Hey, there! It's Olivia-Savannah here from Olivia’s Catastrophe and we are
halfway through the year so you know what time it is: it's time for the mid-year freakout tag for
2022. So I am going to do my very best to answer these questions and I’m going to do my absolute
tip top very best to not repeat any books for any answers so it's one book or one author
per answer. Let's see if we can do this. So the first question is: the best book you've read so
far this year. And for that I have to say: it's a poetry collection, it's Bless the Daughter Raised
by a Voice in her Head by Warsan Shire. This was my anticipated poetry collection for the year,
I was just so excited, and it absolutely blew my mind, and it was just such a good and solid poetry
collection. It has a lot to do with womanhood, and raising yourself, and like self-identity,
and self-development. It has a lot to do with motherhood, it has a lot to do
with being an immigrant, it has a lot to do with contemporary times, and contemporary situations.
And Warsan Shire’s language is just so beautiful and her descriptions are just so vivid in terms
of painting an image in your mind. In terms of getting her message across, she never missed.
None of her poems missed in the slightest. It was hit after hit after hit. The next question is:
the best sequel that you've read so far this year. And I just could not find it anywhere, it's in my
room somewhere, but the best sequel hands down, easiest answer I’ve ever had to give for a tag,
is The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin. There is nothing that N.K. Jemisin cannot do. There is no
mountain her words cannot move or her characters cannot move. There is no world building that I
have ever read that is better than N.K. Jemisin's world building. And she is just like master of
science fiction, of Afrofuturism. It's just- it's there, there's nothing I can do to contradict it.
I’m currently reading The Stone Sky and it is fantastic and she is just such a good author.
The first book in this series is The Fifth Season and it was one of the best books that I read in
2021 so you can just tell that every single one of them is a hit. And in the first book
you're set in a world where orogenes exist and orogenes have the ability to manipulate
the land and the soil. And you would think that these characters would be the ones who
are kind of the highest in the hierarchy of their worlds, but unfortunately they are not – they are
at the bottom. And the book kind of discusses the hierarchy and how it's working. And another season
begins and these seasons are quite apocalyptic and brutal. And we just follow the characters from
there, I’m not doing a very good job of describing this series. But if you read science fiction,
even if you don't, put your big brain glasses on because you'll need them and read The Fifth
Season, read The Obelisk Gate, read The Stone Sky. Let it become one of your favourite trilogies like
it's doing for me and my sister and that is all I have to say. Best sequel – easiest answer. The
next question is: a new release that you want to read but haven't read yet. And for me that
is Only on the Weekends by Dean Atta. This one came out in May and I’m so, so, so excited to
read it. I will definitely have a vlog going up at some point reading Only on the Weekends
in a weekend. And this one is a novel in verse where we have our main character and he's kind of
looking for love and he meets someone new, but at the same time someone from his past comes back up
who he used to have a crush on. So it's kind of a bit of a deciding between these two love interests
and what might happen. And I don't really need to know too much about it to be honest. The Black
Flamingo by Dean Atta was fantastic. I love a good novel in verse. I’ve heard Dean Atta talk before
in person and he was great and I just want to read his next novel in verse. The next question is:
your most anticipated release for the rest of the year. And it's bittersweet but the answer is the
third book in The Dreamer Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater. But it is the third and final
book in The Dreamer Trilogy which is the sequel series to The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
which is the series that is kind of like my life. It's a series that I’m absolutely head over heels
in love with because I fell in love with the main characters. All of them – they are the best.
And therefore I’m looking forward, but also not looking forward, to the last book that's ever
going to be set in this world. She's doing it, she's done with The Raven Cycle universe
and so it's going to be an experience reading that. It's also going to be a very interesting
experience because I don't particularly love this second sequel series nearly as much or anywhere as
close to how much I love the first series. This is just a series that I’m reading kind of out of
obligation, there's no way I can not read it, but I’m not having the time of my life reading
it at the same time. So the next question is: your biggest disappointment of the year so far.
And this is my biggest disappointment but I rated it four stars, okay? So I really enjoyed the book,
and it was great, but I was so disappointed by Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. Alexis
Hall is my favourite romance writer who usually writes gay romance books that are adult and very
steamy, but he's kind of changing his tune a bit and he's branching out.
And he used to be independently published but this was the first book of his I’ve read since
he's been traditionally published and, whoa, was it different from his indie published stuff.
So Boyfriend Material is about Luc and he almost gets fired from his job, he can only keep his job
if he finds a very respectable boyfriend to bring up and, you know, make his public name not as
smeared as it currently is. Cue in him fake dating Oliver Blackwood who is this lawyer who doesn't
really care about him and doesn't want anything to do with him, but it kind of works in each
other's favour if they fake date and pretend to be boyfriends – so that's the story line. It was good
fun. The book, as it is for itself, is a really nice romance book. Oliver Blackwood is lovely,
must be protected at all costs. Luc is a bit annoying, but he's kind of lovable annoying so
that's good I suppose. And it's full of like British culture and British-isms and there's
a secondary character who doesn't understand jokes which is very, very funny and entertaining.
And it's a very, very traditionally published romance book in the terms of the fact that it's
not steamy at all – all the scenes are fade to black. And it's kind of watered down Alexis
Hall writing style, his writing style is usually lyrical and beautiful and feels quite literary
even though he's writing romance which is not seen as a literary genre. And it just was like
someone poured a bucket of water on his writing style and someone decided to remove the like
best steamy scenes I’ve ever read, he just writes them amazingly, and they just took them all out.
I don't know, it just was a big disappointment because I love his other romance books so much
and this just was not- could not compare in the slightest. This felt like a basic romance book
for me, these felt like heaven. And that's why I really enjoyed my most disappointing read of the
year. We have the biggest surprise and those are going to two books and that is Geekerella
and The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston. These are fairy tale retellings: this one is of
Cinderella and this one is of the Princess and the Pauper. And they are contemporary ones that
are set around this con which is for a made-up fandom that exists in this world. And this one
is like a celebrity meets normal person romance, this one is not that but it's also very good.
And these just came into my life and surprised me, they filled me with so much joy. They're so
predictable but they're so much fun, and they're so lovely, and the main characters are lovely, and
it's created this fandom that I am a fan of even though the fandom doesn't even exist. And I think
when I picked up reading Geekerella, I was just like: “I’m going to read one of the oldest young
adult contemporaries on my TBR and it's going to be nice but it's not going to be amazing.” I
thought it was just going to be a solid three-star read and then I absolutely loved both of them.
And I just need to read the third and final one which I will definitely do this year because they
are giving. They are giving me serotonin, they are giving me good vibes. So the next question
is for your favourite new author. So this is an author who you haven't read before and I really-
I really struggled because this year I’ve really been reading books by authors where I’ve liked one
of their books and wanted to try more and I’ve kind of been doing that a lot. And if I haven't
been doing that, I’ve been finding my reads to be either great or good but not new favourites.
And I also find it difficult to say an author is a favourite when I’ve only read one of their books.
I even rarely say that authors are my favourite anything, I mostly tend to have favourite books
rather than favourite authors. But if I had to say an author right now on the spot, I might say
Joya Goffney because I really enjoyed Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry and I do want to try more of her.
Or I might say Ruth Ozeki because I really enjoyed The Book of Form and Emptiness and want to read
more Ruth Ozeki books. But truthfully, I don't really have an answer to this question. Then the
next question is: new fictional crush, who is your new book boyfriend? And I always have an
answer to this every year, there's always a standout boy in a book. But this year
I have to be like the rest of you and be like: no, I don't have one. But maybe one will come in
the other half of the year, it's just that I’ve been reading a lot of young adult contemporary
and they're all a little bit young, okay? So because I’ve been reading young adult
contemporary, there really hasn't been anyone for me, although some of the love interests have been
truly lovely. And in terms of adult books, I’ve been reading books where there's not
really a love interest because there's no romance involved or all of the characters are horrible and
I love it so it's not really like love interest material. If I had to actually give an answer,
if I had to had to, I would say Ryan Kwok from Donut Fall in Love by Jackie Lau
but I am reading this at the moment so I’m not actually finished. And also he's great, he's
lovely and I love that for our main character, but I don't really want that for myself.
Yeah, so that's my answer. Then we have: a book that made you cry. And no book has made me cry,
I don't cry when I read, but the closest one to making me an emotional mess was Scars Like Wings
by Erin Stewart and this is another young adult contemporary book. I recently read this in April
and I vlogged my experience reading it. And it's about this young girl who is a burn survivor
and she's going to school for the first time since she's finished with all of her
life-saving operations. And it's just about her experience going to school
for the first time with a visible disability and what that's like. And also she's still
dealing with the grief and trauma from losing her parents in this house fire and trying to adjust
to fitting into a new family unit and it was just a very, very emotional book.
It was dealing with heavy grief, and it was dealing with just wanting to be a teenager,
and it had something to do with theatre as well which is something I absolutely love.
So when it all came together at the end and it was like coming together in the middle,
I was just feeling it inside my heart. And it was very emotional, and lovely, but very emotional. A
book that made you happy and I’ve chosen books – and those are Morgan Matson. This year so
far I’ve read Since You've Been Gone, Second Chance Summer, and Amy and Roger's Epic Detour
and I’ve rated most of these three stars and one of them four stars. But Morgan Matson,
I don't know what she does, but she just makes me very, very happy. She writes young adult
contemporary books and you just follow a main character who's kind of having a basic life, and
maybe one or two exciting things are happening, and it just is steady, it moves forward. She often
repeats the same thing so there's often theatre involved, you can see I like books with theatre
in them. It's often something to do with Stanwich or set in Stanwich which Americans will understand
more than me, I just know that Stanwich keeps popping up. I don't even know where Stanwich is.
And oftentimes grief which is a reading buzz word for me so that's easy. And she does a very good
job of balancing friendships and having a main friendship storyline and a romantic relationship
storyline which I always like to see, and family is always involved. So even though maybe
Second Chance Summer did make me happy but it's a sad one, I just think reading her books in general
makes me a happy reader. Now I get to show off the most beautiful book that I’ve bought or
received this year. Heads over heels, was such an easy answer for me, that is this
gorgeous Folio Society edition of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson which is a book
as well as a TV film adaption that lives in my mind rent free. I can think it's like one of
my favourite kind of horror books. I really love it. I just can't get over it and it's
definitely one of my favourite TV shows of all time even though it's so different from the book.
And I don't think it has a nice cover out there, I don't love the covers that it has.
But then Folio Society released this gorgeous edition and I had to have it. And I paid a
lot for it but it was worth it. So this is the slip case… ooh… and then you slip out the book
and you see Hill House which is stunning, stunning artwork of Hill House. And inside there are plenty
of really beautiful illustrations like the artist just captured Hill House and the storyline and
the vibes of it incredibly well. And I was in awe when I saw it online, and I was in awe when I had
it in my hands. And I just really like the scenes that she chose to illustrate. I just want to find
my favourite one right by the start. One of my favourite ones ‘cause it's one of my favourite
moments. And it's just a really beautiful hardback book of a book that I love and so it's definitely
my favourite most beautiful book that I got. I absolutely skipped over a question so we’ll
just do it now. My question was: favourite character that I’ve read so far this year.
And if I could bring back N.K. Jemisin's books, I would say Hoa from The Obelisk
Gate who was my favourite in the first book in the series and continues to be my favourite
all through the series. But seeing as I can't copy books as I said, we are going with Vespertine
by Margaret Rogerson and we're going with the demon from Vespertine because the demon
in Vespertine is such a laugh. So Vespertine is about this girl who lives in a nunnery and
she like settles spirits. And she's calm, she's got a lot of power but she doesn't want to use
it or wield it, she just wants to live her life in this nunnery. Then her nunnery gets attacked
and she has to wield her power and there's all these consequences and it goes wild from
there. And this book is just one of those fantasy books that's so much fun, okay? I had a very good
time. There's no romance whatsoever, it's all about the fantasy vibes, the friendships, and the
fact that she's being possessed by this demon who just wants to kill everybody all of the time. But,
yeah, it's one of those situations where the banter is so real and the banter is so funny.
And it's also another case of begrudgingly having to work together because this demon wants to kill
everyone and she wants to save everyone and those are two opposite goals, but they are in one body.
So there we have it – that's Vespertine and it was a very good time. And the next question is:
what do you need to read before the end of the year? My answer is: all of the books on my TBR.
Is it gonna happen? No, but that's what I need to read. I don't really make TBRs so I’m not gonna
tell you or shout out any particular books. There is also a question which is: favourite
member of the book community? And that's a joke. I absolutely cannot choose one. But anybody who
comments down on the description box of one of my videos leaving a nice long comment, leaving a nice
short comment, leaving a little emoji to show that they were here – you are all my favourite
members of the community. Anyone who takes the time to watch a video or engage on any of my
book social medias to be honest, it just always is everything to me. It's truly the reason why I
stick around. And there you have it – that is the mid-year freak out tag. Please let me know in the
comment section down below: have you found a new favourite book character to be your best friend
or a new favourite romantic partner who you really love? Let me know who they are down below. Give
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And you know what they say: onwards and upwards. Excelsior!