The fact that the author knows the difference between AO3 and a published book automatically makes this better than Butcher and Blackbird. (This is not a diss at AO3; I absolutely love AO3. I’m just saying that posting a story on a free online archive is different than publishing and selling a story.)
A work of fiction posted on an online platform is an inherently different format than a book published in print. Online platforms lend themselves to serialization and experimentation, with constant reader feedback involved in every chapter posted. That is fundamentally different from a published book, where everything is bound together in a single package, we are expected to read it all in one go except as it's released, and the interaction with readers part is missing. Saying something reads like AO3 isn't a diss - it's a commentary on failure to adopt to a different format.
@@tyler-df3wy agreed! My cat Lion-O has crawled into my sweater on multiple occasions so he could be closer to me. Cats are lovers once they trust you.
"Unintentional cannibalism" is certainly a concept. Me: Hey! This steak is really good! Chef: Thanks! It's made from Dave in the back! Me: Don't you mean "by" Dave? Chef: No.
You know what, I like that Josh has a very normal human reaction to accidentally killing someone. Lots of protagonists in these dark romances and even romantasy/fantasy sometimes are so chill about killing that it is surprisingly refreshing for a protag to like not feel super cool about muder
Whenever people say stuff like "boom there went my ovaries" I think about the time my sibling with PCOS had one of hers rupture and ended up in the ER.... oooooooof. OOF.
As someone with a personality disorder (BPD), yeah the way this book talks about personality disorders is not great but also on par for how a lot of people (including medical professionals) treat people with personality disorders. We're just the worst of the worst and can't help but be awful people.
I also don't trust people who just don't like cats! It's one thing to be uncomfortable around them bc of trauma, or allergic... but when people say "they aren't loving enough" or "my grandma had one when I was a small child and it was mean" all I hear is "I don't respect the agency of animals not to pay attention to me 24/7 and be at my beck and call." Like my cat doesn't like kids, they scare him half to death... but he is SUCH an affectionate cat. I can pick him up and kiss him on his tummy. When he purrs, he purrs so hard he drools. "Not loving enough" my ass...
it often feels like people who dislike cats for “not being affectionate” can’t deal with animals/people not being under their control and honestly that’s such a red flag
Some people have never had the experience. Don't judge them. Eg: in a lot of 3rd world countries, we don't like cats. Why: no particular reason. It's just one of those animals we see on western TV and wonder "uh, isn't that weird?🤨" The cats in such countries are so aggressive too and usually stray. Would they be friendlier if they had a home and food? Yes. Do we know that? No.😂 Some people just don't understand the concepts of pets in general so don't judge if we don't like them. Lots of people "dislike" what they don't understand.
@@katgreer6113 Here's the thing: I've never met a panda. Or a moose. Do I dislike them? No. Have I been attacked by a dog in the past? Yes. Do I dislike dogs? No. People who aren't comfortable around cats? That's fine, sometimes people are allergic or don't know how to deal with them or have trauma. But to outright dislike a living thing because you never had one as a pet? I just don't trust that sort of behavior.
@@katgreer6113, what are you even talking about "in a lot of 3rd world countries"? How many is "a lot"? What counts as "third world" to you? If it's just "poor non-western countries" (which is a whole other kettle of worms on it's own) there are plenty of poor countries that have working cats (ie living on farms/warehouses to keep pests away) that still like them and treat them well. tbh it sounds like you have much less knowlege and experience regarding this topic than you assumed so idk what your goal even was. to prove that you're justified in disliking cats because of where you come from, despite the fact that has absolutely no bearing on the situation? weird behavior tbh.
45:58 Hi! I'm one of those hospital laboratory techs. This is entirely inaccurate; I have no idea why any hospital would need an analyzer for matching human DNA. The DNA-related analyzers we have are for detecting pathogens, not people 🤣
As someone with a psych degree, I will say that the book seems to lean a lot on pop psychology and information from the kind of true crime content that I'd argue is harmful. -Most any psychologist won't use terms like psychopath or sociopathy nowadays; they're outdated concepts and are flawed and very stigmatised. -I'm not a fan of how this book talks about ASPD, which is a Cluster B personality disorder which are incredibly stigmatised disorders. Having a Cluster B PD does not a bad person make and does not a criminal make. -You're also correct in that the Macdonald triad is outdated and does not have substantial evidence backing it; there's much more evidence linking the behaviours in the triad - bed-wetting, cruelty to animals, fascination with fire-setting - with child abuse or neglect than there is linking it to violent crime. -Further, the book seems to lean of profiling a lot, especially with the whole dead-eyes thing which is uh... well, profiling is a load of horseshit. There's almost no substantial evidence backing any of it and I think Malcolm Gladwell is on the money in comparing it to astrology. See, profiling is very rarely actually specific and any accuracy it has is normally because practitioners create an incredibly generic profile that fits most people. Also a lot of it is guesswork and is often divorced from its context and it is very much subject to bias because people think "oh, I'd know X if I saw it" which no, you wouldn't. Like, a few years back, I had dead eyes while I was bleeding over a CAT scanner in the hospital which makes me sound unsettling, but at that point, I'd been at the hospital for 12 hours and hadn't eaten anything in over 24 hours and it was like 2am and I just wanted to go home. Yeah, of course, my eyes were dead. -(The only version of profiling that I would give grace to it is the statistical approach but that's because it uses actual data, even though it's also got major flaws.)
The macdonald triad seems so arbitrary anyway. Why would fire setting, cruelty to animals, and bed wetting specifically all link up to somehow make a serial killer? So stupid. Also, I knew that bed wetting and cruelty to animals could be signs of child abuse but not fire setting. I wonder how that works. I looked it up and it seems to fall more in line with ADHD behaviors than trauma, actually.
@@ettaetta439 The evidence is all correlation not causation on limited samples. Like you can find a correlation between those three traits and violent crime but you can find correlations between things like increased sales of soup and decreased rate of divorces. And obviously, people aren't getting divorced less because they're eating soup together. With the arson thing. I don't know off the top of my head if there is a link between that and childhood trauma; I do know that together, the traits that form the McDonald Triad can be linked with child abuse or neglect more substantially. Though I do believe there is some evidence that children with ADHD are more likely to be victims of childhood abuse or neglect. In general, neurodivergent folks are more likely to be victims of abuse in our lifetimes.
Apologies for this, but you say the term sociopath and psychopath are outdated and id very much like to know what you would call the people with traits linked to those behavior patterns and actions.
"I know i spent my entire life having a crisis about my dad but im suddenly ready to be baby trapped for some reason" -my fiancé only half listening to this
“Don’t laugh… don’t laugh… (immediately laughs)” relatable. I feel like I could write an entire essay on all the problems the way “dark romance” does “bad guy love interest but it’s okay because the villains are worse and even when they do the same things it’s still different because HE’S hot.” Especially awful because it really feeds into like, these fears that white girls and white women are constantly berated with about how we are delicate flowers and the dangerous world is out to get us, personally (and we need a man to protect us, and even if he also treats us horribly, again: it’s okay if he’s hot!). Does that make sense? It’s the kind of fear-mongering that amplifies racism, springboards into transphobia, and generally disempowers anyone it’s being taught to. (Not even getting into the Sound of Freedom-style human trafficking of Adeline……..) ANYWAY, how good that this book turned out to be actually decent! We love an unexpected winner.
My mom doesn't like cats after an incident as a kid where one of the family cats pooped on her but she's not mean to them. Sometimes we accidentally scare off a mama cat in our backyard so we keep watch over the kittens until she comes back
I'm SO GLAD somebody finally acknowledged the stupid "serial killer" eyes nonsense 🙄 It's pure confirmation bias. And yeah, it's SUPER unpopular to discuss supporting those with ASPD because people don't want to dedicate resources or research to "bad people" in spite of the fact that the best way to reduce societal harm (on all fronts) would be doing exactly that. I feel a lot less isolated hearing someone with a platform speak out about the issue.
So I know this is ancedotal (and I am three weeks late bc I just finished reading the book myself) but you actually can tell. I found out the reason I am attracted to guys who have no physical features in common is because there is an expression that sadists wear and that is what I am attracted to. Not everyone is capable of this but I can definitely tell and although I already found my partner I am going to spend the rest of my life with, when I used to approach potential partners I was never mistaken. I even noticed some of my friends were masochists like myself before they admitted it to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
'To the hilt' in sex scenes always makes me roll my eyes a little, but I can look past it in fantasy or historical settings where swords are commonplace. It seems especially jarring in modern settings.
@@SquiddlePrincessI understand what you are saying but from a biological/reproductive standpoint that's literally its entire purpose. The person in question doesn't have to use it that way but that is what it's for.
yeah the whole 'serial killer eyes' thing reminds me uncomfortably of the weird recent trend i've heard about on tiktok, trying to claim you can 'tell if someone's a narcissist by their eyes' and shit.... 😬 really wish this author hadn't included that uncritically (and on a personal note, i also TurboCringe at all the ovaries stuff, it feels so 2010s fandom humor to me 😅 )
Have you seen Sarah Z’s video on the current obsession with narcissism? Highly recommend, I didn’t realize there was a whole cottage industry around it nowadays! Just staggering and really infuriating.
This was a lot of fun to listen to! This is the closest a dark romance couple has gotten to being similar to Gomez and Morticia (not literal, don't take it too seriously), with all the morbid fucked up shit and wholesome cheesiness that goes with that implication.
@@ReadswithRachel I was curious so I looked on goodreads. The cover you showed is the zando, there was a different cover for what looks like the self pub version.
i remember reading this without the synopsis as well, and actually had a delightful time because (to me) the characters had such a hilarious string of unfortunate events they were actually adapting to in real time, and it was such a comedy of errors (compliment.) I remember reading the synopsis and being like "girl did they make you pretend your book was something else?"
Yeah, I dig the consent stuff. In the stuff I write, that is bare minimum. Plus, with a small cast, it's refreshing that everyone comes off as intelligent enough to have the jobs they have.
Honestly? This might be the first dark Romance I like? I am usually picky about romance and hate anything dark romance (although i love watching videos explaining them to me, bless you Rachel), but this seems... really nice? Huh.
LMAO my buddy took a class from Professor McDonald of "Dark Triad" fame. He said it's very....vague. Like if you have all three traits you're "more likely" to be a evildoer or whatever, but there's no real quantification of what "more likely" means... Last I heard he was working on an updated theory called the "Dark Tetrad" 😅
the comparison honestly helped sm, when i saw the covers i was worried it was gonna be a dup, thank u so much for this video and hoping u are safe from the hurricane
It's wild how this is the first time I've seen a piece of writing outside of fanfic ACTUALLY deal this well with heavier kinks. Not perfect obviously especially if this was irl, but allowing that it's clearly depicting a specific fantasy, I'm pleasantly surprised.
aw man i spent a ridiculous amount of time typing a comment with my views on the way the book talked about "sociopathy" as someone who has ASPD, but youtube isn't allowing me to post it. i'll just say i appreciate that you treat it the same as any other marginalised experience you can't personally really comment on the representation of, and i really hate knowing this book exists fjnkldfnfdkl edit: just know my comment was 3,354 words long and my ADHD decided i needed to spend 10 hours straight on it
10 minutes in... trying to stop myself from screaming "Hannibal! Hannibal contains cannibalism on purpose!" and its not even my fandom, its my best friend's %)
My cat will not leave me alone most of the time. I mean I have a cat who is more aloof but the other one will not let me exist with out being right next to me. She falls on my keyboard all the time and rolls around on my desk to get my attention.
I read this book because of a book club where I generally don’t like any of their picks but I got curious and listened to the audio and I actually liked it… in my mind it was like stalker fun instead of as creepy and weird as this type of book could be probably because he was never a danger to her even though he broke into her house and stalked her 🤷🏾♀️it was enjoyable
@@ReadswithRachel oddly enough I have a favorite stalker and it’s not Josh 😆 I will recommend to everyone to find my favorite stalker in Virgin Sacrifice by LM Ramirez… that’s so fun stalking 😅🤣
I'm actually not surprised you liked this as much as you did. Cringe aside, you're a story girlie and this was a pretty good story. The characters had substance, were likable and funny. But they also had adult conversations about their shared kinks and boundaries and apologies when they crossed them. Not my thing but I enjoyed the story review.
I remember the video that made me read this book, id been bored and the tiktok had said something like "When she likes masked men, and he shows up in her room" and i started reading, ready to screenshot all the nonsense i read and send it to my friends but then....it was decent? I was so shocked??? Like????
I've been looking forward to your review of this! I also went into this book blind because I've just been going through narrator Jacob Morgan/Zachary Webber's catalog and I was pleasantly surprised. The trigger warnings, the dual narrations, the fact that the characters feel like mostly real people, how funny the characters are, how Josh acknowledges and articulates his misdeeds and desires, and, like in "Secretary," people finding someone who meets their unusual needs.
This book came up on the "popular now" section of the Storygraph (which I use to track my reading) and I thought the summary sounded really horrible and cringy. So glad the book seems to be a lot better than what the summary sounds like! I was also thinking that part of the appeal about the romance here is how the male lead is still kind of Just Some Guy underneath the masktok persona and creepy genuis hacker stalker thing - kind of like the male lead in the degradation kink book you also reviewed - and how there is some very grounded normal-ness between fantasy scenes. The woman lead also actually having a realistic and engaging character really elevated the story as well. That being said considering that a lot of the book is about overcoming the fear that you are just like your murderous abusive dad, I would have hoped it would treat the matter of personality disorders (which tend to stem from child abuse...) and sociopathy more sensitively 🤷
I'm so happy to see you back! Did y'all survive the storm okay? I know you evacuated, I hope your home was all in one piece when you got back. Sending love!
I can’t believe that my favorite part of this video was the “back at one” by brian mcknight clips. And to make it even funnier, I have seen articles that it was about him building his entertainment center. Rumor or not, I can’t get the image out of my head whenever I listen to it. The weirdest thing is the entertainment center premise makes sense especially when you hear the chorus.
I feel like the whole eyes thing could have been a little better if they focused on the *expression* in their eyes as like a predator focused on prey or something similar
****1:27**** Already not even two minutes in! (Also, I’m glad to hear you and your family are safe, Miss Rachel!) See, this is where I’m at with romance as a romance lover, and I’m engaging with this genre in multiple mediums and languages: **the fantasy becomes so fantastical that it now escapes any sort of canonical realism.** (Som) authors are becoming so fixated in playing up one or two traits and have it consume their characters’ personality that they forget to write what the characters would know and do. The same goes from intimacy. The authors are so fixed on their “hehe I’m so dirty” fantasy, they leave their characters in the dust on what intimacy would look like from them. For some people, this dramatized fantasy is escapism, and that’s fine. But that escapism is now what’s mainstream and normalized and highly visible. So that’s what new authors are consuming; that’s what they and publishers think is what audiences want. The stories that treat their characters like real people and their situations as real still get visibility, but not enough to make a dent in mainstream romance communities. It’s a bummer. I seek out more non-romance stories with a romantic subplot because, while the story can be fantastical, the romance is toned down and grounded since it’s not the priority. I'm not as concerned that the author will use cheap gimmicks, droning, quirky monologues, and "spice" to force the audience into seeing the chemistry. Okay, back to the video. Again, glad to see you and your family are safe and sound!
48:51 The dead eyes comment always makes me think of dead fish eyes and it kills me everything time 😭 God of Malice describes the MMC’s eyes as dead and it was an /instant/ turn off for me
🎭 I've seen people define types of dark romance, one type being the popular type on booktok, where the "dark" is part of the relationship, while another type is where the "dark" is the setting or situation. Lights Out seems like it has a bit of both.
I feel like every book I read the fmc is a writer or something in literature (I get it that that’s the world the author would know) so I was really glad that Aly was a nurse and I agree it was portrayed realistically.
Ive never read a dark romance, or even seen a review of a dark romance book (but Ive been binge watching Rachel so here I am) and I must say this waa surprisingly fun. I don’t think I'd still read that myself, but the review was definitely a good ride ❤
Lights Out has two of my favorite narrators, so I had to give it a go, and it's one of my favorites for the year. Regarding narration style: Dual narration is alternating POVs with a single narrator performing each POV. Duet style is alternating POVs with each narrator providing their character's dialog. I thought that might be helpful for those just getting into audiobooks. I hope y'all don't find too much damage when you make it back home. Stay safe💙
Thanks for the distinction between dual and duet narration! One I love and one I hate!! Dual narration is such a waste bc they often do the other voice terribly. I’d prefer a single narrator bc at least the voices are the same throughout
@@Bookishcarmela No problem! The wording can be confusing if you're just getting into audio. Duet is being used more often, but it's often cost prohibitive for newer authors. Post-production mixing makes it a lot more expensive. I have lists of favorite narrators, and a lot of them are so good I can forget it's not a full-cast production! Please feel free to reach out if you'd ever like recommendations, and I hope you enjoy exploring audiobooks💙
Speaking of books that are similar, if you feel like taking it on, I just found out that apparently Frieda McFadden’s books are beat for beat the plots of other books. There’s even some people saying they read like AI.
Rachel! Please read Her Soul To Take, I so desperately want to know what you think about it lol. I feel like that book is what 50 shades of grey was trying to be. That may or may not be a good thing depending on personal tastes tho 😂
1:11:47 oh goody, it's been too long since I heard an American author weave the IRA for no reason /s (Watching 2000s US crime shows as an Irish person was wild)
I just assumed that everybody knew what it was but I was like wait what if they don’t and they have no idea what I’m referring to throughout this whole video so I decided to put that 5 second clip in and I’m really glad I did. 🤣 I have exposed all of you!
When you stumbled over your words, “stocking, stalking” I thought you were trying to say snogging! 😂 And the I was like that’s a British word, that wouldn’t be in this book lol
I don’t like dark romances so I was expecting this video to be another dunk on bad books but I am so genuinely interested in a truamatized do good weirdo that I will have to check this author out ❤
I rated this 4 stars too! I got it from my library right when it came out, not really sure if I intended to listen to it. I liked the colors on the cover. I had some spare time between books I planned to read so I started it… and kept going. lol. I had no idea that masktok was even a thing. I pretty much had the same issues as you, the cringey banter, but also the funny. It was good to read a dark romance that was decently written with good characterization. So many are just awful (yes you Adeline). I just read another new surprisingly good book “Long Live Evil.” Not sure if it’s considered dark, but I think it falls into the romantasy genre. The twists were kind of predictable, but it was amusing -4.5 stars.
Cats have boundaries, so I also look sideways at people, who make it their identity to hate them. Edit: you know what, Im kinda into this romance and these 2 characters. 👀🍿
Book about a food critic cannibal who makes her male partners into traditional restaurant recipes: A certain hunger Wishing you and your family well, just heard about Hurricane Milton
Hey! I’m still evacuated (this video was preset to go live today) and we get back to Tampa tomorrow. Hopefully our house is fine, we had some damage from flooding from the previous hurricane so hopefully nothing worse than that. My family is still without power but unsure if ours is on or off.
Yeah omg I'm the same way when people say they don't like cats- there are obviously valid reasons, but as a general blanket statement, it usually means "I think creatures exist for my personal gratification and I don't like or respect that this creature has its own priorities and sense of safety/personal space that it's trying to uphold." Like I'm genuinely a cat magnet and they're generally very, very sweet and affectionate with me because I approach them respectfully and kindly. So, like, idk. Skill issue I guess.
Side note: As the captain of the Carlos appreciation squad, you cannot convince me that this author did not study him as research for the sarcastic banter. No other man could have been the inspo.
I hated haunted Adeline and liked butcher and blackbird but really it was mostly because of the audiobook lol. I wasn’t going to read this but my friend said to do it and I actually had a great time with the audiobook and I was so embarrassed by it 😂.
The goofiness at the end almost lost me, but the second book just posted a cover so ready to see where it goes. Also, on this cover, it was a disservice to the original cover.
The first 500 people to click my link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare skl.sh/readswithrachel10241
Please read twisted emotion by cora reilly. 😊
The fact that the author knows the difference between AO3 and a published book automatically makes this better than Butcher and Blackbird. (This is not a diss at AO3; I absolutely love AO3. I’m just saying that posting a story on a free online archive is different than publishing and selling a story.)
As someone who also loves ao3 and writes on there, very much this. It's a whole different vibe than an actual published book
A work of fiction posted on an online platform is an inherently different format than a book published in print. Online platforms lend themselves to serialization and experimentation, with constant reader feedback involved in every chapter posted. That is fundamentally different from a published book, where everything is bound together in a single package, we are expected to read it all in one go except as it's released, and the interaction with readers part is missing.
Saying something reads like AO3 isn't a diss - it's a commentary on failure to adopt to a different format.
@Strannik01 Yes, that’s the exact point I was trying to make.
Completely, that’s what I was thinking with the trigger warnings as well that the other author was treating them like Ao3 tags.
People who claim cats aren’t affectionate are so funny to me coz one of my cats is currently standing over me and booping my face to get me to pet her
That’s my cat Artemis 100%
My cat is currently doing the same
@@tyler-df3wy agreed! My cat Lion-O has crawled into my sweater on multiple occasions so he could be closer to me. Cats are lovers once they trust you.
my cat is literally more affectionate than my dog
my cat is cuddled up to me asleep as she does every night. people who say bad things about cats are crazy
"Unintentional cannibalism" is certainly a concept.
Me: Hey! This steak is really good!
Chef: Thanks! It's made from Dave in the back!
Me: Don't you mean "by" Dave?
Chef: No.
I’ve always thought this!
You know what, I like that Josh has a very normal human reaction to accidentally killing someone. Lots of protagonists in these dark romances and even romantasy/fantasy sometimes are so chill about killing that it is surprisingly refreshing for a protag to like not feel super cool about muder
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised about his reaction 😅
Same
Saying "this video just made me pregnant" is a better way to express that ovary thing.
‘Boom there went my ovaries’ damn guess I should just watch some masktok rather than bothering with my hysterectomy/oophorectomy
I had an oophorectomy a couple of years ago, and promptly got myself a pin that says “I put the ‘oof’ in ‘oophorectomy.’”
Masctok and masctube and mascgram should dry us all right up.
Whenever people say stuff like "boom there went my ovaries" I think about the time my sibling with PCOS had one of hers rupture and ended up in the ER.... oooooooof. OOF.
Hi Rachel not related to the book, but i hope you and your family are okay and secure with all this Hurricane Milton situation, Kisses from Brazil
Obrigada! Vamos para casa hoje. We are hoping there will not be much damage!
As someone with a personality disorder (BPD), yeah the way this book talks about personality disorders is not great but also on par for how a lot of people (including medical professionals) treat people with personality disorders. We're just the worst of the worst and can't help but be awful people.
If I’m not mistaken, I think the book alludes to his thoughts being influenced by previous judgemental therapists?
I also don't trust people who just don't like cats! It's one thing to be uncomfortable around them bc of trauma, or allergic... but when people say "they aren't loving enough" or "my grandma had one when I was a small child and it was mean" all I hear is "I don't respect the agency of animals not to pay attention to me 24/7 and be at my beck and call." Like my cat doesn't like kids, they scare him half to death... but he is SUCH an affectionate cat. I can pick him up and kiss him on his tummy. When he purrs, he purrs so hard he drools. "Not loving enough" my ass...
it often feels like people who dislike cats for “not being affectionate” can’t deal with animals/people not being under their control and honestly that’s such a red flag
Some people have never had the experience. Don't judge them. Eg: in a lot of 3rd world countries, we don't like cats.
Why: no particular reason. It's just one of those animals we see on western TV and wonder "uh, isn't that weird?🤨"
The cats in such countries are so aggressive too and usually stray. Would they be friendlier if they had a home and food? Yes.
Do we know that? No.😂
Some people just don't understand the concepts of pets in general so don't judge if we don't like them. Lots of people "dislike" what they don't understand.
@@katgreer6113 Here's the thing: I've never met a panda. Or a moose. Do I dislike them? No. Have I been attacked by a dog in the past? Yes. Do I dislike dogs? No.
People who aren't comfortable around cats? That's fine, sometimes people are allergic or don't know how to deal with them or have trauma. But to outright dislike a living thing because you never had one as a pet? I just don't trust that sort of behavior.
@@katgreer6113, what are you even talking about "in a lot of 3rd world countries"? How many is "a lot"? What counts as "third world" to you? If it's just "poor non-western countries" (which is a whole other kettle of worms on it's own) there are plenty of poor countries that have working cats (ie living on farms/warehouses to keep pests away) that still like them and treat them well.
tbh it sounds like you have much less knowlege and experience regarding this topic than you assumed so idk what your goal even was. to prove that you're justified in disliking cats because of where you come from, despite the fact that has absolutely no bearing on the situation? weird behavior tbh.
45:58
Hi! I'm one of those hospital laboratory techs. This is entirely inaccurate; I have no idea why any hospital would need an analyzer for matching human DNA. The DNA-related analyzers we have are for detecting pathogens, not people 🤣
I knew it!!! Vindication 😂
“And now he’s about to bust into her.”
I died 😂
As someone with a psych degree, I will say that the book seems to lean a lot on pop psychology and information from the kind of true crime content that I'd argue is harmful.
-Most any psychologist won't use terms like psychopath or sociopathy nowadays; they're outdated concepts and are flawed and very stigmatised.
-I'm not a fan of how this book talks about ASPD, which is a Cluster B personality disorder which are incredibly stigmatised disorders. Having a Cluster B PD does not a bad person make and does not a criminal make.
-You're also correct in that the Macdonald triad is outdated and does not have substantial evidence backing it; there's much more evidence linking the behaviours in the triad - bed-wetting, cruelty to animals, fascination with fire-setting - with child abuse or neglect than there is linking it to violent crime.
-Further, the book seems to lean of profiling a lot, especially with the whole dead-eyes thing which is uh... well, profiling is a load of horseshit. There's almost no substantial evidence backing any of it and I think Malcolm Gladwell is on the money in comparing it to astrology. See, profiling is very rarely actually specific and any accuracy it has is normally because practitioners create an incredibly generic profile that fits most people. Also a lot of it is guesswork and is often divorced from its context and it is very much subject to bias because people think "oh, I'd know X if I saw it" which no, you wouldn't. Like, a few years back, I had dead eyes while I was bleeding over a CAT scanner in the hospital which makes me sound unsettling, but at that point, I'd been at the hospital for 12 hours and hadn't eaten anything in over 24 hours and it was like 2am and I just wanted to go home. Yeah, of course, my eyes were dead.
-(The only version of profiling that I would give grace to it is the statistical approach but that's because it uses actual data, even though it's also got major flaws.)
10/10 comment, A+, no notes 🫶🏻
The macdonald triad seems so arbitrary anyway. Why would fire setting, cruelty to animals, and bed wetting specifically all link up to somehow make a serial killer? So stupid.
Also, I knew that bed wetting and cruelty to animals could be signs of child abuse but not fire setting. I wonder how that works. I looked it up and it seems to fall more in line with ADHD behaviors than trauma, actually.
@@ettaetta439 The evidence is all correlation not causation on limited samples. Like you can find a correlation between those three traits and violent crime but you can find correlations between things like increased sales of soup and decreased rate of divorces. And obviously, people aren't getting divorced less because they're eating soup together.
With the arson thing. I don't know off the top of my head if there is a link between that and childhood trauma; I do know that together, the traits that form the McDonald Triad can be linked with child abuse or neglect more substantially. Though I do believe there is some evidence that children with ADHD are more likely to be victims of childhood abuse or neglect. In general, neurodivergent folks are more likely to be victims of abuse in our lifetimes.
The “dead eyes” thing is very much giving body language analysis.
Apologies for this, but you say the term sociopath and psychopath are outdated and id very much like to know what you would call the people with traits linked to those behavior patterns and actions.
(20:12) “Maybe I’m built different. Like literally, I’m built with cysts.” 😂🤣 I died at this. Girl me too!!
"I know i spent my entire life having a crisis about my dad but im suddenly ready to be baby trapped for some reason" -my fiancé only half listening to this
They make a good point lmao
“Don’t laugh… don’t laugh… (immediately laughs)” relatable.
I feel like I could write an entire essay on all the problems the way “dark romance” does “bad guy love interest but it’s okay because the villains are worse and even when they do the same things it’s still different because HE’S hot.” Especially awful because it really feeds into like, these fears that white girls and white women are constantly berated with about how we are delicate flowers and the dangerous world is out to get us, personally (and we need a man to protect us, and even if he also treats us horribly, again: it’s okay if he’s hot!). Does that make sense? It’s the kind of fear-mongering that amplifies racism, springboards into transphobia, and generally disempowers anyone it’s being taught to. (Not even getting into the Sound of Freedom-style human trafficking of Adeline……..)
ANYWAY, how good that this book turned out to be actually decent! We love an unexpected winner.
My mom doesn't like cats after an incident as a kid where one of the family cats pooped on her but she's not mean to them. Sometimes we accidentally scare off a mama cat in our backyard so we keep watch over the kittens until she comes back
The Brian McKnight clips caught me off guard in the best way 🤣
Good 😂😂
I'm SO GLAD somebody finally acknowledged the stupid "serial killer" eyes nonsense 🙄 It's pure confirmation bias. And yeah, it's SUPER unpopular to discuss supporting those with ASPD because people don't want to dedicate resources or research to "bad people" in spite of the fact that the best way to reduce societal harm (on all fronts) would be doing exactly that. I feel a lot less isolated hearing someone with a platform speak out about the issue.
So I know this is ancedotal (and I am three weeks late bc I just finished reading the book myself) but you actually can tell. I found out the reason I am attracted to guys who have no physical features in common is because there is an expression that sadists wear and that is what I am attracted to. Not everyone is capable of this but I can definitely tell and although I already found my partner I am going to spend the rest of my life with, when I used to approach potential partners I was never mistaken. I even noticed some of my friends were masochists like myself before they admitted it to me.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
'To the hilt' in sex scenes always makes me roll my eyes a little, but I can look past it in fantasy or historical settings where swords are commonplace. It seems especially jarring in modern settings.
'Sheath' is a no-no in any setting though. A sheath exists solely to have a sword put inside it, and I don't jive with that implication.
@@SquiddlePrincessI understand what you are saying but from a biological/reproductive standpoint that's literally its entire purpose.
The person in question doesn't have to use it that way but that is what it's for.
we live in the 21st century, I think we are a little past describing the act by it's necessity for reproduction. there's more to people than that.
yeah the whole 'serial killer eyes' thing reminds me uncomfortably of the weird recent trend i've heard about on tiktok, trying to claim you can 'tell if someone's a narcissist by their eyes' and shit.... 😬 really wish this author hadn't included that uncritically (and on a personal note, i also TurboCringe at all the ovaries stuff, it feels so 2010s fandom humor to me 😅 )
Have you seen Sarah Z’s video on the current obsession with narcissism? Highly recommend, I didn’t realize there was a whole cottage industry around it nowadays! Just staggering and really infuriating.
This was a lot of fun to listen to! This is the closest a dark romance couple has gotten to being similar to Gomez and Morticia (not literal, don't take it too seriously), with all the morbid fucked up shit and wholesome cheesiness that goes with that implication.
****39:15**** Why did you say "Zade" like his name is a slur, I'm - 🤣😭🤣
I hate him your honor!
BECAUSE IT IS
I think it has a similar cover because it's the same publisher
looks like both LO and B&B were self-pub, blew up, and then got trad pubbed with Zando
These are both zando?! I had no idea
@@ReadswithRachel I was curious so I looked on goodreads. The cover you showed is the zando, there was a different cover for what looks like the self pub version.
i remember reading this without the synopsis as well, and actually had a delightful time because (to me) the characters had such a hilarious string of unfortunate events they were actually adapting to in real time, and it was such a comedy of errors (compliment.) I remember reading the synopsis and being like "girl did they make you pretend your book was something else?"
Can’t wait to watch! I hope you and your family are safe and well🩷I know Tampa got hit hard
Hey! Were alright. We are evacuated still, going home tomorrow, hoping for less flooding damage than we had with Helene two weeks ago 🫠
i love that a big part of the dark fantasy is a man feeding you 10/10 could relate
Yeah, I dig the consent stuff. In the stuff I write, that is bare minimum. Plus, with a small cast, it's refreshing that everyone comes off as intelligent enough to have the jobs they have.
Honestly? This might be the first dark Romance I like? I am usually picky about romance and hate anything dark romance (although i love watching videos explaining them to me, bless you Rachel), but this seems... really nice? Huh.
25:11 Was she going to...maskerbate? Eh? Is that anything?
LMAO my buddy took a class from Professor McDonald of "Dark Triad" fame. He said it's very....vague. Like if you have all three traits you're "more likely" to be a evildoer or whatever, but there's no real quantification of what "more likely" means... Last I heard he was working on an updated theory called the "Dark Tetrad" 😅
the comparison honestly helped sm, when i saw the covers i was worried it was gonna be a dup, thank u so much for this video and hoping u are safe from the hurricane
Really not a kind of book I'd want to read but giggling and kicking my feet at you recounting it 🤭
It's wild how this is the first time I've seen a piece of writing outside of fanfic ACTUALLY deal this well with heavier kinks. Not perfect obviously especially if this was irl, but allowing that it's clearly depicting a specific fantasy, I'm pleasantly surprised.
aw man i spent a ridiculous amount of time typing a comment with my views on the way the book talked about "sociopathy" as someone who has ASPD, but youtube isn't allowing me to post it. i'll just say i appreciate that you treat it the same as any other marginalised experience you can't personally really comment on the representation of, and i really hate knowing this book exists fjnkldfnfdkl
edit: just know my comment was 3,354 words long and my ADHD decided i needed to spend 10 hours straight on it
10 minutes in... trying to stop myself from screaming "Hannibal! Hannibal contains cannibalism on purpose!" and its not even my fandom, its my best friend's %)
lol lol mine was Silence of the Lambs but… same character lol
Rachel shhhhh they are figuring out that PRETENDING to like cats earns our trust 😳
My cat will not leave me alone most of the time. I mean I have a cat who is more aloof but the other one will not let me exist with out being right next to me. She falls on my keyboard all the time and rolls around on my desk to get my attention.
I read this book because of a book club where I generally don’t like any of their picks but I got curious and listened to the audio and I actually liked it… in my mind it was like stalker fun instead of as creepy and weird as this type of book could be probably because he was never a danger to her even though he broke into her house and stalked her 🤷🏾♀️it was enjoyable
Out of all the stalkers I’ve read, Josh is my favorite 😂
@@ReadswithRachel oddly enough I have a favorite stalker and it’s not Josh 😆 I will recommend to everyone to find my favorite stalker in Virgin Sacrifice by LM Ramirez… that’s so fun stalking 😅🤣
the mickey mouse voice fucking GOT ME, honked so loud i frightened my cat
I'm actually not surprised you liked this as much as you did. Cringe aside, you're a story girlie and this was a pretty good story. The characters had substance, were likable and funny. But they also had adult conversations about their shared kinks and boundaries and apologies when they crossed them. Not my thing but I enjoyed the story review.
I’m so very sick right now, having Rachel to listen to is so healing.
The ovarian cyst bit has me actually laughing out loud lmao
The discovery of your Mickey voice 😂
41:16 that’s a great Mickey Mouse impression
Okay I literally JUST finished this book today and I cannot wait to hear your thoughts. Crazy timing
Did you like it? Genuinly curious😊
I remember the video that made me read this book, id been bored and the tiktok had said something like "When she likes masked men, and he shows up in her room" and i started reading, ready to screenshot all the nonsense i read and send it to my friends but then....it was decent? I was so shocked??? Like????
I just noticed the new intro! It looks amazing, I love the lil rainbow! 🌈 Sidenote, Lights Out is also a song by Santogold and it slaps.
I've been looking forward to your review of this! I also went into this book blind because I've just been going through narrator Jacob Morgan/Zachary Webber's catalog and I was pleasantly surprised. The trigger warnings, the dual narrations, the fact that the characters feel like mostly real people, how funny the characters are, how Josh acknowledges and articulates his misdeeds and desires, and, like in "Secretary," people finding someone who meets their unusual needs.
This book came up on the "popular now" section of the Storygraph (which I use to track my reading) and I thought the summary sounded really horrible and cringy. So glad the book seems to be a lot better than what the summary sounds like! I was also thinking that part of the appeal about the romance here is how the male lead is still kind of Just Some Guy underneath the masktok persona and creepy genuis hacker stalker thing - kind of like the male lead in the degradation kink book you also reviewed - and how there is some very grounded normal-ness between fantasy scenes. The woman lead also actually having a realistic and engaging character really elevated the story as well.
That being said considering that a lot of the book is about overcoming the fear that you are just like your murderous abusive dad, I would have hoped it would treat the matter of personality disorders (which tend to stem from child abuse...) and sociopathy more sensitively 🤷
I'm so happy to see you back! Did y'all survive the storm okay? I know you evacuated, I hope your home was all in one piece when you got back. Sending love!
Also as someone who gets ovarian cysts, the ovary talk throws me off so bad
Hey Rachel
I've been so worried about you! You can't even imagine the relief I felt after seeing you've uploaded a video
I hope that you are okay❤
I can’t believe that my favorite part of this video was the “back at one” by brian mcknight clips.
And to make it even funnier, I have seen articles that it was about him building his entertainment center. Rumor or not, I can’t get the image out of my head whenever I listen to it. The weirdest thing is the entertainment center premise makes sense especially when you hear the chorus.
I feel like the whole eyes thing could have been a little better if they focused on the *expression* in their eyes as like a predator focused on prey or something similar
Yes! Lights out audiobook was my favorite of the year! Best dark romance I’ve ever read. Finally an equal playing field. That was the sexiest part.
Not sure how something can be both a DARK STALKER book and a ROM COM at the same time
****1:27****
Already not even two minutes in!
(Also, I’m glad to hear you and your family are safe, Miss Rachel!)
See, this is where I’m at with romance as a romance lover, and I’m engaging with this genre in multiple mediums and languages: **the fantasy becomes so fantastical that it now escapes any sort of canonical realism.**
(Som) authors are becoming so fixated in playing up one or two traits and have it consume their characters’ personality that they forget to write what the characters would know and do. The same goes from intimacy. The authors are so fixed on their “hehe I’m so dirty” fantasy, they leave their characters in the dust on what intimacy would look like from them.
For some people, this dramatized fantasy is escapism, and that’s fine. But that escapism is now what’s mainstream and normalized and highly visible. So that’s what new authors are consuming; that’s what they and publishers think is what audiences want. The stories that treat their characters like real people and their situations as real still get visibility, but not enough to make a dent in mainstream romance communities.
It’s a bummer. I seek out more non-romance stories with a romantic subplot because, while the story can be fantastical, the romance is toned down and grounded since it’s not the priority. I'm not as concerned that the author will use cheap gimmicks, droning, quirky monologues, and "spice" to force the audience into seeing the chemistry.
Okay, back to the video. Again, glad to see you and your family are safe and sound!
I'M HAPPY TO SAY THAT I HAD A BLAST AT THE RENAISSANCE FAIRE!!!!!
I’m so glad to hear it! ❤️
48:51 The dead eyes comment always makes me think of dead fish eyes and it kills me everything time 😭 God of Malice describes the MMC’s eyes as dead and it was an /instant/ turn off for me
🎭 I've seen people define types of dark romance, one type being the popular type on booktok, where the "dark" is part of the relationship, while another type is where the "dark" is the setting or situation. Lights Out seems like it has a bit of both.
I feel like every book I read the fmc is a writer or something in literature (I get it that that’s the world the author would know) so I was really glad that Aly was a nurse and I agree it was portrayed realistically.
Ive never read a dark romance, or even seen a review of a dark romance book (but Ive been binge watching Rachel so here I am) and I must say this waa surprisingly fun. I don’t think I'd still read that myself, but the review was definitely a good ride ❤
Yes, a cervical O is a real thing, lol. Love you, and I actually wanna read this, and I don't even like dark romance.
Lights Out has two of my favorite narrators, so I had to give it a go, and it's one of my favorites for the year.
Regarding narration style:
Dual narration is alternating POVs with a single narrator performing each POV.
Duet style is alternating POVs with each narrator providing their character's dialog.
I thought that might be helpful for those just getting into audiobooks.
I hope y'all don't find too much damage when you make it back home. Stay safe💙
Thanks for the distinction between dual and duet narration! One I love and one I hate!! Dual narration is such a waste bc they often do the other voice terribly. I’d prefer a single narrator bc at least the voices are the same throughout
@@Bookishcarmela No problem! The wording can be confusing if you're just getting into audio.
Duet is being used more often, but it's often cost prohibitive for newer authors. Post-production mixing makes it a lot more expensive.
I have lists of favorite narrators, and a lot of them are so good I can forget it's not a full-cast production! Please feel free to reach out if you'd ever like recommendations, and I hope you enjoy exploring audiobooks💙
Wake up
Rachel posted💃
Awww the flag guy!!! I was so shocked i didnt know what to do so I'm commenting lol
All the description of her ovaries dancing and shit is giving me war flashbacks to having to read 50 shades of grey and Ana’s subconscious 😵💫
That ending was adorable lol Josh and Ally seem like a sweet couple. This is the first dark romance I would actually like
aw he left her with a gun and knife, that's so sweet ❤
Speaking of books that are similar, if you feel like taking it on, I just found out that apparently Frieda McFadden’s books are beat for beat the plots of other books. There’s even some people saying they read like AI.
Rachel! Please read Her Soul To Take, I so desperately want to know what you think about it lol.
I feel like that book is what 50 shades of grey was trying to be. That may or may not be a good thing depending on personal tastes tho 😂
the cut to Brian McKnight made me full body cackle in the middle of the night oh my goodness
1:11:47 oh goody, it's been too long since I heard an American author weave the IRA for no reason /s
(Watching 2000s US crime shows as an Irish person was wild)
I don't have TikTok so this video taught me that MaskTok exists. I hope you're proud of yourself, Rachel. 😂
Love hearing your thoughts!
I just assumed that everybody knew what it was but I was like wait what if they don’t and they have no idea what I’m referring to throughout this whole video so I decided to put that 5 second clip in and I’m really glad I did. 🤣 I have exposed all of you!
Thank you so much for posting Rachel 😭😭😭 i needed this
When you stumbled over your words, “stocking, stalking” I thought you were trying to say snogging! 😂
And the I was like that’s a British word, that wouldn’t be in this book lol
Your hair has been fucking amazing!!
I don’t like dark romances so I was expecting this video to be another dunk on bad books but I am so genuinely interested in a truamatized do good weirdo that I will have to check this author out ❤
Ovarian cysts are killer🫠🫠🫠. The “I’m built different” ovary comment made me cackle bc *same*
I rated this 4 stars too!
I got it from my library right when it came out, not really sure if I intended to listen to it. I liked the colors on the cover.
I had some spare time between books I planned to read so I started it… and kept going. lol. I had no idea that masktok was even a thing.
I pretty much had the same issues as you, the cringey banter, but also the funny.
It was good to read a dark romance that was decently written with good characterization. So many are just awful (yes you Adeline).
I just read another new surprisingly good book “Long Live Evil.” Not sure if it’s considered dark, but I think it falls into the romantasy genre. The twists were kind of predictable, but it was amusing -4.5 stars.
Cats have boundaries, so I also look sideways at people, who make it their identity to hate them.
Edit: you know what, Im kinda into this romance and these 2 characters.
👀🍿
The Brian McKnight clips 💀 this book doesn’t seem that bad compared to the ones I’ve dared to read
Book about a food critic cannibal who makes her male partners into traditional restaurant recipes: A certain hunger
Wishing you and your family well, just heard about Hurricane Milton
Uhh, are you OK in Florida right now? I hope you're in a safe zone.
Hey! I’m still evacuated (this video was preset to go live today) and we get back to Tampa tomorrow. Hopefully our house is fine, we had some damage from flooding from the previous hurricane so hopefully nothing worse than that. My family is still without power but unsure if ours is on or off.
My favorite bit is when he has to fake a Batman voice! I lost it to the point that it aggravated my winter asthma.
Yeah omg I'm the same way when people say they don't like cats- there are obviously valid reasons, but as a general blanket statement, it usually means "I think creatures exist for my personal gratification and I don't like or respect that this creature has its own priorities and sense of safety/personal space that it's trying to uphold." Like I'm genuinely a cat magnet and they're generally very, very sweet and affectionate with me because I approach them respectfully and kindly. So, like, idk. Skill issue I guess.
Beauty's Beasts: A Why Choose Beauty and the Beast Retelling by Alex Hanson 😈😈🧙♀😈😈
I had this book in my hands at kroger the other day and put it down. Time to see if that was correct or if I'm goin back this week lol
Oh hey I have that shirt but in pencil case form! :D
5:40 this synopsis reads SO SILLY
42:17 I wish I had a proper finger guns emoji (dad joke finger guns)
😂😂😂 oh my god use the Mickey voice for oblivious FMCs lmao
Huh-huh. You said “important to nail” in a dark romance review.
Side note: As the captain of the Carlos appreciation squad, you cannot convince me that this author did not study him as research for the sarcastic banter. No other man could have been the inspo.
The way I bought the audio butcher book because of the online reviews. Then immidiately returned it after the first 7-10 minutes. It was so bad.
I hated haunted Adeline and liked butcher and blackbird but really it was mostly because of the audiobook lol. I wasn’t going to read this but my friend said to do it and I actually had a great time with the audiobook and I was so embarrassed by it 😂.
Rachel: ENOUGH ABOUT THE OVARIES
The goofiness at the end almost lost me, but the second book just posted a cover so ready to see where it goes. Also, on this cover, it was a disservice to the original cover.
I would like your opinions on Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara
Hello Fellow Dustin Poynter fan!!!!
9:54 "ride the handle" may be a horny reference i fear