how many of you "read" this book?

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Welcome to quite possibly the most thorough defense and evaluation of Half his age on the internet because some of y'all started talking and you were wrong.

[00:00:10]>> Before I really kick off this video, I just want to say that I think that if you're comparing half his age to Lolita, you're wrong.

[00:00:20]>> You're so incredibly wrong. It's like comparing Dora and Aros because they both have it.

[00:00:24]>> I'm going to do my best to get this in one shot. As a writer, I know what I'm cooking. As a reader, I always try to pay attention to how the author is like approaching the story because I think that it's important to understand how something is executed. Something can have layers, even if it's like seemingly on the nose. and I felt compelled to make this video because I take issue with uh she did this review of Half his age and you know it was long, it was thorough, but she said something along the lines of McCertie has the ability to write a good book, but this just isn't it.

[00:00:59]I took offense to that.

[00:01:02]I think that part of what is informing the reception to half his age is that people are reading it and not fully examining what the book is doing. We want to make a snap judgment and say it's good or it's bad, but like bro, maybe we should just sit with the book and like see how it's put together and what it explores and what it's saying in general. This is not a oneanddone book.

[00:01:25]This is a nuanced exploration of some really interesting, really tough, really scary talking points. My personal belief is that I think Janette Mccertie has a very strong grasp of how to write thematically like consistent and compelling narratives. I love the way that she writes Waldo. I feel seen in Waldo. Like I'm nothing like Waldo, but like women don't get representation in Waldo's zone. And like we need more of it. We need crazy unhinged women. And we can have a fight about if it's okay to depict what's in the book. But like ultimately, if you try to police what people write about you, you end up avoiding really important talking points that deserve to be examined. because if you don't examine them in fiction, you're not going to have the conversations in real life or you are and they're going to be weird because you haven't had the chance to think about it in a safe way.

[00:02:16]Something that I really like about this book is how very early on Waldo tells us about how her mom told her she's hard to love and then proceeded to deny it. This follows her the whole narrative. Okay, as someone who who loves to annotate, okay, loves to annotate, um, this book is haunted by that. Okay, Waldo has this fawn response over and over and over throughout the narrative. Even if it's like if if there's the hint of friction, she would immediately choose the path of least resistance. It doesn't matter what that looked like in the moment. It's just this deeply ingrained aversion to fiction to friction that like once you start paying attention to pops up literally everywhere in the book.

[00:02:58]Literally everywhere in the book except except with Gwen which is so interesting. So Waldo goes to dinner with her teacher's wife and throughout the book she consistently tries to make herself like really digestible. Like she wants to be appealing. She wants she doesn't want to rock the boat. But with Gwen, who she envys and kind of resents for being this woman who seems to have it all like put together, suddenly she's purposely creating friction in the conversation.

[00:03:29]And I ate that up. I ate that up.

[00:03:34]McCertie has this like deeply intuitive and intentional understanding of who Waldo is. And like even though Waldo is very direct, like that characterization, it's so perfect. It's just built in.

[00:03:51]Also said that like she felt like McCertie wasn't confident cuz Waldo's dialogue was like in your face. Like she didn't trust us to put the pieces together. And to that I say Waldo is a teenager. Okay, Waldo is a teenager. I think it's very on brand for a teenager to have a self-centered obvious internal dialogue. Okay, we all think we're the center of the world. I think about who I was as a teen and I cringe. Okay, I don't think this book is somehow bad because it's in your face, obvious direct. I think that if I can find all this meaning in an obvious book that hasn't been spotlighted, the issue is not that the book is bad or that it's simple. It's that you, as the reader, did not give it the time it needed. I want to circle back to Gwen for a moment. I think it's important to pay attention to what Waldo picks up on as a character, like what she notices as our narrator. So when we're introduced to Gwen, Waldo spotlights that Gwen isn't like pretty, but she's like waifelike and linen clad, which is basically the same thing. She mentions that Gwen has no makeup or wears very little. And this is in stark contrast to Waldo, who dedicates like just excessive amounts of time to curating the way that she presents herself to the world and appealing to men. I think that this is a really interesting thing to examine in the context of this book. Um, and I also want to bring up all of the instances where Waldo references a sort of inherited element like genes. Okay, so 24, 35, and 48, those pages, Waldo evokes this idea of DNA genes or inherited things that she cannot shake.

[00:05:27]I look at Gwen and what Waldo pays attention to and how Waldo thinks about herself. And I find myself looking at a very interesting uh talking point, so to speak. I think that McCertie is exploring wealth, class, and heritage. Gwen doesn't feel the pressure to do as much as Waldo. And part of that may just be that she's like in a totally different life phase, right?

[00:05:51]But I look at it and I think that it isn't a stretch to say that there's this idea that like people in poverty have to compensate for being poor by spending more time hiding the fact that they are poor.

[00:06:02]Meanwhile, wealthy people assert their wealth and their worth by being like minimalist or like clean girls. Uh think words like chic, understated, healthconscious.

[00:06:19]I also think that there's this kind of like fleeting implication in the whole book that like Waldo is lesser because of her jeans. Like as previously mentioned, um unpacking that is so so loaded. Uh the specific quote that I'm thinking of is no one would ever know my jeans just how I like it.

[00:06:42]But this is the thing that it comes up one two three four five times. Okay?

[00:06:47]Okay. And then she calls herself trailer trash or white trash at least two more times. But like when she's talking about her mom, she mentions that her mom has the kind of dark circles that are from good oldfashioned jeans, which is probably why she's starting to deal with them too.

[00:07:05]Page 48. They love genetically modified shiny bouncy artificial curly hair. Page 78. Rage. rage that I was born with dark circles that make me look sick and rosacea that burst when I'd least like it to and thick chunky curls that won't behave. Curls with four different curl patterns because I guess it's not good enough that I have unruly hair. I need to have four different types of unruly hair that don't go together.

[00:07:33]And then when she's finally with Nolan, who I will get to eventually, she says she says that Nolan's dad looks like Nolan exactly two and a half plus decades further in time. Even has the same floppy mannerisms. The ones I attributed to Nolan not yet familiarizing himself with his recently grown body. But I guess he's just got floppy jeans. I think that is like the last time we mentioned that specific idea of like jeans. Like it gets evoked more. it gets a vote. But like I think that's like those are the last that's the last specific moment where I was like ah DNA generational stuff. Yes. So going back to no one would ever know my genes just how I like it. Waldo is constantly aspiring to present herself as something other than what she is. And I do not judge her for that. I think we all do it. But it's also important to discuss because Waldo mentions at one point how her mom probably like rationalizes her behavior because of her experiences as a kid. And it evokes this idea of like generational trauma tied to both like poverty and personal family dynamics. Um, and what that makes me think of is, and I need you to stay with me here, The Hunger Games. I think that if the poor truly have nothing, the rich will lean into visual extremes to differentiate themselves. And I think that if the poor have purchasing power, the opposite is true. I think then in that situation, the rich will use their wealth to present themselves as like effortless while spending infinitely more in ways the poor literally cannot, like with skinincare, gyms, or nonsense activities like shopping at Arowan. like what?

[00:09:18]They're not like differentiated by what they put on them, but rather what they do to maintain themselves physically.

[00:09:25]And you know, I don't know about y'all, isn't it interesting how they go so far as to like parody poorness? Like, yeah, I'll buy thousand shoes that are already like worn in, dirtied, and ugly. Hello.

[00:09:38]Hello. Like, it's this. So, like when Franny calls Waldo's life harrowing, right? Um I think she's low-key touching on this idea of commodifying pornice.

[00:09:51]This idea that you can like appreciate it or treat it like a spectacle, but actually confronting it. No, no, people don't do that.

[00:10:02]I also think that when Waldo looks at Corki's Instagram and sees like all those perfect images, it kind of shows that like Gwen is not above the performance either.

[00:10:14]Nobody is. But Gwen gets to relax about it. For Waldo, it's a fight for survival.

[00:10:24]And you know, I'm just going to leave it there for now. Uh but if y'all have any thoughts on that, I would love to hear them. I would love to hear them. We live in the most performative century in the universe. So, I think that on a second read, the dynamic between Corgi and Waldo is like infinitely more sinister.

[00:10:41]The first time that I read it, I was just kind of trying to grasp the story.

[00:10:45]I wasn't making any snap judgments or any like calls or anything. I was just like experiencing the narrative and like I'm like, I'll think about it later.

[00:10:52]I'll think about it later. So later is here and on a second read, the first two chapters set that Waldo accepts dishonesty. She expects it. She anticipates it. So when Corgi is honest, she latches on to that and is drawn to that. And going forward, she offers up her struggle on a silver platter. The I am from poem is simple. It's reasonable.

[00:11:16]And I think that like I've probably done it. You know what I mean? like that particular assignment makes sense in a high school. Um, however, the issue is that afterwards once Waldo spotlights her struggle, he uses assignments to low-key farm for information. Or at least that's what I think. That's what I think he's doing.

[00:11:35]Page 25. He's impressed. He likes me. He sees me. Girl, what he sees is a victim.

[00:11:42]And I think that the next writing assignment is completely and totally deranged. like knowing how their dynamic plays out. It's totally deranged. A personal essay that explores our point of view at three separate ages of our childhood.

[00:11:57]Girl, girl, no. I don't like it. I don't like it. That assignment does not look normal to me. It looks like a predator farming for information. That's just me. That's just my take. That's my opinion. Um there's not really much to work with there. That's just what I think. Um, and like I guess you could have some deniability because it's like, oh, it's an exploration of how your priorities change at different points in your life, but like he's literally just inviting her to trauma dump. He's seen what she's done before. That's how I read that and that's my hill to die on. He gets this look into her psyche and then later he leverages it against her. Okay. There's this thing that happens right after Franny is basically like, "Oh yeah, your life must be really harrowing. That's why he said that about your assignment." Waldo freaks out. She goes to Corgi. She's like, "You only said that cuz like my life is harrowing." And he's like, "No." And then like long story short, the fight kind of peters out. Um and he like affirms her, winds her down a little bit um by being like, "No, I think you're very talented." Or whatever. And then Waldo, you know, there's this exchange at the very end of their conversation where he's like, I have to get going. And his bag breaks and like they're he's he's talking about the bag and the bag is definitely like a metaphor for him and women, right? Basically, his wife is like, "Get rid of the bag." And he's like, "No."

[00:13:21]Um, and Waldo kind of is like, "Oh, cuz you can't get rid of it." Right? Just just a thought, right? She's like, "Oh, cuz he can't get rid of it." And he's like, "No, cuz I want to keep it." He's quoting her assignment at her. Okay. Um, no. Don't like it. Don't like it. Also, keep in mind that Corgi is the one who like is responsible for like all of the momentum in their relationship.

[00:13:53]Corgi is the one who is seeking her out several times over. He's the one who invites her for dinner. He calls her phone number that she added at the end of the email. Uh, which he should have just deleted, but of course he kept it and he calls her drunk on a holiday.

[00:14:08]What? He invites her on a walk. He shares personal information about himself. He affirms how like the truth is so important and then tells her that she's wrong for trying to make a move on him.

[00:14:21]Sir, you're the one who you literally set this up. So, he does this several times over. Okay. where Waldo pursues and then he crosses a line and then he twists it around to make her feel bad.

[00:14:33]Especially at the end of the narrative, quote unquote, "You're an adult when you want me to leave my family and a kid when you want to leave me."

[00:14:40]Mind you, Waldo wanted to break things off when she realized that this wasn't working for her. She wanted to cut their losses and quit.

[00:14:50]But Corgi left his family without Waldo lifting a finger. Okay? And now he has the audacity to be like, "You're responsible for why I left my wife."

[00:15:00]Like, "No, dude. You made that decision." Okay, you made that decision.

[00:15:06]It did not have to get this messy.

[00:15:09]Like, the only reason it got this messy is because of you. Because of you. Okay, Waldo's crazy, too. But like, it got this messy because of him. Okay, there were multiple inputs and he was one of them.

[00:15:22]I also think that like toward the end of the book, we circle back to this off-hand comment that was like directed toward Franny. Um this idea of poverty rubbing off, right? So Waldo mentioned that when Franny came in for a tampon once and like she felt so insecure about everything to do with her home. Like girl, I've been there. I feel that. Um, I think it's really interesting to think about Corgi's lifestyle before he divorced Gwen and after he divorced Gwen because like Gwen elevated him low key.

[00:15:54]There was this aspect of like performance, but he benefited from it in a way that was different from Waldo trying to mask herself and her poverty.

[00:16:05]Uh, when Gwen is in his life, his relationship with food is like a holier than thou thing. You know what I mean?

[00:16:11]He buys Waldo groceries that are healthy, but like like as someone who loves like overpriced groceries, like some of y'all are eating performative stuff, okay? Some of this stuff is performative and not really filling. Um, and then once Gwen is out of the picture, he begins to get takeout and fast casual. And Waldo even becomes lowkey his door dasher. She's bringing him food from the mall. Okay. So, he gets into cooking, too. But like by the end of the narrative, there's like infinitely more like instant gratification. It's just written into him. You know what I mean?

[00:16:45]He just starts to look more and more like Waldo, which is really interesting because um Hello. Hello. What did she say to Franny? This idea of poverty rubbing off. Hello. Hello. With that in mind, okay, this idea of poverty rubbing off. Nolan. Nolan. Oh my god, Nolan, you deserved so much better, honey. You literally Oh my god, Nolan, you are a sweetheart. Okay. Oh my god. Like Nolan.

[00:17:14]Oh my god. I think about this little guy and I'm just like, dude, the one that got away for her for real.

[00:17:22]Because like listen, oh my god. like he is literally like the most like he is so healthy, well-rounded, he has self-worth and Waldo was just kind of like so passive in the dynamic, right?

[00:17:43]Um because that's the only thing she knows how to do. Okay. Um, and I think about it and like when he came to take her to prom, did you pick up on how he literally came to her apartment?

[00:18:02]Like, no hesitation.

[00:18:04]Waldo didn't even pick up on any judgment or anything. Admittedly, she was thinking about Corgi, but like, do you know what I mean? Like, bro, he literally came to her apartment that she was insecure about. He was not afraid or judgmental about this idea of her being poor. Like, oh my god. Like, I think about Nolan and I'm just like, oh, girl, he was the greenest flag for you. He was the greenest flag. And you know what? He walked away. Good for him.

[00:18:35]That being said, in my head, I'm manufacturing an AU where like things went differently.

[00:18:44]Have Have you realized that like I I started reading from a script and then like I didn't finish the script. So now I'm just kind of saying what's in my brain.

[00:18:53]Brothers, I am back again with another interjection. Okay. Like I was just minding my own business and I started think about it and I was like, "Wait, I never mentioned this. Hear me out."

[00:19:02]Something that I found really compelling throughout the whole novel is Waldo's relationship with her body during acts of intimacy and specifically with Nolan.

[00:19:15]something really interesting that she kind of brings up is um she says something along the lines of she's never actually had an experience that that didn't involve some degree of like softness. Okay. So, she's basically saying it's the opposite of soft. He's very invested in the moment. And I had this thought where I was like, "Girl, girl, has every partner that you're you've been with not actually been into it, too. Is that what's happening here?"

[00:19:57]But basically, I think about this book and I feel that it is well executed.

[00:20:04]Okay. There are so many moments where I think, "Wow, the pattern is repeating.

[00:20:11]It's a snake eating its own tail." Okay, I think that this book and admittedly I need to reread Garamelo. Garamelo scares me though. Like the first time I read it, I was like, I'm not mentally equipped for this. Okay, this is about generational trauma. It's about being like Mexican. It's about like wealth.

[00:20:27]It's about per it's it's about all this stuff. It's about repeating the cycle.

[00:20:30]I'm not here for it. This is giving Caramelo.

[00:20:33]This book is sophisticated.

[00:20:36]It is interesting. It is compelling. It is enrichment. you can read it repeatedly and keep finding things that matter. It like it's for me this book is an opportunity to sit and use my brain.

[00:20:50]Okay? And I love that. I think it's great. That's why I had to make this video because I just think it's so like crazy and un like I just think it's so crazy that people who literally like see I'm late to the party because I was too busy preparing for the party. Okay. I had to read this book twice before I felt ready to talk about it and write four pages of stuff because I needed to give it the attention and TLC that it needed. So, when I see people who like make these videos and they have this cut and dry, it's bad, it's good, I don't know what to think of it, and I'm just like, why didn't you read it a second time? My mentality is that I would rather read the book once, read the book twice, read it three times, understand it, make the connections, give it give it the attention and discretion it deserves, and then come online and talk about it because I would not be talking about this book if I read it, went, I don't get it, and then put it down. Are you kidding me? I don't know how to feel about like the book ecosystem now because I think that most of the people who have read this book that I have watched videos on did not actually like try to analyze it. I think they just read it and they may they push through it and they wanted the views because it's like a controversial book because nobody is actually reading the book. Everyone is just seeing the words and they're like, "Wow, this is GR."

[00:22:24]Like, "Guys, can we read? Can we please read?

[00:22:29]Can we look at the words and think and look at the way the story is structured and think? And can we please give it like like a week, a week, maybe a month to put a video together when it's subject matter like this?"

[00:22:44]So, I had another thought while I was just kind of wrapping up this video, and I want to present a very important reason for why it's important for books like this to exist.

[00:22:56]When I took my course on the welfare queen in college, right, it talked a lot about like the experiences of women just in general. Okay?

[00:23:08]And one of the things that my teacher told me that I was like, "Whoa, that's crazy."

[00:23:14]She informed me that in her native language, there is no word for rape.

[00:23:24]Okay.

[00:23:26]So when I read narratives that handle subject matter like this, what I think about is how there is an entire language where women do not have the words for what they experience. And the reason why I think it is so important to tell stories like this, to examine stories like this, is because we need to equip each other with the language necessary to make sure that there is absolute bare minimum suffering when it comes to navigating situations that like are terrible or subject matter that is terrible. Because sometimes you're just going to be hit with a terrible experience. Sometimes you're going to have to confront something disgusting, scary, nasty, and you should not be without the language to explain what's happening. You should not be completely and totally vulnerable to the situation with no agency. And that is what I think this book does. This book is providing a very necessary voice to anyone who has struggled with any of this nonsense. Okay. Anyway, that's it.

[00:24:48]That's just my quick little interjection. I'm just feeling really heated because this goes back to the idea like people were using like the term like the book Lolita as shorthand for this and I think that is so unfair.

[00:25:01]I think that is so unfair. I think it is so wrong to do that because Lolita is a tragedy. This is a victory. She walks away at the end. Lolita dies in childbirth.

[00:25:15]Okay, after being abused from a young age by her stepfather. Okay, if you don't know the plot of Lolita, guy marries woman. Woman has daughter. Woman finds out he's a creep. She runs away and she's telling herself, "Oh, I'm you're out of my life. You're out of my life." Dies.

[00:25:39]Daughter is now his. He abuses daughter.

[00:25:42]Prevents her from having community. The moment she has community, he proceeds to rip her away from it. And then one day they have to go to the hospital and he has to leave to sleep. And he comes back. She's gone. She ran away with someone. She's been rescued. No, no, no, no, no. Jump cut to the end of the book.

[00:26:06]The person who rescued her was also abusive and horrible. And she never had the opportunity to live a normal life.

[00:26:13]And she was a pregnant teenager, probably not of her own valition, who dies in childbirth.

[00:26:22]This book is about a young teenager who has a relationship with her teacher, right? Okay. Okay.

[00:26:35]But at the end of the book, she gets to walk away and live her own life.

[00:26:43]Comparing it to Lolita.

[00:26:46]Lolita, who doesn't even get referred to by her real name for most of the book.

[00:26:51]Okay. She doesn't Her real name is Dolores.

[00:26:56]Her real name is Dolores.

[00:27:04]And the cherry on top is the guy who abused her in Lolita. I'm genu like I genuinely feel so strongly about this. I feel so mad about this. The guy who literally like ruined her life and took away her childhood.

[00:27:24]He didn't even get arrested because he took away her childhood. He got arrested because he killed another guy who abused her. Like he never got.

[00:27:36]And it makes me so mad.

[00:27:39]Like these books, they exist for a reason to highlight different things, you know? Um, and I think it's important to give them like the time and the attention that they need. And I think that it's really, really wrong to compare this book to Lolita because Lolita did not get away. Lolita did not escape. The narrative doesn't even revolve around her. Her name is not even Lolita and she never got justice. And you know, I would say that like Waldo doesn't get justice, but Waldo gets to walk away.

[00:28:12]And that matters. That matters so much.

[00:28:16]Waldo gets to go on her trip to Seward.

[00:28:18]She gets to start over. She gets to figure things out. She She works through her issues with consumerism to a degree.

[00:28:26]She figures out how to have like restraint and to focus on her and Dude, w she makes it to 18. Like, like Waldo makes it to 18. Lolita didn't even make it to 18. She didn't even make it.

[00:28:41]She died in childbirth as a kid. Like, I genuinely just I feel very passionately um for lack of better word.

[00:28:52]So, yeah, I'm all riled up. I'm just going to stop here. Anyway, to round out this uh video, I am going to tell you about Oh, and this might be a little bit of a Okay, so it's really weird when things get leaked. Um, and I did buy this book, but I did read a version of the book that was never meant to be distributed. I'm going to just round out this video talking about like the variant of the book that I read, which is a little bit iffy. Um, but like I just want to share it because I personally think that's the ending that like really like hammered in why I liked this book um and why I feel so strongly about the story it's telling. So very early on in the book, Waldo's mom says something along the lines of how basically to never trust a man, especially if they have blue eyes. It doesn't matter how blue their eyes are, don't trust them.

[00:29:54]something like that. Corki has blue eyes. Okay.

[00:29:59]Also, some of y'all don't really read in a meaningful way because I've heard several different video essays be like, "We don't even get Corgi's name." And I think that matters. And I'm just sitting here like, "We do get his name.

[00:30:12]We do get his name. It's Theodore. It's on the chaperone list." Y'all didn't read the Y'all didn't read. Y'all don't do it the way I do. And you know what?

[00:30:20]That's fine. But like also like I think some of you like made videos and you didn't even like you didn't even like read it. Like so Corgi has blue eyes.

[00:30:29]Her mom gives her this warning about blue eyes. And throughout the whole book she struggles with food and like before Corgi her relationship with food was very like instant gratification. And then with Corgi it started being a little bit more like like oh fancy right? And then you make it to the end of the narrative of the book that I read, right? The variant that does not exist, that is not canonical, that I really wish had been distributed and love with all my heart um was basically the whole ending was basically the same, right? It was just longer. And it had this sequence where Waldo was at the gas station and she was just like refilling her tank or getting snacks or something on her way down to Seward and she's in the gas station and the cashier is super attractive. She's like picking out fruit and candy and like the specific line is I get this like artificial candy and then I get like a protein box and then I get some Sour Patch Kids because you know she likes Sour Patch Kids. They actually come up several times over in the book. And I really wish I wish this ending had made it. So, she basically gets this little trifecta of food.

[00:31:52]Something that is like healthy, something that's indulgent, and something that's like just a little bit comforting that she's always enjoyed.

[00:32:04]goes up to the cashier and her internal monologue is basically, "Dang, this dude is attractive and he has really blue eyes and he is like literally like cashing her out or whatever." And he offers his phone number. So, Waldo thinks he's attractive. He is expressing interest.

[00:32:27]And instead of like making an instant decision, she tells him, "Maybe on my drive back."

[00:32:35]And you know, you could probably go two different ways with that, but I was obsessed with that because it reflected how her relationship with like food changed. It reflected how her relationship with men changed because she didn't like jump at the opportunity.

[00:32:51]She said, "You know what? I will think about it.

[00:32:56]I will make the call after I think about it. And like this whole book has been about like repression and like making choices in the moment or like not thinking about the future and like in this moment she's giving him a half yes half no. You can read into it in so many different ways because is she saying I'll think about it like maybe I'll come back and maybe it'll be on my terms or is she saying actually I'm saying no and I'm walking away and I'm going to live my life and I'm not going to give this dude my time or energy. Either way, it reflects this change in her character that is so like compelling and satisfying and like I really like I got thrown for a loop when I first watched the video essays because I was like what are you all talking about? I thought the ending was so good and then I read this one and I was like oh we were literally in different realities. We were literally in different realities. Okay, my bad.

[00:33:58]Anyway, yeah. Um, let me know y'all's thoughts on Half his age because as you can tell, I have very strong opinions. I think this book is good. I think Waldo is a nuanced and interesting protagonist. I really, really, really don't like the way that a lot of people have approached reviewing the book, and I think that this is low-key like a classic. I think that this is really, really good. And I hope that maybe this video attracts people who have also like scrutinized the book the way that I have and really dug into it. Like honestly consider this comment section a spot to like talk about this book, okay? Like if you ever read this book and if you have thoughts on this book, if you have annotations, feel free to just drop it in the comments section because I want to know what you think because I think this book is good and I really do think that we should give McCertie her flowers because this is a good book. She doesn't have a good book in her because I'm holding it in my hands. Okay, I think I got it all out of my system. And notice how I didn't take two years to have a midtake in a video. Like I'm just saying like I did not take two years to say I think the book was okay. Like guys like just if if you actually dig into a book often times you have like a lot to say in a lot smaller space. You can say more by doing less. Like some y'all don't need to be making 30 hour long video essays. Like I love you to pieces. Keep doing it. It's great background noise. But also, I'm just sitting here like, "Guys, can we have like succinct and interesting and like deep takes that do not take a million years to put together?" Anyway, yeah, thanks for watching my video essay. Let me know if you want me to review any other books. I finished Tender is the Flesh and I really liked Tender is the Flesh. I have many thoughts on Tender is the Flesh. It feels really weird to talk about now post um files, but you know, you know, it is what it is. Um, let me know if you have any book recommendations and I shall see y'all around next time.