Hey guys, it's Olivia here from Olivia's Catastrophe
and I'm here to give you the second part to
my November wrap up. I read 30 books in the
month of November and if you haven't seen
the first part where I talk about the first
15 books, you're gonna wanna go back and do
that because I read quite a lot of 5 stars
in the beginning of the alphabet. And I talk
about them more here - I mean there - go check
that out. But I'm going to talk about the
other 15 now. Let's get right down to the
books.
We were on the letter P. So for the letter
P I read The Paper Magician by Charlie L...
no N, I'm guessing, Holmberg. And that was
for the prompt of Hestia which was to read
the first book in a series. This is the first
one in the Paper Magician series and I was
pleasantly surprised, guys. This book was
so good. I can't believe I've had it on my
kindle for so long. So this one follows this
main character who has gone on to this magic
school. She's gone on scholarship because
she's from a poor background and she cannot
afford it. Sh was very very very much wanting
to be a metal magician who could work with
metal and all that cool stuff. But because
of a shortage in paper magicians she gets
assigned to be an apprentice under this paper
magician. And she thinks paper magic is quite
lame because guys, it's paper. But when she
goes there she discovers she can so much more
with paper than she ever thought possible.
Like all these origami... making paper come
to life... reading books and making these
illusions come to life kind of magic which
is just epic. And yes, things are going well
until in the beginning of her apprenticeship
this villain comes and steals his heart and
disappears. He's going to die in a couple
of days. She's made a paper heart and put
it in his chest. But paper doesn't last long
in a human body, guys. So she's got a time
limit to get back his heart. It was very good.
I loved the world building. I loved the idea
of paper magic, it was so much fun. And the
main character had so much passion. The book
was a bit whimsical at one point, and it was
quite whimsical. But it was good whimsical
if that makes any sense.
Then for Q I read Queen of Hearts by Colleen
Oakes and that was for the prompt of Hera
which was to read a book with royalty in it.
I didn't like this book at all. It was so
so badly written. It's an Alice in Wonderland
retelling which is told from the point of
view of the Red Queen instead. And she is
really abused by her father. And there's this
whole going on where he doesn't want to give
up the throne and he doesn't want her to be
queen which leads to a lot of drama and a
lot of fights going down. But the book was
just so badly written. It was quite juvenile
writing, like. It was juvenile writing but
not to the point where I could even recommend
it to the younger side of YA, but that was
just badly written. The romance happened too
fast for me. It was just - all was not good.
It was not good, guys. Which is disappointing
because it had a promising idea and the cover
is quite beautiful.
Read for R, I read Red Rising by Pierce Brown.
And this was another five star read and it
also fit the prompt of Hebe. Hebe - I don't
know how you pronounce that. Anyway, and it
was to read a young adult book. It was so
good, guys. It was a sci-fi, kind of dystopian
sci-fi where this - you've got like, categories.
Red is the lowest category and if you're a
Red you live underground in Mars and you're
mining so that people who can... the people
from earth can come inhabit Mars. And you
just do that for you're whole life, for the
good of humanity. However, something happens
where the main character, Darrow, finds out
that all that they've been told is a lie.
Mars is already habitable. It's just the upper
colours like the Golds get to live on the
surface and the reds are being enslaved and
keep minding so that they can keep living
their perfect life on top of Mars. He is sent
to infiltrate the upper ranks and bring them
down from the inside, basically. Before he
can do that he has to go through an initiation
which is next level intense. If I had to describe
this book it would be the Hunger Games but
about 110% better, in my opinion. And the
sci-fi elements were done so well, and the
characters, I just - I fell in love with so
many. Sevro especially, and Mustang, and Roque.
I just loved the characters, the plot was
really suspenseful. I didn't know what was
going to happen. It was always, always intense.You
do have to get over the first 20-10 pages
where they just throw way too much sci-fi
speech at you and phrases. But after that
it lessens. Trust me, it lessens and the book
only gets better.
Then for S I read The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd and I buddy read this one
with my best friend. And the prompt was to...
what was it? It was for Artemis and the prompt
was to read a book with an animal on the cover.
Guys, there's bees on the cover. There's some
bees flying around. So I read The Secret Life
of Bees and I really really enjoyed this one.
It's about this young girl. It's set in the
time of segregation. It's about this girl
who's white and she has a very mean father
and the only one who she really likes is her
nanny who lives with them. And she has grown
up believing that she was the one who shot
her mother accidentally and killed her. Whether
she has or hasn't you have to read to find
out. And what happens is Rosaleen, who is
the help in her house, gets arrested when
she's trying to vote for the first time. And
then she decides, she, the little girl decides
to break Rosaleen out of jail and they're
going to run away. Together. That's what they
do. And they end up living on this beehive
plantation with these three black women, and,
yes. It's just so beautiful. It's a very character
driven story. So it's very slow moving, and
transformative, like... Lily, who's the main
character, that little girl, goes through
this metamorphosis how racism, y'know, exists.
And how it really limits people but also how
being black is not ugly. It's beautiful. And
they have their own freedoms in their own
ways and it was just a really woke, but slow,
gentle. There's so much beautiful writing,
beautiful nature descriptions. It was an emotional
book, but it was a beautifully and well done
book. I can understand why this one is a bestseller.
The ending was a bit too quickly and easily
resolved. A bit rushed. But other than that,
I loved this.
And then for T I read The Taming of The Shrew
by Shakespeare and then for mythothon that
also fit the Hermes prompt which was to read
a book set in a country that is not your own.
I believe that one is set somewhere in Italy
so that was that checked off the list. This
one is about these two sisters. One of them
is really horrible and one of them is like
an angel. And the angel is not allowed to
be married until her older sister is married
first. But everybody's like who is going to
marry this shrew, horrible, mean, cruel person.
And they just set her up with someone she's
off. But the person says like, oh, I'm going
to tame her. And make her like this lovely,
loveable wife who's just going to do everything
I say and yeah, that's that. Guys, this play
made me sooo angry. Because Shakespeare is
usually so woke. He's got these really important
themes that make you really think about the
topic. Even though he wrote them all the way
back, y'know, whenever, he's still - like
- the themes still resonate with people today
and are still important today. But for this
one it was just so anti-feminst and backwards
I was just like shook that someone who wrote
Othello and wrote like, The Merchant of Venice
could write something like The Taming of the
Shrew. It just didn't translate in my brain.
I don't understand how he could write something
so horrible. And I don't know if it was purposefully
written. Like, you can never know his intention.
Was it written to disgust us so much that
the shrew is tamed so that we think, oh, we
shouldn't do this to women? Or was it not
meant that way and it's just a play for men,
by men. I just, I really don't know. We will
never know. But I couldn't enjoy reading this
one for that reason. And that's that.
And for U I read Uprooted by Naomi Novik and
this also fit for the Zeus prompt which meant
I had to read a book which was at least 400
pages long. This one was like 480 something
so that fit fine. I really wanted to love
this one more than I did, because the hype
around this one is crazy. So this girl lives
next to this wood and this wood is dangerous
and magical. And people who go in never come
back out. There's also this really powerful
magician called the Dragon and the Dragon
comes -- well his name is actually Dragon
-- Dragon comes and takes a child, a teenage
girl, on their 18th birthday every 10 years.
And this girl goes to his manor, isn't seen
by people for 10 years. Is released 10 years
later and then leaves the village and never
comes back. So, she gets chosen to go with
him for 10 years and she's like well, what
am I going to have to do here? But it turns
out there's a lot more to Dragon than they
all assume. There's a threat, like the wood
is a bigger danger threat but there's also
a prolitical threat. And, yes, lots of things
go down. I will say that the magical system
is amazing. I love how magic is described
in this one. I love her writing style. I love
the fairytale-esque, fantasy-esque kind of
combination. But I felt the plot was just
like... it was just okay. It was kind of slow
moving and a bit weird but like, in a good
way. It was okay, I was quite indifferent
to the plot. I did not like the characters.
The main character herself is okay, I didn't
really care about her. But Dragon? No. If
you like Mr Darcy you might like Dragon. I
hate Mr Darcy. So I hated the Dragon. Quite
a lot of problematic moments here. For example,
in the beginning there's an attempted sexual
assault done. And Dragon just says like, 'well,
if you didn't want him to sexually assault
you, why did you wear those clothes?' And
I was like, but waaaaaaait! And it's just
left there and I thought that is wrong on
so many levels. And it's just glossed over
and it's just not okay. And it ruined, it
impacted my enjoyment of this book.
The V Girl by Mya Robarts this one was a reread
and it also fit the prompt of Iris which is
to read a book with your favourite colour
on it. And here-ish there's the shade of orange
that I really like. I love sunset orange or
burnt orange and there's that shade there
so, I counted this one for that. The V Girl
- it's so hard to describe! It's a dystopian
book and it's set in a world where rape is
legal. You can understand already how that's
quite problematic. But it discusses it in
a very deep and well done way. I can't actually
think of a young adult book - it's explicit
- but I can't think of a young adult slash
new adult-ish book that discusses consent,
rape, love and sex in a better or more clear
cut way where I agree with all of it, and
I don't find any of it problematic. And it
just... I... it's so well done. The themes
in this one are so well done. The writing
in this one is so well done. The romance,
that happens, quite a lot of sexual tension
and it was like... wheee. I was reading and
just fanning myself like this because it was
HOT. I loved the main characters so, I just
really enjoyed rereading this one.
For W I read Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones and
this also fit the prompt of Aphrodite which
is to read a book with a beautiful cover.
The cover's beautiful guys, but the inside
is not so much. There is this girl who loves
composing her music and there's this folklore
about the Goblin King and how he is mischevious.
And when the Goblin King kidnaps her sister
and brings her down to the underworld she
follows to try and rescue her. And lots of
things end up happening. She ends up in the
underworld as well and some romance starts
blossoming. But this book was just not very
good. There was no climax. It was all going
somewhere but then it just never went there
and stayed stayed shallow. That was quite
boring. I never really cared about the characters.
The main character's a bit whiny and pathetic.
And then she spends like half this book begging
this person to sleep with her. And I was like
is just cringe worthy to read about. And then
when he does she's like: I am transformed,
I am a woman now. And I was like: girl, no...
no. It's not a thing that will help you find
yourself and you're identity and your suddenly
got this new perspective on life now that
you've slept with someone. That's not the
kind of message we want to promote to teens
and that's not how it goes. So, I just couldn't
get with this book. I love that she loved
music so much and I love that it featured
a lot. But the goblin folklore was not developed
or dived into enough. The world building was
quite pathetic. Mmm, it was not a book for
me.
X was a wildcard because it is very hard to
find a book that fits X. So i read The Sign
of Four by Sherlock Holmes because - by Sherlock
Holmes pfft - by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle because
I needed to read it for uni. And that also
fit the prompt of... I really don't know how
to say this guys name. Hephateus? Hephateus?
In the mythothon which is to have a book with
a disabled character. Now in the BBC series
of Sherlock Holmes John Watson loses his can
because his disability is all mental, it's
all mental. However, in the books, he actually
needs his cane. So I decided to include that
because he actually has a lame leg and needs
his cane. And the Sign of Four mmm another
book I hated because it was just so so racist.
It was racist through and through. And the
descriptions, like... when it comes to reading
books that are racist and are written in the
past I don't enjoy it but I can still read
through it because I can think it was set
in those times, it's this and that. It's not
aimed at me, it's not aimed at the modern
day. If this was written now it wouldn't be
like that. But. BUT GUYS. The way he describes
the natives, the Indians and just anyone who
is black in that book is so disgusting. He
just sounds so revolted I became offended
reading the book. Ugh. If I didn't have to
read it for uni I would have totally DNFed
it and that's saying something because I do
not DNF book and it's not even that long.
For Y I reread The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte
Perkins Gilman because that is the only book
I have with Y. So I have no other option.
It's the third time I'm ever rereading it.
It's the second time I'm rereading it this
year. But it's the first time I'm reading
it on audiobook so that was nice. it also
fit the prompt for Herakules which was read
a popular book. And I feel like nearly, like,
in uni, everyone references this book all
the time. If you do English Literature I feel
like you read this book at some point. So
it's about this girl who is ill so she's confined
to her bedroom. Her husband comes and goes
but she's just told to say in her bedroom.
And the bedroom has this wallpaper and because
she's trapped in this room she starts to see
this woman in, like moving in the wallpaper.
And she starts to see the wallpaper moving.
And the question is she getting crazy because
of the fact that she's confined or is it because
of her mental illness and it's this really
creepy book and it's really good, guys. I
don't even mind reading it.
For Z I read The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths,
which was a mystery novel. And it also fit
the prompt for Hydra which is to read a book
with more than one point of view. This has
more than one point of view. It's a murder
mystery set in this gang of magicians. Now,
these magicians have all worked together in
the war as well and they've all gone their
separate ways and become different people.
However, there's a person or somebody going
through and murdering them all using these
magic tricks going wrong. And it's like, the
idea of the mystery is really good but the
book is written in such a boring way. It was
sooo slow paced. Things happened at the beginning
and it got quite suspenseful and things happened
at the end but for the 75% in the middle a
whole lot of nothing was happening and I was
just bored and I was reading light uuugh.
So yeah, not enjoyable.
Okay so that's it for the a-z read-a-thon
and myth-o-thon books, but now we've got the
four extra books that I read here to talk
about. So let's get to them.
I'll start with the one that's probably going
to interest you the most and I finally read
A Court of Thorns and Roses - no, A Court
of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas. And I forgot
this fit one last mythothon prompt, and that
was to read a Hades book. And Hades was to
read a book you got for free. And this was
gifted to me by Mya Robarts for one of my
explicit scene videos. So, A Court of Mist
and Fury. So the first one is a very loose
Beauty and the Beast retelling. Where there
are humans and there are fae. And Feyre gets...
Feyre kills this fae in the human world which
is a major crime so she gets dragged to fae
world and she is just forced to live there.
But she finds out that a lot more is going
on than she thinks that's above and beyond
her own struggles. There's this evil queen
who is kind of reigning in the fae world and,
yes, lots and lots of things happen in the
first book. And then this is the second book.
And I was quite indifferent to the first book
and I enjoyed this one a lot more. And I was
just so happy that we finally got to go to
Night Court because everybody kept it such
a mystery in the first one and I was just
like: okay, I want to see! And it sounds so
beautiful. And I also think this one did a
good job of showing feminist themes. In showing
a realistic post traumatic stress disorder
in young adult. Because, y'know, in young
adult the main characters always go through
these really stressful and mind shattering
situations but they seem to bounce back so
quickly. I'm glad that Feyre didn't bounce
back so quickly. The world building was a
lot more convincing this time. I loved it.
The writing varied between very good writing
and overwriting still. I still think Sarah
J Maas has a long way to go with her writing,
personally. And I loved the friendship in
this one. I loved the friendship between Cassian,
Azriel, Amren - I loved all those characters.
Mor. I loved them all. And I loved seeing
their dynamic. There's a lot of romance in
this one and the romance takes over the book
a little bit too much. I like the idea of
the couple together. But this book could've
done with a few hundred pages left of all
this love romance ridiculousness. It's not
ridiculous, I understand why she includes
it. But it got a bit too much for me. Also
I would not classify this as young adult.
I would classify this as new adult. There's
quite a lot of explicit scenes. And as someone
who reads new adult these explicit scenes...
some of them were steamy and I was like phew!
And some of them were so cringe worthy to
read and I was like: that's not how you write
these kind of scenes. But, I get why people
are hyped about this series now.
Then this was another five star read for me.
Absolutely loved it. And that was Rhapsodic
by Laura Thalassa. It's the 1st one in the
Bargainer series and I read this straight
after reading A Court of Mist and Fury and
all I can really say this is like a Cout of
Mist and Fury but better. And better written.
So this one is set in the - there's like a
human world and there's the other world where
fae rule. You see? And then there's the human
world. And the fae world is split in 4 courts.
Day court, night court, fauna court and flora
court. Like you see the similarities. But
the main character of this one is a siren
who lives in the human world. And sirens...
her siren is kind of her alter ego and it's
so cool because she's human for the most part.
But then she can activate her siren by singing.
And y'know sirens, you have to do what they
say. But also her siren is a very sexual character,
as you know, sirens and sex are always related.
So it's like, once she gets turned on the
siren in her comes out. She always refers
to herself as I and the siren as The Siren
so it's like an alter ego, and I just loved
that for some reason. The king of night court
is also called the Bargainer, and the Bargainer
makes deals with you and if he makes you a
deal you get one bead, right? And he makes
you pay those deals. So you can say I want
this body to disappear because you killed
someone, he does the deed, he gives the bead
and when he wants to cash it in, he can cash
it in in whatever way he likes. The main character
in this one has 322 beads. That's a lot of
deals. And she never thought the Bargainer
would come back to redeem them, but he comes
back and he starts cashing them in. But there's
a lot more going in in the other world than
she realised, and this book was just so good.
The romance, like, I said the romance scenes
in A Court of Mist and Fury could have used
improving, and in this one she does them perfectly.
They're so steamy and intense. Yes, like A
Court of Mist and Fury the romance does take
over the plot a little bit but I didn't even
care because the couple had such great dynamic.
In this one you get to see some of their past
and some of their future, it alternates - some
of their past with their present day, it alternates
with the two. It's done very well. And I also
feel like the actual plot was majorly creepy
and a great set up for the rest of the series.
I just loves this one through and through
and raced through it in a day event though
it's 400 pages.
I also had to read - actually this is the
first one I read in November but it's one
of the last ones I'm mentioning - and that
is the Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Last
month - link to that up there and down below.
I read The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and
I'd actually read half of this one, then read
the whole Moonstone, then read the other half
of this one. I had to read it for class and
it was good at the beginning and it was very
interesting as a Victorian mystery but then
it just dragged, guys, it dragged in the middle.
And in the end it was good again. And it was
a little bit predictable. It's mostly about
this guy who is an artist and he goes to work
at this house where he trains this really
lovely girl. And on the way there he stops
on the road and he sees this woman dressed
in white and she looks like a ghost. He helps
her get to where she needs to go and then
people die, and there's all these money problems,
and there's this very suspicous guy marrying
this girl who he has also fallen in love with.
And it's just... it's really good, but it's
too long.
The last book that I read, this last one,
we're gonna end on a Shakespeare. And that
is Twelfth Night, by Shakespeare. And I had
to read this one for class. And it's basically
a play set around the twelve days before Christmas
where lots of mischief and mayhem goes on.
There's lots of gender and sexuality questioning
going on in this one. There's quite a bit
of girls dressing up as guys, and disguises,
and people falling in love with people who
are of the same gender but it's actually a
girl dressed up as a boy, but then the other
person doesn't know that when they're falling
for them. And lots of shenangins. It's quite
like Midsummer Night's Dream in that way.
I thought it was a decent play. I didn't love
it like crazy but I did appreciate that he
is bringing up these questions of gender and
sexuality in that time. Like, yes. And it's
quite funny and there's some fun things about
it. I do think that Twelfth Night is a play
that's better to see visually than it is to
read. And I'm looking forward to watching
an adaption of it.
Phew! Guys! So that is all the books that
I read in the month of November. Still can't
believe it. 30 books - never doing that again
- I just don't think I can. But yes, it was
so fun to do these two read-a-thons. If I've
been talking to you on Twitter thank you so
much for talking with me and encouraging me.
Also everyone who commented on my insta stories
like, 'you can do this!' when I got to the
end and I was like, 'I cannot do this.' Thank
you for supporting me know in the comment
section down below what was your worst read
in November, which doesn't necessarily have
to be bad but the one you rated the least.
Please give this video a thumbs up if you
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