"This person in Hawaii has never even heard of the virus" "Apparently the rest of the world outside America is doing just fine." Congrats to the Hawaii of this universe for regaining sovereignty during the apocalypse lol

On mute, these have the vibe of a video posted on Twitter hours before the person is being talked about on national news with the caption "Dozens Dead After..."

Two hours of a book I've never even heard of? I'm locked tf in.

this book has some really interesting worldbuilding ideas and morally grey characters - vaughn conducts human experiments and engages in human trafficking but ultimately saves millions of lives, lindon appears kind & nonthreatening but impregnates a 13yo, rowan is loyal and protective but resorts to terrorism after losing his sister. in another series i can see these characters being very interesting to read about. this seems like yet another dystopia constrained by the YA romance genre when it would have made a much better adult sci-fi.

1:04:43 Not defending the book but this part actually makes sense. Cults do this too. Forcing a new name onto someone is a tactic to strip a person from their previous identity.

"The final wife is a thirteen year old girl" Me at the same time you pull a face: Urgh

All these years and my brain still wants to call this series My Chemical Garden. 😊😊😊

I read, like, 4 chapters of this book. Could not get past the idea that the world was flooded so only the highest mountains were still dry, yet the MC comes from Manhattan, which is somehow still dry? It was too stupid to cope with.

Time to watch a tomahawk welding madman break down a book series I've never heard of. Life is good

Kmart doesn't really exist, but when I was there, they DID sell handaxes (for chopping firewood while camping). It was rather funny because the knifes were securely (in theory) locked up, requiring an employee to take them to the register for the customer. The same was not true for the axes.

18:46 'Why am I giving financial advice to human traffickers?' I dunno man, but I appreciate it.

At this point, you should only give heterochromia to the paragon villain.

it is with great sadness and grief that i have to pause this video to return to it later. this was going to be the video i fall asleep to in the background (very good videos that i highly value) but it’s not working and i can’t stop laughing which is not good bc i have a 9 am and it’s 2 am so unfortunately this viewing experience will have to wait but i literally cannot describe with words how excited i am to watch this in full consciousness able to appreciate the tomahawk

Right when this got uploaded the fire alarm in my dorm went off

i never believed what all those giant youtubers said about the importance of a good thumbnail for generating clicks. until i saw this thumbnail. now i understand

I'm sorry, but as a Floridian every time you say they go down to the basement for a hurricane I loose my goddamn mind. No. NO. 1. ) Basements are not that common in Florida because 2.)the torrential rains we get during hurricanes cause EXTENSIVE flooding because 3.) most of the state is a goddamn swamp with a high water table. You would NEVER go underground for a hurricane. You would DIE. The flooding, the ground sinking, THE FLOODING. MY GOD. We evacuate for a REASON. Every major hurricane there are hundreds of people who have to climb HIGHER, to their second floors or their roofs due to the flooding. You would die in a basement! I hate this book series just for that alone.

I like the unhinged axe murderer thimbnail

This format with the pics on the wall (and various items of violence as pointing sticks) works so well. It reminds me of the violent teacher whom taught my native language in middle school.

WHY IS A THIRTEEN YEAR OLDS FAVORITE BOOK THE KARMASUTRA STOP PLZ NO FULL REVERSE!!!!

The biggest problem is that people dying young due to DNA manipulation does sound like an interesting read, if the author wants to explore the idea by writing a protagonist who contemplates of what one should do with a life so short and whether or not life can even be fulfilling when you die so young

These thumbnails are getting more threatening.

*”S H E ‘ S T H I R T E E N”* James uttered calmly

Setting is so easy to write. The wives floor was the embodiment of the phrase 'gild the lilly.' Everything from the glasses they drank, to the tastefully panelled bars over the windows was coated in gold, made of fine crystal or the most decorative of iron work. Flowers, birds and trees covered the walls and most surroundings. Marble made up the floors, bath and tables. Even the very fork she held was shaped like a flower and covered in garnet gems. The lights hung with mini chandeliers hosting rainbow lightbulbs. An opulent cage for such treasured pets.

Massive apocalyptic flooding, yet Florida is still above the ocean? Yeah, that's the most unrealistic part here hands down 😂

Your increasingly inventive ways of putting in clips screamin "WHY" has inspired me.

read this at the ripe young age of 12 and my memory of the series feels like a fever dream

the thumbnail, the time code, and the title all working together to get me to click on a video about something i have no clue or interest about and it's working

I love how it says “brief summary” but it’s two hours long. Lmao.

Your weapons continue to grow I expect it will be a greatsword by end of year

Pressing on the notification I was like “oh, A Brief Summary”, is it like seven minutes? And then I saw the timestamp

Love that the thumbnails just keep getting more and more menacing.

Omg i thought I imagined this book insane that it actually exists and I was forced to read it in middle school

Saw the first book in a charity shop yesterday, considered getting it out of curiosity but decided reading it wouldn't be worth it, very thankful you fell on that sword so we can all learn about it without having to actually read it, I salute your sacrifice

23:42 Deirdre is pronounced deer-druh

thank you for this. no one asked, but having something silly to listen to for a while is getting me through a series of stressful events, including the entire file for my midterm art project getting corrupted and forcing me to start over. so, yeah. much appreciated that you keep making these

omg finally a book i know! i read the first one when i was around 15/16 because the cover caught my eye and i thought it was pretty. i remember not really caring for the book but at the same time i didn’t hate it. never went back for more though, so i guess that tells you something… looking back at the whole concept now as an adult, wow wtf Thanks for the video!

the amount of times you said something horrifying and I turned to look at the screen and made scandalized eye contact with you

As a college biology student this book is increasingly frustrating me! What’s it even about? There were so many things the author could’ve done with it and nothing has been explored so far (I'm 40 minutes in). Is it about ethics in the medical community? Because that’s something taught to med/bio students: genetic testing on humans is bad and immoral (but using mice is okay). That would’ve been an interesting dichotomy to explore. The part in which Von(?) does tests on Rose without her knowing is icky and villainous. It doesn’t really matter if her condition was improved, there should always be consent for medicine trials. Same for using someone's dead body for science, which is why in most countries you sign papers consenting to be used for science after you're dead. It's about respect. Granted, it wasn’t as bad as kidnapping girls to forcibly marry his son. It’s frustrating that the author didn’t see the opportunity to explore the ethics of a world like this! It’s a morally grey line to walk and it would’ve been really interesting to see how that line blurs when the world is in shambles and people are in a desperate situation.

43:35 You where so real for this, I’m in the same boat

I love your long videos even if they are about books I've never heard of. I just like hearing you talk 😅 and also seeing you wave different weapons around

Your retelling is so perfect for housekeeping activities 🥰🥰❤❤ Thank you for continuenely saving me from boredom 🥰🥰❤❤

Kmart still exists in Australia at least.

I’m only 30 minutes through but this sounds like no stakes handmaid’s tale for middle school girls in 2010

Bro where tf do you live where you can just unintentionally put holes in your walls with a truncheon? A tent? The set of Babylon 5?

bought this book on sale a decade ago and I have never finished it. the only thing I remember is that maaaaybe the girl is a servant and wants to be free? there's a mansion. a garden? literally that's all I vaguely remember

Will be watching later but I need you to know I saw the title and thumbnail, but the page hadn't loaded timestamps yet, so I read "a very brief summary" and eagerly awaited how many hours the video would be according to the timestamp. You did not disappoint.

i have never understood the popularity of 'mildly imperilled teen girl with extremely passive personality' as a genre. i would love to see an interesting character with her own motives and identity try to survive in a dystopia like this. genuinely, i don't even think she would need to be an 'action' protagonist, it could easily be someone who uses resourcefulness or cunning

Cannot wait for vampire academy as it was my trash when I was a teen. Would love your take on the Kate Daniels series one day as you cover a lot of fantasy/dystopia etc. And it is often on listicle with dresden files (which I feel like you have read?)

My partner read these books at like. A really formative point in his teen years and often tells me about them. Sounded depressing as hell but now I’m just curious if he would still feel the same about them after rereading them as an adult

"I'm gesturing with this handy dandy tomahawk" James I just started and we're already up to a 10 EDIT: THE CASTING CHOICES I CANNOT

I love the silly little board pointed at with the tomahawk lol

I’m so happy you picked this one I used to be obsessed w these books and it’s gonna be so fun to revisit them from your perspective

I have a bit of a meandering story about the first book, maybe more of an anecdote. So, back during my 'rebellious pre-teen' phase, I regularly picked out books that I thought were 'dark', but often weren't particularly dark in either tone or events, at least never grimdark levels of violent/depressing. I wasn't trying to prove myself to anyone or show off or anything like that, I just thought I was being a rebel. It was kind of a childish 'haha, I'm reading books that I'm not supposed to!' thing. [As a side note, I was also at the time on a quest for the 'Holy Grail of books'. It took me ages to realize that what I was actually looking for was a book that matched the stories I made up myself, and since I was the only one making those stories, my quest would always be fruitless]. Anyway, at some point I read the 'Twilight but with fairies' book, Glitter, or something, and the one with the girl inside a glass sphere, whatever that trilogy was called, and Divergent, though I bounced off that pretty hard. At some point I stumbled onto Wither, and read it, and........everything went over my head. I do remember being bored, annoyed that there were no attempts or even plans to escape until the very end, and very confused by the wild shifts in morality. But, most importantly, all of the talk of 'consummating the marriage' and any reference to sex just....went completely past my utterly oblivious little ace mind. I also read it during my 'I have to finish every book I start' phase, so I made it to the end, felt betrayed and disappointed in a way I couldn't fully articulate at the time, and moved on. That's how I learned to trust my own judgement when it comes to books, and that 'bestseller' has nothing whatsoever to do with actual quality. So now I'm watching this video, and going, 'oh, my gods, this book is absolutely disgusting!' So, um, thanks for reminding me of something I'd forgotten about and never wanted to remember?

This video has the most number of unhinged notes and that's the best

I read this book series at my bus stop (which was the local library) years ago and I hated it to the point where I never finished reading it because it was just so DULL but I ADORED the front covers (kind of like the Selection trilogy). Pretty girls in gowns were quite the book cover trend that as an author I always wanted to have one, despite the fact the books I ended up writing were way more queer and lacking in love triangles than those books I once read in high school. Can't wait to see you recap this literal fever dream of a trilogy!

I'm gonna have fun watching this. Thanks!

While I understand and approve the usage of Gerard Way's photo, I wish you had used actual Linden Ashby's pic (he played Johnny Cage in the OG Mortal Kombat movie, and the sheriff in the Teen Wolf show). Also, I will never stop being amazed by how bad to terrible books and series seem to be catnip to you lol, the worse the better.

Omg I was obsessed with these books when I was 12

I LOVED the Vampire Academy books when I was younger, I'm so excited for you to read them. I actually tried re-reading them recently and found a lot of issues w them (the two first books I read before getting bored, anyway) but I still think they're refreshing for YA literature in many ways and kinda cool.

~45 minutes in and, while, yes, and these child sex crimes are obviously horrible, one of the things that’s irking me most is that THE MANSION SHOULDNT HAVE A BASEMENT!! You can’t have basements in Florida because they FLOOD during hurricanes! And you’re telling me the elevators automatically go TO THE BASEMENT when there’s a hurricane?! And that’s where the household SHELTERS during hurricanes?! Ohmygod.

So women die super young and the priority is……….just sex? Not having children? Seems logical that Linden and the father would want to breed with as many women as possible especially as they are nearing their death day. It starts with an interesting concept and turns into…um…creepy everything.

ther are still 2 kmarts in bridgehampton and miami. additional to 3 in virgin islands, and one in guam.

here's a comment to boost your luck with the algorithm also that was a hell of a novel setup for something so, so much more boring on page

Let's goooo 2 hours of making me feel better about my own writing

Thank you for reminding me about this series ❤

A two minute video from James is a rare sight to behold

I had completely forgotten about this book series! Thanks for reminding me about all the books I read in middle school

Idk about yall but this remains one of my favorite series ever and I want a movie trilogy

James! Jamesy, Jim, Jim-bob, Jimmy, Jimmie, Jay, Jimbo, Jackie! My boy! Best thumbnail yet.

Oh my god this was my favorite in middle school 😭 no one I’ve met has read it before !!!

The random cat picture was the highlight of this summary.

man I read the first book and honestly. honestly really. I thought it was good but only in a highly specific mostly unintentional way. Forget the hologram forest and literally every other detail and you have a decent story of three child wives trapped in a house, one miserable+dying, one ignorant+too young. All suffering and no one seems to blink. ....look I have Such a habit of overinvesting in poorly treated female characters in ya I actually gave this book 3 stars at the time. I never read the other two because I was like 'they ain't gonna top this accidental gleam of success'

Hmm… according to Wikipedia, Universal Studios acquired rights to turn this into a film series back in 2013. Wonder what happened to that

I still don't get this book but love the video!

King posted 😮‍💨 best day ever

My older cousin introduced me to this series, and I've been weirdly obsessed with it ever since. On one hand, I fully acknowledge how badly written it is-- the characters are flat, the plot meanders but still goes nowhere, and there's no real theme, but on the other hand, I really am intrigued. The covers are stunning, the design and layout of the book is very pretty, and there are some genuinely good lines here and there. I think the wasted potential is what inspires me the most. What could this series have been? How could the characters have been different? What would I have done differently if I was the author? 100% agreed with your analysis, though. Great video! I'll probably re-watch it whenever I'm bored.

random question but have u been working out?

I'm only like 30 seconds into this but the unhinged storyline that was this series that I found freshman year of high school.... I can't wait for the rest of this video I need for other people to be as astounded by this story as I was

"named after the river rhine?" The one in central europe? What? Good luck with that I guess

I know you probably have a long list of recommendations to review, but if I might make a suggestion, Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi is an interesting read. I thought the story was good and it does a really good job portraying the grittiness and dangers of a post-apocalyptic world.

very brief

43:34 The most sympathetic part for me.

I did find a handy dandy felling axe from K-Mart, but yeah, no tomahawks. 😢

I normally need to do something with my hands while watching long videos like this because of the ADHD, but I spent so much of this video just staring - and I do not use this facetiously - aghast at the screen. It was like someone wrote ten different book series at once and yet it also felt like nothing was happening.

holy shit I was obsessed with this series when I was 12

i saw the thumbnail a few minutes after waking up and now i'm back from work, only now realising that i didn't dream it up 😂 so glad that james holding a tomahawk in front of gerard way and bin laden is actually canon in the waking world

Little Wooden Boy! The Tick's brief companion. Am I the only one who recognized him?

53:53 I started to read the first book but didn't get very far, so the only context I have for Jenna's apparent reluctant consent is what you've said in this video. My guess is allosexual girl with teenage hormones plus near the end of her life plus Linden is her only option.

Edit: the only impact I ever had from The Chemical Garden books were the covers, i thought they were the coolest things I ever seen. Reminded me of the "post signatures" id make in MS Paint when I was 10 on AnimeGalleries forums lol Im excited and nervous about Vampire Academy review, that was MY SERIES during my teen years, was in uproar about the crappy movie, but i know there were questionable things in those books even then. Anyway, as my youth would have quoted, "Adrian & Sydney 5Evur rofl xD"

1:04:39 My head canon is that there using Crayola crayon colors. i.e Macaroni and Cheese, Inchworm, Jazzberry Jam

Ty king

Cause: I have an ear infection and I can't hear properly Effect: I was sure the main character's name was Rind

This book series is literally my roman empire i read it in 6th grade and every six months i do a deep dive on goodreada to remember this book was real

Knife to tomahawk upgrade is awesome

great video my guy. do you plan to do ther percy jackson tv show?

James, can you talk about some fantasy romances that were actually good?

When I saw the title of this video, I remembered the book cover- I have for sure read the first book. No idea what it was about though😂😅

23:43 James, it’s pronounced dee-dra.

brief summary - 2 hours long - lets goooooooooooooo o o

Nice videos jimmy