I mean, personally, if I told someone I was deeply afraid of drowning and they forced me into a scenario near identical to drowning, I don't think I'd be catching any feelings other than disgust and a neverending hatred, but that's just me.
I'm genuinely starting to think Booktok is pranking us. 99% of books I read because of Booktok are the worst books I've ever read. Both in content and writing skill. It's insane.
I read all seven. Not saying I’m a fan, but I just CANNOT leave a story line unfinished. It’s all a mess. It’s all a damn mess. The first two books are so triggering, by the third the plot finally gets exposed. You’re not off. You saved yourself by not reading the rest of the series.
Well I am sure glad it’s not twelve based off all the zodiac signs. I can’t even say it was a cash grab, it would have to be remotely interesting/engaging to be that. I only read three chapters, was definitely not for me, or most.
Not you FINALLY getting out of your reading slump and landing directly in this pile of hot garb 😭😭😭 I'm dying at your reactions at the professor names, and the DIALOGUE 💀💀💀💀💀 Every booktok rec you've ever read and reviewed has just convinced me that booktok absolutely cannot be trusted
As someone who wants to possibly self publish my novels, I've always been afraid of the judgement of the mighty booktok. Now with whats been happening lately, I'm starting to believe that the bar might be on the ground, which kinda calms me a bit. 😂
Was so close to picking up this book because of the magical school part. Native Spanish speaker here. Spanglish is real but many non spanish speakers think that we always interject one spanish word at the end of a sentence (american dirt did this), when in reality intermixing languages is more natural, flowed, and spanish words are mixed throughout. I'm tired of writers not doing their homework when it comes to other languages. I don't believe either of the authors identify as Latinx which would explain their lack of understanding.
I currently live in El Paso, and the Spanglish is unreal here. Like I used to live in Dallas, and heard it there, but in El Paso it's another level. One girl i used to work with always said pero, and would say a word in Spanish, before remembering I don't speak it.
Yeah and if spanglish or any other dialect is something they want in their story, and they couldn’t be bothered to research it properly, they could hire a bilingual ghost writer to write that part of the dialogue and PAY THEM FAIRLY
No cause what is that early 2000's 144p map 💀 books like these always give me the vibe of "fantasy but the fantasy is in the background of whatever weird fucked up fanfic-esque romance is more important". BookTok can't be trusted 🤡
That is the perfect summary. So many times the synopsis sounds interesting in terms of the premise, but... then it's usually a terrible romance where "enemies to lover" (rarely is it truly) is thrown in for no reason
I have never been SO excited to see another person hate this series too 😂 I knew what it involved and yet I still hated it. also if ONE MORE PERSON tells me "it gets better after book 3" I will lose it 😂
I am just getting over the flu, and a dose of Jess is just what I needed. "Speaking of cherries, has anyone popped yours?" Done. No. Criminal. Thank you for this video, Jess. You are the best.
Just 20% of watching this video, I felt it was a Harry Potter fanfic, and now almost done watching it feels like a cringey Harry Potter that has a mix of the Western version of Boys Over Flowers
Oh my god…I just started (not even 3 min in) but I’m so excited for this 😂 I got them on kindle unlimited too and DNFd at 20%! I was like “this is awful”. But EVERYONE and their grandma goes on about how amazing it is! 🧐 I need to hear someone not liking it like me 👏🏽👏🏽
As a Native Spanish speaker I find it so lazy of writers to just add a few Spanish words here and there and call it a day, especially when you see “que pasa?” 😠😒😒😒 that’s when you know they didn’t do much research and just went with the most generic phrase. Depending on the Latin American country there are so many different greetings you can use: que hubo? como andas? Qué pedo? Qué onda? All meaning the same thing what’s up? It is just lazy and I do not have time for that! Anyway, I really enjoyed the video, I will not be reading this book lol, and I hope your next read is better! ☺️🥰
Honestly, never read this (and not planning to after this). And honestly, if they had gotten rid of the SA and general horribleness of the characters and leaned into the silliness of the different fae types it would've been a much better story. I mean, dragon-fae regaining powers by rolling around in gold is such a funny and weird concept, and I wish they leaned into that more than....what they actually did, judging by what your review says here. Though IDK if they lean into more of the ridiculousness of it, again, never read the series. 🤷
Those professor names are wild. My eyes nearly rolled out of my skull when you listed them. Like honestly it feels as though they’re supposed to be placeholder names but then either laziness got in the way & they chose not to change any or the authors genuinely thought that they were clever. Hell in my own writing, I’ve used a multitude of the endless easy & free name generators to workshop actual original & memorable names for my characters, so I feel that there’s really no excuse for an author to resort to such rote & bland naming conventions.
For someone who’s in the 4th book it doesn’t get better. I decided to push through and I can usually read a book a day but Wow it’s like pulling teeth. I agree with everything you said. These characters have no redeeming qualities. Also, the sisters I mean even though they get bullied they still get in a relationship with said bullies WHICH MAKES NO SENSE! There’s literally nothing good that happens to these characters and it’s exhausting. There’s nothing to look forward to.
Booktok is driven by preteens and HS girls who like these books and romance is skewing towards toxic and abusive relationships. Hate to see it. Self-publishing has to do better. I’m so tired of low quality books being hyped up. I read the blurb and I could tell it was going to be trash. Any blurb written in 1st person tells me all I need to know about the quality.
Had a friend recommend this book to me, and I checked out a sample on my e-reader. It was so poorly written I couldn’t get past the first page. Now, I am so glad I chose to stop-while non-consent/humiliation/assault is a fetish that frequently makes its way into SFF, it isn’t for me. I particularly don’t like fiction that normalizes abuse by making it seem dramatic and romantic and hot.
I admire you pushing through this book. I would rather stab myself in the eye or something...but I really enjoy your rants...so much that I secretly want you to read books you dislike. I know- I'm a bad bad person. ;)
I feel like they stole that cherry popping line from the special features of the mean girls dvd where tina fey says that they wanted to have a cherry popping joke but had to change it to "has your muffin been buttered?"
I remember when the first one came out and was "buy for $0.00 on Amazon!" and decided to give it a try. I made it to the bonfire/affinity part and NOPEd out of there so fast. I can not do academy bully "romance" anything. Life is too short.
I don't trust BookTok on principle. I've never seen anything being majorly hyped on TikTok that ended up being up my alley. There's a...ahem...type of taste on BookTok that is just not my taste.
I love waking up in the morning and choosing violence 🤣 I gotta do the whole series now lmao Book tok has relationship issues seriously. Can we just kink shame book tok at this point.
Saw there was a new video and I clicked so fast. 😂 I'm from Puerto Rico, so I'm mainly a Spanish speaker, and I can confirm 100% we don't do that AT ALL. I talk to my best friend in California every day (she doesn't speak Spanish) and I only ever say stuff in Spanish when I don't know the word in English or there is no translation (that I know of). I don't know about other Spanish speakers, but NOT I. This series was recommended to me too and I'm so sorry you had to suffer through this hot mess of word soup, but also so glad I can avoid it now. 🤣🙌
I don't speak spanish but I'm bilingual, it's giving very much the type of writing where a character goes '_______ , oh sorry I meant thank you. I get confused sometimes.' Like, this is the only way for the authors to let you know the character is Ethnic(TM)
Saaame couldn’t tell the twins apart, it’s crazy. And the bullying gets worse and worse. It’s very problematic. No really zodiac oriented plot. I picked the book for this reason. I had no idea about the bully romance 🥴 First and last time I read one book with this trope yikes
CW: sexual assault. Undines are water nymphs (elemental spirits that looks like young girls) from the greco-roman mythology. Why did they call this the Zodiac academy but not based it on hellenistic astrology? This would have been so fun. They obviously picked 18yo for their characters only to introduce sexual abuse in lieu of a plot. Scratch that, it's SA in lieu of romance. Sad to see we are still at the bottom of the barrel as a culture. 🙃 Did the kids like it? I dont think, the unoriginal names would have bothered much as a teen. I did enjoy Harry Potter in highschool and it's a simplistic/reductive universe.
GIRL. The timing of this video is hilarious because I was just reviewing my TBR yesterday and looked into this one because I've been seeing it a lot, too. The synopsis was iffy, but seemed ok then I decided to read the reviews.... & I was like NAW. I'm good. Thanks, though!! But I could not get to your video fast enough lmfaoooo. It sounds like this book tried to do way too much and did everything in the most cliche way possible. I already removed it from my TBR but I'm glad to feel more vindicated in my decision, lol.
I tried to read this book and it made me so uncomfortable. It was very triggering. I see so many people talk about this series and say it’s a bully romance but no one really says what that is. No trigger warnings. Thank you for this video.
I have heard that the first book can be pretty "rough" but many reviews I have seen say they definitely improve as the series continues! I am not sure it is worth the time but just wanted to share that tidbit that I had heard from other peeps!
Ok... I'm so happy I DNF'd at 20%. All the things you've said are things I hated (writing was not good, characters were horrible, the teachers were horrible, the "hot guys" that are sexually assaulting everyone) were the reasons I stopped! I worried I should keep going.. like maybe it would get better... but girl you convinced me I made the right choice! Thank you! hahaha
I read a book (Splintered) where the love interest was CONSTANTLY touching the main character even though he had a girlfriend and it INFURIATED me. I won't be reading the sequals.
One of the discords I'm in is ALL ABOUT this book right now, there's a channel dedicated to it and everything. I've been skeptical and now I know I was right to be skeptical. Thanks for taking one for the team.
You literally are a comedian and booktuber. Like your videos have me howling. the way you read out the professor names has me genuinely laughing out loud. Booktok has some good horror recs in my opinion but any other genre, I'm shook always by what is popular.
I had to stop the video so I could laugh!!! 🤣🤣🤣 I swear I felt the same way! These books are AS$!!! I thought it was me. I haven’t listened to any other suggestions on Social media since. Because ya girl be wanting to go in but don’t want to get banned for breaking community rules!
I’m reading this series. I’m somewhere between hate and hate love reading it, hoping the next page is gonna be better than the last. I’m too invested now, this is my life, I’m not mad tho, it’s entertaining
It may be Harry Potter based (or at least based on a lot of similar tropes) but watching this review, I’m getting some weirdly EL James vibes from some aspects of this book.
Thank you for making me laugh out loud. I've been seeing this book everywhere, but books hyped on Tiktok have always been dubious to me. Especially when they are advertised as "Tiktok made me buy it" and the books hasn't even been released unlike books that are re-released with that tagline. Thank you for saving me the trouble and now I don't have to force myself to read it 😂
Thank you for saving me. You suffer to save the rest of us. I always want you to love what you're reading....but your rant reviews have to be one of the best things on the internet, especially with your dramatic readings.
These books are Longggggg and a BIG waste of time (from what I am hearing from you)that you will never get back! Thanks Jess for doing it so I didn’t! 😊
That was interesting, I haven't heard about this book before and I'm really grateful for that now :') Thanks for sharing your thoughts, hope the next book you read is more enjoyable ✨
Oh man when I worked at a bookstore I had coworkers who were OBSESSED with this series. It never seemed like something I would like, glad to know I was right to steer clear lol
One of my clients LOVES this series and I’ve seen it blow up since. He says it gets better after book 3 but he didn’t care for the lost recent one. Now I’m wavering 😭😭
The title of the book makes me think they'd be a school teaching divination like tea leaf reading, palmistry, tarot, runes etc. I would've preferred that. LOL
I feel like this book had a lot of potential to be one of those kind of trashy KU books that you don't take too seriously and are super enjoyable to read... does that make sense? But I also found how just unpleasant everyone was in this book to be a lot. I DNFed fairly early on and basically said I need someone to tell me it stops being so non-stop bullying to encourage me to read it... so basically this detailed review has helped me know that I am definitely not going to want to return to it.
I love how you had just a tiny little bit of music at the beginning of your video, but you **didn't** keep it running while you were talking. Music behind/under TH-cam video reviews, essays, opinions are the BANE of my existence. Thank you tons for doing it right! 🙂Subscribed!
I just found you and YOU ARE TOTALLY RIGHT!!!! I read it really fast because I was into the dark romance to a point. Once that point was hit, I was like , "NOPE, I"M OUT!" I can only handle stupid people for so long.
Professor names are giving "8th Grader opens a thesaurus for the first time" (Said as a former 8th Grader who did EXACTLY that. XD) Hope your next book is... less of this? Eeesh.
Thanks, I hate it. 🤣 I'm now remembering I actually read the first page of this because a FB friend recommended it. Noped out very early because the writing was ROUGH.
A friend recommended this book series to me. After reading it, I came to the conclusion, that the authors thought "if he's hot, then it is not s*xual ab*se." Advised my friend to find therapy.
Glad it was you and not me. Not that I had planned on ever reading this 😂 Also a no from me on bully romance or whatever that is described as. I appreciate this content.
I have this book on my shelf right now and this review either gonna make me run and read it or donate. If it’s fun, at least, I might still. Chaos can be fun.
I think its weird that Harry Potter now owns so many things that really were just things that aren't unique to that world. For example All of Britain and most of the Commonwealth have houses in their schools with points that compete. So many things attributed to Joann are just very old tropes and im not saying she didnt do it well. She did, while introducing old assed stereotypes and racist archetypes to children but I digress, nothing is original and other people should be allowed to use these tropes without their work being compared and contrasted against hers.
I'm glad you checked this book out because you pretty much said everything I thought would be an issue in the book (based off the summary) is an issue. So now I don't have to read the book myself, even if Tiktok and Amazon best sellers keep pushing it to me. Thanks for taking one for the team. I have read a book series by this writing duo (Darkmore Penitentiary) and I did enjoy it as a kind of pulpy aggressive style read. BUT the characters were all adults, and our lead was clearly traumatized and acting out from that trauma so a lot of the boo boo happening I could sort of overlook as specific to that character and not attempting to model healthy behavior. But there was quite a bit of spelling and grammar issues in the series and a MAIN complaint I had is the series is three books long with book one claiming it's a prison break but we're in book three and still in prison. Thousands of pages for a few weeks in prison! I know authors get paid by the page in KU so they tend to milk scenes for a higher page count but this was too much. Interesting enough this series had some weird cultural elements too. the made up fae language was based on Italian. Sometimes the lead said whole phrases and sometimes only single words. And the original cover art for "Caged Wolf" seems to imply the main character is black but based of the faery Italian language I'd think she's like mafia Sicilian. I don't know, it made me feel weird. Oh also, it's a reverse harem and one of the two of the love interests are irredeemable in assault/torture and more banal mistreatment kind of ways. Thankfully the relationships take a back seat to the whole "escaping prison" part.
I had to pause the video once you said this book was a** 😂. I knew your review was gonna be honest and good. For one someone who is into astrology, the book cover pissed me off. The zodiac wheel is missing Capricorn ( funny, my actual zodiac sign). But I could not read this book at all. It was so difficult to read. Like pick a struggle, are we doing zodiac. Supernatural, Fae, elements, what?! Also I can't stand this weird, let's be rapey but romantic things in books like no. I am staying so far away from book tok now. Also as a Native Spanish speak, when I do speak Spanglish with friends, I will start it in Spanish and then close to the end, end it in with English. And sometimes it will one English sentence and then follow one in complete Spanish. But Spanglish is whatever the speak feels comfortable using. And the authors would have known that, had they done some research 🙄
About to finish book 2 in the zodiac academy and I have been scouring TH-cam for videos on the series so I’m so hype for this video 😂 I’m just 2 min in but your personality is everything
![TIPSY READING/REACTING TO FIVE STAR REVIEWS OF BOOKS I HATE [CC]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4ScC3nXmTLs/mqdefault.jpg)
![TIPSY READING/REACTING TO FIVE STAR REVIEWS OF BOOKS I HATE [CC]](/img/tr.png)
![LIED TO, BAMBOOZLED, AND LED ASTRAY: THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS RANT | Spoilers [CC]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MdNDlDA3TvI/mqdefault.jpg)
![I READ LOVE ON THE BRAIN...AND ALI HAZELWOOD'S GOODREADS INTERVIEW...I HAVE THOUGHTS [CC]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DHMrGqzwATs/mqdefault.jpg)
“This book was ass.” That is the honest review we need more of in this world. ❤️
It caught me off guard 😂 I don’t think I’ve ever seen a booktuber just come out and say it
NEVER TRUST BOOKTOK'S TASTE
A recommendation from BookTok is a stamp of doom
I am read it for the chaos anyways 🤣
@@cjn8719 booktok recommendations are great because it lets you know which books to stay away from 🤣
Completely agree. Came here to say Booktok has no taste.
I never have and don’t regret it💀
I mean, personally, if I told someone I was deeply afraid of drowning and they forced me into a scenario near identical to drowning, I don't think I'd be catching any feelings other than disgust and a neverending hatred, but that's just me.
I'm genuinely starting to think Booktok is pranking us. 99% of books I read because of Booktok are the worst books I've ever read. Both in content and writing skill. It's insane.
That's what you get from cultivating a readership that evaluates the quality of a book based purely on a Valid Tropes bingo chart
I read all seven. Not saying I’m a fan, but I just CANNOT leave a story line unfinished. It’s all a mess. It’s all a damn mess. The first two books are so triggering, by the third the plot finally gets exposed. You’re not off. You saved yourself by not reading the rest of the series.
Omggg ALL SEVEN😵💫
I got to book 4 for the same reason but then I decided to spoil the rest and read some reviews and..... ugh I can't.
3 books just to get to the damn point??
Well I am sure glad it’s not twelve based off all the zodiac signs. I can’t even say it was a cash grab, it would have to be remotely interesting/engaging to be that. I only read three chapters, was definitely not for me, or most.
I only watched bad review videos about the book and I’m already triggered by it!!!!
Not you FINALLY getting out of your reading slump and landing directly in this pile of hot garb 😭😭😭 I'm dying at your reactions at the professor names, and the DIALOGUE 💀💀💀💀💀
Every booktok rec you've ever read and reviewed has just convinced me that booktok absolutely cannot be trusted
The dialogue was turrrrrible and then names, like wow so much thought 😒
As someone who wants to possibly self publish my novels, I've always been afraid of the judgement of the mighty booktok. Now with whats been happening lately, I'm starting to believe that the bar might be on the ground, which kinda calms me a bit. 😂
Same her, hon. Same here.
😅😅😅😅 you KNOW you can do better! Write that book girl🥰😂🥰
Was so close to picking up this book because of the magical school part. Native Spanish speaker here. Spanglish is real but many non spanish speakers think that we always interject one spanish word at the end of a sentence (american dirt did this), when in reality intermixing languages is more natural, flowed, and spanish words are mixed throughout. I'm tired of writers not doing their homework when it comes to other languages. I don't believe either of the authors identify as Latinx which would explain their lack of understanding.
Makes me cringe so hard when white authors who don't speak spanish try to recreate spanglish by just throwing a random word in at the end lol
Thank you for correcting them!
I knew it felt so awkward and wrong.
I currently live in El Paso, and the Spanglish is unreal here. Like I used to live in Dallas, and heard it there, but in El Paso it's another level. One girl i used to work with always said pero, and would say a word in Spanish, before remembering I don't speak it.
Yeah and if spanglish or any other dialect is something they want in their story, and they couldn’t be bothered to research it properly, they could hire a bilingual ghost writer to write that part of the dialogue and PAY THEM FAIRLY
At this point, if you’re bamboozled by booktok it’s on you 😭I’m so sorry Jess.
🤣🤣🤣
It is, it is my fault 😭
No cause what is that early 2000's 144p map 💀 books like these always give me the vibe of "fantasy but the fantasy is in the background of whatever weird fucked up fanfic-esque romance is more important". BookTok can't be trusted 🤡
That is the perfect summary. So many times the synopsis sounds interesting in terms of the premise, but... then it's usually a terrible romance where "enemies to lover" (rarely is it truly) is thrown in for no reason
I have never been SO excited to see another person hate this series too 😂 I knew what it involved and yet I still hated it.
also if ONE MORE PERSON tells me "it gets better after book 3" I will lose it 😂
Like why must I suffer for that long ? And then you know if you did continue reading, they wouldn’t get better
That reminds me of people saying that about Supernatural. Just because it's better after a certain point, doesn't make it good.
I am just getting over the flu, and a dose of Jess is just what I needed. "Speaking of cherries, has anyone popped yours?" Done. No. Criminal. Thank you for this video, Jess. You are the best.
Glad you’re recovering❤️
@@user-vy2hz6fl6x - Thank you so much! I really appreciate that.
Based on the names of some of these characters it feels like they started this as Harry Potter FanFic in middle school.
Just 20% of watching this video, I felt it was a Harry Potter fanfic, and now almost done watching it feels like a cringey Harry Potter that has a mix of the Western version of Boys Over Flowers
Could be a Victorious fanfic considering the main characters names...
"it was giving middle-grade energy but then that's looking down on middle-grade" is such an accurate statement for this book thank you so much
Kept seeing these on BookTok, but when I read the synopses, I was like, "Nah." Glad to hear I didn't miss anything.
Oh my god…I just started (not even 3 min in) but I’m so excited for this 😂 I got them on kindle unlimited too and DNFd at 20%! I was like “this is awful”. But EVERYONE and their grandma goes on about how amazing it is! 🧐 I need to hear someone not liking it like me 👏🏽👏🏽
As a Native Spanish speaker I find it so lazy of writers to just add a few Spanish words here and there and call it a day, especially when you see “que pasa?” 😠😒😒😒 that’s when you know they didn’t do much research and just went with the most generic phrase. Depending on the Latin American country there are so many different greetings you can use: que hubo? como andas? Qué pedo? Qué onda? All meaning the same thing what’s up? It is just lazy and I do not have time for that!
Anyway, I really enjoyed the video, I will not be reading this book lol, and I hope your next read is better! ☺️🥰
Honestly, never read this (and not planning to after this). And honestly, if they had gotten rid of the SA and general horribleness of the characters and leaned into the silliness of the different fae types it would've been a much better story. I mean, dragon-fae regaining powers by rolling around in gold is such a funny and weird concept, and I wish they leaned into that more than....what they actually did, judging by what your review says here.
Though IDK if they lean into more of the ridiculousness of it, again, never read the series. 🤷
Booktok has steered me wrong a few times. I tend to avoid recommendations from there now. “This book was ass.” 🤣🤣🤣 Love your brutal honesty.
Those professor names are wild. My eyes nearly rolled out of my skull when you listed them. Like honestly it feels as though they’re supposed to be placeholder names but then either laziness got in the way & they chose not to change any or the authors genuinely thought that they were clever. Hell in my own writing, I’ve used a multitude of the endless easy & free name generators to workshop actual original & memorable names for my characters, so I feel that there’s really no excuse for an author to resort to such rote & bland naming conventions.
Opened the book, looked at the map, put the book right back down. If the map is half assed the book is half assed
For someone who’s in the 4th book it doesn’t get better. I decided to push through and I can usually read a book a day but Wow it’s like pulling teeth. I agree with everything you said. These characters have no redeeming qualities. Also, the sisters I mean even though they get bullied they still get in a relationship with said bullies WHICH MAKES NO SENSE! There’s literally nothing good that happens to these characters and it’s exhausting. There’s nothing to look forward to.
OMG JESS, there are so many youtubers giving this book good reviews on here and I could SCREAM lmao - I'm Judging.....I'm Judging HARD
THEY LYIN!!!
Booktok is driven by preteens and HS girls who like these books and romance is skewing towards toxic and abusive relationships. Hate to see it.
Self-publishing has to do better. I’m so tired of low quality books being hyped up. I read the blurb and I could tell it was going to be trash. Any blurb written in 1st person tells me all I need to know about the quality.
Any blurb written in first person 😂😂😂😂 you have a point !
Sorry for my ignorance, but what is a blurb?
@@Angelica-sq9lh the synopsis, like what is typically on the back of the book.
@@ajlee4296 Thanks for explaining it to me! I didn't know this term :D
(I'm not a native english speaker)
@@Angelica-sq9lh It's the summary of the book that's usually on the back of a physical copy or before reviews on e-book format.
Had a friend recommend this book to me, and I checked out a sample on my e-reader. It was so poorly written I couldn’t get past the first page. Now, I am so glad I chose to stop-while non-consent/humiliation/assault is a fetish that frequently makes its way into SFF, it isn’t for me. I particularly don’t like fiction that normalizes abuse
by making it seem dramatic and romantic and hot.
I love reading 1 star reviews of books I hated/dnf'd. So gratifying.
It’s one of my favorite hobbies
I admire you pushing through this book. I would rather stab myself in the eye or something...but I really enjoy your rants...so much that I secretly want you to read books you dislike. I know- I'm a bad bad person. ;)
I feel like they stole that cherry popping line from the special features of the mean girls dvd where tina fey says that they wanted to have a cherry popping joke but had to change it to "has your muffin been buttered?"
😂😂
I remember when the first one came out and was "buy for $0.00 on Amazon!" and decided to give it a try. I made it to the bonfire/affinity part and NOPEd out of there so fast. I can not do academy bully "romance" anything. Life is too short.
I don't trust BookTok on principle. I've never seen anything being majorly hyped on TikTok that ended up being up my alley. There's a...ahem...type of taste on BookTok that is just not my taste.
I love waking up in the morning and choosing violence 🤣 I gotta do the whole series now lmao
Book tok has relationship issues seriously. Can we just kink shame book tok at this point.
that map looks like a map of Neopia... take me to the giant omelette
omg I cackled 😂
Your reviews are always so entertaining! 😂 you gave this one a real try and probably made it further than I would’ve
It had slight potential but then crashed and burned
You are truly a saint for finishing this and bringing us the truth! I hope you have cleansed your brain with some good reading after this!
Saw there was a new video and I clicked so fast. 😂 I'm from Puerto Rico, so I'm mainly a Spanish speaker, and I can confirm 100% we don't do that AT ALL. I talk to my best friend in California every day (she doesn't speak Spanish) and I only ever say stuff in Spanish when I don't know the word in English or there is no translation (that I know of). I don't know about other Spanish speakers, but NOT I. This series was recommended to me too and I'm so sorry you had to suffer through this hot mess of word soup, but also so glad I can avoid it now. 🤣🙌
I don't speak spanish but I'm bilingual, it's giving very much the type of writing where a character goes '_______ , oh sorry I meant thank you. I get confused sometimes.' Like, this is the only way for the authors to let you know the character is Ethnic(TM)
@@HiipsterGlasses 100% this.
It was so random, just ONE word thrown in there in Spanish. Like please do some research if you want a Spanish speaking character 😒
Saaame couldn’t tell the twins apart, it’s crazy.
And the bullying gets worse and worse. It’s very problematic.
No really zodiac oriented plot. I picked the book for this reason. I had no idea about the bully romance 🥴
First and last time I read one book with this trope yikes
i SHANT be continuing it 😭😭😭 I love you Jess, you crack me up.
😆😆
CW: sexual assault.
Undines are water nymphs (elemental spirits that looks like young girls) from the greco-roman mythology. Why did they call this the Zodiac academy but not based it on hellenistic astrology? This would have been so fun.
They obviously picked 18yo for their characters only to introduce sexual abuse in lieu of a plot. Scratch that, it's SA in lieu of romance. Sad to see we are still at the bottom of the barrel as a culture.
🙃
Did the kids like it? I dont think, the unoriginal names would have bothered much as a teen. I did enjoy Harry Potter in highschool and it's a simplistic/reductive universe.
One of the MCs name is *Tory Vega*
I'm surpriced Nickelodion hasn't sued the author yet.
GIRL. The timing of this video is hilarious because I was just reviewing my TBR yesterday and looked into this one because I've been seeing it a lot, too. The synopsis was iffy, but seemed ok then I decided to read the reviews.... & I was like NAW. I'm good. Thanks, though!! But I could not get to your video fast enough lmfaoooo. It sounds like this book tried to do way too much and did everything in the most cliche way possible. I already removed it from my TBR but I'm glad to feel more vindicated in my decision, lol.
I’m happy to save you the time and brain ache
I tried to read this book and it made me so uncomfortable. It was very triggering. I see so many people talk about this series and say it’s a bully romance but no one really says what that is. No trigger warnings. Thank you for this video.
I have heard that the first book can be pretty "rough" but many reviews I have seen say they definitely improve as the series continues! I am not sure it is worth the time but just wanted to share that tidbit that I had heard from other peeps!
The overall rating gets higher for sure but these dudes cannot be forgiven
@@JessOwens oh no!! Full Stop for you on that one then 🤣
@@JessOwens No bc you think that but then you get to book six and the development is just 🤌🏻
Ok... I'm so happy I DNF'd at 20%. All the things you've said are things I hated (writing was not good, characters were horrible, the teachers were horrible, the "hot guys" that are sexually assaulting everyone) were the reasons I stopped! I worried I should keep going.. like maybe it would get better... but girl you convinced me I made the right choice! Thank you! hahaha
I read a book (Splintered) where the love interest was CONSTANTLY touching the main character even though he had a girlfriend and it INFURIATED me. I won't be reading the sequals.
I just finished this first one today and bloody hell, I haven't read anything this bad since the early YA paranormal days 🤣
RIGHT. I’m convinced this was written in 2008 and not edited since 🙃
One of the discords I'm in is ALL ABOUT this book right now, there's a channel dedicated to it and everything. I've been skeptical and now I know I was right to be skeptical. Thanks for taking one for the team.
Wowww, stay away Jen! Don’t fall for it !
Beening seeing this EVERYWHERE and was going to look into what all the hype was, so glad I dont have to. 😆 Thank you!!
Oh nooo, you know they were probably proud of coming up with "FaeBook," too 😭
They probably like YEAHHH, WE DID THAT 😂
“It came out in 2019 and now there are seven of them.”
Ex-fucking-scuse me? This series is how old and there are ALREADY seven of them?
Thank you for articulating everything I couldn't while reading this
You literally are a comedian and booktuber. Like your videos have me howling. the way you read out the professor names has me genuinely laughing out loud. Booktok has some good horror recs in my opinion but any other genre, I'm shook always by what is popular.
Oooof. This is giving me anxiety just listening to the descriptions of abuse and lack of consent. Sounds vile. Thanks for taking the hit on this one🥲
I had to stop the video so I could laugh!!! 🤣🤣🤣 I swear I felt the same way! These books are AS$!!! I thought it was me. I haven’t listened to any other suggestions on Social media since. Because ya girl be wanting to go in but don’t want to get banned for breaking community rules!
“Absolutely not, garbage, garbage, garbage. Everyone should go to jail.”
pretty much summarises this book lmao
I’m reading this series. I’m somewhere between hate and hate love reading it, hoping the next page is gonna be better than the last. I’m too invested now, this is my life, I’m not mad tho, it’s entertaining
It may be Harry Potter based (or at least based on a lot of similar tropes) but watching this review, I’m getting some weirdly EL James vibes from some aspects of this book.
You are not wrong
It's giving Twitches meets Harry Potter tbh
😭😭😭😭😭Read the Crave series next. It’s horrible as well but I just really your rants
LMAO lemme think about it
Thank you for taking the hit for us. Not all heroes wear capes! 🤣 ❤️
I can’t do much, but I do what I can 😉
I am LIVING FOR THIS REACTION 😂😂😂
Thank you for making me laugh out loud. I've been seeing this book everywhere, but books hyped on Tiktok have always been dubious to me. Especially when they are advertised as "Tiktok made me buy it" and the books hasn't even been released unlike books that are re-released with that tagline.
Thank you for saving me the trouble and now I don't have to force myself to read it 😂
"This book was azz" 🥴💥😭😭😭😭
Thank you for saving me. You suffer to save the rest of us. I always want you to love what you're reading....but your rant reviews have to be one of the best things on the internet, especially with your dramatic readings.
I am willing to sacrifice for my people
These books are Longggggg and a BIG waste of time (from what I am hearing from you)that you will never get back! Thanks Jess for doing it so I didn’t! 😊
IM SORRY BUT IT REALLY DOES LOOK LIKE A BAD 2004 RPG MAP OMFGGGG 😭😭 NOOO
edit: FAEBOOK????? HOW DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS 💀
I should’ve known from the map 😣
Laughed out loud at the image of a dragon rolling around on top of gold hahaha
That was interesting, I haven't heard about this book before and I'm really grateful for that now :') Thanks for sharing your thoughts, hope the next book you read is more enjoyable ✨
Oh my gosh, that map gave me serious Heroes 3 vibes LOL
it's giving the cruel prince lmao
Oh man when I worked at a bookstore I had coworkers who were OBSESSED with this series. It never seemed like something I would like, glad to know I was right to steer clear lol
“This book was ass, and I have a lot of thoughts.” I’m dead! I laughed so hard! I feel the same with so many tiktok recommended books. 10/10 review
I DNFd this one EARLY. I applaud your bravery. lol
One of my clients LOVES this series and I’ve seen it blow up since. He says it gets better after book 3 but he didn’t care for the lost recent one. Now I’m wavering 😭😭
I'm so sorry you went through 400 pages of this book. I listened to a summary for a half hour and had my fill of the garbage. 😂😂
The title of the book makes me think they'd be a school teaching divination like tea leaf reading, palmistry, tarot, runes etc. I would've preferred that. LOL
I feel like this book had a lot of potential to be one of those kind of trashy KU books that you don't take too seriously and are super enjoyable to read... does that make sense? But I also found how just unpleasant everyone was in this book to be a lot. I DNFed fairly early on and basically said I need someone to tell me it stops being so non-stop bullying to encourage me to read it... so basically this detailed review has helped me know that I am definitely not going to want to return to it.
Yes ! I honestly was hoping it was just a fun popcorn read. But nope
I love how you had just a tiny little bit of music at the beginning of your video, but you **didn't** keep it running while you were talking. Music behind/under TH-cam video reviews, essays, opinions are the BANE of my existence. Thank you tons for doing it right! 🙂Subscribed!
You're out here doing the good work, saving us from bad books.
I was considering this until now. Thx!
I just found you and YOU ARE TOTALLY RIGHT!!!! I read it really fast because I was into the dark romance to a point. Once that point was hit, I was like , "NOPE, I"M OUT!" I can only handle stupid people for so long.
Professor names are giving "8th Grader opens a thesaurus for the first time" (Said as a former 8th Grader who did EXACTLY that. XD) Hope your next book is... less of this? Eeesh.
😂😂😂
Thanks, I hate it. 🤣
I'm now remembering I actually read the first page of this because a FB friend recommended it. Noped out very early because the writing was ROUGH.
A friend recommended this book series to me. After reading it, I came to the conclusion, that the authors thought "if he's hot, then it is not s*xual ab*se." Advised my friend to find therapy.
they could link the elemts with the houses with the element that rules the zodiac, all fire signs in one house etc... not even that lol
not that janky club penguin map noooooooooo who looked at that and was like yes ship it?
😂😂😂😂😂
Glad it was you and not me. Not that I had planned on ever reading this 😂
Also a no from me on bully romance or whatever that is described as.
I appreciate this content.
I think your face at 2:18 should be a reaction meme. It has strong "What the fuck!? energy 😆
I have this book on my shelf right now and this review either gonna make me run and read it or donate. If it’s fun, at least, I might still. Chaos can be fun.
Read it hehe.
Thank you!! Always looking out for us 💟
I do what I can for y’all 😆
Bleech! So glad I'm uncool and out of the loop! With age comes reason, at least, dear God I hope so. Bless you
Oh I am with you all the way on this. I fell for the booktok hype telling me I’d love it and then the horde came for me when I did an honest review 😂
So… it’s the house night… with fairies… yay.
I think its weird that Harry Potter now owns so many things that really were just things that aren't unique to that world. For example All of Britain and most of the Commonwealth have houses in their schools with points that compete. So many things attributed to Joann are just very old tropes and im not saying she didnt do it well. She did, while introducing old assed stereotypes and racist archetypes to children but I digress, nothing is original and other people should be allowed to use these tropes without their work being compared and contrasted against hers.
I love your rants jajaja
💜💜💜
I'm glad you checked this book out because you pretty much said everything I thought would be an issue in the book (based off the summary) is an issue. So now I don't have to read the book myself, even if Tiktok and Amazon best sellers keep pushing it to me. Thanks for taking one for the team.
I have read a book series by this writing duo (Darkmore Penitentiary) and I did enjoy it as a kind of pulpy aggressive style read. BUT the characters were all adults, and our lead was clearly traumatized and acting out from that trauma so a lot of the boo boo happening I could sort of overlook as specific to that character and not attempting to model healthy behavior. But there was quite a bit of spelling and grammar issues in the series and a MAIN complaint I had is the series is three books long with book one claiming it's a prison break but we're in book three and still in prison. Thousands of pages for a few weeks in prison! I know authors get paid by the page in KU so they tend to milk scenes for a higher page count but this was too much.
Interesting enough this series had some weird cultural elements too. the made up fae language was based on Italian. Sometimes the lead said whole phrases and sometimes only single words. And the original cover art for "Caged Wolf" seems to imply the main character is black but based of the faery Italian language I'd think she's like mafia Sicilian. I don't know, it made me feel weird.
Oh also, it's a reverse harem and one of the two of the love interests are irredeemable in assault/torture and more banal mistreatment kind of ways. Thankfully the relationships take a back seat to the whole "escaping prison" part.
I had to pause the video once you said this book was a** 😂. I knew your review was gonna be honest and good. For one someone who is into astrology, the book cover pissed me off. The zodiac wheel is missing Capricorn ( funny, my actual zodiac sign). But I could not read this book at all. It was so difficult to read. Like pick a struggle, are we doing zodiac. Supernatural, Fae, elements, what?! Also I can't stand this weird, let's be rapey but romantic things in books like no. I am staying so far away from book tok now. Also as a Native Spanish speak, when I do speak Spanglish with friends, I will start it in Spanish and then close to the end, end it in with English. And sometimes it will one English sentence and then follow one in complete Spanish. But Spanglish is whatever the speak feels comfortable using. And the authors would have known that, had they done some research 🙄
Thanks for taking one for the team 😂 I almost thought about diving in because of the hype. You’ve saved me ❤️
😘
About to finish book 2 in the zodiac academy and I have been scouring TH-cam for videos on the series so I’m so hype for this video 😂 I’m just 2 min in but your personality is everything
Hold up and you play the sims?? Immediate new subscriber
Your reviews are enjoyable to watch. :D
I'm glad I stuck around for the spoilers, hilarious!
When you said Legendborn I was immediately like "ugh that bitch Sel" lmao
Can’t stand him!
Booktok is a synonym for deception
1000%
The zoom in during the “faebook” reveal really had me dying
FAE BOOK. LIKE COME ON