Hey Booktube! So today I'm coming to
you with a video talking about some overly
specific things
I love in books! Whenever I'm looking to
pick up a book, whether it be from the
library or a bookstore or
Amazon, in the description I'm always
looking for these buzzwords, or these
elements of a story that I'm have experience
with enjoying,
some elements that I really love
explored in YA!
And so today, I'm going to be talking
about, I think four or five of those
elements, and some YA books that I have
loved!
These are elements that, like, if I see
them in a book, I will more than likely
pick up that book, just because that
element is in the story!
Before I start, definitely recommend me
books based off of these story
elements in the comments below,
because booksandlala did this video
where she basically read books
based on what her comments
recommended to her, and I that's a really good idea, so I
might do something in that vein.
So definitely recommend me books based
off of my descriptions, off of my story
elements, in the comments down below, but
let's get right into the video!
All right so the first song i want to
talk about is retellings
whether it be fairy tale retellings or
just classic story retellings
i absolutely love your tongues i love
how authors could take this classic
and well-known story and adapt it
there's so many creative ways that
authors can do this
whether it be through changing out the
character art or the world
or what happened to the story there's
just so many unique and creative ways
that authors could go about doing this
it's one of my favorite things to see
portrayed in books and i think it's only
becoming more and more popular nya to do
this
and i'm super excited about that trend
the one retelling that i absolutely
loved
is geekerella by ashley poston i read
this for a reading vlog where i
basically tried to read it
in one sitting it was a lot of fun so
you should go check that video out
but this book is a cinderella retelling
and it's about
l who writes fan fiction online about
this really popular tv show
so that's one perspective in this book
and then the other perspective
is this actor i was like heading this
reboot of that tv show and so al starts
writing negative things about him
online but when al has the chance to
enter this cosplay contest to
meet the actor she immediately goes for
it and so we follow about those
perspectives as they slowly but surely
fall in love those of them having
reasons for not wanting to fall
in love with the other it's just a
really really good romance i loved the
cinderella retelling
i loved how the stepsisters were
portrayed and i really liked how the
author adapted the magic pumpkin
and how this world really lent itself to
how to adapt to us and really challenge
really good
and darian and elle's perspective was
also really fun to read
and seeing it all come together in the
ball in the cosplay contest
was really really interesting and then
of course with three challenge we
obviously have to talk about the cinder
series by marissa meyer
these are based on different like
retellings the first one is the only one
that i
read and it's based on cinderella and i
really like that retelling as well i had
a lot of fresh plot twists that weren't
in the original story which i
really liked and the robotic twist on
the cinderella story
was really fun to read as well i really
liked cinderella's character and again
the way it was adapted was really nicely
done
there are definitely ways to not go
about adapting retelling
you have to change things obviously and
it has to be a fresh spin on it but it
can't damage this
original soul of the story and it also
can't be like exactly the same
in every switch way you just change the
setting like that's not the point of a
retelling
i think cinderella and geekerella both
did that in really superb ways and i
cannot wait to continue with the
geekerella series
and the cinder series because they both
are like a retelling series
i'm super excited to get into both of
them another book of retellings i like
is because you love to hate me
by 13 authors and 13 booktubers this is
made up of 13 stories
and each story takes like a fresh spin
on like mythology
or some fairy tales and although some of
them definitely aren't the best i really
enjoyed some of the better stories
in this anthology so my favorites were
jack by emery
amari blessing a little wants was pretty
good i like to see what to detonal by
victoria schwab
and an essay by jesse the reader
so good the perfect combination
and then the andrew smith story was all
right and i re i forget what story like
really stood out to me but there was one
that was oh
i think it was the adam silvera story
there are a lot of really quality
stories in here
and if you're looking for just a variety
of amazing writing and first spins on
popular like fairy tales and mythologies
you should definitely pick this book up
and also include some of our favorite
booktubers
and then there are two returns on my
physical tbr that i really want to get
into
the first i actually bought in release
day and was planning to make a reading
vlog
reading it on release date but that
didn't work out and that is cinderella's
dead by kalyn baron this obviously is a
cinderella selling i wish we got more
diverse retellings i feel like we just
mostly get cinderella retellings
and while that is because most people
just know the classic cinderella story
i still just want more writing we know
snow white right
it just seems like a very interesting
world that our main protagonist is
living in this book teen girls
are required to go to this annual ball
and they have to be chosen by
men based on like their finery and what
their where if they're not chosen
they disappear and are never seen for
again so many protagonists sophia
who would rather marry her long-time
best friend aaron
decides to flee from this ball and
actually finds herself hiding in
cinderella's mausoleum
i don't think i said this six weeks like
200 years after cinderella's like famed
story
and so in that mausoleum she meets
constance who is the last known like
relative of cinderella and her
stepdaughters and so together
they plan to take down the king and this
misogynistic
ruler once at for all and i'm just super
excited to get into it lots of people
have
raved about it so far it just seems
really interesting i did read like the
first few pages of it
and i really liked the writing stuff and
i really thought the characters had so
much potential for what i did read
and obviously the summary of this book
sounds really really interesting and
then the other retelling i want to read
is heartless by marissa meyer i just
talked about this in my last video so i
won't talk that much about it here
but basically this book is about
catherine who's one of the most desired
womans in wonderland i always say
woman's when i just say the summary and
i don't know why
and she wants to be a baker but her mom
doesn't really want her to be because
she can be the little
queen of this kingdom and so eventually
captain goes to this ball where she's
expected to
accept the king's hand in marriage she
meets this handsome and mysterious
suggest
and for the first time she actually
feels the pull of true attraction to
jess and so that the risk of offending
the king and her parents
she and just going to the secret
courtship it's not really fake dating
but obviously
that's not going to work and it's going
to go wrong
horribly soon and yeah what i'm scared
about with this book is that it won't
have a happy ending
that's how this book is in my hands and
i'm just scared so much
about that element of the story but i
think that's also going to
make it more interesting so i'll just be
invested the characters and
wonder like how bad this ending is and
obviously this is
a retelling kind of of alice in
wonderland it's not really it's just set
in the same
world but still i think next element 11
stories is technology
whether it be like through social media
or creating games
i just love how technology is
incorporated in books and i feel like
it's only going to
be incorporated more as like technology
grows more and more
and it becomes more prominent in our
lives it's already pretty important so i
have two books that i've already read
that i wanted to talk to you guys about
today
the first one is the gravity of us by
phil stamper this book is about cal who
is the social media
journalist and so that's what he wants
to be when he's older like
he already has been accepted by buzzfeed
he's over 500 million followers on movie
flame or flash flavor whatever
like he is set but then his dad gets
accepted
for this nasa mission and so he and his
family have to relocate
to texas where he is not allowed to do
what he loves the most because of i
guess
privacy reasons and so while he and his
family are struggling to be the perfect
american family because this tv show is
covering the entire mission
he also falls in love with this boy who
is the son of another astronaut in this
mission
leon and they have a really really cute
romance but then cali begins to suspect
something is wrong
with the media coverage around the
mission he slowly begins to find out
secrets about them
that could ruin everything he doesn't
know if he should reveal them
and expose this media coverage because
that might put
the people most near him especially his
dad at risk
and it's just a really cute contemporary
romance it talks a lot about like the
role as social media influencers when
you have
so many people following you and what is
the right thing to do
what the line is between like our
personal problems and what the world
should know
and it's just a really tense and well
written story
my phone case is even based off of this
book i i just love this book so much i
write for myself so you can watch my
vlog right here and this has some blurs
from
becky albertalli adams american and
mcmanus
john david hutchinson julian winters i
just really want you to pick
this book up it is so so good and philip
stamper just announced his second book
which i'm super excited about and the
other book that has like a social media
element
is slide by brittany morris this book is
about 17 year old kiara johnson
who attends this really good private
school called jefferson academy
but what people at her academy and even
her family don't know about her
is that online she runs this game called
slay where
millions of black gamers go under these
newbie personas
do this car playing role playing virtual
reality
game and nobody has ever found out that
kira is the developer of this game
her boyfriend malcolm even thinks that
games are the downfall of the black man
and throughout this book she's trying to
convince him that they're not
and so everything is going all right
like she solves problems but when a
black teen is murdered in kansas city
over dispute in this game
she begins to get under fire from the
media
people are calling her racist
exclusionist and even worse there are
trolls
on her game that are threatening to
harass all the players and take
over and so kira must protect your
unapologetic blackness
in this world is trying so hard to ruin
this online space that she has made
black people like her and it's just such
a moving story obviously the
technology comes in with the game and
there was a lot of work put into this
game by the author brittany morris
she really put a lot of work into the
cards and the dual system it was a lot
of fun watching the more important duels
play out in this book
because while it was canceled so like
see what was going to happen next
there was also just so much work put
into the game and it really just felt
realistic at
all times and also all the characters in
this book were so well written i just
really enjoyed the story and if you want
to hear my full thoughts but i talk
about it for like an
hour in the live show for the next
chapter book club so i'll leave that
link right up here
it was a lot of fun talking with other
booktubers like troy from troy reads
eric from breaking books nikki from the
library reads it was just a lot of fun
so you should definitely go watch that
live stream our scene next element i
want to talk about is
books that include mental illness the
characters in these books are always
just struggling with so many problems
and i can always relate to them so much
and even though i'm not personally in
these situations
i know that people like how well they're
portrayed in these books
but i just always seem to like books
that have mental illness in them but one
of the books is turtles all the way down
by john green i am a john green stan
i love all of his books and so when i
read this book i knew i was going to
love it
i didn't love it as much as his other
books but it was still really good and
everything was just so emotional in this
book
and it just felt so real you don't
really struggles from melting illness a
lot as well
and he just really portrayed his
experiences with mentona so well in this
book
and he talks about a lot on his
vlogbrothers channel as well
it's a really fun mystery there were
some amazing characters we stan
daisy she was a really good character in
this book and the writing was superb as
it always
is yeah i think this book is definitely
really really good
and the other one which is just so so
good that i don't talk about enough of
my channel
it's kind of a funny story by ned
bezzini this book is about craig
who on the outside you might think he
has his perfect life going from
but on the inside he's struggling with
suicidal thoughts and he just feels so
pressured by his really good private
school and all the like work he has to
do so one day after almost attempting
suicide
he had emits itself into this mental
hospital where he's finally able to
confront like the sources of anxiety
and come to terms with who he is and who
he wants to be in life
while also meeting this amazing cast of
characters like all of them were so well
defined
and they were all just so amazing craig
as a character
i just really empathize with him and all
he goes through in this book
all struggles he has all the important
questions he's thinking of
but also how funny he is like this book
was really funny as well for being such
a serious topic and i really like this
blur from the washington post
that says vizzini supplies personal
insights in a clever self-deprecating
tone
that makes the book an entertaining read
and teen vogue said it's a book about
depression that's not the least bit
depressing i say next element i want to
talk about is main character artists
these main characters that are
creatively
inclined like they just have this
creative passion to themselves
and they really pursue it in their
respective books and it makes up a lot
of who they
are and so i have a lot of books i want
to talk about with this element
the first one is piecing me together by
renee watson this book is about jade who
believes she has to get out of her poor
neighborhood to succeed in life so when
she gets the opportunity
to go to this really rich white high
school of like a really far away she
takes it and even though she has plenty
of opportunities there more than she
ever had in her poor neighborhood school
she feels so much like an outsider at
school and she misses going on the bus
with her friends
the end of school one of the
opportunities that arises for jade is
this woman mentorship program
and jade gets matched up with this black
woman just because her mentor is black
and graduate from the same high school
that jade is going to
doesn't mean that she knows where jade
is coming from she just doesn't want to
be
singled out as someone who has to be
fixed someone who has to be
like helped and she just wants to
express herself in her art
these collages that she makes which is
really explored well on this cover
maybe there are some things she could
show other women but understanding the
world
and finding opportunities to be real to
make a difference and i just
loved how well written this book was
jade is a really good character
and the way she portrays herself through
her art was a lot of fun to see
her relationship with maxine and the
different scenes that they have together
and the tenseness between them and how
much jade does
doesn't really like maxine but really
warmed up to her at the end
was really fun to read i just loved the
art aspect of this book i really liked
the story and where it progressed
and i really liked the subplot about
lewis and clark and like that how that
correlated to where the story was going
i really liked that aspect as well the
next book i want to talk about is love
hate and other filters by samantha ahmed
in this book our main character maya
sees is a filmmaker
and that's like her dream to go to film
school in new york city
and marry the boy of her dreams but what
her parents expect for her
is to stay close to their home and marry
the boy that they have set up for her
and so she's really torn between these
two worlds her life is just turned
upside down when this
horrific crime perpetrated thousands of
miles away comes back to her
because the person who did it shares the
same last name it's maya
and her community just turns against her
with bigotry
hatred like the the community she wants
you just
completely turns against her and she has
to find the strength inside her
to rise up and know that she is valid
and i just love this book so so much i
really liked samir ahmed's
writing and although the romance got
really weird out times there were a lot
of really suspenseful scenes in this
book
and i really liked the main characters
auntie and her parents
like that entire dynamic was really
interesting intense to watch happen and
although it definitely isn't the best
book in the world i just
love it so so much just because of the
relatable factor and also like how well
the story progresses
i think it's a really really good book
so the last element i want to briefly
mention
because it's already been pretty long
this video is over one minute and that's
a lot of content
is road trips now this is pretty loose
because it depends on how you define a
road trip
because like paper towns is a road trip
like
undeniably it is a road trip and it's a
very good one as well and
this is a donating book that i really
enjoyed marco's character is
really interesting and the message that
we learned at the end is just perfect
and although i didn't love q's character
he was all right generally derailed from
the overall enjoyment of the story for
me but like at fahrenheit 451 there's
kind of a road trip at the end donald
cross kind of also has one
but he only has one stop on his road
trip i guess
because he just moves from where he is
to washington dc
so you can kind of count that road trip
because like he's not supposed to be
there
but i again it depends on what you call
a road trip
and then i think sadie can definitely be
called a road trip book although
you don't think of it as that she does
move around a lot and she travels to a
lot of places
and so i think it is definitely
technically a road trip book and a very
tense
and thrilling one like that but yeah
guys that has overly specific things i
love in books or just things i love and
books generally definitely recommend me
books based off of these elements in the
comments down below
i definitely love to see your
recommendations but yeah guys if you
like this video please leave it a
like subscribe i post fun books videos
every tuesday and saturday and i'll see
you next time
in another video bye
