Hi guys, it's Olivia here from Olivias's
Catastrophe and today I'm here to give
you my May reading wrap-up. In the month
of May I read 17 books and I'm here to
tell you all about them. I participated
in believathon which is hosted by
How to Train Your Gavin. I also
participated in Books for the Brave
which was to contribute funds to the NHS
and that was hosted by three people, I
believe. Drinking By My Shelf and also
Victoria Reads.
And I also tried to do Mentalhealthathon. 
And I'll talk
about that and my experience with mentalhealthon when I get around to
talking about those books. Let's get
right into it. So the first book I ought to
start with is black activist poetry. And
that is Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott. And
I really recommend this one if you want
to read some poems that are gonna make
you really think about and evaluate your
perspective on the black lives matter
movement. This poetry collection was just
okay for me. I feel like poetry is something
that is very personal to every reader
and it's not particularly my type of
poetry. I feel like if you like insta
poetry but you like a bit more from your
Instagram poetry, you are going to enjoy
this one. And I know that's what's really
popular at the moment so if you like
that kind of poetry, that's not too
difficult to understand, that's fairly
straightforward, and you get the subject
matter, you're gonna like this poetry
collection. And I don't really have much
more to say other than it's
intersectional. There's beautiful
illustrations in this one and it's such
a good read to read right now. The next
one I have to talk about is a manga and
that is Death Note Volume one and two.
They're both in this black edition and I
had a blast reading this. I was looking
for something that was easy to read. Lots
of pictures and manga just brings that
to the table. I already knew what was
going to happen because I have watched
the entire anime for Death Note. But this
is my first time reading the manga and
it was really good. So what happens in
this manga is there's these gods of
death and they have these notebooks. And
if you write a name in this notebook
that person will die. And you can also
say how they die and other. There's more
nuance to it which you can find out
about when you read the book. And this
death god drops it down to earth and a
human
picks it up. And he decides he's going to
start creating justice by killing off
all the criminals that he possibly can. So this one is a book that really brings
to the forefront the moral of the death
row and also what criminals deserve and what
they don't deserve. Are you doing good by
killing off criminals or are you just
doing bad as well? But at the same time
it's quite a psychological thriller
because the police are after -- trying to
find out who's instigating all of this.
And you get this, kind of... it's not a
murder mystery but like hunting down a
criminal. But at the same time is the
criminal doing the right thing? It's
asking a lot of moral questions and it's
just so exciting and interesting. I think
volume one does a very good job of
setting up the story but volume two is
when the story really gets going and
gets exciting. and introduces my favourite
character in volume two. I do think that
the female representation is quite
lacking in this one. There are some
sexist comments and kind of sexist
situations. I'm glad that there's not too
many female characters in it just
because then there's not many
opportunities for this. But do be aware
that you're going to get this when you
read it. Also as something you should know
as they are quite a few new people here
I always leave content warnings in the
description box below. So do check it out
because I won't always mention that this
book has a particular content warning
but it will be down below. I did two buddy
reads with Gaia Athena last month and we
read Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer and
also Artemis Fowl and the Arctic
Incident which is the second book. And
I'll tell you what the first book is
about. So we follow Artemis Fowl who is
this young boy. Artemis Fowl is 12 years
old and he's a criminal mastermind. His
mother is not really present and his
father has gone missing. And so he is the
one who's left to run the criminal
enterprises that his family is in. And
he's discovered that there are fairies,
and fairies in this world have this gold
which you can get if you ransom a fairy. So Artemis Fowl has this brilliant idea
that he's going to capture a fairy and
demand that ransom. Get all the money and
yeah! But to do so it's not going to be
that easy because fairies have a lot of
magic and a lot of tricks up their
sleeve. I really really
enjoyed reading this series. I want to
talk about the first one mostly, because
that's the one that instantly gripped me.
I felt like it was exciting. I felt like
it was fun. It's essentially a heist story
so if you do like heist stories you're
gonna enjoy it. I'm putting this as a middle
grade series. I remember reading the
first one when I was younger but I
totally remembered nothing. So I'm gonna
say it's middle grade. And Artemis is
the mind behind everything and then he's
got this Butler who is his bodyguard,
who's kind of the brawn. And it's such a
great dynamic that those two have
because they're almost like family/
friends but also employee/boss. So it's
just very interesting. I thought the
magic was done really well and I loved
hearing about the fairies. The
world-building is fantastic. And even
though this is like, a magical, action,
heist story, they still manage to slip in
a lot of discussions about environment
seeing as the fairies hate how humans
aren't very caring about the environment.
So it's just got some very good morals
also just hidden underneath. So
definitely very good one. And then I read
the second one which I won't tell you
about seeing as I gave a synopsis for
the first. But it was still good. It
wasn't as good as the first one but I
still enjoyed them to an equal degree and
gave them both the same rating. And yeah,
in this one is a lot more is done about
working with people who are your enemies. So if you want the kind of enemies to
co-workers vibe? That's what you're
going to get here. And I also really
appreciated that in this one there's two
plot lines running at the same time but
they kind of connect. And I really enjoy
when you've got two separate plot lines
but they connect. I didn't realize how
much I enjoyed that! And I appreciate
seeing that in a middle grade series
because it's showing that the author
thinks that children are intelligent
enough to keep up with the story. Which, you
know, they are. Children are so
intelligent. I do feel like the
characters were a little bit more 2D
seeing as there was a larger range of
characters to follow. This series was so
much fun and I wasn't having the best
time in May so I needed fun reads, and
this just provided it for me. Next we're
going to talk about the end of The
Chronicles of Narnia. I started reading
this series last month and I read most
of them so if you want to hear more
about that go to my wrap-up. I'll leave
links in the description box down below.
But this month I read The Magician's
Nephew and The Last Battle and finished off
the series. It was not good. I read these both for
believathon and let's talk about The
Last Battle first. So this is the last one
in The Chronicles of Narnia so I'm not
going to tell you too much about what
the series is about. But if you don't
know the films or you don't know these
books, it's about these four children who
go to an estate. And there's a wardrobe.
And they go through the Wardrobe and
they end up in Narnia which is this
lovely magical world. The world was not
so lovely in this one. I rated this book
one-star because this book is incredibly
racist. I'm now going to talk about
racism in this book. So how is this book
racist for people who don't see the
racism in this book or have missed it... I
would like to say that you've got a
monkey who is masquerading as a man. Which is a racist trope that happens
quite a lot in classics. It is in The
Jungle Book - yeah - the song Be Like You?
That's a really racist song. So we've got
a monkey who's masquerading as a man and
he's also the villain in this one. So
that's just one way. Also the Calormen
are all the villains in this book. They're like an army of evil people,
essentially, in Narnia. All of them are
black people and the book starts by
describing them as Calormen but then
towards the end they just call them
Darkies. And they just outright call them
Darkies the whole time. And there's other
elements of racism such as the children
need to disguise so they use this potion
which makes their skin darker. And the
whole time that's happening they're like:
oh yay! Disguises! And they seem to be
enjoying themselves which just doesn't
make any sense because if you hate dark
skin so much why are you putting it on and having a
laugh? That's not--not entertaining to
read. And while they've got this disguise
on the author is still talking about how
pale the children look so that just
doesn't add up
even. Anyway, I could go on and on about
how racist this book was but it was
really really problematic. And the
problem with me seeing racism in this --
well there's always a problem with me
seeing racism in books. But if you can't
tell from the cross I am a Christian and
Narnia goes very heavy on the
Christian imagery. It's heavy-handed but
if you're not a Christian or you're not
really aware of the Christian faith
sometimes people don't see it at all. So
you can read these books and miss the
Christian imagery. However, to me it was
very very obvious. Especially at the end
of the book. It's very explicit in its
Christian themes and seeing the
Christian themes running along the racism
just made my blood boil. And then at the
end they also mentioned this one
character. I'm not gonna spoil anything
but they are quite misogynistic with the
way that they describe this character.
It's very sexist how they stereotype
this character. And they don't take a
single minute to think about the
implications of the ending on this
particular character. And once you think
about those implications you realise
that this ending is not what the ending
seems. I was really mad reading this book.
And then I read The Magician's Nephew. And I was boiling with anger while
reading The Magician's Nephew. Did it
impact my opinion of this book? Probably.
Do I care that it did? No. I did rate this
one higher. It didn't get one star and I
did find it very very boring. Not much
happens throughout the whole of it. I can
appreciate the Adam and Eve allusions. I
can appreciate that it kind of gender
flipped Adam and Eve. That was nice to
see but there's a lot of sexism in this
book as well. Polly is the main female
character and I feel like Diggory, who is
the other character, is mean to Polly
throughout the whole thing. And doesn't
properly apologise. Doesn't probably get
called out for it. And he kind of gets
his happily ever after and Polly's just
a side character that just kind of -- it
just really bothered me how Polly was
treated by literally everyone. And then
the other female character is evil. So I
just was not very happy with the sexism
in this book. Found it bit boring. There's
a flying horse. That is great. It was not
enough. Shall we talk about my five star reads this
month? I feel like after that I need to
talk about my five star reads. Again, for
believathon there was a prompt about
reading a book with a disabled character
so I reread Out of my Mind by Sharon M
Draper. Out of my Mind follows Melody.
Melody is a wheelchair user and she has
cerebral palsy. She cannot control a lot
of her limbs. She cannot speak at all and
she lives her life trapped in her mind.
She's incredibly intelligent. A
photographic memory and she has so much
to say but because of her disability she
cannot physically
say it. In this book something is
discovered for her which will enable her
to speak for the first time using a
machine. And this is what happens when
Melody, after 11 years of her life,
finally gets a voice. This book was a new
favourite for me. Five stars. I remembered most of it. But you know what? Didn't even care. It is
very emotional so be ready to be hit
hard by emotions. Be in a good headspace.
I am not an own voices reviewer for this book
but I do live with my younger sister who
is disabled and she is a wheelchair user. And from the perspective of someone who
has cared for someone who is a
wheelchair user -- not someone who has
cerebral palsy because my sister doesn't
have cerebral palsy. But the experiences
that Melody has as a wheelchair
user are very very authentic. My younger
sister has read this book before and
also would like to say that they are
authentic. So if you want some good
representation this is a really good one
to read. And it really explores the
education system and how it treats
disabled people. It explores friendship
and I think that these are the best
parents in literature hands-down that
I've ever read. I really love the parents.
I love how it shows that they are
imperfect. I love how it shows that they
are perfect at the same time. I can't
tell you about the main plot in this one
or one of the main issues that it
tackles, but that issue? That has happened
time and time again to my younger sister
and it... it's rubbish. It's the worst. The
actual worst. So please read this book. Learn from it. The next book I want to
talk about was another five star read
for me and a new favourite. And that is My
Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine
Warga. This book is going to come with
some content warnings and the main one
it's suicide. I am going to talk about
suicide while I talk about this book so
if you want to skip over until I show
the next book on the screen, please do so. And there's also some other content
warnings down below. Let's start talking
about it. Two main characters: one is
Roman and the other one is Ayzel. And
they are two teenagers who both want to
commit suicide and they go onto this
website where you can find a suicide
partner so you don't have to do it alone
and you're more likely to take the leap
and commit suicide. And it follows these
characters meeting, planning how they're
going to do this and I can't really tell
you more than that. It is a very
emotionally heavy book. I read this book
for mentalhealthathon. Didn't -- I like -- I
knew what the subject matter was but
when it hit me, it hit me quite hard. And
then I knew that with the whole
situation going on in the pandemic I was
not actually in the right head
space to read any books about mental
health this month. So I had to stop my
mental health journey -- my mentalhealthathon journey
there and the hosts have already said
if anything's impacting your mental
health don't do the read-a-thon. Just
protect yourself. So I decided to go that
route. However, I do want to highlight
this one because it is absolutely
fantastic. It really does delve in deep
into the topic of suicide. I appreciate
that it breaks down stereotypes around
suicide.
Ayzel who follows what people tend to
say are stereotypes: she doesn't smile,
she's very depressed, she only wears
black. Those are some stereotypes that
people have around people who are
suicidal. And while she does show those
there's a lot more depth to her story
and the reasons why she is suicidal and
feels unloved and unwanted. And then
we've got Roman who is this very popular
jock and he also is struggling with
grief and is suicidal. And he kind of
unpacked some of the stereotypes and
they do discuss these things when they
meet each other. Both of these characters
developed so much and go on such a
journey. And I really appreciate how we
got to see their families as well on
either side. It was just a really
phenomenal, well-written, very
thought-provoking book. I do urge you to
read the author's note at the end. And do
check out the content warnings because
there's more than just the suicide in
this one. I have to talk about Fortune
Cookie by Cathy Cassidy. And I've read
this for Believathon again. It's the
end of The Chocolate Box girls series. I
adore that series. It's one of my
favourite series of all time and I want
to point you towards my last month
wrap-up where I talk about all five
books in the series. So in this one I
can't really tell you much because it's
the end of the series but in the first
book we follow these two families. And
one of them is a mother who has a lot of
daughters. And then we've got Paddy and
Cherry. And they are two separate
families who are going to come together
and become one because in Tanglewood the
mother was divorced and she's fallen for
Paddy. So they are moving in together and
Cherry's gonna join the family, have some
new stepsisters. And it's about the
families coming together and we follow
each of the sisters as they have their
story. It's kind of a middle grade /
young adult series because we start with
the youngest sibling and then go up to
the older sibling. Can't even tell you
which character it follows because that
all a plot twist. But what I can tell you
is that it's still a very good book. It's
the perfect conclusion to the series. It
was so bittersweet reading it because it
was just the best way that Cathy Cassidy
could have possibly ended the series.
It's the shortest book in the series so
I did wish she took her time a bit more
and spent more time with the characters.
I would have liked it it was a bit
slower and things weren't so rushed. But
it does unpack a lot of really important
topics. Again, I can't tell you anything
about. And it was so good to just check
in with all of these characters again. It
made my heart so warm. It made my heart
so happy. This is the kind of fiction I
need in my life.
Then I did a buddy read with Abi from
Abi Mack Reads. I'm gonna link her
Instagram because she's very active over
there at the moment. And we read Horrorstor
by Grady Hendrix. Grady Hendrix
writes my favourite horrors that I've
read so far, yet. And in this one it's
brilliant because we are set in a IKEA
like shop. It's a spin-off of IKEA. And
there's these co-workers who go there
and weird things are happening in the
furniture shop overnight. The furniture
is trashed
and ruined. And the owner has had enough
of it and wants to know who it is. So he
asks a few other co-workers of his to
stay after hours in the shop. And they
are going to see who it is that's doing
things. And ends up being a bit
paranormal and very horror, hence the
title Horrostor. Reading this one is so
fun because this book is set up to look
like an IKEA catalogue. So, I'm trying to
show you a little bit. There's some, like,
IKEA catalogue things and it has some like,
unique pages and everything. So the book
and the format really does contribute to
the overall story. And in the beginning
it got off to a bit of a slow start.
I wasn't really feeling our main character.
She's quite unlikable but by the end of
it, I was so here for it. Amy really
develops over the course of the novel
and that development is very painful for
her because she's in Horrostor and
and some horror stuff is happening.
Some really creepy and disturbing stuff
is going to happen in this book.
I'm putting content warnings down below. So if you do like really disturbing
horror you're gonna like this one. But even though it's showing all of
these typical horror things and
characters go on this development journey along
the way, the real horror in this one is
not the paranormal terrifying thing
that's happening. It says a lot about
capitalism and the industry and selling
stuff to people because it is set in
this shop. And I love when your horror
just digs deeper then a scare and a
thrill. It goes into some social
commentary and I did not expect that
from this novel. And Grady Hendrix just
brought it to the table again. I also
think that the horror genre sometimes
gets bad rep for having female
characters written badly. It gets bad rep
because there's characters written badly
in the horror genre.
However, Grady Hendrix writes Amy so
well so you don't have to worry about
that. Then I read a play and that is
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by Tom
Stoppard. I was so excited to read this
one because I love Hamlet and I love
Shakespeare. So it was great to read this
play. If you like Waiting for Godot by
Samuel Beckett or any of Samuel
Beckett's plays, really. Where they're
quite... the humour is very peculiar. They're quite nihilistic at times,
existential and that's what these plays
kind of are. But it's so creative because
you're following Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern behind the scenes of the
play. So the play of Hamlet is happening
off screen. You can't see it in the play
but they're waiting in the wings for
when they have to go on. And it's so meta.
And it's so deep at the same time. And I
feel like the themes in this one are
waiting for something to happen that you
don't know if it's going to happen. Or
like what's the point in life. And it's
quite repetitive sometimes but that's
part of the play. That's part of the
depth to it. And I like how it showed
scenes of Hamlet that had to have
happened for the play of Hamlet to
happen. But had to have happened not in
the play. So those scenes reference it
but you don't get to see it happening. You get to see happening in this play.
And Tom Stoppard changes his writing
metric depending on if we're talking
about the play, then  it's in like, Shakespearean metric. Or when we're not then it
changes. There's just
so many finer details to this one it was
so fun to read. I just, I read it in a
single day and I loved every second. The
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger and
this is a classic that
follows this 17 year old boy. And this 17
year old boy is going through a crisis. I
feel like he's quite depressed but it
doesn't say that. He is kind of having an
existential crisis as well. And at the
beginning of this novel I really didn't
like it. The writing style is not my cup
of tea. It's very conversationalist. I
didn't like his character. His character
is very unlikable, especially in the
beginning. However, I just kept reading? Because I needed something to help me
get through a difficult weekend. And the
second half of the book is just so much
better. But still it wasn't good. It just
made me see things in a different point
and I feel like this book... it doesn't
really go anywhere? I don't know what the
point of this book was. But at the same
time I think I get it because even
though he's an unlikable character, you
can see that he does likable things
underneath it all? But he's still unlikable. And you can see
that he's really actually struggling
with his mental health but he doesn't
know it and doesn't acknowledge it. So it
was just it was one of those books that
makes me scratch my head and I probably
need to think about it and process it a
lot more. There is quite a lot of sexist
comments in it but then at the same time
he does things that are so the opposite
of that. I'm just, I'm confused,
but I understand. Continuing on with the
classics that I read. For class I read
the Happy Prince and Other Tales by
Oscar Wilde and this is a collection of
his fairy tales. I really really enjoyed
this because unlike some of the other
fairy tale authors that we know, he didn't
retell -- okay, I'm just throwing shade at
the Brothers Grimm here -- he didn't retell
other fairy tales, he made his own. And
they're very unique and the moral
stories in them are quite... you have to
think and really look for them. They're
not so obvious as they are in other
fairy tales. And I really did appreciate
that. They're quite dark at times. A lot
to do with death. But a lot to do with
kindness, with greed, with capitalism, like
the rich and the poor, a lot to do with
happiness and where true fulfillment can
be found. Some to do with selfishness and
a lot to do with trust in
relationships and in friendships. Which I
just found so interesting to see in a
fairy tale. Like, this shift of where the
focus lies. And I thought it was.... they
were really well-written, really
enjoyable to read. And I just, I enjoyed
it. I read through the whole thing a
single day. Then I read three Shakespeare
plays because that's just
how it has to be. The first one that I
read was Much Ado About Nothing and in
this one it had to do with a couple who
were getting married. And some scandal
happens around the marriage. At the same
time there are these two people who
really don't like each other. They tend
to sass each other. And they decide
they're going to match make those two
couples and kind of mess with them and
get them to fall in love. So you've got a
bit of a side story which is enemies to
lovers. And then you've also got the main
story which is this romantic drama to do
with a wedding. And this is one of
Shakespeare's comedies that I really did
enjoy. I usually struggle with his
comedies. But I did find this one
entertaining. Iloved the sass that the
two side characters get into all the
time. And while there is some issues with
the female character not getting much of
a voice when it came to the whole
falling in love' wedding situation. And
everything afterwards. Literally, no one
ever listens to her. That was frustrating. But other than that it was a very funny
enjoyable Shakespeare play and I think
was written really well. And it was good.
I then moved on to Love Labor's Lost. And
this one follows this group of men who
decide they're going to dedicate their
self to study. They're not going to have
any woman on the estate and they're not
going to fall in love. However, at the
same time a princess arrives with all of
her subjects. And she's not allowed onto
the estate where she expected to be
welcomed. So she kind of has to camp
outside instead. And they are... basically
the men just can't stick to their oath.
And they keep getting interested in the
women. And they're trying to keep a
secret from the other men so they don't
realise that they're all breaking their
oaths. It gets tangled up. I think it's
supposed to be a comedy but at the same
time there were these two side
characters who were talking about
education. I did not care about those two
comedic side characters. I did not find
it funny.
I found the writing very convoluted and
just so technical but it didn't need to
be.
I get what Shakespeare was trying to do
seen as one of the themes of this play
is education versus love, He's trying to
show that these comedy characters are
speaking with this educated language
that's above everybody else. But it's
just extremely overly done. I get it but
I didn't enjoy it I didn't find that
entertaining. And then the main storyline
with the woman and the love... it just fell
a little bit flat for me. It wasn't bad
but it wasn't good either. And the ending
just ends on this big cliffhanger. It
feels very incomplete. And there is
evidence that there was likely a second
play called Love's Labour's Won or
something like that. However, that is one
of Shakespeare's lost plays. We don't
have it. We don't have the script to it. Which means that if this is a two-part
thing we just only have the first part
and I did bear that in mind but at the
same time it just wasn't really it for
me. Last but not least I read his play
called the Two Gentlemen of Verona. And
in this one we have Valentine and he
goes off to serve this king and ends up
falling in love with his daughter. And
her daughter is kept away from men
generally speaking because the King
plans to marry her off to this person
who she's not in love with. And Valentine
has his best friend called Pedro and
Pedro is in love with Julia. Who's back
in Verona. However, he gets forced to
follow Valentine. And when he follows
Valentine he forgets all about Julia and
falls in love with the same girl. So this
is basically romantic drama in a
Shakespeare play. And it was entertaining
but at the same time it just got a
little bit crazy at the end. So I was
loving it all the way through.
I loved how Pedro was betraying his
best friend. And he was so smart about
the way that he betrayed his best friend.
I love and a villain is actually smart. And in this one you definitely see that
happening. I did love how Silvia, the
person that they both fall in love with
was really on it with rejecting men. She
was having none of it. She wasn't
interest in a man? She was going to tell
them she wasn't interested. And I very
much appreciated that. However, the ending
has a lot going on. There is Pedro who
was the villain I was digging until he
just did something a little bit too
villainous. And I was like back it up,
back it up. I don't support you anymore
And then they tried to reconcile
everything much much too quickly. It kind
of ended up with Silvia not really
having much of a say or getting much
opinion there at the end. Even though
she'd had such a strong opinion all the
way through. At the end I was just like:
by the way you're not gonna have a voice.
So I do think that's gonna be very
interesting to study and break down. Not
like I have classes on Shakespeare
anymore because that was my last year
module. But looking into it, I think it's
a very interesting one to study. And it
was very enjoyable to read. But I just
wish the ending wasn't what the ending
was. But you gotta take it or leave it. Shakespeare is not gonna rewrite
his plays for me. And there you have it. Those are the 17 books that I read in
the month. I did say that I was going to
flick through Harry Potter and The Goblet
of Fire illustrated edition which I did
do. I did flick through it. And I didn't
feel any certain type of way. Would I
have liked Harry Potter more if I read
them via illustrated version. Maybe. I did
appreciate that Jim Kay decided to take
matters into his own hands in terms of
diversity. And in the illustrations of
Hogwarts you do get to see some black
people and some diverse people. I did
like seeing those drawings which is not
there in the text itself. However, I still
don't like Harry Potter. It's just not a
series for me. It's never going to be. I
did say I was going to give this one
away on Instagram when I reached three
thousand followers. I have reached three
thousand followers in light of
everything happening right now and how
people are trying to support black
creators. Don't feel comfortable doing a
giveaway for a JK Rowling book at the
moment. I'm still kind of angry at her. And so I don't really want to give away
her book right now. And I will give it
away eventually on my Instagram but I
feel like there's more important things
that I can be highlighting in my stories
and on my feed rather than a giveaway
for a JK Rowling book. So just stick
around. It will happen over there just
not at the moment. And there you have it.
That's all i have for my wrap-up. Please
let me know in the comment section down
below what was your favourite read in the
month of May. And yeah! I'll see you guys
in the next one. Please give this video a
thumbs up if you enjoyed it, hit that
subscribe button if you want to see more
and don't forget to hit that
notification bell to be updated every
time I have any video. And you know what
they say: onwards and upwards. Excelsior!
This is just going to happen every video, isn't it?
