Hi welcome back to my channel. My name is Kat. Thank you so much for watching today. I am doing
my December wrap up. So December had two main things in it: the Bias Breaker readathon which
I hosted with eight other lovely co-hosts (so some of the books I read for that) and then the rest are
books that I had picked up throughout the year and for whatever reason put them down and I said okay
you know we're moving in three days now oh my gosh so I'm going to give them one more chance
and if I don't read them then I'm going to donate them because clearly you know I don't want to move
books I'm not going to read. So without further ado, let's go ahead and get into it. I'm going to start
things off with African Psycho by Alain Mabanckou, who is from Congo. So this was originally French
and translated so it had so many things going for it, ticking all my boxes. So we are following an
aspiring serial killer who wants to train under and be as famous as a famous serial killer that
he really admires. I really like hated this so much. I think I gave it 2 stars in my review of
it on Goodreads (which my Goodreads is always linked down below). I said it's like an inept
Patrick Bateman from American Psycho plus an adult Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye and I was
talking to one of my friends and she said "oh my god that sounds amazing I love catcher and I love
American Psycho!" and I was like "I will bring it to you" because if you know anything about me,
I hate those books, I hate both those books so this was never going to work for me. But if
you like those books, maybe it would work for you. Next up is Borderliners by Peter Hoeg. This is a
Danish translation from Denmark. There is an orphanage of children or a school
which is mixing children of all different intellectual abilities and that they can
integrate into the whole and be like a successful community (kind of). But the people that we are
following are the students and they believe that the school is messing with time. But for
me, ultimately, I found the premise really lacking. I just found it to be odd and I don't think it
successfully accomplished the theory that it was putting forward. It's just all together very
confusing. I don't really recommend this one at all. I don't know why it was really so popular
and I gave it 2.5 stars. Next up is the last book that I read in 2020. I finished it
this morning. This is His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnett. It's historical non-fiction fiction,
if that makes sense. So the author completely fictionalized all of these documents from the
1800s of this triple murder case where a crofter's son went in and brutally murdered a three-year-old
boy, a 15-year-old girl, and their father. The first two-thirds of this is the villain's account of
what what led up to his actions. He's writing it in his jail cell and then the rest of the novel
is the court case and the verdict and it just gave me such similar feelings to Burial Rites
by Hannah Kent. It's very cold, it's very desolate. They're kind of nestled next to the isle of Skye
so the juxtaposition is that like the landscape is so beautiful and stunning
but the people that are living there are treated so horribly and the tiniest tiniest little things
really matter to their livelihood but the people that are stationed above them and are
tasked with you know basically making sure that they have enough to live on their land just
really don't care about them at all so there's gross like misjustices that happen and
no one can help these people. So you're left wondering if the boy's actions
of the killing of the three people is it justified? Can we trust what he's saying? Who is ultimately
at fault? Was he insane? Like there's so many things to go through in here that even now
having just finished it I don't... I'm not exactly sure how I feel... if I would have given him the
guilty or not guilty verdict. So if you like slow burn crime, psychological thrillers, or historical
fictions, then this would be for you to check out. I really think that people who liked Burial
Rights would really like this one. Oh and I forgot to mention that Burnett is a Scottish writer and
this takes place in the Scottish Highlands. Next up is another one that I read for Bias Breaker. This
is The Pisces by Melissa Broder and I think I gave this 3.5 or 4 stars. So this one is
following a woman who just had a breakup after six years and she just needs to get her life together.
So she agrees to house and pet sit for her sister who's going on vacation and the house is on
this beach and as she is going to group therapy to deal with ramifications of the breakup and also
her depression and anxiety, she meets a night swimmer and it's not a secret that the night
swimmer is a merman and things go from there. So I found this oddly entrancing. I read through it
really quickly and I really didn't agree with most of the things that the main character
did. Like she did some truly awful things but it must be said that she was really struggling with
her mental state and just being disassociated from events around her so you're not really sure if the
merman is real or if he is just like a metaphor or a figment of her imagination. Either way,
I thought that the merman part was oddly brilliant and it's not even really about the merman
but I thought that it was just... it oddly sucked me in and this is definitely one that I'm going
to remember for a long time. Now we are into my 4 star reads. First up is Earthlings by Sayaka
Murata, a Japanese writer. So this one was the group book pick for Bias Breaker.
And we are following Natsuki who is a young girl and she's in a family that really treats her just
terribly and as a coping mechanism she kind of alienates herself from them by believing that she
is an alien. So she thinks that she's from another planet and that that's why she doesn't understand
people and they don't understand her. And also, in childhood, when she is visiting her grandmother's
house in the countryside she is spending a lot of time with her cousin Yuu and he is the only
one that really gets her. And then we fast forward to the present when she is an adult and married.
And so the three kind of main characters in this are Natsuki, her husband (who also lives
outside of society), and Yuu (who is struggling to conform within society). So this book raises a lot
of really good discussion points about people's place in society, especially in places that are so
kind of rigid as Japan. And I think a lot of people will be surprised by this book because Convenience
Store Women had the same themes but was not as dark as this book. This book has so many triggers...
definitely check out the Goodreads reviews for triggers if you are sensitive because this book
went on the same thematic kind of trajectory as Convenience Store Women but it just went
like ultra dark, black hole weird and dark. So I personally could not put this book down. I thought
it was highly readable but it's certainly not going to be for everyone. And I think that I will
from now on read whatever Murata writes because her imagination is just bizarre and of course I
love bizarre books, dark books, weird books. So this one really really was fascinating for me to sink
my teeth into. The second to last book I want to talk about is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. So this
was one I picked up earlier in November (because this was recommended for Scorpios) and I finished
it in December. To be honest, I liked this book a lot. I gave it 4 stars. I absolutely really
appreciated the main character... Well there're two main characters: there's the husband and the wife.
And the wife is the one that I'm talking about. She is so clever and so vindictive and she is going to
take her revenge and make sure that she teaches a lesson. So I definitely understand why this is
recommended for Scorpios. I did quite applaud her forethought, like she planned her revenge for
a year. I'm not gonna tell you what this is about because like if you don't know what Gone Girl is...
then I don't... I can't help you. I don't know where you live, like under the sea maybe? But yeah this
was really good. I read it all the way through and now I'm sad to say that I've read all of the big
books from Gillian Flynn and I enjoyed all of them. I like her writing style, she's very fast-paced,
and very smart with her plot twists. And the last one I want to talk about is Troll: A Love Story by
Johanna Sinisalo. So this one I gave 4.5 stars. I thought it was brilliant and
weird and funny and dark. So this is following Angel who is a gay photographer in Finland.
And he stumbles home one night and he sees teenagers kicking the crap out of a little animal
and he shoos them away and grabs the animal and goes up to his apartment.
Then he realizes that it is an adolescent woodland troll and from there the story
diverges into two paths. One path is Angel with the troll and the other path is interspersions of
thin Finnish troll lore and literature which is so interesting, so weird and interesting. I didn't
know I was interested in that kind of thing and apparently I am. Oh so sorry, don't let my yawns
fool you. I'm very interested in this book it's just... we're moving. So late nights, early mornings.
Anyway, this was great. I couldn't put it down. I read it I think in one or two days.
And it also talks a lot about the advertising and art scene in Finland, queer culture subculture,
and also deforestation and global warming, especially in Finland. It was just all around
so odd and so seductive like of a read that I just loved it honestly.
I've read something else by Sinisalo which was also brilliant called The Core of the Sun.
And I really want to get my hands on Blood of Angels (I think) which is another one. So yeah
I'm a huge fan of Sinisalo. If you like Finnish New Weird I highly recommend her. She's
brilliant. So that finishes up my December wrap up. I am so so so so happy with my reading this year.
I think I did really well in terms of like stats and stuff, you'll see that video coming soon.
I also have videos coming about diverse 2021 readathons as well as my Christmas haul
as well as my moving unhaul. With that being said, I hope you are having a lovely day.
I can't wait to bid 2020 f*cking ado and never see it again. And I will see you in 2021, bye~