I read readwithcindy's debut novel and I have thoughts | The Secret World of Briar Rose Analysis

[00:00:00]I also got this muscle tea. It's Sukuna themed. Suk on these We are seeing a shift in the bookish community as there is now a growing population of book reviewers turned authors. And it makes sense. You can't really have a love of writing if you don't also love reading.

[00:00:15]And just like with celebrity book debuts, a new release from a former reviewer is just as highly anticipated.

[00:00:21]And this year is no different as we have a debut novel from Cindy, as in Read with Cindy. She's a long-time book creator with almost 600,000 subscribers on YouTube. And this year she released her first novel, The Secret World of Briar Rose. This is a YA fairy tale reimagining of Sleeping Beauty focusing on themes of escapism, colonialism, and primarily suicidal ideation and depression. Needless to say, this is a bold departure from the family-friendly Disney film. Now, when this book was first announced, I was already counting down the days to when it was going to be released. And now, after all this time waiting, I got it. I read it, and I'm going to tell you what I thought of it.

[00:01:04]So, without further ado, hello. Welcome back. It is a new day, a new slay, and a new video where I have something to say.

[00:01:11]And today I will be reviewing The Secret World of Briar Rose. So, as I already mentioned, Cindy first gained popularity as a BookTuber. She has some pretty well-known videos including her reviews of Acotar, Yellowface, and covering internet nonsense like the Kate Carraway situation. That video specifically was so viral and so iconic of her. Like, I was having people come to me telling me about that situation and referencing her video. Like, people in my personal life that knew that I liked books and knew that I was in the community. They were like, "Oh my god, have you seen this video about Kate Carraway?" And it was Cindy's video. And if you couldn't tell already, I'm going to disclose now. Um I'm a huge Cindy fan. I've been watching her videos since I don't even know when.

[00:01:54]Which actually, funny enough, my other favorite BookTuber of all time besides Cindy was Pollen Bananas Books, aka Christine, who now also, ironically, writes books. All this to say, since I'm a big fan of Cindy, I am, of course, going to be a little bit biased. I'm not going to try to deny it. I'm not going to pretend that my internal bias and my respect towards Cindy is not going to impact my review. But, most importantly, I'm a professional. I'm a book reviewer.

[00:02:24]So, for the sake of this review, I will temporarily separate my feelings and perceptions of Cindy the BookTuber and Cindy the author. When I picked up this book for the first time, I knew that it was going to be a challenge, especially because I have such a high opinion of Cindy. I went into this book only focusing on the work, truly not even thinking, not even picturing Cindy's face in my mind. I went into this book mostly blind. Like, the only thing I really knew about it was that it was like a fairy tale reimagining. I didn't look up anything else she put out about the book. I wanted a raw first experience, and I tried to be as objective as possible and only focus on the work in front of me, which, honestly, that's what I do for most of the books I review, but it was of the utmost importance with this book. So, first, I will start with a brief summary because, as I mentioned, I really did not know that much about the story other than that it was a reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, and that could not have possibly prepared me for the book I was actually going to read. So, The Secret World of Briar Rose is a young adult novel following two main characters in two separate timelines. First main character we have is Amelia. She is the princess and future queen of Gilden, a country that is constantly under threat by their neighboring country of Zalar.

[00:03:39]Gilden maintains their political power in this imaginary world because their rulers, the royal family, has golden blood. Honestly, now that I'm saying it out loud, I can't remember if it's golden blood or gold in the blood. I don't know if it's an important distinction. Just know that it's a metaphor for eugenics, probably.

[00:04:03]This idea that like blood is somehow valuable and has to be passed down to preserve certain traits, i.e. the gold in the blood, which is just further perpetuated because if you can tell by the cover, let me just bring that back up for your reference. Amelia on the cover here, uh she's white. She's rather pale, actually. So pale, in fact, that you can see the gold through her skin.

[00:04:32]Which actually, looking back on this, the gold in Amelia's blood and being able to see it through her skin could actually be a reference to the term blue-blooded. Which, if you don't know, the term blue-blooded was used to refer to royal families or otherwise noble families that uh didn't intermix their blood. They kept it pure. The idea being that their skin was kept so pale that you could see the blue veins through their skin. Again, just further supporting the idea of eugenics, blood purity, etc., etc. Oh, and I'm going to mention this because I don't I don't know if you guys knew that. Um the second main character is also on the cover of this book. I just thought I'd throw that out there for no specific reason. Amelia in the in the bottom corner, okay? Corrine, our second main character who I'm going to explain right now, um is here. In case you missed her, in case for any reason you thought she wasn't here and also a main character.

[00:05:27]In case for any reason your eyes just happen to linger on the only white character, and that's where your gaze is attracted to and you happen to to miss the the the dark-skinned POC also on the cover. I'm sorry. I don't I don't know why I brought that [laughter] up. Like that's stupid. everyone would know that the main character is on the cover and see the main character and wouldn't ignore the main character, right? Like Anyway, sorry, I'm being a [ __ ] right now. Let me stop being a [ __ ] Sorry. Anyway, Amelia is the only daughter of King Victor, but she was cursed as a baby to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into an eternal sleep, blah blah blah, Sleeping Beauty. You know Sleeping Beauty. Her main conflict in this timeline, which takes place 100 years in the past, is not only to find her true love, but also to get married and produce an heir, because as I mentioned with the gold blood metaphor, um they need to pass that trait down to make sure that Gilden has another ruler. Very English monarchy-esque. They can't allow the golden blood trait to die with Amelia, since again, she's supposed to fall into an eternal sleep when she turns 18. And this timeline with Amelia takes place from when she is 15 years old to when she turns 18 and things happen. Then, the other timeline takes place 100 years after Amelia fell asleep. This timeline follows Corinne, who lives in the now fully occupied country of Gilden. Corinne, again, I will point out, is our main character here in this corner. Please pay attention to her. She is also a main character, despite the fact that she's not white against a dark background and made to stand out, she is also in our story. I'm very biased. Corinne is my favorite character, spoiler. Um I'll go more into depth later, but she's my favorite character and I need you to know that she's on the cover. It's very important to me that you know that she is on the cover of this book, also.

[00:07:28]There's a story as to why I am pointing out the main character, but I cannot tell it. I am being silenced. Hear that?

[00:07:36]Silenced. I don't want to be silent. I'm being silenced. Anyway, my battery is about to run out cuz I'm [ __ ] around like a [ __ ] In this future, Zalar has fully invaded and continues driving out the people that originally lived in Gildan. They make the kingdom practically uninhabitable through brutality and starvation. And our main characters are not spared from this fate. Corrine and her younger sister Ali are just trying to get by, but one day, the sisters get into a huge fight and Ali runs away. And the reason she runs away is because she is looking for our our sleeping princess. You see, because in this future timeline, not only did Amelia fall into an eternal slumber, but the king and queen were also murdered, leaving Gildan fully unprotected. They had no ruler, no one to take charge, which was what allowed Zalar to invade.

[00:08:27]And Ali, being the younger sister, the dreamer, the optimist, believes that as long as they can find Amelia and wake her up, Gildan will be saved. So, Corrine ventures into the tunnels beneath the city looking for Ali, where she eventually stumbles upon the lost ruins of the original castle. She finds a portal where she can hear her sister's voice calling out to her, and she immediately jumps inside the secret world of Briar Rose. What's the saying?

[00:08:53]Roll credits or whatever? And here is where I say that in the book, Amelia, when we're in her perspective 100 years in the past, she goes by Amelia. When we're in her dream world and in Corrine's perspective chapters, um she goes by Briar Rose, or just Briar for short. I'm just going to call her Amelia for this video just to keep it consistent, just so I have a baseline, um and I like the name Amelia. Sue me.

[00:09:17]Nothing against Briar Rose or just Briar. If anything, it's because up until this point, when I watched Sleeping Beauty, the Disney movie, for the first time, I thought they said prior Rose, like p r i o r, as in before Rose. That's what I thought her name was, and I thought that that was an acceptable name. So, I'm I'm a little traumatized by my own stupidity, so I'm like, I'm just going to call her Amelia because one of these days, if I keep recording this video, I'm going to mess up and say Priorose, and then everyone's going to go into the comments and point and laugh at me. Of all the things that you can point and laugh at me for, mispronouncing a word is not one of them. So, Corinne's storyline is essentially her trying to make her way out of this dream world. She is also on the hunt for a treasure hidden somewhere in Amelia's dream world that could save her and her sister from a life of suffering. But inside the dream world, Corinne learns more about Amelia, the skeletons in her closet, and what really happened on the night of her 18th birthday. Along the way, we meet more of the iconic characters from the Sleeping Beauty lore, including Malacine and Talon. Malacine is this book's version of Maleficent, and they go by they/them.

[00:10:26]Anyway, that's the spoiler-free summary.

[00:10:29]If you don't want to know what the book is about, then I suggest you click off this video now. And trust me, there is a huge plot twist halfway through this book. So, this is your absolute last chance to turn back before you get spoiled. Plot twist so good, I did not anticipate it. I'm sure some people are going to be like, "Actually, it was really easy to tell." No, shut up.

[00:10:50]It's called being invested, immersed into a book. I'm not trying to anticipate what happens next. I'm just along for the [ __ ] ride. It's called catching a vibe. Try it. Sorry, I guess that's like a trigger for me. And with that out of the way, let's get into the rest of this video and my deep dive analysis of this book. So, the first thing I want to address is how the book was written, the physical craft, the words, the structure, all the nitty-gritty. First and foremost, and what you'll see from a lot of the reviews on Goodreads or TikTok or anywhere really, is that this is a very prose-heavy book. Prose meaning like the narration, the exposition, like it's just a lot of in between. It's not a lot of dialogue, we'll say.

[00:11:32]>> Most of the story is built on flowery language, dream-like imagery, and the internal narration from our characters.

[00:11:39]>> Now, personally, personally, in my own opinion, I do prefer books that are more dialogue-driven, that have a little bit more of that conversation back and forth between characters, but with that being said, it's not a strong enough preference where it impacts my enjoyment of the book.

[00:11:56]>> Honestly, I would say that this book follows borderline stream of consciousness, where it's like you'll have a character that's in a physical place, and they're doing a task like right in front of them, and then eventually they just kind of get lost in their own mind. Like they'll start thinking something, and then they'll go into a memory, and that memory will bleed into another one, and they just kind of like go off on a tangent, for lack of a better term, and they get like lost in their own head before getting snapped back into the present moment.

[00:12:23]And I called it like a tangent, but each story and each memory that we're taken on is essential for you to learn about the characters and the secrets that they're hiding. And I really liked the way that this book approached that format, because even though it is a stream of consciousness, it follows the same main memories and stories about these characters in a way that they give us snippets throughout the entirety of the story, so that we don't get everything all at once. We kind of peel back the layers of the same memory by revisiting it over and over. For example, and spoiler for Corinne's character arc, but at the beginning of the story, we learn that she actually used to live in a commune with other artists, but they were all killed in the underground tunnels. We know Corinne feels guilty about the situation, but we don't know the full extent of it. We don't really understand why. Then, as the story progresses and as Corinne enters the dream world, we eventually find out that her friends were planning an attack on the invading military, but Corinne backed out and ran away with her sister. But then it gets worse, which is a common theme throughout the story.

[00:13:30]Like, you think you've gotten the worst of it? No. We find out about halfway through the story that the only reason Corinne was able to run away from the commune and live in an actual house was because, in exchange for a stable home to live in, she ratted out her friends to the authorities. Mind you, this is a story that we learn about in pieces. As Corinne's walls are torn down by the dream world and her subconscious is invaded, this world manifests all the memories that she has tried so hard to forget. You learn all of these little stories, not just about Corinne, but also Amelia, and they're told in such a way that none of these individual stories really leave your attention at any point. I feel like there was a very healthy amount of time where we took away from one story, developed another, but eventually came back around. And the moments that we are focused on one memory, it's developed through intense imagery and colorful descriptions. It's definitely not a book that stays in the present for very long, nor is it in a hurry to move the plot, at least not in the literal sense of characters moving from one task to another and trying to accomplish their goal. And funny enough, when I was looking on Goodreads and in general, like Instagram, TikTok, anywhere that people were talking about this book, it seemed everyone was really frustrated by it. And while I understand to a certain extent, I personally believe that this was a masterful choice and a metaphor for the internal struggles of our characters. Both Corinne and Amelia are characterized by their inaction and cowardice. Amelia literally created a dream world to escape her responsibilities and the pressures of real life. So, to think that any of these characters would be focused on completing a single task without procrastinating or getting sidetracked at all is a little unrealistic. The narrative gets derailed, just like our characters do.

[00:15:22]Intentionally taking the scenic route to avoid getting on with the task at hand.

[00:15:27]But, just as our characters develop, so does the story. And as we get closer to the end, the book streamlines, eventually pushing our characters forward to their end goal. Admittedly, it did take me a while to wrap my brain around the way that this book was written. Truly a testament to how much I need to get off that damn phone.

[00:15:47]>> [laughter] >> All that to say, um this book is written in a way that I think certain people can find challenging. It's a book that's again not afraid to really just like explore every curve and avenue. And I think to a certain extent, like obviously with the books that we're consuming nowadays, the demand for the speed of books, and in general with society and instant gratification, I think people tend to like books that are a bit more straightforward, concise, like really just focused on getting to the end, that when we pick up books like this that really just kind of like take the scenic route for a lack of a better term, I think people tend to find it challenging. Which is correct. Yeah, this is a challenging read, but I would again encourage you, as I do with almost all my videos, is to challenge yourself.

[00:16:31]Go outside your comfort zone and experience something new. I'll be the first one to admit that this was definitely challenging for me, and instead of just like not finishing the book and DNF'ing it or whatever, like I just altered my approach. Overall, I really did enjoy the writing, some of the descriptions, again the flowery language, especially when we're in the dream world. I think like the abstracts of it all, the physics, how things moved was explained very well. Truly, it was like someone was trying to write down the plot of Inception, but just the parts where they're in the dream. Sorry, I'm just gushing so much about the writing, but I'll wrap up that portion so that we can now move on to the plot and overall themes of the story. As I already mentioned, escapism is the big one. As future queen of Gilden, Amelia has a lot of responsibilities. On top of the pressing issue of whether or not she's going to fall into an eternal sleep when she turns 18. As for Corrine, both her parents are dead, leaving her entirely responsible for her younger sister Ellie. It's a responsibility that she never asked for and one that she resents having. Her escapism is not that she wants to leave Ellie, but leave behind the pressures of the real world.

[00:17:41]Things like worrying about food or shelter or safety under occupation.

[00:17:46]Everything she's done in the name of protection has simply just been running away. And Corrine's form of escapism lends itself to the conversation of colonialism. Because oftentimes when we think of conflicts in other countries or in cities or any place that is deemed as dangerous, people often ask the occupants of these areas, "Why don't you just leave?" But as a lot of people in the real world point out and as Corrine soon learns in the story, there's only so many places you can run to. First, she ran to the commune, but when that became too dangerous, she ratted on her friends in exchange for a roof over her head. But then, as we learn in the beginning of the book, that safety doesn't last and the Zolar military forces her to leave. Then, she finds refuge in Amelia's dream world, where food is in abundance and there's always sunshine and rainbows. That is, until even this world is invaded. You see, for the past 100 years that Amelia has been asleep, there's one man whose only goal in life is to wake her up. Ezran is her husband, but when true love's kiss couldn't wake her up, he is granted immortality by her fairy godmothers. And together, they've been working to open a portal into Amelia's dreams. But Ezran isn't doing it for noble reasons. In fact, it's quite the opposite. As we learn in Amelia's timeline, she is King Victor's only daughter, right? Her mother died in childbirth and he later remarried a woman from Zolar by the name of Lilith. Lilith is only 3 years older than Amelia, but when Victor finds out that she's infertile, he tries to banish her from Gilden. But Amelia makes a deal with him, promising that she will get married and have an heir before she falls into eternal sleep. All in an effort to keep Lilith queen. But why does she want Lilith to stay queen so badly? Is it because she's like the mother she never had? Or maybe she sees Lilith as an older sister? No, it's because she has a crush on her. Yeah.

[00:19:41]Yeah.

[00:19:42]More on that later. So, 2 years later, when Amelia is 17, she meets Ezran for the first time, who manipulates her into marrying him by threatening to expose her feelings for Lilith. Come to find out that the only reason he wanted to marry Amelia was because he wanted an in with the royal family because surprise, surprise, he has a romantic past with Lilith. But when their secret affair is exposed, Lilith and Ezran's, I mean, King Victor has her killed. Amelia and Ezran are heartbroken, as you might guess, but he holds on to the one last request that he received from Lilith.

[00:20:19]She asked him to protect her treasure that Amelia supposedly has. And now that he's lost the love of his life, Ezran focuses all his anger on Amelia. His whole life's goal is to find the treasure and avenge Lilith's death. So, back to my point at hand, we were talking about colonialism, if you'll remember. dream world. This paradise only lasts for so long before Ezran is able to go through the portal and invade this world. He brings chaos and bloodshed as the dream world is being altered by his own subconscious. And because of this, Karina is forced to realize that she only has so many places she can run to. Think about it. Even her dreams aren't safe. Her avenues of escape are limited because she refuses to acknowledge the root cause of the problem, the thing that is putting her in danger. And I think this is a realization that we can apply to our real world. Sure, you can move from the city to the suburbs. You can move across state lines. You can even move to another country. You can run and flee all you want, but eventually, you will run out of places to go. And there will come a time where you eventually have to turn around and face the problem head-on. We eventually have to realize that in order to find safety and a place to call home, then we need to fight for it. Carina makes the choice when she fights Azrin. And it's a choice that affects Amelia in turn. You see, while Carina's escapism is characterized by a fight to survive, Amelia strives for the ultimate escape, running from life itself. Which, yes, I understand that Carina also shares in that suicidal ideation, but I think the difference here is not only that she realizes by the end of the book that she very much wants to live, but she also has that first-gen immigrant guilt that prevents her from fully committing to the idea.

[00:22:06]Amelia, however, is so apathetic towards life, she is truly the embodiment of Meredith Grey. And I'm talking early seasons Meredith Grey. I'm talking ferry boat episode where she falls off the side of the dock and just stops.

[00:22:21]Amelia's mantra is, "We all die. You either kill yourself or get killed." And she would do nothing to stop it either way. It was such a funny experience for me reading Amelia's perspective chapters because I found myself thinking like, "Damn, this girl just keeps bringing up the fact that she does not want to exist." Like, it is a constant thing for her. It's a little bit repetitive. And then the next second, truly, it was like immediate when that thought popped into my head, I was like, "Well, that's kind of how suicidal ideation works." And you would think I would know that, um, being diagnosed with depression myself and having those same ideations. Not now.

[00:22:59]Not for like a couple of years at this point. Like, that struggle was really when I was like early in my teen years and you would think that I would like remember that and understand where she's coming from.

[00:23:11]Damn, I'm sorry y'all. I guess I'm not woke. And you know what? Maybe that's a positive, like a testament to how far I've come and progressed in my journey where like I couldn't even fathom that idea when like a little over 10 years ago I was like dead set. That's a bad choice of words. I'm so sorry. I'm going to take it as a positive, but it was a reality check for me when I was reading the book cuz I was like, it's repetitive for a reason. The problem here is that Amelia's escapism is not without consequences. Even though she thinks she's a powerless coward, her decision to fall asleep leaves Gelden unprotected and indirectly causes a century of suffering, which yes, it was a conscious decision for her to fall asleep. Because as we learn in the story, she buddies up to Malacine, very reminiscent of the Maleficent storyline. They become friends and in exchange Malacine takes back her curse and allows her to live like a normal life, but Amelia doesn't want the responsibility, so Malacine puts the curse back on her and allows her to escape into the dream world and thus therefore escape her responsibilities. That's why her encounter with Corrine is so impactful.

[00:24:22]Corrine is the embodiment of the consequences of her actions. Amelia believed wholeheartedly that the world would be better off without her and Corrine's existence proved that it wasn't. But ultimately, the reason Amelia wanted to run away so badly is because she's gripped by the fear of what could possibly happen if she fails.

[00:24:42]She doesn't want to be queen because she's afraid she'll do something wrong.

[00:24:46]And that fear is in part because of all of her perceived failings. She failed to produce an heir. She failed to save Lilith. And in her perspective, she failed to be a worthy successor. But Corinne helps her realize that there's no escaping failure. We've all done things we're not proud of, hurt the people we cared about, and caused damage that we couldn't reverse. But these mistakes are not meant to keep you from trying. Instead, they're meant to help you and push you to be a better person, which could not be better exemplified than by the character arc between Corinne and her sister Ely. As already mentioned earlier in this video, Corinne is my favorite character in this book. I ride or die for Corinne. I cannot possibly understand why people don't like her, and I have to assume it's racism. Like Sue me, but to me, when I'm reading this book and I'm reading Corinne's perspective, like it's giving Peeta being captured by the capital, looking visibly traumatized, and like not okay, and Gale and everyone else in District 13 throwing tomatoes at him.

[00:25:46]And in this scenario, I'm Katniss being like, "Guys, look at Peeta. You think he's doing this cuz he wants to?" Some of these people, I swear to god, are taking the moral high road and trying to say that they would never do the same things that Corinne did, and the only thing I can say is that you don't know [ __ ] until you live that experience. Even I don't know [ __ ] but guess what? It's called [ __ ] empathy.

[00:26:07]>> [laughter] >> And most importantly, you cannot view any of the characters in this book in the binary of good and bad, which I understand to a certain extent because fairy tales in general really prime us to view things as black and white. Like everyone just fits into a nice little archetype or box, we'll say. But I will tell you, when it comes to this book, there is not a single unflawed character. None of these people are all good or all bad. They are simply doing their best and doing what they have to do to survive. Like Corinne does some objectively shitty things. No one's saying that she's a good person, but she's also not a bad person. Like she exists in this gray space where you can't really pin her down as like all good or all bad. But to me, she just has so much depth as a character, and she is like infinitely more compelling to me than any of the other characters in this book. And no disrespect to them. I just I really like empathize with her a lot, particularly because of her relationship with her sister Ellie. They are constantly at odds with each other because Ellie is an optimist, while Corinne has been hardened by the real world. And because of her experiences and the things she's forced to live through, she's not always a kind and loving sister. And Corinne's biggest regret as a character is actually the major plot twist in this book. As I already mentioned, at the very start of the book, we know that Corinne and Ellie got into a fight, which is why she ran away. We know that Ellie fled into the tunnels looking for Amelia. But we find out about halfway into the book that when Corinne went into the tunnels looking for Ellie, she found her. Not the portal, not her voice calling to her from inside the portal, she found Ellie in the tunnels dead. We find out that the big fight that Corinne and Ellie had before she ran away was actually about the commune. Corinne essentially told Ellie that the reason that they left the commune was because of this rebellion attack. Ellie, being the eternal optimist, believed that their friends might have gotten away. She was hopeful that they survived the attack. But Corinne has to break it to her that not only did they all die, but she was actually the reason they were ambushed.

[00:28:16]And when she reveals this information, she also gives voice to all the resentment and anger that she has towards her sister. And the last words that Ellie says to her sister are, "I hate you." Corinne is consumed by grief and guilt, and her brain refuses to let her accept this reality. Because that would mean that their last moment together was filled with anger and resentment. It would mean that Corinne never got to tell Ellie how much she loved her. In Corinne's mind, she failed to protect her sister. But instead of spiraling in her grief, Corinne eventually realizes that her biggest mistake was in failing to imagine a better future. Because Corinne was so focused on running, she couldn't understand why Ellie was hanging on to this story about Amelia, the sleeping princess, or why she wanted to stay in the commune. She truly thought Ellie's optimism was a weakness. But, she eventually grows to realize that this was a mistake. And even though she couldn't bring her sister back, and even though she couldn't undo the harm she caused, she could still fight for the future that Ellie envisioned. And it was this drive, this perseverance even after all that she lost, that eventually pushed Amelia to do the very same thing.

[00:29:25]Of course, she's still scared of what will happen when she returns to the real world. She's afraid of what will happen when she stops running. She says, and I quote, "What if I'm not strong enough?

[00:29:36]What if it doesn't get better? What if I don't survive this?" And Corinne sends Amelia back into the real world with one final sentence. "I want to see what happens in a world where you don't give up." Guys, I will truly never understand why people don't like Corinne. I'm so sorry. I will die on this hill. Like, she's the best character in this book. I cannot possibly fathom. Like, even hearing Cindy say that like, "Oh, yeah, I don't think a lot of people will like Corinne. Like, I don't think she's a very likable character."

[00:30:04]This is truly like when people are like, "Oh my god, I want more like complex female characters. I want more complex villains." And then they can't handle Princess Bubblegum. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Corinne's three [ __ ] dimensional. She's got flaws. She's a human being. She doesn't make the right decisions. Yeah, she's caused harm and pain, and she grew from it." Truly, like, I go to sleep with my fists clenched knowing that so many people, in the same breath that they're like, "Oh, Corinne's a bad person. I don't like Corinne." Well, then also like Amelia.

[00:30:31]It's like, guess what, guys?

[00:30:32]Character foils. They're two sides of the same coin. My feelings towards Corinne and why I like her so much as a character is truly because I think she was humanized by her relationship with Ali and I really like their sister bonding relationship. Listen, I'm a sister myself. I'm so biased to sister characters. Like I just I have so much more empathy. Sue me. I'm admitting to you that I'm biased, okay? I'm saying it right now on the internet. I'm biased to like Corrine. Do with that information what you will. Now, to finish on a lighter note because that was kind of heavy, I'm going to lightning round some of my miscellaneous thoughts about the book. First and foremost, Malecine and Amelia are my least favorite characters in this book and it's really only by default because Corrine and Ellie are my favorites. Like truly I have nothing against their characters and I think their arcs were good. Everyone else just like pales in comparison to Corrine and Ellie. Like I'm so sorry. Like everyone else is good, she's great. Honestly, Amelia might be a little tainted for me because when I first started reading the book and I found out that she had a crush on her stepmom, I pictured Lilith as like a genuine adult. Their dynamic, I was picturing a baby Snow White and Regina from Once Upon a Time. Like that was the age gap I was seeing in my mind's eye. So I was like, "Whoa." And then to continue reading the book with that mental image and none of the characters bringing up how weird it was that she had a crush on Lilith, I was like, "Guys, are we just going to speed past this? Like she didn't just say what she just said?" It's funny because even when Ezrin confronts her about having a crush on Lilith, like his vibe is more homophobic. Honestly, the fact that she was her stepmom was like the least of his concerns, I feel. And of course, nothing happens between Lilith and Amelia. She never acts on her feelings.

[00:32:21]Lilith never finds out that Amelia has these feelings for her, but I would be lying if I said that that was not in the back of my mind the whole time reading this book. Again, just me as a person, me as a reader, that's not something I'm going to skip past. Again, I do have the knowledge and context that like nothing happens. It's like just the crush that she has and in her perspective like nothing's weird about it because like they're not related by blood, like they're really close in age, she doesn't really view her as a stepmom, like nothing about their relationship is inherently like maternal. They don't have that mother-daughter relationship.

[00:32:54]So like the logic part of my brain fully understands it and doesn't care.

[00:32:58]Knee-jerk reaction part of my brain is like weird. The one question I have in the back of my mind after finishing this book, and maybe I just like need to reread it and I didn't read it closely enough or whatever.

[00:33:10]Um I'm unclear as to how Ellie died.

[00:33:12]Because when I read it, right, it just seemed like she runs away and then she dies in the tunnels, but it didn't seem like there was a specific reason. My initial thought was that it was like a Grave of the Fireflies situation and like she died of starvation. And it's not really important how she dies, but like selfishly I I just kind of want to know. And the final thing that I will say about this book, my last thought is actually conspiracy theory. Because the main story ends with that last sentence from Corinne, I want to see what happens in a world where you don't give up. But after that, there's actually two epilogues. And I don't know if this is crazy, I don't know if anyone else feels the same way, but personally, I don't think what happened in those epilogues is actually real. Maybe I'm being a pessimist, but based on the information that we get from Malacine earlier in the book, I can't believe that it's real.

[00:33:57]Early on in the book, Malacine lays down the world-building the ground rules of the dream world. Basically, it follows Inception rules, where if something happens to Amelia in the dream, like her real body will not be affected because it's her dream. But because Malacine and Corinne entered through the dream world through a portal, their physical bodies are there. Essentially, if they die in the dream world, they die in real life.

[00:34:23]Malacine laid this out for us very explicitly, that the only way that they would survive is if they left the dream world first and then woke Amelia up. If Amelia woke up before they left the dream world, they would not exist. Then, flash forward towards the end of the book, Malecene is killed by Ezran, okay?

[00:34:41]He then fatally stabs Corrine before falling into the empty abyss of the dream world. By the end of the book, Corrine is on the brink of death, like we're led to believe that she is dying if not dead by the time the book ends.

[00:34:53]The only fully confirmed death is Malecene's. But in the epilogue, Amelia wakes up from her dream and guess who's there? Malecene. Not only that, but we learn from the flashbacks from Amelia's perspective chapters that the reason Malecene had to put the curse back on her was because when she took it off, Amelia sees that Lilith is dead, is heartbroken, um her dad also dies in this encounter, right? So now she has no parents, no love of her life, and she's about to rule a kingdom that she is not prepared to rule. So she is in utter despair and takes the spindle of a spinning wheel and stabs it through her chest. So she's on the brink of death.

[00:35:29]Malecene is trying to heal her, but can't do it. The only way they can save her is by putting the curse back on her so that she will fall into an eternal sleep. But then in the epilogue, we return to that exact moment when Amelia stabs herself. Like she's already post-stab, she has just woken up from this dream, right? But then for some reason, Malecene is able to heal her when we already established pre-epilogue that the reason Malecene had to put the curse back on her was because they couldn't heal her in time. And elephant in the room, how is Malecene there?

[00:36:03]Malecene was our confirmed death. If they died in the dream world, there's no reason that they should continue existing once Amelia wakes up. The epilogue makes it seem like it follows Jumanji rules and she just went back in time to the exact moment she went into the dream and the timeline just reset itself. And don't get me wrong, I love a happy ending. I love knowing that Corrine got her parents back, she got Elly back, and everything just ends up all right for everyone. The only reason that I am hesitant to accept these happy endings is because this book traumatized me so much that I'm just skeptical. I can't accept the happiness because I'm like, "Nah, it it's not going to last.

[00:36:44]You're going to hit me with something after this. Someone's going to die.

[00:36:47]Everyone's going to die." And in my mind, these epilogues are just like a happy dream from the afterlife. Like, this is just them living in their little paradise where things are happy and they were never touched by tragedy and trauma. But, that's just a theory, a book theory. Overall, I think that this was an amazing debut. I truly enjoyed getting to peel back all the layers on the writing process, all the decisions that she made for her characters, how the story was told, the perspectives, just in general seeing all the work that went into this book. I was so excited to finally get to read it. I think Cindy made some choices that people ultimately either loved or hated, but either way, this book had a lot to say and said it effectively. I think she had a lot of expectations on her, and realistically, she was never going to make everyone happy. I'm really glad that she's been able to carve out a space for herself in the publishing industry where she's just able to focus on telling the story that she wants to tell without having to worry about adhering to the expectations that people have on her because she's a YouTuber. Overall, I will say that this was definitely a book that I had to sit with and really think about. Again, slow down, smell the roses, take my time to appreciate, and I am very excited to see what Cindy comes out with in the future.

[00:38:01]But anyway, that's the end of my video.

[00:38:04]Let me know what you think down in the comments. Have you read this book? Do you agree or disagree with some of my observations? What do you think? Let me know down in the comments below. Be sure to check out The Secret World of Briar Rose if you haven't already, and of course, follow Cindy on all social media. Not only does she make amazing book reviews, but she's also very funny.

[00:38:23]You can also follow me on all my social media @listentokristen on TikTok, Instagram, and Goodreads. And because you made it to the end of this video, you get an exclusive little story with me where I tell you that I actually attended a book signing with Cindy. This little number is actually signed um and she wrote, hold on, let me see if I can find it, "Kristen, dream big." There's actually a photo of me and Cindy together on her Instagram. Little does she know that I'm in the photo.

[00:38:49]Basically, she was doing like group photos with all the like people that attended the event at each location that she went to. And at our event, she actually sat down next to me. And in the photo, you can kind of tell that I'm really red. Like I'm full body blushing because I was so starstruck. Like I can't even remember what really happened leading up to that moment. I think I blacked out. Not only was I getting the opportunity to see her in person, hear her thoughts on the book, and just like be in the same room with someone that I've like watched forever and like looked up to. But now I was being perceived by her cuz she sat next to me.

[00:39:26]Crazy. Ultimately, I had a fun time. It was such a nice experience and I'm so glad that Cindy was able to visit the Chicagoland area because otherwise, I would have never had that opportunity.

[00:39:35]So, needless to say, I was very happy.

[00:39:38]But anyway, that's the end of my video.

[00:39:39]Thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the next one. Now I get to finish my crochet bear because I recently got into crochet and go eat some Chipotle as I always do when I finish recording. So, thank you. Have a good day.