i simply cant believe you didnt turn off your brain, let the feminism fly out of your body, shut your eyes to all of the sexism and racism and ableism, ignore all the plot holes, or let yourself be super impressed by Ambiguously Brown Shadow Daddy #5 Now In Mint Flavour in order to like Fourth Wing! shocked and shaken
"Ambiguously Brown Shadow Daddy #5 Now In Mint Flavour" this is killing me! xD I remember seeing people be like "He's objectively black!" but he very much is not written that way in the book. It's insane to me how people ignore what's actually written in the book so they can project onto it what they want to see.
It’s also funny to see people like “yeah it keeps getting worse and sure nothing makes sense and my book is upside down and falling apart, but I love it 🥰 “
😂 I’m one of those people. I thought Fourth Wing was very entertaining because I loved the unique way dragons were used. Even though it was cliche and cheesy and Violet wasn’t a well-written character, I enjoyed it! Then Iron Flame was awful in every way and now I have hopped on the bandwagon with the haters of the whole series.
That’s what I thought it was going to be! Even if he was a murderer I thought they would jump into fully not tip toe around him being morally grey with a heart of gold. I didn’t finish the book but I was pretty sure he was going to be revealed as a prince who was rebelling against his father the king.
Katie Colson’s glowing review inspired me to read that book. And I regretted it almost immediately. Dnf’d at like 20-30%. The synopsis lied and I was so mad when I realized “the villain” wasn’t actually evil just misunderstood. I was like oh he’s not evil because then we would have to have an actual moral quandary about them being in a relationship.
With all of the new adult romantasy, I keep scratching my head at all of the vague wars that are driving the plots and creating stakes but don’t have world-building or politics behind them. Like I’m no genius but I’m in my late 30s and I read a lot of litfic/historical fiction/nonfiction, so I’m still coming to the table with a few decades worth of fluency in what makes war interesting and how it can successfully be used in fiction. So I can’t help but draw the really uncomfortable conclusion that the people who enjoy these books are still young enough that they haven’t organically consumed other media and educational content, or that they just don’t read other genres. As a side note, you see this in dystopia stuff too, where the author wants credit for making points about society but doesn’t want to craft any politics, so they end the world before the book starts. In romantasy, they want the drama and pathos of war but they think it’s sufficient to just say there’s a fantasy war happening.
I read ‘This Woven Kingdom’ and I think it spoiled me for all other romantasy because the war made sense. It’s over access to water. It’s such a relatively simple concept but it makes total sense. I feel like some of these books try so hard to have these complex and intricate backstories for their war which ultimately leave me confused and feeling like maybe we could’ve found another answer. When they can just boil it down to something simple like access to a vital natural resource and that would perfectly explain the conflict.
I'm currently reading an arc of an upcoming new adult/adult romantasy release and it's exactly this, there's a "rebellion brewing against an empress" but it feels like set decoration because the politics have no real-world sense or anything. It's not even clear what makes the empress bad apart from "she's killing all her civilians and everyone is poor" without any real reason behind it
@@ramalam98what’s crazy to me is that it could easily be explained as population control. Like you don’t always need a tangled web of a reason for rebellion. Just use something that people can understand and that they would reasonably believe a corrupt government structure would do. That could answer so many questions before they even come up.
@@ramalam98I mean, there’s not much reason aside from being power hungry to kill civilians and keep them poor, even in real life, so it doesn’t pull me out of the story for the villain to have that motive, I think there’s more a glossing over of how the rest of society justifies it. What were the conditions that someone felt so entitled/so insecure to commit such atrocities or stand by while they happen? There’s hardly ever an explanation for how bigoted propaganda took such hold. Even if it doesn’t excuse their horrific actions, the characters feel more realistic when we take what preceded them into account.
Sometimes you just enjoy trash. I liked and enjoyed Serpent and the Wings of Night and had the same issues as Marines had but it was what I needed when I needed. It was like eating cake after having a nice chicken dinner. Nothing nutritious about it but damn was it good.
It's because it can't actually exist coherently. You can have a fantasy with a romance, those have always existed and you'd be hard pressed to find one without a romance at the forefront somewhere lol. But trying to make 2 different genres a hybrid genre thing, it just doesn't work.
@@arcane9205 i kinda disagree with "fantasy" and romance being unable to exist inherently. fantasy, in the end, is more of a marker of setting, while romance implies something about the plot/story structure. now the issue here i think is that "fantasy" instantly means "epic adventure battle fantasy" for most people and that's what it mostly is so that's fair. but i don't think a fantasy setting has to be "epic battle adventure", so i don't see why you Couldn't do a romance story that's just set in a fantastical world (or maybe im more of a sucker for thinking about what i call "slice of life" fantasy). to clarify this would also assume effort put into building a fantasy world still so its not an inherent fix to all these poor romantasy books. not only do they try to mix two incompatible plot structures (epic adventure main plot + romantic character based main plot) but they also don't put thought into the first epic adventure plot, which especially in a made up fantasy world requires a lot of that thought. the epic fantasy is being used as set dressing and garnish while its is inherently, to continue the food metaphor, a piece of steak not arguing with your point, i just think your comment moreso is about specifically epic adventure type fantasy (which again tbf is most fantasy stories...) which i agree with you on!
Red Rising has become one my litmus test books for trusting online reviewers. When people recommend it when their whole chest - I know they're not bothered by the same stuff that bothers me and I generally move along -
I seriously dont understand why ppl brag about being able to "turn my brain off to enjoy things" bc, essentially, they're bragging about making themselves a mindless vessel who dont question what they consume
As a Muslim viewer and fan I just wanted to say thanks for speaking about this whole thing❤ a lot of booktubers are quiet about it so I loved that at least some are vocal
Do you wanna know what I observed? People who read much think that Forth wing is a trash book...while people who don't read much think that is a good book.
Despite the fact that I only read manga, and not even a lot of manga, I fuckin hated it. I kinda went in thinking "Okay its gonna be mid, lets just see what it is" but the audiobook experience made me so annoyed. The characters besides the main 3, all the same, can barely tell them apart despite Ridick being needlessly obnoxious. Violet absolutely falls into the trappings of "Im mentality weak despite being one of the strongest ever at the start" The dragons themselves feel less like actual individuals. I unconsciously split them into a war machine mixed with a second conciousness in people's heads because thats all they are. Violet is inconsistent in multiple ways. She was mad at Dane because he didn't believe her when she got attacked, but she's okay with Xaden. He *read her fucking mind*, thats not even fair in the slightest. The standard she holds both of them to are unbalanced. She hates Xaden and fears for her life around him but gives him so much leeway. She's childhood friends with Dane but got mad when he doesn't believe she got attacked, which is fair because she constantly insisted that she doesn't need help with anything and never actually listened to any of the advice he had, if it was truly that serious then he would need visual proof because she doesn't trust him with anything else. I still don't know why people like this. I dont want to sound pretentious, but I feel like the only people who liked the book didn't actually think of it as a book to be thought of critically like all other media. I think people expected fanfiction or some amateur work when they went in, held it to that standard, and then insisted that its as good as any other book out there
My other observation with friends that like it is that they like the drama of it? They KNOW it’s not good but they aren’t there for amazing writing or plot. It’s very interesting.
39:24 "And she tells this man-" It was at this moment that I got a KFC ad with the song "I don't care I love it" blasting and it was the most perfect ad placement I've had on TH-cam.
When you said Vampire Academy, I went "wait what" hahaha. It’s just been so long. I was one of those people that read all six of the books (plus spin off) at 14 and absolutely fell in love. I genuinely didn't see any of the problematic stuff back then, but now hearing you bring it up I realize you’re absolutely right, specially Rose's and Dimitri's relationship. They were my dream couple back then, but honestly, how could that ever be appropriate, lol? One thing that really stuck by me was the subplot of SH for Lissa, because I was going through that at that time, and seeing it on a book I liked so much made me feel seen and less lonely about it, in a way. I personally liked Rose back then, but I know she's universally an annoying main character lol. Sydney from the spin off Bloodlines felt much better to me. But I'm sure I'd feel differently about all of those books now at 23, and I kinda have this idea of re-reading them to see how I (dis)like them hahaha. Overall, I'm glad Vampire Academy got me and many of my friends into reading in our teens and how it motivated me to write too. Anyway, love your videos, Marines!! You're one of my favorite booktubers, your reviews are so well explained and your laugh is the best
As someone with chronic pain/illness (not EDS, but something involving bleeding and bruising issues) who was actually barred from physical activities and used as a token symbol of ableism and pushing through and persevering in that physical activity when i went into remission, I cannot pick up this book after hearing about everyone’s reactions to the EDS/chronic illness rep (or lack there of) in fourth wing. I was first excited, and then just icked tf out. Its what worried me about reading it at first, and then all the other just horrid parts of this book made it even easier to say “yeah nope”
I read the first three books of the Red Rising series, so whenever people are like "it gets better!!!" like bitch, when? I found that, the more you think about the world, the less it makes sense, and the later books have to try to prop up the world building revealed in the first book, but on an increasingly grander scale, where they fall apart more. Even if you can overlook the many questionable decisions in Red Rising, from a pure "epic scifi/fantasy" standpoint, it's a failure.
I've never been able to get past Chapter 1 of the first book, it just rubs me all the wrong ways. I'm not going to subject myself to that for multiple books so that it eventually gets better 🙄
@@mynameismarines of course! I loved you on tiktok, I really appreciated your perspective and the way you thought about the books you read (it actually helped me develop the way I think while I read), but I recently deleted tiktok for attention span reasons and was so excited to see you on yt!! keep up the fantastic work
48:27 How on Earth does a character make a TH-camr apology before TH-cam even existed? 😭 "I feel bad for the people affected by my actions and those that I have hurt. It was a dark moment in my life and I was in a bad place 😔" "... Which people though?" "Oh, you know the ones."
One thing that annoyed me about red rising, which is so minor compared to actual critiques lmao, but I see it so much in modern scifi is when the character will be using an object and it will be like “I pick up the nitro-laser-alternator” and it never explains what the actual object is. What am I supposed to be imagining when they pick up the nitro-laser-alternator? What the fuck is it? They keep adding in sciencey sounding words to make it seem more high tech and futuristic but never actually explain what they are and it just goes to show that they don’t really think about the details in their world building
Thank goodness! This is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone say anything negative about Red Rising. I DNFed this book 75% of the way through and I hated it yet everyone raves as if it’s the best thing they have ever read. I was starting to wonder if it was me, like did I miss something? It’s the same with Throne of Glass, i HATE those books but feel like I’m alone in that.
I feel the same way about Red Rising. It was off to a great start but then it was so extremely boring that when I was halfway through, I tried skipping ahead to find the point it would get interesting again. Then I just gave up. I can’t understand why people love it so much.
i get what you mean. i remember reading the first 50ish pages of red rising and DNF'd it, I only actually finished the book cuz I had to for my book club. I actually enjoyed the ending a bit more than I thought I would and continued reading the last two, but I'm probably won't be reading the sequel series any time soon.
I wish that I saw this video before reading Assistant to the Villain. It was such a bad book, and I wish I knew it would end on a cliffhanger after NOTHING. Awful experience with no pay off
omg... i tried the serpent and the wings of night 3 times now and last night i got to 18% ish and dnf'd again and for the last time! lol. i hated it so much. when you cant describe a crash or a crack without describing it and instead just writing "CRACK" "CRASH" i cannot... it all felt so juvenile. im also just so tired of the cocky super powerful love interest that is constantly cocking and raising and lifting and wiggling his brow. their first flirty interaction where she was like "i should have stabbed you higher" and he was like "how much higher? a little or a lot?" i think it was done for me right then and there! and your comment of it feeling underpopulated! so true!!! it literally felt so empty.
Assistant to the Villain reminds me of when Stephenie Meyer had a protagonist who committed multiple violations of international human rights laws by chemically torturing people, and then fell in love with a man *after she accidentally tortured him*. What a goofy case of mistaken identity! She really heard about Gitmo and thought "here's my next rom com!" At least that book had a plot and was well edited.
I also read Red Rising for the first time last year! I wanted to dnf so many times (such a slog!), but pushed through in the end. Aughh, so true that it’s clear from the text that Brown has no idea what he’s talking about with regards to oppression, slavery, patriarchal systems, or caste systems. I think he comes from a very, very privileged family background fyi. Just a total clusterf**k of nonsense. I salute(?) you for taking on Pucking Around and Darkness Embraced. 700 pages … 😬 Thank you for your sacrifice! The thing with RoMaNtAsY is that to my old person’s ears it sounds like a rebrand of paranormal romance/urban fantasy romance. It’s not a new thing. It’s been around for decades in fact. And as someone who grew up both loving and hating paranormal romance, I think the new Romantasy titles are somehow even worse in quality …. Maybe it’s because I’m old.🤔 But like you alluded to, I feel like the fantasy elements are given short shrift in service of an often insipid romance. And the horror and noir elements are entirely excised (to my chagrin).
"Red Rising" was also one of my worst reads of 2023, if not my worst read. So pointless. I thought that the whole war game thing was going to be a set up for the third act of the book and then it was just the book.
Finally someone that dislikes Red Rising. I cannot comprehend the hype it got some years ago. Is it still a hyped book? Did it get some kind of renaissance? Idk. I didn’t even finish it, but from the negative reviews I’ve seen of it, I don’t regret it. And the rampant misogyny is one of the things that grossed me out from the very start. Like you’re gonna tell me that this story takes place so far in the future that folks can live on Mars, but the roles of women are basically still limited to housewives or prostitutes? Oh and of course the MC’s wife had to die to fuel his rage for him to begin his heroic journey 🤡 Absolutely ridiculous.
I love hockey, I love romance, I love hockey romance, and that made reading 'Pucking Around' a terrible experience. I appreciate(d) all your thoughts on it, though. Love your perspective and sense of humour. Also, "a horrible book to read the words of" 😂😂😂
I was lowkey nervous you’d mention some of the books I might’ve enjoyed this year, but wow, nope, you read some AWFUL books this year 😭 truly, the latter half of this video sets the bar at like, subterranean levels for un-enjoyable reading experiences!
Honestly Im so mad at booktok hyping The Serpent & The Wings of Night when Daughter of No Worlds by the same author is sooooooo much better, the worldbuilding, the characters, the romance, everything is so much more developed. I truly dont know whats with people
I DNF’d Serpent on page 12. As soon as I had to read “Day to day, I wore only black, plain clothing that attracted little attention and allowed free range of movement. I didn’t ever wear anything bright (as it would draw unwanted eyes), flowing (as it would allow someone to grab me), or restrictive (as it would impede my ability to fight, or flee).” I shut the book forever. The author has to believe we are stupid and we simply could never understand what she meant unless she told us. Which is what the book did. It told me everything, it didn’t describe it. I returned it so I didn’t have to stare at it on my shelf.
LOVE your decision not to name the SMP title in your video! I think it's such a strong boundary to hold that you won't give them space on your platform even when you didn't like the book. I have so much respect for you Marines!
@@mynameismarines ahhhhhhh, yes that definitely explains it! If you mentioned that in the video I must have missed it due to shock or bewilderment lol.
Vampire Academy no 😭 my heart lmao. I reread the whole series and am waiting for the Bloodlines series to come in the mail so I can finally read the whole thing after ten years sksksk but I love VA. I think it’s one of the best vampire book series I’ve ever read. I love the characters so much (especially Adrian Ivashkov who you meet in the second book) and I was actually pleasantly surprised that Richelle’s writing didn’t feel as juvenile as I would have expected from that time period of YA. I can admit that the plot of the first book leaves a bit to be desired, kinda simple with too much petty high school drama, but it gets really good in the second book. The rest of the series is just so good 😩 I didn’t think it was misogynistic, so much as a fact of the world that they live in where the women dhampirs typically don’t become guardians. If every dhampir did that, they would eventually all die and the Moroi would be left unprotected. The dhampir race has to continue living and it only makes sense that it’s the women who have children and raise them
We disagree here lol. I find the vampire aspects incredibly weak because the plot was so weak. And I did find the writing and characters very juvenile and dated. It felt like a book published in 2007 because of the tropes and because of the misogyny. That is the misogyny inherent in all not like other girls characters, which Rose is a flaming example of, but also the book reducing women to their reproductive capabilities isn't a great defense to me, personally. Especially that is exactly a reason real world misogynists use to talk about why women shouldn’t be able to do certain things.
@@mynameismarines yeah I get what you mean, I think I just didn’t really interpret it that way since it didn’t feel like those ideologies were being forced down my throat like some books do. There definitely are things she could have done differently to make it less 2007 (but to be fair it did come out in 2007) and it makes me sad that it doesn’t work for everyone because I thought it was such a fun and emotional journey. But I do wanna add that if you want an even worse “I’m not like other girls” girlie, Grace Foster from the Crave series. I really liked Rose, aside from a few times when she was being especially annoying later on, so I can understand how she could feel childish or immature, but Grace is the actual epitome of that trope imo (and Richelle is consistent in her vampire lore, the Crave vampires are mortal in the first book but then it suddenly changes to them being immortal for the rest of the series.)
i was an absolute VA fangirl when i was younger. i started bloodlines but never finished it. i’ve been wanting to go back and re-read all the way through and then finish bloodlines but i’m so scared it won’t hold up for me. i was very juvenile myself when i read them initially so i’m worried that adult, less naive me will hate them. and i can’t decide if it’s worth risking 😂
@@theotherveronica I get that, I was in middle school when I originally read bloodlines and eventually read VA a few years ago. I thought it held up when I reread it last year, and though I can’t really speak for bloodlines yet, I think it’ll be fine lol
Sorry, Xaden was supposed to be black?????? The book is even worse than I initially imagined, even more layers of problematic being heaped onto an already dismal story.
As a black person who has read 70% of fourth wing and then realized how nightmarish it was, I only learned he was supposed to be black .. today.. while watching this video.. lmao
Happy new year Marines 🥰 I actually liked the serpent and the wings of night, but I do agree with you with some of your criticisms. I don't really know why, it just worked for me. Fourth wing was torture though
Unrelated to books: I’m new to your channel. I’m obsessed with your laugh! 😁 Anyway, it’s refreshing to hear a different take on Fourth Wing. I’m surrounded by fans and I don’t share the same opinions with them 🥲
I watched this ages ago but am just getting around to rewatching/commenting! I really enjoyed the Bloodlines spinoff to Vampire Academy when I read it years ago, but thank you for confirming I would absolutely not like the original series I will never be over the existence of Pucking Around 😭 Darkness Embraced just sounds........🤮 I always question why authors choose real world awful things as the backdrop for a romance. And I know there's a lot of Discourse™ about dark romance that I'm probably oversimplifying but I feel like I keep seeing that description used as an excuse for 'we can put anything in a book and you can't be mad about it because it's dark romance!' and like....that's not how that works at all. Incredibly frustrating to me that so many readers are like 'this book is so important to me! it had such an effect on my life!' but as soon as someone tries to critique something problematic they're like 'oh my gosh it's just fiction, get over it' 🤨
I just finished red rising the other day and I feel so seen having it be placed on this list. I felt like it had a very confused message with an incoherent plot and unlikeable characters
I really appreciate Red Rising being on this list. I have been told to read it over and over again and finally, I have validation for why I don’t want to read it. I tried to read it last year and it felt icky pretty early on. The opening scene was very dramatic and I had high hopes only for it to degenerate into sexist misery p*rn and no thank you. I didn’t even get to the academy bs, because it was already edgy nonsense and I am not a recreational reader of SA or fascism. No. No no no. I don’t want it.
I read Rebel of the Sands years ago and legitimately do not remember a single thing about it other than that I didn't like it - lol. "They just want sex! DIRTY!" 🤣💀 "This was a horrible book, to read the words of..." 😂I hadn't heard of that last worst book but sweet lord...
Fourth Wing was such a mess the whole way through. It’s honestly baffling to me that so many people love it. I read Rebel of the Sands forever ago, and I agree that it started off really well and seemed like it was going to be good, and then went way downhill. The latter half of the book dragged in super typical YA tropes like superpowers. And having a poc main character with light colored eyes makes me more and more annoyed every time I see it that in a book. I’m Persian and I have green eyes, so yes, I know we exist, but it’s such a typical fantasy trope that it just annoys me more, the more I see it.
a former coworker tried getting me to read red rising. Well I tried until they fridged his wife and I could just tell where it was going and no thank you... edit: Vampire academy, the whole age gap did NOT read well as an adult myself >< I decided to reread it last year and yikes.
So Emily Rath lives in the same city as me and local bookstores have been working with her to promote her book. When I first saw the posts, I was like “No…surely not THAT romance”. It felt like a fever dream
I really enjoyed Rebel of the Sands back when it came out in 2016ish. I think with the way reading and literature has involved, it is harder for people to get into some older YA now than it was back then. I feel books are generally better now than 10 years ago but your mileage may vary based on personal taste.
I mean I'm reading "Shadow Scale" by Rachel Hartman and I find it more interesting and nuanced than anything I've read by Maas; it came out almost 10 years ago.
I think Red Rising is my #1 worst book of all time (it's certainly the one I've ranted about the most) but seeing his recent tweet about reading Kissinger and lol-ing and woof-ing at people hating on Kissinger? I was like oh man, no wonder I found his book and its "message" so trash 😅
when you made a quick synopsis of red rising i was VERY interested, it sounds so cool, but then i remembered i'm watching the worst books you read video lmao
Love and appreciate your take for Fourth Wing AND the Geeking By link! That put into words exactly how I felt about the book as someone with hEDS. Far better breakdown of my feelings than I could get out myself!
‘and don’t say because it’s ya, let’s respect the intelligence of children better than that’ THANK YOUUU as someone whose older and still likes reading YA novels, thank you for saying that. people love saying books are bad because they’re YA, and that’s not true. some of my favourite stories are from the YA genre. sometimes books just suck, it doesn’t mean they’re meant for kids.
Love your review of Pucking Around. I am slogging through the audiobook, which, with the prequel novella (which, content wise, should have been part of the book) is 25 HOURS LONG. The prequel, with Jake and Rachel meeting, was good (if stupid). There's like this deeply emotional connection, that Rachel is then, after reconnecting with Jake, able to instantly have also with Caleb and then Mars, but besides them all being buff dudes, I have no idea why. I suppose you have to be the type of person who bleeds astrology to be able to fall like that for so little reason. Rachel is supposedly this brilliant intellect who can't seem to think even one step ahead. And these alpha dudes being like okay, sure, we'll share this one odd woman -- like why would they do that? The author just kept throwing soggy rationales at the wall and hoped it would make sense. Like at least 2 of the guys don't find septum piercings appealing, but on Rachel? -- total turn on. Why? Sorry -- that was way too long to just say I get your point! But I guess Emily Rath inspired me to blather. Love your earrings, btw!
I couldn't stand the anachronisms in Fourth Wing. It pulled me from the reading experience. Plus, the way the dialogues were written followed immediately by unnecessary action was so annoying. The text interruptions ruined the flow of conversations between any of the characters. I also couldn't stand the hypersexuality in the book. My bff is aro/ace and I'm waiting for marriage, so it's very frustrating to read books where everyone is so sexual and sexualized. Like, not even ONE person was like, "Meh, no thank you" to sex? Come on!
Are you going to do the new books that red tower is releasing? I don’t want to buy them or read them but I do value your opinion as a fellow enemy of the red tower evil. 😂😂😂😂
I was suprised that credence by penelope Douglas wasn't on your list but actually you're better off if you don't put yourself through reading that one! 🤢
Oh my god. I can’t believe you had to suffer through listening to Serpent and the Wings of Night. I only read it bc it was KU and so popular on booktok. I was trying to figure out why everyone loved it. Listening to it had to have been torture. It’s a bizarre mashup/ripoff of Hunger Games, From Blood and Ash, and ACOTAR.
I read VA as a teenager and recently as an adult, i LOVED the world building but the interpersonal relationship (aside from Lissa and Rose) are DOGSHIT. such a product of its time, if it were published now, it definitely would be New Adult and more sexually explicit
I listened to the audiobook for Assistant to the Villain. Its an interesting premise but was done really badly. The tik toks you shared were so cringey. If I had seen them before, I would have never read the book because the videos really show that she would not be able to write this idea well.
I was hoping to be able to cross some of these books off my TBR list, but apparently, I never even added them. Yeah me! (Except for Red Rising which I already tried and it was a DNF).
My daughter gifted me Serpent and the Wings of Night. Oh oh. I liked Assistant to the Villain as a quick read between epic fantasy. Im 60, I guess from what Ive read in the 70s and 80s, no issues. Was it a five star? Nope. I enjoyed this video and your explanations.
I love your reviews so much, they're so detailed and well constructed that even when I disagree I am really able to see what you mean. Also just incredibly entertaining! Love your work!!
I thought that Tangled book sounded familiar not because I read it but someone else I watch did a video on the movie version of it and that seemed rather terrible too
OK, so I read "Vampire Academy" as a twenty-something year-old and I had a blast. It was very problematic and so freakin' immature, but I read the entire series in a week and I laughed so hard, I cried. Will never read it again, but I don't regret it. "Tangled" was very uncomfortable to read, cause it was all just sex, sex, sex. The guy thought of nothing else and being in his head was icky. I did, however, love the movie. Once you remove his thoughts from the equation, it's actually pretty funny. Still problematic, but I laughed. 🤷🏻♀
Laughing at a bad book means I’m funny, not the book. Also though I found all the racism and misogyny not really ha ha ha and more like Jesus please get me out of here. 🤷🏽♀️
@@mynameismarines PS: I mostly laughed at how stupid Rose was, that I do remember. And why would what's-his-name (sorry, been over 15 years since I read it) fall for her. It was a mess of a relationship and it read like a comedy to me. 🤷🏻♀
Your issues with Red Rising is a good segue into a different question. How faithful should fictional societies be to the stuff they’re based on? Pierce based his world almost entirely on Ancient Rome, which of course had their more regressive than today’s views on women.
Something that is based on has no obligation to maintain faithfulness. I’d say it’s biggest obligation is fidelity to its own world and plot. It has to make sense onto itself.
@@giantcupofcoffee I don’t think GOT is trying to go for any real theme with that. Red Rising was going for Rome, because the people were obsessed with it (iirc that was the justification). I’d assume at this point Pierce assumed picking and choosing a culture by a people of fascists would look strange. He offered “no real explanation” so I could just be doing more work than him at this point.
@@giantcupofcoffee I mean that Pierce put it in universe that the people were obsessed with Rome as a past civilization. Recreation was something they commonly did, including mythical beasts. Meanwhile George was just using inspiration. I think the better point here is that being obsessed over a past civilization like this is a bad justification. Rome had their views based on many factors. To argue that a more advanced civilization (better ethics, as we have better ethics now) regressed like that would turn into such a thing is hard to get across.
coming into this late but omfg, to give some comparison to just how bonkers-long that 'Pucking Around' book is.... the first, single-volume edition of the entirety of 'Lord of the Rings' is 1,077 pages. why on *earth* is a dingdang hockey romance novel that close in page length to *all* of LOTR combined??? baffling.
i simply cant believe you didnt turn off your brain, let the feminism fly out of your body, shut your eyes to all of the sexism and racism and ableism, ignore all the plot holes, or let yourself be super impressed by Ambiguously Brown Shadow Daddy #5 Now In Mint Flavour in order to like Fourth Wing! shocked and shaken
screaming🤣🤣🤣
if she did that only an empty (egg)shell would remain🤣 Sry i see myself out🙈
"Ambiguously Brown Shadow Daddy #5 Now In Mint Flavour" this is killing me! xD I remember seeing people be like "He's objectively black!" but he very much is not written that way in the book. It's insane to me how people ignore what's actually written in the book so they can project onto it what they want to see.
this made me lol
Reading the book, I didn't realize Zaden was supposed to be black at all. She spent too much time sexualizing his body, I forgot.
my favorite thing about Fourth Wing is people loving it then reading Iron Flame and being like “oh… nvm”
It’s also funny to see people like “yeah it keeps getting worse and sure nothing makes sense and my book is upside down and falling apart, but I love it 🥰 “
@@mynameismarines turned off their brain to enjoy Fourth Wing and never turned it back on
It’s so vindicating honestly
It's almost universal, I've only seen one or two people actually like Iron Flame
😂 I’m one of those people. I thought Fourth Wing was very entertaining because I loved the unique way dragons were used. Even though it was cliche and cheesy and Violet wasn’t a well-written character, I enjoyed it! Then Iron Flame was awful in every way and now I have hopped on the bandwagon with the haters of the whole series.
See, Assistant to the Villain would be so much better if it was a Doctor Doofenshmirtz/Megamind type of villain...not a murderer
That’s what I thought it was going to be! Even if he was a murderer I thought they would jump into fully not tip toe around him being morally grey with a heart of gold. I didn’t finish the book but I was pretty sure he was going to be revealed as a prince who was rebelling against his father the king.
when Assistant to the Villain showed up as 7th worst on the list, i felt genuine worry about what was still to come lol
😭
as in, how can anything be worse....but looks like I forgot Red Rising exists 🥲
Edit: ...and Darkness Embraced....
Katie Colson’s glowing review inspired me to read that book. And I regretted it almost immediately. Dnf’d at like 20-30%. The synopsis lied and I was so mad when I realized “the villain” wasn’t actually evil just misunderstood. I was like oh he’s not evil because then we would have to have an actual moral quandary about them being in a relationship.
I loved Assistant to the Villain as a light read between big emotional epic fantasy. I gave it a solid 3 🌟
With all of the new adult romantasy, I keep scratching my head at all of the vague wars that are driving the plots and creating stakes but don’t have world-building or politics behind them. Like I’m no genius but I’m in my late 30s and I read a lot of litfic/historical fiction/nonfiction, so I’m still coming to the table with a few decades worth of fluency in what makes war interesting and how it can successfully be used in fiction. So I can’t help but draw the really uncomfortable conclusion that the people who enjoy these books are still young enough that they haven’t organically consumed other media and educational content, or that they just don’t read other genres. As a side note, you see this in dystopia stuff too, where the author wants credit for making points about society but doesn’t want to craft any politics, so they end the world before the book starts. In romantasy, they want the drama and pathos of war but they think it’s sufficient to just say there’s a fantasy war happening.
I read ‘This Woven Kingdom’ and I think it spoiled me for all other romantasy because the war made sense. It’s over access to water. It’s such a relatively simple concept but it makes total sense. I feel like some of these books try so hard to have these complex and intricate backstories for their war which ultimately leave me confused and feeling like maybe we could’ve found another answer. When they can just boil it down to something simple like access to a vital natural resource and that would perfectly explain the conflict.
I'm currently reading an arc of an upcoming new adult/adult romantasy release and it's exactly this, there's a "rebellion brewing against an empress" but it feels like set decoration because the politics have no real-world sense or anything. It's not even clear what makes the empress bad apart from "she's killing all her civilians and everyone is poor" without any real reason behind it
@@ramalam98what’s crazy to me is that it could easily be explained as population control. Like you don’t always need a tangled web of a reason for rebellion. Just use something that people can understand and that they would reasonably believe a corrupt government structure would do. That could answer so many questions before they even come up.
@@ramalam98I mean, there’s not much reason aside from being power hungry to kill civilians and keep them poor, even in real life, so it doesn’t pull me out of the story for the villain to have that motive, I think there’s more a glossing over of how the rest of society justifies it. What were the conditions that someone felt so entitled/so insecure to commit such atrocities or stand by while they happen? There’s hardly ever an explanation for how bigoted propaganda took such hold. Even if it doesn’t excuse their horrific actions, the characters feel more realistic when we take what preceded them into account.
Sometimes you just enjoy trash. I liked and enjoyed Serpent and the Wings of Night and had the same issues as Marines had but it was what I needed when I needed. It was like eating cake after having a nice chicken dinner. Nothing nutritious about it but damn was it good.
For some reason it's always like...
Me reading fanatsy: 😊
Me reading romance: 😊
Me reading them combined: 😬
Every time I’m like surely this will work…
It's because it can't actually exist coherently. You can have a fantasy with a romance, those have always existed and you'd be hard pressed to find one without a romance at the forefront somewhere lol. But trying to make 2 different genres a hybrid genre thing, it just doesn't work.
For me it's fantasy:😊, romance:😫, romantasy:😵
@@arcane9205 i kinda disagree with "fantasy" and romance being unable to exist inherently. fantasy, in the end, is more of a marker of setting, while romance implies something about the plot/story structure. now the issue here i think is that "fantasy" instantly means "epic adventure battle fantasy" for most people and that's what it mostly is so that's fair. but i don't think a fantasy setting has to be "epic battle adventure", so i don't see why you Couldn't do a romance story that's just set in a fantastical world (or maybe im more of a sucker for thinking about what i call "slice of life" fantasy). to clarify this would also assume effort put into building a fantasy world still so its not an inherent fix to all these poor romantasy books. not only do they try to mix two incompatible plot structures (epic adventure main plot + romantic character based main plot) but they also don't put thought into the first epic adventure plot, which especially in a made up fantasy world requires a lot of that thought. the epic fantasy is being used as set dressing and garnish while its is inherently, to continue the food metaphor, a piece of steak
not arguing with your point, i just think your comment moreso is about specifically epic adventure type fantasy (which again tbf is most fantasy stories...) which i agree with you on!
😂
17:10 “people i really trust….ed” had me dying
absolutely iconic moment
I find that line way better than any line I read in the book LMAO.
the fact that three of your worst books came from reading the last 10 years of the Goodreads Choice Awards debut category 😬
that's why i stopped reading social media popular books
This is why I don't pay any attention to Goodreads anymore lol
Red Rising has become one my litmus test books for trusting online reviewers. When people recommend it when their whole chest - I know they're not bothered by the same stuff that bothers me and I generally move along -
GOD SAME
I seriously dont understand why ppl brag about being able to "turn my brain off to enjoy things" bc, essentially, they're bragging about making themselves a mindless vessel who dont question what they consume
As a Muslim viewer and fan I just wanted to say thanks for speaking about this whole thing❤ a lot of booktubers are quiet about it so I loved that at least some are vocal
Fourth wing 5 star reviews really made me reevaluate who’s opinions I trusted anymore on booktok lmao happy new year thanks for the video!
Same. Side-eyeing some peeps now.
Same, I’m wondering if I’m reading the same book as some people or if I’ve just aged out of YA/NA at 26.
Whew! I don’t feel bad for DNFing Fourth Wing after 27 pages! 😂 I couldn’t get through chapter 1.
i love those earrings, they're adorable! happy new year, hope 2024 is a gentle and kind year
Thank you so much! Happy new year and sending you many well wishes ❤️❤️
I love your laughter at the ridiculous happenings of all these books lol
Do you wanna know what I observed? People who read much think that Forth wing is a trash book...while people who don't read much think that is a good book.
Despite the fact that I only read manga, and not even a lot of manga, I fuckin hated it. I kinda went in thinking "Okay its gonna be mid, lets just see what it is" but the audiobook experience made me so annoyed.
The characters besides the main 3, all the same, can barely tell them apart despite Ridick being needlessly obnoxious. Violet absolutely falls into the trappings of "Im mentality weak despite being one of the strongest ever at the start"
The dragons themselves feel less like actual individuals. I unconsciously split them into a war machine mixed with a second conciousness in people's heads because thats all they are.
Violet is inconsistent in multiple ways. She was mad at Dane because he didn't believe her when she got attacked, but she's okay with Xaden. He *read her fucking mind*, thats not even fair in the slightest. The standard she holds both of them to are unbalanced. She hates Xaden and fears for her life around him but gives him so much leeway. She's childhood friends with Dane but got mad when he doesn't believe she got attacked, which is fair because she constantly insisted that she doesn't need help with anything and never actually listened to any of the advice he had, if it was truly that serious then he would need visual proof because she doesn't trust him with anything else.
I still don't know why people like this. I dont want to sound pretentious, but I feel like the only people who liked the book didn't actually think of it as a book to be thought of critically like all other media. I think people expected fanfiction or some amateur work when they went in, held it to that standard, and then insisted that its as good as any other book out there
My other observation with friends that like it is that they like the drama of it? They KNOW it’s not good but they aren’t there for amazing writing or plot. It’s very interesting.
I always love how specific your critiques are on books. You save me a lot of time and grievance from reading bad books.
39:24 "And she tells this man-" It was at this moment that I got a KFC ad with the song "I don't care I love it" blasting and it was the most perfect ad placement I've had on TH-cam.
Nothing could redeem Darkness Embraced, but the fact that the author is British?!?!! Is soooo wild to me. In what world is that appropriate
When you said Vampire Academy, I went "wait what" hahaha. It’s just been so long. I was one of those people that read all six of the books (plus spin off) at 14 and absolutely fell in love. I genuinely didn't see any of the problematic stuff back then, but now hearing you bring it up I realize you’re absolutely right, specially Rose's and Dimitri's relationship. They were my dream couple back then, but honestly, how could that ever be appropriate, lol? One thing that really stuck by me was the subplot of SH for Lissa, because I was going through that at that time, and seeing it on a book I liked so much made me feel seen and less lonely about it, in a way. I personally liked Rose back then, but I know she's universally an annoying main character lol. Sydney from the spin off Bloodlines felt much better to me. But I'm sure I'd feel differently about all of those books now at 23, and I kinda have this idea of re-reading them to see how I (dis)like them hahaha. Overall, I'm glad Vampire Academy got me and many of my friends into reading in our teens and how it motivated me to write too.
Anyway, love your videos, Marines!! You're one of my favorite booktubers, your reviews are so well explained and your laugh is the best
As someone with chronic pain/illness (not EDS, but something involving bleeding and bruising issues) who was actually barred from physical activities and used as a token symbol of ableism and pushing through and persevering in that physical activity when i went into remission, I cannot pick up this book after hearing about everyone’s reactions to the EDS/chronic illness rep (or lack there of) in fourth wing. I was first excited, and then just icked tf out. Its what worried me about reading it at first, and then all the other just horrid parts of this book made it even easier to say “yeah nope”
I’m here for the Red Rising hate. Because the way BookTok hyped this book up… Straight to jail.
Thank you for speak up about the boycott. I also always like how you talk so eloquently even when you explain why some books did not work for you
I read the first three books of the Red Rising series, so whenever people are like "it gets better!!!" like bitch, when? I found that, the more you think about the world, the less it makes sense, and the later books have to try to prop up the world building revealed in the first book, but on an increasingly grander scale, where they fall apart more. Even if you can overlook the many questionable decisions in Red Rising, from a pure "epic scifi/fantasy" standpoint, it's a failure.
I've never been able to get past Chapter 1 of the first book, it just rubs me all the wrong ways. I'm not going to subject myself to that for multiple books so that it eventually gets better 🙄
Sorry if this is weird, but I love your laugh! The way you laugh about some of the choices made in these books makes me so happy :)
Thank you! And thanks for watching ❤️
@@mynameismarines of course! I loved you on tiktok, I really appreciated your perspective and the way you thought about the books you read (it actually helped me develop the way I think while I read), but I recently deleted tiktok for attention span reasons and was so excited to see you on yt!! keep up the fantastic work
My goodness you are good at talking about books that you don’t like!
She really is! I feel like some of these books would make me so mad that it would be hard to speak lol
48:27 How on Earth does a character make a TH-camr apology before TH-cam even existed? 😭
"I feel bad for the people affected by my actions and those that I have hurt. It was a dark moment in my life and I was in a bad place 😔"
"... Which people though?"
"Oh, you know the ones."
One thing that annoyed me about red rising, which is so minor compared to actual critiques lmao, but I see it so much in modern scifi is when the character will be using an object and it will be like “I pick up the nitro-laser-alternator” and it never explains what the actual object is. What am I supposed to be imagining when they pick up the nitro-laser-alternator? What the fuck is it? They keep adding in sciencey sounding words to make it seem more high tech and futuristic but never actually explain what they are and it just goes to show that they don’t really think about the details in their world building
Thank goodness! This is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone say anything negative about Red Rising. I DNFed this book 75% of the way through and I hated it yet everyone raves as if it’s the best thing they have ever read. I was starting to wonder if it was me, like did I miss something? It’s the same with Throne of Glass, i HATE those books but feel like I’m alone in that.
i dnf'ed red rising too it's so boring lol
I made it about 30 pages, lol.
I feel the same way about Red Rising. It was off to a great start but then it was so extremely boring that when I was halfway through, I tried skipping ahead to find the point it would get interesting again. Then I just gave up. I can’t understand why people love it so much.
I DNFed it about 40% in. It was so boring and Darrow is so blah as a character. Couldn't care less about any of the characters or their goals.
i get what you mean. i remember reading the first 50ish pages of red rising and DNF'd it, I only actually finished the book cuz I had to for my book club. I actually enjoyed the ending a bit more than I thought I would and continued reading the last two, but I'm probably won't be reading the sequel series any time soon.
I wish that I saw this video before reading Assistant to the Villain. It was such a bad book, and I wish I knew it would end on a cliffhanger after NOTHING. Awful experience with no pay off
Your reviews make me feel sane!!! I feel so confused about the hype on some of these books.
The way you describe Red Rising and Fourth Wing makes me think they have the same readers.
I read both but I really liked red rising but hated fourth wing
Yeah red rising got me and my mom into audiobooks/reading again but literally couldn’t finish Fourth wing.
omg... i tried the serpent and the wings of night 3 times now and last night i got to 18% ish and dnf'd again and for the last time! lol. i hated it so much. when you cant describe a crash or a crack without describing it and instead just writing "CRACK" "CRASH" i cannot... it all felt so juvenile. im also just so tired of the cocky super powerful love interest that is constantly cocking and raising and lifting and wiggling his brow. their first flirty interaction where she was like "i should have stabbed you higher" and he was like "how much higher? a little or a lot?" i think it was done for me right then and there! and your comment of it feeling underpopulated! so true!!! it literally felt so empty.
Reason 28563 to use Storygraph is that you can rate a book 0.25 stars
Assistant to the Villain reminds me of when Stephenie Meyer had a protagonist who committed multiple violations of international human rights laws by chemically torturing people, and then fell in love with a man *after she accidentally tortured him*. What a goofy case of mistaken identity! She really heard about Gitmo and thought "here's my next rom com!" At least that book had a plot and was well edited.
I also read Red Rising for the first time last year! I wanted to dnf so many times (such a slog!), but pushed through in the end. Aughh, so true that it’s clear from the text that Brown has no idea what he’s talking about with regards to oppression, slavery, patriarchal systems, or caste systems. I think he comes from a very, very privileged family background fyi. Just a total clusterf**k of nonsense.
I salute(?) you for taking on Pucking Around and Darkness Embraced. 700 pages … 😬 Thank you for your sacrifice!
The thing with RoMaNtAsY is that to my old person’s ears it sounds like a rebrand of paranormal romance/urban fantasy romance. It’s not a new thing. It’s been around for decades in fact. And as someone who grew up both loving and hating paranormal romance, I think the new Romantasy titles are somehow even worse in quality …. Maybe it’s because I’m old.🤔 But like you alluded to, I feel like the fantasy elements are given short shrift in service of an often insipid romance. And the horror and noir elements are entirely excised (to my chagrin).
Agreed. I did the same.
I think there's an audio issue starting by the time you're talking about Tangled; a weird hum stays until around Darkness Embraced.
"Red Rising" was also one of my worst reads of 2023, if not my worst read. So pointless. I thought that the whole war game thing was going to be a set up for the third act of the book and then it was just the book.
I've watched 20 seconds so I can't comment on the content yet but I have to say that I love your earrings.
Finally someone that dislikes Red Rising. I cannot comprehend the hype it got some years ago. Is it still a hyped book? Did it get some kind of renaissance? Idk. I didn’t even finish it, but from the negative reviews I’ve seen of it, I don’t regret it. And the rampant misogyny is one of the things that grossed me out from the very start. Like you’re gonna tell me that this story takes place so far in the future that folks can live on Mars, but the roles of women are basically still limited to housewives or prostitutes? Oh and of course the MC’s wife had to die to fuel his rage for him to begin his heroic journey 🤡 Absolutely ridiculous.
I love hockey, I love romance, I love hockey romance, and that made reading 'Pucking Around' a terrible experience. I appreciate(d) all your thoughts on it, though. Love your perspective and sense of humour.
Also, "a horrible book to read the words of" 😂😂😂
I was lowkey nervous you’d mention some of the books I might’ve enjoyed this year, but wow, nope, you read some AWFUL books this year 😭 truly, the latter half of this video sets the bar at like, subterranean levels for un-enjoyable reading experiences!
Honestly Im so mad at booktok hyping The Serpent & The Wings of Night when Daughter of No Worlds by the same author is sooooooo much better, the worldbuilding, the characters, the romance, everything is so much more developed. I truly dont know whats with people
I really liked both books but I agree, Daughter of No World's is so so much better
I DNF’d Serpent on page 12.
As soon as I had to read “Day to day, I wore only black, plain clothing that attracted little attention and allowed free range of movement. I didn’t ever wear anything bright (as it would draw unwanted eyes), flowing (as it would allow someone to grab me), or restrictive (as it would impede my ability to fight, or flee).” I shut the book forever. The author has to believe we are stupid and we simply could never understand what she meant unless she told us. Which is what the book did. It told me everything, it didn’t describe it.
I returned it so I didn’t have to stare at it on my shelf.
LOVE your decision not to name the SMP title in your video! I think it's such a strong boundary to hold that you won't give them space on your platform even when you didn't like the book. I have so much respect for you Marines!
Would it be possible to know the book's author? Not planning on reading their book, most likely, but just curious.
Sounds like I picked the right funny villain book last year. (Starter Villain, by John Scalzi, was fun, imo.)
I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m pretty shocked that that klan romance book even got published let alone that people are DEFENDING it. Yiiiiiiiiiiikes.
It was self-published if that explains anything
@@mynameismarines ahhhhhhh, yes that definitely explains it! If you mentioned that in the video I must have missed it due to shock or bewilderment lol.
I love how you're popping off on TikTok, but thank you so much for still providing longer form content on Booktube!
Vampire Academy no 😭 my heart lmao. I reread the whole series and am waiting for the Bloodlines series to come in the mail so I can finally read the whole thing after ten years sksksk but I love VA. I think it’s one of the best vampire book series I’ve ever read. I love the characters so much (especially Adrian Ivashkov who you meet in the second book) and I was actually pleasantly surprised that Richelle’s writing didn’t feel as juvenile as I would have expected from that time period of YA.
I can admit that the plot of the first book leaves a bit to be desired, kinda simple with too much petty high school drama, but it gets really good in the second book. The rest of the series is just so good 😩
I didn’t think it was misogynistic, so much as a fact of the world that they live in where the women dhampirs typically don’t become guardians. If every dhampir did that, they would eventually all die and the Moroi would be left unprotected. The dhampir race has to continue living and it only makes sense that it’s the women who have children and raise them
We disagree here lol. I find the vampire aspects incredibly weak because the plot was so weak. And I did find the writing and characters very juvenile and dated. It felt like a book published in 2007 because of the tropes and because of the misogyny. That is the misogyny inherent in all not like other girls characters, which Rose is a flaming example of, but also the book reducing women to their reproductive capabilities isn't a great defense to me, personally. Especially that is exactly a reason real world misogynists use to talk about why women shouldn’t be able to do certain things.
@@mynameismarines yeah I get what you mean, I think I just didn’t really interpret it that way since it didn’t feel like those ideologies were being forced down my throat like some books do. There definitely are things she could have done differently to make it less 2007 (but to be fair it did come out in 2007) and it makes me sad that it doesn’t work for everyone because I thought it was such a fun and emotional journey.
But I do wanna add that if you want an even worse “I’m not like other girls” girlie, Grace Foster from the Crave series. I really liked Rose, aside from a few times when she was being especially annoying later on, so I can understand how she could feel childish or immature, but Grace is the actual epitome of that trope imo (and Richelle is consistent in her vampire lore, the Crave vampires are mortal in the first book but then it suddenly changes to them being immortal for the rest of the series.)
i was an absolute VA fangirl when i was younger. i started bloodlines but never finished it. i’ve been wanting to go back and re-read all the way through and then finish bloodlines but i’m so scared it won’t hold up for me. i was very juvenile myself when i read them initially so i’m worried that adult, less naive me will hate them. and i can’t decide if it’s worth risking 😂
@@theotherveronica I get that, I was in middle school when I originally read bloodlines and eventually read VA a few years ago. I thought it held up when I reread it last year, and though I can’t really speak for bloodlines yet, I think it’ll be fine lol
I just finished Red Rising and I ran here to see your take on it. You hit every point right on the head.
Sorry, Xaden was supposed to be black?????? The book is even worse than I initially imagined, even more layers of problematic being heaped onto an already dismal story.
I think he's described as having ambiguously "tan" skin lol
As a black person who has read 70% of fourth wing and then realized how nightmarish it was, I only learned he was supposed to be black .. today.. while watching this video.. lmao
Yeah, that's news to me. I somehow missed that Rhiannon was black too.
Happy new year Marines 🥰
I actually liked the serpent and the wings of night, but I do agree with you with some of your criticisms. I don't really know why, it just worked for me.
Fourth wing was torture though
Every time I get a Marines flaming Fourth Wing video is the new highlight of my year. It brings me so so so much joy
Unrelated to books: I’m new to your channel. I’m obsessed with your laugh! 😁
Anyway, it’s refreshing to hear a different take on Fourth Wing. I’m surrounded by fans and I don’t share the same opinions with them 🥲
I watched this ages ago but am just getting around to rewatching/commenting! I really enjoyed the Bloodlines spinoff to Vampire Academy when I read it years ago, but thank you for confirming I would absolutely not like the original series
I will never be over the existence of Pucking Around 😭
Darkness Embraced just sounds........🤮 I always question why authors choose real world awful things as the backdrop for a romance. And I know there's a lot of Discourse™ about dark romance that I'm probably oversimplifying but I feel like I keep seeing that description used as an excuse for 'we can put anything in a book and you can't be mad about it because it's dark romance!' and like....that's not how that works at all. Incredibly frustrating to me that so many readers are like 'this book is so important to me! it had such an effect on my life!' but as soon as someone tries to critique something problematic they're like 'oh my gosh it's just fiction, get over it' 🤨
I just finished red rising the other day and I feel so seen having it be placed on this list. I felt like it had a very confused message with an incoherent plot and unlikeable characters
The defense of Darkness Embraced reminded me of how hard people defended the gymnastics pedo book a few years back.
The WHAT book????
I really appreciate Red Rising being on this list. I have been told to read it over and over again and finally, I have validation for why I don’t want to read it. I tried to read it last year and it felt icky pretty early on. The opening scene was very dramatic and I had high hopes only for it to degenerate into sexist misery p*rn and no thank you. I didn’t even get to the academy bs, because it was already edgy nonsense and I am not a recreational reader of SA or fascism. No. No no no. I don’t want it.
I read Rebel of the Sands years ago and legitimately do not remember a single thing about it other than that I didn't like it - lol.
"They just want sex! DIRTY!" 🤣💀
"This was a horrible book, to read the words of..." 😂I hadn't heard of that last worst book but sweet lord...
The earrings are so festive 🎉 happy new year
Fourth Wing was such a mess the whole way through. It’s honestly baffling to me that so many people love it.
I read Rebel of the Sands forever ago, and I agree that it started off really well and seemed like it was going to be good, and then went way downhill. The latter half of the book dragged in super typical YA tropes like superpowers. And having a poc main character with light colored eyes makes me more and more annoyed every time I see it that in a book. I’m Persian and I have green eyes, so yes, I know we exist, but it’s such a typical fantasy trope that it just annoys me more, the more I see it.
35:00 STAHP they made a pureflix movie based off of this and Kennie JD reviewed it. It's as bad as you'd expect
i appreciate your thoughtful analysis of all these books. I am glad to say I didn't read any of them and have no plans to do so.
a former coworker tried getting me to read red rising. Well I tried until they fridged his wife and I could just tell where it was going and no thank you...
edit: Vampire academy, the whole age gap did NOT read well as an adult myself >< I decided to reread it last year and yikes.
“This book was like forcing me to sit in a shallow puddle” absolutely tickled me🤣🤣
Thank you for informing me about St. Martin's Press. I didn't know, but now I do!
So Emily Rath lives in the same city as me and local bookstores have been working with her to promote her book. When I first saw the posts, I was like “No…surely not THAT romance”. It felt like a fever dream
I really enjoyed Rebel of the Sands back when it came out in 2016ish. I think with the way reading and literature has involved, it is harder for people to get into some older YA now than it was back then. I feel books are generally better now than 10 years ago but your mileage may vary based on personal taste.
I mean I'm reading "Shadow Scale" by Rachel Hartman and I find it more interesting and nuanced than anything I've read by Maas; it came out almost 10 years ago.
10:28 "editing me has had IT 🤚🤚🤚" 😂😂😂 Protect yourself ❤
Loved this video, as your energy and analysis are always the best ❤
I think Red Rising is my #1 worst book of all time (it's certainly the one I've ranted about the most)
but seeing his recent tweet about reading Kissinger and lol-ing and woof-ing at people hating on Kissinger?
I was like oh man, no wonder I found his book and its "message" so trash 😅
when you made a quick synopsis of red rising i was VERY interested, it sounds so cool, but then i remembered i'm watching the worst books you read video lmao
The tillie cole book….. MY GOD 😭😭😭😭😭 people should watch the movie Skin (2018) I think
there's like a static noise that begins when you start discussing the book tangled. I don't know if it's fixeable but thought i'd let you know :)
Thank you! Not sure what happened there but unfortunately I don't think I can fix it :(
@@mynameismarines no problem! enjoyed the video the same :)
No but like Vampire Academy was so bad that me, a fifteen year old emo who was DEFINITELY NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS GUYS STILL HATED IT.
Love and appreciate your take for Fourth Wing AND the Geeking By link! That put into words exactly how I felt about the book as someone with hEDS. Far better breakdown of my feelings than I could get out myself!
I heard Red Rising got some reknown, but when I saw that someone said it was like The Hunger Games on Mars, I was like "No thank you."
when you said, "this is a horrible book to read the words of," I cackled so loud I scared the cat 😅
‘and don’t say because it’s ya, let’s respect the intelligence of children better than that’ THANK YOUUU as someone whose older and still likes reading YA novels, thank you for saying that. people love saying books are bad because they’re YA, and that’s not true. some of my favourite stories are from the YA genre. sometimes books just suck, it doesn’t mean they’re meant for kids.
I love your assessments of all these books. I knew Fourth Wing was bunk but I also had no idea how bad it was in so many ways.
Love your review of Pucking Around. I am slogging through the audiobook, which, with the prequel novella (which, content wise, should have been part of the book) is 25 HOURS LONG. The prequel, with Jake and Rachel meeting, was good (if stupid). There's like this deeply emotional connection, that Rachel is then, after reconnecting with Jake, able to instantly have also with Caleb and then Mars, but besides them all being buff dudes, I have no idea why. I suppose you have to be the type of person who bleeds astrology to be able to fall like that for so little reason. Rachel is supposedly this brilliant intellect who can't seem to think even one step ahead. And these alpha dudes being like okay, sure, we'll share this one odd woman -- like why would they do that? The author just kept throwing soggy rationales at the wall and hoped it would make sense. Like at least 2 of the guys don't find septum piercings appealing, but on Rachel? -- total turn on. Why?
Sorry -- that was way too long to just say I get your point! But I guess Emily Rath inspired me to blather. Love your earrings, btw!
I couldn't stand the anachronisms in Fourth Wing. It pulled me from the reading experience. Plus, the way the dialogues were written followed immediately by unnecessary action was so annoying. The text interruptions ruined the flow of conversations between any of the characters.
I also couldn't stand the hypersexuality in the book. My bff is aro/ace and I'm waiting for marriage, so it's very frustrating to read books where everyone is so sexual and sexualized. Like, not even ONE person was like, "Meh, no thank you" to sex? Come on!
Are you going to do the new books that red tower is releasing? I don’t want to buy them or read them but I do value your opinion as a fellow enemy of the red tower evil. 😂😂😂😂
I started Star Bringer and Iron Flame and they are both so bad I’m dragging my feet. But a new one comes out on the 9th! And I’m read to read.
@@mynameismarines Godspeed solider. You’re truly doing the lords work for us. 😂
I was suprised that credence by penelope Douglas wasn't on your list but actually you're better off if you don't put yourself through reading that one! 🤢
Such a damn shame it couldn’t have been red tower with the racism issue so we could be boycotting them instead of smp 😩
Oh my god. I can’t believe you had to suffer through listening to Serpent and the Wings of Night. I only read it bc it was KU and so popular on booktok. I was trying to figure out why everyone loved it. Listening to it had to have been torture. It’s a bizarre mashup/ripoff of Hunger Games, From Blood and Ash, and ACOTAR.
I read VA as a teenager and recently as an adult, i LOVED the world building but the interpersonal relationship (aside from Lissa and Rose) are DOGSHIT. such a product of its time, if it were published now, it definitely would be New Adult and more sexually explicit
GIRL! I didn't know Pierce's stance on Palestine until you told me! I was this close to buying the full set of red rising, I dodged a bullet
I listened to the audiobook for Assistant to the Villain. Its an interesting premise but was done really badly.
The tik toks you shared were so cringey. If I had seen them before, I would have never read the book because the videos really show that she would not be able to write this idea well.
8:44 "nightmare fuel" made me literally cackle outloud. 😂
Preciate the feedback on Tillie Cole. Noted.
I was hoping to be able to cross some of these books off my TBR list, but apparently, I never even added them. Yeah me! (Except for Red Rising which I already tried and it was a DNF).
My daughter gifted me Serpent and the Wings of Night. Oh oh.
I liked Assistant to the Villain as a quick read between epic fantasy. Im 60, I guess from what Ive read in the 70s and 80s, no issues. Was it a five star? Nope.
I enjoyed this video and your explanations.
assistant to the villain really feels like the dark (bad) reflection of nimona by nd stevenson
I love your reviews so much, they're so detailed and well constructed that even when I disagree I am really able to see what you mean. Also just incredibly entertaining! Love your work!!
I thought that Tangled book sounded familiar not because I read it but someone else I watch did a video on the movie version of it and that seemed rather terrible too
OK, so I read "Vampire Academy" as a twenty-something year-old and I had a blast. It was very problematic and so freakin' immature, but I read the entire series in a week and I laughed so hard, I cried. Will never read it again, but I don't regret it. "Tangled" was very uncomfortable to read, cause it was all just sex, sex, sex. The guy thought of nothing else and being in his head was icky. I did, however, love the movie. Once you remove his thoughts from the equation, it's actually pretty funny. Still problematic, but I laughed. 🤷🏻♀
Laughing at a bad book means I’m funny, not the book. Also though I found all the racism and misogyny not really ha ha ha and more like Jesus please get me out of here. 🤷🏽♀️
@@mynameismarines Thankfully my literary tastes evolved since then, much like myself. You live and you learn, right? :)
@@mynameismarines PS: I mostly laughed at how stupid Rose was, that I do remember. And why would what's-his-name (sorry, been over 15 years since I read it) fall for her. It was a mess of a relationship and it read like a comedy to me. 🤷🏻♀
I feel like there's quite a long list to choose from here 😂
Your issues with Red Rising is a good segue into a different question. How faithful should fictional societies be to the stuff they’re based on? Pierce based his world almost entirely on Ancient Rome, which of course had their more regressive than today’s views on women.
Something that is based on has no obligation to maintain faithfulness. I’d say it’s biggest obligation is fidelity to its own world and plot. It has to make sense onto itself.
You mean the Game of Thrones justification? That a book can contain dragons or take place on Mars, but the mysogyny must be historically accurate?
@@giantcupofcoffee I don’t think GOT is trying to go for any real theme with that. Red Rising was going for Rome, because the people were obsessed with it (iirc that was the justification).
I’d assume at this point Pierce assumed picking and choosing a culture by a people of fascists would look strange. He offered “no real explanation” so I could just be doing more work than him at this point.
@@Mrbluefire95 GOT is based on the war of the roses.
And it doesn’t matter ultimately. Authors have control over what they write.
@@giantcupofcoffee I mean that Pierce put it in universe that the people were obsessed with Rome as a past civilization. Recreation was something they commonly did, including mythical beasts. Meanwhile George was just using inspiration.
I think the better point here is that being obsessed over a past civilization like this is a bad justification. Rome had their views based on many factors. To argue that a more advanced civilization (better ethics, as we have better ethics now) regressed like that would turn into such a thing is hard to get across.
coming into this late but omfg, to give some comparison to just how bonkers-long that 'Pucking Around' book is.... the first, single-volume edition of the entirety of 'Lord of the Rings' is 1,077 pages.
why on *earth* is a dingdang hockey romance novel that close in page length to *all* of LOTR combined??? baffling.
The realy only explanation is that Emily Rath got paid by the page.
So glad to hear someone else hated Red Rising as much as i did 😂. Thanks for the great video!