Hey! What's up, you guys? It's Connor, and
today I'm gonna be continuing my 2018
reading wrap up with books 26 through 35,
I believe. I have not done a wrap up in a
very long time because I got busy with
school, and finals, and everything like
that, so now I'm trying to play catch-up
and get all my wrap ups in. If you guys
don't know, these videos are where I do
small, quick, surface layer reviews of all
the most recent books that I've read,
give you my thoughts, my ratings, etc., and
let's get into it. Why does this seem
so close to my face? The 26th book that I
read in 2018 is Runebinder by Alex R.
Kahler. This is a YA fantasy book set in a
post-apocalyptic world, and it follows
this main character named Tenn who is a
hunter. And hunters are people that have
been enabled to perform magic. It's
elemental magic, and they are in charge
of protecting humanity and trying to
keep humanity alive because there are
evil beings that used to be human that
have been warped by magic that are
trying to kill off the human race. Every
hunter has different abilities based off
of the different sphere that's been
activated for them. So the main character,
his water sphere is activated, and he
also has some control over earth. Each element has different properties
and everything like that, but it's mainly
supposed to be about him protecting
humanity from these random creatures and
trying to survive. What this book is
actually about is that Tenn at the very
beginning of the book runs into a boy
from his past and immediately falls in
love with him. It is super, super
insta-lovey, and for the rest of the novel
they're trying to survive sort of, but
it's mainly a focus on how they have a
dream life together. and they're gonna
have a dream house with X number of dogs
and cats. And it's just so distracting
from what should be the main plot of the
book that I just didn't really enjoy it
very much. I ended up giving this book
two stars. The writing showed promise, but
I just couldn't get over the fact that
the main character was so obsessive over
this boy that he hadn't seen in years, and
years, and years and had only been
reunited with for a couple of hours
before they were absolutely in love and
couldn't be separated. And
it was just a barf fest, and yeah, I'm
debating whether or not to get rid of
this book and to continue with the
series because I just love the concept. I
like the cover. I like the world the
magic, the the fact that the bad guys
were these people that have access to
magic and allowed the magic to kind of
corrupt them, and I just thought that
that was really cool. But if there's
gonna be this huge focus on this insta-love
romance, I don't know. I just...
it was so distracting. It's just so
disappointing because it had so much
promise, and then it just ...blegh. After that I
picked up Strange the Dreamer by Laini
Taylor. This is the first book in a YA
fantasy series that follows a boy named
Lazlo Strange. At the beginning of the
book, he's an orphan and is being raised
by monks. He has this huge obsession with
this mythological city called Weep. It
wasn't always called Weep. At some point
everyone lost the ability to remember
the name of the town... well, city. One day
he finds out that the city that no one
else believed is real is in trouble, and
he is now going to go and try to help
this city recover from whatever bad
thing has happened.
It also follows another character named
Sarai who is trapped in this weird
living situation where she's struggling
to survive with four other people, and
each of them has some supernatural
abilities. And I just really, really loved
this book. I did an individual book
review for this. I'll leave that up in
the card symbol if you want to check out
more of my thoughts about the writing,
the world building, the magic, the
history, and all of that stuff. A couple
of things that I will talk about in this
video though that I forgot to talk about
in that one is that there is one side
character specifically that I freaking
loved. That was me Minya. She is in this
weird living situation with Sarai, and
she is such an awful character. Like, I
really did not like her, but she was so
well done that I was just loving her
being in the story, and seeing what she
was up to, and all of that. She's a great
character. Another thing that I forgot to
mention was a con for me, and that was
that they are struggling to survive. But
there is a pretty easy way that they
could have made their lives a lot easier,
and I didn't understand why that wasn't
taking an advantage of because they
tried to take advantage of it later on.
That's super vague, but
I wanted to say it. And the other thing
is that this book does have insta-love
which is so weird because this book had
really terrible insta-love, and I hated
it, and it really affected my reading
experience. But this one... I was more
forgiving of it. It's a slower read
because the writing style is so
descriptive that it took a little bit
longer to get to that point, and it also
happens a lot later in the book instead of
happening at the very beginning. So I
think I was a little bit more forgiving
because I hated this insta-love so much
that I was okay with this one. I was okay
with it which was super weird because I
usually hate insta-love. Overall as I
said, I freaking love this book. I ended
up giving it five stars. It has a ton of
Atlantis vibes, and I was eating it up
because I loved Atlantis. So yeah,
definitely recommend this one, and if I
were voting in the YA category for the
BookTubeSFF Awards, this would be the one
that got my vote because it's definitely
the best in my opinion. The 28th book
that I read in 2018 is gonna be Teen
Titans, Vol. 3 which is Death of the
Family. This is a part of the DC New 52
universe which stopped a while back. I
can't even remember what the new DC
Universe is called, but this was this
huge Batman cross-series event that
involved all of the characters
surrounding Batman. Teen Titans has one of
those characters, so it was involved. I've
read this story in so many different
comic books already that it just was
repeating itself, so unfortunately... if
this had been one of the Death of the
Family volumes that I had read earlier
on, I think it would have enjoyed it a
little bit more, but I've read this same
plot over and over and over again in
all these different series. So I ended up
giving this book three stars. I enjoyed
it, but I've read it a bunch. So it wasn't
anything new, and it wasn't as exciting
for me. If you're curious, this is what
some of the artwork looks like, so good
art but just a repetitive story that
I've already read. After that I read
Binti which is the first book in a
trilogy of science fiction novellas. This
is written by Nnedi Okorafor, and the
second book was nominated for the
BookTubeSFF Awards in the short fiction
category which I'm also not voting in.
But I want to read the books so that I
don't get spoiled during the live show.
Binti follows this girl named Benti who is
a part of the Himba tribe which is a tribe
of people living in Africa (Namibia). The tribe has
this tradition of putting this substance (otjize) all over their bodies if they're female.
Binti is what's called a master
harmonizer which is someone that is kind
of tasked with bringing peace to the
people around them, but she has bigger
dreams than just staying and being a
part of the Himba tribe. Himba? I don't
know how to pronounce that. Instead,
she decides that she wants to go off and
go to this university that is set on a
different planet, and this series just
follows her mental process as she is
debating what this is gonna mean for the
rest of her life, and how people are
gonna react to her wanting more from her
life by going off on this adventure, how
people will be very upset about that, and
[how] she won't be viewed as suitable to be
someone's wife, and stuff like that.
I enjoyed this novella. It was very, very
quick. I think it's only like 90 pages or
something like that, so there's not a
whole lot that happens. What does
happen happens very quickly, so you don't
get a whole lot of information. You don't
get a whole lot of investment in Binti
and her story. I thought it was really
cool, but I ended up giving it three
stars because it was fine but nothing
spectacularly amazing at least in my
opinion. Obviously a lot of people don't
agree with me because it won the Hugo
and Nebula awards. I enjoyed it, but that's
pretty much it. Then I ran to one of my
local libraries and read Paper Girls,
Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and
illustrated by someone, but it doesn't
say it on the cover. This one follows a
group of young girls, and they are paper
girls. They go around on their routes
and deliver the papers to everyone, and
then some science fiction apocalyptic
stuff starts happening. It follows them
dealing with all of this apocalyptic
nonsense and trying to survive. For this
first volume, I enjoyed it.
It was just a little bit all over the
place as well as I thought that this one
was really just focusing on trying to
shock and awe the reader instead of
developing a base plot line, and
developing the characters, or somehow
sucking you in. Instead it was just
shock and awe kind of stuff - just being
vulgar to shock the reader, and I just
didn't get invested very much. So I ended
up giving it three stars, but the third
volume was nominated for the
BookTubeSFF Awards graphic novel category
which is one that I am voting in. So I
had to read volume one, and I also read
volume two. This one I liked a whole lot
more. You start to get a better grasp on
what is happening with this science
fiction apocalyptic event. You start to learn
a lot more about the characters as
individual people instead of this group
of paper girls. You start to learn more
about the main character. You start to
learn more about the science fiction
elements as I said before, so I think
that it was just a step up overall. I
ended up giving this one four stars. I'll
insert some clips of some of the regular
artwork instead of just the cover
artwork so you know what you're getting
into, but I thought that the second
volume was a lot stronger than the first
one as I said. Plot-wise, I just
think it was better so... four stars.
This is the last comic book in this
wrap-up. I read The Unwritten, Vol. 1 by Mike Carey and Peter Gross.
This one is subtitled Tommy Taylor and
the Bogus Identity. This one follows this
character called Tommy Taylor, and he is
living on earth just as a Joe Schmo. He
goes to these different science fiction
and fantasy events where he has these
huge lines, and he just signs people's
books because his father created a book
series that follows a character named
Tommy Taylor. People have just kind of
connected that character to the person
Tommy Taylor, and that's really how Tommy
is making a living. He's going to
these different events, being paid to be
there, and signing all of these peoples
different paraphernalia for Tommy
Taylor. But then some intense things
start happening, and he's trying to
figure out what the heck is going on
because people are now trying to kill
him. It doesn't make any sense
because he's just a human. Like, he's just
a regular person. Why are people trying
to kill him? This is what some of the
artwork looks like, so it's a bit of an
older style so just know that going in.
But I thought that this one was actually
really fun, and I did really enjoy it. I
ended up giving this book four stars.
I love the trope where authors have some
control over reality, and once enough
people read a certain book, they start
thinking in a certain way. What comes to
mind when talking about the premise of
this book is that book by Cornelia Funke which is called Inkheart where the
girl can read characters out of books. It
kind of gives that similar vibe of
authors being able to change reality by
creating a story and people consuming it.
After that I read Coraline by Neil
Gaiman. I did an individual book review
for this as well, so I'll leave that up
in the card symbol. She has just
moved to a new house with her parents,
and her parents are not very attentive.
So she spends a lot of time on her own
and exploring the house and the yard
around the house. While exploring the house, she
finds this small little door inside of
her house, and she wants to know what's
on the other side. She finds a parallel
version of her world where her parents
are very attentive except her
parents in this "other" world have buttons
instead of regular eyes. All they require
Coraline to do to stay in that world and
to be doted upon by these parallel
versions of her parents is that she give
up her eyes and have buttons for eyes as
well. This edition is illustrated by
Chris Riddell which is one of my
favorite illustrators, so I was just
loving the illustrations in this one. And
I did really enjoy the story overall. I
think that the ending was a little bit
rushed, so I think that that could have
been teased out a bit more. But as I said,
I did enjoy this. I think I ended up
giving this book four stars. It's one of
those stories that apparently terrifies
young children, so if your child is
wanting to read this, I suggest reading
it with them so that you can make it a
little bit less scary because I have had
multiple people comment on that review
that's in the card symbol and say that
the movie or the book terrified them, and
had nightmares, and stuff. So just a
warning for that, but I didn't think it
was terrifying, but maybe you will. Then I
read The Unwanted by Lisa McMann. This is
the first book in a middle grade fantasy
series. This one follows a boy named Alex
who is considered Unwanted in his
society. The society of Quill which is
where Alex and his twin brother, Aaron,
live has some similar vibes to how I
felt when I read The Giver - I don't know
how many years ago that was - because the
society decides everything for you. So if
you are decided as a necessary, then they
assign you a job other people can't do.
So if you are necessary and you're farmer,
then your life is pretty protected
because you're necessary to society. If
you're a wanted, you're given a job that
is somehow involved with the running of
Quill like administrators and everything
like that. And then as a child if you are
considered unwanted, they kick you out of
Quill and you die. Alex is an unwanted,
and so he is a part of that group of
children that are going to be kicked out
and killed off. And his twin brother
Aaron is considered a wanted. It just
kind of follows them after that. When
Alex and the rest of these children are
about to be eliminated, they find out
that there is an eccentric magician who
instead saves their lives and welcomes
them to this town called Artimé. In Artimé
artistic people are saluted.
They're praised, and creativity in Artimé
is considered a huge gift and in their
cases a weapon. I've read this book as an
audiobook. This is my brother's copy. I
knew that he really enjoyed this series,
so I wanted to jump on and see if I
really enjoy it as well. I did really
enjoy the narration. I think that it did a
good job. I really liked this world. I
loved how art and creative thinking
really lent to a better society, and
being creative and thinking differently
than other people was encouraged. Even if
you disagreed with what the people
running Artimé were saying, you were
encouraged in doing that because that
creates better ideas, or creates ways in
which to bring people together, or solve
problems. Stuff like that, so I thought
that that message was incredible. I liked
the contrast between Quill and Artimé, and
how there was this tension all the time
that Artimé would eventually be found
out, and that there would be this huge
problem with Quill because Quill is very
structured and [because] they hate creativity where Artimé is not as structured and
loves creativity. People that live
in Artimé really suspect that the
people in Quill would not tolerate them
existing which kind of makes me think
of how in olden times and, I mean, still
today people's differences in religion
cause this huge problem when you could
just let them be and everyone just be by
themselves. But there has to be this huge
problem. Not exactly the same obviously,
but I thought that there were some
parallels there. I enjoyed the characters
as well. There was one thing that I just
didn't really love. There was this one
character that is a "good guy" but bullies the main
character, and then the main character
has to be the one that apologizes. And
the person that bullied him is, like,
viewed as being in the right, and I did
not like that at all. I really dislike
that character, but she's apparently this
great character. But other than that,
I had a really fun time while reading
this, so I ended up giving this book 4
stars. It is a bit of a weaker 4 stars -
maybe a 3.5 stars that I in
my mind bumped up to 4 because I
really enjoyed it.
I'll definitely continue with the series
because I did enjoy the audiobooks and
my library has the rest of them, so I'll
just continue to read them on audio. If
you are a very creative youth, I
definitely recommend the series for you.
I think you'll really enjoy it. The 35th
thing that I read in 2018 is Vinland
Saga, Book 1 by Makoto Yukimura. This
one follows this boy named Thorfinn,
and at the beginning of the book he is,
I guess, travelling with this group of
Nordic Vikings. The Vikings that he's
traveling with actually murdered his
father, and so Thorfinn is traveling
with them because he's on a revenge path.
He wants to kill the man who killed his
father who's the leader of this Nordic
band. He believes that Askeladd killed his
father in an improper way/in an dishonorable way. He wants to take revenge
and kill him. I read this as my O.W.L.
for the A History of Magic where it was
supposed to be just historical fiction
because this is set in Nordic times. I
really, really enjoyed this. I thought it
was incredible. I gave it 5 stars. This
one gives a lot of backstory to the main
character which I love back stories.
Anytime that a book has backstories for
the characters, it usually ends up being
my favorite in the series because I
think that back stories are totally
necessary for you to relate to a
character and to get invested in their
story and invested in what they're doing.
Because if you can't understand where
they're coming from, then their actions
just seem random. So I appreciated that
in this first book of this series we get
a lot of his backstory. If you want to
see what some of the artwork looks like,
it looks like this. There's another shot
of it. There's the main character. If
you're into manga, I definitely definitely
recommend this one. I think that it's
going in a very good direction, and I'm
just really on board with the main
character. I totally can get behind his
motivations. I totally am rooting for him.
I want him to get his revenge, but at the
same time, you kind of like this band
leader, this Askeladd. I liked him as well.
I have no idea where the series is going,
but I'm excited to continue and read
along. So those are the next 10 things
that I read in 2018. If you like this
video, please give it a big thumbs up and
comment down below what you guys have
been reading recently. Have you read any
of these books that I talked about in
this video? If you have any
recommendations for me, as always leave
those down in the comments as well as
anything else you want me to know, and I
will talk to you guys next time. Bye!
