**The Experience of Reading "Nitty's Faves"**

I want to start by saying that I had an incredible time reading through Nitty's favorite books, and I'm so glad I got to share this experience with all of you. This was a unique taste test for me, as I got to ask Nitty about her true favorites, which made it even more special. I also loved getting to talk to her while I read each book, which added an extra layer of depth to the experience.

Overall, I feel like this taste test was completely different from any other one I've done in the past. It was just a really fun and enjoyable experience, and I'm so glad I got to share it with all of you. Even though not all of the books were perfect for me, I loved them all in their own way, and that's what made this taste test so special.

**Wrap-up**

I've been filming videos for this taste test since October, and as we're now in January, I have to admit that I've kind of forgotten my feelings about some of the books. But I want to assure you all that this wrap-up is still going to be helpful, even if it's not entirely objective.

First up was "The Winner's Curse" by Marie Rutkoski, which unfortunately didn't quite live up to my expectations. I gave it two stars overall, and I think what really disappointed me was the slow burn romance and the heroine's character, which just didn't resonate with me. This made for a book that wasn't really perfect for me.

The next book on the list was "Chain of Gold" by Cassandra Clare, which I absolutely adored! I gave it five stars and am so excited to dive back into her backlist soon. There's something about Cassie's writing style that just draws me in, and I love how much depth she brings to each character.

Then came "It Doesn't Burn", the sixth book in The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. This one was okay for me – it wasn't exactly a standout, but I didn't dislike it either. There were definitely some themes that resonated with me, and I appreciate how Marisa explores the complexities of human relationships.

After that came "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi, which I can confidently say is one of my favorite books from this taste test. This graphic novel was so informative about recent Iranian history, and seeing it through Marjane's eyes made it feel more accessible and relatable. It's a must-read for anyone looking to learn more about the Middle East.

Last but not least was "Normal People" by Sally Rooney, which I've already discussed in detail elsewhere. Let's just say that this book left me feeling pretty mixed – there were definitely some things I loved, but others didn't quite sit right with me. Still, I appreciate how Sally explores themes of human connection and power dynamics.

**The Verdict**

So, after all the books are said and done, which one stands out as a must-read? For me, it's without a doubt "Persepolis". This book was so well-written, informative, and accessible that I can confidently recommend it to anyone looking for a compelling read. Of course, everyone has their own tastes, but if you're interested in learning more about recent Iranian history or just want to dive into a great graphic novel, this is the one to start with.

**Conclusion**

And that's it! That's my wrap-up of Nitty's Faves taste test. I hope you all enjoyed reading through these books as much as I did, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share this experience with all of you. If you want to check out more of Niddy's content, be sure to subscribe to her channel – she's an absolute joy to watch!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enafter reading channel gold i was like where are the people that want to talk about this book i'm right here hello welcome back to my channel and welcome to the seventh episode of taste test wherein i test other booktubers favorite books and see if our tastes align so in today's video i am so so excited because i'm going to be taste testing niddy from nitty ready reads favorite books nitty is pretty new here on this platform and i instantly fell in love with her infectious personality and her amazing videos she already has a thousand subscribers which is super exciting but i would love to see your channel get some more love so after you check out this video before you check out this video go check out eddie's channel i'll link it in the description down below but i'm just so excited for this video i think me and eddie probably have a very similar taste from what i can tell from some of her favorite books so i don't know i'm just so excited let me briefly show you guys what books i'm going to be reading i'm not going to do a synopsis this time around for all of the books because i feel like it's a little repetitive when i'm already going to kind of like explain what the books about as i read so let me tell you guys five books i've selected and then we can just get into the vlog portion of this video so the first book that i picked for this video is actually not a novel it is a series of poems and it is the witch doesn't burn and this one by amanda lovelace i've read something by amanda lovelace before i really enjoyed it and i decided to pick up poetry because it's kind of outside of my comfort zone i haven't found a lot of modern poetry that i really love but nitty talks really highly of this i think she said she like skipped school to read this once so i don't know that's like all the convincing i need to pick this book up the next book again is not a novel i i don't know i'm just i'm feeling bold and zesty and i wanted to pick up some non-traditionally formatted books because i tend to just stick to a typical novel and i wanted you know i wanted to switch it up for this video so i picked up the complete persepolis by marjon tropi i think i'm saying that right i looked it up for this video but i am a little bit stupid so anyway i am super interested in picking this book up because it's been on my shelves for a while and i just don't tend to pick up the graphic novels or the comics that i have on my shelves this book from my knowledge i know i said it would do a synopsis but it is about the iranian revolution so i'm very very excited to get to this one again it's it's memoir it's a little non-traditional in that it's not a typical novel it's something that i normally pick up for my channel so anyway the next three books are very typical picks for me because i love fiction i love ya i love romance and these all kind of fall into those categories the first one is normal people by sally rooney i've heard so many great things about this book i don't know much except for it's kind of an opposite attract romance and that's all i need to know to go into this one i am i'm excited i need to see what the buzz is about i might during this video watch the hulu adaptation i don't know we're excited as you can tell the next book i'm going to be listening to entirely on audio and it is the winner's curse by marie rutkoski and this one is that typical ya i don't know if it's dystopian but i know this is primarily like a romance have ui a and i've heard nothing but good things about it i actually like saw some quotes recently that was kind of making me want to pick this book up so excited to get that one and then of course uh i feel like i saved the best and the most exciting book for last uh chain of gold by cassandra clare obviously niddy really likes this one it's the book that inspired this video it's the book that inspired niddy to make a booktube channel so it's only fitting that we read this book and i am just super excited to get back into cassandra clare's world especially one that has the parents not the parents of people that i like but seeing my faves become parents i think is going to be really exciting so anyway i i've said it a million times but i'm so excited to do this taste test so let's just get into the vlog portion of this video and we can see if niddy's tastes align with mine okay i am 50 into the winner's curse by marie rydkowski don't know what to say about this book except for it is not at all what i had expected i guess just simply looking at this cover i assumed it was going to be kind of like the selection something sort of like lighthearted heavy on the romance because i had seen a lot about this on twitter and some other platforms people like quoting it and just really emphasizing the romantic appeal of this book and i'm not saying it's not romance heavy but it's kind of like dark almost i would describe this kind of as like the wrath of the dawn meets torch against the knight maybe or an ember in the ashes yeah that's the first book because it has some darkness to it i'm not sure that i love the world building as much in this book as those other two books but it gives me similar vibes so this book is about a girl named kestrel and she is the daughter of a conqueror that the daughter of a war leader i don't think he's like in charge but he's a very well-respected war leader and they have recently conquered this land and have taken the conquered citizens as slaves one day our main character kestrel is roaming the markets with one of her friends and her friend like kind of accidentally takes them into the portion of the city where the slave auctions happen and as kestrel is witnessing this she is very disheartened and i mean she has had like slaves in her life she has one that she actually like freed herself but i guess she kind of tries to like separate herself from that but when she is in the presence of the slave auctions happening she ends up purchasing a man who i believe is like around her age so the story mostly so far has been kestrel and the slave named i think it's rn it's kind of about their relationship and it's not a romantic relationship yet but i think we're slowly building to that i don't have like any super strong opinions and thoughts about this book yet but i will say i wish this book kind of knew what it was the feeling of the book is very amber and ash's meets wrathing the dawn it's just the world is not quite there and i don't think the romantic relationship has really developed in a way that i'm excited about i mean i guess i can appreciate the fact that i think it's going to be a slow burn because i mean we're 50 into the book and they're not like really feeling romantic feelings for each other but i don't know i'm just like i'm not bored the writing is really pretty but it's not something that is like really grabbing my attention so i can understand why niddy likes it i feel like now that i'm thinking about it the stuff that i feel like she likes tends to be nicely written i'm not saying that she's like obsessed with flowery language but i feel like the things that she tends to enjoy tend to be very beautiful uh from what i can tell from her recommendations that i have also read curious to see where this goes curious to see if this romantic relationship develops into something that like i'm excited about or if it's something that i'm just like about i don't know i guess i'm most interested in seeing how dissimilar or similar me and niddy's tastes are when it comes to romance because i think there's gonna be romance and at least three of these five books and i don't know from what i've seen on her goodreads we don't tend to like line up when it comes to like romantic uh stories so i don't know i don't know how to feel but it's not bad so far i'm gonna finish this up tonight and i will check in with you guys once i have my final thoughts okay so i finished the winner's curse i finished this book like four days ago and i'm not gonna lie to you i remember very little of what actually transpired in the last like 50 of this book i think i'm probably gonna give it two stars as a result initially after finishing it i was like you know what i think i'm gonna give this three stars but the longer that i kind of sit with my feelings or i guess lack of feelings about it i think i'm just gonna give it two stars it was not bad i could definitely understand why people like it but i don't think that it accomplished what it set out to do and that in my opinion is a like slow burn romance i just did not feel any chemistry between these two characters the entire time i was reading i'm just kind of astounded that this is supposed to be some like groundbreaking romance maybe it's like a love triangle situation in the next books and like rn is not the like endgame relationship but i didn't really like castrol and rn together i'm just surprised anyone likes them to get i don't know that sounds bad i just like there was nothing there for me in general i don't know i just didn't love the premise of this book i think having kestrel be the owner of another person and then not fully realize her complacency and complicity in the situation was a little frustrating i was hoping that by the end of the book she would feel more rebellious and feel more judgmental of her society but i just like didn't see any of that in the first book i just feel like she was at the same place at the beginning of the book that she was at the end the lack of character development i don't know this was just not my favorite it wasn't bad and i do i can understand because the writing was pretty why niddy liked this but it wasn't my favorite and i'm not gonna feel too guilty about that because i did start another book and i am adoring it i totally understand why niddy likes this one so let's go ahead and talk about the second book that i'm reading for this video a book that i am 28 into and that is chain of gold by cassandra clare where to begin with this book i have so many thoughts so many feelings also i'm just in a particularly good mood it is november 7th and i'm wearing blue baby so i'm in a good mood but let's talk about this book i will say i initially started this by picking it up and reading it physically which was not a bad choice per se but just looking at all of the names on paper got me too bogged down in what the relationships were between everybody and i really think cassandra clare kind of overloaded the cast on this one to a really bloated extent like there's just there's too many people in this book and i think it would be okay if they were all just kind of like listed by name but no we have to know that they're like cousins or family friends or enemies it's just it's a lot to take in especially in the first literal chapter of this book you get so much just dumped it to so i decided to pick up the audio and that was a really good decision i am enjoying the experience i'm both listening and reading at the same time and it's been really nice the audiobook narrator is fantastic so if you're thinking about picking this book up definitely pick up the audio it's really really good shadowhunters books in general can be kind of hit or miss when it comes to the audio or renditions and this one is actually very good so i would recommend picking it up in that form but the story is really good i would say our two main characters are cordelia carstairs and james harrendale there are so many other characters at play but james is the son of tessa and he has demonic powers and demonic abilities he has the ability to go to kind of like other dimensions where demons reside and this is something that's sort of plaguing him and he's trying to kind of figure out how to work with these powers anyway he lives in london with a bunch of his friends and a girl he knew from his childhood cordelia carstairs comes to london because she is trying to ingratiate herself with london society because her father is in the hands of the clave he has like uh up basically and he's kind of in jail he's in shadowhunter jail and she's trying to get people on her side so that they might potentially petition the clave or just just generally be on her side right so that's kind of her mission and there's been a long period of peace since the happenings of the infernal devices trilogy but now demons are back in london and shadowhunters are trying to figure out what they need to do and how the attacks now are differing from the ones that happened in that series so there's a lot at play and that's just like the main stuff that's happening there's a ton of side relationships and machinations and that's going on behind the scenes we also have a character named lucy who is really cute uh james's sister who is a troublemaker and she kind of reminds me of like a heroine in a regency romance she's got a lot of like quirky attributes and i really like her we also have grace who i really hate who's annoying and we don't need to go into detail about her yeah i stopped at a really good point in this book i think to tell you guys sort of what it's about i am just thoroughly enjoying this i didn't expect it i mean i did because i do i love the shadowhunters universe i know cassandra clare is like problematic and that not a lot of people like pick up her books now in terms of like getting into her series but been reading her since i was a freshman in high school and i really do like her series in the world that she's built so it feels very comforting i guess to revisit it infernal devices was never my favorite series so i was kind of unsure of how i was going to feel going into this book but i'm liking it a lot i think it is a lot more action-packed than the infernal devices which is definitely a good thing because i thought those were sort of boring so i guess that is one of the good things like there are too many characters on the one hand but the plot is interesting enough to kind of make up for that hair and deals are as stupid as ever the characters in these are really fun and i'm excited to see where things go especially with the romantic relationships everybody has to be paired up that's just how cassandra clare books work and at the moment i think we're supposed to be rooting for cordelia and james to get together although james is a dumbass and likes this grace character who i don't know she just has like big demon energy she gave james this necklace for like safe keeping and i really feel like she's trying to leash him or something i don't know i just feel like there's something there there's definitely something there she wouldn't just throw that in right yeah i don't know i don't know if i'm making any sense this is probably only going to be like a really relevant or interesting thing to hear about if you've read any of these books or if you've particularly read this one but i'm having a really good time this is probably going to be like the most jam-packed reading vlog because i am probably going to want to talk in detail about this book but anyway i'm rambling at this point let me go ahead and read some more of it i'm going to try to get to the 50 mark before i talk to you again no promises though because i'm sure a lot's gonna happen this is an incredibly long book i'm gonna keep reading i've looked at you guys as i continue okay i am 51 into this book and i feel like it left off on the perfect spot essentially james is continuing to be the biggest idiot alive as i'm sure we're not like surprised at because hair deals are just dumb right things are taking shape now and i think we're kind of finally getting a little bit more direction in this story like there was definitely action from the beginning but i don't think we had a very clear expectation of what the story was going to turn into it's still sort of a mess but i'm kind of interested in what's happening they're trying to figure out who these demons are and in doing so they have come into contact with some warlocks and have gotten themselves into some like sort of interesting situations so i'm enjoying that component also the relationships between the like 30 and 50 mark have really like ratcheted up like things are complicated complex and messy as and i'm kind of actually enjoying it i mean there are too many characters for sure i still maintain that but i am actually kind of liking the relationships going on here so i'm gonna put a spoiler card right here again this is this whole clip this whole section this whole book is going to be filled with spoilers or at least my reactions to it are because i feel like i can't really talk about this book without them james and grace i really i mean i never rooted for them and i don't think you're supposed to but i really i'm just desperate to know what grace is i don't think she's human or i don't think she's a shadowhunter i swear to god she's a demon or she summons demons or something she just has a bad energy about her that is super evidenced by the fact that she just kissed james's best friend matthew and she compelled him to do it so i don't really know where that like impulse or power i guess came from from her i think it's kind of backing my idea that she is demonic in some way i wonder if she is like in leagues with james's grandfather who's a demon i really i want to know her backstory and like what her issue is so that's sort of what literally just happened she just kissed matthew in the like last page before i decided to film a clip for this i am loving the other relationships that are happening i like that we're finally getting i say finally getting i like matthew a lot i think he's a complex character like hair and deals are great don't get me wrong i like james he's just too similar to will to me he doesn't have enough like complexity in my opinion besides having literally two brain cells i really like matthew because he's like troubled and i like that he's a little bit of an alcoholic which is interesting i've never seen that sort of thing in a shadowhunter's novel but i like that he has a thing for lucy herendale i like that that's probably going to be like a cute like brother's best friend kind of childhood friends to lovers romance hopefully i like that that's cute i don't know it's like i'm not anti jordelia i just i'm never super into the main romances i feel that's actually a lie what am i talking talking about i like the main romances usually the only like main romance i haven't liked in the shadowhunters universe is uh will and tessa so i guess that doesn't completely like illegitimize my disdain or like unenjoyment of the two of them together in this book um james and cordelia i don't know what i'm trying to say i just want to know oh oh i forgot i forgot to forgot so we found out that alistair cordelia's brother is gay or at least bisexual i think he's gay though actually no he definitely is okay i don't know what i'm talking about because he said that he would never marry a woman to like cover up his gayness i guess unlike his lover charles so that's fascinating and there's been a lot of like upheaval in relationships so charles is in politics and he was gonna marry ariadne who's a lesbian but he isn't going to marry ariadne anymore he's going to marry grace and that is like the whole thing r.i.p james he's upset that grace isn't going to be with him but also okay i'm so all over the place with this so sorry james is i keep saying he's an idiot but i don't think i'm really expanding upon that the reason james is so stupid is because he keeps getting like pulled in and sucked in by grace who's obviously some sort of demon he keeps talking about how he feels this like other pull towards cordelia and it's like yes because that's you're supposed to like like what it's not even late i don't even have that excuse as to why i am not being very coherent but lots of thoughts most of them good this is entertaining but i think this is probably where i'm gonna leave off tonight i think once i get to the 75 percent mark i'm going to update again i could update at 100 but like i don't want to i want to keep talking about this book so so i've hit the 75 mark in this book and hi do you want to talk about the book with me the one thing that i feel like i can confidently say is that cassandra clare and her time in writing fan fiction uh definitely knows how to write a good kiss the consummation kiss between james and cordelia was really good i kind of forgot how much i get invested in cassandra clare relationships like i said i wasn't really like super on board with james and cordelia but i'm kind of liking them a lot and i don't know they're kind of cute now i don't know am i changing my mind i think i'm changing my mind i do like them i think they're cute are they like my favorite shadowhunters couple no but i do think they're cute so i thought i'd point that out one thing that i was thinking about as i was reading this and as i was just sort of thinking about the shadowhunters universe was the differences i guess between cassandra clare's writing and some other authors and that sounds like super vague once authors have such an established fan base and they've written so many books it seems to me like a lot of them they're no longer held to the same standards that other authors are in terms of editing and the process that the book goes through before it's being published like reading crescent city by sarah j maas while it wasn't like a terrible book you could tell that it was not edited as a normal book would be it was very info dumpy and it wasn't the worst thing i'd ever read but you can tell that she has garnered enough of a fan base to where publishers just kind of let her write whatever and i will say i really do admire the fact that cassandra clare while this is a little bit indulgent she kind of sticks to a decently tight plot i don't know i don't even know if the plot is really that tight in this book but there's action from day one you can tell that she's at least trying to have each character grow and or learn something in her books it just it feels like there's a point which is good i know i was kind of saying that i didn't know where the book was going um a few clips ago but i feel like it's becoming more clear what she's setting out to do with the series and with this book in particular and i'm appreciating it so hats off to cassie claire for even though she is a little indulgent still at least attempting to tell a story that is entertaining for people who have and have not read her books before i think you could go into this and still be entertained even if you hadn't read any other books by her so that's just how i feel you might feel completely differently i'd actually like to know in the comments down below if you feel that way about this book if you've read it but i really am feeling satisfied any interesting developments that i can remark upon i really do want to know more about grace and what her deal is i think she's actually maybe not a demon but i think her mom might be in leagues with demons and maybe that's why she is so hell-bent on like getting married to someone and protecting herself i wish james wasn't so much of a dumb ass i wish that he would just understand that his feelings for cordelia are the real feelings and that grace was just like had him under some sort of spell i really feel like that that was the case i really want to find out more about matthew though i think that's kind of been my resounding like in the back of my head can we get some more of him he's like the most interesting character to me thus far at this point i'm rambling again as i knew that i would but i'm gonna go ahead and finish this up and i'll give you my final thoughts on how everything kind of goes oh maybe i should give some predictions i think we're going to find out why grace is being secretive i think that james and cordelia's relationship is going to be left on some sort of cliffhanger it's not going to be official i think maybe like james and grace are going to get married or something like something is going to kind of separate james and cordelia i think matthew is going to have stronger feelings towards lucy i think there's going to be something there i think someone's going to die that has not died already so those are my predictions we'll see if any of those come true i probably won't even remember any of my predictions so um i needed some time to process it's been about a day since i finished this book and i didn't know how i was going to rate it because while i really enjoyed it definitely wasn't a perfect read it's not like a favorite book of this year or anything but i think honestly i was overthinking it because i did get a book hangover after finishing this and i'm like desperate for the next book so i think for me it's a five star read it's not perfect at no shadowhunters book ever is but they just have this nostalgic place in my heart and i think even if i was like looking at it objectively this would be a four star read because she's just a good writer and it was just a good story so i really really enjoyed this it's five star for me and i thought we could kind of discuss some of my predictions and if they came true some of them i think it's funny how like wrong or like backwards i got things so anyway the first thing that i started was that we were gonna find out why grace is so secretive which we definitely did i think i left out a lot of things as i was talking about this book and the complicated nature of it so essentially grace is secretive because her mom is trying to bring her dead brother back to life and to do this she has to get in leagues with demons the demon that they try to get in leagues with both grace and grace's mom this demon is james's grandfather who's been kind of bothering him this entire book and his grandfather is who has been sending demons to london so pretty much everything is james's fault and grace comes into play because she is in charge of getting james to kind of give up his free will so he's been wearing this bracelet which has tied him to grace for like years and he is tied to her i think he's in love with her and at one point he gives the bracelet back to grace because he's like i want nothing to do with you anymore he gets angry at her and during this time period is when he has his kiss with cordelia figures out his feelings for her and his feelings for grace seem very fuzzy to him so it's pretty clear that this bracelet has some sort of like powers imbued in it to make him indentured or like connected to grace and we find out the reason that grace gave him this bracelet is because it gives up his free will in general so essentially if he's wearing this bracelet then he can be taken control of and the grandfather the demon daddy he's trying to inhabit james's body and when they have like their run-in at the end of the book james isn't wearing the bracelet so he can't become inhabited but then grace gives him the bracelet after the events of the book and it's like here you go because she's trying to do whatever she can to get her brother back and i have no idea how demon inhabiting james's body is going to somehow bring grace's brother back but anyway that's apparently a thing so grace is not a demon she's just some leagues with demons next i said i think that cordelia and james's relationship would end on the cliffhanger and that i thought that james and grace would be married and i got that wrong cordelia and james are going to be married because of a lot of complicated that happens again at the end of the book that i didn't talk about cordelia essentially to protect james claims that she was with him all night which is scandalous and not something you can do in like yield and day society so to kind of cover up for her for covering up for him james says that he's gonna marry cordelia and it's just gonna be a one-year marriage to kind of salvage her relationship and they don't have to be romantic as what he says even though cordelia is very much in love with him he's like it's fine i'm just doing this to protect you and since he has the bracelet back on he doesn't really know what he thinks and he thinks he's still in love with grace it's a whole mess that's sort of the cliffhanger relationship ends with like they're going to get married and cordelia is very much in love with him and we're just like james take the bracelet off i also said matthew would have strength stronger feelings towards lucy now that's incorrect and i'm honestly just so confused about matthew let me know in the comments down below if i'm just stupid which i absolutely am so please let me know i don't really know who he likes he was watching james and cordelia dance at their engagement party and he looked at them longingly who he's looking at longingly i don't know i think it's supposed to be cordelia could it be james i don't know i don't think so because i didn't really see any like romantic inclinations there but you know everybody's a little bit gay in this book literally everybody is a little bit gay in this book so who knows who matthew's really into he also kind of has a thing for lucy but i think it was also mentioned at the end of the book that he doesn't have feelings for lucy anymore i don't really know i don't know what to believe but that's a thing i am just very curious to find out more about his feelings because he's an interesting character and then i said someone is going to die who has not died already and it's funny because the person that did die was dead already so jesse blackthorne is that his last name jessie grace's brother was already dead but he was a ghost who could potentially reinhabit his body at some point he gives his final breath to james for lucy because jessie and lucy were hanging out and could see each other good god my brain is scrambled after talking about all of these things i don't know what's going to happen it left off again on a cliffhanger tatiana grace's mom we get the final scene of like her getting in leagues with the demon grandfather and we kind of understand her point and there's just some other things that happened that are going to unfurl in the next book that are going to make things even more messy and complicated and it's honestly surprising that i can even comprehend any of these things because it was sort of convoluted and there was a lot going on but i guess that's a testament to cassie's writing that i kind of understand things so five stars enjoy this i definitely understand why niddy likes this i need to go back and watch the videos that she talks about this book in because her enthusiasm is really what made me want to pick this book up i just can't remember the specifics as to why she liked this she says that she likes james but james is stupid so not really understanding it but this was really fun and this was a really fun reading experience because i got to dm nitty as i was reading this and kind of like chat i don't ever or i've never done that before in previous taste tests because they're usually like a surprise this one isn't and so i got to like actually talk to her about this as i read it which was so fun so i am ready however to move on to the witch doesn't burn in this one it's on my bookshelf over there and i don't want to go get it but that's what we're going to start in on next don't know anything about it and to be honest i think what i'm just gonna do is read that and then let you guys know how i felt about it afterwards a to save on time and b because it's poetry it's quick so i will get back to you guys once i finish that okay the lighting's really bad but you can see my christmas decor behind us anyway i finished the which doesn't burn in this one by amanda lovelace and i'm sure much to no one's surprise this was not a favorite of mine for this reading experience vlog whatever it wasn't bad i actually really appreciate what this collection of poetry did it just wasn't something that i personally related to and i think when it comes to modern poetry modern poetry tends to be mostly devoid of metaphor and imagery so i feel like you have to relate even more to this to the poetry you're reading when it's a modern poetry collection as opposed to something like really lyrical and lush that's just like meant to be appreciated for what it is does that make sense i don't know what i'm trying to say is i think if you are looking for the themes in this poetry collection if you need the themes that are in this collection i think this is really a powerful collection let me tell you what it's about i guess so this poetry collection is about the experiences of woman and womanhood and fighting against the powers that be right this deals heavily with topics of sexual assault with misogyny with eating disorders and feeling inadequate i think this is a really powerful collection of poetry if you are dealing with any of those things if you have felt less than because of your gender or if you've just experienced any of the things that i have just talked about and you like to work through the things you've been through with poetry obviously if those triggers are something you don't want to read about don't pick this poetry collection up because it can be triggering but i think it was very well done i liked the way that it was pulled together thematically i liked the three parts it was like burning ashes i don't know there were like three sections and it all kind of worked together that being said it didn't really work for me because i just don't feel like this is something i'm struggling with currently or really struggling with ever that sounds bad but i i'm really lucky to say that the relationships in my life have not resulted in the kinds of things that happened in this book i just i don't know i just didn't really relate to much of it that's not to say that being a woman is easy i'm just really lucky that the relationships and the problematic elements in this poetry collection are not something i can relate to in that way it didn't really work for me and that's not to say that like you have to have gone through really hard things to relate to this poetry collection just for me there wasn't a whole lot that i gained from this i guess or that really felt super empowering to me editing chan here i feel like i did not get my point across very well what i was trying to say is that for most books it really doesn't matter if a book is relatable for me to enjoy it or appreciate it when it comes to something like modern poetry i just feel like it's a little bit different correct me if i'm wrong maybe you guys feel the same way but i feel like with modern poetry collections anytime i see like a poem from one of them i kind of view it through the lens of something almost like a horoscope or a motivational quote it's something that only really works if it's like relatable whereas if i'm reading something that is you know um fiction prose i don't know i don't feel like i need to actually relate to the character or relate to the experiences of the character to sympathize and to get something from the story does that make sense i don't know if that makes sense that being said i would not hesitate to recommend this to the women in my life who i feel like i don't say could use this but who like this sort of thing or who could be helped by something like this i think this would be especially impactful for women in high school who have to deal with shitty boys you know again it's like it's not like i've never been through shitty situations or i've never dealt with really stupid boys but presently um i have a really cool dad and a really cool fiance and i just like i don't have to deal with shitty men most of the time so this i don't know it was just kind of like it's good but it wasn't it wasn't everything to me not gonna rate it because i don't really like rating people's experiences i think that's kind of weird i don't read non-fiction either so i'm not gonna read this poetry collection um i will say i did like the first collection better from this author primarily because i could relate to it more the way that she does modern poetry is pretty great and i prefer it to ruby coors or car i don't know how to say her last name milk and honey lady i prefer this to that so take of that what you will i did think this was good for what it is so anyway i only have two more books to read you guys for this vlog which is wild to me so is this hair this hair is wild to me but we have persepolis and we have normal people and i don't know which i want to read next i think i'm gonna do persepolis and save normal people until the end so that way i can make you guys really wait for my opinion on this book because i know so many people probably two of you that are excited to see how i feel about this book i'm excited to see how i feel about this book because i really want to read i really want to read i cannot talk today i really want to watch the hulu series so i think i'm going to start on persepolis first and i'm going from one kind of like depressing thing to probably another but excited to finally get to this i got this a while ago from half price books and i've heard nothing but good things so i'm excited to start this it's about the iranian revolution so i'm gonna get about probably halfway and then let you guys know how i feel because this is a comic so it's not gonna take me too long to get through but it's longer than the poetry collection so i want to keep you abreast of my feelings i'm not 50 into this yet but i just thought i would pop in and say that this is so good i didn't know what to expect i have not had the best luck with graphic novels in the past there have been some that i've absolutely loved but for the most part i just don't find them as effective for me at telling a story and getting me to really feel something but already i'm only like 30 pages into this and i think it's so good and it's already taught me so much that i literally didn't know i feel like our school system really doesn't tell us enough about things that happen in countries that aren't europe and so this is super super super super good and i like that it is from the perspective of someone who actually lived through this stuff i feel like reading just like a dry history book is not the way that i like to consume historical type information anymore he didn't know as a history major in college and while i love history i think it's great i am kind of burnt out on a lot of like historical and non-fiction texts and this is just really good because like i said it's got the perspective of someone who was young growing up during this time so this is really good i i didn't know a lot of the stuff in here and i'm having an enjoyable time reading this i'm sure it's going to get sad it's already a little bit sad but yeah super good i'm gonna keep reading i'll update you guys when i'm like 50 in okay this lighting is terrible but we're just gonna ignore that because i finished persepolis i say i finished it i mean i did finish it but it was like two weeks ago so i'm not sure how articulate and valuable my thoughts are going to be two weeks later but i really really enjoyed this book as i was saying in the last clip and while again i'm not going to rate this book because it is someone's life experiences i think this would be a four or five like if i did read it because it was just so good and it was a lot different than i expected since this is about revolutionary iran i just expected this to be pretty sad or at least pretty somber but i think it was kind of dumb of me to expect that because this is the story of someone who was living during that time not all of that experience is sad right like we get slice of life moments that honestly some of them made me laugh yeah i don't i don't know how to like fully put into words the tone of this but it was informative it was educational and yet it was so good because it was from someone who experienced it right it was good oh god i just i'm kind of at a loss for words i think if you are someone who likes reading about history even if you don't like reading my history i think you should pick this up i thought it was really really excellent i mean it's won awards and there is a like movie made out of this so it seems to reason that it's pretty damn good but yeah i just i thought this was really excellent and while this is something that i already owned i don't think it's something that i would have necessarily picked up quickly i tend to avoid things that i consider to be hard hitting because to be honest i'm just a lazy reader i like stuff that's fluffy and easy to get through and honestly despite like this not being super super long it did take me a little while to get through because you know there were some sad moments and i wanted to fully consume everything and like fully understand what was going on there were a couple of times actually where i looked things up that happened in this book not like our author's experiences but things pertaining to the revolution so yeah it just it made me kind of hungry to know more about the situation and i yeah i i don't know what else to say except for this is really excellent and i can totally understand why nitty enjoyed this uh i'm definitely glad that i picked this one up so go out and pick this up if you have not already pick it up from your library go support the author and like buy it whatever you want to do i don't know why i'm like such a weird talking mood i feel like my words are not coming out like i want them to it is a little late though but now we can move on to let me go grab it normal people by sally rooney i don't know i'm like kind of scared to pick this up it's the last book but i'm scared fingers crossed that i like this i don't know i don't really have the heist of hopes just because of the kind of reader that i am but i hope i like that i feel like this book should be called people who can't communicate because that's really all that i'm getting from this i am a 125 pages into this book so about like halfway let me tell you the quotation marks or lack thereof i should say has been frustrating overall i think the writing style of this is really what stood out to me first it is very cut and dry there's not a lot of embellishment to the writing and i think that was a very purposeful choice by the author was it a choice i would have made no is it effective at telling the story i think yes i think there's a definite tone to this because of the way that it's written i think she is accomplishing what she's set out to do that being said i don't really know that this has a lot to say and i know that a lot of you guys are gonna disagree two for here's the thing here's my issue with like literary fiction and just general fiction in the adult category i feel like a lot of it is trying really hard to say something and it just ends up not saying anything at all maybe i am just too dumb to comprehend the subtlety of the message that this is trying to send but really all that i'm getting is that these two people don't know how to communicate and they both just use each other for various reasons and i i hate that i really do i mean i guess you could call it realistic but what is the message that this is trying to send i really i have no idea i really wish i knew but i don't know beyond just people are kind of shitty and that's life i don't know i guess the older i get the less cynical i get i feel like i would have enjoyed the out of this in high school which is not to knock the fact that like i think nitty is like 16 or 17. so i guess it kind of makes sense to know um i just i was a lot more cynical when i was young about love and about what it would mean and yes i've been incredibly lucky to have someone who actually treats me well and i've been with that person basically my entire adult life but you can also set boundaries for yourself and neither of these characters set boundaries or try to fix any of the issues that are occurring in their relationship and it's frustrating i haven't even said what the books about let me try to say that and then maybe i can i don't know glean something from that but this book is about two characters marianne and connell and they both kind of grow up going to high school together he is popular but quiet and he kind of just lets everybody make his decisions for him and marianne is a loner she's very unpopular and people are really rude to her she's kind of a so i mean there's that uh so kind of relatable i feel like i related a little bit i was a little bit um lonery in in high school as well essentially they start having sex but he says that they can't tell anyone in school because he doesn't want to face being unpopular and he also doesn't really know what he wants from life he kind of eventually figures out what kind of degree he wants to get because marianne kind of helps him figure that out they go to college and they kind of have an off and on again relationship i mean that's kind of all i'm getting from this in in the 50 mark but i would bet that their hookup relationship continues on until the end of this book when they decide to go their separate ways i'm assuming that's what's gonna happen i mean i don't think that's really spoiling anything i think that's just what this book is i just i don't know i'm so torn because i'm not hating it i don't think it's a horrible story or anything but i did pick up the hulu adaptation and it's much better than this i think part of it's because it is i mean it's very true to the story but i don't have to like try to read a book that doesn't have quotation marks i can just like visually watch what's going on also the characters in the show have such good chemistry that like or i guess actors in the show have such good chemistry that it's entertaining to watch i think if i were to give a recommendation it would be to just watch the show instead of read the book they're so similar that i don't think you're missing out if you don't read the book and in a lot of ways i think you're kind of saving yourself from the perhaps boredom i don't know i'm not doing a very good job i think expressing my feelings i just i have such mixed feelings about this it's not terrible i don't think it knows what it wants to do and ultimately what i'm trying to say i think is that life can be good and i know people have trauma and i know people have that they have to work through i'm not trying to say that life is amazing and perfect all the time but i am saying that you can have successful romantic relationships and not let people walk all over you yeah i just i don't know i'm a romantic i guess i want to read a romance and i know that this is not a romance and it's not going to end romantically but i don't know i knew this book was going to go one of two ways like i knew i would either love this or hate this so i'm guess i'm not like i'm not gutted or anything but i guess we'll see you know what i'm gonna do i am going to take my time i'm going to finish this book and i'm going to watch the rest of the hulu adaptation and i'll give you guys my official thoughts on adaptation and this and just like let you know how i feel this video is going to be so long let's okay anyway i'm gonna go suffer through this bye okay so i decided to dnf this book i feel bad about it i don't know if is this the first time that i dnf'd a book in one of these videos i feel like it is i don't feel that bad about it though because i got to like talk to niddy about it and i did end up watching the entire hulu like limited series and i feel like that was a much better way to consume the story i don't think i was able to really convey why i like the show better than the book i think for me the importance of the story or the uh oh let's be honest nothing about the story is really important but the impact of the story i think can be felt better when you get to see the interaction of characters on a screen the performances by the two actors were fantastic especially god i wish i knew his name but the the male actor who played connell there were times when i was watching his monologues and i was just like i could feel it you know what i mean like it did not feel like acting and i felt so like painful and kind of hard to watch at times because he was so real very very good if you just kind of want to be melancholy and watch something a little sad i'd recommend the unlimited series i don't think that there was much of like a lesson or a point to the story and i guess there doesn't have to be right but i just i don't know usually when there are really kind of sad and depressing books i like to kind of gain something from it almost and i don't feel that i really gained anything from reading or watching the show that sounds bad but honestly like my takeaway is just people don't know how to communicate and that's sad i do like the way that it ended though i felt like it was appropriate for the story i felt like it made sense and i i think if you're kind of a romantic you won't actually hate the ending but this just was not for me and that's okay that's it this is the last book that i read for this video um i think honestly i'm gonna give this away i know a lot of people like this book and i don't know how like easy it is to get your hands on hardcover so if you guys like want to enter to win this just put your instagram handle down in the youtube comments and i will select a winner after like a week of this being posted us only though but let's go ahead and wrap this taste test up overall i feel like i had a really good time reading nitty's faves i just this whole experience was completely different than any other taste test i've done i actually got to ask knitty what her favorites were that was another thing that i wish i had done in other i guess taste tests i just kind of went through people's old favorites videos to do those um and kind of selected their favorites that way but this was nice because i got nitty's like you know true favorites she got to tell me what they were and i got to talk to her while i read them which was so fun and something i'm really looking forward to in future taste tests but overall this is a really fun experience and i just loved it honestly i don't know how else to say it but like this was just fun while all the books were like not perfect for me it was just it was a great experience so let me tell you guys briefly like wrap it all up i've been filming this video since october and it is like january so i've kind of forgotten my feelings about some of the books so hopefully this wrap up is helpful in some way to you as well so the first book that i read was the winner's curse by marie rutkoski and i didn't really like this book i gave it two stars i guess it just wasn't what i was expecting i think most of my low-rated books over the past year or so have been me going into a book with a certain expectation and that expectation just like not really being met this i just thought was going to be kind of like a slow burn silly why a romance and that's not really what this was and i think our heroine was both boring and irritating at the same time so just like was not really the perfect story for me the next book that i read was chain of gold i loved this gave it five stars and honestly i'm just excited for the next book i don't think there has been a cassandra claire book that i've absolutely hated so i kind of expected to like this one but i ended up liking it more than i thought that i would and it kind of makes me want to go back and read all of her backlist and like do videos on them so that might be something that i do this year who knows we shall see the next book that i read was the witch it doesn't burn in this one and it was fine it wasn't really something that i gained a whole lot from but it definitely was not bad and i think if the themes in this are something that you want to explore more or you just really like relatable poetry this might be for you but obviously like trigger warning for uh sexual assault and like talk of assault the next book that i read was persepolis this was really fantastic if there's one book that i think you should read from this whole video it should be this one it was so good so informational about history that we really do not explore much in the us like let's be honest the only history that we ever really explore is uh european history so it was interesting to see kind of a more like modern historical take from someone who actually like lived during that time not that she's dead now wow um but yeah it was just it was interesting to see recent history and see it from the eyes of someone growing up during that time this was really good highly recommend and then lastly normal people i already talked about this i'm not gonna like go into any more detail really but this was sort of a letdown i really had mixed feelings going into it i was like sure that i was going to love it or hate it and honestly i just kind of feel mad about the whole experience definitely not something that's super memorable and um i totally understand why niddy likes it i will say but it just really it didn't do it for me so that is it that is the video thank you guys so so much for watching i like i said i had such a good time doing this go subscribe to niddy if you're not subscribed to her already i have been watching her since like she first started making videos and they are just so fun she's like so full of joy i love watching her videos and uh yeah that's pretty much it i love you guys so much i thank you so much for watching and until next sundayafter reading channel gold i was like where are the people that want to talk about this book i'm right here hello welcome back to my channel and welcome to the seventh episode of taste test wherein i test other booktubers favorite books and see if our tastes align so in today's video i am so so excited because i'm going to be taste testing niddy from nitty ready reads favorite books nitty is pretty new here on this platform and i instantly fell in love with her infectious personality and her amazing videos she already has a thousand subscribers which is super exciting but i would love to see your channel get some more love so after you check out this video before you check out this video go check out eddie's channel i'll link it in the description down below but i'm just so excited for this video i think me and eddie probably have a very similar taste from what i can tell from some of her favorite books so i don't know i'm just so excited let me briefly show you guys what books i'm going to be reading i'm not going to do a synopsis this time around for all of the books because i feel like it's a little repetitive when i'm already going to kind of like explain what the books about as i read so let me tell you guys five books i've selected and then we can just get into the vlog portion of this video so the first book that i picked for this video is actually not a novel it is a series of poems and it is the witch doesn't burn and this one by amanda lovelace i've read something by amanda lovelace before i really enjoyed it and i decided to pick up poetry because it's kind of outside of my comfort zone i haven't found a lot of modern poetry that i really love but nitty talks really highly of this i think she said she like skipped school to read this once so i don't know that's like all the convincing i need to pick this book up the next book again is not a novel i i don't know i'm just i'm feeling bold and zesty and i wanted to pick up some non-traditionally formatted books because i tend to just stick to a typical novel and i wanted you know i wanted to switch it up for this video so i picked up the complete persepolis by marjon tropi i think i'm saying that right i looked it up for this video but i am a little bit stupid so anyway i am super interested in picking this book up because it's been on my shelves for a while and i just don't tend to pick up the graphic novels or the comics that i have on my shelves this book from my knowledge i know i said it would do a synopsis but it is about the iranian revolution so i'm very very excited to get to this one again it's it's memoir it's a little non-traditional in that it's not a typical novel it's something that i normally pick up for my channel so anyway the next three books are very typical picks for me because i love fiction i love ya i love romance and these all kind of fall into those categories the first one is normal people by sally rooney i've heard so many great things about this book i don't know much except for it's kind of an opposite attract romance and that's all i need to know to go into this one i am i'm excited i need to see what the buzz is about i might during this video watch the hulu adaptation i don't know we're excited as you can tell the next book i'm going to be listening to entirely on audio and it is the winner's curse by marie rutkoski and this one is that typical ya i don't know if it's dystopian but i know this is primarily like a romance have ui a and i've heard nothing but good things about it i actually like saw some quotes recently that was kind of making me want to pick this book up so excited to get that one and then of course uh i feel like i saved the best and the most exciting book for last uh chain of gold by cassandra clare obviously niddy really likes this one it's the book that inspired this video it's the book that inspired niddy to make a booktube channel so it's only fitting that we read this book and i am just super excited to get back into cassandra clare's world especially one that has the parents not the parents of people that i like but seeing my faves become parents i think is going to be really exciting so anyway i i've said it a million times but i'm so excited to do this taste test so let's just get into the vlog portion of this video and we can see if niddy's tastes align with mine okay i am 50 into the winner's curse by marie rydkowski don't know what to say about this book except for it is not at all what i had expected i guess just simply looking at this cover i assumed it was going to be kind of like the selection something sort of like lighthearted heavy on the romance because i had seen a lot about this on twitter and some other platforms people like quoting it and just really emphasizing the romantic appeal of this book and i'm not saying it's not romance heavy but it's kind of like dark almost i would describe this kind of as like the wrath of the dawn meets torch against the knight maybe or an ember in the ashes yeah that's the first book because it has some darkness to it i'm not sure that i love the world building as much in this book as those other two books but it gives me similar vibes so this book is about a girl named kestrel and she is the daughter of a conqueror that the daughter of a war leader i don't think he's like in charge but he's a very well-respected war leader and they have recently conquered this land and have taken the conquered citizens as slaves one day our main character kestrel is roaming the markets with one of her friends and her friend like kind of accidentally takes them into the portion of the city where the slave auctions happen and as kestrel is witnessing this she is very disheartened and i mean she has had like slaves in her life she has one that she actually like freed herself but i guess she kind of tries to like separate herself from that but when she is in the presence of the slave auctions happening she ends up purchasing a man who i believe is like around her age so the story mostly so far has been kestrel and the slave named i think it's rn it's kind of about their relationship and it's not a romantic relationship yet but i think we're slowly building to that i don't have like any super strong opinions and thoughts about this book yet but i will say i wish this book kind of knew what it was the feeling of the book is very amber and ash's meets wrathing the dawn it's just the world is not quite there and i don't think the romantic relationship has really developed in a way that i'm excited about i mean i guess i can appreciate the fact that i think it's going to be a slow burn because i mean we're 50 into the book and they're not like really feeling romantic feelings for each other but i don't know i'm just like i'm not bored the writing is really pretty but it's not something that is like really grabbing my attention so i can understand why niddy likes it i feel like now that i'm thinking about it the stuff that i feel like she likes tends to be nicely written i'm not saying that she's like obsessed with flowery language but i feel like the things that she tends to enjoy tend to be very beautiful uh from what i can tell from her recommendations that i have also read curious to see where this goes curious to see if this romantic relationship develops into something that like i'm excited about or if it's something that i'm just like about i don't know i guess i'm most interested in seeing how dissimilar or similar me and niddy's tastes are when it comes to romance because i think there's gonna be romance and at least three of these five books and i don't know from what i've seen on her goodreads we don't tend to like line up when it comes to like romantic uh stories so i don't know i don't know how to feel but it's not bad so far i'm gonna finish this up tonight and i will check in with you guys once i have my final thoughts okay so i finished the winner's curse i finished this book like four days ago and i'm not gonna lie to you i remember very little of what actually transpired in the last like 50 of this book i think i'm probably gonna give it two stars as a result initially after finishing it i was like you know what i think i'm gonna give this three stars but the longer that i kind of sit with my feelings or i guess lack of feelings about it i think i'm just gonna give it two stars it was not bad i could definitely understand why people like it but i don't think that it accomplished what it set out to do and that in my opinion is a like slow burn romance i just did not feel any chemistry between these two characters the entire time i was reading i'm just kind of astounded that this is supposed to be some like groundbreaking romance maybe it's like a love triangle situation in the next books and like rn is not the like endgame relationship but i didn't really like castrol and rn together i'm just surprised anyone likes them to get i don't know that sounds bad i just like there was nothing there for me in general i don't know i just didn't love the premise of this book i think having kestrel be the owner of another person and then not fully realize her complacency and complicity in the situation was a little frustrating i was hoping that by the end of the book she would feel more rebellious and feel more judgmental of her society but i just like didn't see any of that in the first book i just feel like she was at the same place at the beginning of the book that she was at the end the lack of character development i don't know this was just not my favorite it wasn't bad and i do i can understand because the writing was pretty why niddy liked this but it wasn't my favorite and i'm not gonna feel too guilty about that because i did start another book and i am adoring it i totally understand why niddy likes this one so let's go ahead and talk about the second book that i'm reading for this video a book that i am 28 into and that is chain of gold by cassandra clare where to begin with this book i have so many thoughts so many feelings also i'm just in a particularly good mood it is november 7th and i'm wearing blue baby so i'm in a good mood but let's talk about this book i will say i initially started this by picking it up and reading it physically which was not a bad choice per se but just looking at all of the names on paper got me too bogged down in what the relationships were between everybody and i really think cassandra clare kind of overloaded the cast on this one to a really bloated extent like there's just there's too many people in this book and i think it would be okay if they were all just kind of like listed by name but no we have to know that they're like cousins or family friends or enemies it's just it's a lot to take in especially in the first literal chapter of this book you get so much just dumped it to so i decided to pick up the audio and that was a really good decision i am enjoying the experience i'm both listening and reading at the same time and it's been really nice the audiobook narrator is fantastic so if you're thinking about picking this book up definitely pick up the audio it's really really good shadowhunters books in general can be kind of hit or miss when it comes to the audio or renditions and this one is actually very good so i would recommend picking it up in that form but the story is really good i would say our two main characters are cordelia carstairs and james harrendale there are so many other characters at play but james is the son of tessa and he has demonic powers and demonic abilities he has the ability to go to kind of like other dimensions where demons reside and this is something that's sort of plaguing him and he's trying to kind of figure out how to work with these powers anyway he lives in london with a bunch of his friends and a girl he knew from his childhood cordelia carstairs comes to london because she is trying to ingratiate herself with london society because her father is in the hands of the clave he has like uh up basically and he's kind of in jail he's in shadowhunter jail and she's trying to get people on her side so that they might potentially petition the clave or just just generally be on her side right so that's kind of her mission and there's been a long period of peace since the happenings of the infernal devices trilogy but now demons are back in london and shadowhunters are trying to figure out what they need to do and how the attacks now are differing from the ones that happened in that series so there's a lot at play and that's just like the main stuff that's happening there's a ton of side relationships and machinations and that's going on behind the scenes we also have a character named lucy who is really cute uh james's sister who is a troublemaker and she kind of reminds me of like a heroine in a regency romance she's got a lot of like quirky attributes and i really like her we also have grace who i really hate who's annoying and we don't need to go into detail about her yeah i stopped at a really good point in this book i think to tell you guys sort of what it's about i am just thoroughly enjoying this i didn't expect it i mean i did because i do i love the shadowhunters universe i know cassandra clare is like problematic and that not a lot of people like pick up her books now in terms of like getting into her series but been reading her since i was a freshman in high school and i really do like her series in the world that she's built so it feels very comforting i guess to revisit it infernal devices was never my favorite series so i was kind of unsure of how i was going to feel going into this book but i'm liking it a lot i think it is a lot more action-packed than the infernal devices which is definitely a good thing because i thought those were sort of boring so i guess that is one of the good things like there are too many characters on the one hand but the plot is interesting enough to kind of make up for that hair and deals are as stupid as ever the characters in these are really fun and i'm excited to see where things go especially with the romantic relationships everybody has to be paired up that's just how cassandra clare books work and at the moment i think we're supposed to be rooting for cordelia and james to get together although james is a dumbass and likes this grace character who i don't know she just has like big demon energy she gave james this necklace for like safe keeping and i really feel like she's trying to leash him or something i don't know i just feel like there's something there there's definitely something there she wouldn't just throw that in right yeah i don't know i don't know if i'm making any sense this is probably only going to be like a really relevant or interesting thing to hear about if you've read any of these books or if you've particularly read this one but i'm having a really good time this is probably going to be like the most jam-packed reading vlog because i am probably going to want to talk in detail about this book but anyway i'm rambling at this point let me go ahead and read some more of it i'm going to try to get to the 50 mark before i talk to you again no promises though because i'm sure a lot's gonna happen this is an incredibly long book i'm gonna keep reading i've looked at you guys as i continue okay i am 51 into this book and i feel like it left off on the perfect spot essentially james is continuing to be the biggest idiot alive as i'm sure we're not like surprised at because hair deals are just dumb right things are taking shape now and i think we're kind of finally getting a little bit more direction in this story like there was definitely action from the beginning but i don't think we had a very clear expectation of what the story was going to turn into it's still sort of a mess but i'm kind of interested in what's happening they're trying to figure out who these demons are and in doing so they have come into contact with some warlocks and have gotten themselves into some like sort of interesting situations so i'm enjoying that component also the relationships between the like 30 and 50 mark have really like ratcheted up like things are complicated complex and messy as and i'm kind of actually enjoying it i mean there are too many characters for sure i still maintain that but i am actually kind of liking the relationships going on here so i'm gonna put a spoiler card right here again this is this whole clip this whole section this whole book is going to be filled with spoilers or at least my reactions to it are because i feel like i can't really talk about this book without them james and grace i really i mean i never rooted for them and i don't think you're supposed to but i really i'm just desperate to know what grace is i don't think she's human or i don't think she's a shadowhunter i swear to god she's a demon or she summons demons or something she just has a bad energy about her that is super evidenced by the fact that she just kissed james's best friend matthew and she compelled him to do it so i don't really know where that like impulse or power i guess came from from her i think it's kind of backing my idea that she is demonic in some way i wonder if she is like in leagues with james's grandfather who's a demon i really i want to know her backstory and like what her issue is so that's sort of what literally just happened she just kissed matthew in the like last page before i decided to film a clip for this i am loving the other relationships that are happening i like that we're finally getting i say finally getting i like matthew a lot i think he's a complex character like hair and deals are great don't get me wrong i like james he's just too similar to will to me he doesn't have enough like complexity in my opinion besides having literally two brain cells i really like matthew because he's like troubled and i like that he's a little bit of an alcoholic which is interesting i've never seen that sort of thing in a shadowhunter's novel but i like that he has a thing for lucy herendale i like that that's probably going to be like a cute like brother's best friend kind of childhood friends to lovers romance hopefully i like that that's cute i don't know it's like i'm not anti jordelia i just i'm never super into the main romances i feel that's actually a lie what am i talking talking about i like the main romances usually the only like main romance i haven't liked in the shadowhunters universe is uh will and tessa so i guess that doesn't completely like illegitimize my disdain or like unenjoyment of the two of them together in this book um james and cordelia i don't know what i'm trying to say i just want to know oh oh i forgot i forgot to forgot so we found out that alistair cordelia's brother is gay or at least bisexual i think he's gay though actually no he definitely is okay i don't know what i'm talking about because he said that he would never marry a woman to like cover up his gayness i guess unlike his lover charles so that's fascinating and there's been a lot of like upheaval in relationships so charles is in politics and he was gonna marry ariadne who's a lesbian but he isn't going to marry ariadne anymore he's going to marry grace and that is like the whole thing r.i.p james he's upset that grace isn't going to be with him but also okay i'm so all over the place with this so sorry james is i keep saying he's an idiot but i don't think i'm really expanding upon that the reason james is so stupid is because he keeps getting like pulled in and sucked in by grace who's obviously some sort of demon he keeps talking about how he feels this like other pull towards cordelia and it's like yes because that's you're supposed to like like what it's not even late i don't even have that excuse as to why i am not being very coherent but lots of thoughts most of them good this is entertaining but i think this is probably where i'm gonna leave off tonight i think once i get to the 75 percent mark i'm going to update again i could update at 100 but like i don't want to i want to keep talking about this book so so i've hit the 75 mark in this book and hi do you want to talk about the book with me the one thing that i feel like i can confidently say is that cassandra clare and her time in writing fan fiction uh definitely knows how to write a good kiss the consummation kiss between james and cordelia was really good i kind of forgot how much i get invested in cassandra clare relationships like i said i wasn't really like super on board with james and cordelia but i'm kind of liking them a lot and i don't know they're kind of cute now i don't know am i changing my mind i think i'm changing my mind i do like them i think they're cute are they like my favorite shadowhunters couple no but i do think they're cute so i thought i'd point that out one thing that i was thinking about as i was reading this and as i was just sort of thinking about the shadowhunters universe was the differences i guess between cassandra clare's writing and some other authors and that sounds like super vague once authors have such an established fan base and they've written so many books it seems to me like a lot of them they're no longer held to the same standards that other authors are in terms of editing and the process that the book goes through before it's being published like reading crescent city by sarah j maas while it wasn't like a terrible book you could tell that it was not edited as a normal book would be it was very info dumpy and it wasn't the worst thing i'd ever read but you can tell that she has garnered enough of a fan base to where publishers just kind of let her write whatever and i will say i really do admire the fact that cassandra clare while this is a little bit indulgent she kind of sticks to a decently tight plot i don't know i don't even know if the plot is really that tight in this book but there's action from day one you can tell that she's at least trying to have each character grow and or learn something in her books it just it feels like there's a point which is good i know i was kind of saying that i didn't know where the book was going um a few clips ago but i feel like it's becoming more clear what she's setting out to do with the series and with this book in particular and i'm appreciating it so hats off to cassie claire for even though she is a little indulgent still at least attempting to tell a story that is entertaining for people who have and have not read her books before i think you could go into this and still be entertained even if you hadn't read any other books by her so that's just how i feel you might feel completely differently i'd actually like to know in the comments down below if you feel that way about this book if you've read it but i really am feeling satisfied any interesting developments that i can remark upon i really do want to know more about grace and what her deal is i think she's actually maybe not a demon but i think her mom might be in leagues with demons and maybe that's why she is so hell-bent on like getting married to someone and protecting herself i wish james wasn't so much of a dumb ass i wish that he would just understand that his feelings for cordelia are the real feelings and that grace was just like had him under some sort of spell i really feel like that that was the case i really want to find out more about matthew though i think that's kind of been my resounding like in the back of my head can we get some more of him he's like the most interesting character to me thus far at this point i'm rambling again as i knew that i would but i'm gonna go ahead and finish this up and i'll give you my final thoughts on how everything kind of goes oh maybe i should give some predictions i think we're going to find out why grace is being secretive i think that james and cordelia's relationship is going to be left on some sort of cliffhanger it's not going to be official i think maybe like james and grace are going to get married or something like something is going to kind of separate james and cordelia i think matthew is going to have stronger feelings towards lucy i think there's going to be something there i think someone's going to die that has not died already so those are my predictions we'll see if any of those come true i probably won't even remember any of my predictions so um i needed some time to process it's been about a day since i finished this book and i didn't know how i was going to rate it because while i really enjoyed it definitely wasn't a perfect read it's not like a favorite book of this year or anything but i think honestly i was overthinking it because i did get a book hangover after finishing this and i'm like desperate for the next book so i think for me it's a five star read it's not perfect at no shadowhunters book ever is but they just have this nostalgic place in my heart and i think even if i was like looking at it objectively this would be a four star read because she's just a good writer and it was just a good story so i really really enjoyed this it's five star for me and i thought we could kind of discuss some of my predictions and if they came true some of them i think it's funny how like wrong or like backwards i got things so anyway the first thing that i started was that we were gonna find out why grace is so secretive which we definitely did i think i left out a lot of things as i was talking about this book and the complicated nature of it so essentially grace is secretive because her mom is trying to bring her dead brother back to life and to do this she has to get in leagues with demons the demon that they try to get in leagues with both grace and grace's mom this demon is james's grandfather who's been kind of bothering him this entire book and his grandfather is who has been sending demons to london so pretty much everything is james's fault and grace comes into play because she is in charge of getting james to kind of give up his free will so he's been wearing this bracelet which has tied him to grace for like years and he is tied to her i think he's in love with her and at one point he gives the bracelet back to grace because he's like i want nothing to do with you anymore he gets angry at her and during this time period is when he has his kiss with cordelia figures out his feelings for her and his feelings for grace seem very fuzzy to him so it's pretty clear that this bracelet has some sort of like powers imbued in it to make him indentured or like connected to grace and we find out the reason that grace gave him this bracelet is because it gives up his free will in general so essentially if he's wearing this bracelet then he can be taken control of and the grandfather the demon daddy he's trying to inhabit james's body and when they have like their run-in at the end of the book james isn't wearing the bracelet so he can't become inhabited but then grace gives him the bracelet after the events of the book and it's like here you go because she's trying to do whatever she can to get her brother back and i have no idea how demon inhabiting james's body is going to somehow bring grace's brother back but anyway that's apparently a thing so grace is not a demon she's just some leagues with demons next i said i think that cordelia and james's relationship would end on the cliffhanger and that i thought that james and grace would be married and i got that wrong cordelia and james are going to be married because of a lot of complicated that happens again at the end of the book that i didn't talk about cordelia essentially to protect james claims that she was with him all night which is scandalous and not something you can do in like yield and day society so to kind of cover up for her for covering up for him james says that he's gonna marry cordelia and it's just gonna be a one-year marriage to kind of salvage her relationship and they don't have to be romantic as what he says even though cordelia is very much in love with him he's like it's fine i'm just doing this to protect you and since he has the bracelet back on he doesn't really know what he thinks and he thinks he's still in love with grace it's a whole mess that's sort of the cliffhanger relationship ends with like they're going to get married and cordelia is very much in love with him and we're just like james take the bracelet off i also said matthew would have strength stronger feelings towards lucy now that's incorrect and i'm honestly just so confused about matthew let me know in the comments down below if i'm just stupid which i absolutely am so please let me know i don't really know who he likes he was watching james and cordelia dance at their engagement party and he looked at them longingly who he's looking at longingly i don't know i think it's supposed to be cordelia could it be james i don't know i don't think so because i didn't really see any like romantic inclinations there but you know everybody's a little bit gay in this book literally everybody is a little bit gay in this book so who knows who matthew's really into he also kind of has a thing for lucy but i think it was also mentioned at the end of the book that he doesn't have feelings for lucy anymore i don't really know i don't know what to believe but that's a thing i am just very curious to find out more about his feelings because he's an interesting character and then i said someone is going to die who has not died already and it's funny because the person that did die was dead already so jesse blackthorne is that his last name jessie grace's brother was already dead but he was a ghost who could potentially reinhabit his body at some point he gives his final breath to james for lucy because jessie and lucy were hanging out and could see each other good god my brain is scrambled after talking about all of these things i don't know what's going to happen it left off again on a cliffhanger tatiana grace's mom we get the final scene of like her getting in leagues with the demon grandfather and we kind of understand her point and there's just some other things that happened that are going to unfurl in the next book that are going to make things even more messy and complicated and it's honestly surprising that i can even comprehend any of these things because it was sort of convoluted and there was a lot going on but i guess that's a testament to cassie's writing that i kind of understand things so five stars enjoy this i definitely understand why niddy likes this i need to go back and watch the videos that she talks about this book in because her enthusiasm is really what made me want to pick this book up i just can't remember the specifics as to why she liked this she says that she likes james but james is stupid so not really understanding it but this was really fun and this was a really fun reading experience because i got to dm nitty as i was reading this and kind of like chat i don't ever or i've never done that before in previous taste tests because they're usually like a surprise this one isn't and so i got to like actually talk to her about this as i read it which was so fun so i am ready however to move on to the witch doesn't burn in this one it's on my bookshelf over there and i don't want to go get it but that's what we're going to start in on next don't know anything about it and to be honest i think what i'm just gonna do is read that and then let you guys know how i felt about it afterwards a to save on time and b because it's poetry it's quick so i will get back to you guys once i finish that okay the lighting's really bad but you can see my christmas decor behind us anyway i finished the which doesn't burn in this one by amanda lovelace and i'm sure much to no one's surprise this was not a favorite of mine for this reading experience vlog whatever it wasn't bad i actually really appreciate what this collection of poetry did it just wasn't something that i personally related to and i think when it comes to modern poetry modern poetry tends to be mostly devoid of metaphor and imagery so i feel like you have to relate even more to this to the poetry you're reading when it's a modern poetry collection as opposed to something like really lyrical and lush that's just like meant to be appreciated for what it is does that make sense i don't know what i'm trying to say is i think if you are looking for the themes in this poetry collection if you need the themes that are in this collection i think this is really a powerful collection let me tell you what it's about i guess so this poetry collection is about the experiences of woman and womanhood and fighting against the powers that be right this deals heavily with topics of sexual assault with misogyny with eating disorders and feeling inadequate i think this is a really powerful collection of poetry if you are dealing with any of those things if you have felt less than because of your gender or if you've just experienced any of the things that i have just talked about and you like to work through the things you've been through with poetry obviously if those triggers are something you don't want to read about don't pick this poetry collection up because it can be triggering but i think it was very well done i liked the way that it was pulled together thematically i liked the three parts it was like burning ashes i don't know there were like three sections and it all kind of worked together that being said it didn't really work for me because i just don't feel like this is something i'm struggling with currently or really struggling with ever that sounds bad but i i'm really lucky to say that the relationships in my life have not resulted in the kinds of things that happened in this book i just i don't know i just didn't really relate to much of it that's not to say that being a woman is easy i'm just really lucky that the relationships and the problematic elements in this poetry collection are not something i can relate to in that way it didn't really work for me and that's not to say that like you have to have gone through really hard things to relate to this poetry collection just for me there wasn't a whole lot that i gained from this i guess or that really felt super empowering to me editing chan here i feel like i did not get my point across very well what i was trying to say is that for most books it really doesn't matter if a book is relatable for me to enjoy it or appreciate it when it comes to something like modern poetry i just feel like it's a little bit different correct me if i'm wrong maybe you guys feel the same way but i feel like with modern poetry collections anytime i see like a poem from one of them i kind of view it through the lens of something almost like a horoscope or a motivational quote it's something that only really works if it's like relatable whereas if i'm reading something that is you know um fiction prose i don't know i don't feel like i need to actually relate to the character or relate to the experiences of the character to sympathize and to get something from the story does that make sense i don't know if that makes sense that being said i would not hesitate to recommend this to the women in my life who i feel like i don't say could use this but who like this sort of thing or who could be helped by something like this i think this would be especially impactful for women in high school who have to deal with shitty boys you know again it's like it's not like i've never been through shitty situations or i've never dealt with really stupid boys but presently um i have a really cool dad and a really cool fiance and i just like i don't have to deal with shitty men most of the time so this i don't know it was just kind of like it's good but it wasn't it wasn't everything to me not gonna rate it because i don't really like rating people's experiences i think that's kind of weird i don't read non-fiction either so i'm not gonna read this poetry collection um i will say i did like the first collection better from this author primarily because i could relate to it more the way that she does modern poetry is pretty great and i prefer it to ruby coors or car i don't know how to say her last name milk and honey lady i prefer this to that so take of that what you will i did think this was good for what it is so anyway i only have two more books to read you guys for this vlog which is wild to me so is this hair this hair is wild to me but we have persepolis and we have normal people and i don't know which i want to read next i think i'm gonna do persepolis and save normal people until the end so that way i can make you guys really wait for my opinion on this book because i know so many people probably two of you that are excited to see how i feel about this book i'm excited to see how i feel about this book because i really want to read i really want to read i cannot talk today i really want to watch the hulu series so i think i'm going to start on persepolis first and i'm going from one kind of like depressing thing to probably another but excited to finally get to this i got this a while ago from half price books and i've heard nothing but good things so i'm excited to start this it's about the iranian revolution so i'm gonna get about probably halfway and then let you guys know how i feel because this is a comic so it's not gonna take me too long to get through but it's longer than the poetry collection so i want to keep you abreast of my feelings i'm not 50 into this yet but i just thought i would pop in and say that this is so good i didn't know what to expect i have not had the best luck with graphic novels in the past there have been some that i've absolutely loved but for the most part i just don't find them as effective for me at telling a story and getting me to really feel something but already i'm only like 30 pages into this and i think it's so good and it's already taught me so much that i literally didn't know i feel like our school system really doesn't tell us enough about things that happen in countries that aren't europe and so this is super super super super good and i like that it is from the perspective of someone who actually lived through this stuff i feel like reading just like a dry history book is not the way that i like to consume historical type information anymore he didn't know as a history major in college and while i love history i think it's great i am kind of burnt out on a lot of like historical and non-fiction texts and this is just really good because like i said it's got the perspective of someone who was young growing up during this time so this is really good i i didn't know a lot of the stuff in here and i'm having an enjoyable time reading this i'm sure it's going to get sad it's already a little bit sad but yeah super good i'm gonna keep reading i'll update you guys when i'm like 50 in okay this lighting is terrible but we're just gonna ignore that because i finished persepolis i say i finished it i mean i did finish it but it was like two weeks ago so i'm not sure how articulate and valuable my thoughts are going to be two weeks later but i really really enjoyed this book as i was saying in the last clip and while again i'm not going to rate this book because it is someone's life experiences i think this would be a four or five like if i did read it because it was just so good and it was a lot different than i expected since this is about revolutionary iran i just expected this to be pretty sad or at least pretty somber but i think it was kind of dumb of me to expect that because this is the story of someone who was living during that time not all of that experience is sad right like we get slice of life moments that honestly some of them made me laugh yeah i don't i don't know how to like fully put into words the tone of this but it was informative it was educational and yet it was so good because it was from someone who experienced it right it was good oh god i just i'm kind of at a loss for words i think if you are someone who likes reading about history even if you don't like reading my history i think you should pick this up i thought it was really really excellent i mean it's won awards and there is a like movie made out of this so it seems to reason that it's pretty damn good but yeah i just i thought this was really excellent and while this is something that i already owned i don't think it's something that i would have necessarily picked up quickly i tend to avoid things that i consider to be hard hitting because to be honest i'm just a lazy reader i like stuff that's fluffy and easy to get through and honestly despite like this not being super super long it did take me a little while to get through because you know there were some sad moments and i wanted to fully consume everything and like fully understand what was going on there were a couple of times actually where i looked things up that happened in this book not like our author's experiences but things pertaining to the revolution so yeah it just it made me kind of hungry to know more about the situation and i yeah i i don't know what else to say except for this is really excellent and i can totally understand why nitty enjoyed this uh i'm definitely glad that i picked this one up so go out and pick this up if you have not already pick it up from your library go support the author and like buy it whatever you want to do i don't know why i'm like such a weird talking mood i feel like my words are not coming out like i want them to it is a little late though but now we can move on to let me go grab it normal people by sally rooney i don't know i'm like kind of scared to pick this up it's the last book but i'm scared fingers crossed that i like this i don't know i don't really have the heist of hopes just because of the kind of reader that i am but i hope i like that i feel like this book should be called people who can't communicate because that's really all that i'm getting from this i am a 125 pages into this book so about like halfway let me tell you the quotation marks or lack thereof i should say has been frustrating overall i think the writing style of this is really what stood out to me first it is very cut and dry there's not a lot of embellishment to the writing and i think that was a very purposeful choice by the author was it a choice i would have made no is it effective at telling the story i think yes i think there's a definite tone to this because of the way that it's written i think she is accomplishing what she's set out to do that being said i don't really know that this has a lot to say and i know that a lot of you guys are gonna disagree two for here's the thing here's my issue with like literary fiction and just general fiction in the adult category i feel like a lot of it is trying really hard to say something and it just ends up not saying anything at all maybe i am just too dumb to comprehend the subtlety of the message that this is trying to send but really all that i'm getting is that these two people don't know how to communicate and they both just use each other for various reasons and i i hate that i really do i mean i guess you could call it realistic but what is the message that this is trying to send i really i have no idea i really wish i knew but i don't know beyond just people are kind of shitty and that's life i don't know i guess the older i get the less cynical i get i feel like i would have enjoyed the out of this in high school which is not to knock the fact that like i think nitty is like 16 or 17. so i guess it kind of makes sense to know um i just i was a lot more cynical when i was young about love and about what it would mean and yes i've been incredibly lucky to have someone who actually treats me well and i've been with that person basically my entire adult life but you can also set boundaries for yourself and neither of these characters set boundaries or try to fix any of the issues that are occurring in their relationship and it's frustrating i haven't even said what the books about let me try to say that and then maybe i can i don't know glean something from that but this book is about two characters marianne and connell and they both kind of grow up going to high school together he is popular but quiet and he kind of just lets everybody make his decisions for him and marianne is a loner she's very unpopular and people are really rude to her she's kind of a so i mean there's that uh so kind of relatable i feel like i related a little bit i was a little bit um lonery in in high school as well essentially they start having sex but he says that they can't tell anyone in school because he doesn't want to face being unpopular and he also doesn't really know what he wants from life he kind of eventually figures out what kind of degree he wants to get because marianne kind of helps him figure that out they go to college and they kind of have an off and on again relationship i mean that's kind of all i'm getting from this in in the 50 mark but i would bet that their hookup relationship continues on until the end of this book when they decide to go their separate ways i'm assuming that's what's gonna happen i mean i don't think that's really spoiling anything i think that's just what this book is i just i don't know i'm so torn because i'm not hating it i don't think it's a horrible story or anything but i did pick up the hulu adaptation and it's much better than this i think part of it's because it is i mean it's very true to the story but i don't have to like try to read a book that doesn't have quotation marks i can just like visually watch what's going on also the characters in the show have such good chemistry that like or i guess actors in the show have such good chemistry that it's entertaining to watch i think if i were to give a recommendation it would be to just watch the show instead of read the book they're so similar that i don't think you're missing out if you don't read the book and in a lot of ways i think you're kind of saving yourself from the perhaps boredom i don't know i'm not doing a very good job i think expressing my feelings i just i have such mixed feelings about this it's not terrible i don't think it knows what it wants to do and ultimately what i'm trying to say i think is that life can be good and i know people have trauma and i know people have that they have to work through i'm not trying to say that life is amazing and perfect all the time but i am saying that you can have successful romantic relationships and not let people walk all over you yeah i just i don't know i'm a romantic i guess i want to read a romance and i know that this is not a romance and it's not going to end romantically but i don't know i knew this book was going to go one of two ways like i knew i would either love this or hate this so i'm guess i'm not like i'm not gutted or anything but i guess we'll see you know what i'm gonna do i am going to take my time i'm going to finish this book and i'm going to watch the rest of the hulu adaptation and i'll give you guys my official thoughts on adaptation and this and just like let you know how i feel this video is going to be so long let's okay anyway i'm gonna go suffer through this bye okay so i decided to dnf this book i feel bad about it i don't know if is this the first time that i dnf'd a book in one of these videos i feel like it is i don't feel that bad about it though because i got to like talk to niddy about it and i did end up watching the entire hulu like limited series and i feel like that was a much better way to consume the story i don't think i was able to really convey why i like the show better than the book i think for me the importance of the story or the uh oh let's be honest nothing about the story is really important but the impact of the story i think can be felt better when you get to see the interaction of characters on a screen the performances by the two actors were fantastic especially god i wish i knew his name but the the male actor who played connell there were times when i was watching his monologues and i was just like i could feel it you know what i mean like it did not feel like acting and i felt so like painful and kind of hard to watch at times because he was so real very very good if you just kind of want to be melancholy and watch something a little sad i'd recommend the unlimited series i don't think that there was much of like a lesson or a point to the story and i guess there doesn't have to be right but i just i don't know usually when there are really kind of sad and depressing books i like to kind of gain something from it almost and i don't feel that i really gained anything from reading or watching the show that sounds bad but honestly like my takeaway is just people don't know how to communicate and that's sad i do like the way that it ended though i felt like it was appropriate for the story i felt like it made sense and i i think if you're kind of a romantic you won't actually hate the ending but this just was not for me and that's okay that's it this is the last book that i read for this video um i think honestly i'm gonna give this away i know a lot of people like this book and i don't know how like easy it is to get your hands on hardcover so if you guys like want to enter to win this just put your instagram handle down in the youtube comments and i will select a winner after like a week of this being posted us only though but let's go ahead and wrap this taste test up overall i feel like i had a really good time reading nitty's faves i just this whole experience was completely different than any other taste test i've done i actually got to ask knitty what her favorites were that was another thing that i wish i had done in other i guess taste tests i just kind of went through people's old favorites videos to do those um and kind of selected their favorites that way but this was nice because i got nitty's like you know true favorites she got to tell me what they were and i got to talk to her while i read them which was so fun and something i'm really looking forward to in future taste tests but overall this is a really fun experience and i just loved it honestly i don't know how else to say it but like this was just fun while all the books were like not perfect for me it was just it was a great experience so let me tell you guys briefly like wrap it all up i've been filming this video since october and it is like january so i've kind of forgotten my feelings about some of the books so hopefully this wrap up is helpful in some way to you as well so the first book that i read was the winner's curse by marie rutkoski and i didn't really like this book i gave it two stars i guess it just wasn't what i was expecting i think most of my low-rated books over the past year or so have been me going into a book with a certain expectation and that expectation just like not really being met this i just thought was going to be kind of like a slow burn silly why a romance and that's not really what this was and i think our heroine was both boring and irritating at the same time so just like was not really the perfect story for me the next book that i read was chain of gold i loved this gave it five stars and honestly i'm just excited for the next book i don't think there has been a cassandra claire book that i've absolutely hated so i kind of expected to like this one but i ended up liking it more than i thought that i would and it kind of makes me want to go back and read all of her backlist and like do videos on them so that might be something that i do this year who knows we shall see the next book that i read was the witch it doesn't burn in this one and it was fine it wasn't really something that i gained a whole lot from but it definitely was not bad and i think if the themes in this are something that you want to explore more or you just really like relatable poetry this might be for you but obviously like trigger warning for uh sexual assault and like talk of assault the next book that i read was persepolis this was really fantastic if there's one book that i think you should read from this whole video it should be this one it was so good so informational about history that we really do not explore much in the us like let's be honest the only history that we ever really explore is uh european history so it was interesting to see kind of a more like modern historical take from someone who actually like lived during that time not that she's dead now wow um but yeah it was just it was interesting to see recent history and see it from the eyes of someone growing up during that time this was really good highly recommend and then lastly normal people i already talked about this i'm not gonna like go into any more detail really but this was sort of a letdown i really had mixed feelings going into it i was like sure that i was going to love it or hate it and honestly i just kind of feel mad about the whole experience definitely not something that's super memorable and um i totally understand why niddy likes it i will say but it just really it didn't do it for me so that is it that is the video thank you guys so so much for watching i like i said i had such a good time doing this go subscribe to niddy if you're not subscribed to her already i have been watching her since like she first started making videos and they are just so fun she's like so full of joy i love watching her videos and uh yeah that's pretty much it i love you guys so much i thank you so much for watching and until next sunday\n"