You’re a lifesaver. Even if I didn’t skip it,you’re doing good work. As someone who listened to the description,to anyone reading this,you’re much better off skipping it. You’re missing nothing important,it’s awful gore for the sake of it.
So wait, a woman attends a speech in which a man reveals that the afterlife is real and absolutely horrific if you kill somebody for any reason, and she goes "cool, Imma kill that guy"?
"I'm apolitical" is usually code for: "I'm privileged enough that I can afford to ignore social problems because I'll never be a target of them". Or for: "I know that my political views won't fly among decent people, so I remain silent about them."
Honestly, there's nothing supernatural about the empire state building section but it's way more bad scp to me just in terms of the ridiculous over the type violence for shock value
@@northstarjakobsThe main article is about the squids but the empire state building part is a password-protected addendum. There is no explanation of what links the two but it makes the article seem deeper
This is a very small detail in the grand scheme of things, but if Squid Hell is already unending, what is the purpose of each second feeling like a week? Eternity is eternity. Making something feel longer only has a purpose if there's an end point.
I think it's because he came back to life. like if he stayed dead then it wouldn't really matter, but the point is he was only dead for a certain period of time but to him it felt like a LOT longer?
i CANT GET OVER the gore vacation, like this police guy is just telling these children the most edgelord gore i’ve ever heard, and you know those kids don’t care, their just standing at this tower like mannn what did we do
No joke, when I heard the description "divorced garbage man" my immediate response was *ah yes, a gremlin* and not *this is a description of his marital status and job*. I did figure it out eventually.
Crow finally beating the 'no bookshelf' allegations. So proud of her. Also this 100% has the feeling of like those 2012 creepypastas where the entire goal of it was just "how gory can I make my story" except instead of my little pony, it's original fiction and also much more poorly written
Yeah, definitely especially the unneeded empire state building bit is SUPER bad creepypasta. Like russian sleep experiment level "AND THEN THEY ALL MURDERED... AND DIED.... BUT LIVED... SO THEY COULD DIE WORSE".
Squid moon hell actually sounds a lot like a plot point from Homestuck, where the characters who were destined to play a world-ending video game were also born with second dream-selves on one of two moons in another plane. One character was able to wake up on the dream world very early and could see prophetic visions as a result, which her friends thought was a narcolepsy + mental illness thing. And all of that would've been known comic lore by 2014. So, I'm not *saying* this book ripped off all of its original ideas from homestuck, but a lot of the time when I see people saying post-2012 sci fi is unlike anything they've ever seen before... it's familiar. We'll see if I smell anything else squiddy in the rest of the video. Edit: Okay, squid moon hell *did* get even weirder than I was ready for but it could be a real edgelord take on godtiering. And "robot body made for a nonconsenting ghost explodes in front of a loved one" is also a thing that happens in homestuck.
I expected the reveal to be that the company didn't actually bring people back from the dead they just used data online ,similar to the one book you recommended, to make the person appear to be brought back from the dead. Hense why it only brought back random people. They only chose people who had enough usable data to "bring back from the dead".
That is actually something a company is currently doing. Sort of. I guess you give interviews to this company and they make like an AI of you after your gone so your loved one can "talk" to you. I read a really interesting article on it last month. I think the company is called HereAfter. From what I read it sounds like its kind of an Alexa repeating the stuff they give in these long interviews so like stories of how say, your parents met etc. Its not the most natural and your not really have a conversation conversation because its all just stored data but its fascinating none the less. I know the first few months after my mom died I began to forget the sound of her voice. I would have loved something like that even if I couldnt talk with it just to hear recordings of her talking about her life.
@@gigitastic90 Also sounds like not a bad way to preserve oral traditions, or at least old family stories, in a more natural medium than the written word Of course, you also don't need a company to do that for you
@@aformofmatter8913 I agree! I bet it might be helpful for family recipes maybe too? Like if you had it read out the ingredients, sizes, and steps for you and your family members or friend, whoever could add anecdotes or a story that would maybe take the time of the les concentratey moments.
4:30 “Apolitical” (like “centrist”) just means he’s a conservative who doesn’t want to be called out on his bad politics. All art is inherently political
Yeah, I did a bit but not extensive research on him, and he really says he's not trying to do politics but his work especially lately empowers a veeery specific set of people, and he hasn't rejected that. I mean, again. Mel friggin Gibson
@@fishyboii8023 “The statue of David came to symbolize the independence and civil liberties of the Florence, and David's eyes cast a threatening glare in the direction of Rome, serving as a warning to any who dared challenge the city.” That was literally a five second google. Try to be a little more curious, friend.
@@AnkhAnanku I did not know that; anyways, I have to respectfully disagree with your claim. Sometimes, art is made for fundamentally different reasons, such as expressing certain emotions, entertainment, and even as a gift to a friend. That's not even mentioning the cave art our ancestors made.
@@fishyboii8023 you know, I’m not sure. My initial searches show a lot of conflicting discussions about meaning and symbolism in Van Gogh’s work, but I’m a bit skeptical. He was such an emotionally driven artist, you know? Or at least it feels that way to me… With context it’s absolutely *not impossible* to validly derive statements are being made of social values, economic conditions, and cultural/political movements of the time, but I’m not seeing anything as blatant as the last one… Edit: aw, you got rid of your question about Van Gogh :( Anyway, I think I agree with your new statement to a degree, and yet the second paragraph would still be my response.
I think the big issue is on a technical level that he's a screenwriter. He writes scenes that would work well in quick succession in a movie, but suck in a book. The exploding relatives sequence reminded me of the exploding heads sequence in Kingsmen, which if put into descriptive writing exactly as it happens in the movie would absolutely suck to read. The exploding relatives sequence could work in a dark comedy sci-horror movie.
It would explain his referring to non-white characters constantly by their race as well. In the start of a screenplay where you write out all the character descriptions (before the screenplay technically begins) race would be mentioned, but only for characters that are specifically to be cast as non-white. Combine that with a common misunderstanding of some basic writing advice resulting in the constant referral to named characters by their descriptions, and boom! Everyone is alternately referred to by name, then by description, then by name, then by description, because "you shouldn't use the same word over and over again in the same paragraph!" is frequently but incorrectly interpreted to apply to things like names.
If I'm getting this right the one person that killed someone and didn't experience Moon Squid Hell (the name I will be using for all future music releases) was someone that had already died and been put in a nifty robot body? Am I getting that right? Because if that's the case did anyone in the book consider that it's because the robots don't actually have a soul in them, just memories, including those of going to Moon Squid Hell (already designing a band logo) and it's just that nobody can tell the difference? Also, anyone that kills someone? So if someone, for example, deliberately ran their car into a mass shooter mid spree they'd go to Moon Squid Hell (holding auditions for a vocalist next month) but if the shooter only managed to injure people they might not? The god(s) of this universe suck.
The author reminds me of when I was 11 or 12 and saw 2 c-list horror movies and thought that describing gore was what good horror was. The difference is that right now, I look back on that phase and cringe while the author of this book seems to have never grown out of it.
16:50 truly insane biphobia. Haven't heard something like that (outside my own experience 😬) in a while. Thanks for another great video about an insane book 💜
love the set. Nobody expects huge production from small channels. But people LOVE references, adding books you've reviewed or references to them to your background over time will bring in lots of fun comments of people pointing new ones out (Interaction is good for the algorithm!) and build a sense of community. people love that shit. Also yeah audio is the most important. studies show people are pretty willing to forgive poor video quality, but not audio. people have very low tolerance for poor audio. you don't have to drop hundreds of bucks on a yeti or anything but a nice solid microphone will carry you far.
I have a yeti blue snowball actually, I got one second hand for 20 bucks, it's why I even have passable audio while reeeeasaallly avoiding putting money I don't have anywhere. I'm still figuring out my "set"... I have one (1) real table that works and no room, in the worst lit building in the world. So next vid might be again shot somewhere else while I try to find the best location. I'd really like to do something fitting though- I already pick something "relevent" to wear but my lighting/vid/set planning is gonna kill me!
This reminds me a little of the "concept vs writing quality" of book writing. Plenty of people will forgive an unoriginal concept if the book is well written, but bad writing makes even the coolest concept unbearable to read.
I blame my brain for connecting squid hell to shrimp heaven in the middle of the video :') Nonetheless I really enjoy your video essays about bad books, that way I don't have to suffer through them. :)
you know, I could go my entire life without learning about the books crow caller talks about… maybe that would be better, but at least we’re all in this together
There was an ancient Greek philosopher called Plutarch who believed that the incorruptible part of the human soul, called the Daimon, went to the moon after people died. Can't help you with the squids though.
I was half-expecting the Empire State building tour guide to be the resurrected president, enacting some self-inflicted penance of constantly retelling the story of how many lives were horrifically lost due to his inaction. But nah it was just some guy going, "Cool story, huh, kids?"
Yeah, it's definitely not anti intellectual to be annoyed by pretentious writing. I use big words naturally in my writing because I just happen to know a lot of words, and when I use a thesaurus it's because I have a specific mood or action I'm trying to create. Big words are good for big ideas and complicated feelings, not to show off. Idk if this made sense, have a good day
It does and is better than me roughly making the same point. I love some 5 dollar words a lot (I definitely over use cacophonous). But there's a difference between smart word choice that eveevates writing and just overdoing it because you think it does
The only thing missing from the Empire State Building section to truly turn it into a bad creepypasta was one of the dudes randomly proclaiming they were a god
I really hope with headphones because like 30 min in I definitely say the word 'phallus' and I don't want to embaress myself in front of your family like that
this book feels like the author just kept throwing in new things and refusing to do one single round of editing lol also as a german, the "everyone in the future speaks german" thing feels...weird to say the least. ngl that immediately set of my fascism alarm bells
The entire time you were talking about the moon squid and dreams, I was just thinking "bro this is just Prospit/Derse dreamers in Homestuck but with squids"
God it'd be great to see homestuck the same but instead of dream selves they were dreamsquids. No difference otherwise. Or in this book if your dreamsquid got to leave the crater to go on adventures every night instead of just stare into the squid void
it's the main draw and feature from the weirdness of the book honestly. like. is it better or worse the shadow moon squid goo doesn't actually affect the plot at all?
I love your new background! The sets people have are crazy. Just give me a down to earth real person. You totally made my day posting. Happy Thanksgiving love! 💕
I love calling my living room my set. I just live there. I am still messing with my background though, as you can see the fact the sun exists REALLY throws off my ability to be one consistent shade the whole time. But I only own the one table......
I feel like above visuals, audio is key. I've seen more elaborate-looking sets that I had to immediately click out of due to bad or overly busy audio mixing. Good, clear audio is sorely underrated. I've also really been enjoying their videos because it feels like when you're ranting about a book with a friend.
I might return because the lighting is battling me and the lighting is winning. I swear ONE CORNER of my flat MUST be able to consistently well lit! it must be possible!
I for real had it on my floor for a solid year, delicately, until I was finally enough of an adult to spend money on getting it framed. It is. one of my most prized items honestly. A fun fact: above the White Void I was shooting before is the flag!
I would never, not in a thousand years (not even a thousand years in squid hell) be able to predict a single thing about this book. Infinite monkeys might be able to write Shakespeare, but they could never write Corpus Chrome Inc, and that is not a compliment to Corpus Chrome Inc. Also, love the new background! Esp the lovely little paper boyo and your poster from -redacted-!
Your voice is really comforting to me because I also have a “mostly American accent but a few words scream I’m a little English” (it’s things like call sounding more kohl and actually hitting the Ts in things)
Yeah, I have an odd mix! It's funny to hear I hit t sounds because I'm from Vermont and allegedly the vt accent is NOT hitting the t sounds. (Like vermon)
God. I recognized the author's name for some reason and now I remember who he is. There was a lot of discourse of "Bone Tomohawk" and whether or not the racism in the movie was intentional or just the result of the creator's own biases. Then he made Dragged Across Concrete and removed all doubt.
Yeah. It was very funny too to read about him and how he talks about being "non political" despite Dragged Across Concrete being... What I've read it is. Especially since he wrote this, years ago beforehand, and I think shows a lot of himself off by accident
The apartment floor wars is as I said a straight riff on High Rise, an older sci-fi ish book about exactly that. I def think the joke of "a bunch of apartments casually and legally do high rise, but usually via pranks and raids" is a funny idea, and indeed if just the first half of champ's storyline was the whole book.... Well, it might be a fun farce.
I love the obscure bad book reviews. Great video, don't worry about the background. I think that the audio is the most important part with book reviews and it's fine here :)
My favorite thing to do when reading awful books is to think about who the target audience is. Does anyone have fond memories of reading this book? Would a trusted friend giving this to you as a book rec permanently change your relationship? Is there a fandom / fanart / fanfiction ??? Anyways, thanks for the review!! I think this would have been impossible for me to trudge through myself. Books like this can only be consumed through a filter if I want to retain my braincells.
This...kinda sounds like a personal spec script that he just published. Without changing anything. Cause, like, the multiple sequences of exploding robots would work a lot better in a visual medium. And the whole thing sounds like it's supposed to be "artsy" vignettes. Edit: Yeah. The way the dialogue right after the -splatter is laid out REEKS of someone removing the signifiers from the beginning of each line, and just throwing a "they asked" in to make it "literature"
I think I need Moon Squid Hell fanfic. Not fanfic for this whole book, just that wild plot point. It needs exploration, but clearly the orginal author is not up to it.
These quotes make me feel a lot better about my own writing lol But I do like "The coroner had apparently decided to remove -- and eat? -- the carcass" that's fun 🍕🐀
Ok this is a response to a comment about what the official crowcaller fanbase should be known as. But I wanna post it by itself bc I'm excessively proud of it: we should be called THE MURDER. because we are CROWS!!!
I don't have any official weight but I love both moon squids and murder and also white void enthusiasts. Luckily I think I need to get much more popular before I need branding
I feel like this author wants to be Ray Bradbury so bad. The long explanations of "aquarium" programs sounds a lot like "Fahrenheit 451", but that tech was actually futuristic because it was published in the 1950s.
At points, definitely, and I'd totally pick this guy for a classic sci-fi fan who doesn't read modern sci-fi. A lot of the future is very dated in that way, kind of so off course from realism it's almost endearing. Like when you read pulp from the 70s and it's waaaay off on their vision of 2015. I mean, this book has lie detecting fungus orbs
most of my viewers are in america, so I'm trying to remember that and actually post them around peak times. Which I guess must be about lunch for a lot of people!
Yeeeeees, I needed this from the second I read that poll you did... This thumbnail got me so excited Lmao. So now I'm gonna listen to this instead of starting the third book of my favorite Sci fi (honestly favorite book) series that just released... Children of Memory will have to wait, children of the moon squids must be experienced.
I wish Squid Moon Hell was a bigger deal. It actually sounds pretty interesting and with the plot points about reviving people it could be interesting to explore the afterlife. I thought Eagle’s account might imply that since he wasn’t a murderer, he didn’t experience SMH but I’m not sure. This just feels like a bunch of ideas without an idea of what to do with it. Titling it cci was also a big waste because the company means basically nothing. Also stuff like “the tall beauty” reminds me of my fanfiction days. Big oof. (Examples: the red head, the teen, the demon) Edit: Wrote Champ instead of Eagle, whoops
Yep and squid hell , and the entire other squid soul afterlife sound really interesting. And a squid cult. Its so bizarre you could really explore that without stepping on any specific religion. And religions can b hella weird. Such a waste of squid afterlife.
Excited about the bookshelf. Is that Terry Pratchett I see on it? (Edit: on the shelf with the little angel guy.) Hard to tell of course since it's all small and distant. But it reminds me of the copies I had growing up, so it got me feeling nostalgic.
It is indeed. Good eye! Every book from the blue one next to the orange one on that shelf, and all the books on the shelf below it are too. Crow hasn't read them but one day I shall make her... - Crow's flatmate (and owner of the books)
Sharing shelves/furniture is very relatable. I lived in a sharehouse for a while with 4 friends. I owned next to no books but we had a room full of their books which I got to enjoy so that was quite nice and cosy.
I was excited by the DnD books in the background, and then I've sat through the video, and now I'm mostly confused, slightly terrified by this author's view of the world view... buuut still excited by the DnD books :D Please get to that at some point :)
They're my flatmates books but I do play lots of DND. Next time I do a "just chilling" kinda vid it might be on my DnD charas or maybe just a storytime about character arcs or something
For what it's worth, I'm on team "squid hell is real" and Eagle just didn't count because he had died once before(and presumably killed nobody). 30 minutes left tho, prove me wrong.
You know. This is a really fucking weird video to disassociate to. I came out for a second, heard Squid Hell, and immediately stopped processing things again.
Squids on dark moon sounds nice. I wanna be there. The dream aspect sounds nice. You do wonderful. I love the indepth reviews so much. With all the voicec in my head (my own inside from DD/DID) it helps calm me down. Your voice is soothing and the sometimes nervousity while talking is very relatable. I I was without my meds because the doc who should take for me was on holiday and his stand in was a nightmare. I took lectures, he was talking to me like I am five and I had three days of no meds. Neary landed in the hospital but now I have emergency meds till my doc is back. I listened to your reviews while I was in pain and high anxiety waiting to get to the asshole doc to see if he will help me and with you I stabilized. The Perfection books made me so angry, I write Missy in my own fantasy world Guhulia.....the whole section is under the video. But yeah, Missy hurt and she deserved better.
The tidbit about the wars within apartment complexes reminded me about Dredd (2012) and whether or not the book might have taken some inspiration from the film or comics/I spent the entire rest of the review thinking about how much better of a grimdark dystopian future Dredd was
I only half watched this video while doing other things, so I when I kept hearing different plot lines I thought I thought I missed something but reading the comments seems to indicate it really is that incoherent.
54:06 "giving a stiff command" or "giving a sniff command" ? Because it's called a lilly and you sniff those, and your nose is connected to your ear, so that would be one way to send signals to it.
I wish my squid eyes were open so fucking bad Edit: Got to the gore part & I think I'm probably qualified to comment, since I'm in the Danny Phantom fandom which I consider to have some of thee best gore writers to date (for real, if you haven't read Phantom of Truth by Haiju, whether you're a DP fan or not, highly recommend). I don't usually like gore, especially with children. The scene at the beginning of It (2017) made me feel sick. I hate the Saw franchise. The first movie is interesting but everything after that I just think is gross. But I have read a lot of vivisection & experimentation fic involving a 14 year old boy (including the previously mentioned PoT, which I've read multiple times & has inspired my own writing) & the thing that makes them different is *intent.* Why is this gore happening? What does it say? Is it just saying "haha wouldn't it be fucked up" or do you, the writer, actually have a point here? When I write "gore" (my concept of gore is so messed up now I try to play it safe, but usually it's anything from bad injury to classic gore) it's usually a plot point, or character development, a moment of "oh my god, my mother actually tried to cut me open," or "my father just fucking shot me," the point being "why am I still trusting them when I know they want to hurt me & people like me?" When I see people try to do gore I can instantly tell whether they're trying to write an actual story or just trying to write gore for gore instead of using gore as a tool. "Torture porn" is the perfect phrase for this. I wish people could see it as more than just that. It has so much potential as a genre, but is wasted like 90% of the time :/
As a fellow Danny Phantom fan, I agree. The gore itself isn’t really the scary part, but rather the fact that it’s his own parents that are trying to dissect him. (I haven’t rewatched the actual show in quite some time so my entire mental version of the show comes from the fandom. Wes is real, phantom planet never happened, and Danny is extremely traumatized)
There’s so many crazy unanswered questions about this setting that the book seems to make no attempt to answer. Why is CCI allowed to just revive whoever they want, such as a murderer? Was this murderer convicted? So there’s no oversight preventing them from doing whatever they want? Additionally, you mention multiple times that characters “learn” that their relatives will be revived - do they not have say in whether or not their relatives will be revived? And how do they retain memories from the afterlife? We’re crossing outright magic with sci-fi now? Not to mention how goddamn weird squid hell is. I bet the author was high when he wrote that part
So. Yeah. There's not a lot of answers, can try. 1. Cci can revive anyone whose brain they have, and there's no real legal oversight on who that is. The justification for the murderer being revived is that by being executed, he had served his sentence so he could be brought back legally and free. There's no oversight or laws against this apparently, it's unclear how long they've been a company but seemingly a while. Family does have to like, submit their dead family to be revived but there's no apparent order on who they pick, so everyone in the cast is simply told, which might be a year or like 30 years from their death. No one retains afterlife memories until the squid hell incident the murderer brings up- which then by the end of the book is said to be entirely a made up story, leaving no proof of afterlife
time code for skipping the gore description is 31:00 (starting a little after 29:00)
Let me pin and add it to the description actually....
You’re a lifesaver. Even if I didn’t skip it,you’re doing good work.
As someone who listened to the description,to anyone reading this,you’re much better off skipping it. You’re missing nothing important,it’s awful gore for the sake of it.
Shit I only saw this after I watched it😭
Can't wait to tell my therapist my Squid Eyes are OPEN and that's what's wrong with me.
So wait, a woman attends a speech in which a man reveals that the afterlife is real and absolutely horrific if you kill somebody for any reason, and she goes "cool, Imma kill that guy"?
I guess she does blame him for killing her family
Maybe she's just really into squids and happy to spend her afterlife as squid goo
@@Crowcaller bloodbourne woman in the wrong universe
i mean, hes literally scum of the earth that also killed her family so...
edit: misunderstood ur comment. the hell would still be worth it for me
Why would you just believe him?
Like literally the dude is the only person to ever say that
"I'm apolitical" is usually code for: "I'm privileged enough that I can afford to ignore social problems because I'll never be a target of them".
Or for: "I know that my political views won't fly among decent people, so I remain silent about them."
This!
spot on!
Moon squid hell sounds like an SCP article with votes in the low negatives where at least one senior staff has already voted for deletion.
Honestly, there's nothing supernatural about the empire state building section but it's way more bad scp to me just in terms of the ridiculous over the type violence for shock value
@@Crowcaller Combine them to create the worst SCP
What the thetan?
@@northstarjakobsThe main article is about the squids but the empire state building part is a password-protected addendum. There is no explanation of what links the two but it makes the article seem deeper
I'm torn between "Amazon is Reviving the Dead and no one cares" and "Schrodinger's Antimatter Squid Hell" as the wilder plot point.
Petition to make Crows Fans called Moon Squids
Moon Squid Squad
Moon Squids is so gender.
@@was0wski (I do not know what this means, please elaborate for me?)
I thought we where a murder of crows lol
@@Astrotorical gotta be at least level 3 non-binary to have access to that information sorry
Babe wake up new Crow Caller video essay on the weirdest book I've ever heard of just dropped
no one has ever heard of it but that's why it's my job to tell you about it
I'm up I'M UP
This is a very small detail in the grand scheme of things, but if Squid Hell is already unending, what is the purpose of each second feeling like a week? Eternity is eternity. Making something feel longer only has a purpose if there's an end point.
its like he read i have no mouth and i must scream and went 'wow! cool!' without any thinking about it
Maybe h is a christian tht is like, "you will suffer in hell forever , with no end, but worse" mindset?!
I think it's because he came back to life. like if he stayed dead then it wouldn't really matter, but the point is he was only dead for a certain period of time but to him it felt like a LOT longer?
I’m putting “technically proficient Negro” in my Tinder profile
i CANT GET OVER the gore vacation, like this police guy is just telling these children the most edgelord gore i’ve ever heard, and you know those kids don’t care, their just standing at this tower like mannn what did we do
The chapter pretty much ends without any real insight onto how these 11 year olds feel too
No joke, when I heard the description "divorced garbage man" my immediate response was *ah yes, a gremlin* and not *this is a description of his marital status and job*. I did figure it out eventually.
no omg me too 😭🤝 same brain
Crow finally beating the 'no bookshelf' allegations. So proud of her.
Also this 100% has the feeling of like those 2012 creepypastas where the entire goal of it was just "how gory can I make my story" except instead of my little pony, it's original fiction and also much more poorly written
Yeah, definitely especially the unneeded empire state building bit is SUPER bad creepypasta. Like russian sleep experiment level "AND THEN THEY ALL MURDERED... AND DIED.... BUT LIVED... SO THEY COULD DIE WORSE".
Squid moon hell actually sounds a lot like a plot point from Homestuck, where the characters who were destined to play a world-ending video game were also born with second dream-selves on one of two moons in another plane. One character was able to wake up on the dream world very early and could see prophetic visions as a result, which her friends thought was a narcolepsy + mental illness thing. And all of that would've been known comic lore by 2014.
So, I'm not *saying* this book ripped off all of its original ideas from homestuck, but a lot of the time when I see people saying post-2012 sci fi is unlike anything they've ever seen before... it's familiar. We'll see if I smell anything else squiddy in the rest of the video.
Edit: Okay, squid moon hell *did* get even weirder than I was ready for but it could be a real edgelord take on godtiering. And "robot body made for a nonconsenting ghost explodes in front of a loved one" is also a thing that happens in homestuck.
Do not speak to me of the old magic witch I was there when cascade was being released
🎵Tangle buddies.... Let's be tangle buddies....🎵
I expected the reveal to be that the company didn't actually bring people back from the dead they just used data online ,similar to the one book you recommended, to make the person appear to be brought back from the dead. Hense why it only brought back random people. They only chose people who had enough usable data to "bring back from the dead".
That is an infinitely better twist than the one in the book
That's a great idea, totally. Quick, someone write this
That is actually something a company is currently doing. Sort of. I guess you give interviews to this company and they make like an AI of you after your gone so your loved one can "talk" to you. I read a really interesting article on it last month. I think the company is called HereAfter. From what I read it sounds like its kind of an Alexa repeating the stuff they give in these long interviews so like stories of how say, your parents met etc. Its not the most natural and your not really have a conversation conversation because its all just stored data but its fascinating none the less. I know the first few months after my mom died I began to forget the sound of her voice. I would have loved something like that even if I couldnt talk with it just to hear recordings of her talking about her life.
@@gigitastic90 Also sounds like not a bad way to preserve oral traditions, or at least old family stories, in a more natural medium than the written word
Of course, you also don't need a company to do that for you
@@aformofmatter8913 I agree! I bet it might be helpful for family recipes maybe too? Like if you had it read out the ingredients, sizes, and steps for you and your family members or friend, whoever could add anecdotes or a story that would maybe take the time of the les concentratey moments.
4:30 “Apolitical” (like “centrist”) just means he’s a conservative who doesn’t want to be called out on his bad politics. All art is inherently political
Yeah, I did a bit but not extensive research on him, and he really says he's not trying to do politics but his work especially lately empowers a veeery specific set of people, and he hasn't rejected that. I mean, again. Mel friggin Gibson
How is all art political; I'm pretty sure the Statue of David is not political in the slightest.
@@fishyboii8023 “The statue of David came to symbolize the independence and civil liberties of the Florence, and David's eyes cast a threatening glare in the direction of Rome, serving as a warning to any who dared challenge the city.”
That was literally a five second google. Try to be a little more curious, friend.
@@AnkhAnanku I did not know that; anyways, I have to respectfully disagree with your claim. Sometimes, art is made for fundamentally different reasons, such as expressing certain emotions, entertainment, and even as a gift to a friend. That's not even mentioning the cave art our ancestors made.
@@fishyboii8023 you know, I’m not sure. My initial searches show a lot of conflicting discussions about meaning and symbolism in Van Gogh’s work, but I’m a bit skeptical. He was such an emotionally driven artist, you know? Or at least it feels that way to me…
With context it’s absolutely *not impossible* to validly derive statements are being made of social values, economic conditions, and cultural/political movements of the time, but I’m not seeing anything as blatant as the last one…
Edit: aw, you got rid of your question about Van Gogh :( Anyway, I think I agree with your new statement to a degree, and yet the second paragraph would still be my response.
I think the big issue is on a technical level that he's a screenwriter. He writes scenes that would work well in quick succession in a movie, but suck in a book. The exploding relatives sequence reminded me of the exploding heads sequence in Kingsmen, which if put into descriptive writing exactly as it happens in the movie would absolutely suck to read. The exploding relatives sequence could work in a dark comedy sci-horror movie.
It would explain his referring to non-white characters constantly by their race as well. In the start of a screenplay where you write out all the character descriptions (before the screenplay technically begins) race would be mentioned, but only for characters that are specifically to be cast as non-white. Combine that with a common misunderstanding of some basic writing advice resulting in the constant referral to named characters by their descriptions, and boom! Everyone is alternately referred to by name, then by description, then by name, then by description, because "you shouldn't use the same word over and over again in the same paragraph!" is frequently but incorrectly interpreted to apply to things like names.
My squid eye is wide open
squid eyes: OPEN
soul: STAINED BY MURDER
(I AM FORCIBLY TURNED INTO GOO AND EJECTED INTO THE SUN)
If I'm getting this right the one person that killed someone and didn't experience Moon Squid Hell (the name I will be using for all future music releases) was someone that had already died and been put in a nifty robot body? Am I getting that right? Because if that's the case did anyone in the book consider that it's because the robots don't actually have a soul in them, just memories, including those of going to Moon Squid Hell (already designing a band logo) and it's just that nobody can tell the difference?
Also, anyone that kills someone? So if someone, for example, deliberately ran their car into a mass shooter mid spree they'd go to Moon Squid Hell (holding auditions for a vocalist next month) but if the shooter only managed to injure people they might not?
The god(s) of this universe suck.
The author reminds me of when I was 11 or 12 and saw 2 c-list horror movies and thought that describing gore was what good horror was. The difference is that right now, I look back on that phase and cringe while the author of this book seems to have never grown out of it.
The phrase "gently stroke your images" is gonna live in my mind rent free
16:50 truly insane biphobia. Haven't heard something like that (outside my own experience 😬) in a while. Thanks for another great video about an insane book 💜
So, it's not unrealistic.
love the set. Nobody expects huge production from small channels. But people LOVE references, adding books you've reviewed or references to them to your background over time will bring in lots of fun comments of people pointing new ones out (Interaction is good for the algorithm!) and build a sense of community. people love that shit.
Also yeah audio is the most important. studies show people are pretty willing to forgive poor video quality, but not audio. people have very low tolerance for poor audio. you don't have to drop hundreds of bucks on a yeti or anything but a nice solid microphone will carry you far.
comment got deleted but uh. you sent n*fw to a minor. we havent forgotten.
I have a yeti blue snowball actually, I got one second hand for 20 bucks, it's why I even have passable audio while reeeeasaallly avoiding putting money I don't have anywhere. I'm still figuring out my "set"... I have one (1) real table that works and no room, in the worst lit building in the world. So next vid might be again shot somewhere else while I try to find the best location. I'd really like to do something fitting though- I already pick something "relevent" to wear but my lighting/vid/set planning is gonna kill me!
This reminds me a little of the "concept vs writing quality" of book writing. Plenty of people will forgive an unoriginal concept if the book is well written, but bad writing makes even the coolest concept unbearable to read.
ye for example i usually dont ever look at the video, i listen while like playing minecraft
I blame my brain for connecting squid hell to shrimp heaven in the middle of the video :')
Nonetheless I really enjoy your video essays about bad books, that way I don't have to suffer through them. :)
SQUID! HELL! NOW!
DANIEL.... WE MUST KEEP DOING THIS
Shrimp go to heaven
Squids go to hell
you know, I could go my entire life without learning about the books crow caller talks about… maybe that would be better, but at least we’re all in this together
There was an ancient Greek philosopher called Plutarch who believed that the incorruptible part of the human soul, called the Daimon, went to the moon after people died. Can't help you with the squids though.
Probably was mixing with Lovecraft themes. I know Zahler is a fan.
I was half-expecting the Empire State building tour guide to be the resurrected president, enacting some self-inflicted penance of constantly retelling the story of how many lives were horrifically lost due to his inaction.
But nah it was just some guy going, "Cool story, huh, kids?"
The section just ends like. Hey 😊 👋 that's history, kiddos! Byeeeeee
Yeah, it's definitely not anti intellectual to be annoyed by pretentious writing. I use big words naturally in my writing because I just happen to know a lot of words, and when I use a thesaurus it's because I have a specific mood or action I'm trying to create. Big words are good for big ideas and complicated feelings, not to show off.
Idk if this made sense, have a good day
It does and is better than me roughly making the same point. I love some 5 dollar words a lot (I definitely over use cacophonous). But there's a difference between smart word choice that eveevates writing and just overdoing it because you think it does
big point words are best used sparingly like spices to elevate the taste of the writing
The only thing missing from the Empire State Building section to truly turn it into a bad creepypasta was one of the dudes randomly proclaiming they were a god
My squid eyes have been opened by watching Crow Caller 💗🦑
I wish mine were closed....
can't wait to listen to this while i shove food into my face with my family around me
I really hope with headphones because like 30 min in I definitely say the word 'phallus' and I don't want to embaress myself in front of your family like that
@@Crowcaller yes, but also if some of my stepsiblings overheard this, they'd probably think it was funny
this book feels like the author just kept throwing in new things and refusing to do one single round of editing lol
also as a german, the "everyone in the future speaks german" thing feels...weird to say the least. ngl that immediately set of my fascism alarm bells
The entire time you were talking about the moon squid and dreams, I was just thinking "bro this is just Prospit/Derse dreamers in Homestuck but with squids"
God it'd be great to see homestuck the same but instead of dream selves they were dreamsquids. No difference otherwise. Or in this book if your dreamsquid got to leave the crater to go on adventures every night instead of just stare into the squid void
Dreamers but the fan theory about the Horror terrors being the kids from the session that created the troll universe applied to everyone.
Ur doing such a service for us reading all these crazy ass books and then reviewing them
moon + squid + hell immediately sold me on thid video lmao
it's the main draw and feature from the weirdness of the book honestly. like. is it better or worse the shadow moon squid goo doesn't actually affect the plot at all?
I love your new background! The sets people have are crazy. Just give me a down to earth real person. You totally made my day posting. Happy Thanksgiving love! 💕
I love calling my living room my set. I just live there. I am still messing with my background though, as you can see the fact the sun exists REALLY throws off my ability to be one consistent shade the whole time. But I only own the one table......
@@Crowcaller lol spite the sun and stay just the way you are
I feel like above visuals, audio is key. I've seen more elaborate-looking sets that I had to immediately click out of due to bad or overly busy audio mixing. Good, clear audio is sorely underrated.
I've also really been enjoying their videos because it feels like when you're ranting about a book with a friend.
love the biblically accurate paper Guy on the bookshelf
Her name amariah and she's too big to go in my storage binder so she lives there :p
@@Crowcaller i love her!
RIP white void you shall be surely missed
I might return because the lighting is battling me and the lighting is winning. I swear ONE CORNER of my flat MUST be able to consistently well lit! it must be possible!
This is some of the best content on TH-cam about the worst books I've ever heard of. Absolute joy~
Immediately losing my mind at the [REDACTED] poster in the background
Edit: now im losing my mind over squid hell, jfc
⌛
I for real had it on my floor for a solid year, delicately, until I was finally enough of an adult to spend money on getting it framed. It is. one of my most prized items honestly. A fun fact: above the White Void I was shooting before is the flag!
Memento Mori 🖤🤍💀⌛️
I would never, not in a thousand years (not even a thousand years in squid hell) be able to predict a single thing about this book. Infinite monkeys might be able to write Shakespeare, but they could never write Corpus Chrome Inc, and that is not a compliment to Corpus Chrome Inc.
Also, love the new background! Esp the lovely little paper boyo and your poster from -redacted-!
“Let me read you a quote” is like playing Russian roulette in these videos I stg 😂😂😂
Your voice is really comforting to me because I also have a “mostly American accent but a few words scream I’m a little English” (it’s things like call sounding more kohl and actually hitting the Ts in things)
Yeah, I have an odd mix! It's funny to hear I hit t sounds because I'm from Vermont and allegedly the vt accent is NOT hitting the t sounds. (Like vermon)
If you ever make merch Crow, I'm expecting "Moon Squid Hell" shirts
God. I recognized the author's name for some reason and now I remember who he is. There was a lot of discourse of "Bone Tomohawk" and whether or not the racism in the movie was intentional or just the result of the creator's own biases. Then he made Dragged Across Concrete and removed all doubt.
Yeah. It was very funny too to read about him and how he talks about being "non political" despite Dragged Across Concrete being... What I've read it is. Especially since he wrote this, years ago beforehand, and I think shows a lot of himself off by accident
Some of these concepts would be cool if they were pulled off well. Squid eyes? Apartment floor wars?
Holy shit opined the tattooed jew 😭 bagel butch 😭 if this wasn't so blatantly horrible i would be tempted to reclaim it
The apartment floor wars is as I said a straight riff on High Rise, an older sci-fi ish book about exactly that. I def think the joke of "a bunch of apartments casually and legally do high rise, but usually via pranks and raids" is a funny idea, and indeed if just the first half of champ's storyline was the whole book.... Well, it might be a fun farce.
some of this book feels like he did acid ONE time and decided to write an entire book about it… it’s so funny, thanks for bringing it to light!!
I love the obscure bad book reviews. Great video, don't worry about the background. I think that the audio is the most important part with book reviews and it's fine here :)
One day I'll find a background that actually lasts
My favorite thing to do when reading awful books is to think about who the target audience is. Does anyone have fond memories of reading this book? Would a trusted friend giving this to you as a book rec permanently change your relationship? Is there a fandom / fanart / fanfiction ???
Anyways, thanks for the review!! I think this would have been impossible for me to trudge through myself. Books like this can only be consumed through a filter if I want to retain my braincells.
This...kinda sounds like a personal spec script that he just published. Without changing anything. Cause, like, the multiple sequences of exploding robots would work a lot better in a visual medium.
And the whole thing sounds like it's supposed to be "artsy" vignettes.
Edit: Yeah. The way the dialogue right after the -splatter is laid out REEKS of someone removing the signifiers from the beginning of each line, and just throwing a "they asked" in to make it "literature"
As an Alycia, myself, I immediately went "oh nooooo" when I heard my name.
i kinda hate that the "you don't seem humourous" "most people would agree with you" actually got a laugh out of me
I think I need Moon Squid Hell fanfic. Not fanfic for this whole book, just that wild plot point. It needs exploration, but clearly the orginal author is not up to it.
What if we held hands at Moon's Squid Hell 👉👈🥺
I would buy a shirt with moon squid hell on it with the text “Never Forget”
These quotes make me feel a lot better about my own writing lol
But I do like "The coroner had apparently decided to remove -- and eat? -- the carcass" that's fun 🍕🐀
if two astronauts were on the moon and one beat the other to death with a rock would that be fucked up or what
this is the squid of a killer, bella
why does it feel like he ran the whole book through a thesaurus and replaced all words with less common synonyms
ah, you've just said the exact same thing!
Ok this is a response to a comment about what the official crowcaller fanbase should be known as. But I wanna post it by itself bc I'm excessively proud of it: we should be called THE MURDER. because we are CROWS!!!
I don't have any official weight but I love both moon squids and murder and also white void enthusiasts. Luckily I think I need to get much more popular before I need branding
@@Crowcaller we should be your little angels i think
the line about the suicidal pizza is perhaps the only funny thing in this entire book. aside from moon squid hell, of course
white void's gone 😭
I didn't know it would be so mourned......
@@Crowcaller it's an intrinsic part of the channel at this point
you are truly doing the lord’s work, crow. thank you for reading what nobody else can.
And in this case, has even heard of!
It feels the author read something by Ray Bradbury at 13, completely missed the point, and said “I can do that!”
"moon squid hell" are three incredible words for such an underwhelming book
(i admit that i am biased though, as i love cephalopods to DEATH)
I feel like this author wants to be Ray Bradbury so bad. The long explanations of "aquarium" programs sounds a lot like "Fahrenheit 451", but that tech was actually futuristic because it was published in the 1950s.
At points, definitely, and I'd totally pick this guy for a classic sci-fi fan who doesn't read modern sci-fi. A lot of the future is very dated in that way, kind of so off course from realism it's almost endearing. Like when you read pulp from the 70s and it's waaaay off on their vision of 2015. I mean, this book has lie detecting fungus orbs
This makes me feel so much better about my own writing lmao, at least I remember the "a thesaurus doesnt make you smart" lesson from school
Damn, I'm early! I'm always excited to see you post a new video, will watch this one while eating lunch.
most of my viewers are in america, so I'm trying to remember that and actually post them around peak times. Which I guess must be about lunch for a lot of people!
I like your new background; it looks like a home :~)
I.think I know why! It is my home. Maybe a bit TOO messy of one but hey
Yeeeeees, I needed this from the second I read that poll you did... This thumbnail got me so excited Lmao.
So now I'm gonna listen to this instead of starting the third book of my favorite Sci fi (honestly favorite book) series that just released... Children of Memory will have to wait, children of the moon squids must be experienced.
I wish Squid Moon Hell was a bigger deal. It actually sounds pretty interesting and with the plot points about reviving people it could be interesting to explore the afterlife. I thought Eagle’s account might imply that since he wasn’t a murderer, he didn’t experience SMH but I’m not sure.
This just feels like a bunch of ideas without an idea of what to do with it. Titling it cci was also a big waste because the company means basically nothing.
Also stuff like “the tall beauty” reminds me of my fanfiction days. Big oof. (Examples: the red head, the teen, the demon)
Edit: Wrote Champ instead of Eagle, whoops
Yep and squid hell , and the entire other squid soul afterlife sound really interesting. And a squid cult.
Its so bizarre you could really explore that without stepping on any specific religion. And religions can b hella weird. Such a waste of squid afterlife.
Nice Unus Annus Poster! I've got the same at home but (still) haven't had a chance to put it up properly
I had mine for way over a year before I actually got it framed!
Excited about the bookshelf. Is that Terry Pratchett I see on it? (Edit: on the shelf with the little angel guy.) Hard to tell of course since it's all small and distant. But it reminds me of the copies I had growing up, so it got me feeling nostalgic.
It is indeed. Good eye! Every book from the blue one next to the orange one on that shelf, and all the books on the shelf below it are too. Crow hasn't read them but one day I shall make her... - Crow's flatmate (and owner of the books)
Emma jumped in on this but yes! It's two shelves of Terry Prattchet, which I still have yet to read. We share the shelves, as flatmates are wont to do
Sharing shelves/furniture is very relatable. I lived in a sharehouse for a while with 4 friends. I owned next to no books but we had a room full of their books which I got to enjoy so that was quite nice and cosy.
@@emma_collis1074 She has to! Terry was a genius.
updating my resume to include "technically proficient Negro" 💯
Me, zooming in on your bookshelf: Are those Terry Pratchett books I see? Hell yeah, a person of taste!
Yep! Whole discworld actually. But they're not mine but my flatmate's
You're a kid now, you're a moon squid now-!
Moon squids feels like something straight out of splatoon lore
im only about halfway through the vid, but with the fakeout happy ending I get the vibe that our author wanted to pull a Brazil (1985)
I'm so glad I can listen to you talk about and analyze these books without me having to actually put myself through that ❤️
the comedic timing of reading all of the awful racist quotes on screen, grimacing irl, to then read "WAMEN CORNER" ..... incredible
WOOOO ANOTHER ONE Crows feeding us good this season 🙏🙏 can't believe we live in a society. This author really makes me THINK lol
He realised it very hard, that we live in a society. Really opened MY squid eyes
I was excited by the DnD books in the background, and then I've sat through the video, and now I'm mostly confused, slightly terrified by this author's view of the world view... buuut still excited by the DnD books :D Please get to that at some point :)
They're my flatmates books but I do play lots of DND. Next time I do a "just chilling" kinda vid it might be on my DnD charas or maybe just a storytime about character arcs or something
@@Crowcaller That sounds lovely \o/ There's never too much good DnD characters on the interwebs!
Moon squid hell is a sick idea, but my jaw actually dropped at the description of Cheung's eyes.
You know, this video is good, but I think it would be better if my phone was made of fungus and I could reach in and prod your bookshelf
Lol, I was working a comment about how "opined the tattooed Jew" is the worst dialogue tag ever written, and then you said the same thing!
For what it's worth, I'm on team "squid hell is real" and Eagle just didn't count because he had died once before(and presumably killed nobody). 30 minutes left tho, prove me wrong.
You know. This is a really fucking weird video to disassociate to. I came out for a second, heard Squid Hell, and immediately stopped processing things again.
AWH YEAH love sitting down with your videos and chilling. Good listening, well spoken, keep it up.
Squids on dark moon sounds nice. I wanna be there. The dream aspect sounds nice.
You do wonderful. I love the indepth reviews so much. With all the voicec in my head (my own inside from DD/DID) it helps calm me down. Your voice is soothing and the sometimes nervousity while talking is very relatable. I I was without my meds because the doc who should take for me was on holiday and his stand in was a nightmare. I took lectures, he was talking to me like I am five and I had three days of no meds. Neary landed in the hospital but now I have emergency meds till my doc is back. I listened to your reviews while I was in pain and high anxiety waiting to get to the asshole doc to see if he will help me and with you I stabilized.
The Perfection books made me so angry, I write Missy in my own fantasy world Guhulia.....the whole section is under the video. But yeah, Missy hurt and she deserved better.
The tidbit about the wars within apartment complexes reminded me about Dredd (2012) and whether or not the book might have taken some inspiration from the film or comics/I spent the entire rest of the review thinking about how much better of a grimdark dystopian future Dredd was
If you ever make merch, please consider "what are the implications of moon squid hell"
maybe the real squid hell were the books we read along the way...sheesh
Love the new ending title card!!! (If that's the word for it)
Also the rasicm bits were physically painful to read. Thanks for sharing all that!
I only half watched this video while doing other things, so I when I kept hearing different plot lines I thought I thought I missed something but reading the comments seems to indicate it really is that incoherent.
54:06 "giving a stiff command" or "giving a sniff command" ? Because it's called a lilly and you sniff those, and your nose is connected to your ear, so that would be one way to send signals to it.
It's stiff, though I do like the idea of a smartphone which is only operated view smell and sniff. Very wacky scifi pulp 70s comedy thing
If there's shrimp heaven, there must be squid hell.
18:59 "Oho! Shock gore!" button bc I thought of this line the whole video.
books that make you go "oh boy. oh wow. okay"
I wish my squid eyes were open so fucking bad
Edit: Got to the gore part & I think I'm probably qualified to comment, since I'm in the Danny Phantom fandom which I consider to have some of thee best gore writers to date (for real, if you haven't read Phantom of Truth by Haiju, whether you're a DP fan or not, highly recommend). I don't usually like gore, especially with children. The scene at the beginning of It (2017) made me feel sick. I hate the Saw franchise. The first movie is interesting but everything after that I just think is gross. But I have read a lot of vivisection & experimentation fic involving a 14 year old boy (including the previously mentioned PoT, which I've read multiple times & has inspired my own writing) & the thing that makes them different is *intent.* Why is this gore happening? What does it say? Is it just saying "haha wouldn't it be fucked up" or do you, the writer, actually have a point here?
When I write "gore" (my concept of gore is so messed up now I try to play it safe, but usually it's anything from bad injury to classic gore) it's usually a plot point, or character development, a moment of "oh my god, my mother actually tried to cut me open," or "my father just fucking shot me," the point being "why am I still trusting them when I know they want to hurt me & people like me?" When I see people try to do gore I can instantly tell whether they're trying to write an actual story or just trying to write gore for gore instead of using gore as a tool. "Torture porn" is the perfect phrase for this. I wish people could see it as more than just that. It has so much potential as a genre, but is wasted like 90% of the time :/
As a fellow Danny Phantom fan, I agree. The gore itself isn’t really the scary part, but rather the fact that it’s his own parents that are trying to dissect him. (I haven’t rewatched the actual show in quite some time so my entire mental version of the show comes from the fandom. Wes is real, phantom planet never happened, and Danny is extremely traumatized)
What in the Moon Squid Hell was this book?!
There’s so many crazy unanswered questions about this setting that the book seems to make no attempt to answer. Why is CCI allowed to just revive whoever they want, such as a murderer? Was this murderer convicted? So there’s no oversight preventing them from doing whatever they want? Additionally, you mention multiple times that characters “learn” that their relatives will be revived - do they not have say in whether or not their relatives will be revived? And how do they retain memories from the afterlife? We’re crossing outright magic with sci-fi now? Not to mention how goddamn weird squid hell is. I bet the author was high when he wrote that part
So. Yeah. There's not a lot of answers, can try.
1. Cci can revive anyone whose brain they have, and there's no real legal oversight on who that is. The justification for the murderer being revived is that by being executed, he had served his sentence so he could be brought back legally and free. There's no oversight or laws against this apparently, it's unclear how long they've been a company but seemingly a while. Family does have to like, submit their dead family to be revived but there's no apparent order on who they pick, so everyone in the cast is simply told, which might be a year or like 30 years from their death. No one retains afterlife memories until the squid hell incident the murderer brings up- which then by the end of the book is said to be entirely a made up story, leaving no proof of afterlife