let's read some OOKY SPOOKY books!🎃🕸️🕷tbr cluedo picks what i read! 🔎 october tbr - ep 38

Hello friends, welcome back to my channel and welcome back to TBR Cluedo, my TBR game that we play every single month. It's time for October's TBR and I want some spooky books. Spooky, okey, kokey, and creepy. But it depends on how kind this board is to us on whether we manage that or not. I'm aiming for spooky books today. We'll see how well we actually succeed with that. So if you're new here, this is my TBR game that picks some of what I read every single month. And yeah, this month I'm just hoping for good vibes. I spoke recently about how I'm like, do I love reading anymore? Or I'm like, I'm struggling with loving reading. I want to feel something, right? I just want a five star. I want like an amazing book five star. Not bad, it's not too much to ask, right? It's not too much to ask. So today we're going to be picking what I'm going to be reading in October. 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So for me, that really removes a barrier of entry to working out, because I'm not having to plan, you know, what exercises I'm going to do, what combinations of exercises have the best output. They do all of that for you. So I cannot recommend it enough, and you guys can get a 14-day free trial with a personal trainer using my link down below. If you want to kickstart your fitness journey in the next month, I cannot recommend it enough. So check out the link down below. 14-day free trial with your own personal trainer. Check it out. Okay, let's now get into TBR Kudo, and let's get into roll number one. Okay, time for roll number one. Person number one over in a fantasy. Okay, we can work with that. We've got a one and a five. How many is it to that? One, two, three, four, five. Okay, that is number two, which is, ooh, a series and partway through. That could actually be helpful this month. Okie dokie, roll number one. What was it? A fantasy that's a series and partway through. And I'm actually going to be trying to finish a series in October. This isn't spooky. It's probably like we've done okay with the spookiness, I would say. Yeah, I'm going to be trying to finish a series, and I'm going to be reading The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin. I read the second in this series, The Obelisk Gate, earlier this year, and I just know if I want to give this book any chance of enjoying it, I need to read it ASAP, because this series is very confusing. It's very intense. Oh, God, how do you even describe what you should know at the start of book one? How do I explain it? There's maybe the world ending. We're in this kind of dystopian fantasy world, and the world may be ending. There's seasons that bring around really difficult living conditions, and we're following three different perspectives, a girl, a young woman, and an older woman, as we kind of follow their experiences through this, is what we should know. Book two, I didn't love as much. I found it a little bit like it felt like it was just leading up to this book, right? A lot happens at the end of book one. Your kind of worldview of the whole series shifts, and it kind of felt like it was recovering from that and setting up for the next book. So I didn't love it, but I have high hopes for this last book, that it will be a really good conclusion to the series. But yeah, I'm a little bit nervous, guys. This is like, I just find N.K. Jemisin and this series very intimidating, so I kind of just want to get it done and off my currently reading series. I think that would be a weight off my shoulders. Not that I don't enjoy it, but you know those series that you just find intimidating? You just find a little bit intense. I don't feel like I'm clever enough to read this sometimes, I read N.K. Jemisin. But, you know, this is like, super popular series. All the books won the Hugo, like, amazing series. Amazing series, and I'm gonna try and finish it, and I hope that it all comes together in a way I enjoy. Roll number two, person number eight, which is Lou, over in Contemporary. Let's see how many roll, got three, and a six. I'm just gonna go one, two, three, and that is number 30, which is a wild card. Haven't had that in a while, but that basically means I can pick any book I want. Roll number two was a wild card, which means I can pick any book that I wanna read, pretty much. But, a lot of the spooky videos I'm doing this month, I don't know what I'm gonna have to read for them yet, and so I've gone, I've picked a book that I know I have to read, right, to be kind. Like, I know I have to read this book. It's probably what I should do with a wild card, right? But I am really excited about this book. I hadn't heard about it until I'm doing this particular video, but it sounds really, really good. It's a middle grade. It's called The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Nettlestone by Jacqueline Moriarty. So this is kind of, from my understanding, a bit of a fantastical middle grade, where Bronte Nettlestone is enjoying tea and cake when a telegram arrives announcing that her parents have been killed by pirates. This doesn't bother her particularly. They ran away when she was a baby, and she's been brought up very pleasantly by her Aunt Isabel and the butler. However, they have left detailed instructions on their will, which must be obeyed, or terrible things will happen. Bronte is to travel the kingdoms, delivering gifts to her 10 aunts, including one who specialises in dragon care, a pair who captured a cruise ship, and another who is queen of a small kingdom. So it's her travelling around, delivering gifts to all of these aunts. Firstly, a bit bold of her parents to do that, you know? But also, just like stereotypical middle grade fantasy, or YA fantasy, where like, those parents are dead. She's dead! We can't have alive parents. Simply, no one has alive parents in fantasy world. But yeah, I really like the cover for it. It sounds very intriguing. Middle grade, I've been struggling a little bit lately. But I have high hopes for this one. But yeah, middle grade, I've just been, sometimes I struggle to place my expectations of it. So it kind of is a me problem. But I'm intrigued by this one. I really like the illustration style. It's got pictures. It looks very cute. I think it's gonna be a fun read. Row number three, person number four, which is pink, up here in horror. See how many rows, got six or one. Can I get to something in horror with a six or a one? It's quite a small room. Okay, one, two, three, four, five, six. No, okay. One, two, three, four. What? One, two, three, four, five. Oh wait, wait, wait, wait. Is that right? One, two, three, four, five, six. Oh okay, there we go. That is number 16, which is, ooh, a book blurbed by a favorite author. Okay, that could be a fun one. Row number three was a horror that is a book blurred by one of my favorite authors. And I decided we would hunt for this together. So I don't know what this is gonna be yet. So with horror, here's the thing. I have a list of favorite authors in general that are like authors I've given three, five stars, right? But I don't know if there's a lot of horror authors on that list. So for this kind of prompt, I do allow it to be like an author I've really loved before, right? An author that I've given five stars before, really enjoyed reading from before. So I have two horror in mind that I'd really like to read. So let's check those first. First, I'm not looking at the book yet. First is Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan, which is a suburban mom vampire book. Let's have a look. No blurbs on the front. Only Rachel Harrison blurbs on the back. And I've never read from Rachel Harrison, okay? Man down. Let's try again. Next one, this one I have high, I kind of hope might have a blurb. The Gathering by CJ Trudeau. I love CJ Trudeau's stuff. Really always enjoy it. This one sounds very intriguing. Set in Alaska, small town. We can do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a reason to celebrate. On the front, it is Blurred by Stuart Turton, who I have given five stars before when I read The Devil in the Dark Water, one of my favorite murder mysteries. Not my, it was on my previous list of murder mysteries, not the most recent one I just did. So we can read this. That counts, that counts. Oh, this is exciting. In a small Alaskan town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and the blood drained from his body. I shouldn't say that with a smile on my face. And it's this small town, it echoes a murder happened 25 years ago. We have an out-of-state detective who's brought in to assist the sheriff. The inhabitants of the town believe they know who is responsible. One of the nearby vampire colony who live in the old mining settlement deep in the mountains. I think this sounds so good. I always give CJ Tudor four stars. CJ Tudor is a standard four star author for me. I know I can rely on CJ Tudor for a four star. I'm really intrigued by this one. I think I could love it even more. I think I could give it five stars. Like, this little Alaskan town with population 673. Oh, it's so good. And I feel like CJ Tudor's been playing with a little bit of fantastical. This is perfect. Spooky season, vampires. This is perfect. All I want to read in October is like mysteries and horror, basically. All of these books aren't that. But that's okay. That's okay, that's okay. Yeah, super duper excited about this one. That's such a result. Roll number four. Oh, goodness. Person number one again, over in front to see. Let's see what we roll. One and a six. Can we get the rose prompt with that somehow? I feel like we're gonna have to go around the houses a bit. Okay, one, two, three, four, five, six. Okay, we did it. That is the rose prompt, which means a patron is gonna pick what I read. Roll number four was the rose prompt. Let me get the jar down. So the rose prompt is something where when you join my patron, you get to pick two books off my TBR that you would like for me to read. And when I get the rose prompt, I pick one out of this jar. We all know we need a new jar because this is beyond full to the brim. But let's pick one out. I'm hoping for good vibes. Let's see what we get. I'm gonna reach quite far down. I've got one. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Hopefully it'll be one I haven't read. But if it is, we just pick again. What is this? Oh, this book kills. A mystery. That's kind of a result, babes. Okay, okay, okay. Let me see who's picked that first. That's a good result. This is one I've been meaning to get to for quite a while. Only one person has picked it. Who is it? Grace. Grace has picked this book, Kale, so let me go hunt it down. So this is one I spoke about a little bit recently when I was watching a video of my 2023 most anticipated releases. And this was on there, and I hadn't read it yet. This is a YA mystery where the protagonist has written the perfect murder in a short story that she wrote. And then someone kills another student using that methodology. Gagatrondra. And she receives an anonymous text thanking her for the inspiration. And she's trying to figure out who did it, how they did it, yada yada. I have heard good things. A lot of you actually, when I mentioned it in that video, commented that you really enjoyed this. So this is perfect for the season. What a good pick. Thank you so much, Grace. Yeah, I think this could be a really fun one to read. And I wanna read more YA mysteries. I haven't been reading a ton of YA mysteries lately. And I would like to read more because I don't have a ton that I love. Good Girls Go To Murder and the Truly Devious series are the only ones that spring to mind as ones I really enjoy. So yeah, I'm feeling hopeful for this one. Roll number five. Is that seven? Okay, number seven, which is brown. I'm hearing mystery. Let's see how many rolls. Jesus Christ, got three and a four. Okay, I'm gonna go one, two, three, four, which is number five, which is a 2024 release. Roll number five was a mystery that is a 2024 release. And this is the round that I gave to my patrons to vote on. They vote on one round of TBR every single month. And then that is our book club picks. They're voting for me and for them. And the four options, let me try and remember off the top of my head what the options I gave them were. They were The Final Act of Juliet Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd, Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent, Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Frida Ibike Emede, and Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox. And turns out two of them aren't out in the US yet, which is kind of annoying. But the one that won is a chonker and it is Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Frida Ibike Emede. It's another YA mystery. But this is almost 600 pages. Oh my goodness. Why are the pages so filled with so many words? Like what the fuck? Seita Sane is a new girl at the prestigious Alfred Noble Academy. She certainly didn't imagine her new roommate, Elizabeth, to go missing on her first night or people would think she had something to do with it. And a student is found dead. Ooh, another YA murder mystery. Okay, I think this is gonna be fun to read, everyone. I've picked a long one, but it's also YA. So it shouldn't be that difficult to get through. This is me giving Frida Ibike Emede a second chance. I did not love Ace of Spades. I think I gave it a three star. I did not love it. I had issues with the writing, I had issues with the pacing, I had issues with the plot, issues with the end reveal. Maybe I should have given it less than three stars based on how I'm talking about it. But a lot of other people really enjoyed Ace of Spades. That was a me problem. A lot of people really enjoyed it. So this is me giving her a second chance. But if I don't enjoy this, I probably won't pick up from this author again because it's not fair to keep picking up authors you don't enjoy personally and reviewing them publicly. That's not fair. Is there mixed media in this? Did I just see a hint of mixed media? Maybe only right at the end. It looked like, oh, there's a hint of mixed media right at the end. There's a police report, transcript of an interview with stuff redacted. There is only one page in the whole book. If you'd like to read this with us on the Patreon, there's discussion sections on the Discord where everyone chats about what they think as they're reading. There's a discussion live show that I run and I do a reading vlog. So if you'd like to join us, link to Patreon is always down below. But yeah, I'm feeling really good about this one. Final roll. Person number seven, which is Brown in mystery. Let's see how many we roll. Oh my goodness. We got two and a five. Let's just go one, two, which is 20. And that is, ooh, a five star prediction. And the final roll was another mystery, which is great. Great for the season. A five star prediction. This one is a bit of a whim five star prediction. I have, this is debut, I think. Never read from this author before. And I just feel good vibes from it. I just feel really, really good vibes from it. And it's one that I put on the poll. So I obviously really want to read it. It is The Final Act of Juliet Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd. So this one, it is split timeline, which you may be thinking, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, because I don't usually enjoy split timeline. But this one, I just have a feeling I could enjoy it. And if it's done in the right way, I think it could, I'm getting vibes that I'll be okay with it. So in this one, let me read you out some of the timeline synopsis, because I think it describes it in a very fun way. So in Paris, 1938, runaway heiress, Juliet Willoughby, perishes with her married lover in an accidental studio fire, along with her surrealist masterpiece, Self-Portrait as Sphinx. Then at Cambridge in 1991, two art history students stumble across proof that something sinister was at play in Juliet's death, threatening to expose the long buried secrets of the artist's aristocratic family. And in Dubai in present day, an art dealer is accused of the brutal murder of his oldest friend, the last surviving member of the Willoughby dynasty. Oh my God. No, I don't think you understand. I'm obsessed. I think it sounds so good. I'm really, really excited to read it. I really want to read it. It's just come onto my radar by a publisher, the publisher like reaching out about it. And I just think it sounds really good. I think this could be a really great book. This doesn't come out until early 2025 for you Americans. So sorry about that. Oh, it's not a debut. The Club by Ellery Lord. I feel like I remember people talking about that. Hold up. Okay. I feel like I remember not hearing great reviews. I'm still putting it as a five star prediction. I'm still really excited to read it. There we have it friends. That is my October TBR Critter result. I'd say mostly like spooky, autumnal October reads apart from probably these top two. But other than that, these ones, a lot of mysteries, which I love. I love when I get to read mysteries and horror. But let me know please what you thought of any of these books. If you read them, I'd love to know your opinions. Thank you so much for watching. Remember to check out Train World down below. I really, really recommend it. And I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye.