoying - it was a fully, like I was into it a fully enjoyable  read but upon reflection I was sort of like but I didn't really feel the connection, I think that  her connect our main character's connection with the house is stronger than the connection with  the other main human. So five stars for sentient house points, wish there was a little more of  that love and care to the human relationship. We are in a small town in Kentucky that used  to be a big coal town but since the loss of that industry and everything it's just been this kind  of rundown town, town where dreams kind of go to die is what it seems like. But there is this one  house in particular that is always boarded up and you only very rarely see anyone come in or  out called the Starling House and our main character who has grown up in this town, has  always felt kind of called to it even when she knows that there shouldn't be anybody in the house  she always sees like a light come on and start flickering, like she just feels like the house  or whoever's in it is trying to communicate with her. And one day she just can't take it anymore  she opens up the gate and goes in. She ends up convincing the one person living in the house  that she is a great fixer upper and like house cleaner so she ends up coming back to the house  often and we started to unravel the mystery of this house. And like I said it had a really  wonderful concept, very Gothic, could also maybe be put in the creepy forest category. Unraveling  the secret of the town itself. This kind of like eerie fantasy feeling but then taking place  in like small town Kentucky. Great vibes for me it was a little bit just a little bit of a  miss in terms of strong characters but I think if you're more okay with like a more ambiguous  kind of love, if that makes sense, this will do it for you. I just love the house feeling,  that's the Starling House. Another creepy house story and this one has one of my other favorite  elements which is a piece of media within a piece of media. And that is when ghosts call us home.  We are following our main girl whose name is - I'm cheating - whose name is Sophia. And she is strangely  famous because of her older sister Leila who made this kind of, just like a home film home movie  low budge horror movie while they were staying in this one house. Their parents are architects  so they're constantly moving to different places to fix them up or whatever so over this one summer  they were living in this creepy manor house on a cliff and Leila was like perfect setting, haunted  house, let's go. The movie became this kind of cult classic, almost has a religious following to it and  even though Sophia has tried to distance herself from it in the following decade or so after cuz  they were like 14 and 12 or something, like they were little kids that made this horrifying film  right - Sophia doesn't want to be known as like the girl who starred in the horror movie so she really  tries to distance herself from it until one day her sister goes missing. And so when a documentary  filmmaker approaches Sophia and is like 'hey I got the rights to go back to that house and I want to  make a documentary about Leila and about the film'  Sophia sees this as an opportunity to return to  kind of the scene of the crime and hopefully try and find her sister. It is creepy as hell. I love  I just love reading about fake lore - like I love reading about lore in general but like the lore  of this fake film was just so good. It had little takeaways from like message boards and things  like that of people trying to piece together the symbolism and all this stuff. It was just really  creepy and fun to read. Definitely just eerie from beginning to end. Yeah I can't, that's that's all  it's just like a creepy house, may or may not be haunted, on a cliff, missing sister. The documentary  filmmaker's grand idea for this documentary is to force Sophia to refilm all of the horror film  scenes so then we also have like \"is that special effects or am I seeing things or is that a shost\"  you know? The line between reality and special effects is very blurred. It's just great. That is  When Ghosts Call Us Home. And last but not least, this is not a sentient house but it takes place  in a house and I just think this was like, this was just a perfect like cheesy slasher film. So in  terms of like my general enjoyment, would I choose to read many books like this - no. But especially  around Halloween, if you are looking for a classic just like teenage slasher film for the holidays,  this checks all those boxes. There's No Way I'd Die First. Again not super my cup of tea, not normally  what I would go for but a good time for what it was. We're following our main girl who is a  high school student obsessed with horror movies - specifically horror films by Black directors. She  has like a podcast, a big social media following, and she's also wealthy as hell so she lives in  this like big bougie house right? So for Halloween she decides to have this kind of movie party, scary  movie party, where she invites all of the cool people. She wants every to like live stream blah  blah blah to just kind of boost her social media following because she wants to use her project  that she like her social media project to help her get into film school right, is what she's trying to  do. So there's a lot of that kind of talk within the book of like oh my God how many followers did  I gain, and that kind of - so again not super my cup of tea but it felt correct in this book.  What happens when the horror movie party turns into a horror movie itself where all of a sudden  people just start getting getting killed in the house? Then it starts to turn into like which  of us is the murderer? Is this a nightmare? Kind of thing. Very like cheesy slasher film like don't  expect anything else from this but it delivered exactly what it said it was going to so and it  read very much like a movie, like it almost felt like I was reading more of a screenplay but I  read it, I believe during like spring and I just remember reading it thinking I should be reading  this in October. So there you go, There's No Way I'd Die First. And now we've reached our final category  which is family secrets. And we're starting off with one that I think kind of straddles the summer  autumn divide and that is the Unmaking of June Farrow. This was a pleasant surprise because I  really like Adrienne Young but I found that I didn't love her adult work. I love Fable and Namesake so  much, her young adult fantasy pirate kind of duology - loved. But her adult work was sort of just  like okay to me. The Unmaking of June Farrow, however, was excellent. I don't want to say too much  but it deals with time travel, it deals with family secrets and it deals with a kind of descent into  madness perhaps? It seems like for generations her family, all the women in her family tend to  go kind of mad I suppose and so June is just sort of waiting for that to happen to her. And June can  already feel that this is happening because she often times hears or sees things that aren't there  like she'll hear a phone ringing where there has never been a phone or she'll see a candle  flickering in a house that she knows nobody lives in kind of thing. So she knows like it's inevitable,  she is descending into the kind of family illness I suppose. But when her grandma dies and she  is given a letter, a little clue about her past, things start to unravel rather quickly and it is  just unexpectedly sad. Again there's just this beautiful time travel element to it and it's just  I really liked it guys. I only read it once, I read it I guess last year but even thinking about  it now my heart squeezes a little bit you know? Very like took me by surprise. I went in with  relatively low expectations and it was beautiful so if you like reading about small towns, family,  time travel - that is the Unmaking of June Farrow. Next up, one of my favorite reads of the year hands  down, loved. This is Our Hideous Progeny. This is inspired by Frankenstein and it is excellent. So  we are a generation later after Dr Frankenstein. His niece, his great niece I think it might be his  great niece yeah so we're two generations after Dr Frankenstein. And our main girl is also a scientist.  She is married to a scientist, together they work on like scientific discoveries and she does a lot  of the illustrating and things like that. They're very much a part of the kind of science world and  this is taking place in the 18 ...- the 1850s in London. So they're a part of this kind of like  revolutionary time in the science world right? But they're also not making any money so the husband  and wife kind of look at each other and they're like we've got to make some kind of discovery to  put us on the map, like we have to in order to get any funding, we need to have something to stand on  you know? We have to have discovered something. And desperate times call for desperate measures so  our main girl whose name is, oh Mary that makes sense, so she's like you know my great uncle  Victor Frankenstein had these crazy journals and they look like the writings of a madman but what  if he did it? What if he succeeded and what if we could do it too? And so they head up to the  highlands of Scotland where the family has some home that they can do experiments without being  watched too closely and they try to make a new life. It was just really beautiful. At its core  it's a love story. There's queer representation in the 1850s. It was just again so atmospheric so if  you tend to like in Autumn time feel like reading Frankenstein, perhaps give Our Hideous Progeny a  look as well. Because it did capture that feeling but with a bit more levity I suppose -like what  if Frankenstein loved his monster, you know? Our Hideous Progeny. Women in stem. We're getting  a typhoon so it's - it's rolling and I'm once again I will show you just how fast...this isnot a . Do you see how fast those clouds moving? I'm trying to remain still. Anyway the wind is kind  of wild right now. Anyway back to our family secrets. I would like to recommend Blood Debts  and leave it to me to just find out that the second book came out, this so out of the it  came out in April? God I'm so behind. Okay so I've only read the first book but yeah this is  Blood Debts. This takes place in New Orleans. We are following a couple families that come from  a long line of magic practitioners and we follow - I believe they're twins if not they're just brother  and sister - but we follow these siblings who, one gave up magic, one was like screw this I'm done  and the other remained part of that world. But they have to team up to figure out who has cursed their  mother and as a result their whole family. Something I just love the vibes - there's a  huge portion of the book that takes place on like one of those big boats - I can't I can't explain  there's like a big, they're on a large boat and I don't know something about that...the wind scared  me okay. It has a lot of really dark themes though so be aware before going in. I love when  a magical world is tied so strongly to family and this one just did it really well, also excellent  queer representation in this one and I just have such a vague memory of the actual plot but this  is another one that I just remember the vibes really well. A lot of like tension between all  of the magical families, tension between magical people and non-magical people on a backdrop of  New Orleans. Just oof. So yeah I have to read the second one. The second one is Blood Justice.  And now my TBR just got longer so yay but yeah Blood Debts: magic, secrets, mystery, New Orleans. And last  but not least for our family secrets - this one's a little bit of a stretch but go with me - this  is The Invocations. This is by the same author as House of Hollow which I also recommend but I felt  like I liked the Invocations more. This author does something that I think Holly Black does well also  is telling a kind of fairy tale or in this case more witches, but using that kind of magical  fantasy imagery in such a gross way. This isn't about like pretty sparkly magic, this is about like  rotting decaying dirty magic okay? There's a lot of blood, there's a lot of oozing in this one. We end  up following three girls who, at the end of the day, team up to find a serial killer in London. The way  that they come together I think is so interesting. I find that when there's kind of an ensemble cast  like multiple main characters, one of them tends to be stronger than the other but I felt like this  was so perfectly balanced. I was so interested in each of their stories and then I loved them  together. We are following a witch, I think is she called a witch, a girl who is capable of magic  who writes curses specifically for women in need, usually like domestic violence situations  things like that. She writes, she uses her magic specifically to protect women. We have one girl who  is trying to to dip her toe in necromancy which we know is never a good thing and she's kind of  run out of options so she approaches our magical girl hoping that she could lend a helping hand.  And then our final girl tried to use magic herself, cursed herself horribly and would like some help  because her leg for the entire book is like dead rotting oozing flesh. She is stanky, the whole book  it always talks about how much she stinks. Anyway so they have their own problems to deal with but  then they also have this serial killer who seems to be targeting women who use magic, specifically  people who have used these curses to try and help themselves out of dangerous situations right? So  it's very dark but it's also funny. I can't say too much more, that it was just a great time  like it balanced a very serious subject matter with these just like stupid funny teenage girls.  Highly recommend Invocations - witches, female rage, London. I think technically in summer but  you know what, what is summer in England all right? No offense, I mean that as a compliment. Invocations.And then last but not least incredibly quickly - I could not, this is just my miscellaneous please  read them my final plea for you. I don't know how many times I need to say these books. First of all  I started to write down a couple different books by T Kingfisher but then I realized just anything  by T Kingfisher works. Recently read a Sorceress Comes to Call which is a retelling of the goose  girl I believe that's a Grim Brothers fairy tale. Creepy sort of like almost at an Agatha Christiefeel to it at moments. Toxic mother, evil witch, evil horse? Lots of weird things going on. Also Thorn  hedge is a very quick very short retelling of Sleeping Beauty but from the perspective of the  person guarding the tower. Cute hilarious romance. Gorge, loved. But also if you want horror there's  the Twisted Ones which is like fixing up an old house, which I just, I love reading about that like  taking out the trash, boxing things up - love books about moving out of a house. But there's also a  haunted forest and a dog that is a main character. Anything by T Kingfisher - What Moves the Dead!  eEerything Autumn coded. Did you hear my wrist crack? Anything by T Kingfisher, read it. I don't  know how many times I have to say that. And then finally - September October November what is  it if not baseball season? So I will leave you with my final recommendation which might  seem a little different than my others which is You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian. This is  a romance that takes place in New York in the 1960s. It revolves around a baseball player who  is in a slump and the journalist who is tasked with helping him write a weekly article to kind  of get his confidence and get his fan base back because everybody hates this guy. It turns into a  sweet little romance. It's wonderful but it's also like historically accurate. What does it mean to  not only be gay in New York in the 1960s but to be a celebrity in the limelight, being a professional  major league baseball player and being gay in Manhattan in the 1960s? Read everything by Cat  Sebastian as well okay? T Kingfisher and Cat Sebastian are my like no questions asked gimme  gimme gimme eating everything up by them authors. So yeah give yourself, if you're a baseball fan, tis  the season is it not? Right. So that's my that's my list. My very long list. We have seen every  kind of weather as I filmed this. I have lost my voice a bit in the process. My room smells of  pumpkin spice, I wish I could share it with you. Yeah leave me your recommendations. You do not  have any time constraints on your recommendations - if you read it years ago, if you have haven't read  it and you're just looking forward to it, let me know but I cannot wait, I cannot wait  for Autumn. I'm melting here. I'm not having a good time. The summer vibes in Korea, I've never  been a fan, I never will be a fan. So give me your recommendations, help me feel like I'm in Autumn  already and I hope you're doing well. This was very fun for me to make and I'll catch  you guys next time. Just a warning, I will actually be in Slovenia for almost two weeks next  month so I might drop off the face of the Earth, drop off the face of YouTube for a couple weeks  but if you want to follow me you can always follow me on Instagram. I'm always updating there and yeah  then by the time I come back to Korea hopefully Autumn will have started and we will rejoice.  So I will catch you guys then but thank you as always and let me know what you're reading bye!\n"