Hi, it's Olivia here from the Olivia's Catastrophe and today I'm here to give you my
reading wrap-up. I slumped. I slumped hard
for the first two weeks of June. I
slumped out of this month and couldn't
read. Basically, it happens every half a
year or so. I was hoping it would happen in
July but happened in June. And I just had
to deal with it. Then my reading picked up a little bit
and I managed to finish some books. For
my Instagram chooses my TBR I didn't
read that many of the books at all. However, I'd like you to know that that
TBR is just rolling over to July
because I'm feeling reinvigorated and
ready to read all of the books. So I plan
to read those ones in July. So if you
wanted a wrap-up of that you're gonna
need to wait till next month.
Meanwhile, I have the 7 books that I read
this month to show you. The first book I
read this month was Heartstopper by
Alice Oseman. This is something I read
because I needed something quick, easy
and very light-hearted. So we follow
these two boys. One of them is openly gay
at school and one of them believes that
he is straight. And they meet and they
form a friendship and eventually they
start to have feelings for each other. And I just thought this book was really
really cute. The artwork was black and
white. It was straightforward and
simplistic, but it was just such an
adorable read. I loved seeing their
friendship blossom first and foremost
before we get into some kind of romance
feels. I liked that this was set in a
British boys school. It was just
unabashedly British at times. And I also
really loved that it's got some mentions
of homophobia in there. It's got a
lot of questioning representation
because of the fact that one of them
believes that he's straight at the
beginning of the story until he starts
to fall for the other character. So I
just thought this was a lot of fun. It
was really cute. It was a nice thing to
read for Pride Month and yeah, we got bi rep,
we've got gay rep. Read away! It stole my
heart. It left me warm and fluffy and I
think it's just as everybody else says:
something feel-good, something fun,
something lovely. Then for Pride Month I
also read Felix Ever After by Kacen
Callender. So this is an own voices story
about a black trans boy and he is in
school. He's in that final year right
before you go to university. He is this
trans student at the school and then
somebody puts up
photos of him in a gallery from
pre-transition.
And he feels very targeted and upset,
rightly so, about this happening. And he
tries to find out who has done this. However, I don't think that's all that
this story is about. This story is
definitely a coming-of-age story. This
story really delves into its topics
about questioning your gender and also
about the black trans experience
specifically. It also deals with some
love triangle stuff. Don't be scared when
I say love triangle because I feel like
it's just a love triangle that really
develops naturally and organically.
Especially for the age of the characters
are. And it also opens a can of worms and
lots of discussions. I felt like this
book was so informative to me because I
am not trans myself and I learned so
much through reading this book. Not only
just about what it's like to be a black
trans person but also about some of the
transphobia that people had. Like, it's
things that I would never think of but
now I know that some people think these
things I can recognize when I see them.
And like, tackle that person. So it was
just really eye-opening to me for the
black trans experience and some of the
transphobia that black trans folks
receive. And some of the racism that
black trans folks receive. As somebody
who's never had to question my gender,
it taught me a lot about that experience
as well. It's just so informative to read
outside of your own experience and I
really did experience a benefit from
this for reading. This book --  I thought the
love triangle was interesting. I felt
like it did a good job of discussing all
those relationships and the avenues and
where they could have gone. I also really
liked that Felix is an artist but he
feels inferior. He doesn't feel confident
in his art skills and as a writer myself
I often feel that way about my own
writing too. So it was just it was I was
able to relate to Felix a lot through
that avenue. In the beginning I wasn't
digging the book as much as I wanted to.
Felix is not the kind of character I
naturally gravitate towards. I didn't
find him entirely likable at the
beginning but as with any coming-of-age
story he really develops over the course
of this book. And he's really got a lot
to figure out. He's really good a lot to
deal with so while his relationship with
his parent... it was difficult for me and I
was feeling a lot of ways about that. By
the end of the book, I
was very satisfied with where everything
story line wise, ended up. By the end of
it I really liked Felix. The
ending just warmed my heart completely. Felt it ended just where the story needed to end.
And I feel like if you're in the
beginning of the book and you're like me -you're
just feeling like maybe Felix isn't the
one for you -
just keep reading because it does get
better. And you are going to be won over.
Oh! And I really love the strong
friendships that we get to see in this
book as well. I also read Breaking Dawn
by Stephenie Meyer last month and this
was for my read it backwards. If you
don't know what read it backwards is
I'll leave a link to that up above and
down below. And I've got a long vlog
video where I talk about all my thoughts
I had while reading this book. You should
definitely go and watch that because I
don't want to rehash it here. But sadly
if you just want a quick summary, I did
fall out of love with Breaking Dawn
slightly. I really thought Breaking Dawn
was on par with the rest of the series.
However, when it comes to the second part
of this book I've realised that's not
the case. This is the fourth book in the
Twilight Saga.
And Twilight is essentially a vampire
falls in love with a human.
What could go wrong and what could go
right? And it's very heavy on the romance.
It's got some problematic elements in
there. It's got some problematic
representation in there so do be aware
of those things. And yeah, that's all I
really want to say about Breaking Dawn
here. Then I buddy read with Gaia Athena
Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code by
Eoin Colfer. This is the third book in
the Artemis Fowl series. And all I can
say is that this series is so enjoyable.
And I like this one more than a second
one because it's back on par with the
first. We are back to getting a heist
story. Let me tell you about the first
book. So in the first book we meet
Artemis Fowl who is this child genius.
He's also a child crime lord, essentially. And he decides that he's going to take
his crime to the next level because he's
heard of this species called the fairies.
And the fairies have this ransom gold. So
he wants to capture a fairy and then
ransom her and get the gold from the
fairies that way, for keeping their
secret. However, the fairies have magic and Artemis does not. He's just a genius.
Magic? Genius? Who's gonna win out this one? I can't
tell you too much about without giving
spoilers for the rest of the series. But
I want to say that Juliet Butler - I
didn't know I needed more Juliet
Butler in my life until I got more
Juliet Butler. I love how this female
representation represented in this book because we
can have female characters who know how
to kick butt. Who know how to fight, how
to be strong, but at the same time they
love their makeup, they love their fancy
outfits and that's just who they are. And
they can be both and I loved seeing that
in this children's book. I really really
loved Artemis Fowl character development
in this one. Especially where he is from
the beginning of this book to where he is
by the end of the book. And how a certain
trope that I hate when it's put in the
end of every single book like ever... I've
never liked this trope! Was used in this
one and I think it did wonderful things
for his character development. It was
just perfectly, perfectly done. Butler
is still my favourite character and...
That's all I can say 'cause I'd only give
away what happens to Butler in this book.
But things happen. I was here for it. I
was here for a Artemis Fowl heist being a
bit of a step up from the first book. So
it was even more exciting. It was high
stakes and yeah, I just really liked the
world-building. I really liked the
characters and I can't wait to see where
the series is gonna take me next. Then I
was slumping so, of course, I did more
rereading. I reread Breaking Dawn which
is actually what brought me out of my
slump. And I also reread Ariel by Sylvia
Plath. I was not having like -- I really
thought May was a bad mental health
month for me
but June brought the sauce. It was a
really bad month for me so... Ariel by
Sylvia Plath is a poetry collection
which is my favourite poetry collection
of all time. It is very very emotionally
heavy. It was published posthumously so
none of these poems saw the light while
Sylvia Plath was alive. And yeah, it's got
a lot of heavy themes. And I'm just gonna
leave content warnings for the
themes down below. She's not explicit
about all of these themes but I do think if
you have those triggers it might affect
you. Her writing is absolutely beautiful.
I've never read poetry that is written
as well as Sylvia Plath's. She has
impeccable rhythm but not in a way where
you can see that she's keeping the
rhythm. It's so buried and so subtle. It's
just so good. Her word choices is like... it's
brilliant. Like, every single word choice
is fantastic. The formatting of her poems,
the meaning of her poems, it just pulls
at my heart. And I just feel so strongly
when I read this collection. When I
first went through this collection - what
was it? Three years ago? I read annotated
every single poem. I only annotate
poems in poetry collections that are my
favourites. Literally every single one was
just that good. And this time I got to
reread the poem, then reread my
annotations and even add annotations to
some of the poems from how I was feeling
when I was reading this poetry collection.
It's just so fantastic. Please read it if
you can. And I do want to let you know
that Sylvia Plath is a white woman and
she does use the n-word in one of her
poems. So you have been warned about this. Then I read two comics but I'm just
counting it as one book for this wrap-up
because they were so quick, easy and
short. And these were books 1 & 2 in this
series called
X. And I'll leave I can't remember who
it's by but I'll leave it in the
description box down below. I just, yeah,
these books are free on Kindle/ They're
not even on Goodreads that's how unknown
they are. And they're free on Kindle so
you can just get them for free and read
them all if you want. I read the first
one and it does set up a very
interesting premise where X kills a
bunch of criminals but in a very
horrific and body gore explicit way. And
so the police are on X's case and
trying to find out who he is.
I was so interested once I read the
first volume because that's just such an
interesting premise. Why did he do what
he did? Was he doing it for good? Was he
doing it for bad? However, the second
volume completely put me off and sadly I
won't be continuing the series because
of the second volume. And that is for two
reasons. First of all, is the narrator. The narrator was just so so so annoying.
The way that the story was being
told was really bugging me and the
second thing is because of the second
protagonist that this is about. We follow
X and we also follow this journalist. And
she wants to know more about this case.
And why it was happening so that she can
report on it. She has no sense of
self-preservation whatsoever. She makes
some really dumb decisions that put her in
really dangerous situations. And I just
feel like that's completely unrealistic.
Especially as my sister's a journalist
and I would know what she would do and
what she wouldn't do for a story. And it
just it barks me up the wrong tree. She
was frustrating. the narration was
frustrating and then it just made the
whole idea not worth it. So sadly this is
not a comic series I'm gonna be
continuing with. And then the last book
that I read next month actually has a
content warning in its title
so if sexual assault is something that
is a Content warning for you, you can
just stop watching this video here. Thank
you
so much for joining me for my wrap-up,
and I'll see you in my next video. If
you're still here the last book that I
read was The Rape of Lucrece which was
by William Shakespeare. This is not one
of his plays. This is actually a
narrative poem. So think a classic novel
in verse, for example. And it's
essentially just what the title says.
It's about the rape of Lucrece. And Lucrece is actually raped by her
husband's best friend. This was just not
something of his, personally, that I
really liked. I felt like the narrative
poem was a bit long-winded. It could have
been trimmed down quite a bit. The poem just veered a little bit off
track or just got into some very
metaphorical stuff and it didn't need
that. It could have just brought it back
to the actual point. Secondly, I felt like
Shakespeare spent too long
focusing on the actual rapist. The title
of the book is The Rape of Lucrece, sure,
but I was here for her experience of that. I
was not here to hear about how guilty
the man felt immediately after he did it
and all of that jazz. Like, yeah, you
should be feeling guilty. That's it. I
don't really care about you anymore. Move
along. So I was a bit like -- reading his
parts like -- I really don't care about you
and like, can you get out the poem now.
And I wanted to focus on Lucrece. And
then when we did focus on Lucrece she
said some really good thing. Itt was a
bit problematic how how she handled
things. I'm trying not to spoil anything. But her reaction and kind of the the
things that it gives off about rape, just
didn't make me comfortable. Not
comfortable with that so... I just... I did like
that the writing style in itself.
Really beautiful, as always, because
Shakespeare just has beautiful writing.
But it just wasn't... wasn't a good one
of his. And so it's not actually one of
his that I would recommend. Hopefully
I'll have better luck next month with
All The World's A Page read-a-thon and
getting back on track with his plays. So
those are the seven books that I read
last month. I have actually read so many
pages last month because I've read the
majority of The Priory of The Orange Tree and also
half of City of Brass which are two big
fantasy books, but nonetheless they all
be there in my July wrap-up along with
some of the Instagram chooses my TBR
books. Please let me know in the comment
section down below, what did you read in
the month of June? What was your favourite
read? And yeah, please give this video a
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new video. And you know what they say: onwards and
upwards. Excelsior!
