hello booktube my name is Cait and this
is my channel
chaptercviii SO... I created the
Monsterathon Tag last year to coincide
with the Monsterathon Readathon
and this is the Monsterathon Tag 2020.
if you're not participating in the
Monsterthon, you are more than welcome to
still do this tag, because people still
need monster book recommendations.
Monsterathon, this year, has a subtitle
and that is ~Where Monsters Hide~ so all
of the prompts are based on places that
you will find monsters
and basically, all it is, is taking the
prompts from the readathon and then
recommending books for those prompts.
this way, you get to talk about books
that you've already read, but then people
that are doing the readathon can get
recommendations
for the reading prompts. tags are there
just to recommend books
in general and so this tag is
specifically about monsters...
or specifically inspired by monsters
some of your answers don't actually have
to be monsters, because there might be a
lot of different types of books that
qualify for the answers with the
Monsterathon there are three teams and
for this tag they're going to be three
categories there are the beasts, the
haunts, and the conspiracies, so the
beasts are any monsters that have plant
or animal-like qualities,
the haunts are any monsters that are
dead so zombies ghosts vampires demons,
and then the conspiracies are anything
else aliens
robots mutants that kind of stuff
stuff that doesn't quite fit into the
other categories so under each category
we have
four prompts and what I wanted to do is
to try and match
the books that i'm recommending for
those prompts with the team that they
are under
so the first team being the beasts the
four prompts I wanted to pick books that
not only answered the reading prompts, but
also have a creature that would be
considered a beast
so the first prompt is Whispering Woods
and this is a book that I don't hear
enough people talk about
and for this one i'm going to be going
with The Assassination of Branwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
I think the only person that I've seen
talk about this book besides me is Scott
from Book Invasion who I think did an
actual review like a full review on this
book
the great thing about this book is that
it's written but there are also parts
where there
are illustrations but there are two main
characters and two points of view
Brangwain Spurge is an elfin
emissary I can't
say that word "emissary"... that is basically
getting information and studying goblin
culture, but actually he's a spy, but it's very
interesting because it has the point of
view of the goblin and the point of view
of the
elf and so anything you see from the
goblin is very happy
because this is his land he's- everything
seems chill for him,
but then everything you see from the
point of view of the elf guy is like
"everything is terrifying and terrible
and scary"
and so it's very interesting to see the
two points of view and there are also
these letters from the
people from the elves kingdom, I guess,
that they're sending to him, you know,
trying to get information
and all this kind of stuff and it's- it's
really funny and really cute and just-
it's a fun book
and the next book is Lair of the Babadook and this is a book with LGBTQIA+
representation and for this one i'm
going to go with this chunky boy
Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon this book has dragons okay?
there are dragons. dragons are so cool,
but yes there is a sapphic relationship
in this so there are three main female
characters but there's a ton of
characters in general
Queen Sabron the Ninth is the queen of
this realm and basically
they have decided that as long as there
is an heir
and that the line keeps going then their
kingdom is protected from this big bad
dragon guy who's like asleep he's a fire
breather dragon apparently the fire
breathing dragons
are mean and the water-breathing dragons
are good and ethereal and all that good
stuff
but yeah Queen Sabran, the whole baby
situation,
and there's Ead who's from outside the
kingdom she's risen to the position of
lady and waiting for the queen
and she's basically secretly protecting
the queen with forbidden magic which is
she kind of gets from this orange tree
it's the whole thing but
Ead and Sabron kind of get close they
start getting closer and closer and that
causes some issues but then there's also
a character named Tane and Tane is
training to be a dragon rider so she's
riding the water dragons,
however there is sort of this battle
between those people that, you know, ride
the water dragons and this kingdom over
here who fears dragons in general even
though there's two types of dragons
it's a whole thing overall it's just
really fun there's a lot of heavy plot
it's just
it's cool it's a great really awesome
high fantasy book
go for it. the next prompt is Hydra's Hangout and this is a book based on some
sort of mythology and for this one I'm
going to be recommending Silver In The Wood
by Emily Tesh and this book is based around the myth of the green man so
basically green men
are one with the forest like they're
they're like part of the forest like
legit
it's just it's not just a green thumb
it's like everything
everything is green but this wild man in
here named Tobias
is part of the wood and he you know
follows the old ways, the old traditions,
and he just lives alone in his house
with his cat and his dryad friends
but the wood has this new owner named
Silver
Henry Silver what's his first name? yeah
Henry Silver
he's a new owner of the wood and some
stuff happens
and they become ~acquainted~
and their pretty close and all this stuff
and some secrets get dug up
you know about Tobias's past that he
tries to keep hidden
and it's a whole thing and it's great
and I loved it so much and it's
short it's only like 110 pages or something
like that it's a novella
but just the writing is fascinating it's
very ~otherworldly~
it's- I want more green man books okay?
give me what I want!
if you know of any books that have green
man mythology, please
let me know. I want it. And the last
prompt for the beasts is
Mah Swamp and this is a book that you
picked for the cover
"I like that boulder that is a nice
boulder"
and for this one I want to pick a book
that still had some sort of beast in it
and so i went with Serafina and the
Black Cloak this is part of a middle
grade series by Robert Beatty this is
set
in the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina
it's about an hour and a half from here
maybe I actually was engaged in the
Biltmore Estate it was a really awesome
day
so I found this book though and I
thought it was just the prettiest
the prettiest thing and so the main
character Sarafina her dad actually
works on the elevators in the Biltmore
Estate it's a big old house
he lives there and she secretly lives
there too um but it's a secret
she likes to explore the estate but she
can't be seen she's actually really good
at not being seen
she's very small for her age and she can
see really well in the dark but then
something happens and the children
at the Estate start going missing and
she wants to figure out what's going on
but in doing so she finds out more about
herself and about some hidden magics
that she
didn't know about before so the beasts
in this are catamounts and catamounts
are basically a legend of mountain lions
that can turn into people or just like
wild cats in general that can turn into
people
it's it's really cool it's a really cool
series i really like it and then the
next
category or team is the haunts and this
is any type of monster that's dead so
zombies, ghosts,
vampires, demons, whatever so the first
prompt is Under the Bed and this is a
book by a Black or Indigenous author of
color that you've been sleeping on so
I'm going to be recommending a book
by an author that this was the first
time I've ever read anything by them
this is the first work I'd read and I
was like awesome now i want to read more
from them
and this one is going to be long way
down by Jason Reynolds this book is
centered around a boy whose brother was
killed, his brother was shot
and basically the rules of that
community, the unspoken rules of that
community, is that
if someone takes someone from you then
you take someone back you get that
revenge
on your own so basically the boy in this
book is getting ready to do that
he's got his gun he's put it in his
hoodie he's gotten into the
elevator and he's going down so this
entire book takes place on that elevator
ride
at each stop someone steps onto the
elevator who is dead so they basically
talk him through his thought process and
what he's trying to you know
do it's really really well written as
you can see it's won a ton of awards
and it's definitely worth reading so the
next prompt is Secret Crypt and this is
a book that has some sort of mystery
element or is a mystery
in itself and for this one I'm going to
be recommending Horrorstör by Grady
Hendrix. Grady Hendrix is a
horror writer but everything is kind of
funny and satirical it's like funny
horror it's the only way that it's
palatable for me
so... but also this one it
basically takes place in an Ikea
knockoff store so the book looks like
an Ikea catalog like every chapter has
like
a nice piece of furniture with a made-up
name and stuff like that but those
pieces of furniture become more and more
foreboding throughout the book
the main character works in this Ikea
knockoff store but things start getting
really weird there
her and a couple of her co-workers get
stuck in the store and
basically some just scary stuff goes
down okay it's haunted
it's very unpleasant it made me scared
of Ikea, but the tone of like
the like physical uh book itself
makes it not feel quite as scary and
that's what i liked about it,
so like if you like horror books but you
also kind of like things that are a
little bit amusing
you might enjoy this the next prompt is
Your Friendly Neighbor's House
for the readathon you're supposed to
read a book that someone recommends to
you so someone picks a book for you
so for the tag I'm going to be
recommending a book that someone
recommended to me and for this one I'm
going to go with
Death Troopers this is a star wars novel
by Joe Schreiber and
we own all of the Star Wars
books from the extended universe so this
is all the Star Wars novels that existed
before
the new trilogy happened um and then
when the new trilogy happened they
decided that all of those
books just just they don't matter
anymore they just they don't they don't
matter
that's not canon so they started over
which it's a whole thing so that's
frustrating
but Death Troopers is a novel about a
specific ship where this
kind of virus happens and
they're basically Death Trooper zombies
it's very sad part of it
it's very sad it's also very scary but
if you like like zombie outbreak
stories then you might like this book my
husband is way into zombies
I am not a huge fan of zombies or
outbreak stories, but i did enjoy this
because it had a lot of
cool dynamics like really close family
dynamics um heart-wrenching
events uh it just had a lot of good
aspects to it that i think if you like
just
if you like zombie literature or zombie
movies or anything like that I feel like
you would still enjoy this
even if you're not a huge Star Wars fan
and if you are a huge Star Wars fan
of course you'll enjoy it because of
Star Wars and then the last prompt for
the haunts is A Moment of Peace and this
is a comfort read for this one i chose
Frankenstein who is kind of a zombie
he's a reanimated corpse it's a whole
thing I don't reread a lot of books but
I have reread Frankenstein multiple
times I don't know why because it's not
like
particularly riveting it's very
predictable the main character is
just such a whiny baby like I just-
Victor Frankenstein is the worst he's
~♪the worst♫~
I hate him but this book started monster
literature like
this this was the start of gothic
monster literature and
so we have to commend Mary Shelley for
doing that and honestly I don't think
Frankenstein's monster would have been
such
a bad guy if Frankenstein, the dude,
wasn't such a jerk I have a lot of
thoughts about him but I like this book
a lot because it's predictable and it's
something that I just I liked
when I read it and so now if I reread it
it's just it's comfort read and then the
last
category or team is the conspiracies and
again this is like
aliens mutants robots things that don't
quite fit into the other categories
and the first prompt is Area 51 and
this is just to read a book that has
aliens or mutants in it and for this one
I'm going to be recommending The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky
Chambers
this is a very Firefly-esque book so if
you liked Firefly the show you probably
would like this
in my opinion it's just like a found
family of
different beings from different planets
and they all learn to live together
I think it's really interesting that the
way that they deal with different
cultures coming together
as one because they're not just like "hey
we're from different countries" but like
they're completely different planets,
completely different species, the way
they communicate is completely different,
the way that they view sex and gender
and relationships and families
is all very different, and it's very very
interesting to me
and the way that the characters on that
ship are just completely like "okay
that's who you are that's how you are
that's that's fine" and they just accept
each other as is and I just
love that aspect but there's a lot of
different types of beings in here
technically they're all aliens because
they're all from different planets, but
there's also
um a clone in here and there's there's
AIs
there's all that good stuff so I
personally really really enjoyed it it's
also super floppy
like this is a really floppy book then
we have Rearview Mirror and this is a
book
that was published more than five years
ago or an indie book and for this one
I'm going to be recommending
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel this is
one of three books in the Themis Files
Trilogy
this is another alternative format kind
of book where it's all done
in interviews and like personal logs and
and stuff like that this is kind of a
basic
invasion story at the start of the book
they discover like a big
robotic...I think it's a foot is what they
discover first. either a foot or a hand.
I can't remember, but they did- wait maybe
maybe... hand! it's a hand, because the cover has a
hand so the main lady as a child she
actually falls
onto this this big hand and then as she
grows up she becomes like a doctor and
studies
this hand her whole life and they want
to know where it's from are there other
parts to this body if there's a hand is
there a foot is there or whatever
and it's very interesting and they're
all interviewed by this one guy
and he's kind of nameless and no one
really knows like
his whole deal but he's interviewing
everybody and he like knows everything
and it's
it's very cool I can't read this without
picturing James Spader being the
interview guy
I don't know why he just feels like that
like he just knows everything he's
like his character in The Blacklist you
know I don't know I like it
they're they're robots
there are robots and then we have The Upside Down and this is
reading a retelling and for this one I'm
gonna go with A Blade So Black
my reasoning for this is... confusing the
reason I recommended this for
conspiracies is because I don't really
know how to
classify it and this is a retelling of
Alice in Wonderland, but the main
character
is is kind of like Buffy honestly she's
kind of like just this
awesome badass chick that's fighting
these monsters
but like she also has really cool like
fighting skills I'm not sure if they're
supposed to be
otherworldly or if maybe it's just like
a destiny situation or what it's really
cool and these monsters kind of feed on
fear
which i think is interesting I actually
listened to this as an audiobook and I
feel like if I didn't I would like it
more
I didn't dislike this book, but it was
kind of like it was good, but it was just
kind of okay for me
I think a lot of people would like it
though like I love retellings
and even though this doesn't really
follow the same storyline as Alice in Wonderland, the fact that it involves all
those elements of Alice in Wonderland and
it, you know, does it for me so I think a
lot of people would really enjoy this
and I think I would like it even more if
I read it physically rather than
listening to it on audiobook and
there is a sequel now which i can't
remember
what it's called and the last prompt for
the conspiracies is The Bunker and this
is a book with disability or Deaf
representation
specifically named this one the bunker
because I feel like bunkers are strong
and as someone with a chronic illness, I don't really feel like I should be anyone's
you know inspiration if I inspire people
that's awesome, but I, you know, I live for
myself
you know before I can live for anyone
else I'm not here for like inspiration
p0rn
I don't think anyone that has disability
or who's Deaf is,
you know, they don't exist to inspire
other people they
exist to live for themselves anyone with
a chronic illness or disability is very
resilient I feel that myself as someone
with you know chronic mental illness
but I understand people with more
physical illnesses as well
they have to be resilient to just to
live their life so that's why I made The
Bunker
cover this specific representation and
for this one I'm going to be going with
Space Unicorn Blues by TJ Berry, so this
book is... weird it's such a weird book it's like a
hot mess but it's very serious about its
hot mess
I love it, but it's kind of like a space
fantasy you know there's like a
misfit found family crew that is trying
to just
save basically magical creatures in
space in general
there's Jenny Parata who is a disabled,
Maori, shuttle captain and she's
contracted to take this shipment to a
summit
and so she hires this guy named Gary
Cobalt who's a half unicorn dude he was
basically charged with murdering his
wife but he just got released from
prison
and so now he's part of this ragtag
group along with his guy named Cowboy
Jim
and they're basically just this weird
group of people um or creatures
beings and they're also magic's last
hope in the universe it's very weird I
remember enjoying it but also being very
confused I wouldn't say it's like one of
my favorite books but I really did
find some sort of joy and the weirdness
of it and that is all for my
Monsterathon Tag 2020.
please let me see your Monsterathon Tags
you can do this before the Monsterathon,
you can do this after the Monsterathon I
think this is a great way to give people
recommendations
for the Monsterthon challenges, but also
a great way to give people
recommendations for any October
challenges that they might come across
or just
if they want monster books if you are
participating in the Monsterathon
however this actually gives you points
towards a certain challenge
so you just might want to think about
doing it but again you can do it at
whatever time you want
let me know if you're participating if
you've read any of these books if you
have any recommendations for the
challenges
if you are participating in the
Monsterathon what team are you on? but
thank you for watching this video and if
you would like more of this junk please
subscribe below bye!
♪
♫
♪
