It's like the author had a whole trash can, picked out some glass bottle shards, and polished the shards with such care and expertise that they might as well be some of the most luxurious gemstones imaginable. Then she chucked them back in the bin and published the whole trash can
Don't you hate it when you just want to play murder lacrosse with your murder boyfriend and your murder friends, but you have to stop yourself being murdered by your murder dad and the murder mafia?
That's the WORST! Like I am just having a good time in the murder locker room getting dressed in my murder clothes for murder lacrosse with my bmfs (best murder friends) and suddenly people want to make this about killing people or whatever. Like just chill out! No one said they were going to do that...
Omg I was just thinking about getting together with my murder lacrosse team and maybe going out to murder dinner and then having a fun murder time! Crazy coincidence that I saw this murder comment!
im barely 16 and im almost taller than both of them????🤣 Side note: i am also the shortest person in my class yet im one of the older ones, like there are younger ppl in my class who are waayyyy taller than me. They must be hella short, they are the shortest kings good for them
@@RainyBasil9295 there is a senior guy at my school who is blonde and fits the description of Andrew almost exactly (INCLUDING THE HEIGHT) and I can’t not think of this vid every time we talk now 😭 we love our short kings
It seems the reason everyone loves this book is because it's obvious that this was a labour of love, rather than a corporate cash cow. I can tell that this was the story the author wanted to tell
honestly that's half the reason i still read objectively badly written fanfic. like when you can just TELL the author is constantly going '-AND WOULDN'T IT BE COOL IF THIS HAPPENED NEXT?' every step of the plot, i'm having a fun time too
I love this comment so much. I wish more people would think this way instead of being so serious all the time about art being objectively good or whatever
I can't believe you didn't mention that Neil paid someone to knock him out when he noticed he got drugged so he wouldn't spill any secrets, that was such an edgy iconic power move. 😭
“Colouring his hair…for some reason this magically makes nobody recognise him.” - Ma’am if you have a problem with this, take it up with Hannah Montana 😂
This just makes me think of the Chad Michael Murray clip going around where he criticizes his character in A Cinderella Story for not being able to recognize a girl he sees EVERYDAY because she is wearing a tiny eye mask. 😂
bruh cuz as a black person this is legit a thing. not me changing my hair and literally nothing else and people not recognising me/thinking i’m someone else 🫠
Man, Sailor Moon didn't even change her hair - just her clothes, and that VERY SLIGHTLY because her school uniform looks pretty much same as her Magical Girl outfit
There has to be some kind of drug in these books because just LISTENING to you talk about them has me invested and I'm literally blushing, giggling, kicking my feet at every Andrew and Neil interaction, like.... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME Update: I caved. First I read fanfiction about them, then I read the books. I am now rereading the third book and I will be Kevin Day for Halloween. I am obsessed
Same it's my comfort read so I keep rereading it!! I've lost count how many time but I think it's around 11? I have lines memorized lol!! I love the fandom
I think the main reason this series is so loved even with the insane plot and characters is the fact that you can tell the author was so passionate about it. She was like "You know what, I have this ridiculous story and I really REALLY wanna tell it." I was genuinely able to tell she loved all the characters she wrote and was excited giving these crazy ass backstories to them, so I felt like I shared her excitement and passion just by reading the series
I only knew the title of the first book and assumed it was like a weird fae court fantasy book for years now and I'm just now finding out it's murder lacrosse?
SAME Like I was like heavily into that fae shit when I got recommended this book by the goodreads algorithm and I didn't really understand what exy was supposed to be because I wasn't able to think beyond Holly Black's version of the fae. I had been putting this book off for so long and then one day out of desperation I just picked it up and?????? Fucking hell it has governed my entire life for the better half of 4 years now, I think. I absolutely hate it and will never let go.
exy as a concept is hilarious when you think about how they're all related. this is just two families playing their little niche sport. also they're the mafia
I have known of this series for the better part of a decade but i read this comment 6 days ago and have now just finished the series (aside from the jean book). thank you for being the final push lmao i can actually watch the vid now (i dont like spoilers)!!!
In defense of Neil only learning about characters through other characters: One of the main reasons why the foxes are the way that they are is because no one talks about themself to any of the others. They don't communicate, like, ever, and that's why they suck and are constantly fighting. They're always betting on what's going on with the others without asking, spreading rumors about the others, and talking behind each other's backs. Talking about yourself or correcting other people when they're wrong about you (as is the case with like everything with Andrew's backstory) makes you vulnerable, and since no one ever wants to take the first step they're all just continuing the cycle and not giving anything up. When Neil joins, he's a liar through and through. He doesn't tell the truth about himself, so no one tells the truth about themselves either. That's why he can only learn about his teammates through the others. But Neil can't hide how genuine and passionate he is about exy and wanting his teammates to stop destroying themselves, so little bits of truth start to come out, and he manages to win the trust of the people who have best come to terms with their situations (Wymack and Renee) so they tell him what's up with them themselves. And he keeps learning more and more about the foxes as they actually are rather than what the others say about them. It's Neil telling the whole truth in the third book after he's been abducted by his father that finally fully unifies the team. It's not anyone betting or telling the others about what they *think* is up with him, it's Neil himself telling the truth and being real that gets them to stand together properly. I guess the point I'm getting to is that while learning about characters through different characters is weird and kind of clunky, it's also a device in this series. (Sorry I love this series so much. Good video!)
this is EXACTLY how i felt. also, the main three characters this phenomenon happens to is aaron, andrew, and kevin, which makes 100% sense considering they are EXTREMELY closed off and anguished people because of their intense, traumatic pasts that continuously haunt them in their present day. kevin still had to play against riko and the ravens, andrew on his meds was impossible to talk to (and also still had to deal with re-traumatization), and aaron dealing with a promise he made with andrew years ago that puts a huge divide between them. it makes sense, and it pains me to see that people don't recognize that ALL of the foxes just. didn't want to talk about their trauma. and that's okay.
I was scrolling through the comments waiting for the video to load and I have not read these books so this sentence was the single most confusing thing I have ever read. If you read this to a small Victorian child they would spontaneously combust.
The first time I listened to the audio book of "The Foxhole Court" I thought that Nial was trans for a hot second, bc he was so afraid that Kevin would recognize him from before and know his name and he was so protective of his binder in his bag until I realized which kind of binder he meant 😂🙈
honestly the premise might not even be as unbelievable as it sounds. there was a real minor-league hockey team called the trashers that was literally run by the mob. the guy in the mob started the team as a gift for his son. they always brought on players that were known for playing dirty and werent wanted by the other teams. the managers would encourage them to get into as many fights as they could during the games, even with the refs. i think they even had a pair of twins on the team at one point.
I think I've heard about this. The team's called the Trashers bc the mob boss' front job was waste management and made the team bc his son was such a fan of the sport
They also paid a famous NHL player to play for them while the NHL was on strike. With straight cash. The player even said he's recognized for playing with the Trashers but not the NHL team he officially plays on. The son went on to do more legitimate sports related stuff.
i'm quite late, but i just have to share: i cannot explain, as someone who had nicknamed Kevin as "drama queen" while reading the first book, the amount of absolute hysterical laughter that left my mouth when he revealed the queen chess piece tattoo in the last book- it was priceless
obsessed with how the fandom collectively agrees that jean and jeremy (a character that literally had 2 lines in the books) get together after jean joins the trojans edit: nora just confirmed on twitter that she's writing a jean centric book! let's go jerejean girlies
@@abrilmayer1778 I hated how his gf was written so I try to forget about her lol. Like she knew him since he was a teenager and according to the books is still loyal to the people that abused him his whole life like ????? 😭😭 they’d have to get a marriage counselor who enjoys a challenge for that to work out
@@abrilmayer1778 to be fair, I think even Kevin forgets he has a gf in the books 🤣 (the way he never calls her to explain anything until she literally bullies him into talking to her looool)
1:16:24 I think the fact that Neil doesn't remember any of the hair dying and removing of contact lenses happening adds to the vibe of the Raven's Nest. Helps the reader understand just how disorienting Neil's time was in there and how much time he may have lost to the pain and possibly disassociation bc of everything going on. Like, Neil's been through some pretty awful shit already and the fact that he's blocking out a lot of what happened during his time with the Ravens and Riko just adds to the effect of just how bad it all was for him.
In the new / fourth book "The Sunshine Court" it is confirmed by Jean that Neil was heavily dissosiating during his time at the nest. This is also the reason why he woke up at the airport and did not remember getting on the plane home at all. The torture he experienced is also described through Jean in more detail. Honestly, it was horrifying ;(((((
this series is awful unless you can turn your brain off and imagine it's an anime instead of a book series and then it becomes good in a transcendentally awful way
Actually, anime was also my first visual connotation after watching this video :) Still, I don't understand how anybody can enjoy something containing so much grief and torture :( Real-life scars are no fun, I presume.
@@angier9385 as someone who's been through abuse and a lot of familial trauma, sometimes sad or violent media is cathartic and a coping mechanism. it's why people enjoy horror movies or tragic plays.
I@@angier9385 I found it pretty unpleasant to read and the main ship did not click with me at all, but I know fandom, so I know exactly how it appeals to some people.
I am as oblivious as Neil. I did not pick up on Andrew's attraction until their convo in Eden's. The whole time first time reading the series I was in the trenches with Neil experiencing everything as he did and his logic seemed so right to me. Then I was done with the books and I realized how irrational and unhinged is everything when I tried explaining them to a friend. I too, am an idiot, like Neil often admits
I gotta admit i couldn't pick up anything from andrew ans i passedit off aa him being on drugs or having withdrawals basically all the time before the nest
SAME!!! It literally took me til the 3rd book to be like "wait maybe neil IS an idiot" by then i finally realized andrew was repressing feelings not that he hated him lmao
Suggesting that the knife be a separate character on the character list because it's "making a lot of appearances" is the funniest thing I have heard all day
I was once in a Group were we all had decided independently to "fu** that trauma sh*t, you can be a curious and adventurous person without it and decided on more or less normal childhoods and as we went in one by one to Tell the DM about Our incredible lame normal backgrounds he started laughing tears, because he never had that in a Group before. In the end he gasped "what is wrong with you all? Nothing! Nothing is wrong with you!"
i was obsessed with these books at age 14. im 18 now. its still there, inside me. it brought me and two of my best friends even closer together, and im going to reread as soon as my library has the audiobooks available. it's horrible. i love it.
I’ve never heard of this series before, but I was kicking my legs like a school girl when you were describing what’s going on, like it legitimately sounds so bad it’s good, I was feeling for the characters right there with you
Dont read it if you’re not ready to be completely obsessed over something so terrible. I read it in three days and have read it 4 times since. I hate it
Yeah, the meds situation is a mess. Nora admitted somewhere she just invented a medication because she needed Andrew to show those symptoms. I don't think someone would prescribe meds like that in the first place either.
Ohh, I always thought the meds had been misprescribed because of a lack of care in the system, and that's why there were so many side effects, but maybe I red too much into it then 😂
honestly I took it like this too, since I saw Nora say somewhere which illness Andrew had (can't remember exactly which but I think it was some sort of depressive disorder) and one part of the books hints that Andrew being on those meds is more complicated than them just treating something. I think tbf it would make more sense if they were misprescribed, and also explain why no one else but Neil seems to understand why Andrew is the way he is, since the other characters likely just apply any misconceptions and stereotypes about the meds he's on. Idk if that made any sense, I might be reading it completely wrong 😂 @@alessandraale1950
Quick correction: Stuart does not work for the FBI. Stuart is part of a British crime family that Neil's mother was born in. Thats why she married Nathan originally as she ran in the same crime circles. Thats how Neil and her could run away so effectively was due to her crime connections 😅
I paused the video just to check that someone clarified this because the Hatford crime family and Stuart are definitely mentioned by name before that scene. Granted, their names probably aren’t mentioned more than once or twice, but they do come up, and then everything that happens after Stuart kills Nathan should make it clear that he is by no means a fed since he can’t stop the FBI from putting Neil through all the bullsh*t they do.
Thank you for clarification. I also wanted to say the same. Stuart wanted revenge for Mary (Neil's mother) being killed by Nathan and the FBI *let* him away with it because of some sort of deal (can't remember). By the way, there are lots of interpretation mistakes in the above video, but I totally get it. Every time I reread the books I discover something new and some things suddently click. I seriously doubt there is a single person who gets it all during their first read.
"i dunno about you but i feel a romance brewing" as andrew has neal by the throat in a threat lol. the vibes are immaculate. I don't normally go for mafia or sports tropes but this one sounds just chaotic enough to make me wanna read it lol.
omg u skipped over my favorite scene in the last book, when the team and andrew see neil for the first time after his father abducted him. i almost died during that scene, more than 5 years later and i still havent forgotten it and it has left a profound impact on me to this day
Yes!!! I read these books when I was around 17 and I had so much fun reading them even though I thought they were so bad. I thought I no longer cared now I'm older but I rediscovered the hotel scene a few days ago and all of the feelings came back to me 😂
its an incredible example of fucking bat shit insane character writing and a plot developed on an acid trip while snorting anime that all somehow turned out both exactly as bad as you would expect and so fucking good I've reread the entire series like 4 times
I think the reason these books are so addicting is because they’re someone’s true passion project. Like you can FEEL how much love Nora Sakavic has for these characters and this story. For me, it acknowledges all the times as a 14 year old I was made fun of being excited about „girly“ things and lets me experience the true joy of caring and being passionate about something so ridiculous ❤
this is my favorite book series of all time. i literally have "yes or no?" tattooed on the back of my neck as a reminder of my own bodily autonomy because I am also often touch-averse like andrew, so you know I'm genuinely a bit of a feral nerd fan about these books. is this series written well? uhm, kind of? is it tropey and could many things have been done better? absolutely. did it also change my entire life and perspectives on consent, love, family, and what it means to truly live instead of survive? also yes and i will die on the hill that this book series is fucking fantastic and i even go so far as to recommend it to people i think it might help in the same ways it helped me.
I literally thought they were related to the Raven cycle series when I found them, just because one of the books is called the Raven king 😂 I read them without really knowing what they were about and got obsessed with them
It's such a niche fandom. And the majority of them adores this series. So it scares me if this gets more popular and newer readers trash it. I get that it's not realistic and "angst" but in the core of it, it's one of the best found family.
i also think that while it has a lot of flaws we all acknowledge, a lot of people go overboard and nitpick even on okay things. that kinda annoys me in those situations.
Genuinely don't understand these "haha it's so shit but i like it"-takes........ like I genuinely love it and it's incredibly dear to me. I hate that it's becoming more popular. like, if it's not for you then it's not for you, there's literally no need to be trash it so bad. I don't think it's trash. I think it has genuinely a lot of heart but like.. idk. This video left a really bad taste in my mouth.
@@l.t.7590 I agree. This video didn't view the series in the best light. It felt like she was making fun of it more than reviewing what it actually had to offer.
I- I just want to say that I genuinely picked this up thinking it was JUST sports and found family. I did not expect the gay ship, I didn't expect the mafia, I didn't expect the trauma. And yet-
It truly is the greatest romance of all time, you get it. They're dysfunctional human beings, they have kind of a healthy relationship if you think about it lmao
@@ellisarcheralways a commodity never a human being, not a single person in your family thinking you’re worth a damn off the court yeah sounds rough kevin and i talk abt your intricate and endless daddy issues all theeee time pity only gets you so many concessions and you used up yours about 6 insults ago so please please shut the Fork up
Okay so maybe this was obvious but it’s only now that I realize Neil chose ‘Neil’ as his name because it’s the only part of ‘Nathaniel’ that isn’t ‘Nathan’ Holy-
i think the author genuinely loves these characters and the story despite all the flaws, and that makes them so much more impactful even if the writing is absolutely unhinged. it's simultaneously the worst and best thing ever lmao
You capture the aftg experience so well!! I read somewhere that you just have to read the books so you can read the much better fanfiction about these loveable characters afterwards 😌
@@TheBookLeo If you're gonna read fanfiction for this series, you have to read Lessons in cartography! it's so GOOD! It has 2 parts, and it feels so much like a book 4 and 5. The writer totally captured the characters. (It's very much focused on Neil and Andrew's relationship)
My recc is Blame it on my youth, which takes place 10 years after the events of canon and is just…so good. It is well over a million words but it really flies by. Main plot is Andrew and Neil adopting teenage twins. Found family, adults having friends, good parenting, therapy, mental health, some mafia Drama, healthy relationships, etc.
i’ve never actually seen someone talk about this series while like,, showing their face. sure i’ve talked to fandom accounts abt it and stuff but somehow this just made the books seem so real and not a collective fever dream i shared with thousands of people
I literally opened this video thinking I wouldn't enjoy the series. Now I want to read it badly. It may just be me, but these books give me the most sports anime, shounen-ai drama vibes I haven't felt in ages and I absolutely love it. I love that the author was self-aware of her creation and just embraces it all the way. Love that for her. And as someone that likes drawing, I may just slink away and draw ship art of Neil and Andrew.
she rlly did something with this series. nine years later and i still feel myself becoming a crazy person every time i reread. also unsurprisingly, this was the series that got me into fanfiction. for those first couple of years, i read every andreil fic under the sun
tell me why I got so invested in the plot of this series and the way Leonie describes it that I didn’t realize this video is 2 hours long until the end
Omg, what joy this video brought me. I'd literally JUST clicked on it, when my husband walked over and said, "... What's a sports mafia romance?" And I was like, "I'M TRYING TO FIND OUT." hahaha. I loved every moment, am completely intrigued (as in I might now read these), and thank you for all your efforts, lol.
16:45 I was laughing so hard, most antipsychotics make you sleepy, you’re a literal zombie, most of the irritability comes from the sleepiness to be honest 😂 I’m bipolar so I take them, and for sure they don’t make you go berserk 😂😂
Its one of the hardest books to recommend- both for its absurd plot and abundance of trigger warnings- but damn is it hard to beat the found family in these books. The ultimate found family book trifecta (raven cycle, six of crows, and aftg) absolutely DOMINATED my tumblr for years. You could not love one without knowing the others. I feel like i dosed so hard on the angsty found family books at once that its hard to find books that make me feel connected to the characters in the same way
I literally read these books in a 48 hour trance and then emerged like 'I have experienced something horrible but incredible' anyways I love them soooo bad but no I don't yknow
Only 17 minutes in and I'm utterly obsessed and pissed that Tumblr has never layed this at my feet. Where has this series been my whole life I need it YESTERDAY. As someone who unironically liked Divergent growing up I would have devoured this series wholesale. I adore so bad its good and these books seem like the epitome of it.
Ngl I open this as background noise because I was genuinely bored and now I’m so invested in AndrewxNeil romance. I heard like 50% of the story and 30% of it is just the ships plus the sound of me screaming because of the love/hate, enemies/rivals/annoyances to lovers romance
I read these books on vacation when I was 18, so around 5 years ago. The only thing that I remembered about them was that they were completely unhinged and weird but that I still couldn't stop reading them. So thank you for summarizing them, this was wild
THIS WAS SO SATISFYING TO WATCH, exactlyyyy what I experienced when I read the series - slow descent into madness of loving the characters and being really invested in their victories. THANKS FOR THIS ONE!
These books forever changed my brain chemistry. I gave the first one 3 stars, I put the last one on my favourites shelf, I can talk about these books for hours, I've read hundreds of fics, I've written fanfiction for these books, I told my therapist about what Neil Josten means to me. These books are awful, I love them with my whole heart
I'm typing this at the point where you sum up the end scene of book 2 and its like looking into a mirror. Im as emotionally invested as you right now. What is this madness. Why do i care so much about these characters. I didnt even read the books I'm just a girl sitting on her train to work and I'm close to tears. Am i even ready for book 3? Will they ever be happy? Will i ever care for anything else after this ends?
you should definitely read the books 😭 like Leonie said there're a lot of side plots and characters and amazing scenes that weren't mentioned in the video
I definitely used to have a fixation on this series, but I have never ever been able to take any scene with Andrew seriously. Like I know he's so strong and bad or whatever, but he's literally 5 feet tall. Like any scene where he acts up is such an unserious visual. In general, anytime Andrew shows up, the book just like shifts into a different dimension where nobody acts realistically and all the dialogue turns into tumblr one-liners.
As a huge fan of this series I think it is incredibly well written with an eccentric and sometimes unbelievable plot. I will recommend this book to anyone willing to read BL books but obviously with trigger warnings. I get so annoyed when people say it’s the worst this ever written but they still love it. No, it well written just the plot line is wild and I’ve never been able to find anything like it. So much angst and found family. Aftg is so dear to my heart
The fact that I haven't read this series in years but still remember the You know I get it speech.... (Also, you made me want to re-read, so thanks I guess)
I read the fanfic Blame it on my Youth and it comes up a lot because it is 100% Andrew’s favorite memory and he can recite the entire speech from memory and does so gleefully whenever it comes up. So good
I got them recommended to me several times at that age but I refused to read them because they were about sports and now I don't know if that was a blessing or a curse
Hearing your retelling of this series was so incredibly entertaining. Somehow it's giving major sports anime vibes, like the entire time my brain was envisioning this as an anime story and it just made sense. The "give all/die for your sport"-mentality, the homoerotic tension and edgy "flirting" between the characters. Just in a more unhinged and fucked up way than anime would be-
as a fan of the books, i love when people tear them to shreds, they’re so bad. one small correction though: neil is not gay, he’s demisexual. it seems like a small nitpick, but i actually consider him ace representation done right so i’m kind of overprotective. anyway, this was a great video and you’re really funny, i loved every second of it.
I was so worried about this video because this series did carve a hole in my heart to live in when I was a 15yo edgelord, but you just *got it*. You got everything about this that captured me, and everything that is so beyond unrealistic and damaging and cringe that makes the series impossible to talk about to a normal person. So glad I watched this video, it’s a good one!
This series sounds like it was heavily influenced by Japanese anime! It's very cool that I get 'anime vibes' just hearing you read excerpts and talk about the plot and over-exaggerated characters in the books. Anime often has over-exaggerated characters plus drama and comedy sandwiched together to make it serious, yet light-hearted in between major plot points!
i could be remembering this wrong, but i’m pretty sure nora created the idea for the books by making a graphic novel/manga when she was younger so im sure that was the idea!
listen there’s just a certain type of “bad” media, that manages to walk the line between brilliant and awful in a way that makes it easy to consume, has just enough silly, bad and annoying things that you can never stop complaining about it and has a grip on you that is unlike anything else. Almost all of my favourite books/movies are like this 😭
I'd wager it is because the authoress is unashamedly writing all the tropes she loves and enjoys instead of making it cerebral and following a Trend or a niche or whatever is hot right now, and this authenticity in the purest sense, just clicks with everyone who is exhausted by copycatdrivel on the one side and soapboxing on the other side with similar tastes. It's like slipping into a Hot bubble bath.
Man, I reread this series so many times I can’t even count. I know it’s unhinged, full of inconsistency and contrary. Yet, here I am. Visiting this series. Again and again. You ask why?(Probably, you’re not but I wanna rattle about it). Well, somehow this series became my guilty pleasure. It brings me a lot of comfort and smile on my face. I read it when I’m down in the dumps, when I’m happy, when I’m in my normal mood (and start questioning the whole book and its plot and why I’m even reading it in the first place). It’s silly, unreasonable but what a ride it is. You think it’s badly written but actually it’s not. You rarely expect from two characters who: one of them is a pathological liar and the other has a serious trust issue, to create relationship without toxic behaviours. But they do. Really. Their relationship is one of the healthiest I’ve ever read. It’s build on trust, communication and consent. They both learn how to be comfortable and how to work their way around each other. It’s not your everyday romance story where characters confess love and sugarcoat the meaning of it. There’s none of. This series is 75% about Neil showing off his attitude problem (which I enjoy waaaaay too much), foxes, exy, mafia, fixing everyone’s problems and then there’s those 25% about special bond between Neil and Andrew. I appreciate it and find refreshing. Also, I love the fandom. Fanarts, fanfictions, tumblr posts. They all are the best.
Yeah, right. Nobody asked, but here is why I enjoyed the books. First of all, I read the series now 3 times - only the books, not so much of the extra content just yet (because the books alone still manage to reveal something new every time I read them). So, I have not read any discussions on why exactly the writing is bad because for me it was not. At some places the sentences feel clumsy, yes, but overall it's never boring or not-making-sense. Some character decisions or behaviour is not understandable during the first reading, but it gets better upon every reread and just clicks more and more. It's like you get to know the characters better the more time you spend with them. Plot holes? Where are there plot holes?... So far nothing stood out really... The books are under a lot of trigger warnings, but for me personally it never felt intense. Angst? Trauma? A bit, not intense. I have read much more intense stories where your heart and soul are literally crushed and burnt and you take long time to recover. But not with these books, not for me. There are some very sad scenes and I do cry, but it's never crushing. I'd say angst and trauma that are very easy to read :D I absolutely LOVE the dialogues. They are so clever and just... badass! :D All the comebacks, the verbal fights, the hidden threats or the between the lines stuff. So good! Also lots of dialogue makes more sense upon rereading the whole thing. I LOVE the backstories of each character. They do feel so real... I love the twists and revelations! There is so much stuff that happens totally unexpected. How many wtf situations did I have... way too many.... How often did I cheer for a character or all of the foxes... Too many times. It's so exciting! :DDD And last but not least, the whole found family concept is just so so heart-warming
@@cheibby Was it in line with your imagination for them? Because I have not read any ff on aftg yet, I only have Noras "version", but how was it for you? I feel like this 4th book is the most sad so far, I cried so many times ;(((. But I feel like Nora will let us start in a very dark place to gradually pull us out of there in the following books and give us another amazing happy end.
It's like the author had a whole trash can, picked out some glass bottle shards, and polished the shards with such care and expertise that they might as well be some of the most luxurious gemstones imaginable. Then she chucked them back in the bin and published the whole trash can
I'm screenshotting this comment, too funny 😂😂
That's such a good description 😂
I laughed so hard this is so acurate
I cannot describe how much I love this comment XD
Gold comment
Don't you hate it when you just want to play murder lacrosse with your murder boyfriend and your murder friends, but you have to stop yourself being murdered by your murder dad and the murder mafia?
this comment murdered me 😭
Happened to me last murder Thursday
That's the WORST! Like I am just having a good time in the murder locker room getting dressed in my murder clothes for murder lacrosse with my bmfs (best murder friends) and suddenly people want to make this about killing people or whatever. Like just chill out! No one said they were going to do that...
Help 😭
Omg I was just thinking about getting together with my murder lacrosse team and maybe going out to murder dinner and then having a fun murder time! Crazy coincidence that I saw this murder comment!
Sakavic making Andrew 5' and Neil 5'3" was peak short king representation
And Riko was 5'5''. But they're always ready to scrap I just can't--
as a 5'3" person, hehe
I can’t imagine it I have to make them taller in my mind 😭
im barely 16 and im almost taller than both of them????🤣
Side note: i am also the shortest person in my class yet im one of the older ones, like there are younger ppl in my class who are waayyyy taller than me. They must be hella short, they are the shortest kings good for them
@@RainyBasil9295 there is a senior guy at my school who is blonde and fits the description of Andrew almost exactly (INCLUDING THE HEIGHT) and I can’t not think of this vid every time we talk now 😭 we love our short kings
this series is like the novelised version of "what was that? I hate it. Do it again." And i am HERE FOR IT LMAO
FR.
Everybody in the aftg fandom:
Fandom: “I’d never recommend aftg”
Person: “oh so you didn’t like it?”
Fandom: “no I absolutely loved it”
me about anything I read
Exactly lmao
it’s been 5 days and I’m trying to find another series to fill the void these books created. Idek what happened ???
I thought it was just me lmao
Some books you just don't recommend to others!😅
It seems the reason everyone loves this book is because it's obvious that this was a labour of love, rather than a corporate cash cow. I can tell that this was the story the author wanted to tell
OMG YES, I can feel how much fun the author felt writing this thing lol
once again, honest artistic effort trumps perfectly concocted corporative perfection
bliss
honestly that's half the reason i still read objectively badly written fanfic. like when you can just TELL the author is constantly going '-AND WOULDN'T IT BE COOL IF THIS HAPPENED NEXT?' every step of the plot, i'm having a fun time too
I love this comment so much. I wish more people would think this way instead of being so serious all the time about art being objectively good or whatever
I can't believe you didn't mention that Neil paid someone to knock him out when he noticed he got drugged so he wouldn't spill any secrets, that was such an edgy iconic power move. 😭
Fr thats literally so badass of him
Then he hitch hiked back to fox tower
Kinda smart ngl, might keep that idea for later tbh.
Planning on getting drugged huh? @@Drexus.The.Mantled
I can't stop thinking that this series seems like the definition of "the epic highs and lows of high school football" from riverdale💀
THIS DESCRIPTION IS SPOT ON 😭😭 Trust me, I read them, I know what I'm talking about
Lmao! Don't they have murder mafia in Riverdale too?
@@jio5680Several actually 🤷🏻♀️
there’s a drawing of that scene with aftg actually 💀
literally what i was thinking lmaoo
“Colouring his hair…for some reason this magically makes nobody recognise him.” - Ma’am if you have a problem with this, take it up with Hannah Montana 😂
😂😂
The hair part is the most believable to me, since I have a problem recognizing people when they aren’t in uniform…
This just makes me think of the Chad Michael Murray clip going around where he criticizes his character in A Cinderella Story for not being able to recognize a girl he sees EVERYDAY because she is wearing a tiny eye mask. 😂
bruh cuz as a black person this is legit a thing. not me changing my hair and literally nothing else and people not recognising me/thinking i’m someone else 🫠
Man, Sailor Moon didn't even change her hair - just her clothes, and that VERY SLIGHTLY because her school uniform looks pretty much same as her Magical Girl outfit
There has to be some kind of drug in these books because just LISTENING to you talk about them has me invested and I'm literally blushing, giggling, kicking my feet at every Andrew and Neil interaction, like.... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME
Update: I caved. First I read fanfiction about them, then I read the books. I am now rereading the third book and I will be Kevin Day for Halloween. I am obsessed
ME TOO LIKE. IM NOT EVEN DONE BUT IM IN THE COMMENTS KICKING MY FEET SQUEEING OVER THIS
@@cloudeddaze9502 it's sorcery or something
@@liaistotallyfine IT HAS TO BE- like. Objectively I see the not great things. But also. Oh my gooodddd the dynamic. Sorcery.
@@cloudeddaze9502 YES the characters... I love them so much???? When did that happen??
WITCHCRAFT! ITS WITCHCRAFT!
i’ve read this series 9 times. it’s the worst thing i’ve ever read. i’m obsessed with it.
perfect
Same it's my comfort read so I keep rereading it!! I've lost count how many time but I think it's around 11? I have lines memorized lol!! I love the fandom
@@TheBookLeo *Slow claps while smirking.*
I can’t even finish books that I love- HOW????
Mwa 🤌
I think the main reason this series is so loved even with the insane plot and characters is the fact that you can tell the author was so passionate about it. She was like "You know what, I have this ridiculous story and I really REALLY wanna tell it." I was genuinely able to tell she loved all the characters she wrote and was excited giving these crazy ass backstories to them, so I felt like I shared her excitement and passion just by reading the series
I only knew the title of the first book and assumed it was like a weird fae court fantasy book for years now and I'm just now finding out it's murder lacrosse?
no, because same?!
I mean, there are a lot of fae fantasy fics of it? Most better written then the main books, though tbh that's all of the fics for this fandom
SAME
Like I was like heavily into that fae shit when I got recommended this book by the goodreads algorithm and I didn't really understand what exy was supposed to be because I wasn't able to think beyond Holly Black's version of the fae. I had been putting this book off for so long and then one day out of desperation I just picked it up and?????? Fucking hell it has governed my entire life for the better half of 4 years now, I think. I absolutely hate it and will never let go.
being deeply not interested in either of these genres i absolutely assumed it was like a pseudo-knockoff of those "a blank of blank and blank" books
I thought it was about basketball. Because the paw thing is orange with a black outline. Like a basketball.
exy as a concept is hilarious when you think about how they're all related. this is just two families playing their little niche sport. also they're the mafia
I have known of this series for the better part of a decade but i read this comment 6 days ago and have now just finished the series (aside from the jean book). thank you for being the final push lmao i can actually watch the vid now (i dont like spoilers)!!!
“I know this is objectively cringe but also I’m squealing a little bit.” The average aftg reading experience honestly
In defense of Neil only learning about characters through other characters:
One of the main reasons why the foxes are the way that they are is because no one talks about themself to any of the others. They don't communicate, like, ever, and that's why they suck and are constantly fighting. They're always betting on what's going on with the others without asking, spreading rumors about the others, and talking behind each other's backs. Talking about yourself or correcting other people when they're wrong about you (as is the case with like everything with Andrew's backstory) makes you vulnerable, and since no one ever wants to take the first step they're all just continuing the cycle and not giving anything up.
When Neil joins, he's a liar through and through. He doesn't tell the truth about himself, so no one tells the truth about themselves either. That's why he can only learn about his teammates through the others. But Neil can't hide how genuine and passionate he is about exy and wanting his teammates to stop destroying themselves, so little bits of truth start to come out, and he manages to win the trust of the people who have best come to terms with their situations (Wymack and Renee) so they tell him what's up with them themselves. And he keeps learning more and more about the foxes as they actually are rather than what the others say about them.
It's Neil telling the whole truth in the third book after he's been abducted by his father that finally fully unifies the team. It's not anyone betting or telling the others about what they *think* is up with him, it's Neil himself telling the truth and being real that gets them to stand together properly.
I guess the point I'm getting to is that while learning about characters through different characters is weird and kind of clunky, it's also a device in this series.
(Sorry I love this series so much. Good video!)
this is EXACTLY how i felt. also, the main three characters this phenomenon happens to is aaron, andrew, and kevin, which makes 100% sense considering they are EXTREMELY closed off and anguished people because of their intense, traumatic pasts that continuously haunt them in their present day. kevin still had to play against riko and the ravens, andrew on his meds was impossible to talk to (and also still had to deal with re-traumatization), and aaron dealing with a promise he made with andrew years ago that puts a huge divide between them. it makes sense, and it pains me to see that people don't recognize that ALL of the foxes just. didn't want to talk about their trauma. and that's okay.
i actually thought this was real obvious to everyone but apparently wasn't ? i do love that the author did that and find really interesting
Beca Pitch Perfect could play Exy and defeat the Japanese mafie, but Neil could NEVER sing bruno mars acapella remix.
lmao true
Little did you know Stephan actually did a stint with the boys choir, and he has the voice of an angel.
I was scrolling through the comments waiting for the video to load and I have not read these books so this sentence was the single most confusing thing I have ever read. If you read this to a small Victorian child they would spontaneously combust.
SO TRUE
content dosen't make a good book. A good book is one that makes you FEEL something. This series gave me ALL the feels
Not really tgis book is trash but it makes you feel thinks beacuse you like trash that's it
@@nansiipii9018maybe edit your comment to be readable and then we’ll talk about what writing is good vs bad 😂
Andrew being 5 foot makes perfect sense to me as someone who is 5’1. We are the small dogs who try to go up against people twice our size.
I have never read this series BUT watching this video Andrew seems like a literal chihuahua on crack
@@augustine.dawn08 not a chihuahua on crack 🤣🤣
I'm 5'3", and compared to all my friends, I'm the gentle giant generally
I love my feral little gremlins so much (platonically)
My Work Group is the same. And the smaller we are, the more rabid we can be 😅
The first time I listened to the audio book of "The Foxhole Court" I thought that Nial was trans for a hot second, bc he was so afraid that Kevin would recognize him from before and know his name and he was so protective of his binder in his bag until I realized which kind of binder he meant 😂🙈
LMFAO
Same and the way he never wanted to change in front of anyone.
@@joyc.e.7511 Yeah that too :'D
I LITERALLY THOUGHT THE SAME hfskjdhffh, I was like ohhh wait, I forgot there's another definition to binder as in .. something to hold papers in
SAME
honestly the premise might not even be as unbelievable as it sounds. there was a real minor-league hockey team called the trashers that was literally run by the mob. the guy in the mob started the team as a gift for his son. they always brought on players that were known for playing dirty and werent wanted by the other teams. the managers would encourage them to get into as many fights as they could during the games, even with the refs. i think they even had a pair of twins on the team at one point.
So what I'm hearing is....this book series is fanfiction?! 😂
I think I've heard about this. The team's called the Trashers bc the mob boss' front job was waste management and made the team bc his son was such a fan of the sport
as a hockey fan, even if this was a lie, i would still believe u 100% percent
They also paid a famous NHL player to play for them while the NHL was on strike. With straight cash. The player even said he's recognized for playing with the Trashers but not the NHL team he officially plays on.
The son went on to do more legitimate sports related stuff.
i'm quite late, but i just have to share: i cannot explain, as someone who had nicknamed Kevin as "drama queen" while reading the first book, the amount of absolute hysterical laughter that left my mouth when he revealed the queen chess piece tattoo in the last book- it was priceless
obsessed with how the fandom collectively agrees that jean and jeremy (a character that literally had 2 lines in the books) get together after jean joins the trojans
edit: nora just confirmed on twitter that she's writing a jean centric book! let's go jerejean girlies
Omg jerejean (and Kevin/Jeremy/Jean) is my fav non canon ship
@@caycecarson its so good that sometimes i forget kevin has a canon gf 😭
not me reading ONLY jerejean fanfics for the last 3 months....i am cringe but i am free!!!!!!
@@abrilmayer1778 I hated how his gf was written so I try to forget about her lol. Like she knew him since he was a teenager and according to the books is still loyal to the people that abused him his whole life like ????? 😭😭 they’d have to get a marriage counselor who enjoys a challenge for that to work out
@@abrilmayer1778 to be fair, I think even Kevin forgets he has a gf in the books 🤣 (the way he never calls her to explain anything until she literally bullies him into talking to her looool)
1:16:24 I think the fact that Neil doesn't remember any of the hair dying and removing of contact lenses happening adds to the vibe of the Raven's Nest. Helps the reader understand just how disorienting Neil's time was in there and how much time he may have lost to the pain and possibly disassociation bc of everything going on. Like, Neil's been through some pretty awful shit already and the fact that he's blocking out a lot of what happened during his time with the Ravens and Riko just adds to the effect of just how bad it all was for him.
I’m only 30 minutes in what the FUCK happens in these books 😂
@@ripplingriver9482 only good things :)
@@ripplingriver9482 a lot
@@ripplingriver9482a lot. like... a shit ton of stuff.
In the new / fourth book "The Sunshine Court" it is confirmed by Jean that Neil was heavily dissosiating during his time at the nest. This is also the reason why he woke up at the airport and did not remember getting on the plane home at all. The torture he experienced is also described through Jean in more detail. Honestly, it was horrifying ;(((((
these books are so absurdly bad but actually incredible so i'm excited to watch this
'absurdly bad but actually incredible' is the best description
You put into words exactly how i felt about the series and seeing this video.
yes
Pardon me because I realize this might be the wrong place to ask but is that Yoo Joonghyuk?
@@Euachin yes it is lmao that's another series i'll never get over
i love how the fandom's feelings about this series are just "god i love this series so much. no one should ever read it"
I keep accidentally bringing it up because I’m re-listening to it currently. And every time I’m just, please please don’t read it.
this series is awful unless you can turn your brain off and imagine it's an anime instead of a book series and then it becomes good in a transcendentally awful way
I went into the series blind and thinking it was closer to Haikyuu But Actually Gay.
@@Emily-jp2wdI haven’t read it but I’ve been under the assumption that it was that too, until I watched this video
Actually, anime was also my first visual connotation after watching this video :) Still, I don't understand how anybody can enjoy something containing so much grief and torture :( Real-life scars are no fun, I presume.
@@angier9385 as someone who's been through abuse and a lot of familial trauma, sometimes sad or violent media is cathartic and a coping mechanism. it's why people enjoy horror movies or tragic plays.
I@@angier9385 I found it pretty unpleasant to read and the main ship did not click with me at all, but I know fandom, so I know exactly how it appeals to some people.
I am as oblivious as Neil. I did not pick up on Andrew's attraction until their convo in Eden's. The whole time first time reading the series I was in the trenches with Neil experiencing everything as he did and his logic seemed so right to me. Then I was done with the books and I realized how irrational and unhinged is everything when I tried explaining them to a friend. I too, am an idiot, like Neil often admits
I gotta admit i couldn't pick up anything from andrew ans i passedit off aa him being on drugs or having withdrawals basically all the time before the nest
SAME!!! It literally took me til the 3rd book to be like "wait maybe neil IS an idiot" by then i finally realized andrew was repressing feelings not that he hated him lmao
Suggesting that the knife be a separate character on the character list because it's "making a lot of appearances" is the funniest thing I have heard all day
I love how every character has a DnD backstory of dead or wealthy villain parents lol
I was once in a Group were we all had decided independently to "fu** that trauma sh*t, you can be a curious and adventurous person without it and decided on more or less normal childhoods and as we went in one by one to Tell the DM about Our incredible lame normal backgrounds he started laughing tears, because he never had that in a Group before. In the end he gasped "what is wrong with you all? Nothing! Nothing is wrong with you!"
I could physically feel the brainrot setting in during the second book, idk what she put in them
Mate I can feel the brainrot setting in just *hearing* this series secondhand.
Probably the same drug that they put in Neil's drink
@@ettaetta439 Crackerdust
i was obsessed with these books at age 14. im 18 now. its still there, inside me. it brought me and two of my best friends even closer together, and im going to reread as soon as my library has the audiobooks available. it's horrible. i love it.
"Inside me"😂😂 I don't know a better way to put it. It's been like 6 years and I'm still obsessed.
omg literally same. i read them when i was like 12-13 and fell in love and now im 18
Literally same bro
I’ve never heard of this series before, but I was kicking my legs like a school girl when you were describing what’s going on, like it legitimately sounds so bad it’s good, I was feeling for the characters right there with you
Dont read it if you’re not ready to be completely obsessed over something so terrible. I read it in three days and have read it 4 times since. I hate it
@@Slimeranchchampion No, but same??? I read all 3 in as many days and I'll definitely go back soon😭
Yeah, the meds situation is a mess. Nora admitted somewhere she just invented a medication because she needed Andrew to show those symptoms. I don't think someone would prescribe meds like that in the first place either.
The implication of Andrew having perfect memory and recall are so tragic tho 😭
The ravens walking in formation take me out every. single. time.
Ohh, I always thought the meds had been misprescribed because of a lack of care in the system, and that's why there were so many side effects, but maybe I red too much into it then 😂
@@alessandraale1950 that would make a bit of sense, but Nora does not follow logic lol
honestly I took it like this too, since I saw Nora say somewhere which illness Andrew had (can't remember exactly which but I think it was some sort of depressive disorder) and one part of the books hints that Andrew being on those meds is more complicated than them just treating something. I think tbf it would make more sense if they were misprescribed, and also explain why no one else but Neil seems to understand why Andrew is the way he is, since the other characters likely just apply any misconceptions and stereotypes about the meds he's on. Idk if that made any sense, I might be reading it completely wrong 😂 @@alessandraale1950
“those are some big words from someone who’s 5 feet” LMAO 😭😭😭
Quick correction: Stuart does not work for the FBI. Stuart is part of a British crime family that Neil's mother was born in. Thats why she married Nathan originally as she ran in the same crime circles. Thats how Neil and her could run away so effectively was due to her crime connections 😅
for some reason i was picturing stuart little while reading this comment 😭😭😭😭😭😭
I paused the video just to check that someone clarified this because the Hatford crime family and Stuart are definitely mentioned by name before that scene. Granted, their names probably aren’t mentioned more than once or twice, but they do come up, and then everything that happens after Stuart kills Nathan should make it clear that he is by no means a fed since he can’t stop the FBI from putting Neil through all the bullsh*t they do.
Thank you for clarification. I also wanted to say the same. Stuart wanted revenge for Mary (Neil's mother) being killed by Nathan and the FBI *let* him away with it because of some sort of deal (can't remember).
By the way, there are lots of interpretation mistakes in the above video, but I totally get it. Every time I reread the books I discover something new and some things suddently click. I seriously doubt there is a single person who gets it all during their first read.
"i dunno about you but i feel a romance brewing" as andrew has neal by the throat in a threat lol. the vibes are immaculate.
I don't normally go for mafia or sports tropes but this one sounds just chaotic enough to make me wanna read it lol.
omg u skipped over my favorite scene in the last book, when the team and andrew see neil for the first time after his father abducted him. i almost died during that scene, more than 5 years later and i still havent forgotten it and it has left a profound impact on me to this day
same! can't even tell how many times i revisited the Hotel Scene, it lives rent free in my head
SAME. the RAGE the teammates felt for him and the way Andrew was handcuffed and almost punched him?? i literally have the scene bookmarked
Yes!!! I read these books when I was around 17 and I had so much fun reading them even though I thought they were so bad. I thought I no longer cared now I'm older but I rediscovered the hotel scene a few days ago and all of the feelings came back to me 😂
its an incredible example of fucking bat shit insane character writing and a plot developed on an acid trip while snorting anime that all somehow turned out both exactly as bad as you would expect and so fucking good I've reread the entire series like 4 times
The reason they didnt recognise Neil was because he left their place at age 10. Hes now 19 so they last saw him when he was little.
Neils uncle was leader of another crime family, Neils mom married from crime family to other. I think neil is half british trough his mom
Not to mention the constanr change in look and location has to hwlp some
I mean come marys more recognizable than him
this feels like a high school au for a source material that doesn't exist
100% this.
I read these books, god i should’ve listened to the gatekeepers these books sent me to hell but didn’t send me back 😂
ahahah that's the best description
I think the reason these books are so addicting is because they’re someone’s true passion project. Like you can FEEL how much love Nora Sakavic has for these characters and this story. For me, it acknowledges all the times as a 14 year old I was made fun of being excited about „girly“ things and lets me experience the true joy of caring and being passionate about something so ridiculous ❤
Listen. Listen. Listen. This series means so much to me. I'm absolutely terrified to watch this video hahaha
don't worry i get you!!!
@@TheBookLeo you've never had a bad book opinion before so I trust you haha
lol same these books live rent free in my heart and soul
I'm ashamed by how hype I was when Riko showed up...
Update: I've been brainwashed and I love all these characters.
The fact that I finished this series 3 days ago and am now watching this video makes me believe in fate
perfect timing!!!
i cant explain how much i need you to do this with The Sunshine Court (also by nora, same universe just different characters!) its so good
NO LITERALLY i neeeed to see a deep dive into the sunshine court
Omg it came out already ?
@@nansiipii9018 it did! it came out in April I believe? it's really good :)
@@nansiipii9018 yep!!
Jean and Jeremy deserve each other 😭
I absolutley LOST IT when Leonie said, "This is basically pitch perfect"
this is my favorite book series of all time. i literally have "yes or no?" tattooed on the back of my neck as a reminder of my own bodily autonomy because I am also often touch-averse like andrew, so you know I'm genuinely a bit of a feral nerd fan about these books. is this series written well? uhm, kind of? is it tropey and could many things have been done better? absolutely. did it also change my entire life and perspectives on consent, love, family, and what it means to truly live instead of survive? also yes and i will die on the hill that this book series is fucking fantastic and i even go so far as to recommend it to people i think it might help in the same ways it helped me.
Who else read these books by accident, without checking any reviews or plot?? Then read it 3 times more??? Only me??
I literally thought they were related to the Raven cycle series when I found them, just because one of the books is called the Raven king 😂 I read them without really knowing what they were about and got obsessed with them
ME TOO GIRL ME TOO
i found book 2 sitting completely by itself in goodwill without it's other two companions. yes it came home with me lol
i knew nothing and read it 6 times
THIS
Calling your drugs "crackerdust" gives me war flashbacks to Riverdale and their JingleJangle drug arc
I haven't watched riverdale - JINGLEJANGLE???? Out of EVERY NAME???
Someone said this already but this book is so “epic highs and lows of high school football”
It's such a niche fandom. And the majority of them adores this series. So it scares me if this gets more popular and newer readers trash it. I get that it's not realistic and "angst" but in the core of it, it's one of the best found family.
i also think that while it has a lot of flaws we all acknowledge, a lot of people go overboard and nitpick even on okay things. that kinda annoys me in those situations.
Really really don't want this to go mainstream. This book series has my babies and I want to keep them safe and away like I have been all these years.
Fr I think the angst is the best part of these books
Genuinely don't understand these "haha it's so shit but i like it"-takes........ like I genuinely love it and it's incredibly dear to me. I hate that it's becoming more popular. like, if it's not for you then it's not for you, there's literally no need to be trash it so bad. I don't think it's trash. I think it has genuinely a lot of heart but like.. idk. This video left a really bad taste in my mouth.
@@l.t.7590 I agree. This video didn't view the series in the best light. It felt like she was making fun of it more than reviewing what it actually had to offer.
I- I just want to say that I genuinely picked this up thinking it was JUST sports and found family. I did not expect the gay ship, I didn't expect the mafia, I didn't expect the trauma. And yet-
You 👏🏻 know 👏🏻 i 👏🏻 get 👏🏻 it (when i tell you the fandom has this speech memorized)
It truly is the greatest romance of all time, you get it. They're dysfunctional human beings, they have kind of a healthy relationship if you think about it lmao
The Nathaniel switch is GENIUS!!
Being raised as a superstar must be really, really difficult for you!!!!
@@ellisarcheralways a commodity never a human being, not a single person in your family thinking you’re worth a damn off the court yeah sounds rough kevin and i talk abt your intricate and endless daddy issues all theeee time
pity only gets you so many concessions and you used up yours about 6 insults ago so please please shut the Fork up
Okay so maybe this was obvious but it’s only now that I realize Neil chose ‘Neil’ as his name because it’s the only part of ‘Nathaniel’ that isn’t ‘Nathan’
Holy-
Almost two hours 💀💀
Leonie slowly growing into her Scorsese/Coppola/Leone era of making three hour, four hour epics 🎥What a development
Leonie deserved to be mentioned along all the great filmmakers! 😌
i think the author genuinely loves these characters and the story despite all the flaws, and that makes them so much more impactful even if the writing is absolutely unhinged. it's simultaneously the worst and best thing ever lmao
You capture the aftg experience so well!! I read somewhere that you just have to read the books so you can read the much better fanfiction about these loveable characters afterwards 😌
my next step...
@@TheBookLeo If you're gonna read fanfiction for this series, you have to read Lessons in cartography! it's so GOOD! It has 2 parts, and it feels so much like a book 4 and 5. The writer totally captured the characters. (It's very much focused on Neil and Andrew's relationship)
@@laurel217omfg a classic!
@@TheBookLeoHead Above Water by Merecy is also really good!
My recc is Blame it on my youth, which takes place 10 years after the events of canon and is just…so good. It is well over a million words but it really flies by. Main plot is Andrew and Neil adopting teenage twins. Found family, adults having friends, good parenting, therapy, mental health, some mafia Drama, healthy relationships, etc.
i’ve never actually seen someone talk about this series while like,, showing their face. sure i’ve talked to fandom accounts abt it and stuff but somehow this just made the books seem so real and not a collective fever dream i shared with thousands of people
We need a list of more books like this.... Unhinged yet you can't put them down
This series is what having a manic episode feels like and I'm obsessed with it 💀
I literally opened this video thinking I wouldn't enjoy the series. Now I want to read it badly.
It may just be me, but these books give me the most sports anime, shounen-ai drama vibes I haven't felt in ages and I absolutely love it. I love that the author was self-aware of her creation and just embraces it all the way. Love that for her.
And as someone that likes drawing, I may just slink away and draw ship art of Neil and Andrew.
I've never been so invested in a book series ive never read. Best video I've ever seen
"See, this is why I don't do sports" 😂😂 I can't. This video is gold!
she rlly did something with this series. nine years later and i still feel myself becoming a crazy person every time i reread. also unsurprisingly, this was the series that got me into fanfiction. for those first couple of years, i read every andreil fic under the sun
tell me why I got so invested in the plot of this series and the way Leonie describes it that I didn’t realize this video is 2 hours long until the end
Omg, what joy this video brought me. I'd literally JUST clicked on it, when my husband walked over and said, "... What's a sports mafia romance?" And I was like, "I'M TRYING TO FIND OUT." hahaha. I loved every moment, am completely intrigued (as in I might now read these), and thank you for all your efforts, lol.
It's what happens when a sports' romance and a mafia romance have a baby? 😏🤔🤷♀️🤷😹😆
16:45 I was laughing so hard, most antipsychotics make you sleepy, you’re a literal zombie, most of the irritability comes from the sleepiness to be honest 😂 I’m bipolar so I take them, and for sure they don’t make you go berserk 😂😂
this series is like when i was 14 years old writing fanfiction about my original characters that didn't exist in any media form
I love the self-indulgence of fandom and internet writing
Its one of the hardest books to recommend- both for its absurd plot and abundance of trigger warnings- but damn is it hard to beat the found family in these books. The ultimate found family book trifecta (raven cycle, six of crows, and aftg) absolutely DOMINATED my tumblr for years. You could not love one without knowing the others. I feel like i dosed so hard on the angsty found family books at once that its hard to find books that make me feel connected to the characters in the same way
The way they’re all related to crows/ravens lol I see a trend…
I literally read these books in a 48 hour trance and then emerged like 'I have experienced something horrible but incredible' anyways I love them soooo bad but no I don't yknow
Only 17 minutes in and I'm utterly obsessed and pissed that Tumblr has never layed this at my feet. Where has this series been my whole life I need it YESTERDAY. As someone who unironically liked Divergent growing up I would have devoured this series wholesale. I adore so bad its good and these books seem like the epitome of it.
I think I got it recommended from Twitter and reddit Lmao
i’m so obsessed with this trilogy it’s insane 😭
Ngl I open this as background noise because I was genuinely bored and now I’m so invested in AndrewxNeil romance. I heard like 50% of the story and 30% of it is just the ships plus the sound of me screaming because of the love/hate, enemies/rivals/annoyances to lovers romance
Having been in this fandom for 4+ years seeing the books on the thumbnail for this video gave me a jumpscare lmao
THIS IS SO TRUE
I read these books on vacation when I was 18, so around 5 years ago. The only thing that I remembered about them was that they were completely unhinged and weird but that I still couldn't stop reading them. So thank you for summarizing them, this was wild
THIS WAS SO SATISFYING TO WATCH, exactlyyyy what I experienced when I read the series - slow descent into madness of loving the characters and being really invested in their victories. THANKS FOR THIS ONE!
These books forever changed my brain chemistry. I gave the first one 3 stars, I put the last one on my favourites shelf, I can talk about these books for hours, I've read hundreds of fics, I've written fanfiction for these books, I told my therapist about what Neil Josten means to me. These books are awful, I love them with my whole heart
Leo made an entire movie adaptation to these books. Almost 2 hours? I can't imagine how much time you spent on editing. Thank you
WHERE?
"...but yes, Andrew did kill his biological mother... Wha-"
*upbeat advert music plays*
I'm typing this at the point where you sum up the end scene of book 2 and its like looking into a mirror. Im as emotionally invested as you right now. What is this madness. Why do i care so much about these characters. I didnt even read the books I'm just a girl sitting on her train to work and I'm close to tears. Am i even ready for book 3? Will they ever be happy? Will i ever care for anything else after this ends?
you should definitely read the books 😭 like Leonie said there're a lot of side plots and characters and amazing scenes that weren't mentioned in the video
@@whoknows.201 Oh No... Don't say that. I feel like I'd enter a world with no escape 😂
@@NIIoSHEA you will… 😂 but it is fabulous
right? I could feel the tears forming during that "help me!!" "let me!!" recap. I'm begging one of my best friends to read these with me. I gotta know
As a 5’ even dude, I appreciate the short king rep
I definitely used to have a fixation on this series, but I have never ever been able to take any scene with Andrew seriously. Like I know he's so strong and bad or whatever, but he's literally 5 feet tall. Like any scene where he acts up is such an unserious visual. In general, anytime Andrew shows up, the book just like shifts into a different dimension where nobody acts realistically and all the dialogue turns into tumblr one-liners.
bro is basically a chihuahua
5 to 5'5 feet men no matter how sporty they are are basically the only men I could overpower I don't believe he's a great fighter at all lol
@@mittag983Its about the muscle and the technique, hence martial arts.
@@spacejasontodd But some of those shorties in that book didn't even do martial arts lmao it was just sooo unrealistic
The way you speak about these books is incredible because why is it 12 at night and im ENTHRALLED
Literally favorite book series ever. If you get it you get it if you don’t you don’t
As a huge fan of this series I think it is incredibly well written with an eccentric and sometimes unbelievable plot. I will recommend this book to anyone willing to read BL books but obviously with trigger warnings. I get so annoyed when people say it’s the worst this ever written but they still love it. No, it well written just the plot line is wild and I’ve never been able to find anything like it. So much angst and found family. Aftg is so dear to my heart
Same!
The fact that I haven't read this series in years but still remember the You know I get it speech....
(Also, you made me want to re-read, so thanks I guess)
I read the fanfic Blame it on my Youth and it comes up a lot because it is 100% Andrew’s favorite memory and he can recite the entire speech from memory and does so gleefully whenever it comes up. So good
I feel like this is one of those times where we can say it’s so bad that it’s good
i read these by accident at the ripe age of pubescent development and my life has been a hellfire shit storm since 💕
I got them recommended to me several times at that age but I refused to read them because they were about sports and now I don't know if that was a blessing or a curse
reading this series at the bright and early age of 12 fully changed the trajectory of my life
Hearing your retelling of this series was so incredibly entertaining. Somehow it's giving major sports anime vibes, like the entire time my brain was envisioning this as an anime story and it just made sense. The "give all/die for your sport"-mentality, the homoerotic tension and edgy "flirting" between the characters. Just in a more unhinged and fucked up way than anime would be-
Could you recommend me some animes of the same vibe? Thank you
OKAY TIME FOR ME TO REREAD THEM THIS IS A SIGN
My yearly re-read 🎉
as a fan of the books, i love when people tear them to shreds, they’re so bad. one small correction though: neil is not gay, he’s demisexual. it seems like a small nitpick, but i actually consider him ace representation done right so i’m kind of overprotective.
anyway, this was a great video and you’re really funny, i loved every second of it.
isn't he both gay and demi??
I always thought he was pansexual and demisexual.
@@kitbracadabra he kissed a girl as a teenager. His sexuality isn't explicit.
I was so worried about this video because this series did carve a hole in my heart to live in when I was a 15yo edgelord, but you just *got it*. You got everything about this that captured me, and everything that is so beyond unrealistic and damaging and cringe that makes the series impossible to talk about to a normal person. So glad I watched this video, it’s a good one!
This series sounds like it was heavily influenced by Japanese anime! It's very cool that I get 'anime vibes' just hearing you read excerpts and talk about the plot and over-exaggerated characters in the books. Anime often has over-exaggerated characters plus drama and comedy sandwiched together to make it serious, yet light-hearted in between major plot points!
The funny thing is that Japan actually somehow manages to pull this off very often in live-action movies and dramas(tv-series) just as well.
i could be remembering this wrong, but i’m pretty sure nora created the idea for the books by making a graphic novel/manga when she was younger so im sure that was the idea!
Could you please recommend me such animes? thank you 😊
I want to use the words "I thought I was going to do [insert normal activity] and now the japanese mafia are involved" every day now
listen there’s just a certain type of “bad” media, that manages to walk the line between brilliant and awful in a way that makes it easy to consume, has just enough silly, bad and annoying things that you can never stop complaining about it and has a grip on you that is unlike anything else. Almost all of my favourite books/movies are like this 😭
I'd wager it is because the authoress is unashamedly writing all the tropes she loves and enjoys instead of making it cerebral and following a Trend or a niche or whatever is hot right now, and this authenticity in the purest sense, just clicks with everyone who is exhausted by copycatdrivel on the one side and soapboxing on the other side with similar tastes. It's like slipping into a Hot bubble bath.
It's the obvious self-indulgence that make them comfy to read, same as the feeling a particular sort of fanfic leaves you with
Man, I reread this series so many times I can’t even count.
I know it’s unhinged, full of inconsistency and contrary. Yet, here I am. Visiting this series. Again and again.
You ask why?(Probably, you’re not but I wanna rattle about it).
Well, somehow this series became my guilty pleasure. It brings me a lot of comfort and smile on my face. I read it when I’m down in the dumps, when I’m happy, when I’m in my normal mood (and start questioning the whole book and its plot and why I’m even reading it in the first place).
It’s silly, unreasonable but what a ride it is. You think it’s badly written but actually it’s not. You rarely expect from two characters who: one of them is a pathological liar and the other has a serious trust issue, to create relationship without toxic behaviours. But they do. Really. Their relationship is one of the healthiest I’ve ever read. It’s build on trust, communication and consent. They both learn how to be comfortable and how to work their way around each other. It’s not your everyday romance story where characters confess love and sugarcoat the meaning of it. There’s none of. This series is 75% about Neil showing off his attitude problem (which I enjoy waaaaay too much), foxes, exy, mafia, fixing everyone’s problems and then there’s those 25% about special bond between Neil and Andrew. I appreciate it and find refreshing.
Also, I love the fandom. Fanarts, fanfictions, tumblr posts. They all are the best.
Yeah, right.
Nobody asked, but here is why I enjoyed the books.
First of all, I read the series now 3 times - only the books, not so much of the extra content just yet (because the books alone still manage to reveal something new every time I read them). So, I have not read any discussions on why exactly the writing is bad because for me it was not. At some places the sentences feel clumsy, yes, but overall it's never boring or not-making-sense. Some character decisions or behaviour is not understandable during the first reading, but it gets better upon every reread and just clicks more and more. It's like you get to know the characters better the more time you spend with them.
Plot holes? Where are there plot holes?... So far nothing stood out really...
The books are under a lot of trigger warnings, but for me personally it never felt intense. Angst? Trauma? A bit, not intense. I have read much more intense stories where your heart and soul are literally crushed and burnt and you take long time to recover. But not with these books, not for me. There are some very sad scenes and I do cry, but it's never crushing. I'd say angst and trauma that are very easy to read :D
I absolutely LOVE the dialogues. They are so clever and just... badass! :D All the comebacks, the verbal fights, the hidden threats or the between the lines stuff. So good! Also lots of dialogue makes more sense upon rereading the whole thing.
I LOVE the backstories of each character. They do feel so real...
I love the twists and revelations! There is so much stuff that happens totally unexpected. How many wtf situations did I have... way too many.... How often did I cheer for a character or all of the foxes... Too many times. It's so exciting! :DDD
And last but not least, the whole found family concept is just so so heart-warming
@jb689 I agree and I’m happy you replied! ❤️
@@cheibby Have you read the 4th book now??
@@jb689 Yes! I've loved it so much. I read sooo many Jean/Jeremy fics and after such long time it became real. I couldn't believe it
@@cheibby Was it in line with your imagination for them? Because I have not read any ff on aftg yet, I only have Noras "version", but how was it for you? I feel like this 4th book is the most sad so far, I cried so many times ;(((. But I feel like Nora will let us start in a very dark place to gradually pull us out of there in the following books and give us another amazing happy end.
You KNOW I’m going to sit through this whole this because Leonie is amazing