Hi,
I'm Sanne and I don't like reading fun books.
We're continuing UK heatwave programming,
and I thought today I could share with you some perhaps slightly
unconventional Summer reads.
Now,
of course,
it is common for people to bring thrillers and crime novels and things
like that to their sunny vacations or read it in the summer.
But I don't really tend to pick up things in the crime genre,
although I love to watch it.
I don't really read it,
but I think I have a nice selection of books that, some of them skew a little
bit more literary,
But will they all have in common is that they're a bit dark or twisted,
and they are super pacey.
These are the kinds of books that,
depending on your reading speech,
you might be able to finish in a day.
But also you just don't want to put down.
There are kind of different levels of distress,
I will indicate that as we go through them,
but you know,
worth looking up trigger warnings and stuff like that.
If you're planning on taking these on holiday,
I think we'll start with My sister,
the serial killer.
This is extremely pacey.
It's a very quick short read and has some humour in it as well.
It is about a young woman whose sister keeps killing her
boyfriends,
and then she has to go and kind of clean up and cover it up.
And this time her sister is interested in someone that I think she knows or has a crush on.
I can't quite remember.
Perfect summer read.
Now this book is more for if you're into 'who done its',
and this is also Young Adult. It is The Things We Don't See,
I think for my personal taste.
I prefer Savannah's other book,
The Truth about Keeping Secrets.
But I feel like this is more of a bring on vacation type of read.
I actually brought this and read this in the New Forest last year,
and this is about a girl who has our own true crime podcast.
She's really invested in the disappearance of a young singer that happened 30 years
ago.
So she decides to travel to this remote island,
work there for the summer and try to see if you can figure out the mystery.
Savannah's writing is really,
really beautiful.
I quite enjoyed the characters and the setting.
I don't usually go for a who done it,
but I absolutely loved the kind of dark atmosphere of it.
And again,
that's sort of like summer holiday job vibe that had. Then a little bit more into the
like,
slight fantasy realm.
There's this short story collection called Salt Slow,
which touches on a bunch of different topics.
Hauntings,
bodies,
obsessions.
I loved the variety,
Very twisty and dark,
and the cover kind of reminds me of a pool a little bit as well.
And this is another YA
It is
Hold back the tide.
This is set in Scotland.
I initially didn't realise that this is going to be historical,
but it is, so set in a small village in Scotland,
where a teenage girl lives with her dad and she is convinced that her dad killed her mother
years ago.
And so she kind of lives in fear every day.
Then there are some other things that start happening in the town.
There was sort of like this old myth or a curse.
Something is coming.
It's quite brutal,
but it's very pacey,
very,
very atmospheric and just a great historical adventure. The next one
You'll know if you're into,
like,
straight away.
It's pretty well known.
I think it is Lullaby translated from French,
and it is about a young family.
They have two kids,
and I think it starts with you finding out that the nanny, who is a
slightly older woman has killed the kids,
and you kind of follow the story.
Set in an apartment in Paris,
it feels voyeuristic and obsessive and claustrophobic.
It also kind of shows the darker sides of even the
characters who are not supposed to be the bad guys loved reading this. Read it so quickly.
It's quite short as well.
The next one.
I think it's just best read in the sweltering sun.
Its companion title is definitely the Virgin Suicides.
It is The Water Cure.
This is my old proof copy.
Even this cover is perfect,
actually.
Recently a new book was released that looks really,
really similar to this.
Like totally unrelated.
This is the only one,
I guess that's dystopian slash apocalyptic because I didn't want to include anything like
covid/end of the world related because even though I love reading like
pandemic/end of the world/apocalypse related books,
I thought maybe,
maybe not to recommend to other people for on holiday.
This is about three sisters who live on a small island with their parents.
Well,
they don't really know what's happened to the outside world.
They live a very like a very isolated way.
Their dad goes off,
disappears and their mom goes off,
disappears.
They're there by themselves.
Maybe some guests arrive,
but a lot of it is them doing these like weird rituals together.
There's a lot of,
like lying out by the pool.
Nothing to do.
It is very dark.
The writing is beautiful,
and you really want to savour it.
Absolutely loved this.
I'm considering rereading it myself.
The last one you actually might have seen pop up in a video I did last summer about Korean
literature in translation.
And it is The Disaster Tourist.
This is about a young woman who works at a disaster tourism company,
so they set up trips that take people to visit locations where
something awful has happened.
Where a volcano has erupted or,
like a nuclear disaster,
has taken place.
There's basically a situation where she is sexually harassed at work and then they sort
of try and reward her slash send her away on one of the
trips that is newly being planned to see what it's like.
It gets quite surreal as well.
It's very interesting to see that interplay of kind of it being a thriller,
but it also at the same time discusses cultural phenomenon and issues
and current conversations again,
quite short,
right this very quickly.
A lot of it takes place on an island,
and it's all about tourism,
obviously.
So again,
I think quite good fit.
So if this sounds like your thing,
maybe you can pack one of those or read them in the park.
I don't think I have many books like this lined up at the moment,
so if you have any similar recommendations,
I would be very grateful.
Okay,
I'm gonna stop filming this and crack a window.
If everything's going to plan,
I should be going on a trip up north quite soon,
which there will be a video about ao keep an eye out for that. If you haven't seen it yet.
I recently uploaded a summer haul with some of the new books that I've been buying
over the last few months.
If you want to stay updated on my future videos,
don't forget to subscribe,
and I'll see you soon.
Doei!