Hey guys, it's Olivia here from Olivia's
Catastrophe. Today I'm here to give you
my March wrap-up. In the month of March I
read 11 books and I had quite a few new
favourites so I can't wait to talk about
those books with you. But to get started
I just want to shout out to Cara from
Wilde Book Garden for getting me this
shirt for my birthday which says 'The
trees speak Latin.' I absolutely love it!
It's a reference to the Raven Cycle
which is one of my all-time favourite
series. And you better be ready because I
have never taken this shirt off. Just
kidding! But I am bulk filming today so
you're gonna be seeing it quite a lot. So
let's get down to the books. The first book
that I want to talk about you already
saw in my 24 hours of reading straight
vlog, but I'm just gonna wrap it up here.
And that is Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas. This is the third book in the Throne of
Glass series. And I'll just tell you
briefly what the first one is about. We
follow Celaena Sardothien who is an
assassin. And she has been hired to
become the Kings champion. It's a
competition between all these other
assassins but while she's at the palace
for this competition where she could
earn her freedom if she wins, because
she's actually currently enslaved in a
prison. Some of the competitors are
slowly being killed off. By this book
this series has definitely come a long
way from where it started. And I just
have to say that this book was a
mediocre read for me because it was such
a training montage. The whole thing was
just a training montage. You're getting
quite a few different characters so
we're not just following Celaena, but
every single character apart from Chaol
seems to be having some type of training
situation. Which is just not the most fun
to read about if you're reading a series.
I did like Rowan, who's a new character who
was introduced. And I did stop shipping
team Chaol. RIP Team Chaol. But he had a lot
of emotions to work through and his
storyline was still my favourite in this
story because he's definitely got a lot
of things to work through and figure out.
So I just... I didn't find this book
exciting. The content of it was boring
but the characters are getting pretty
good. We'll just see where this world
goes. I'm gonna be continuing this series
so stay tuned for more thoughts. Then I'd
like to talk about my first 5 star of
the month which is a new favourite. And
that is Children of Virtue and Vengeance
by Tomi Adeyemi. Again, if you watched
that vlog you can see that I read this
one in a single morning, in one sitting.
It was fantastic. So Children of Blood
and Bone follows our main character. And
she lives in a world where a king is a
ruler. And he is terrible. He's like, a
tyrant. Before Orisha magic used to exist
in this world and they lived in tandem
and everybody was happy. But then the
king decided because not everyone has
magic he wants no one to have magic. He
oppressed them. Magic was gone from the
world. But now there's been a chance my
magic can come back. So lots of people
had problems with this one but I just
shamelessly loved it. And while I think
the pacing was a little bit off, and I
think some of the characters went in
directions that seemed a bit out of
character for them (aka Amari) and there
was a character who came back in this
series who I just feel like they
shouldn't have done that... Let the dead
stay dead! But anyway in other ways this
book was really good. I liked how it's a
fantasy book but still had time to focus
on cultural appropriation. It really did
a good job of showing the grief that
some of these characters are feeling. And
I just felt like the plot still had lots
of twists and turns even if the pacing
was a bit off. So I was still shocked and
outraged by every plot twist and turn. And every time I thought this is the
grand one, there was another one. And that
just kept me intrigued all the way
through. I really liked how our main
character kind of develops in this one.
How she feels her anger, she feels her
sadness. And how that does direct her
decisions because hey, emotions do get
to people. I just thought it was
fantastic. The world building and magic
system in this is so so so good. The next
book I have to talk about is The Girl on
the Train by Paula Hawkins and again,
this was just a middle-of-the-road book
for me. I'm trying out thrillers but this
was not a good place for me to start. So
we follow our main character who is an
alcoholic. And she takes the same train
to work every morning and she just looks
out the window and sees the same couple
in the same house which is alongside the
tracks. And she kind of has made up this
whole life for them. But one time when
she's passing by on the train she sees
something that's quite disturbing and
then she gets involved in their lives,
and involved in the crime and everything
like that. So I hated the writing style
in this one. It felt like I was reading
from a robot's perspective. It just felt
very stiff and unemotional and I
couldn't connect to the characters. And I
liked how the character focuses were on
the female characters
even though the writing still didn't
work for me. There is one thing that I'll
say for this book and that is that it's
very very addicting. I still kept turning
pages. I still needed to know how
everything would work ou.t I have heard
people say it was predictable. It wasn't
entirely predictable for me but some
elements of it were. And the reason why
this was just a middle-of-the-road book
for me was despite the writing style, I
was enjoying it to some extent. But then
the end happened and it's just every
character in this book is insane! Like,
far far far too insane for it to be
realistic. Not everybody is that
crazy and it just blew my mind. And it
just wasn't quite for me. The next book I
have to talk about is The Mercies by
Kiran Millwood Hargrave. And this is a
witchy book that is set in history.
Historical fiction during the witch
trial times. I can't remember exactly but
I believe it's either set in Norway or
Finland which they call Finnmark back
then. And we follow these two women. One
of them has become the wife of this
religious figure so he is being sent to a
faraway small town to kind of hunt out
the witches. And then the other one is
following a girl who lives in that town.
And yeah, their worlds collide and the
Witchcraft Trials and hunts are on. So
there's a lot of girl on girl hate but
that just comes with the witch trials. It
was the time in history where that was a
very prominent. But at the same time as
it's showing a lot of girl on girl hate
I did like it's showing of girl friendships
and also some lgbtq+ themes even though
it's historical fiction. Always
appreciate seeing that in historical
fiction. So I did like this book. It's a
very slow atmospheric book . Think The
Familiars - think The Familiars by
Stacey Hall. It's that kind of slow,
atmospheric, captivating, very thick on
its landscape being involved in the book. And it reads really nicely. However, I
just felt like it was a bit too slow for
me and everything accumulates and
happens very very quickly at the end. And
I would have loved if we had some more
of that exciting drama that kind of
happened
a bit more earlier in the novel. I felt
like everything was just too much rushed
and there was just too much exposition
and buildup in the beginning. I found
that it was one of the most prominent
books that showed the true horror
of the witch burnings for me. And I will
leave some triggers down below because
it has quite a few of them. For my big book
of the month I read The Other Bennet
Sister by Janice Harlow. And this boy is
a big book at 658 pages. So this is kind
of like a Jane Austen fanfic. And it's
brilliant. So in this one we follow Mary
Bennet who is the last sister who stays
at home. And it happens after Pride and
Prejudice. And it's basically about Mary
story and her romantic journey. That's
what you really need to know. I kind of
liked checking in with the other Bennet
sisters and seeing where they had got
to in life. And I also really liked
Mary. She's such a relatable character. She's very bookish, she's very quiet and
shy, but she also just doesn't have much
faith in herself and her appearance. She
always puts herself down and I love
seeing how much she developed throughout
this book and built up herself and where
she ended up going. The romance got a bit
frustrating at some point because there
is a miscommunication problem but that
was only one moment and I really liked
seeing her, you know, find her own way. I
will say that this book did not have to
be 658 pages long. A lot of it could
have been cut down and just cut out. But
it was still a very good read. And thank
you to thechronicbookworm on
Instagram for buddy reading this one
with me. I had a lot of fun. Then I have
to mention The Murder of Rodger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie which I read for
Sherlockathon. I kind of failed at
Sherlockathon because a lot of things
happened like me needing to emergency
fly back home and move. But I do want to
mention which prompts I completed down
below. And I had a lot of fun doing
Sherlockathon. So The Murder of Rodger
Ackroyd is just a typical Agatha
Christie mystery. A murder has happened,
he was the only one in the room,
completely locked doors, and Poirot is
back on the case. I really don't want to give
you more than that because I don't want
to spoil anything. But I just want to say
this was fantastic. This has definitely
become one of my new favourites and
actually one of my ultimate three
favourites of Agatha Christie. It was just
so so so good. Unpredictable. I didn't see
it coming but she left enough clues for
us so I can't wait to reread it and know
all the clues and pick up on them. It was
just so good and I love Poirot. He was
just as dramatic and over-the-top as
ever while still solving the case. And
I loved his insights to character and
people and how he looked at them. I just --
Agatha Christie really does it for me. Then I listened to the Memoirs of Sherlock
Holmes. And this is by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Stephen Fry reads the audiobook and this
was a collection of short stories that
leads up until a main event. I guess most
people don't know it unless they've read
Sherlock Holmes. I won't spoil it but the
end short story in that collection in
particular is very very important for
the Sherlock Holmes fan base storyline. And I really really did enjoy this
collection. However, there is one short
story in this collection that is
incredibly racist. So racist I was
shocked when I was listening to that
mystery. So for that I did have to
penalise the book because I don't do
it with racism. That's just -- we don't -- we
don't like racism around here. We don't
like discrimination. So I did not like
that short story at all. But then the end
short story was just so good and it
showed the friendship between Sherlock
and Watson so much. And it just
accumulated in this short story
collection. We finally get to meet
Sherlock's brother Mycroft and we
finally get to meet
Sherlock's enemy Moriarty. So there was a
lot going on to make me love it. But alas,
there was also something in it to make
me hate it too.A nd for class I read
Paradise Lost by John Milton however,
despite me reading this one for class I
have been meaning to read it for years.
So I kind of was very happy to finally
get to reading it. So this one is gothic
kind of story which follows the story of
Adam and Eve. And it's just basically
retelling the story of Adam and Eve but
including Satan's perspective on the
matter as well as the angels and Adams
and Eve's. And it was just, it's really
interesting. It's kind of a Christian
epic so think of that kind of long-form
poetic novel type of situation. That's
what this one is. And the writing just --
it's the kind of writing that I love. And I loved all the references to the
biblical story. As a Christian I did
recognise a lot of the Christian
Orthodox beliefs kind of being translated
into this one, being questioned, being
dived into, being discussed. And it was so interesting to hear from
Satan and what happened. I don't think I'm
articulating quite how much I
loved this book very well, but it was
just it was so good. It was everything I
wanted from a book I've been meaning to
read for a long time.
I'm very happy. Joe Cinque's Consolation by Helen Garner. This is
Australian literature and I read it for
my Australian literature class. It is
also true crime because it follows this
horrendous murder case where this
girlfriend murders her fiance boyfriend. Before she does so she hosts a dinner
party and tells all of the guests that
she is going to kill herself
and also kill her other half. However, she
kills him and fails to kill herself but
also is very dodge about the whole
situation. And it follows the court case
and everything that follows thereafter. And I don't think I'm cut out for the
true crime genre. Not because this book
was awful but because every true crime
book I've read so far... I just end up so
frustrated at the law and angry. And that
anger doesn't go away because I feel
like injustice has been done. And yet
this book -- while it does follow the
events and it does follow what happens
afterwards --
the author took a lot of time to talk to
everyone involved. Including the judge
who makes decisions, including people who
chose to go to the dinner party, and you
get to see everyone's motivations and
you start to emphasize for everyone. And
I didn't even enjoy that because I was
angry at the same time. I feel like it
did a good job of discussing the grief
that the family who have been affected
by the death of their son feels towards
the end, but my main problem was the
narrator and how it was chosen to be
written. Because it felt so dry. For a
case that has so much depth to it, that
has so much complexity, it was an
incredibly dry and boring book. And that
shocked me a lot because that takes
effort. And also Helen Garner tries to be
an ambivalent narrator and not choose a
side, but it just felt like she wasn't
really present and you need a strong
narration voice if you're gonna be
telling a story like this. Towards the
end she decides: you know what I give up!
I can't be ambivalent, I have emotions, I
have feelings about this. And that's when
the book got good but it was just too
little too late. This wasn't quite one
for me but it was definitely an
interesting case. I also read The Lost
Arabs by Omar Sakr. And this is a poetry collection.
Australian literature and Omar Sakr is
an Arab Australian poet. And this was
another favourite for me. If you've
watched my favourite reads of 2019 video
you'll notice that his debut poetry
collection was on that list. And I was
just so excited to read more from him. This one is about -- mm how do I say this --
it's about his culture and his history. It
focuses a lot on his mother, and his
grandmother and their relationship to
where he's from as opposed to him living
in Australia. And how he can or can't
reconcile those two worlds and those two
cultures within himself. It's also about
some of the suffering that a lot of
Arabs go through, a lot of wars that have
been waged in their countries that they
have nothing to do with. About the fact
that once they escape these war ridden
countries they have to build
themselves up from the ground up from
nothing. And they don't get some of the
respect that other people do get. And it
just it delves into all of that. And I
think I said this in my best books of
2019 video, but his wording is just
absolutely surreal. He puts words in
place in poems in ways that I just would
never have thought of before. And he just
makes me look at things in a different
light. And that is the sign of a very
true and very good poet to me. So I just
absolutely love this. Definitely
recommend and I'm ready to read whatever he
publishes next because he only has two
books out so far. And last but not least
I reread Doctor Faustus by Christopher
Marlowe. This was another read for class and I
felt the exact same way about it which
was meh. That's all I have to say. It's
about Doctor Faustus and he decides that he
wants to know everything. He wants all
the knowledge that he can possibly get. It's a play and he decides that he's
going to make a deal with the devil and
sell his soul in order to be able to do
that. It talks about redemption, forgiveness,
evil, that kind of thing. And it's just an
okay play to me. And there you have it.
Those were the eleven books that I read
in the month of March. Please let me know
what was your favourite book in the month
of March. Tell me in the comment section
down below and I'll be seeing you guys
in the next one. Give this video a thumbs
up if you enjoyed it, hit the subscribe
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video. And you know they say: onwards and
upwards. Excelsior! because before Orisha magic --
that's. That's the note.
