Hey, there! It's Olivia-Savannah from Olivia's Catastrophe and welcome
to week two of my Gothtober vlogs. So far today all I’ve done is painted my nails
red for the second week. Blood red. And I have been doing some filming. I’ve been filming my
September wrap-up, all of my wrap-ups are late, I need to catch up, but I like to film them on time,
nonetheless. I’m gonna take some instagram photos, then I’m going to sit down and read because I
really need to get some reading done. So the book that I’m going to be focusing on tackling today is
The Woods Are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins. I’ve read 40 pages now
and I mentioned in the last vlog that I wasn't particularly enjoying this one
because there was too much telling – not enough showing. But now that we've got all of the bulk
basis information out of the way, it seems to be pushing harder and leaning into the creepy vibes a
bit more. So maybe this book could redeem itself, we shall find out throughout the course of today.
I’m just here to give you a bit of a reading update because my have the tables turned. I have
been reading The Woods Are Always Watching. I get most of my reading done on a Sunday morning
before church because I just lay in bed and read until it's time to get up and get ready
for church. Which was really nice, it was my first week going to a new church here
that's nearby the new flat and everybody was very friendly. But in terms of The Woods Are Watching,
I’ve only got about 80 pages left and I’m really, really enjoying it which I did not expect from the
way that I was talking about this book in the first vlog. It just goes to show how reading
can be such a journey. Now it's really bringing all of that show to the table. It's very much
leaning into some of the typical ‘teenagers hiking in the woods’ kind of horror vibes
and I’m here for it, I’m here for those vibes. I really enjoy films like that and I also am
really enjoying this book because I’ve just never really read a book that captures those
elements from the film so well in fiction and I’m just having a blast with it. I think
the two main characters who are girls do have their vulnerabilities – one of them has asthma,
one of them wears glasses – those vulnerabilities you'll see quite a bit in horror because it just
adds an extra element. And there are some things that are coming into play that are
building the suspense and all I want to do is keep reading but I finished reading a book. I
finished The Woods Are Always Watching for the monochrome angel prompt and I have to say this
is by no means a blow your mind kind of read – but it's just so much fun that I still recommend it.
And I’m very much looking forward to reading the other book that's horror by Stephanie Perkins:
There's Someone In Your House. I’m just impressed when authors can do two very different genres
very well. Today, during the day, I’m going to be meeting up with a friend. I’m going to be working
from my old house because there's some work going to be done on it and I just need to let people in,
so I’m going to be walking around Wanstead flats with her which is going to be
very nice. And I’ll be having a cuppa with some of the neighbours there before I head back.
So for this part of the vlog I’m going to be doing a little bit of an unboxing
Hannah has sent me some of the Gothtober items. So you can buy a Gothtober merch box and you
can get all of the angel items, all of the demon items, all of the death items – or you can go onto
Waypoint Books and just buy certain items like just the mugs or just the bookmarks. So if you see
something here, but you don't want a whole box, then you can do it. And also the candles come from
Becca's Etsy shop so these are not included in the boxes, in the merch boxes, but you can go
and buy them on Becca's Etsy and I’ll leave a link to that down below as well. But I’ve got a bit of
a mismatch of items here because I’ve got some of the merch that’s in the angel box. But I’ve
also got all of the candles. The Gothtober key ring that you have and it says Gothtober
and it says… Gothtober 2021 on it, which especially for us hosts, just feels like such
a good momento for all the work that goes into the readathon and that it happened and it's amazing.
I have got here the stationary notepads for the angel team. What they say at the bottom there is:
not today Satan, which is exactly what angels say every single day – including myself.
So I really like that. I’m a huge fan of making to-do lists. I live off my to-do list, so it's
always nice to have some stationery to write some out by hand and write myself some reminders. Then
we've got the three Gothtober bookmarks for each team. So on the back there it's got like Gothtober
print so that's what all of the backs look like but then each bookmark comes with… am I holding
these upside down? I am. Each bookmark has like a different symbol or like artsy bit on it and each
of them have a different quote so I’ll just read them out to you. So this one with a snake on it
is the demon one: being chased by hellhounds and blowing things up were comparatively
unimportant parts of the job. I don't know why that makes me think of Supernatural. Is that a
quote and I’m just not cottoning on? Then for the angel team one it says: once upon a time
an angel and the devil fell in love. It did not end well. And then, last but not least,
we have the death one: there is nowhere death will not go, no matter how distant or how dangerous.
In fact, the more danger it is, the more likely he is already to be there. I’m gonna move on to
the scented candles. I love a good scented candle so it makes me so happy to have all three of them
here. I can't wait to burn them. So the first one I’m going to show you is the death candle – it is
black with sparkles in it and the scent is mandarin, orange, plum, caramel, and honey.
Oh, yum. I’m gonna show you the demon's candle – the demon one is a beautiful deep pink with
sparkles as well. Smells good. But, of course, I saved my favourite candle to last because my
favourite candle is of course the angel candle. It is white and very angelic and it's got light pink
sparkles and it smells like damask, rose, clove, and praline and that's my favourite one… just
smells so good! I love playing team angel hashtag heavenly halos for life. Okay, the next thing is
the angel’s mug which my sister Simone told me is her favourite item. And that it looks like this
so you can see the handle is black inside is black but it says team angel and it's got wings on it
which is a really nice like… colour combo. And all of the mugs have this, although team death
and team demon have different images on them. And then, last but not least, my favourite item
by far: as soon as Hannah showed me this design I was like, “I need this in my life.” It's the best
tote of all three of them I’m afraid, sorry other teams, but Hannah made these great tote bags.
Can you see that? Can you see that? So on this tote bag you've got like the angelic hand reaching
out and it says my guardian angel loves me. You, not so much. And then it says Gothtober 2021 on it
and I love that because angels have sass. People think angels are all angelic beings but
they can be until you do something wrong, or you do something terrible,
or they feel the wrong review – then the sass can come out and that's how it'd be with angels.
So that's the merch that I have now and I’m so, so happy. Another mug for the mug collection,
another tote for the admittedly growing tote collection, but this is my favourite tote
that I own now. Sorry to all the rest. So, hi, I’m here to just quickly close out this vlog
and yeah before we do so, we should have a reading update because I finished reading something.
So I finished reading White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi. I don't know why I was dancing
around when I said that I finished something because I did not like this book. It was just
not the one for me. It's strange, and it's weird, but it wasn't strange and weird in a way that I
liked. I enjoyed that it was a very unique writing style, but it did mean I got quite a
bit lost in the story. I did not think the ending was that haunting – it didn't leave the lingering
haunting feeling that I think it was supposed to. And I just wasn't very impressed with this one, so
that was a shame, but I’m going to be counting it for the sentient house prompt. I think I’ve also…
we also have the reading sprints but in the angel first round of reading sprints I started
reading Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson. And those reading sprints were very, very fruitful because
I read one quarter of the book, 100 pages, and I am really enjoying it. This one is set in a
world where these spirits exist… I’m trying to explain this book… and our main character had
been possessed as a child and she's in this school where she could stay at this low level or excel,
and she doesn't want to excel. But when the city comes under attack, she kind of ends up caught in
the middle of it, and maybe working along with a spirit that she did not expect. What I love about
Margaret Rogerson's writing is especially how she manages to make characters that don't like
each other, that don't want to work with each other, have to begrudgingly work together – and
it makes for the best banter, makes for the best sass. Even though it's the first hundred pages of
a fantasy book, I easily slipped into the world no problem and I’m just having a blast, it's so
fun. Margaret Rogerson books are always so much fun. And the last book I have to tell you about
is called The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood which I’m buddy reading with Mariana Quesada,
that's her channel name, she's wonderful go and check her out. I’m laughing because we tried
to buddy read something else – it didn't work out because we both weren't enjoying the book.
And I was not planning to read a romance in the middle of Gothtober. And I was not planning
to read this good romance that's keeping me up every night because I’m reading it all the time
and reading chapters on all of my breaks and it's just consuming my life because it's literally the
only thing I can think about. And yet, here we are with The Love Hypothesis. This book is an
adult romance book that focuses on a fake dating situation between two scientists, and the fake
dating situation is just so valid and justifiable. Olive is a fantastic main character, she's like a
grad school student and I can definitely relate to the way that she stresses, the way that she
feels sometimes, and the love interest is great. I love them two together and
it's just very good characters, very cute fake dating relationships, and the friendships are a
key part of it. I love seeing good friendships in a romance book. I just read it. I think while I’ve
been talking about it, I’ve been smiling because I just read it, and I smile, and I’m happy,
and it's making my life a perfect glow, which is good because I just… I need that dose of
happiness. So that's my reading update. This vlog has been successful because I’ve done more reading
than in the week one vlog. I’m going to end it here, do some yoga. Comment down below: what
genre makes you the happiest when you read it? Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it,
hit the subscribe button if you want to see more, and don't you forget to
hit that notification bell to be updated every time I have a new video. I’ll see
you in the next one. You know what they say: onwards and upwards. Excelsior!