reading NEW horror and romance books 🤯🔪📚❤️‍🔥 (finding a five-star favorite) READING VLOG

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]This book just set me on like a roller coaster of emotions today. Five stars. I loved this. I was so close to crying in public. Hey, how's it going? My name is Gabby. Welcome back to my channel. And today, we're going to get started on a reading vlog. And in today's reading vlog, I'm going to be reading a number of different horror books as well as a romance book that I've been really excited about. One of the books that I'm planning to read in this vlog is Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker. This one is a horror book that is just published in the month of April. And this is one that I've been so excited to read after how much I loved Bat Eater and other names for Corora Zang by this author. So, this is a book that I jumped into without knowing anything about it.

[00:00:34]I actually downloaded the arc from NetGalley on my Kindle, so that's how I'm going to be reading it. I'm also planning to read this new horror book called Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumos. This one actually did just publish at the very end of March. And this one is described as being a new thriller about a weight loss treatment with potentially murderous side effects.

[00:00:50]So, it's safe to say I'm pretty intrigued. I've been hearing really good things about this one. I'm also going to be reading an ARC copy that I have of Marion by Leah Rowan. This one actually isn't publishing until June, but this one is described as being a bloody tale of female rage. It's kind of like a revenge story, but what I love about this is that this book is doing a twist on the classic story of Norman Bates from the woman who was supposed to be like in the shower, like the one that was getting killed by Norman Bates in the movie Psycho. We actually follow her story in this book and we get to see what would have happened if she killed Norman and if Norman was her first kill.

[00:01:21]So, this one's kind of like a reimagining of the classic film Psycho, and I am so excited to read it. And then lastly, the romance book that I'm hoping to read in this video is this one called One and Only. And I don't know, there's something about this book cover that just screams spring to me. So, I thought now would be the perfect time to read it. And this one has an incredible premise because we're following this woman who's from South Korea. She's now living in Los Angeles. And her family has this matchmaking service called One and Only. There's kind of like a magical realism element to this story because their business is so successful because they help people find their true love, their faded match. And so, it's really interesting because our protagonist, she knows who her faded man is supposed to be. And apparently with this book, it kind of turns into like a messy love triangle kind of a situation because she meets this guy who's a lot younger than her and then she ends up finding out that this younger guy knows the other guy who's supposed to be her faded.

[00:02:09]Sounds like it's going to be so fun and messy. I was also going to include two other thrillers in this reading vlog that I've been really excited about because I started reading both Warning Signs by Tracy Sierra as well as How to Survive in the Woods, but unfortunately both of these ended up being DNFS for me pretty early on. I just could not get invested in either of these books. So, if you know of any recently published thrillers that you think I could enjoy that I can include in future vlogs, then definitely let me know because these two were kind of a letdown. Before we do jump into the reading vlog, I just wanted to take a second to thank today's video sponsor, which is a new sponsor on my channel, and that is Quint. Quint is your one-stop destination for highquality essentials across clothing, homegoods, and accessories, all at affordable prices. It's actually so convenient that they have all of these high-end essentials all together in one place. And because they're working directly with the top tier manufacturers, and they're cutting out the middleman, Quint gives you the exceptional quality without the markups.

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[00:03:05]I've been loving the way that these sheets look on my bed and I actually slept in them last night for the first time and they were so soft. I also had to get one of their candles because I love having candles in my room. And this one is the ashwood scent. And I am not exaggerating when I say this is one of the best candle scents I've ever smelt in my life. Oh my god, it smells like a bonfire. It's so incredibly fragrant and it smells so good. I also decided to get the organic luxe waffle shower curtain in white for my bathroom because I really wanted to like brighten up the bathroom and I think the white looks really nice. And then lastly, I got this cotton fisherman throw in mineral and this blanket has got to be like my new favorite thing ever. Like I am not kidding. I've been taking this thing with me everywhere I go. This throw is so incredibly nice and I don't know if you can tell, but it is so heavy. It is heavy duty. Such nice quality. I am so impressed with this. I've actually been trying to decide if I should get another one of these in a different color because of how much I love this thing.

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[00:04:04]And thank you so much to Quint for sponsoring today's video. And now, let's get into the reading vlog.

[00:04:33]Hello. Good morning. I wanted to update you because yesterday I got a chance to start reading Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker and I'm now 50% of the way through the book. So, I thought now would be a good time to update you. I also put on one of the shirts that I got from Japan to be reading Japanese Gothic because it felt right. I started reading this one on my Kindle because I actually do have an ARC copy of this book on my Kindle, but now that I'm 50% of the way in, I'm like, damn, maybe I need to buy a physical copy of this book because of how much I'm already loving it. You know, Kylie Lee Baker was the same author as Bat Eater, which was one of my favorite horror books in the year that I read it. It was an easy five-star for me. And this book, Japanese Gothic, has already been so good. And I didn't even really know what this book was about jumping into it. I was a little bit nervous when I started it because all I knew about it was that it was going to be a little bit of a historical fiction because we're following two different timelines in this book and one of them takes place in 1877 I think it is and then the other timeline is present day.

[00:05:24]But I actually do really love both timelines in this book like even more than I thought I was going to. So, in the present day timeline, we're following this guy named Lee Turner, and he's currently living in Japan with his father, but he's recently left his university at NYU back in New York. And he keeps talking about how he like killed his roommate, this guy named James. And in his sections, he's kind of like dealing with a lot mentally because he keeps wondering like why he doesn't feel more remorse or like why he doesn't feel any guilt for killing this guy. And he also seems to be dealing with some like gaps in his memory. like he doesn't really remember why exactly he killed him and he doesn't remember what he did with his body. There's just a lot of weird stuff going on with this character Lee. So like I am so fascinated by him and the book is just so well written in general. Like I just love to read from his perspective. I love this one quote that said Lee wanted to believe in ghosts the way that some people wanted to believe in God. I also loved this quote that Lee said about his father. He said Lee learned that even when he didn't speak, his father wanted to be next to someone exist alongside them. a moon a careful distance from its planet, always there but never touching. The writing is just so gorgeous. There have been so many moments that I've been like annotating and underlining and I'm like, "Wow, like that is so beautifully said."

[00:06:31]And that's exactly how I felt when I was reading Bat Eater, you know, like she just writes her books in a way that is so visual and so easy to imagine and just like there's something about the writing that feels very lyrical. And then in the alternate timeline that's taking place in 1877, we're following this woman named Sen and she's a warrior and we're following her as she's like living with her family. I believe it's her parents and then her two younger brothers. And her chapters are also very interesting because, you know, she wants to be a warrior and she's a freaking badass, but her family is like more worried about like who she's going to marry. And her sections in this book are rather depressing with like the way that her family like thinks about women and treats women and any kind of like female characters in general in the past. It's not pretty and it's pretty hard to stomach like some of the stuff that I've been reading in those past chapters. But yeah, I'm about halfway through the book at this point. And the way that the chapters from the past and the present are like intertwining is so fascinating.

[00:07:19]It's really not what I was expecting from this book. So, I've been really really enjoying this. Like, this one feels like it has the potential to be a five-star new favorite for me. So, this morning I just pulled up at my local coffee shop. It's a Saturday morning.

[00:07:30]It's not showing me how many pages I have left because it's not showing the page count, but I refuse to leave this coffee shop until I finish this book.

[00:07:49]Okay, hello. I'm back with an update because I just finished reading Japanese Gothic and like, holy [ __ ] the way that I almost burst into tears at the end of this book sitting in that coffee shop. I literally had to hold myself back. Like, I was so close to crying in public. Wow.

[00:08:02]I was not expecting this book to like almost make me emotional. I mean, maybe I should have been expecting that because this book was, you know, like really heavy and like some of the subject matter that was being explored in this book was really intense. But like, holy [ __ ] five stars. I loved this. I actually don't know if I loved this one even more than Bat Eater. Like, I feel like that's something that I'm going to have to like sit on for a little bit because I really did love Bat Eater so much. And I feel like I might have personally connected a little bit more with the story that was being told in Batater, but I actually think that Japanese Gothic might be a better book overall just because Japanese Gothic like this book was so unique and so weird. And I've never read anything quite like this before. You know, I didn't mention in the description of this book like what it's actually about because I thought maybe that would be spoilery. And it actually does tell you right in the blurb of Goodreads, which I didn't realize cuz I didn't read the premise for this, but in the actual synopsis of this book, it says that this is a wildly inventive horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology. Two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds. Dude, I had no idea when I started this book, that that's what was going to be happening in this book, that like the people from the past and the present day would be able to like communicate with each other in the most interesting way. This is going to sound really weird when I say this, but like there were some aspects of this book that kind of reminded me of the book The Ministry of Time, which is another book that I really loved that like really surprised me. I think if you've read both of these books, you'll probably understand why I would find them to be similar. I think it's mostly because you have one character who's like living in the present day and then you have another character who's like living from a different time period like way way way back in historical times and you kind of get to see them have these interactions that are very strange because they're trying to understand each other's worlds. I don't know. There was something about this book that kind of reminded me of the Ministry of Time, but it was like the horror version. And I just loved that about this. And this book in terms of like horror, this book was so gruesome. I've been seeing this book be described as a timebending ghost story. And that is exactly how I would describe this. And I love that description for this. And I love that all of the horror in this book is both like supernatural horror and like ghost stuff, but it's also like real life horrors at the same time. And I love that both of these characters that you're following in this book, you know, Lee and this woman, Sen. I love how each of them have their own struggles with their family and like the way that they view their fathers. There's also this really compelling mystery being told through Lee's story about the disappearance of his mother when he was a kid. His mother disappeared. So, there's a lot of speculation about like what could have happened to her. And I was not expecting the stories of their families to like hit me as hard as it did. Oh my gosh, like there were so many moments where I nearly cried. God, there are so many quotes that I wrote down that I want to like read to you out loud that had such emotional impact on me, but like I'm not going to do that because I feel like they could be kind of spoilery. So, I do think this would be the perfect kind of book to like buddy readad with a friend or like buddy readad with a book club or something because I feel like there's a lot of things to discuss in this book and I want to jump into spoilery things so bad because of how good that ending was.

[00:10:50]I've seen a few other reviews on Goodreads saying that there was an aspect of this book that people found to be kind of predictable and like I can definitely see that. But for some reason for me, I did not see it coming and I was like absolutely floored by some of the things that happened at the end of this book. It was just something that was really like not on my radar, like something that I was not paying attention to and so I was shocked and the final chapter of this book just like absolutely gutted me. Genuinely, if I wasn't sitting in that coffee shop with other people like so close to me, I probably would have been sobbing. That ending was absolutely everything. It was so touching. I have to give this five stars because of the way it impacted me emotionally and I feel like these characters were just so fleshed out and they felt so real. The writing was absolutely gorgeous and this story was just so creative and so different from anything else that I've ever read before. Wow, dude. Kylie Lee Baker is incredible. Two five stars for me like back to back. That is such a rare feeling. I feel like this author and Monica Kim have been two authors that have like absolutely floored me in the horror genre recently cuz they've both had backto-back five stars for me and like that is so rare these days for an author to be so consistent with the quality of horror that they're putting out I think is so impressive. I know that Kylie Lee Baker also has a lot of fantasy books that she's written in the past. I think Bat Eater and then this book Japanese Gothic are the only two horror books that she's put out so far but like wow I will read anything that this author publishes in the future. I'm not a big fantasy reader, but maybe I would dabble with like some of the fantasy that she's published in the past just because I love her writing so much.

[00:12:10]So, Japanese Gothic absolutely wrecked my [ __ ] and now I don't know what to do with myself. Anyway, it was a really nice morning actually in that coffee shop and like, oh my gosh, they have acai. I've never seen acai there before and I just saw a poster for it and I was like, no way. So, like that actually made my day because you know how much I love an acai and now my local coffee spot has them. Like, are you kidding me?

[00:12:30]Also, last night I ended up starting on season 12 of Supernatural with my mom, and I actually really enjoyed the first three episodes of season 12. They were so good. The first episode of season 12 almost made me cry. Anyway, it's almost 1:30 in the afternoon at this point. I think I'm going to head back to the house. I don't know if I'm going to start another book today because I feel like I might need some time to recover from Japanese Gothic, to be honest. But if I do start something, I will let you know. So if you're gone, I'll be down.

[00:12:56]Pack your bags, fill them up. We can go tonight. Take a fly to higher ground. I love that.

[00:13:14]Okay. Hi. Hello. I am checking in with a reading update because this morning I have finished listening to the audio book for one and only. I actually started this audiobook yesterday when I went on a walk yesterday evening. And then this morning, I've just been doing a lot of like cleaning around the house.

[00:13:28]I've been getting ready because my sister and Oed are going to be coming over for dinner later tonight. And I'm also going to be leaving on a trip tomorrow. So, I was getting a lot of packing done and like doing all of the things. And I finished listening to this one on audio. It was actually a very quick audio book. It was only 10 hours long. I really enjoyed this one for the most part. This one had such an interesting premise, which is really what pulled me into the story because in this book, we're following this woman named Cassia, and she's 39 years old, and she's this Korean-American woman who's living in Los Angeles with her family, and her family runs this matchmaking business that's called One and Only. But this book has a little bit of magical realism elements in it because they have this family secret where they can basically like read people's faces and they can match people to their soulmates. And so that's why their matchmaking business is like so successful because they're able to predict who your one and only actually is. And so it's really interesting because at the start of this book, this main character Casio, like she already knows that her one and only, like her match is this guy named Daniel Nom, but she hasn't met him yet. And so she's kind of feeling anxious. You know, she's going to be turning 40 soon and she's kind of like, when is it going to happen for me? At this point, you know, she's really ready to like get married and have kids and start her life. And so she is feeling a little bit anxious about the fact that she hasn't met him yet.

[00:14:35]And right at the start of this book, she ends up meeting this other guy named Ellis, and he's only 28 years old, but they actually like really hit it off.

[00:14:42]And just as she's starting to develop what might be a relationship with this guy who's like 11 years younger than her, she ends up meeting the guy Daniel, who just happens to be Ellis's boss. So, like, cue the juicy love triangle. I was absolutely fascinated with the premise of this book because not only do I really love, you know, like a good juicy love triangle these days, but also because like I love books with the story like this where you're following a family who has a matchmaking service. I think that's so fun. I also loved the Los Angeles atmosphere in this book. I mean, if you didn't know, I'm originally from California and I grew up in the kind of like South Bay, Los Angeles area. So, I loved that. And I feel like there was so much of this book that reminded me of other things that I've loved. I mean, it definitely reminded me a little bit of like The Summer I Turned Pretty with like the way that it's like a love triangle with these two guys who are actually really close. I mean, they're not brothers like The Summer I Turned Pretty, but because they're working together and they are very close, it kind of reminded me of that.

[00:15:32]But then the writing in this book definitely reminded me of something like maybe early Taylor Jenkins Reed or even like Rebecca Surirly I've seen people compare this book to, and I would definitely agree, especially the book Expiration Dates. I feel like this is everything that I wanted from expiration dates. And I think there were aspects of this book that also reminded me of the movie Past Lives, which is like one of my top favorite movies of all time.

[00:15:53]Probably going to end up giving this one like three and a half stars because as much as I enjoyed it, I just don't think this is going to be like the most memorable book for me. And I don't even really know how to pinpoint why. I just think some of the writing did feel a little bit juvenile at times. I know that with this author, this is actually her first book that's an adult book and everything that she's written in the past has been young adult. And I do feel like you can kind of tell at times that this author has only written young adult in the past, especially with the way that this main character would think about certain things. It just kind of felt a little bit juvenile to me at times. I also just feel like everything in this book felt a little bit too like surface level for me, I guess. I just never really felt like I got to know any of these characters in a really really deep way. I mean, I think out of all the characters in this book, our main protagonist, Casio, like she's definitely the most fleshed out out of all of them. I really actually loved like learning about her family and like her connection with her mother because when she was a child, her mother actually passed away on her birthday as a kid. So, she's been dealing with a lot of trauma over the loss of her mother for basically her entire life. But, I also think that when it came to like the love interests in this book with Ellis and with Daniel, I feel like I wanted them to be fleshed out even more. I don't know. I feel like at times their characters still felt like kind of like stereotypical characters and I still felt like I didn't really know them that well even so deep into this book. But regardless, I do think that I'm going to give this book three and a half stars because it was really sweet. It was really wholesome. I really do love books like this where you're following a character through a brief period of their life where they're going through a lot of big changes. So, yeah, I'm glad that I finally read this. I feel like this was like the perfect thing for me to read in the spring because there's so many flowers on the cover. And I also put on my little flower market shirt cuz this afternoon, it's actually Easter today, the day that I'm filming this.

[00:17:27]And not that my family, you know, celebrates Easter because we're not religious. So, like we don't really celebrate Easter, but we do like to get together for like a little Easter dinner. So, my dad's going to be making steaks tonight, and it should be a really great night. But I'll check back in with this vlog in a few days once I start on the next thing.

[00:18:05]Hello. How's it going? It's been a couple of days since the last time that I updated this vlog because I recently just took my first ever solo trip to Anacortis. And I did post an entire like dedicated reading vlog while I was there. So, I'll have that link down below if you missed it because even though the trip was absolutely incredible and it was so much fun, the reading did not go as well as I had hoped cuz I read the new Abby Jimenez on that trip and I absolutely hated it.

[00:18:27]Like I was furious and I ranted about it a lot and I gave it one star. But I got back home yesterday and it was a really great trip. And then this morning I've finally had the chance to start on Nothing Tastes as Good and I'm now on chapter 21 of the book. I'm about 148 pages in. This is a new thriller and horror novel that I've been so curious to read. This is actually my first book from this author because I did end up soft dnfing his first book. I think it was called A History of Fear. But this book has been pretty intense because it's this thriller and horror book where we're following this guy named EMTT. And this character EMTT has been really struggling with his weight recently because he's over 300 lb. And the story has been pretty like sad and depressing overall in tone because you're reading a lot about this character and like the way that he views his body and the way that he feels a lot of shame over his weight. And you read a lot of these different scenes, you know, either like as he was growing up or like in his present day when he's trying to do his job and like people are making comments about his weight, whether that's like co-workers or even some of the students that he was teaching at the time. There was this one quote that I thought was really sad and kind of like captures the overall vibe of this book so far. And this was only on page 10. And it's when he finds out about this possible like weight loss treatment. And he says, "This groundbreaking weight loss treatment probably wasn't real either, but the sick feeling tugging down on his heart, that was real. The never-ending humiliation and degradation that was real. The feeling of being trapped inside his own body, inside his own life, that was as real as it [ __ ] came other than the obvious. What did he have to lose? And this book has been quite the slowburn so far, but I feel like this author is doing a really great job with like setting up this character, letting us know about his backstory and just developing this character in a way that makes us understand why he would feel the need to do something like this in the first place. Because the general premise of this book, it says, "Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity." Which, like, yeah, Obexity does sound a lot like Ompic, and I feel like the author is definitely trying to have some commentary there. But it says, "The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous. And as EMTT sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight, but unfortunately, obesity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. And there is that irony of how Obexity might be turning him into a literal monster just when people are starting to treat him like he's a real human. Something that I wasn't expecting with this book was that there was going to be so much mixed media included because not only do we get like health journals as this character is going through this procedure, but we also do get these blog posts that he's written about his life over the years. We also do get these different news articles and like different posts that the company has made. We also get to see like social media posts, like Instagram stuff and just like a whole variety of things. And to be honest, the mixed media does feel a little bit heavy-handed at times. Like there's just so much of it. And so I found myself skimming some of the mixed media because it doesn't always feel relevant. Like sometimes we'll get these like random interviews with these other characters. And even though they're talking about our main character, I just don't find them to be super relevant.

[00:21:13]And then same with like the Instagram posts. Like I understand the intent with all of the Instagram posts cuz it's trying to show like how toxic social media is and how vicious people are, but I just don't think we need as many of the Instagram posts as we're getting.

[00:21:25]So, like some of the mixed media elements have felt a little bit repetitive at this point. I think the ones that interest me the most are definitely like the health journals because he's kind of talking about like the changes that he's seeing in himself.

[00:21:35]So, those definitely feel relevant, but I'm also really liking getting the blog posts because I feel like that's where we're learning the most about this character and like his backstory and his, you know, childhood and like how he was raised. So, those are definitely the mixed media elements that feel the most relevant to the story. But, I am really enjoying this book so far and it's actually reminding me of a lot of different movies that I've loved over the years. I mean, of course, you know, The Substance is one of the first movies that comes to mind, especially because Eric Laroka actually blurbed this book and says, "It reminded me of when I watched The Substance for the very first time." And I would definitely agree that there's a lot of vibes similar to The Substance in this, but it also is reminding me a lot about how I felt when I watched the movie The Whale and then also when I watched the movie A Different Man. And these are all movies that I absolutely loved. And so, I have a feeling this book could have the potential to like break my heart today.

[00:22:19]I just feel like books with commentary like this about diet culture and how like everybody's so obsessed with being thin is especially relevant and especially hard-hitting these days because of Hollywood and like why is everyone in Hollywood so freakishly thin these days? Like it's so concerning and the way that Ozmpeg is just completely taken over everything. I feel like this author is already having a lot of really great commentary about that. So, I'm here for this. I'm doing some reading sprints right now on my Patreon and like I don't have any plans this afternoon except to finish this book.

[00:23:09]Okay. Hello. It is now after 4:30 in the afternoon and I have finished reading Nothing Tastes As Good. I'm like, "Wow, this book just sent me on like a roller coaster of emotions today." You know, my friend Megs was like warning me while I was on, you know, Patreon reading sprints this afternoon. She was like, "Don't eat while you read this book."

[00:23:26]And now that I've read the book, I can definitely see why she would say that.

[00:23:29]There's this one scene in this book. Oh my god, that scene is going to live in my head forever. I think that scene like specifically triggered me because it had something in horror that like I absolutely hate reading. But given this book and like the subject matter, I honestly should have expected a scene like that. God damn, it was so brutal.

[00:23:45]It was disgusting. There was a few different scenes, honestly, in this book that almost had me like gagging because of how disgusting it was written. And so, the horror in this book was definitely very effective. And actually, like that final chapter of this book, oh my god, I was in shock. My blood was actually boiling at the end of this book. That was so crazy, too, because I had literally just updated this vlog talking about how this reminded me of the whale. And then right after I said that, they actually mentioned the movie The Whale in this book, and I was like, "No way." You know, this book not only had so much commentary about like the toxic diet culture that's currently happening in the world, but especially in America, but I think there was also a lot of really great commentary about what's an acceptable way to lose weight and how sometimes people will feel, you know, like very betrayed if they find out that people were taking medication when they thought that they were just losing weight in like a natural way. you know, because some people will claim that they're losing weight just by dieting and like going to the gym and getting better with fitness when in reality they're taking these different medications and they're not sharing that with their audience. And it's almost become this question of privacy. Like are people entitled to their privacy when it comes to like how they're losing weight if they're sharing about it online? Like there was a lot of interesting commentary about that when he said so apparently what they hated wasn't fat at all but fat people. And he said because in this country it wasn't enough to lose weight apparently one had to suffer for it too. I'm kind of talking about how like people only respect people when they lose weight in the right way, quote unquote. It was just very interesting and very thoughtprovoking. And I do think this book succeeded in having a lot of really great commentary. I could definitely see the similarities to the substance, especially like the further that we got into the book. I was like, "Oh my god."

[00:25:16]It was constantly a question of like, "How far is this going to go?" I think for me, this book is going to land somewhere between like four and four and a half stars. I don't think it was the perfect five-star book for me for a few different reasons. I mean, like I said, a lot of the mixed media ended up feeling a little bit repetitive for me at times in this book, even though some of it was stuff that I really appreciated, but then there were some aspects of the mixed media that just felt a little bit unnecessary, but also because I am a little bit nitpicky about this ending. There was just this one chapter where it was starting to feel a little bit different in tone from the rest of the book. And we get one of those chapters where it's like a villain monologue going on for pages and pages, and I'm like, "Okay, I didn't need all of that explanation." So, I don't know.

[00:25:53]The ending wasn't perfect for me, but otherwise, this was such a memorable horror novel. Like, I'm literally never going to forget that one scene. And I would recommend if you're going to be reading this book, please do not eat while you're reading this. Oh my god.

[00:26:04]Like, that has to be one of the most gruesome things I think that I've ever read in a book that's like traditionally published. Like, that was almost pushing the barriers of like extreme horror in my opinion. I also did go to the library and I picked up two of my holds. And while I was checking out the librarian, she was like, "Oh, you like the Japanese books, don't you?" I know that this one's Japanese translated, but I don't think Automatic Noodle is. But these are two books that I'm hoping to read soon, hopefully in the month of April. Hi.

[00:26:27]Hello. It is now the next afternoon, but I wanted to check in with the reading update because I've started reading Marion. And this one is a horror book that I've been really excited to check out because it's kind of like taking back the story of the woman who was murdered by Norman Bates from Psycho.

[00:26:41]And I just hit chapter 15. I'm now 140 pages in. And so far, this has been going really well. I actually loved the prologue of this because she says, "I'm the kind of girl you swear you've seen before. You know the type. Young, blonde, and pretty enough, the first girl to die in the slasher film." And then at the end of the prologue when she's like, "Only then I heard a noise.

[00:26:58]I saw a shadow. I screamed as the shower curtain was pulled back. Look, I get it.

[00:27:02]I do. You're one step ahead of me, aren't you?" Because you've read it.

[00:27:05]You've watched it. You've listened to it on a podcast for your evening run.

[00:27:07]You've heard it a million times. But I'm here to tell you something. You think you know how this kind of story ends.

[00:27:12]You don't. So, I loved the opening prologue. I just thought it was like the perfect setup and like introduction to her character. And something that I wasn't expecting with this is that it's actually taking place in 2023. So, it is present day. Like, I don't know. I was expecting if this was kind of like a retelling of Psycho. I was imagining that it was going to be taking place in the past, but I think it's really interesting to do a retelling with this kind of story that takes place in 2023.

[00:27:33]And what I also wasn't expecting is that we're not only getting Marian's point of view, but we also do get the perspective of this female cop named Hannah. and we get her perspective two weeks after the events that have happened and she's looking for this missing woman named Emily. So, I do like that we have two different timelines going on. I like that with this character, Marion, it's really like fleshing out her character in a way that's really interesting because we actually get to see what led to her getting stranded at this motel in the first place because the story kind of starts at this place where she's like on the run. It says that she's stolen cash from her Manhattan ad agency and it's her last ditch attempt to help her sister escape an abusive marriage because we learn right at the start of this that her sister is involved with this guy who's really abusive and so she decides that she's going to like show up and try to help her sister in person.

[00:28:16]So, she doesn't tell her sister that she's coming to see her. But then the bus breaks down when she's on the way to go and visit her sister. And then that's what leads her to this motel where she meets this guy named Norm who runs this little motel on the side of the road that is very outdated and kind of sketchy and like there's nobody else there. I really do love stories like this that take a classic story that we're all very familiar with and it's kind of a retelling about like well what if this would have happened instead and this story is you know imagining like what would have happened if Norman Bates didn't kill this woman in the shower like what would have happened if she fought back and if Norman was the first man that she killed. It says, "Marion slices through the myth of the final girl and hands the blade to the woman who was never supposed to make it out alive." So, I'm really enjoying this so far. I will say that so far throughout the book, I've definitely preferred Marian's perspective as opposed to Hannah's because Hannah is the female cop and because her perspective is taking place a few weeks after, I'm just curious to see how Hannah's perspective is going to like tie in to what's happening with Marion. But, I am really liking the writing in this a lot. I feel like it's very fast-paced. I've just been listening to this one on audio all morning because I've been getting ready to head down and see my friend Britney.

[00:29:17]My friend Britney, she lives about an hour and a half south of where I live.

[00:29:20]So, I'm going to be going on the drive now. It's about 1:30 in the afternoon now, so I should make it down there by around 3. I also do have some books in my trunk because I'm planning to go to the Halfpric Books and sell my books this afternoon. I have about two bags of books in my trunk. So, depending on how long that takes, I might also have some time to like browse around that bookstore at the Halfpric Books. So, we'll see if I find anything good. I'm gonna be spending these next two nights at my friend Britney's apartment because tomorrow we're going to be going and seeing the BTS concert in theaters together, which I'm so excited to go and see. It's going to be a concert that's like live streamed from their tour that's happening right now in South Korea. So, I think it's going to be really special to be able to do that.

[00:29:55]And I don't really know what else we have in store for this weekend. I plan to continue listening to this audiobook during my drive. And also, if I can get any reading in this weekend, I'm definitely going to be trying to finish up this one. So, I'll let you know my final thoughts if I do finish it.

[00:30:08]Anyone drunk dropping losing all intention falling once I was living for the passion now it's all missing without you now I'm speeding 91 drunk dropping losing all intention falling once I was living for the passion now it's all missing yeah telling me that you bi got me driving like Like a movie.

[00:30:42]Only seconds left.

[00:30:49]>> Okay. Hi. Hello. It is now Sunday afternoon. I just left my friend Britney's place and we had such an amazing weekend together. I thought I would update you that while I was at Halfpric Books, I did actually find one book while I was there. This book is called Grace and Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon. This is a romance book that I've been so curious about. It came out around Christmas time last year. And even though I'm not the biggest lover of like Christmas romance books, I've heard such good things about this one. And so when I saw it at the halfp price books for only $9, I decided to pick it up.

[00:31:15]And we had so much fun this weekend because not only did we go and see the BTS concert in theaters on Saturday, which was so fun. But we also went out and we got ramen. We went to my favorite ramen spot in the area. And then we also ended up watching this movie called No Other Choice, which has been on our watch list for such a long time. So it was really nice to finally watch this movie. and we ended up watching almost the entirety of the second half of season 8 of Supernatural because my friend Britney's also watching Supernatural and she's on season 8 right now. So, I was like, why don't we just like watch some Supernatural together?

[00:31:41]And we had so much fun doing that. And I'm also happy to let you know that I have finished reading Marion. I think I'm probably going to give this one around four stars. You know, there were some aspects of this book that kind of reminded me of Mocha by Monica Kim because of the whole, you know, like feminine rage and like good for her type of energy. like it definitely has a similar vibe to that book, but I don't think I enjoyed this one quite as much as I enjoyed Mocha. But this book was really solid and it definitely had a few surprising things in the second half that I didn't see coming. I do feel like there was one element of this book towards the end that was kind of one of those things where you kind of have to like suspend your disbelief just a little bit. And I do think that the ending of this book is really satisfying, but it wasn't satisfying to me in the same way that Mocha was. But I really enjoyed this one for the most part and I can see a lot of people really really loving this one because this book is packed with so much amazing like feminist commentary and as far as like the horror elements of this book go like it definitely got a little bit gruesome in the second half like more gruesome than I was expecting it to get.

[00:32:34]But I do love stories like this that take a story that we are familiar with and they kind of like turn it on its head and kind of like make it more for today's times. I think it was an interesting choice to have this book set in more present times in 2023. And even though I didn't love reading from Hannah's perspective as much as I liked reading from Marian's perspective, I definitely understand why it was necessary and I liked the way that it all came together in the end. So yeah, overall this one was pretty good and I would definitely recommend checking it out when it publishes in June. And that brings us to the end of this reading vlog. I always love whenever I get the chance to read some upcoming like thriller, horror, and romance books that I'm so excited about. So I hope that you enjoyed this vlog. You'll have to let me know if you've read any of these books.

[00:33:11]What are your thoughts? Or if you plan to read any of these books, let me know that. Thank you so much for watching. as always and I'll see you very soon with another video. Bye.