Catching Up on my Aardvark Picks! | Aardvark Book Club Reading Vlog

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Hello everyone. Welcome to my channel.

[00:00:01]I'm Jordan. Welcome to today's video, which is another Aardvark reading vlog.

[00:00:06]One of my favorite types of videos to do on my channel because Aardvark, if you're not familiar, is a book subscription service. Every month they pick five to seven books to feature and you get to pick one included with your subscription price to have shipped to you. They're always a brand new hardcover books in a wide variety of genres. I particularly like their thriller, sci-fi, and horror selections.

[00:00:31]So, that's what I've got in front of me today. I'm not sponsored. This video is not sponsored by Aardvark. I do have a referral link and code that is always in my description box, which I do earn a commission off of if anybody signs up for Aardvark using my link, but I'm also just a regular paying member. Every month I buy my credit and I'm just a big fan of the service and I love doing vlogs like these to get my reviews out of the books that I pick. Not only to inform any other potential Aardvark members or readers who might want to pick up these books from other places, but also just to stay on top of my own physical TBR and not let my Aardvark books get too out of control. So, to get into the books that I'll be reading for this video, I've got three Aardvark books. So, honestly, not too shabby.

[00:01:14]I've definitely let my Aardvark books pile up more than this in the past, but I want to get ahead of them this year, stay ahead of them. And honestly, I'm just really excited about the books themselves. So, I want to read them as quickly as possible. So, two of the books I already have in my possession.

[00:01:29]The third has not been delivered to me yet. It's actually April 1st when I'm filming this intro, which is the day that Aardvark books drop on their website. So, I just picked my third book today and I will share with you what it is, but I won't be getting it in the mail until a little bit later. But, okay, let's talk about the books that I do have. Let's start with a thriller that was a selection.

[00:01:50]Am I able to see what month? I don't think so. I don't think Aardvark puts that on their books, but definitely within 2026. It is Adrift by Will Dean.

[00:01:59]I have read a couple of books by Will Dean. The last one is definitely my favorite. I believe that was a five-star book for me and I know he has a pretty extensive backlist that I am interested in dipping more into, but definitely his front list, his new releases are now always on my radar because he has very interesting concepts to his thrillers.

[00:02:20]And then, like I said, I did have a five-star experience with him. So, I'm always up for whatever ride he puts me through. This one is a thriller. I believe it's set on a like a houseboat.

[00:02:30]Yeah, okay. It's about a husband and wife, Peggy and Drew, both aspiring writers, move to an isolated canal boat with their smart and sensitive 14-year-old son. Peggy is the glue that holds their family together even as their son is bullied relentlessly for his appearance and his family's lack of money. As Drew becomes frustrated by his wife's sudden writing success, he moves their boat farther and farther from civilization and safety. With the increasing isolation, personal challenges become harder to ignore, especially after some unexpected fatalities occur.

[00:02:57]>> [clears throat] >> When Drew's suspicious behavior and gaslighting become too toxic to forgive, a series of catastrophic events is set off. I think this sounds really interesting because it combines kind of the domestic thriller elements of the husband and wife, you know, gaslighting, fighting, all of that, with some, it sounds like survival thriller elements because they are isolated on this canal boat. I can't even imagine what life is like living on the water like that and especially when you have an abusive husband, you know, isolating you even further from where you started. I'm just very interested for whatever is in this book. I'm ready for the hopefully psychological ride and whatever twists and turns are to come. My second book, I believe I just picked last month in March and it's another author that I have read from before and really enjoyed. It is Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward. She has written four books before this and I've read two of them. I've read The Last House on Needless Street as well as Sundial and I want to say I gave both of them four stars. I never got to her newest release Looking Glass Sound, but I was interested in that one as well, but I'm going to go ahead and get caught up with her newest release Nowhere Burning, which I believe is going to be kind of a thriller horror type book. The top of the synopsis says, "Nowhere Burning is a harrowing tale of survival that places the dark fairy tale of Peter Pan and the ruthless dangers of Lord of the Flies into the unforgiving maw of the Colorado Rockies." So, it looks like this one is about a brother and sister duo who are fleeing their troubled home. They're heading for nowhere, which is an abandoned ranch, once the playground of its former eccentric movie star owner, now a haven for runaways. I think that's like the Peter Pan tie-in for it. Um, but yeah, dark secrets, ghosts of the past. This will be an interesting one.

[00:04:40]It's a little bit out of my comfort zone because it kind of feels horrorish and even potentially like supernatural and fantastical, which is not always my cup of tea, but I do trust Catriona Ward and she always has something in her books that's a little extra thought-provoking and deeper than just, you know, the surface level plot that's happening on the pages. So, I hope that's the case with this one. Excited to try it out.

[00:05:03]And then, the third book that I just chose today is a book that I had never heard anything about. I have not been anticipating this book. I don't know anything about it, but the synopsis sounded extremely interesting on Aardvark's website and then this book also has been offered as an ALC through Libro.fm, which is a program they do for booksellers and influencers to give advanced listener copies of audiobooks for free to people. So, I'm excited to download and listen to that. But, this is a Japanese historical horror book, which is interesting. All of those things are somewhat up my alley. I have loved a lot of Japanese books that I've read, especially in the mystery thriller genres, verging a little bit into horror. Horror is something that I wouldn't consider myself an avid reader of, but recently I have become a lot more interested in it as a genre and I've had some horror books really, really work for me in the past. And then, historical fiction is also a genre that I don't necessarily read a lot of, but I find that when I do pick it up, I enjoy it. So, I'm very curious about this book that seems to combine all of those elements and hopefully will become a winning combination for me. So, it looks like it's told in two different timelines. One is about a character in October 2026 and one is a character set in October 1877, which is quite far in the past. We'll see how it goes. I don't know. The synopsis talks about both of these characters and then says, "One of these people is a ghost and one of these stories is a lie. Something is hiding beneath the House of Sword Ferns and Lee and Sen will soon wish they never unburied it." So, very curious what that will mean, but excited to get started with this book. Like I said, waiting for the physical copy, but I do have that audiobook copy already available to me through Libro. So, I might just start with that one because I don't know anything about it. I haven't heard people talk about it, but I'm curious to see if it's going to stir up some hype.

[00:07:01]It looks to have some really positive early reviews. So, I kind of want to just get on that one, but we'll see.

[00:07:07]Regardless, I am going to start reading and I'll be back when I have finished my first book for this video to give you all of my thoughts, my review, and let you know if I would recommend it. Hello, friends. I am here with a midpoint update. Not something I do a lot anymore on this [laughter] channel. Something about my attention span and my availability for filming update clips means that usually I just check in once I've finished each book, but I figured since in this video I only have three books to talk about, I can fill it up with some midpoint updates. Also, because I just really want to talk about Japanese Gothic. I did go ahead and start with this book. I still have not received the physical copy because it's only been one day since my last update on the day that I ordered the book, but I just couldn't wait to get into this book since I had the audiobook available. First of all, Kylie Lee Baker is the author of Bat Eater and Other Names for Corazon, which is an author that or a book that I saw a lot of hype for last year and I never got to that one. I I don't know. The way people talked about it didn't really sound up my alley, but I didn't even realize that that was the author of this book and now I'm glad to be kind of in the know about this one in case it gets the same amount of hype as that one. But, I have made it 43% of the way into this book and I am really enjoying it. It is told in two perspectives. One is this guy named Lee.

[00:08:29]He is living in 2026 and what we know about him is that he has just recently moved from the US. I think New Jersey is what he said. He was in college and something happened that forced him to very suddenly flee the US and move to Japan. And so, now he lives with his dad in this house in Japan. And we've just learned little snippets about what exactly he's fleeing. I won't spoil that part of it, but it's very interesting and why he left so suddenly and why he's kind of hiding out in this house in Japan. We're also learning a little bit about his relationship with his father as well as his father's current, I can't remember if she is a wife or a girlfriend, but we learn that Lee's father has had a number of girlfriends and relationships through the years and we're also learning some interesting things about Lee's mother and what happened to her. And so now, Lee is living in this house with his dad. They have kind of a somewhat strained relationship and also Lee is somewhat addicted to sleeping pills. He's really trying to numb something within himself.

[00:09:33]So, this is all kind of tied together.

[00:09:35]When one day he realizes something strange about his father's house and something about like the room setups and how some spatial things are not really making sense. There's a window that he can see from inside his room that he can't see from outside and just weird things are happening with the house. He also comes into contact, is what I'll say, with the character from 1877, was it? Who is the other perspective that we're following in this book. It's this girl named Sen, who also lives in this house, but she lives in the year 1877.

[00:10:08]And so, we similarly learn about her and her upbringing and her family structure.

[00:10:14]She is the daughter of a samurai. And so, we learn a little bit about what the experience of having a father who is a samurai has been like for her and specifically some changes that her father has gone through before and after going into war or battle. And so, she's been dealing with some of her own family stuff, but she comes into contact with this guy from 2026. And he's saying he's from the future and they have some theories about why they are able to communicate, but they're trying to get some more answers about this whole situation and about who each other are and how they're connected. So, I'm definitely interested. This doesn't feel like scary in any way. I'm definitely coming to find that a lot of horror books don't actually feel scary as you're reading them a lot of the time.

[00:10:59]There are definitely some horrific things we're learning about in each of their backstories, either about things they've done or have happened to them or to family members of theirs. But so far, the more horror aspect of it has been like, how can these two people communicate something like 150 years apart and what kind of fate is headed for both of them and whether that's going to be horrific or traumatic or anything like that. So, I'm definitely invested. I'm liking the story. I'm liking the writing. It's keeping my attention despite not a lot happening. I think I'm just very intrigued about these characters and their connection and what we're going to learn about them. So, I'm going to get back to reading it. I should probably finish it pretty quickly because I am enjoying the audiobook and it's reading so quickly for me. So, now I definitely will come back once I have finished the book to give you my final update and review on it. All right, friends. I have an update on Japanese Gothic. I finished the book.

[00:11:58]I also obviously received my physical copy. It is a signed copy, which is cool. Unfortunately, this is a three-star book for me. I'm actually a little bit happy it ended up at three stars because right around, I don't know, between the 50% and 75% mark, I was really worried because it was feeling very slow and I was very concerned about whether I was going to get any answers or even any entertainment. Like, I was wondering if anything was going to happen that was going to be interesting and or make anything make sense about what was happening with these characters. But, I will say the last 10 to 20% of the book was probably my favorite. So, it definitely did come around. Action picked up, interesting things started to happen, and then it did pull together some of the information about what exactly was going on here and while I didn't really love any of it, I was at least satisfied with most of what ended up happening and then in the author's note, what she said she was trying to do with the book. So, I'm glad about that, I guess. I'm relieved about a three-star rating. I wish it was higher, but I just have to be honest about how slow the majority of this book was and how bored and confused I really was before the ending.

[00:13:22]Um, let's see. This book has a lot to do with Japanese culture and samurai culture specifically, which is not something I know anything about. I talk about this a lot, but I love books that can teach me something and that follows characters passionate about whatever it is they are knowledgeable on. And so, I really liked the perspectives we got in this book from samurai characters or descendants of samurai characters. It was interesting also in the author's note hearing the author talk about her personal familial ties to samurai culture and even how the culture has changed over time, how Japanese culture has changed over time, and how even Japanese perception of samurais is similar or different from like a westernized view of Japanese people as a whole. I don't know. All of that was really interesting and I liked thinking about that after the fact, how it related to how these characters were.

[00:14:19]And yeah, would I read more from this author? I would say definitely. I am not sure if Bat Eater and Other Names for Corazon is similar to this book or not.

[00:14:30]I'll have to go back and rewatch some of people's reviews of that book that I know enjoyed it. And also, I'll have to keep an eye out for reviews of this book from people who read that one so that I can kind of gauge the similarities and whether or not I'm likely to enjoy that book and or any future books by this author. But yeah, overall, I'm glad I read it. I am very interested to hear other reviews from people regardless of what they end up thinking about the book. I do just think it's an interesting book and set of topics to discuss. So, glad I read it and I will be keeping this on my bookshelves at least for a while even though it was only a three-star book for me. I do think this cover is really pretty. It's cool that I got a signed copy of it and if I end up enjoying more books by this author, then I will be glad to have this in my collection. Okay, the other update I have is I started Adrift by Will Dean.

[00:15:20]This is a mystery thriller, kind of a psychological thriller that follows this family who lives on a canal boat. And I started listening to the audiobook. Let me see how far I am. I'm 32% of the way in. And so far, I'm intrigued. We are getting the very isolated setting because this family lives in this boat.

[00:15:40]They don't have a lot for neighbors or anything. And we're definitely getting the overbearingness of the father and the weird dynamic within this family.

[00:15:50]There's a mom, a dad, and a son. The son is 14 years old. And the dad is a gaslighter, to say the least. He does not treat the family very well. He provides for the family though.

[00:16:05]It's strange. He's a writer and he has very strict expectations for his family related to like how quiet they have to keep things while he's writing. So, I'm interested to get more into that. But he's also the one who controls like where the boat is at every night and every day. And like it says in the synopsis, he is slowly moving them further and further away from civilization. So, yeah. Where I'm at in the book, I'm just very intrigued. The tension is definitely building and I'm hoping it builds to something mind-blowing, super entertaining, and satisfying, and thought-provoking. I feel like that's not that much to ask.

[00:16:44]But yeah, I'm going to get back to the book and I'll probably finish it before my next check-in to let you know what I think of it overall. But so far, so good and I'm excited to get back into it.

[00:16:54]Okay, time for my next update. I finished Adrift. I really, really wish I had some better news for you. The good news, unfortunately, is that I finished it. The bad news is that I really did not enjoy the direction that this book went in. It's a little bit hard to talk about what exactly I didn't like about it without kind of spoiling. I don't know. It's hard to say I'm spoiling the book when it's kind of clear the direction it's going from the description and everything like that.

[00:17:22]But I guess my true, true, non-spoilery thoughts are just that I was disappointed in the direction this went.

[00:17:28]I was looking for a little bit more nuance in the conversation. And if not nuance, then maybe some like redemption or satisfaction in where it goes. Some surprise would be great. But I feel like it just went exactly where I expected it to go and I didn't enjoy it because I don't feel like it's saying anything new about this type of situation. So, unfortunately, I'm going to go with two stars for this one. And I really would only recommend it to anybody who maybe considers themselves new to the conversation of like gaslighting and emotional manipulation and financial abuse and like the subtle but very dangerous ways that those things can manifest themselves in a marriage because this is just the depiction of that. So, if you're well-versed in that conversation, I don't think this book is going to bring anything new to you. But if you're someone who maybe doesn't know a lot about those topics or you would like to see how those play themselves out and why they're so dangerous in a relationship, then I guess that's who I would recommend this to. But yeah, anyone otherwise looking for like an interesting thriller, I wouldn't consider this to be that. Even anyone who is intrigued by like the canal boat side of this, I don't know. That wasn't even that interesting to me. The only thing it was used for was to be a way for the husband to isolate his family from other people, again in a manipulative and abusive way. But I feel like in another book in another context, that could be more of an interesting like actual plot point or thrilling element, but I didn't really get that from this one. So, two stars. Very briefly, I guess I'll throw up a spoiler warning here on the screen for anybody who has also read this book or who has decided they're not going to if it's based on my review or if this just isn't the type of book for you, but you want to hear a little bit about the ending and more specifically why I didn't enjoy it. Again, spoiler warning. Either mute me or just fast forward until these words go away. But I was just really hoping that at some point in this book there would be a switch where like the wife figures out what's happening to her, what's being done to her and is clever enough to do something with that.

[00:19:41]It would have been much more satisfying if she like enacted this plan for revenge on her husband. And personally, I would have liked to see the husband suffer a little little more. Like the spoiler is that he is killed in the end, but it's more of a like rage killing and some could argue like self-defense type of killing. I would have really liked more of a plotted out, planned out act of revenge. Again, something that actually used the canal boat could have been fun, but no, it was really just like quick and unsatisfying and that was disappointing to me. And again, just the way that this woman was worn down by her husband, understandable and probably realistic, but just not as satisfying in book form compared to like, I don't know, a Gone Girl type twist. Something along those lines would have been more satisfying for me personally, but it is what it is. Two stars and unfortunately, uh not the book for me. But, that brings me to the third and final book for this video. I'm going to go ahead and get right into Nowhere Burning. Here's to hoping I have more luck with this book than I did the previous two. I am hopeful because I've enjoyed Catriona Ward so much in the past, but we will see. I'll probably be back once I have finished this book and can give you my final update, review, and wrap this video up. All right, friends, it is time to chat about Nowhere Burning. This one was a bit of a slow burn for me, not only because the story itself took a little while for me to get into, but also this took me quite a while to read and after I finished it, it's taken a little while for me to formulate my thoughts and opinions about the book.

[00:21:20]And I'm not even totally sure if they are fully formed yet, but I guess they're formed enough for me to film this update. So, Nowhere Burning is kind of a tough one to describe and honestly, all of the Catriona Ward books that I've read have been this way because she has a lot of like, well, I wouldn't say a lot, but she has twists and reveals within her books that are the thing that like pull it all together, but are also so spoilery that you can't talk about them because like that satisfaction of having it all be pulled together only comes if you don't expect it or you don't know what it is that is going to pull the whole book together. So, I'll do my best to talk about this book in a way that is compelling, but doesn't give away kind of that eventual reveal that ties things together, but this book is all about this place called Nowhere, which is literally in the middle of nowhere as far as I understand it. It's like really isolated. It's this place that was built up to be protected from other people being able to get in and see what they're doing because it was built by this guy named Leaf, who was an actor, who built this house and walls and place to block out like crazy fans and all of the people trying to get to him as a famous person. And that is one of the perspectives that we get in this book. There are three kind of perspectives that we rotate between. So, Leaf and some people that are on his property are like one of the perspectives. Then, there's this lore around Nowhere that we know pretty early on in the book, which is that it went up in flames and since Leaf's ownership ended, it's basically become like this refuge for children to come and stay at this place and like not have to deal with adults, but also not have to deal with whatever threats and dangers are present in their lives. And that's definitely where the like Peter Pan meets Lord of the Flies comparisons come into play because it's all about these children basically forming their own society, making their own rules for Nowhere, and basically surviving all on their own in this sort of safe haven of a place called Nowhere. Within that context, the second perspective is we're following a this girl named Riley and her little brother named Oliver, who are fleeing their home situation to come to Nowhere. So, they get to know what it's all about, who all of the different people are who live here and how the place operates, and they're just looking for again that safe haven. And then the third perspective is this couple of documentary makers who are making a documentary all about the actor Leaf and his forming of Nowhere and basically what Nowhere has become. So, the book cycles through each of those perspectives. There's kind of a lot of characters involved. There's different timelines to keep straight and I really struggled with this book understanding like what was real, what I was supposed to be understanding was happening like linearly. Like, how do all of these puzzle pieces fit together? And that's something I struggle with a lot anyway.

[00:24:39]That's why I don't read a lot of fantasy. That's why some horror doesn't work for me. It's just because picturing things that I don't know and especially if they're in like worlds or even societies that I don't understand, it's hard for me to grasp onto that and then be able to follow a plot if I don't have like the ground rules in place. And then it's also hard for me to latch onto characters when I don't get enough time to follow them, to understand who they are, what their motivations are, how do they fit into this entire book. And just with the fact that there are three perspectives that we're cycling between and each of the perspectives even have multiple main characters. I also just never felt like I really attached to any of the characters. I'd say Riley and Oliver were the ones that I related to the most, or not related to, but connected to the most because their situation is the most clear in my opinion. Their motivations are clear, what they're wanting is clear, and then what they're doing at the very beginning of the book is clear. So, they were easier to follow through the whole story, whereas the other perspectives, I never really grasped onto. And then I guess at the end of the book, like it did kind of come together. I think I understand what was happening and what Catriona Ward was trying to have come through with the story, but I'm not sure and I struggle with not being sure about things like that. I like to understand a book's message. I really prefer to understand a book's plot and like literally what happened every step of the way. And because I don't have that like assuredness and clarity, I'm also not sure of what to rate this book and what my overall thoughts are. Like, did I enjoy it? Not really. Was I satisfied by the ending? Kind of. Would I recommend this to other people? Probably not. So, all of that leads me to like a two-star rating, but unlike Adrift, which was my other two-star book of this vlog, like this one had things I actively disliked about it. I don't think that's the case for Nowhere Burning. I just didn't get it and that's why it's a two-star. So, yeah, that's where I'm landing. Very curious to see other people's reviews about this book because I do think this is a fairly popular author. So, I'm guessing other people will be reading it or have read it. I don't know, this might be a good discussion book. Like, I would like to discuss with other people who have read it what happened and what they thought about it, but as it stands right now, I'm just very unsatisfied and unsure about the entire thing. So, yeah, okay, that's where I'm landing. Two stars, which unfortunately means this is one of my lesser successful Aardvark reading vlogs. Does that mean it was a failure? Absolutely not. I still love doing these reading vlogs. I love Aardvark as a service. Adrift isn't really out of my comfort zone, but I would say these two books are and I always appreciate services that can help me get out of my comfort zone. And honestly, you can't have high highs without low lows, am I right? I can't appreciate the pleasant surprises I get out of Aardvark without having to wade through some, you know, things that didn't work for me quite as well. So, it's all good. I will take it. I would love to hear if you have read any of these books and if you did, what your thoughts were. I would also love to hear if you haven't read them, are you interested in any of these books?

[00:28:08]Obviously, I didn't have glowing reviews for any of them, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend them to the right readers or that there's not things that I didn't enjoy in these books that other people would really enjoy. Listen, I'm all for an anti-wreck. So, I'd love to hear if you're interested in reading any of these books or if I steered you to add them to or take them off of your own TBR. Let me know if you're a member of Aardvark Book Club and if you are, what books you've been selecting and reading lately. Like I said, I'm a regular old paying member, but I do have a referral link down in the description box in case you want to try the service. Other than that, I don't think I have anything else. So, thank you so much for watching this video and I will see you in my next one.