Hi friends! Today, I'm going to be sharing some spooky books just in time for halloween.
[Intro Music]
So first I want to apologize for not uploading a youtube video for so long. It's because
I've been really burnt out in general on bookish things and also because of school.
And I'm slowly going to be returning back to the bookish world and I'm really excited for that.
In the meantime that I've been away from Booktube
I have been consuming some thrillers and murder mysteries in the form of both books and tv shows.
So today I'm going to be recommending some of those to you today,
and just a fair warning that some of these shows and books have some heavy topics or dark,
dark topics that you may want to be aware of before getting into them.
So the first book I want to talk about is All These Bodies by Kendare Blake and this
is a recent release, I think in September, just this past September. So this one is a YA thriller
and I did rate it a 4 out of 5 stars
So, set in the 1950s, the backdrop of a small town brings us to the attention of Michael Jensen,
the son of the sheriff, who is tiptoeing around the biggest news of the small
sleepy town of an alleged murderer - a young teenage girl of 16 people.
There's something about Marie Catherine Hale that draws
Michael - and the readers in. Something odd, yet intriguing.
The current case that has this small town in such an uproar is the murder
of a Carson family. Both parents and their teenage son, who is a friend of Michael's,
were found lying side by side on their living room floor, bloodless,
except for Marie (our alleged murderess) standing covered in blood from head to toe.
Another odd thing is that usually all the victims are found
murdered together, so if there's a group of two people, they're
usually found already murdered together. But in this case with the Carson family,
the only person that wasn't murdered was their little toddler daughter that was left behind.
I found in this book that it followed like the slower pace of true crime documentaries
and tv shows. But that didn't take away from the overall book.
Following this book from Michael's point of view, he's a teenage boy,
who can be easily influenced by people, and especially a mysterious girl. However,
he does have smarts to him and that does make the pacing better.
But even more there is a supernatural twist to Marie and while reading scenes with her,
I was freaked out a little bit because she was kind of creepy to me.
Nut answers to the murder mystery are given by the end. I was a bit disappointed at the
ending but I still loved the characters in the overall plot. And if I could summarize
this book into one sentence, it would be: a YA horror-mystery blend that takes you
through a journey of what is the truth and what may be lurking in the shadows.
Sorry for looking down so much. It's because I have my notes in front of me
of the plot and what my thoughts were on each thing.
So the next book I do have to show you is one I absolutely loved and it is a part of a small
trilogy. And it is A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson.
So this is the first book, I rated each book 5 out of 5 stars.
The second book is Good Girl Bad Blood and the third book is As Good As Dead.
So this series is a YA mystery thriller but I'll only describe the first book start off
in a fictional town called Little Kilton in England. And this time
we're following a teenage girl, Pippa, who is working on her final year project.
I'm really not familiar with how secondary school works in England but I'm assuming it's equivalent
of Canadian high school which is grade 12. So this is her final year project.
Pip's final project is focused on a closed case that happened in Little Kilton five years ago
of the murder of Andie Bell by Sal Singh. This entire town believes that Sal murdered Andie.
Pip finds out that her small town holds many secrets and as she's uncovering them,
someone in town wants them to stay hidden.
So in this book there are so many twists and turns and not just only this one, but as the
series as a whole. I loved following Pip's story she's very capable, she's really smart and has
great deductive skills like real detective, and she's really brave.
And this first book Pip realizes that she's on the trail of something
big and the revelation of the truth follows her throughout book two and three.
So I really like how that carries out one unique thing about this book series is that Pip
does create something that I love which is podcast. During her final year project,
she is developing and investigating Andie Bell's murder, and with that,
she has case notes and all those documentations that she finds.
She creates a podcast out of it. I personally love it when books have those little details added to
them. And we do see those case files throughout the book in between the narrative portions.
Holly Jackson's writing style is very easy to read. And if you pay really close attention,
there are hints what may seem like a useless clue, but has a huge impact later on in the story.
And so I absolutely recommend that you pick up this series, if you want a quick
page turner, fantastic characters, and investigative work wrapped all in one series.
Okay so we're finally getting into the adult thrillers. I still do have
one more YA thriller at the end, but let's get into the adult thrillers for you all.
This one is Verity by Colleen Hoover and I do believe Verity is her first thriller novel.
It's a departure from her usual intensely emotional romance books
and Verity does have some elements of that still but it's more focused on of course the mystery.
And I rated this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
So with Verity, we begin following Lowen Ashleigh,
who is a small time writer and signs a deal to finish off author's popular series.
The catch is Lowen will then need to go through Verity's old research papers in
order to finish her unpublished book at the Crawford house, which is Verity's house.
Lowen then finds herself living in the same home as Jeremy, who is Verity's husband,
and Verity, at this time is still alive she is not dead.
She is quite ill from a severe car accident she had and Jeremy is taking care of Verity.
But once Lowen gets into Verity's home office and goes through all the paperwork. And mind you,
the office is chaotic and so disorganized that Lowen finds herself stumbling on an unpublished
autobiography about Verity herself. And there's some strange confessions in the manuscript pages
that she finds and this also includes the details of the day that Jeremy and Verity's daughter died.
And let me tell you like what is being written in that manuscript or autobiography manuscript
is messed up! So then Lowen doesn't know if she should tell Jeremy
about what she found, and so for now, she keeps it as a secret to herself.
But lo and behold Lowen also finds herself developing feelings for Jeremy;
so there's that dilemma for her.
So my thoughts on Verity, was it's a book that will creep you out,
but you cannot put it down because you just need to know what happens
next. There are also moments that made me pause myself and become paranoid.
Like who is Verity? What is she doing? Is she still sick?
I think if you really want the full experience, you have to go into this book blind. And I think
that's the best way to read it. I mainly went into this book blind and what I'm describing to you is
like really within the first few chapters of the book. So I did not spoil anything for you guys.
If you do want a fast page turner adult thriller
and moments that can scare you if you read this one at night, pick up Verity.
Okay so this next one is one that I listened to
on audiobook and I don't really listen to audiobooks that often.
This one is the Guest List by Lucy Foley and
I can describe it as an atmospheric adult mystery thriller.
And I did rate this one a 4 out of 5 stars. This is just how I just described:
it it's really atmospheric. It is a slow burn mystery but the payoff is still worth it.
And the Guest List is set on an island off the coast of Ireland for a fancy wedding,
where a group of people are intertwined with each other,
with each other. And as it turns out, it's very complicated.
The groom is really charming, he's handsome, and tv star
rising in his fame. The bride is also smart, ambitious, and a magazine publisher. They're
essentially a power couple. But they also have their own skeletons in their closets.
When the reception begins the island has a storm brewing, not just metaphorically,
but actually brewing. At one point, the lights go out and a body is discovered on the island.
And the kicker is the murderer is among the wedding guests.
I really really enjoyed this one it was a really nice transition book for people trying to get into
adult thrillers. So if you're looking for that, this is the one for you.
But I also do recommend you read or listen to the audiobook because the narration for this has
different voice actors for each character and that makes it so much more immersive.
I do think this thriller is a nice easy one to go into if you're looking to start adult thrillers.
It's just a content warning for you to know is
content warning for self-harm so consider that before going to this one.
Last but not least, we have another YA thriller and I do have a physical copy of it; it's Sadie
by Courtney Summers. I rated this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
So with Sadie this one also follows the format of
a podcast show and I love that how it's carried throughout the book.
So Sadie is about a missing girl who is on a quest for revenge for her murdered little sister.
Sadie herself didn't grow up easily her life was pretty hard, even before her sister was murdered.
They were both living in an isolated small town and it was hard for Sadie,
but the thing with her sister's murder is: the police didn't investigate properly. And so Sadie
takes the investigation into her own hands and she hits the road to try to find her sister's killer.
How the podcast begins is when a radio host West McCray hears
Sadie's story and starts to track down Sadie down himself to help
find her - before the worst can happen to her because she has been declared missing.
Sadie herself isn't a likeable character but she's not fault for that. It is
a really good page turner as well. But it's also sad story
on top of that. Be aware of content warning of mentions of past abuse.
Overall Sadie is a raw compelling read and it can shine insight on someone's motivations behind
their actions. A really nice one as well and I love this cover, it's really simple but pretty.
So on to the TV shows!
Before I get into the shows, I have to recommend a Youtuber,
if you're into true crime, her name's Bailey Sarian, here on Youtube.
And she just tells true crime stories like it's the latest gossip. I love
the Murder Mystery Makeup Mondays so much and
I just wanted to give her a little shout out. She did inspire me to make this video a bit.
You'll know what I'm recommending first for a thriller TV show is Squid Game. So
this one is pretty much the most talked about tv show right now, super popular on Netflix.
And I'm sure tons of people are going to be
dressing up as Squid Game characters for halloween.
Squid Game, this is the series that takes place in South Korea. So it is a Korean
show, I do recommend you listen to the Korean audio with English subtitles.
So again it takes place in South Korea, we're following Seong Gi-Hun, who is deeply in debt
and he's trying to gamble his way out of that. Of course that does not work out in his favor.
And he does have a mysterious offer that comes up and Seong Gi-Hun accepts it.
He finds himself in a contest with 456 other players, who are also in deep financial debt,
they all put their lives at risk to play a series of children's games for
the chance to win 45.6 billion won in South Korean money. So
that's the prize money and that's the equivalent of 3.8 million US dollars.
Quite a lot of money that they are willing to risk their lives for and it's really a game
of life or death. If you have not watched this one, it is graphic
but it's really addicting. And it does speak on the consequences of capitalism
and how that affects our lives. But it is a really great tv show to binge watch before Halloween.
The next TV show I want to talk about is a mini series that is on Netflix as well. I just
recently finished this over like three nights. It's Midnight Mass. I'm just gonna read the
description that's on Netflix: "a small isolated island community, whose existing divisions are
amplified, by the return of a disgraced young man and the arrival of a charismatic priest."
This is one that's slow burn. There's a lot of monologuing but the payoff is worth it.
The characters are really, really great in that you'll find characters you love,
characters you hate, and then characters you don't know what to think about.
It does speak on the aspect of different religions, and the consequences of life,
and overall trying to redeem oneself.
But the island does end up imploding on itself it's highly recommended though.
There is a supernatural twist but I would leave that for you to find out. And I'm sorry
the lighting's really really bad right now, I'm filming this when the sun's going down.
So last TV show I want to share with you guys is You Season 3.
I'll share these description of season 1 so:
You follows the bookshop manager Joe Goldberg. He's a narcissistic and sociopathic killer,
who falls in love with aspiring author Beck, through truly disturbing methods.
Joe starts a relationship with back but it all goes terribly downhill from the start."
Yeah that's the description of season 1. But this latest season that just came out season 3
was honestly just so good. There are some new characters I disliked,
but I really appreciate the moments of humor that we had throughout the season.
And I guess this might be spoilers, but if
you don't want to listen you can skip to this time AT 14:58
Overall, Joe and Love are just the best together. I love them together
but you know at the end... Even throughout season three, Joe is still what he is at
heart - an obsessive serial killer. And it's never a dull moment while watching him.
So if you haven't caught up or even started you the tv show, it is a fun tv series with murder
and a lot of thrills and some nice lessons about who you should or should not allow into your life.
So that's everything I want to share with you all today. I won't say when
I will upload another video because I don't even know my upload schedule at this point.
I hope to be around more on Booktube!
Anyways comment down below
a thriller book or tv show that you've recently enjoyed or love in general.
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so you don't miss any future uploads! Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you guys soon!