- Hmm, this isn't "Euphoria" enough for my liking.
I can change that.
Let's add a bit of neon,
(switch clicks)
and there we go, now we're cooking.
- [Rue] I fucking hate this town.
- [Jules] If I could, I'd burn it to the fucking ground.
- So, it's no secret that I love "Euphoria."
It's also no secret,
but I am physically incapable
of having healthy relationships with the things I enjoy.
And so, here we are yet again.
I basically wanted to make a video
where I read all of the books that are featured
in the TV show "Euphoria."
However, I don't know if you guys have noticed,
but they don't read books in that show.
They're treating the school like a fashion runway,
not an education institution.
These characters don't even have pencil cases,
let alone books,
and considering this as a high school drama,
we don't actually see a single classroom in season two.
In fact, I'm pretty sure the whole premise of "Euphoria"
is like, "hey, imagine if these teenagers
were actually in their thirties."
And so, as a result of that,
the only book that we actually see a character reading
is Lexi reading Plato's "Republic,"
which, listen, I love you guys, I love making these videos,
I'm not reading Plato's "Republic."
She can keep that one.
What's she gonna do, write a play about me?
And so instead I turned to the cast of "Euphoria"
who bring these characters to life.
So welcome back to my celebrity book club
where we're gonna be reading books
recommended by the cast of "Euphoria."
Quick disclaimer of course,
is that there are a lot of cast members of this show.
So unfortunately I can't cover all of them,
just like the writers couldn't cover Kat's storyline
in season two.
(claps) He went there.
In fact, this show has so many incredible actors
and they keep adding more in,
like Dominic Fike is in it now.
By the way, loved his tiny desk concert
in the season finale.
Not sure why that happened,
(claps) but I enjoyed it.
And I actually think that maybe every song ever
should be Dominic Fike featuring Zendaya.
I think the world would be a better place.
To be honest though,
if I could swap lives with any of the actors in "Euphoria,"
I think I'd be the one who plays Gia.
Here me out, her day at the office is wearing her pajamas,
crying, and hanging out with Zendaya.
That's the dream job, right?
So I have books recommended by Sydney Sweeney, AKA Cassie,
Hunter Schafer, AKA Jules,
Jacob Elordi, AKA Nate,
and Zendaya, AKA the love of my actual life.
So, let's get reading!
But before we dive into that,
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- [Maddy] Yeah, I'm not supposed to be here right now
because I'm dressed like a hooker and none of you like me.
But I just wanted to say congratulations.
- So the first place that I found
a "Euphoria" cast book recommendation
was actually on Jacob Elordi's Instagram story.
The caption is short and sweet,
there's a picture of the book,
and then it says "For those in need of a read."
And you know what? I am!
I fit the criteria.
And the book featured was this one.
This is Ethan Hawke's, "A Bright Ray of Darkness."
Now, listen.
I loved this book.
I didn't expect to love it as much as I did,
but I was completely enthralled by this.
I enjoyed it more than Maddy and Cassie
enjoyed the fairground in season one.
That's how much I enjoyed this book.
It's essentially this detailed character study
of a Hollywood film star
who is making his Broadway debut in a Shakespeare play.
Trouble is, he's kind of public enemy number one.
And that is because he cheated on his also
very famous rockstar wife.
So he's being absolutely slaughtered in the press,
people in the street, like, hate him,
and the book is actually semi autobiographical
because Ethan Hawke himself is a big Hollywood actor,
and did also cheat on his wife.
So, there's some similarities there.
And I don't know,
when I heard the kind of backstory behind this book,
I expected to hate it.
I expected to despise this book.
But I was really pleasantly surprised by it.
Beneath everything we have this really
broken and troubled man
who knows he's made a massive mistake,
probably the biggest of his life.
It's fascinating to see the perspective of someone
who has nowhere to turn and nowhere to hide.
And it's like there's this perpetual spotlight
on him and his life.
Kind of like this light is currently blinding me. (laughs)
He makes terrible decisions,
he is constantly making mistakes and being an awful bloke.
But the book is this fascinating study on fame,
on family, the craft of acting,
as well as the sentiment of remorse and self-hatred.
The writing is so original and heartfelt and witty,
you really feel every emotion that he is going through.
And he sets up lots of interesting conversations
with different people that this actor encounters
in his day-to-day life.
So you have his co-stars, a taxi driver, his family,
and the intriguing dynamics between those characters
leads to some really interesting
conversations and observations.
It's definitely more focused on character over plot,
but it does have some good little twists and turns.
And we join this character when he is at rock bottom,
and he's about to make his Broadway debut.
And we sort of linger on this moment
where he's waiting for the reviews to come in,
that will come to define his performance.
And weirdly,
I don't know if it's because I got this recommendation
from Jacob Elordi's Instagram story,
but I was imagining him when I was imagining this character.
Maybe it's because the character is flawed
in a similar way to Nate Jacobs.
I mean, Nate Jacobs has a wild ride in "Euphoria."
Literally while the other kids at Euphoria High
are doing their biology homework,
Nate Jacobs is holding a gun to Maddy's head
and phoning the police on his own father.
He has a pretty crazy time.
And I think Jacob Elordi would be perfectly suited
to playing this role.
I actually watched a few interviews with him
where he was talking about his fascination
with kind of old school Hollywood films and movie stars.
I can definitely see that in his interest in this book.
So to conclude,
I thought it was completely and utterly fascinating
to walk a mile in this character's shoes,
and to contemplate what you do and what you feel
when you've basically ruined your own life,
and it's completely your own fault.
And how you kind of pick up the pieces and grow from there.
Anyway, I devoured this book, I underlined so many lines,
more lines than Rue was doing in "Euphoria." (laughs)
Okay, onto the next book.
- [Cassie] You guys can all judge me if you want,
but I do not care.
I have never, ever been happier!
- So Cassie is a little busy in season two
to be reading books, but, "We Used To Be Friends"
is a pretty good summary of her plot line.
So it's quite interesting that this is the book
that Sydney Sweeney recommended.
She recommended this in her "Shelf Portrait" video
on the "Marie Claire" YouTube channel.
And so of course I picked up and I just finished it.
It's a young adult book,
which is something I don't often read,
but this is basically a much more accurate depiction
of what real high school is like.
'Cause there's no class A drugs in this one.
There's no Zendaya being chased by a police car
and ending up in rehab in this book.
It's more like high school prom
is the most important night of our lives.
That's the kind of vibe here.
So, we have two girls who were besties.
They were inseparable,
they were B-F-F-F-Ls, I think.
However, they fall out and drift apart.
As the title suggests, they used to be friends.
And then it's told in quite an interesting way,
because we have these dual timelines and dual perspectives.
So we see the narrative
from both character's points of views.
But, one tells the story moving forwards in time,
and one tells the story moving backwards.
So each chapter alternates between perspectives
and they essentially go like this.
Does that make sense?
I hope it does.
So it's definitely an innovative way of telling a story.
Did it work? Kind of.
It's clever in a way,
because we both start and end the novel
seeing the start and end of their friendship,
which kind of exaggerates the difference in their lives
now that they're no longer friends.
It makes it more devastating.
But having said that,
I just don't think it was as effective
as it could have been.
Especially because they grow apart through miscommunication.
It's quite a gradual thing,
so there's not much momentum to the story.
There's no big crescendo and climax
in the middle of the book where they have the big fallout.
It sort of just happens over time.
And listen, I don't always think
that a big moment of confrontation
is necessary,
'cause that's not how real life works.
But in this book,
where we already know what's gonna happen,
because we've started with it,
I think it was kind of necessary here.
So this is definitely an interesting depiction of friendship
and how tensions kind of rise,
especially through miscommunication.
Especially seeing it from both perspectives,
because you start to understand
why each character is acting in the way that they do,
and how the other character is interpreting those events.
Or how one event or action is interpreted differently
by two different people,
which actually is something that we see a lot in "Euphoria."
So that's quite cool.
However, overall, I think this book is pretty forgettable
pretty immature, definitely light reading,
but like, a little bit too light, maybe.
To be honest with you both characters are quite annoying.
The dual timelines get a little bit too blurry at times,
and it's quite repetitive,
'cause we have to hear everything twice.
I think it's a book that had potential,
but then just ended up being aggressively average.
So, sorry Sydney Sweeney.
But also I guess it is worth noting
that I'm not necessarily the target audience for this.
So this review should definitely be taken with
just a little pinch of salt.
And now we're going from high school drama
to literal Shakespeare.
So, it's all about the range.
- [Cassie] Rue, are you on drugs?
- [Rue] Yes.
- Okay, so, this is kind of fun.
I am actually in Durham for my university graduation,
but the crying never stops.
Best believe the "Euphoria" characters
are not graduating until 2033,
'cause I've not seen them mention school once.
But anyway, last night was the Oscars,
and what the hell?
Someone tell me why the Academy Awards
turned into Lexi's play in real life.
I would say no one could write it,
but Sam Levinson literally did.
Anyway, while Will Smith was hitting Chris Rock,
I was hitting the books.
And so I finished the book that Zendaya recommended.
It's called "Twelfth Night."
You may not have heard of this one.
It's by a very underrated up and coming indie author
called Shakespeare,
and Zendaya recommended it in her 73 questions.
Probably the biggest honor
of Shakespeare's career, to be honest.
And in that interview,
she not only says that she loves this play,
but also that Viola is her favorite character.
And basically, the plot of this play,
is that Viola and her twin brother Sebastian
are in a shipwreck.
Viola washes up on the shore of what we now know
as kind of Serbia, Slovenia, that kind of area,
and she's not sure if her brother actually survived or not.
She's pretty sure that he didn't make it,
and so she's now gonna work out how to survive
on this new land.
And she decides that the best way to do this
would be to dress up as a man.
Now what's important to remember here is that,
at the time that this play was originally
being shown to audiences in Shakespeare's day,
women weren't allowed to act on the stage.
So female characters would be played by little boys.
Meaning, and stick with me here,
that there was a little boy playing a woman,
dressing as a man.
So you can see how this is considered a comedy,
because it would've been utter chaos
and just completely mad.
Oh and actually if you've seen the movie "She's the Man,"
that's "Twelfth Night."
"She's the Man" is a retelling of "Twelfth Night"
in a modern context, so, there you go.
We have a love trial,
we have lots of comic relief through misunderstandings,
there's a jewel,
there's a clown who is very melancholy
but also pretty hilarious.
And a lot of the comedy in "Twelfth Night"
relies on the crossing of boundaries
between gender and class by various characters.
The ending of the play is a little abrupt,
but who am I to critique literal Shakespeare?
And I do think it's one of his more fun plays.
So, I would recommend reading "Twelfth Night."
And thankfully, Zendaya did too.
And you know what,
it feels only right to be reading some Shakespeare
while I'm literally here graduating
from my English lit degree.
- [Cassie] In a good way or a bad way,
- [Maddy] Bitch, you better be joking.
- Okay, this book was difficult to get a hold of,
but I managed to hunt her down.
(snaps) See what I did there?
And let me just say, what an interesting book to end on.
This is the book, it's by Larry Hill,
and this is the book that was recommended by Hunter Schafer.
And this book is essentially a queer utopia,
which introduces you to loads of different
queer communities.
It's about how they live together,
how they interact with each other,
and how they interact with the world.
And so this book is sort of fable meets manifesto.
It centers around this commune of queer people
who are all living together in a place called Lavender Hill,
kind of before the aids crisis.
And it calls out problems with capitalism,
with patriarchy, with heteronormativity,
and also attitudes at the time towards drug culture
and trans people, gay people, lesbians,
and how these people were made to feel despised
and fugitive at the time.
It's hard to even describe this book.
I think it started off as a children's book,
so it has this sort of fairytale quality.
It's very whimsical.
And there's these illustrations throughout
which sort of bring it to life.
And ultimately what this book and this utopia seek is peace.
It dreams of a world
where everyone would just live in harmony.
It sort of desires the assimilation
of queer people into society,
whilst also still maintaining the difference and uniqueness
of each individual person.
But I suppose what I wanted to end by saying
is that I can see why this book
is so important to so many people,
and why it has that status as a kind of cult classic.
And I'm really grateful to have ended up reading it.
I guess you could say it was a jewel sent from Jules.
Hunter Schafer recommended it, okay,
(laughs) let's end the video.
Thank you so much for watching this whole thing,
I hope you enjoyed it,
I hope it left you feeling euphoric.
Massive shout out of course to Squarespace
for sponsoring this video,
I really appreciate it.
And of course the link is down below in the description box.
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(claps) Until next time, all the best, stay in touch,
have a wonderful day, and I'll see you soon.
(lips smacking) Bye, bye.