VLOG: READING ONLY DARK ACADEMIA BOOKS FOR A WEEK 📚weird books, the secret history rip offs + dnfs!

I feel like if you're going to copy a book do it well don't shorten your they would to me you are not on my level Nico you never will be on my level do not compare yourself to me hi everyone welcome back to my channel I hope you're well welcome back to another reading Vlog I am back at University to get myself in the mood I don't know why this would get me in the mood but I thought I would read all dark Academia books for a week dark Academia is one of my favorite genres pretty legendary if you ask me I love it and yet I do not read enough of it so all I want to do autus setting in is why I'm wearing my old tumil dress I want to read books that feel like Autumn and often dark Academia is just Autumn to a tea the secret history 9th house yes please I've picked out three books first I'm going to be reading Katherine house by Elizabeth Thomas I don't know much about this other than that it is weird it is weird I have heard very very very mixed things about this because some people just hate it some people do not Vibe with it at all the belur says that during your 3 years at Katherine house you will have no contact with those in the outside world basically it's a very isolated University students have been really carefully selected there's just something weird going on so I'm really excited to read this I am going to be Co co-hosting Kayla from books and La La's literally dead book club for the month of September this is our book we have like 3 days left in September so I need to read it ASAP by the time this video is up the live show probably already have happened so if you're intrigued you can always go and read this and then go watch the live show I am so excited to be co-hosting that with Kayla I was shook when she asked me in here I can't believe that I actually can't believe that without getting too deep Kayla was one of my main Inspirations for starting book so it's just mindboggling to me that she wants me to co-host her book club with her I'm a big fan of weird [ __ ] so I'm here for this I'm really really really really excited next is a classic not classic but like a very popular dark Academia book it's if we were villains by ml Rio so this was very kindly gifted to me by Riley from Riley Marie this was for hitting 1K so I need to read this now the reason I've put this off is because everyone Compares it to the secret history which is one of my favorite books BS and I was going to do a video where I reread the secret history and read this and compared them however I I don't think that that is the best way to enjoy this book I think I should just appreciate it as a book on its own and secondly I am not ready to reread the secret history yet I'm I'm too scared like I'm terrified does anyone else feel fine rereading books they kind like they enjoyed like a 4.5 to five but those books that were special like the Beyond five five stars like your favorites of all time I can't reread I get too scared cuz I'm like what if I don't like it again because it was only in the time and place I can't do it anyway so I'm not rereading the secret history yet I know that this is about a group of friends who study Shakespeare at University and one of them dies and another one of them serves 10 years to murder and when he gets out he's ready to tell the story of what really happened but that's quite dramatic I'm very excited to get to this it has been one I've been wanting to read for so long but just because of that other video I've been putting it off and putting it off hopefully it will be as good as the secret history and then I'm also going to be reading a deadly education by Naomi novic my copy is waiting for me at my local water stones however I have not plucked up the courage to go into the city center which is like Corona virus central so I'm super excited to get into this Vlog and just read loads of dark Academia books and hopefully it will make me actually study and do my work I'm going to start with Katherine house and I will update you when I'm a little bit of the way through [Music] [Music] you will have just seen I popped into my local water stones I haven't been there because I've obviously I haven't been living here um I haven't been there for like six 7 months so it was really nice to go back cuz it's a really big one I picked up a deadly education which is the third book from for this video I have to say I do prefer the American cover I'll put a picture in but it is still cute like the kind of gold shininess it looks really good under the ring light I've heard so many mixed things but I'm really intrigued by It Anyway let's talk about Katherine house where have I even put my copy I am now 109 pages in so I'm just over a third of the way in and like I think I'm obsessed I think I'm obsessed with this book sickening absolutely sickening I think I love it now it's not going to be for everyone it's told in a really weird chaotic tone where time is like so morphed and strange but essentially our protagonist inz has gone to Katherine house you're supposed to just go there be in seclusion study be so clever and then go into the outside world and be amazing apparently so many of like the powerful Elite from society have come from this college I'm obsessed I'm obsessed I'm obsessed I love the vibe of it I love the sty of writing it's so weird it's getting weird like it's really disjointed and makes no sense and logic doesn't apply but I love it I have a feeling that like not much is going to happen in terms of plot but I'm okay with that I really think I am like I think I can say that now I went very briefly and looked on good reads and it's got a 3.09 average rating and like everyone I'm friends with has given it like a two star but I think I love it I think the dark Gothic atmosphere is just I'm eating it up look how she ate that look how she ate that look how she ate it the way that is depicting mental health is really interesting a protagonist obviously is a very dark past and I think maybe a lot of the students here do and that might be why they've been selected her dark past reminds me of Alex Stern from 9th house where she's kind of on the run from her past she's kind of spiraling into this really really dark place while living at Katherine house and you you are debating in your head how much of it is down to the place itself and how much of that was already kind of like her mental health due to her past and what she's gone through and the guilt she feels and the worry she feels her desent into this like ambivalence towards life has been really interesting to read I love the dark goings on at the school there's obviously some shady Shady shady [ __ ] going on and you feel like you can't trust anyone there there's there definitely a lot of ulterior motives and just at the part I at now things feel like they're starting to slip and stuff starting to go wrong and it's so good just the writing style feels so like overwhelming and claustrophobic and I'm just totally vibing with it I'm really really enjoying it and I think just the Vibes of it are going to carry it through it reminds me a lot of bunny by Mona award especially in the writing style I mean both are like dark Academia books which are really weird but more than that the writing style feels really similar apart from I didn't really like it in bunny like bunny was fine I think I gave it like a 3 3.5 but I was very disappointed cuz I wanted it to be a favorite the writing style feels very similar in kind of that like detached from reality way where like not everything makes sense in the way that we expect everything to make sense but I'm loving it in this case I'm really really liking it I'm so surprised that everyone else hates it I'm so shocked I'm an acquired taste you don't like me acquire some taste okay so I am now 200 pages into Catherine house and I'm still loving it still really enjoying it still completely obsessed with like the language and the way the story is told and I was thinking I think Kayla said something similar or I'm not sure if I imagined it but I think it doesn't really have a genre right like it's marketed very much as like a thriller dark book but it's not really a thriller although it's like kind of just like Insidious and strange and weird it genre is weird but almost the kind of weird that when you put it down and you're not reading it you're like is it actually weird or am I just like crazy like it it it's turning it turns you on your own brain a little bit every time I turn the page whilst reading Catherine house this is crazy this is crazy this is crazy this is crazy this is crazy this is crazy I just love The Vibes of it the Vibes of it are [Music] Immaculate I finished Catherine house and I loved it I'm giving it five stars now I know I'm very much the unpopular opinion here however I don't really I don't see how I can be cuz it's so good I honly you guys I feel like I have the best tasted like I think it's very hard to beat me in tasted like I will like I admit that I I'm not like the best at everything but I really have a like I like I do never Pat myself in the back ever but like I have a really good like sense of I understand that it's very slow the writing style is weird it's not going to be for everyone you do not get explanations for a lot of what's Happening there's a lot of like monotony of life so like you're constantly just reading about them going to breakfast or dinner or having sex like with another person another person next day then another person next day I understand how that's not for everyone however it's just genius it's just so good so good it's so good the house itself is so dark and Gothic this book is so like beautifully written like one of the most beautifully written books I've read in a long time you guys are all wrong you guys are all wrong who are all giving this a bad star rating you're wrong you're wrong this has cult Vibes to it like Vibes it is a cult essentially like they're walking into a cult when they go to kathyn house although they know they're not going to be able to leave for 3 years there's some cult activities that go on what I think that this book is so good at doing is Elizabeth Thomas is seeing how far can I go in describing the mundane and making it sound Delirious like there's a lot of normal things that happen but that just sound completely out of reality and Delirious it's like a your reading a dream or a nightmare it's got that kind of like disjointed um thoughts all over the place and you're not completely understanding necessarily everything that's going on that feeling there were so many characters that weren't what they thought they would be that turned out to be something completely different and we don't get the answers for that the characters revealing their true colors and me being shocked even though it was probably obvious the whole time w we just find out that they were different than what we thought and like that's it that's it we're done we're not going to talk about it anymore it's not a mystery really it's got some mysterious elements but like it's not like she is trying to solve the mystery necess like she just kind of doesn't care and just wants to go about her life and the security that the school LS you in I love inz I think inz is one of like the corest main characters protagonist I've read in a really long time I thought she was such a cool character I just loved it and I know everyone hates it like literally I've gone on good reads and so many people I'm friends with have dnfed it or given it like one or two stars and you're wrong something about this doesn't sit right in my spirit I would really recommend you pick this up but I know I am not the popular opinion here if you like weird books if you like books that are a bit disjointed I think maybe people that like the Wicker King by Kate anram would like this because it's got that kind of same you don't know what's real vibe but like more grownup almost and a bit bit darker I cannot wait this Saturday to discuss this with Kayla and Aaron I know that Kayla really liked it I haven't watched her Vlog where she read it yet cuz I wanted to like get my own thoughts before I watched her talk about it but I don't know what Aaron thinks about it and if we all love it where everyone else hates it it's going to be a bit weird yeah I loved it if you like weird books that I have typically liked go for it but may like everyone else hates it so I don't know I think it's brilliant I think it's one of the best books I've read this year I decided to start if we were villains by ml Rio next I have just started act two so I'm on page 116 and like I don't know if I like it oh no that would not do at all so the premise of this is that of these group of friends a murder occurred 10 years ago and Oliver our protagonist was put in prison for it we kind of know that it wasn't him or it wasn't entirely him or whatever he's going to tell the officer the head officer for the case who is retiring he's going to tell him the truth off record and so that's what's happening right and like we haven't really got into like the mystery element of it yet I think my main gripe with this I have other gripes but my main gripe with this is that I don't know who these characters are like there's seven of them in this friendship group there's four guys and three girls I cannot tell you the difference between James and Alexander like who are they what is their characteristics like what is their Vibe what are they bringing to the table I don't know and like for the girls we have a seductive one a boyish one and a spare do you know what I mean like there's not characterization to these characters they have no identity who is she who is she where did you find her this book is often compared to the secret history and people say if you love The Secret history you'll love this and that's why I was so excited to read this cuz I loved the secret history but I feel like a a key part of the secret history is how different all of those characters are and the different things they each bring to the table but these characters are all just blurring into one for me like I just don't know who they are they all speak the same they all act the same I think there's almost too many of them as well like they're kind of just all Fading Into the background I don't know if I'm being too harsh but I just I'm not enjoying it another thing that's kind of annoying is that they're all Shakespeare drama students and they all just keep quoting Shakespeare to each other and I initially was annoyed by that I was initially like come on but then I realized I have no leg to stand on because when I did drama and we did old plays like we did voy check which is like this old German play we used to quote it to each other all the time afterwards like in conversation like as a joke we used to just always quote what a man straight as a tree or whatever the line was I can't remember but we used to always quar to each other so I have no leg to stand on I am that insufferable I am that annoying this is a year of realization like the year of just realizing stuff and everyone around me we all just like realizing things this book is actually just making me annoyed at myself and if I'm going to be reading like slightly insufferable characters they're not that insufferable yet or some of them are but not all of them but if I'm going to be reading them like I want you to have a bit of flavor I want you to have a bit of difference and this doesn't work right now I don't want to hate it I wanted to I thought this would be like a five star I'm pretty sure this is in some five star prediction video I've made let me go read the middle let me go read up to act four and then I'll come back and like maybe it will be a completely different vibe maybe I'll be in love with [Music] it I just got to four so I'm on page 295 I'm nearing the end and the the really strange thing about this is that I'm going through es and flows or where I think it's really good like from when I stopped speaking to you up until the end of act two I think where like the death happens it was like so good like the pace was really quick and you kept going oh my God what's going to happen oh my God what's going to happen I think I know what's going to happen but is it after that they're just moping around like dealing with the aftermath of the death and it literally is a ripoff of the secret history but secret history did it better so there was a while right after I when I got off the the I say the phone from you but when I got off camera I was like I'm going to eat my words like it's getting so much better I'm really enjoying it and then in part three I was just like no I'm not oh no this has now gone downhill it doesn't know what to do with itself and it is a ripoff of the secret history like not just in dark Academia horrible people who are friends who like study something a bit pretentious there's a death in the Friendship group they are all liable in some way this isn't spoilers for either of them I'm keeping it vague purposefully on both fronts the death occurs like halfway through the book and the other half is like moping around like it's the exactly same thing like come up with originality I honestly think this isn't a book for people who like the secret history because the secret history just did it better like the secret history is just the better and original version of this [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I finished it and well they're speechless it was fun I think I'm going to give it like a 3.5 Stars I feel like the ending I got a bit emotional but then I get emotional everything so like really I should not be bumping up for this but the ending took it from a 3 to a 3.5 for me I just feel like the characters were never something that I cared about or like without spoiling anything there were decisions made at the End by characters based on some like key characteristics of other characters you know everyone was like oh you know X they're like this they're they'll they would do this you know and it's integral to the way the plot goes but I'm like I don't know that like really really are we talking about the same person like since when was this one of their like characteristics since when these characters were not actualized and realized throughout I I really did not buy into them I feel like if you're going to copy a b do it well your they would to me they would never make are not on my level ni you never will be on my level do not compare yourself to me it just so empty it felt like a husk to me it felt like all show and nothing like deeper there was no depth to it I wanted a bit more like but in the secret history when a character is killed you like fully understand why that has happened and you fully understand why the group decides to do what they do in this it's so rushed at the beginning we spend barely any time with that character and I guess that's something that the secret history is afforded by being like 600 700 Pages or something we barely spend any time time with the character who is who dies in this one I I just felt like you don't feel anything like you don't give a [ __ ] cuz you barely knew this character and they were such a caricature and it's like well okay but yeah I'm very disappointed I think I've said this would be five stars for me in the past and it's not going to be five stars for me I just I'm really sad and Riley thank you very much for getting it for me but I'm sorry I didn't like it [Music] it wasn't that I didn't like it there were aspects like I said I haven't had a book like it in a long time where some parts of it I really liked and then other parts were just a slug to get through like it was really a roller coaster of emotion okay so next I knew I said originally in this video I would be reading a deadly education by Nomi novic but I have returned my copy of it a couple days after it came out some discourse started on Twitter about how it was racist or had some microaggression in it by own voices reviewers both black and Indian and just from Reading those reviews and listening to those own voices reviewers I just decided that right now I don't want to read it this isn't me saying that you shouldn't read it or like no one should read it or I would judge anyone for reading it or I think it's a mistake to read it like I'm I may read this book in the future there were own voices reviewers saying they didn't feel it was racist or didn't feel like it had microaggression so like there were multiple perspectives and this isn't me saying that one one person is right or like one anyone is right um this is just me saying that I don't want to read it anymore because of that so I've had a look and like there's barely any other dark Academia books I'm interested in and that I can access like easily in time to make this video and I think I'm going to pick up black chalk by Christopher J Yates which is about some kind of like dark game gone wrong at University with these students I'm going to read it as an audio book I think I've heard mixed things about this in the past but it's something I've definitely heard people at least speak about which I hadn't for other books okay so I've listened to about I think 30% of it and like I I don't think I like it hey flop girl you have done it again it's just making me feel so anxious like so on edge I don't know I feel like kind of sick listening to it so essentially the premise is the story is being told in two timelines one is in the present day and it's one of our characters who's basically been living as a Hermit for 3 years hasn't gone into the outside world is obviously scarred from what happened in the past somewhat but we don't know which of our male characters it is and then the other part is this friendship group and they decided to come up with a game where the stakes get increasingly high and to force people out of the game if that makes sense and I just like don't like it because it's [ __ ] sometimes I like insufferable characters this is the thing sometimes I like them and sometimes they're just not done well like I think you're insufferable characters have to be interesting you know they've got to be like okay you're not a nice person you're disgusting you're so annoying but you're interesting whereas these guys are [ __ ] boring like they're they're so boring I'm this close to just dnfing it I'm going to like sit it out a bit longer and just see but like I'm not I'm not enjoying it at all and I'm like I've got so many other things in my life I could be doing but then I feel like I'm failing you as a person if I dnf it for a video but I know that shouldn't be the case and I should just like read what makes me happy and then the characters I can't even tell you their names and it's an audio book I'm being told their names constantly I know we have Chad Jack I don't know these people are so boring and insufferable how can you be boring and insufferable give me some flavor please where's the flavor where's the flavor in this I don't taste anything I don't taste sugar cinnamon nutmeg milk nothing and here's the thing you could say well Megan you loved how in Katherine house these characters were not caricatures but they were very one note you know the characters weren't really fully fleshed out you're like well why did you hater than this I'm like because in one it's done well and in one it's not done well like I think two books can have exactly the same features characteristics styles of writing but it's just whether it's done well or not you can set out to do the same thing and one can do it well and one not this book was promising me Adventure you know dares lifethreatening dares the game gone wrong and I'm getting nothing nothing has happened the game hasn't even started yet and we're like 30% the way in I'm going to like stick it out to 50% and if by 50% I'm not enjoying it we're leaving it like you please don't blame me it's a 13h hour audio book I'm not sitting through all of that if I'm still hating it at 50% you already know what I'm about to say you already know what I'm about to say I'm dnfing it I don't want to read this book like I just it's making me sad it's making me not look forward to reading it's making me feel anxious whenever I read it I didn't even get 50% in like I was like I'm going to give it to 50% I'm reasonable and then I didn't I read I had 8 hours left I'm free I've G out they're not putting me back I'm out now I'm out for good no way Jose am I putting myself through that like why would I want to do that if I'm not enjoying it why would I want to spend my whole day reading a book I'm not enjoying the unhinged weird narrator in the future could not care less nothing interesting happened in the 5 hours I listened to so like why would I listen to more I am however I just want to know how it ends like I I want to know the plot and just see whether it would have been worth my time I don't even have anything else to say like it was just it made me feel sick I've never had that before I had like my body had an adverse reaction to it is it just it was so bad okay apparently the ending was disappointing well good oh the consequence of the game say boring throughout I am so happy that I have stoping I tell you I lay in bed last night and I just made the decision that I'm I was going to doef it and I've never felt so free I've never felt so liberated in my entire life I'm really sorry that I didn't manage to read a third book in this video like I just don't want you to be angry at me I'm sorry but obviously the last slot of this video is just curs we had the deadly education and now this like obviously this video just wanted to be a two B Trevor ganza not three it was like Megan we're not doing that sorry let me know if there's any dark Academia recommendations you have because I feel like when I was looking at lists after I decided to not read at deadly education I just struggled to find any I actually like had heard good things about that I hadn't already read so please let me know because I love the idea of it books I've Loved obviously Katherine house in this I loved 9th house I loved secret history I love so it's obviously one of my favorite like features of a book but it didn't entirely work out in this video so let me know if you have any wrecks and yeah I hope you enjoyed this video and I will see you very very soon in another one okay bye [Music]