Your description of gideon the ninth hit so hard for me, because my sister keeps reccomending me to read it, and I've tried to but I couldn't make it past the first few chapters, and Im now realising some part of my brain recognized it was a homestuck esque prose style and it activated my fight or flight reflexes
I love Gideon the Ninth. It’s a wild ride and I was on board from the cover. It’s flawed but has so much heart, and I can see major value in the reread (going to do that soon). I mean, talk about a story with such an amazingly weird and different POV than I think most people would go with when you consider the next 2 books. Yet it fits. I completely understand why it’s not for everyone but I will defend it with all my heart ❤ Also, Gideon being a reluctant participant disengaged in an already complicated world, actually made me feel very chill about not keeping up with everything right away 😂 like, if it’s not important to Gideon right now, I can wait too. I liked the intrigue of solving not only the main mystery, but whatever this universe is without crazy info-dumping.
Gideons POV of occasionally just doing things because she think that the person who is asking is hot is absolutely a mood. I did recently did a second re-listen of the audio-book, and it is such a… mood. I agree, it is not perfect, but the whole series for me was somehow a breath of fresh air and just an utterly fun time. And to basically say “this book sure is not perfect, but consider X Y and Z amazing” is like a god plaque of awesomeness from me!
I loved it too, but it’s an acquired taste and it’s really tricky if you’re used to info dumps and having a world well-explained. The aesthetic, indeed, slaps.
the first time i tried i bounced off of it like a rubber ball because Gideon's irreverent narration style reminded me of a book series I read in my youth that disappointed me so bitterly with a bullshit twist I have not forgotten or forgiven the author. Thankfully my best friend hooked me up with the audiobook for my long commutes and I am so glad, because the tlt universe and characters have taken up my brain like worms and Nona the Ninth has become my favourite book ever.
I totally agree with you on Gideon. I was really set up to like it, and I got through it pretty fast, but it just didn't hit with me. Though I gotta say, the one part where two characters are having a very deep Lore discussion, and Gideon is just like 'laaaame' and tunes it out is kinda hilarious.
So glad you’re getting into Discworld! If you like ‘shivering baby deer’ wizards, you’re going to love Rincewind. I know I do. But yeah, I love the duality of PTerry. In the same book you can have bangers like “villains gloat. Pray you never find yourself at the mercy of a good man; he’ll kill you without a word” and then also stuff like “we had to stop Nobby from breaking the news to families after the ‘bet you a dollar you’re the widow Johnson’ incident”, he’s just amazing. Monstrous Regiment is a great standalone novel from the series, btw. God, now I need to go re-read the whole series
0:00 intro 2:05 Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild by Philip Reeve 5:33 Reaperman (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett 9:44 Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 15:10 Extreme Makover: Apocalypse Edition by Dan Wells 17:53 If I Disappear by Eliza Jane Brazier 24:50 Angels Before Man by Rafael Nicolás 29:55 Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica 36:17 The Humming Bird Killer by Finn Longman 38:46 Unwelcome Bodies by Jennifer Pelland (said Uncommon bodies but there is no written review for that title on the blog so I think it was just a mistake; Uncommon Bodies is a whole different anthology) 40:36 Small Gods (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett
SO SORRY this took me so long to add to my video, and I appreciate you doing it. I meant to and then. I always try to remember chapter sections, and especially for a video like this.... I appreciate you taking it into your own hands, and it has been updated.
Big recommendation if you want to consume The Locked Tomb is to listen to the audiobooks. That’s what did it for me. The narrator is so so so good we love Moira Quirk. But also they’re not for everyone! I adore the series for all the literary analysis that can be done everywhere and the reread value of the books (I usually hate reading the same book twice). But also it’s dense as fuck so I don’t just people who fall off. Harrow the Ninth was so difficult the first time through and by the second it was my favorite book of all time.
i listen to audiobooks while Im at work to stay entertained and i loooved gideon the ninth, i jumped into harrow the ninth but took a break from it three or four weeks ago at this point because i was struggling to stay engaged *i miss gideon POV :(* but i think i might try and pick it up again soon
You should read The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman if you liked Utter Dark- it still feels like a book for adults, but most of it is a flashback of a summer in the MC’s childhood where he makes friends with a magic girl and deals with fey(?) and compartmentalizes his real-world problems that he can’t deal with
Reaper Man is a good first book to read in Discworld. Far enough into the series that he'd really developed his voice and tone, early enough that you're in on the ground level of some running jokes and world building, and it stands alone pretty well. Excellent choice 👍
My parents have every Discworld book so my first experience with it was Where's My Cow? (best children's picture book ever imo but I'm biased) and then years later my mum read me The Wee Free Men and I loved Tiffany Aching and the witches so much
100% agree about it being easier to talk about books you dislike - idk why it’s so much harder to break down what I liked in something, but I think with bad books, I get so angry about all the negative things that they just stick in my mind. As someone who really likes the Locked Tomb, I can definitely see why you had such mixed feelings about Gideon. There’s something about the series overall that feels very divisive, and it’s definitely not a series that will appeal to everyone. I’m honestly anticipating the final instalment with some dread, because if it doesn’t stick the landing, it’ll make the three books I really enjoyed much harder to go back to - but with that said, rereading the series with the knowledge imparted by later books has been really rewarding to me. It’s put together very carefully, especially the structure in Harrow. Hurray for Discworld! Lots of interesting books for you to explore there :) they won’t all be up your alley, but there’s always something to talk about with them. Annnnd I had to skip the section on the Hummingbird Killer bc I read the Butterly Assassin on your recommendation, loved it, and have just obtained a copy of the sequel! So I’d better go and read that now. Thanks for another fun video!
my question through all of this was "i need to know their opinions on homestuck...but would they tell the world such things?" great talk through video as well
I liked it a lot but that was years ago, big influence on me and the internet culture and modern media, probably will never reread or super recc it because of length. Music slaps
Reaperman suddenly appeals to me a lot more after hearing Death takes up farming. I love fantasy farming books and maybe that's not the actual point of Reaperman but I might end up trying it anyway.
There's a fair amount of farming, though it's not necessarily magic whimsical farming, he's just the grim reaper and a farm hand no one can quite realise is a skeleton
I like it overall!! I do! I sound very negative but I just am more conflicted. I have a positive relationship to it, I just feel... a bit torn on a lot of the style
Totally agree about Gideon the Ninth, I will say the third book is my favorite in the series so if you keep going I’d be interested to see what you think about it
Also thank you for helping me decide whether I should read Tender is the Flesh. The concept sounded unappealing and gross but people kept saying it was good.
I personally loved it, have a look at Goodreads reviews I’d say If you want to see varying opinions. What Crow said was true though in how overly grotesque it is.
@@Simmershi idk I think I’ll pass. The more I hear about it the more it sounds like it’s designed to just make u feel gross after reading it and that’s not something I want right now
Small Gods was more of a "one off", not following one of the bigger series within the Discworld series. You do however, find the Temple of the Small Gods, in a bunch of the other books🖤
8:44 Oh man, I havent read Reaper Man yet so I don't know if he was in it, but I've read the first two Discwolrd books ever and I think you're gonna LOVE Rincewind
Yay! I'm glad you got to take a nice vacation 😊 Last month I took a solo trip to Ireland, so I definitely share your sentiment. I'm super excited to watch this later, your tastes are +impeccable+ (also totally agree with the middle grade stuff, personally my go-to after reading a book that utterly emotionally destroyed me is to read a fun, light-hearted kid's book)
Small Gods was the first Discworld book I recommended to my Christian parents, and they went on to read every Discworld book. Highly recommend it as an insightful critique of religion.
So I absolutely adore Angels Before Man and I think the author is a very nice person, having interacted with him on Twitter. However I absolutely agree with your points on it! (Tho I do know that he’s actually re-edited the book and might be releasing a new version sometime so we’ll have to see how it ends up.) My main gripe with part two is that I absolutely believe that you can write a book about Lucifer’s fall without having to tarnish the character you’ve built by turning him cartoonishly evil. I think it would have hit a lot more in the tragedy aspect if it was still the same Lucifer we had grown to know and love being cast out for trying to fight for his freedom and love. Rather than the gore fest we got. Lol Idk if this is just my bias as I follow a more Luciferian belief of seeing Lucifer as a being that stands for knowledge and freedom though.
I'd be interested in seeing your opinion of Harrow the Ninth. That book is Something. But I think reading this series knowing what's going on is a distinctly bad way to do it. Like, I think the Cool parts of the series is NOT KNOWING what's going on and trying to figure it out so if you know, you've actually ruined the entire point of the narrative. I mean, there are interesting narrative things going on, and they really support a reread because the POV is SO intense. Like you say, Gideon really does NOT care about what's going on or the plot at all so the reader is left to try to figure it out on their own which is a really Different way to write a story. But Harrow is the book that really Does Things with narrative that make my brain go brr.
I definitely did Google the wiki spoilers but I also was spoiled just by using Tumblr, so I can't really help it. I'll say spoilers kinda have only helped me so far in staying with it, because first half of Gideon especially was very slow and a slog without some anticipation of later stuff. Harrow will be odd, I've been back working on content for this channel rather than read it but.... Hmm, we'll see. Definitely I immediately feel like knowing a few twists is colouring the early book with an odd sense of "isn't this super obvious?". I need to hear from people who read blind, because like it seems to obvious Ianthe and Harrow made a deal to erase Gideon from her mind.
In my opinion, Tender Is The Flesh cannot be divorced from its Argentinian context. I saw the book more as a critique of how fascism and dictatorial regimes turn what would otherwise be normal people into oppressors who quite literally consume the underprivileged. I didn't love the book, and the ending made me really upset; however we were never promised a happy ending, but rather a cautionary tale. I didn't really see it as much about veganism as it is about human oppression.
@@alisaurus4224 oh I've seen that video! I agreed with much of what she said, but not everything. For perspective, I come from a Chilean background, so I am well aware of the history of that region of South America.
Angels Before Man is one of my new favorite books! It's cool to hear your thoughts as someone very interested in books about angels as well as someone who (presumably) know much more about the theology of them than I do 🤣. The seond half is absolutely brutal and your reaction is totally fair. I personally thought it was well done just as someone who enjoys loose structure and prose! Great video as always and as for reccomendations, if you like angels, Even Though I Knew The End by C.L Polk is wonderful!
Yeah, this is an unstructured fast review not my full one, not sure how I came off but... I really enjoyed it overall! I liked a fair bit of the second half, but the writing really lost me and made the rest fail for me too. Overall I still like it and would recc the whole book it angel fans, just with the trigger caveat and note of the drastic tone shift
discworld! i also recently started discworld recently and i already really love it im excited to hear more of your opinions on it once you read more :D
I really enjoyed your review! (Even though I for sure disagree on some opinions, but primarily because of personal taste; I adore Gideon and Harrow, not perfect, but ✨perfect for me✨). For the future, would it be possible to add time stamps (I am on a browser version, and none show up), because it would make it easier to navigate, for example: I have “angles before man” on my to-be-read, and did skip the review, and on the other hand, could not care less about “tender is the flesh”.
I don’t know if you really take book recommendations but I really think you would like the all of us villains duology, if you haven’t head it before. It’s probably one of my favorite book series of all time, and it’s like. It really fits the themes of identity that you mentioned being intrigued by. It’s about a hunger games style tournament but is incredibly unique. It’s a magic world with an incredibly interesting magic system, and all of the characters are incredibly morally grey and their internal voices are very strong and they have fascinating development pertaining to how they perceive themselves and how willing they are to harm others to get what they want. It’s seriously amazing and I haven’t seen anyone talk about it.
Really enjoyed this video!! Had some fun energy to it. If it means anything to you at all, I almost exclusively read middle grade, so I'm definitely excited to read the one you recommended, or any you decide to talk about in the future! I also have a handful of diskworld books I need to get around to reading.
Interesting to see your perspective on Tender is the Flesh, I actually had a totally different interpretation! I saw it being more humanity and morality, using a very exaggerated scenario to frame this. I think it could definitely be seen as basically a vegan-preaching book but I didn’t take it as literally as that.
Recommendations: Blood Music by Greg Bear. A weird body horror biopunk book that has some…interesting plot turns. And give Clive Barker’s Books of Blood a try. They’re great
have you heard of the book unknown language by huw lemmey and hildegard of bingen? it has rly cool angels in it imo (altho thats not the main focus of the book) but its a short book about post-apocalypse stuff, healthcare, jdugement (& angels obvs)
i listened to gideon the ninth as an audiobook while I was at work and I definitely think the audio reader added a ton of charm especially to the character of gideon. I defintely agree that it doesn't explain enough of its own magic system which is a shame because of how interesting it sounds, I also felt that the progression of gideon and harrow's relationship was rushed, but I really loved the first book (i like homestuck), I started the second book and yeah its very different and it doesnt hold my interest at all the way the first did, I want to try and finish it though
Interesting to see my two favorite book reviewers on youtube, who I both usually agree with, having completely opposite opinions on "tender is the flesh"
I want to note this is an off the cuff quick thoughts, not my full review.... But yeah 😅 I really really didn't like it, even knowing what it was meant to be and tried to do. I like the initial concept but feel it's such a fumble.
I tried to read Gideon the Ninth but I couldn't get past how Gideon's voice reminded me of a frat bro. Had to put it down but I have heard the series is pretty good
Yes! It really hurt to read a book allegedly from the POV of a woman who had such a strong male gaze. It had some good points but Gideon's voice just took me out of the book
Imo the weirdest thing about Gideon and Harrow the Ninth (not so much the most recent book) is they're paced like and have the prose of gothics. I LOVE gothics and dislike scifi/fantasy 9 times out of 10 and I loved HtN especially.
I only recently discovered Dan Wells and he’s very good at the thought experiment book. If you’d like to try a near-future, thought experiment book with interesting characters, I think you’d like Unwind by Neal Shustermann. The body horror was super well done imo
Don’t have time to watch the video just yet but I see tender is the flesh there and boy do I have some opinions about that book, and they’re all extremely mild. Curious what you have to say about it.
Man tender as the flesh sounds like everything I hate lol. Vegan Millitant ignorance of how animal slaughter works, conspiracy theory nonsense and somehow predicting c0vid denial? That's like the triad of quick ways to make me go on a rant 😂
Weird recommendation for a trilogy that goes down hill so fast and has some terrifying lore implications is the Wind Singer trilogy, I listen to all the audiobooks when I was younger and then re-read the books themselves as an adult, not realising that all of the audiobooks were abridged. They cut a lot out including the epilogue.
Never heard of it! I'll try to remember the name and check it out, I get a lot of recommendations and can't check them all but I definitely try to look. Some of the best stuff is obscure recommendations
@@Crowcaller Ooh, I'll second that recommendation. I've only read the first book, but even then I both enjoyed it and found it somewhat offputting. There are some weird racial implications that I think are well-meaning?
oh you're so brave for critiquing gideon the ninth. i enjoy it as much for the Presence of a Fan Community as anything else, I think, but i could not have gotten through the second book without spoiling myself I would have given up. Also if I'd read Homestuck in middle school I don't think I'd have been strong enough to read Gideon.
not done w/ the video yet but seeing actual pages of gideon the ninth's prose for the first time after just seeing one off lines quoted in tumblr posts pissed me off. because its boarderline unreadable to me in like a "i cannot parse this" way. i think this is probably extrapolated by the fact that i tend to read stuff in a nonlinear way (for example i'll skip to the end of a sentence, read the last word, and then go back to read the whole sentence. this makes me a very fast reader but also prone to missing stuff) but holy shit its kind of a wild thing to realize. that a book that people you generally trust to have good opinions have been praising a book that you don't think you could read. in a very literal sense. ok going back to watching the rest of the video
I don't know about the Tumblr post thing because I feel like I know the exact post and it's not the best picture of the prose I actually have an issue with. It certainly has a very specific style with some bits that work really really well (there's some actually amazing quotes!) But also bits that just don't work (the humour is very mileage varies and there's so much purple boring house description or kinda annoying overwritten bits). I don't dislike it and I wouldn't call it bad. I have it four stars. But it's weird, I had a sort of unhealthy obsession with it and if it was any good and I'm glad I finally just tried reading it so I could make my own judgements and understand it
@@Crowcaller oh wow im just rereading my comment and i think i just completely forgot what i was trying to say in the middle of writing it? i think i was going to say something about the quotes that circle around in tumblr posts having contexts that felt a lot more underwhelming than the isolated one line quotes... the quotes themselves weren't actually the bit that annoyed me with the prose. my friend sent me a page of it that they were reading and i really just couldn't parse it until i reread it maybe 5 times. i guess the thing that annoys me the most with it is that i've kinda been not reading as much as i have in the past, and since so many people were recommending it i was considering using it as a book to get me back into reading. but honestly i feel like if i tried to do that it would've gone over poorly. i don't know, i might try it eventually but i have a feeling it wouldn't be the best book to convince me to go out and find new books to read.
I'll be doing a full length proper review of it soon! This is just an off the cuff no notes no script discussion.... I'm curious on your thoughts on it, but for me it just was too hateful and edgy and lacking. I definitely know it is meant to also be more about the "meat factory" of capitalism or how women are seen, but I felt like those themes were really poorly utilized and the focus was far more on trying to gross people out off meat by making up weird gore (IE cutting legs off pregnant women)
I appreciate your honest take on Gideon the Ninth! I picked it up after reading praise for it on your discord and it felt like I was reading another book from the one people were talking about. Gideon's male gaze was so strong that I stopped wanting her to look at and commment on anyone else in the book. I enjoyed the fighting scenes and searching scenes the most bc Gideon wasn't talking to other humans. Also, can we talk about how many names each person had?!? I had to re-read the first chapter like 3 times to figure out that Gideon was referred to by like 4 different names. When they introduced the rest of the cast I had to just give up and hope that the characters would be distinct enough for me to tell them apart (they weren't). I might read the second book if it really is different from the first one, but I'm not going to seek it out.
I lied, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant is actually the best book, but it is the most best if you read the first two first (like how Harrow The Ninth is also the best book)
dozens of people recommended me Gideon the Ninth so I was a bit disappointed when it took me 3 months to read the first 50 pages. I couldn't figure out the plot or understand the world and it was frustrating, then i realized. it's not good.
I dont know if you read manga (i know you said you read the manga based on the mutant angel series) but since you like angels there's a very short manga series by CLAMP called Wish. Not asking for a review just informing.
Angels Before Man looked like the perfect book for me--[queer + angels = 😄], but learning about all the extreme content warnings made me so disappointed. 😔
I really do think you COULD read the first half only and really enjoy it- the TW stuff really is only after the break. But it does feel weird to stop a book halfway...
maybe its just me but i never read tender as the flesh as completely about the meat industry? i saw it as a critique on capitalism and the dehumanization of humans, especially those that are marginalized such as people of color and women and class. like the way poc are thrown under the bus for the wealthy and how women are objectified via the protagonist. its just more like consumerism but more literal in this case. humans are commodified irl but it just pushes it to the extreme. brutality and violence is normalized but is it that different from our day to day life? people of color die every day and its so ingrained into our society that we do not blink. its something we just go through. idk if being a person of color influenced that view
A bit funny video title considering how it feels like a lot of these books weren't good according to you lol It's also always refreshing to see another person who didn't like Gideon the Ninth because it feels so weird seeing sooo many people sing its praises... gideon dislikers rise up we stay strong 🔥💯
31:53 lmao, okey, you lost me at the veganism is "moral shaming of food". veganism is about doing as much as you can to reduce animal suffering, its not a diet its a social justice movement. if somebody had to bleed for your meal, how can you say it is not shameful. most people , i repeat most. not all . but most people in this day and age have the ability to eat beans and soy instead of meat. there is billion milk alternatives and leather alternatives. please, yes, if you have issues with eating do anything to get the nutrition, but you can use vegan alternatives for clothes milk etc etc. like please look up the definition of veganism. its not if you eat meat you are a demon and a failure. its do the best you can and live and let live. animals we have bred to be killed before they grow old is insane and cruel and unnecessary and its so fucking painful for me and i just know about the horror, for the animals being killed for your meals its literally a lifetime of torture. im... its fine , it just makes me so sad so so sad that all these innocent creatures have to die for no good reason. and you call the movement of animal liberation "moral shaming of food" i hope you listen, any argument yall wanna throw at me you can throw at duckduckgo its all been answered, just nobody wants to actually inconvenience themselves. this always comes as such a blow from left field. progressive about gays trans ppl capitalism feminism oh and also vegans think they are better and what you to starve about it. why..... why does this always happen. im.. im rambling, this makes me so sad.
Lmao, “veganism isn’t about moral shaming of food” said before launching into a barely coherent rambling rant about how eating meat is immoral, including comparing not being vegan to not supporting LGBT+ or POC is hilarious. “I don’t know why people think vegans are insufferable morality policemen anyway if you eat meat you’re shameful and hate gay people” outstanding, 0/10 self-awareness. I’m going to keep walking to the butcher to buy meat from animals that were raised and slaughtered within half an hour of where I live, rather than driving to the supermarket to buy soy that’s been flown in from the other side of the world, thanks.
People dont believe veganism is the definition you give because you all will say that then scream murderer at poor people, disabled people, poc. You compare animal suffering to the Holocaust after being told repeatedly how insensitive it is to Jewish people. Ive repeatedly explained to vegans why I cant be. The response I get is to do it anyways, that im lying to just be able to eat meat. They prod into my medical history. You can rant and rave about the poor vegans just being upset about the animals but until your movement stops being insanely classist, ableist, and racist it will fall on deaf ears.
>Ask the librarian if the angel book is creepy or wet
>She laughs and says "it's a good book, sir"
>It's wet
Your description of gideon the ninth hit so hard for me, because my sister keeps reccomending me to read it, and I've tried to but I couldn't make it past the first few chapters, and Im now realising some part of my brain recognized it was a homestuck esque prose style and it activated my fight or flight reflexes
0 seconds in but my favorite jokes are about me being kidnapped and infodumped on or read specifically manga
I love Gideon the Ninth. It’s a wild ride and I was on board from the cover. It’s flawed but has so much heart, and I can see major value in the reread (going to do that soon). I mean, talk about a story with such an amazingly weird and different POV than I think most people would go with when you consider the next 2 books. Yet it fits. I completely understand why it’s not for everyone but I will defend it with all my heart ❤
Also, Gideon being a reluctant participant disengaged in an already complicated world, actually made me feel very chill about not keeping up with everything right away 😂 like, if it’s not important to Gideon right now, I can wait too. I liked the intrigue of solving not only the main mystery, but whatever this universe is without crazy info-dumping.
Gideons POV of occasionally just doing things because she think that the person who is asking is hot is absolutely a mood. I did recently did a second re-listen of the audio-book, and it is such a… mood.
I agree, it is not perfect, but the whole series for me was somehow a breath of fresh air and just an utterly fun time. And to basically say “this book sure is not perfect, but consider X Y and Z amazing” is like a god plaque of awesomeness from me!
I loved it too, but it’s an acquired taste and it’s really tricky if you’re used to info dumps and having a world well-explained.
The aesthetic, indeed, slaps.
the first time i tried i bounced off of it like a rubber ball because Gideon's irreverent narration style reminded me of a book series I read in my youth that disappointed me so bitterly with a bullshit twist I have not forgotten or forgiven the author. Thankfully my best friend hooked me up with the audiobook for my long commutes and I am so glad, because the tlt universe and characters have taken up my brain like worms and Nona the Ninth has become my favourite book ever.
I totally agree with you on Gideon. I was really set up to like it, and I got through it pretty fast, but it just didn't hit with me. Though I gotta say, the one part where two characters are having a very deep Lore discussion, and Gideon is just like 'laaaame' and tunes it out is kinda hilarious.
So glad you’re getting into Discworld! If you like ‘shivering baby deer’ wizards, you’re going to love Rincewind. I know I do.
But yeah, I love the duality of PTerry. In the same book you can have bangers like “villains gloat. Pray you never find yourself at the mercy of a good man; he’ll kill you without a word” and then also stuff like “we had to stop Nobby from breaking the news to families after the ‘bet you a dollar you’re the widow Johnson’ incident”, he’s just amazing.
Monstrous Regiment is a great standalone novel from the series, btw.
God, now I need to go re-read the whole series
0:00 intro
2:05 Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild by Philip Reeve
5:33 Reaperman (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett
9:44 Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
15:10 Extreme Makover: Apocalypse Edition by Dan Wells
17:53 If I Disappear by Eliza Jane Brazier
24:50 Angels Before Man by Rafael Nicolás
29:55 Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
36:17 The Humming Bird Killer by Finn Longman
38:46 Unwelcome Bodies by Jennifer Pelland (said Uncommon bodies but there is no written review for that title on the blog so I think it was just a mistake; Uncommon Bodies is a whole different anthology)
40:36 Small Gods (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett
SO SORRY this took me so long to add to my video, and I appreciate you doing it. I meant to and then. I always try to remember chapter sections, and especially for a video like this.... I appreciate you taking it into your own hands, and it has been updated.
Big recommendation if you want to consume The Locked Tomb is to listen to the audiobooks. That’s what did it for me. The narrator is so so so good we love Moira Quirk. But also they’re not for everyone! I adore the series for all the literary analysis that can be done everywhere and the reread value of the books (I usually hate reading the same book twice). But also it’s dense as fuck so I don’t just people who fall off. Harrow the Ninth was so difficult the first time through and by the second it was my favorite book of all time.
i listen to audiobooks while Im at work to stay entertained and i loooved gideon the ninth, i jumped into harrow the ninth but took a break from it three or four weeks ago at this point because i was struggling to stay engaged *i miss gideon POV :(* but i think i might try and pick it up again soon
You should read The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman if you liked Utter Dark- it still feels like a book for adults, but most of it is a flashback of a summer in the MC’s childhood where he makes friends with a magic girl and deals with fey(?) and compartmentalizes his real-world problems that he can’t deal with
this was the first neil gaiman book i'd ever read and i loved it! definitely agree with your recommendation
i had to read it in freshman year of high school! it screwed me up! would definitely recommend
I started reading that last summer but that whole worm bit grossed me out really bad and I haven’t picked it up again
Reaper Man is a good first book to read in Discworld. Far enough into the series that he'd really developed his voice and tone, early enough that you're in on the ground level of some running jokes and world building, and it stands alone pretty well. Excellent choice 👍
My parents have every Discworld book so my first experience with it was Where's My Cow? (best children's picture book ever imo but I'm biased) and then years later my mum read me The Wee Free Men and I loved Tiffany Aching and the witches so much
I am commenting because I need to get my 6yo into Sir Pratchet and this sounds like a good start.
100% agree about it being easier to talk about books you dislike - idk why it’s so much harder to break down what I liked in something, but I think with bad books, I get so angry about all the negative things that they just stick in my mind.
As someone who really likes the Locked Tomb, I can definitely see why you had such mixed feelings about Gideon. There’s something about the series overall that feels very divisive, and it’s definitely not a series that will appeal to everyone. I’m honestly anticipating the final instalment with some dread, because if it doesn’t stick the landing, it’ll make the three books I really enjoyed much harder to go back to - but with that said, rereading the series with the knowledge imparted by later books has been really rewarding to me. It’s put together very carefully, especially the structure in Harrow.
Hurray for Discworld! Lots of interesting books for you to explore there :) they won’t all be up your alley, but there’s always something to talk about with them.
Annnnd I had to skip the section on the Hummingbird Killer bc I read the Butterly Assassin on your recommendation, loved it, and have just obtained a copy of the sequel! So I’d better go and read that now.
Thanks for another fun video!
my question through all of this was "i need to know their opinions on homestuck...but would they tell the world such things?" great talk through video as well
I liked it a lot but that was years ago, big influence on me and the internet culture and modern media, probably will never reread or super recc it because of length. Music slaps
If you want a good YA novel, I recommend the Renegades trilogy. It has a lot of the typical YA tropes but actually executed well.
Also by the same author of the Lunar Chronicles, some of the best YA books out there
Reaperman suddenly appeals to me a lot more after hearing Death takes up farming. I love fantasy farming books and maybe that's not the actual point of Reaperman but I might end up trying it anyway.
There's a fair amount of farming, though it's not necessarily magic whimsical farming, he's just the grim reaper and a farm hand no one can quite realise is a skeleton
Crow, violently stabbing my Tomb Keeper heart. Nice to hear a different take on it though.
I like it overall!! I do! I sound very negative but I just am more conflicted. I have a positive relationship to it, I just feel... a bit torn on a lot of the style
The d*mn thumbnail lmao. . [Crow Caller dying in a glue trap, circa 2023, colorized]. . 😂🤣
Totally agree about Gideon the Ninth, I will say the third book is my favorite in the series so if you keep going I’d be interested to see what you think about it
I recently read Six Of Crows and so far it’s definitely my favourite YA Fantasy!
Also thank you for helping me decide whether I should read Tender is the Flesh. The concept sounded unappealing and gross but people kept saying it was good.
LouReadingThings here on YT did a review of it
I personally loved it, have a look at Goodreads reviews I’d say If you want to see varying opinions. What Crow said was true though in how overly grotesque it is.
@@Simmershi idk I think I’ll pass. The more I hear about it the more it sounds like it’s designed to just make u feel gross after reading it and that’s not something I want right now
Small Gods was more of a "one off", not following one of the bigger series within the Discworld series. You do however, find the Temple of the Small Gods, in a bunch of the other books🖤
8:44 Oh man, I havent read Reaper Man yet so I don't know if he was in it, but I've read the first two Discwolrd books ever and I think you're gonna LOVE Rincewind
And postal van lipwick.
The title sounds like a Chuck Tingle book
HAH, thank you for pointing that out, love it 😂
Oh no. I cannot unread that comment now...
Yay! I'm glad you got to take a nice vacation 😊 Last month I took a solo trip to Ireland, so I definitely share your sentiment.
I'm super excited to watch this later, your tastes are +impeccable+
(also totally agree with the middle grade stuff, personally my go-to after reading a book that utterly emotionally destroyed me is to read a fun, light-hearted kid's book)
Yay Crow uploaded. Nice to see you, hope you’re safe and well 👍✌️🙏❤️✨🐨🦘
Small Gods was the first Discworld book I recommended to my Christian parents, and they went on to read every Discworld book. Highly recommend it as an insightful critique of religion.
So I absolutely adore Angels Before Man and I think the author is a very nice person, having interacted with him on Twitter. However I absolutely agree with your points on it! (Tho I do know that he’s actually re-edited the book and might be releasing a new version sometime so we’ll have to see how it ends up.)
My main gripe with part two is that I absolutely believe that you can write a book about Lucifer’s fall without having to tarnish the character you’ve built by turning him cartoonishly evil. I think it would have hit a lot more in the tragedy aspect if it was still the same Lucifer we had grown to know and love being cast out for trying to fight for his freedom and love. Rather than the gore fest we got. Lol
Idk if this is just my bias as I follow a more Luciferian belief of seeing Lucifer as a being that stands for knowledge and freedom though.
I'd be interested in seeing your opinion of Harrow the Ninth. That book is Something. But I think reading this series knowing what's going on is a distinctly bad way to do it. Like, I think the Cool parts of the series is NOT KNOWING what's going on and trying to figure it out so if you know, you've actually ruined the entire point of the narrative. I mean, there are interesting narrative things going on, and they really support a reread because the POV is SO intense. Like you say, Gideon really does NOT care about what's going on or the plot at all so the reader is left to try to figure it out on their own which is a really Different way to write a story. But Harrow is the book that really Does Things with narrative that make my brain go brr.
I definitely did Google the wiki spoilers but I also was spoiled just by using Tumblr, so I can't really help it. I'll say spoilers kinda have only helped me so far in staying with it, because first half of Gideon especially was very slow and a slog without some anticipation of later stuff. Harrow will be odd, I've been back working on content for this channel rather than read it but.... Hmm, we'll see. Definitely I immediately feel like knowing a few twists is colouring the early book with an odd sense of "isn't this super obvious?". I need to hear from people who read blind, because like it seems to obvious Ianthe and Harrow made a deal to erase Gideon from her mind.
Thank you for the upload!! Love all of your content, hope you had a wonderfully relaxing vacation! Celebrating your big standing energy 🎉
In my opinion, Tender Is The Flesh cannot be divorced from its Argentinian context. I saw the book more as a critique of how fascism and dictatorial regimes turn what would otherwise be normal people into oppressors who quite literally consume the underprivileged. I didn't love the book, and the ending made me really upset; however we were never promised a happy ending, but rather a cautionary tale. I didn't really see it as much about veganism as it is about human oppression.
LouReadingThings did a video about this book, and as she’s Brazilian she had THOUGHTS about the colonial aspects & themes
@@alisaurus4224 oh I've seen that video! I agreed with much of what she said, but not everything. For perspective, I come from a Chilean background, so I am well aware of the history of that region of South America.
Angels Before Man is one of my new favorite books! It's cool to hear your thoughts as someone very interested in books about angels as well as someone who (presumably) know much more about the theology of them than I do 🤣. The seond half is absolutely brutal and your reaction is totally fair. I personally thought it was well done just as someone who enjoys loose structure and prose! Great video as always and as for reccomendations, if you like angels, Even Though I Knew The End by C.L Polk is wonderful!
Yeah, this is an unstructured fast review not my full one, not sure how I came off but... I really enjoyed it overall! I liked a fair bit of the second half, but the writing really lost me and made the rest fail for me too. Overall I still like it and would recc the whole book it angel fans, just with the trigger caveat and note of the drastic tone shift
Absolutely! I also enjoyed the full blog review! Especially the "Wet, sloppy, homoeroticism because.... yeah. 😂
discworld! i also recently started discworld recently and i already really love it im excited to hear more of your opinions on it once you read more :D
I read Extreme Makeover: Apocalypse Edition because of this and thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you :)
"you can really tell the author read Homestuck" is the most vicious criticism ive ever heard lol
you really are one of the funniest people on youtube rn
I really enjoyed your review! (Even though I for sure disagree on some opinions, but primarily because of personal taste; I adore Gideon and Harrow, not perfect, but ✨perfect for me✨).
For the future, would it be possible to add time stamps (I am on a browser version, and none show up), because it would make it easier to navigate, for example: I have “angles before man” on my to-be-read, and did skip the review, and on the other hand, could not care less about “tender is the flesh”.
I don’t know if you really take book recommendations but I really think you would like the all of us villains duology, if you haven’t head it before. It’s probably one of my favorite book series of all time, and it’s like. It really fits the themes of identity that you mentioned being intrigued by. It’s about a hunger games style tournament but is incredibly unique. It’s a magic world with an incredibly interesting magic system, and all of the characters are incredibly morally grey and their internal voices are very strong and they have fascinating development pertaining to how they perceive themselves and how willing they are to harm others to get what they want. It’s seriously amazing and I haven’t seen anyone talk about it.
I started howling with laughter when I saw the thumbnail and instantly sent it to my bestie. Thank you for bringing people together 😌🙏
I LOVE THE THUMBNAIL!!! I cackled when I saw it. Such whimsy!
I imagine crow hissing like a cat getting a bath while being forced to read the giver or something
I always get so excited when you post. I love your videos
Hope you enjoyed your vacation 🙏❤️
Yeah!! Reaper Man is great!! I LOVE Terry Pratchett and Discworld 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 I'm currently on #39 of 41
Really enjoyed this video!! Had some fun energy to it. If it means anything to you at all, I almost exclusively read middle grade, so I'm definitely excited to read the one you recommended, or any you decide to talk about in the future! I also have a handful of diskworld books I need to get around to reading.
Loved the video! It's interesting hearing about these books and i hope you have a lovely day!
Thank you! You too!
Speaking of bad serieses, have you read Crave? My emotional support new YA bad series, god it was such a ride.
Interesting to see your perspective on Tender is the Flesh, I actually had a totally different interpretation! I saw it being more humanity and morality, using a very exaggerated scenario to frame this. I think it could definitely be seen as basically a vegan-preaching book but I didn’t take it as literally as that.
This thumbnail made me giggle out loud
Hey I know and like half of these! Hell yeah! Reaper Man is a good starter Discworld :D
Recommendations:
Blood Music by Greg Bear. A weird body horror biopunk book that has some…interesting plot turns.
And give Clive Barker’s Books of Blood a try. They’re great
I'm rereading Homestuck at the moment.
Dear god I love homestuck
have you heard of the book unknown language by huw lemmey and hildegard of bingen? it has rly cool angels in it imo (altho thats not the main focus of the book) but its a short book about post-apocalypse stuff, healthcare, jdugement (& angels obvs)
i listened to gideon the ninth as an audiobook while I was at work and I definitely think the audio reader added a ton of charm especially to the character of gideon. I defintely agree that it doesn't explain enough of its own magic system which is a shame because of how interesting it sounds, I also felt that the progression of gideon and harrow's relationship was rushed, but I really loved the first book (i like homestuck), I started the second book and yeah its very different and it doesnt hold my interest at all the way the first did, I want to try and finish it though
im obsessed with the intro
Interesting to see my two favorite book reviewers on youtube, who I both usually agree with, having completely opposite opinions on "tender is the flesh"
I want to note this is an off the cuff quick thoughts, not my full review.... But yeah 😅 I really really didn't like it, even knowing what it was meant to be and tried to do. I like the initial concept but feel it's such a fumble.
love the suit jacket
I tried to read Gideon the Ninth but I couldn't get past how Gideon's voice reminded me of a frat bro. Had to put it down but I have heard the series is pretty good
Yes! It really hurt to read a book allegedly from the POV of a woman who had such a strong male gaze. It had some good points but Gideon's voice just took me out of the book
You can just skip tender is the flesh and get a much cooler experience by listening to the Magnus archives lol
Always love seeing Magnus getting recommended. Fingers crossed Magnus Protocol is a worthy successor
The Magnus Archives is one of my favorite pieces of media I've ever consumed
Imo the weirdest thing about Gideon and Harrow the Ninth (not so much the most recent book) is they're paced like and have the prose of gothics. I LOVE gothics and dislike scifi/fantasy 9 times out of 10 and I loved HtN especially.
It's weird to me they have big goth aesthetic but they obviously aren't the gothic genre despite often being called sp
Good thumbnail. Also yay! Good books!
I only recently discovered Dan Wells and he’s very good at the thought experiment book. If you’d like to try a near-future, thought experiment book with interesting characters, I think you’d like Unwind by Neal Shustermann. The body horror was super well done imo
two of my friends recommended i read gideon the ninth but i was really hesitant to start it - glad my instincts were kind of right?
Very interesting. Enjoyed it😊
Will you be making Tender is the Flesh video review? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this book. Thanks 🙏
Everyone has recommended me Gideon the Ninth, I really should go read it
An aroace woman assassin you say? All I need to hear, I'm buying that book lmao
Don’t have time to watch the video just yet but I see tender is the flesh there and boy do I have some opinions about that book, and they’re all extremely mild. Curious what you have to say about it.
Good , good whover airbaloon kidnapper.
You read Animorphs, right? Please tell me you've read Animorphs.
Man tender as the flesh sounds like everything I hate lol. Vegan Millitant ignorance of how animal slaughter works, conspiracy theory nonsense and somehow predicting c0vid denial? That's like the triad of quick ways to make me go on a rant 😂
Weird recommendation for a trilogy that goes down hill so fast and has some terrifying lore implications is the Wind Singer trilogy, I listen to all the audiobooks when I was younger and then re-read the books themselves as an adult, not realising that all of the audiobooks were abridged. They cut a lot out including the epilogue.
Never heard of it! I'll try to remember the name and check it out, I get a lot of recommendations and can't check them all but I definitely try to look. Some of the best stuff is obscure recommendations
@@Crowcaller Ooh, I'll second that recommendation. I've only read the first book, but even then I both enjoyed it and found it somewhat offputting. There are some weird racial implications that I think are well-meaning?
oh you're so brave for critiquing gideon the ninth. i enjoy it as much for the Presence of a Fan Community as anything else, I think, but i could not have gotten through the second book without spoiling myself I would have given up. Also if I'd read Homestuck in middle school I don't think I'd have been strong enough to read Gideon.
not done w/ the video yet but seeing actual pages of gideon the ninth's prose for the first time after just seeing one off lines quoted in tumblr posts pissed me off. because its boarderline unreadable to me in like a "i cannot parse this" way. i think this is probably extrapolated by the fact that i tend to read stuff in a nonlinear way (for example i'll skip to the end of a sentence, read the last word, and then go back to read the whole sentence. this makes me a very fast reader but also prone to missing stuff) but holy shit its kind of a wild thing to realize. that a book that people you generally trust to have good opinions have been praising a book that you don't think you could read. in a very literal sense. ok going back to watching the rest of the video
I don't know about the Tumblr post thing because I feel like I know the exact post and it's not the best picture of the prose I actually have an issue with. It certainly has a very specific style with some bits that work really really well (there's some actually amazing quotes!) But also bits that just don't work (the humour is very mileage varies and there's so much purple boring house description or kinda annoying overwritten bits).
I don't dislike it and I wouldn't call it bad. I have it four stars. But it's weird, I had a sort of unhealthy obsession with it and if it was any good and I'm glad I finally just tried reading it so I could make my own judgements and understand it
@@Crowcaller oh wow im just rereading my comment and i think i just completely forgot what i was trying to say in the middle of writing it? i think i was going to say something about the quotes that circle around in tumblr posts having contexts that felt a lot more underwhelming than the isolated one line quotes... the quotes themselves weren't actually the bit that annoyed me with the prose. my friend sent me a page of it that they were reading and i really just couldn't parse it until i reread it maybe 5 times.
i guess the thing that annoys me the most with it is that i've kinda been not reading as much as i have in the past, and since so many people were recommending it i was considering using it as a book to get me back into reading. but honestly i feel like if i tried to do that it would've gone over poorly. i don't know, i might try it eventually but i have a feeling it wouldn't be the best book to convince me to go out and find new books to read.
We interpreted Tender is the Flesh in VERY different ways…
I'll be doing a full length proper review of it soon! This is just an off the cuff no notes no script discussion.... I'm curious on your thoughts on it, but for me it just was too hateful and edgy and lacking. I definitely know it is meant to also be more about the "meat factory" of capitalism or how women are seen, but I felt like those themes were really poorly utilized and the focus was far more on trying to gross people out off meat by making up weird gore (IE cutting legs off pregnant women)
the big mic got you looking like an old timey radio host loll
I need to start a go fund me to buy a new good microphone that won't get me cyberbullied://
hearing homestuck references outside of tumblr is so jarring
I enjoyed the video! Commenting so you can eventually afford a new mic
Tender is the Flesh sounds like something Peta would put out...
rad i love good books almost as much as bad ones!
I appreciate your honest take on Gideon the Ninth! I picked it up after reading praise for it on your discord and it felt like I was reading another book from the one people were talking about.
Gideon's male gaze was so strong that I stopped wanting her to look at and commment on anyone else in the book. I enjoyed the fighting scenes and searching scenes the most bc Gideon wasn't talking to other humans.
Also, can we talk about how many names each person had?!? I had to re-read the first chapter like 3 times to figure out that Gideon was referred to by like 4 different names. When they introduced the rest of the cast I had to just give up and hope that the characters would be distinct enough for me to tell them apart (they weren't).
I might read the second book if it really is different from the first one, but I'm not going to seek it out.
god, trying to remember everyone's names was my NIGHTMARE. I ended up taking actual notes on who was who and their physical descriptions
Mortal engines? You like that?😊
Weird, you're into GOOD books now? Well, I guess you gotta read The Traitor Baru Cormorant then, since it is the BEST book 🤷♀️
I lied, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant is actually the best book, but it is the most best if you read the first two first (like how Harrow The Ninth is also the best book)
dozens of people recommended me Gideon the Ninth so I was a bit disappointed when it took me 3 months to read the first 50 pages. I couldn't figure out the plot or understand the world and it was frustrating, then i realized. it's not good.
It's not bad, but it just is very unique and requires a lot of buy in to get to the payoff
I dont know if you read manga (i know you said you read the manga based on the mutant angel series) but since you like angels there's a very short manga series by CLAMP called Wish. Not asking for a review just informing.
“Crazy revolutionary horror.”
They aren’t books, that I know of, but go watch Terrifier 1 and 2 if gore is revolutionary.
Angels Before Man looked like the perfect book for me--[queer + angels = 😄], but learning about all the extreme content warnings made me so disappointed. 😔
I really do think you COULD read the first half only and really enjoy it- the TW stuff really is only after the break. But it does feel weird to stop a book halfway...
The thumbnail is killing me
maybe its just me but i never read tender as the flesh as completely about the meat industry? i saw it as a critique on capitalism and the dehumanization of humans, especially those that are marginalized such as people of color and women and class. like the way poc are thrown under the bus for the wealthy and how women are objectified via the protagonist. its just more like consumerism but more literal in this case. humans are commodified irl but it just pushes it to the extreme. brutality and violence is normalized but is it that different from our day to day life? people of color die every day and its so ingrained into our society that we do not blink. its something we just go through. idk if being a person of color influenced that view
The only thing that would improve this thumbnail is the family guy death pose
I haven't been trained in it but hear positive things
@@Crowcaller I've never seen family guy btw. Fantastic video
A bit funny video title considering how it feels like a lot of these books weren't good according to you lol
It's also always refreshing to see another person who didn't like Gideon the Ninth because it feels so weird seeing sooo many people sing its praises... gideon dislikers rise up we stay strong 🔥💯
The goal was to read good! But you never can tell
"I'm better at reviewing books I dislike"
fam, just say you're brutal lol
31:53 lmao, okey, you lost me at the veganism is "moral shaming of food". veganism is about doing as much as you can to reduce animal suffering, its not a diet its a social justice movement. if somebody had to bleed for your meal, how can you say it is not shameful. most people , i repeat most. not all . but most people in this day and age have the ability to eat beans and soy instead of meat. there is billion milk alternatives and leather alternatives. please, yes, if you have issues with eating do anything to get the nutrition, but you can use vegan alternatives for clothes milk etc etc. like please look up the definition of veganism. its not if you eat meat you are a demon and a failure. its do the best you can and live and let live. animals we have bred to be killed before they grow old is insane and cruel and unnecessary and its so fucking painful for me and i just know about the horror, for the animals being killed for your meals its literally a lifetime of torture. im... its fine , it just makes me so sad so so sad that all these innocent creatures have to die for no good reason. and you call the movement of animal liberation "moral shaming of food" i hope you listen, any argument yall wanna throw at me you can throw at duckduckgo its all been answered, just nobody wants to actually inconvenience themselves. this always comes as such a blow from left field. progressive about gays trans ppl capitalism feminism oh and also vegans think they are better and what you to starve about it. why..... why does this always happen. im.. im rambling, this makes me so sad.
Lmao, “veganism isn’t about moral shaming of food” said before launching into a barely coherent rambling rant about how eating meat is immoral, including comparing not being vegan to not supporting LGBT+ or POC is hilarious.
“I don’t know why people think vegans are insufferable morality policemen anyway if you eat meat you’re shameful and hate gay people” outstanding, 0/10 self-awareness.
I’m going to keep walking to the butcher to buy meat from animals that were raised and slaughtered within half an hour of where I live, rather than driving to the supermarket to buy soy that’s been flown in from the other side of the world, thanks.
People dont believe veganism is the definition you give because you all will say that then scream murderer at poor people, disabled people, poc. You compare animal suffering to the Holocaust after being told repeatedly how insensitive it is to Jewish people.
Ive repeatedly explained to vegans why I cant be. The response I get is to do it anyways, that im lying to just be able to eat meat. They prod into my medical history.
You can rant and rave about the poor vegans just being upset about the animals but until your movement stops being insanely classist, ableist, and racist it will fall on deaf ears.