reading popular young adult fantasy books to see if the genre is still good 👑✨ reading vlog

ohmygodd You're the only one that gets me about the cruel prince cuz I read the first book in 2 days and the 2nd books in 12 hours during my exams and I was addicted😭😭

in my book when she does something she’s labelled as a "war criminal"...... then again she had a fight with the king and won lol

You described my feelings kinda well about Iron Widow. It was a 2 star read for me. I mean I also listened to the audiobook but I just did not like the narration. The story also just had glaring writing issues. Idea was good, execution was very bad.

I’m surprised that you didn’t like the word building, because i didn’t see anything wrong with it 😭 like, it’s the only book I’ve ever read about fairies or whatever, and I understood the whole world pretty easily

I can relate soooooo much to this. I actually had a time of not reading at all for some reason for years, and thinking I was over YA fantasy. I started ACOTAR due to its intense hype and lord, took me two attempts to finish it, and just like you, I thought I didn't like fae due to that. Soooo forward in time I bought The Cruel Prince nearly 2 years ago, and it was untouched on my shelf until I decided to give it ago this week... I ended up reading the three books in three days and now here I am lost in life craving it like crazy and not knowing what to read next hahahahahahahaahahah

I just want to say I really like your voice and this video helped me clean my room

Looking at this date, you literally went to London only a few weeks before I did which is crazy!!

For Iron Widow, Wu Zetian’s full name is pronounced as “Oo tze-ti-en.” It’s difficult for someone who doesn’t speak Chinese.

Sorry as an American when she said train I was like “train to get tot he airport..???”

About the female characters rising in YA, as in Iron Widow, I'm loving to see the diversity in personalities! I grew up reading books where girls didn't stand up a lot for themselves, there was always more focus on their romantic life than on their development as a person, and now that I'm 19 I can clearly see how reading those stories affected my own personality, the way I think about my place in the world and what I can or can't do... I hope that reading both feminine, kind and unhinged, badass female characters, girls grow up understanding how to be polite without forgetting their own strength (as would contemporary philosopher miss Taylor Swift say).

I think paper backs are more beautiful when you can see that they are read compared to in new condition 😂

I read Iron Widow a while ago and enjoyed it at the time but the more I thought about the more I disliked it. It definitely felt like the romance and romantic interests weren't really developed or given time to breathe, and there was a lot of rushing from one plot point to another. It also really felt like the sort of feminism which hates on femininity. Like the main character really seems to hate women if I remember correctly.

I think the "main characters murdering people without much consequence/push back" thing is related to the previous unhinged character/feminine rage thing you talked about. Also, in terms of Jude and other characters in 'The Cruel Prince' (probably Iron Widow too, I just haven't read it yet though I want to) they have experienced a lot of violence and traumatic stuff, and/or still live in a violent (one could even say... cruel) so murder is not that unusual, but maybe even expected in the society they live/grow up in. So a combo of unhinged character living in a brutal/cutthroat/violent environment. So murder is a lot more... casual

can you please read heaven official's blessing

fictionalfates and bookleo collab when?

im still looking for a book as addictive as the cruel prince 😭😭 pls drop recs guys

Im enjoying your videos so much because they all are so very well thought through and intelligent, whilst also being interesting and fun. Big congrats ❤

I actually disagree a bit with the "bad world building" criticism of The Cruel Prince, maybe because some other recent fantasy has poor world-building - ACOTAR is literally set in just a map of Britain and Ireland. And the majority of the plot in that is romance (really, not much plot happens after the beginning until like 250 pages in). At least Holly Black came up with her own fae island type thing going on. I actually didn't mind that some of the stuff was more implied/expected for the reader to know (the fae poems, types of fae, the fact that fae can't outright lie, etc.) as it made the experience for me more mysterious and fantastical, for me it fun to learn more/what I didn't know. I think some of the types of fae mentioned were actually Holly's own invention, because for one or two I couldn't find anything else on them online. I really like her world building and writing, especially because the main series is just a trilogy and the books are more plot heavy, I feel like there doesn't need to be super elaborate detailed world building - it's not a long series or a fantasy franchise like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, where you almost have to give so much detail, exposition, explanation and/or descriptions so that readers/viewers can insert themselves in the story and act like they are the main character. No shade at the HP or PJ universes, I loved those books growing up and the worlds still have a place in my heart, but one of the main allures of long series like those is the fantasy world itself, and the ability to feel a part of that world as a reader. Whereas with The Folk of the Air, yes world-building matters because it's fae fantasy so there has to be some context for the reader, but it's more plot and character heavy especially with the politics and court stuff (especially in comparison to other recent fantasy YA, in which romance is usually the main focus - rather than plot - but just on a backdrop of fantasy). The Folk of the Air fae also seem to be based a lot in more traditional "real" fae stuff rather than mostly from imagination (which in recent fantasy can make the book seem very fanfic-esque), so it's not too hard to figure out some of the stuff if you've read/heard about it before (for me I just googled occasionally, but even without doing that the unknown fae terminology didn't hinder the plot progression or stop me from understanding). And I think the biggest part of Holly Black's world building in The Cruel Prince is the fae politics - that is what really fleshes out the fae world as not just a fantasy place on some imaginary islands or whatever, but as a kingdom with complicated politics - succession rivalry, betrayal, power seeking, etc. The book would be a lot emptier without the fae politics, especially because Cardan is literally a prince and Jude [SPOILER] wants to be a knight and gets more involved in other politics anyway. So I think Holly's world-building is okay for the book that it is - it's not a decade long series that becomes a whole franchise with movies and merch and theme parks just for the reader's immersion, it's a YA fae trilogy. At least there are some actual fae elements from older "traditional" stories, some imagination by Holly mixed in especially for the map of Elfhame and fleshed-out, riveting fae politics involving different factions/characters, not just the royals themselves.Those really contribute to the world-building, especially the latter. I also think the characters themselves contribute to the world-building, based on the traditional fae stuff - how they are cunning, conniving and secretive emphasises the whole mischievous/dangerous fae associations. As well as how they are very pretty yet usually also cold, ruthless and deadly - it really sets the scene for the environment Jude grew up in. Also the stuff both Jude and the fae eat and drink also contribute to the fantasy world-building element - obviously only the fae can eat or drink certain things, while they are deadly to Jude or allow her to be controlled by the fae.

Leonie, a bit off topic but i never ever have been into vlog type of videos but i absolutely love this. The mix of having a topic theme and doing things in your life like the book conference is amazing. You might be the first person i would totally watch vlogs about :)

Hope your day is lovely!

Usually love triangles really get on my nerves and are less enjoyable in the story for me but Iron Widow coming in here and dropping this poly relationship on me instead was fantastic. I feel like that’s the only poly relationship I’ve read in a YA book so it was refreshing

does anyone know the name of the song in the outro? i loved that

If you think about the Iron Widow's author, Xiran, loving anime and C-dramas, that would explain the cartoonishness. Maybe because I imagined the world more like anime, the dialogue was okay with me. I agree with some of the negative points you had, but I also really enjoyed Zetian's anger.

i dont know but i always enjoy you chanel so much

I actually read a lot of fantasy right now. Also because of escapism but I also love the genre a lot. It has always been my favourite because so much is possible 😊.
Sometimes I read a contempary novel. But I do not really know what my taste is in those kind of books. Maybe I'll look to buy more of those kind of books and when I do I mostly go for some kind of historical fiction.

7:09 I also loved how morally grey she was. The intrigues were amazing. She was not a good person and she does not pretend to be.

5:12 I also loved the fey in this book. I am almost finished. The romance not that much but that is almost secondary to me.