My good sir did you have a fucking concussion an average cop makes $55,008 per year or $26.45 per hour. Entry level positions start at $42,583 per year while most experienced workers make up to $81,501 per year on average i think you mean detectives of FBI, CIA ectr. Or a captain/directors of the police departments
@@sonicdml4175 As a girl who dosen't want to be in a relationship, i am glad i have finally found a boy with reason that dosent basically simp for random girls. 😊😊
I actually read this book years ago. I remember reading this shortly after I read a book about a corporation that had privatized and bought America's entire food supply and I thought "First a book about a corporation owning all of America's food, now a book about a corporation owning all of Britain's air, all I need is a book about a corporation owning all of Australia's water and the trifecta will be complete."
it’s not a book n it doesn’t take place in australia but the 2001 broadway musical urinetown is TECHNICALLY about that. admittedly they do focus mostly on the pee part of water but that’s because it’s borderline absurdist satire that was originally conceived as a two-hour “fuck you” to les mis n evolved into something way bigger as it developed. it shares a lot of plot points with this book actually, but in a way that’s somehow much more compelling. I think it’s the fact that a lot more can be said if you just take yourself a bit less seriously. there’s a recording of the broadway run on this site but it looks n sounds like it was filmed on a toaster so godspeed if you decide you want to watch it
It has been three years since The Event has occurred, The United States has been fighting against Them for several months now. We have finally gained enough funding to start Project Pea....May God help us all.
I love the idea that this government is so strict that they actively monitor oxygen levels of houses to make sure no one is exercising or kissing, but casual enough to give teenagers entire oxygen tanks so that they can go out into the barren wastelands to shoot the shit and do nothing.
I mean, the premise of limited breathable air causing people to need to pay for oxygen isnt that far away from reality for some people. with the corporatization of space travel, we are not THAT far away from the situation of workers on luxury resorts on the moon being indentured slaves, barely breaking even after being charged for literally everything required to simply exist in their place of work. one of those charges being, y'know, air. and a hundred or two years from the same on mars. as for earth, ill admit ignorance to knowing just how hard it would be to make the atmosphere unbreathable globally. however, what knowledge I do have suggests that it isnt impossible on a larger time scale. like, for a Sci-Fi premise its not bad. before the air was breathable for humans and other non-plant life, it was so oxygen rich that we would die. and fires were y'know, very easy. and before we had that abundance of oxygen, it was all CO2, right? like runaway effects have caused global shifts in atmospheric content before. there is no reason that it couldn't happen again, at least theoretically, for a sci-fi novel. where the novel seems to fail, is that it doesn't provide a convincing enough introduction to the premise for someone with surface level knowledge to suspend their disbelief. starting by saying oxygen used to be the most abundant element in the air (or whatever the phrasing was), and then failing to model their society consistently by not having a clear method by which the air consumption of individuals is tracked, then not understanding what humans need to live when it comes to atmosphere, and so on. any detail can pull the reader out of the world for a moment, saying "that's not how that works!" or "wait how does that work?" instead of just enjoying the story the way it was intended. one thing I've already done in this comment, that the author also should have, is to make the distinction that its breathable air that is in short supply, not oxygen itself. the other thing the author should have done is some basic research. maybe make friends with a college student going into environmental science or something, who could make sure those catching points are smoothed over. I have a hard time believing an editor was involved in this book at all. at least not a good one. tl;dr:I don't think it was a batshit premise, it was just poorly executed by someone without basic knowledge of the science necessary to make it convincing.
Tbh the most batshit premise I ever saw in YA dystopian literature was one where creativity was outlawed, and they would 'kill' you for dancing one time, but in reality they would send you to a fantastical world instead with griffins. I read two chapters and just stopped because it was so laughably bad.
every time I learn about a book/movie/whatever with the premise of “what if you had to pay to do this necessary human function” I’m inevitably reminded of how the infamously goofy 2001 broadway musical urinetown, which is about “what if you had to pay to take a piss and also the police killed you if they caught you peeing for free,” is a genuinely masterful execution of this concept having to pay for something as ridiculous as air? check a greedy government’s “solution” to environmental disaster being a violent police state that causes the lower class to live and die in abject suffering? check a group of overzealous rebels who can’t agree on a real course of action because they’re too caught up in revenge for the sake of revenge, who ultimately end up creating a society that’s just as shit as the one they toppled? check it’s even got a rebel love story where one of them is the child of a government official and one of them is a poor martyr who fucking dies. this musical about peepee weewiz, in which a deliberate effort is made to have the worldbuilding be as confusing as possible, through sheer force of having so many layers of irony that it circles back to existing as some kind of universal truth, did a much better rendition of “environmentalist post apocalyptic rebellion against evil government” than the vast majority of works with the same exact plot that take themselves completely seriously . I love this stupid fucking pee musical so much man
I'm like five minutes into this video and noticing that a lot of YA authors really like to call things "the ___." The pods, the ministry, the rebels, etc. Gets a little hard to keep track of when they're so nonspecific. Call it Pod Y-Delta or something, that sounds sufficiently impersonal for a dystopia and isn't going to be easily confused for Pod H-Alpha just down the road.
Another worldbuilding issue that James didn't address (unless it was covered in the book; I haven't read it, and am just going off of how it's described): Bea and Quinn were in the pod for their whole lives, how did they not freak out when they were standing out there in the rain? If they were cut off from the atmosphere in the pod, they should never have experienced rain (or really any weather) before! Although i suppose evaporation and contained moisture might have made humidity and maybe some dripping from the ceiling, a full- on rainstorm should be impossible.
they can still see things happening outside the pod as far as could be extrapolated and rainstorms really do just be freebie "the water heater broke again" showers
Isaac Asimov covered this well. In his robot series, humans live in closed "hive cities" for generations so as a result, they have agoraphobia. Rain freaks them out cuz water usually comes from a faucet or nozzel.
Ok so there’s a YA fantasy about a dystopian society. Everyone wears an identification badge at all times that indicates which level of society you belong to. The twist is that you may choose whether or not you wear this badge and that you must pay a fee to apply or remove the badge. The protagonist is a young grad student who gets caught up with a particular group that continuously applies and removes these badges daily. She starts a secret affair with a textile tycoon who specializes in machines that creates badges. She never knows if he has something to do with the creation of the social norms. It is spicy, yet cautious. It’s called “Star” or something.
Wait, it’s The Sneetches, but sexy! The Sneetches is a Dr. Seuss story where there are star-bellied sneetches and blank-bellied sneetches. Somebody invents a machine to add or remove their stars, so the sneetches keep paying to have their stars added and removed over and over again because they keep falling in and out of fashion. 😂 Was Dr. Seuss writing dystopias this whole time??
I’m sorry but “I do not like the joke” KILLED ME 32:46 Like, your friend just died and a politician is mocking your rebel group and THAT’S YOUR REACTION?
1:15:04 to be fair spelling Max as Maks makes a lot more sense than the others. That's the way slavic languages (maybe only Polish) spell it 'coz we don't have "x" in alphabets. So for me a Pole it's more weird that it's the short version and not the full one (Maksymilian) that's being used.
I'm pretty sure most Slavic languages would spell it like that too (I'm Polish too). Cause as you said, we don't have the letter x in our languages, & that's even more obvious when you go further East to the Slavic countries that use the Cyrillic alphabet
@@BooksandBuns I specifically worded it like that 'coz I have zero knowledge of Cyrillic alphabets (I only know Russian's and Ukrainian's have small differences) and languages that use them. All my skill points went into French and Japanese
In Sloveniam it's Maks too! Most likely all slavic languages too. The other names aren't that weird too if the theory that this takes place in the UK is true bc they (the names)look Irish
In Russian it's Макс. С=s sound. The letter 'х' in Russian sounds like ch, but not cheese ch, ch like hi? Idk lol I don't think English has that sound, sorry for the dumb explanation
They could just have a bunch of seawater and phytoplankton to make breathable air, tbh. Like, trees do not make that much air, and machines probably use water (another valuable resource) to make oxigen gas and hydrogen gas. Also, where all the oxigen went to? Logically all the oxigen would be turned into something, right? And thematically, the next assumption is that all of it became carbon dioxide (also know as greenhouse gas), because, you know, this book is a message against deforestation. As a rule, this place would probably be a hell to live in
The premise would make way more sense if the story was set on a human colony on a different planet, rather than having to use made up science to rewrite all of earth's laws of nature.
THANK YOU for mentioning the phytoplankton, I kept expecting to hear the book mention it, but the ocean didn't really come (at least, not in the first quarter that I've listened to) ^^'
It definitely would have been more impactful if they had to leave the children behind, like in The Promised Neverland like you mentioned. I was so surprised when they did that in the anime, I thought they were going to pull some plan out of thin air to keep everyone together. Having to leave them behind was so upsetting, but realistic.
The shout out to those of us who are multitasking to look at the screen for a sec was PERFECT! I wish more people with do that! ❤ It’s difficult for me to both sit still and pay attention so I’m usually cooking or crafting while I listen.
12:45 Quick correction, oxygen actually is the most abundant element on earth, but most of it is bound in rocks in the crust or water. The reason it's not all in the air is that it's a very reactive element and inevitably forms compounds with other elements like silicon (silica) and hydrogen (water)
"attention people who are listening to the video while doing something else, please look at the screen right now to see how this man's name is spelled" boy when I tell you I have never felt so called out or clicked out of my drawing program so fast
Oh, I remember reading this. Only thing I remember is the walking speed limits... and there secretly being plants all along. Did not realize there was a sequel.
I remember seeing this book in the library, seeing the description and thinking it was dumb, and putting it back down. I then proceeded to do this multiple times whenever I came back to the library because I never remembered the name of the book and the cover intrigued me. Damn my 13 year old brain.
I for one loved when the hot female main character ate the truffula trees and spoke for the hot plants or something I do not care if that's not what happened, it's more interesting than the book was when I read it in middleschool; at least james' commentary makes it fun
A little correction, evil mc nasty’s daughter’s name is pronounced Neeve, it’s an Irish name so fair enough, no one can pronounce our names. Good video
Granted, I have not read the story myself, but I actually somewhat disagree with your points made about the dictator's message at around 32:30 in the video Sure, I think acting hard and tough could be intimidating and get the point across to the terrorists that they are going ti be annihilated. But I also think there's something to be said about laughing in the face of your adversaries. To dismiss their efforts as a joke to your power exudes a different kind of intimidation. You are untouchable, and the terrorists cannot do anything meaningful - even by sacrificing their lives - to disrupt your regime. While boastful, it's still humiliating to the rebels. I'm not saying that a serious dictator message would have been worse, but I can see and appreciate what the author was trying to do in this moment.
Honestly I feel like this skeleton would have worked super well if each of the three perspectives joined a different faction at the end. Quin rejoins the Ministry, coming to the conclusion that they're the lesser of evils, Bea stays with the hippies and is forced to become a character, and best girl goes with James' suggestion of becoming bloodthirsty.
“That sounds cancer-licious to me!” Dude I wheezed so hard I hurt my throat. I was not expecting that line at all lmao, it hit just right. I can’t believe I haven’t seen this channel before, you’re incredible.
Can we talk about how the author's name on the cover of the second book looks like it's just been slapped on at the last minute? It looks so out of place, like it could be a crappy MS paint edit after the cover was finished and they realized they forgot to add the author's name.
@@teslasharkhow is he punk when literally everyone has his same beliefs. The only popular media you see with different beliefs is on Fox. It's so funny how everyone acts like Christian conservatives rule America and keep minorities down when EVERYONE is fighting for minorities and hate religion and conservatives. But hey, if it makes you feel cool and better than other people, go ahead and pretend you're punk and fighting the system
nowadays whenever i hear about one of these dystopic ya novels their problems seem so... small and solvable. and i mean it's for a reason, so that a handful of dumb teens can fix everything. but when i look at something classic like 1984 or even something pulpy and dumb like w40k, their issues are much bigger, the status quo exists for a reason and it's almost unfixable. idk, just makes it harder to take these kinds of stories seriously i guess.
So, I listened to this while I was at work, but James makes a lot of great points about how you could make a resistance/insurgency look pretty competent and cool and for a bit it looks like that might actually happen in the stories.
I watch a lot of people review books and movies and your just one of the few people who seems like they enjoy what they review even in the worst of the worst you always manage to say something like I see what they were going for. Or the premise interesting etc. It makes me respect your opinion because it feels honest
I love your videos and I’m very happy to have found a booktuber that talks about the same books I read because there are none that do the same in French. Sorry for my bad English I’m still learning
Honestly I don’t hate the camping premise, if it was limited to the well off kids it could recognize the way that resources that could be used to help people in need are used for the wealthy as a frivolous risky bs
13:00 Actually oxygen is the most abundant element on earth (If we go by number of atoms, by weight it’s iron because ironatoms are a lot heavier). The atmosphere is only a minuscule part of the earth, most of it consists of rocks and metals, and rocks are mostly oxygen in the form of silicate. Edit: 39:29 „Cops in the US make 6 figures“. Actually they make on average about 60k per year, I’m not trying to make this a debunk but James does have to improve his fact checking, that are just the things I noticed while passively watching the video and I’m not even halfway through.
It is really crazy anyone thinks cops make 6 figures. They do a job most of us couldn't do for less than most of us would accept if we were all honest with ourselves
i just figured he misspoke and meant to say "earth's atmosphere" instead of just "earth" lol. not to attack or anything but did you mean to say that the earth's "crust" is only a fraction of its volume and mass instead of the "atmosphere"? i'm not an expert but i figured the atmosphere was mostly gas, not rocks, but i'm so sorry if i'm wrong and please correct me if so, i don't know much about this area of science!
also thanks for the new fact about oxygen, i looked it up and read a bit about the chemical composition all of the earth's layers and it's all so interesting - thank you so much!
@@projectjupiter5523 What I meant was that the atmosphere is only a minuscule part of the earth as a whole and that the earth as a whole mostly consists mostly of metals and rocks, the atmosphere is of course mostly gas.
Here’s my plot twist; nature recovered because aquatic creatures, plants or not, have been creating enough oxygen, not to mention that the pods were hiding dormant seeds that were starting to grow, so the planet was recovering & the serpents of the setting wanted to keep everyone in control still so they pretended the outside world was dead. Meanwhile, the shishigami was guiding the main characters via various tricks that nudged them into [[HYPERLINK BLOCKED]]
He's said in the past that he got a bunch of YA romance books and YA dystopian books from a discount store a few years back, all in the quest to find a good books in these subgenres/trends. It seems like he's still going through those piles.
I want somebody to make a novel set like a decade after a YA novel's story just to explore the chaos and suffering that oftentimes succeeds militant revolutions
When you paused after mentioning the rebellion against the evil government, I asked "Who would've seen that coming?", and then immediately you said "I bet you didn't see that coming." It was perfect timing and that got me. XD
48:30 Tanks used to not have keys, the ignition was just a button you push to activate(like how some stationary industrial machines operate). Most modern tanks do require keys, since there's a couple of incidents where people tanks. None of them got very far mind you, it's not exactly something you can make a clean getaway with. Also, "Niahm" is sometimes pronounced as "Nieve" or "Nia-eem", no idea why.
I may be wrong, but I think I remember hearing on some Dutch news show that the reason that they don't have a lot of tanks is because they sold most of them to Germany. I'm not sure, though, and I'm also not sure how many they sold to Germany.
12:48 It says: "...the most abundant chemical element on Earth..." Emphasis on the "On." The Earth's SURFACE is mostly water, and water is mostly oxygen. Twice as much as it is hydrogen.
I had to read this for school in grade 7. It wasn't even the worst thing I had to read in high school. That honour goes to How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
I wasn't looking at the screen when you brought up Leviathan, and I thought I was going to have to fight you, because Scott Westerfeld's "Leviathan" is so good!
I served on submarines and we would occasionally run on low oxygen when there were problems with the O2 generator. You get headaches and are tired and lighting a cigarette becomes almost impossible. That's with mid to low teen percentages of oxygen, 6% and you aren't doing anything.
What bothers me about the cult plotline is that there's no reason given why anyone would want to be in the cult, and a bunch of people apparently just want to up and leave as soon as the protagonist suggests it. In real life cults, the leader has a strong personality and some sort of message to unite people behind, and in cases where they have a ton of babies, often convinces young female members that having the leader's baby is the highest possible honour he can give them, people aren't just following a cartoon villain because they have nothing better to do. Heck, even in Lovecraft, the super evil cults of evil gods of evil is shown to promise their followers supernatural powers and magical extacy in return for joining the cult.
13:00 Oxygen is actually the most abundant element on earth, since most of the earth by mass is silicon dioxide. It's not breathable, but it's... there and technically true.
6:47 "Breath" I've heard that as a title before 🤔 wasn’t there like a Doctor Who episode called that? Oh yeah! It was called "Just Breath" and it was a 2016 episode with the 12th Doctor and it was the same principle. Air wasn’t free. Although it was on a spaceship and the people had to pay for the oxygen linked to their spacesuit and at some point the corporation financing that space expedition decided to cut the crew's refill of oxygen completely. Which was also a criticism of capitalism, Doctor Who kinda does that a lot.
every time i heard "Switch" i just think of a nintendo switch flipping an actual switch to just drain out all the oxygen and magically kill all the plants (but not the ones at the start).
James: The Minister is called Cain Knavery. Me, listening to the video while I work: "Cain Navary"? Eyeroll-worthy first name, but surname is okay I guess- James: Please look at the screen. Me: ... Oh no. Oh noooooo
A lot of characters in these books again remind me of Red Queen. The love interest is a prince who joins the rebel faction in those books. He was tricked into it at first by the main character and when he learned that he was furious and felt betrayed. Very fitting. But after his brother betrayed him and he basically lost his chance at the throne he started helping the rebel faction because he had nothing else to do with his life. But at the first chance he got at maybe regaining his right to the throne he took it because that's how he was raised. He's not at all a villain but he's still a part of the problem that the book illustrates: that society cannot move forward towards acceptance within a monarchy. That even if he swears to be "a good king" it won't change the fact that the next king after him might not be like him or hold his same values. Just a way more interesting character study. Hell ignoring the side stories the main character does not get with him because of his obsession with wanting the throne.
Niamh is and irish name so it actually is said like "Neeve". So that character's name would be like "neeve knavery" which is even more silly sounding if you ask me.
I feel like this would work way better worldbuilding-wise if they just leaned fully into sci if. The plot as it is is nigh-nonsensical, but if you reframe the story as a generation ship that lands on a planet they are supposed to terraform, only for the existing leadership to decide to control the population by leaving it uninhabitable? That’s a relatively realistic and even compelling story with only a few minor setting changes.
I don't know which is more impactful as a stroy beat. the government forcing oxygen rationing on the lower classed or the lower classes rationing themselves because they can't afford more. The latter feels more realistic and makes me think the lorax did it better.
Omg i bought this one like a year ago, read one page, and left it to rot on my bookshelf. By the looks of it this vid will have more entertainment value lol time for some popcorn!
I’ve read some of Crossan’s other work- her verse novels are really good! I read Toffee, Moonrise, and One and they all made me cry. I definitely think that her verse novels were a lot better than her YA dystopian prose lol
Oh, also: tanks typically don't have ignition keys, and in fact are usually stored with fuel in them as well since the fuel vapour displaces moisture and so stops the fuel tank from rusting internally due to condensation. The main security is physical (they have assigned guards), if they're in storage they just put padlocks on the hatches. That's how that guy who stole a tank in the US managed it, he just got the lock off the driver's hatch with a pair of bolt cutters.
Check out Atlas VPN today: get.atlasvpn.com/JamesTullos
And the Plushie campaign is live! Sign up here: www.gimmeswag.com/products/james-tullos-plush
My good sir did you have a fucking concussion an average cop makes $55,008 per year or $26.45 per hour. Entry level positions start at $42,583 per year while most experienced workers make up to $81,501 per year on average i think you mean detectives of FBI, CIA ectr. Or a captain/directors of the police departments
Honestly Quin a teenage boy helping to smuggle a girl because he thinks shes hot is the least unrealistic part of this book
As a former teen boy I can confirm
As a boy, I can not confirm, because that's kinda dumb.
@@sonicdml4175 as a boy, I can confirm, because boys are dumb
Honestly would do the same
@@sonicdml4175 As a girl who dosen't want to be in a relationship, i am glad i have finally found a boy with reason that dosent basically simp for random girls. 😊😊
I actually read this book years ago.
I remember reading this shortly after I read a book about a corporation that had privatized and bought America's entire food supply and I thought "First a book about a corporation owning all of America's food, now a book about a corporation owning all of Britain's air, all I need is a book about a corporation owning all of Australia's water and the trifecta will be complete."
it’s not a book n it doesn’t take place in australia but the 2001 broadway musical urinetown is TECHNICALLY about that. admittedly they do focus mostly on the pee part of water but that’s because it’s borderline absurdist satire that was originally conceived as a two-hour “fuck you” to les mis n evolved into something way bigger as it developed. it shares a lot of plot points with this book actually, but in a way that’s somehow much more compelling. I think it’s the fact that a lot more can be said if you just take yourself a bit less seriously. there’s a recording of the broadway run on this site but it looks n sounds like it was filmed on a toaster so godspeed if you decide you want to watch it
Mad Max.
Australia has water?
@@kinnelyuwu5771famously called Lake Disappointment
@@kinnelyuwu5771can’t have water if it doesn’t exist
Ooooh I love a bad dystopia with a named major Capital Letter "The Event" which is barely explained.
Mazerunner
@@im4ft622 except that was actually explained
It has been three years since The Event has occurred, The United States has been fighting against Them for several months now.
We have finally gained enough funding to start Project Pea....May God help us all.
@@raineatscheese It was explained though the explanation was kinda stupid
@@sedrie34yea but at least there was an attempt
I love the idea that this government is so strict that they actively monitor oxygen levels of houses to make sure no one is exercising or kissing, but casual enough to give teenagers entire oxygen tanks so that they can go out into the barren wastelands to shoot the shit and do nothing.
Leave it to James to find the books with the most bonkers batshit premises
I mean, the premise of limited breathable air causing people to need to pay for oxygen isnt that far away from reality for some people. with the corporatization of space travel, we are not THAT far away from the situation of workers on luxury resorts on the moon being indentured slaves, barely breaking even after being charged for literally everything required to simply exist in their place of work. one of those charges being, y'know, air. and a hundred or two years from the same on mars.
as for earth, ill admit ignorance to knowing just how hard it would be to make the atmosphere unbreathable globally. however, what knowledge I do have suggests that it isnt impossible on a larger time scale. like, for a Sci-Fi premise its not bad. before the air was breathable for humans and other non-plant life, it was so oxygen rich that we would die. and fires were y'know, very easy. and before we had that abundance of oxygen, it was all CO2, right? like runaway effects have caused global shifts in atmospheric content before. there is no reason that it couldn't happen again, at least theoretically, for a sci-fi novel.
where the novel seems to fail, is that it doesn't provide a convincing enough introduction to the premise for someone with surface level knowledge to suspend their disbelief. starting by saying oxygen used to be the most abundant element in the air (or whatever the phrasing was), and then failing to model their society consistently by not having a clear method by which the air consumption of individuals is tracked, then not understanding what humans need to live when it comes to atmosphere, and so on. any detail can pull the reader out of the world for a moment, saying "that's not how that works!" or "wait how does that work?" instead of just enjoying the story the way it was intended.
one thing I've already done in this comment, that the author also should have, is to make the distinction that its breathable air that is in short supply, not oxygen itself. the other thing the author should have done is some basic research. maybe make friends with a college student going into environmental science or something, who could make sure those catching points are smoothed over. I have a hard time believing an editor was involved in this book at all. at least not a good one.
tl;dr:I don't think it was a batshit premise, it was just poorly executed by someone without basic knowledge of the science necessary to make it convincing.
Bro would love imperium by the racist piece of shit Francis P Yockey
Tbh the most batshit premise I ever saw in YA dystopian literature was one where creativity was outlawed, and they would 'kill' you for dancing one time, but in reality they would send you to a fantastical world instead with griffins. I read two chapters and just stopped because it was so laughably bad.
@frocoshake2107 do you remember the name of the book?
@@queencleopatra007I think it’s called The Unwanteds? I recognize that synopsis because my sister stole that book from our public library
it's always hilarious when amateur authors discover their fetish partly in to their stories
As someone who is less than 20 minutes in this video:
what
@@BlueGreenGlobe haha yeah
What fetish would that be? I can't spot it
im barely 5 minutes in but im gonna guess the fetish is something related to choking and stuff??
@@vinylcreeks so how'd that go?
every time I learn about a book/movie/whatever with the premise of “what if you had to pay to do this necessary human function” I’m inevitably reminded of how the infamously goofy 2001 broadway musical urinetown, which is about “what if you had to pay to take a piss and also the police killed you if they caught you peeing for free,” is a genuinely masterful execution of this concept
having to pay for something as ridiculous as air? check
a greedy government’s “solution” to environmental disaster being a violent police state that causes the lower class to live and die in abject suffering? check
a group of overzealous rebels who can’t agree on a real course of action because they’re too caught up in revenge for the sake of revenge, who ultimately end up creating a society that’s just as shit as the one they toppled? check
it’s even got a rebel love story where one of them is the child of a government official and one of them is a poor martyr who fucking dies. this musical about peepee weewiz, in which a deliberate effort is made to have the worldbuilding be as confusing as possible, through sheer force of having so many layers of irony that it circles back to existing as some kind of universal truth, did a much better rendition of “environmentalist post apocalyptic rebellion against evil government” than the vast majority of works with the same exact plot that take themselves completely seriously . I love this stupid fucking pee musical so much man
What in the unholy hell? Are you sure you didn't dream that up?
@@mattd5240 no man it won tony awards. I would never lie about urinetown the 2001 broadway musical about what if you had to pay to go pee
I need to find a good boot of this so I can bask in its glory once again
@@julianlaresch6266 the obc is on youtube! it just looks n sounds like it was filmed on a toaster 😔
This is absolutely absurd what the fuck lmao
I'm like five minutes into this video and noticing that a lot of YA authors really like to call things "the ___." The pods, the ministry, the rebels, etc. Gets a little hard to keep track of when they're so nonspecific. Call it Pod Y-Delta or something, that sounds sufficiently impersonal for a dystopia and isn't going to be easily confused for Pod H-Alpha just down the road.
But then you'd have to actually come up with a name
Its like they're making up a name for an episode of The Amazing World of Gumball.
And they typically capitalize one word. Think "the Watchers" or "the Helpers".
Thinner atmosphere you say? *Smirks smugly in Colorado*
@@Tat011 lmao, for real.
Another worldbuilding issue that James didn't address (unless it was covered in the book; I haven't read it, and am just going off of how it's described): Bea and Quinn were in the pod for their whole lives, how did they not freak out when they were standing out there in the rain? If they were cut off from the atmosphere in the pod, they should never have experienced rain (or really any weather) before! Although i suppose evaporation and contained moisture might have made humidity and maybe some dripping from the ceiling, a full- on rainstorm should be impossible.
they can still see things happening outside the pod as far as could be extrapolated
and rainstorms really do just be freebie "the water heater broke again" showers
there are tons of people who have never seen snow, the reaction is usually "its cold"
Oh nature is doing a big shower.
Isaac Asimov covered this well. In his robot series, humans live in closed "hive cities" for generations so as a result, they have agoraphobia. Rain freaks them out cuz water usually comes from a faucet or nozzel.
@@prcervi I don't know what's up with our rain, but it always leaves some weird oily film on our hair. Definitely not just a cold sky shower :(
Ok so there’s a YA fantasy about a dystopian society. Everyone wears an identification badge at all times that indicates which level of society you belong to. The twist is that you may choose whether or not you wear this badge and that you must pay a fee to apply or remove the badge. The protagonist is a young grad student who gets caught up with a particular group that continuously applies and removes these badges daily. She starts a secret affair with a textile tycoon who specializes in machines that creates badges. She never knows if he has something to do with the creation of the social norms. It is spicy, yet cautious. It’s called “Star” or something.
Wait, it’s The Sneetches, but sexy! The Sneetches is a Dr. Seuss story where there are star-bellied sneetches and blank-bellied sneetches. Somebody invents a machine to add or remove their stars, so the sneetches keep paying to have their stars added and removed over and over again because they keep falling in and out of fashion. 😂 Was Dr. Seuss writing dystopias this whole time??
sneetches joke?
im gonna make the odd Sneeches remake like this book
I'm going to be honest I thought the badge thing was a joke about twitter's blue check
I’m sorry but “I do not like the joke” KILLED ME 32:46
Like, your friend just died and a politician is mocking your rebel group and THAT’S YOUR REACTION?
How does... the Lorax become edgy? Great now I have to watch this whole video.
When the Onceler opens a thneed plantation
My thoughts exactly.
The trees can’t be harmed if the Lorax is armed
How ba-a-a-ad can it be?
@@hamishstewart5324I am the Lorax I speak for the trees and for some damn reason they're speaking Vietnamese
Sarah Z was not kidding with how every teen dystopia has a thing in it called “The X”
You missed the best part! Niamh is pronounced NEEV. So it's NEEV Knavery
WHAT
@@JamesTullos It's an Irish name
Yeah my friend is named Niamh and she told me how it’s spelled and I was like “what?”
Irish?
Wait till you hear about Siobhan...
1:15:04 to be fair spelling Max as Maks makes a lot more sense than the others. That's the way slavic languages (maybe only Polish) spell it 'coz we don't have "x" in alphabets. So for me a Pole it's more weird that it's the short version and not the full one (Maksymilian) that's being used.
I'm pretty sure most Slavic languages would spell it like that too (I'm Polish too). Cause as you said, we don't have the letter x in our languages, & that's even more obvious when you go further East to the Slavic countries that use the Cyrillic alphabet
@@BooksandBuns I specifically worded it like that 'coz I have zero knowledge of Cyrillic alphabets (I only know Russian's and Ukrainian's have small differences) and languages that use them. All my skill points went into French and Japanese
In Sloveniam it's Maks too! Most likely all slavic languages too. The other names aren't that weird too if the theory that this takes place in the UK is true bc they (the names)look Irish
In Russian it's Макс. С=s sound.
The letter 'х' in Russian sounds like ch, but not cheese ch, ch like hi? Idk lol I don't think English has that sound, sorry for the dumb explanation
@@ana_bananass i'm Russian too and as far as i know this sound is usually spelled as "kh"
but some just call it "hard H"
They could just have a bunch of seawater and phytoplankton to make breathable air, tbh.
Like, trees do not make that much air, and machines probably use water (another valuable resource) to make oxigen gas and hydrogen gas.
Also, where all the oxigen went to? Logically all the oxigen would be turned into something, right? And thematically, the next assumption is that all of it became carbon dioxide (also know as greenhouse gas), because, you know, this book is a message against deforestation.
As a rule, this place would probably be a hell to live in
The premise would make way more sense if the story was set on a human colony on a different planet, rather than having to use made up science to rewrite all of earth's laws of nature.
THANK YOU for mentioning the phytoplankton, I kept expecting to hear the book mention it, but the ocean didn't really come (at least, not in the first quarter that I've listened to) ^^'
re: niamh’s name. it’s an irish name that’s pronounce “neev” or “nee-av”. so phonetically her name is basically “knave knavery”
Hey the algorithm seems to hate this one, so a like, comment, and/or share would be very helpful!
Punishment for stealing the Nostagia Critic bit you get what you deserve.
commenting for the algo my dear boy 👍🏻
The algorithm giveth, the algorithm taketh away :(
I can't believe I didn't get a notification for this, I am miffed
Ironic, as it's like third of your vids youtube reccomended to me after I subscribed like a year ago.
It definitely would have been more impactful if they had to leave the children behind, like in The Promised Neverland like you mentioned. I was so surprised when they did that in the anime, I thought they were going to pull some plan out of thin air to keep everyone together. Having to leave them behind was so upsetting, but realistic.
Absolutely terrifying title james.
The shout out to those of us who are multitasking to look at the screen for a sec was PERFECT! I wish more people with do that! ❤
It’s difficult for me to both sit still and pay attention so I’m usually cooking or crafting while I listen.
12:01 “I hope all 5 people in my audience got the joke because I’m not cutting it out.”
This is why I like you
Can't believe no one caught onto the Cain and Able symbolism
12:45
Quick correction, oxygen actually is the most abundant element on earth, but most of it is bound in rocks in the crust or water. The reason it's not all in the air is that it's a very reactive element and inevitably forms compounds with other elements like silicon (silica) and hydrogen (water)
"attention people who are listening to the video while doing something else, please look at the screen right now to see how this man's name is spelled" boy when I tell you I have never felt so called out or clicked out of my drawing program so fast
Oh, I remember reading this. Only thing I remember is the walking speed limits... and there secretly being plants all along.
Did not realize there was a sequel.
I remember seeing this book in the library, seeing the description and thinking it was dumb, and putting it back down. I then proceeded to do this multiple times whenever I came back to the library because I never remembered the name of the book and the cover intrigued me. Damn my 13 year old brain.
I for one loved when the hot female main character ate the truffula trees and spoke for the hot plants or something
I do not care if that's not what happened, it's more interesting than the book was when I read it in middleschool; at least james' commentary makes it fun
A little correction, evil mc nasty’s daughter’s name is pronounced Neeve, it’s an Irish name so fair enough, no one can pronounce our names. Good video
Granted, I have not read the story myself, but I actually somewhat disagree with your points made about the dictator's message at around 32:30 in the video
Sure, I think acting hard and tough could be intimidating and get the point across to the terrorists that they are going ti be annihilated. But I also think there's something to be said about laughing in the face of your adversaries. To dismiss their efforts as a joke to your power exudes a different kind of intimidation. You are untouchable, and the terrorists cannot do anything meaningful - even by sacrificing their lives - to disrupt your regime. While boastful, it's still humiliating to the rebels.
I'm not saying that a serious dictator message would have been worse, but I can see and appreciate what the author was trying to do in this moment.
Those were my thoughts exactly.
It reminds of one time I read the news about a leader somewhere who jailed some gay men and said that they can get out once they have children
toshow he is in controli gues no harm. And dictators can be very wacky with propaganda messages.
@@McDucknaldThat's a poor joke honestly
@@marocat4749ay gotta munchkin their way
Every time I hear the word, "Ministry," I autofinish with, "of Silly Walks," and this story becomes even goofier.
Honestly I feel like this skeleton would have worked super well if each of the three perspectives joined a different faction at the end. Quin rejoins the Ministry, coming to the conclusion that they're the lesser of evils, Bea stays with the hippies and is forced to become a character, and best girl goes with James' suggestion of becoming bloodthirsty.
“That sounds cancer-licious to me!” Dude I wheezed so hard I hurt my throat. I was not expecting that line at all lmao, it hit just right. I can’t believe I haven’t seen this channel before, you’re incredible.
Can we talk about how the author's name on the cover of the second book looks like it's just been slapped on at the last minute? It looks so out of place, like it could be a crappy MS paint edit after the cover was finished and they realized they forgot to add the author's name.
I think it is Comic Sans...
James, already well prepared for 2035 with all your random partisan tips
Call me "The System" because you can't beat me 😎
@@JamesTullos You gonna write your own punk revolution novel some day, I'd say it will be both logical and somehow more hopeful than average
@@teslasharkhow is he punk when literally everyone has his same beliefs. The only popular media you see with different beliefs is on Fox. It's so funny how everyone acts like Christian conservatives rule America and keep minorities down when EVERYONE is fighting for minorities and hate religion and conservatives. But hey, if it makes you feel cool and better than other people, go ahead and pretend you're punk and fighting the system
@@nicoledoubleyou Insecure troll, can't even read a comment correctly.
@@nicoledoubleyou zero self-awareness
nowadays whenever i hear about one of these dystopic ya novels their problems seem so... small and solvable. and i mean it's for a reason, so that a handful of dumb teens can fix everything. but when i look at something classic like 1984 or even something pulpy and dumb like w40k, their issues are much bigger, the status quo exists for a reason and it's almost unfixable. idk, just makes it harder to take these kinds of stories seriously i guess.
36:44 “i think the thin air in this world has given everyone in this book a mental illness” 😂😂😂😂
hypoxia :p
So, I listened to this while I was at work, but James makes a lot of great points about how you could make a resistance/insurgency look pretty competent and cool and for a bit it looks like that might actually happen in the stories.
I watch a lot of people review books and movies and your just one of the few people who seems like they enjoy what they review even in the worst of the worst you always manage to say something like I see what they were going for. Or the premise interesting etc. It makes me respect your opinion because it feels honest
Every day 1984 and the Handmaid’s tale become less “unbelievable dystopian” and more “wow, this could be reality”
compared to the average y/a novel they ARE reality 💀
Why does everyone forget Fahrenheit 451?
@@joringedamke5597 I haven’t read it, which is why I didn’t include it 😅
@@miyumixxxmissin out fr
@@miyumixxxhighly recommend
I love your videos and I’m very happy to have found a booktuber that talks about the same books I read because there are none that do the same in French. Sorry for my bad English I’m still learning
Honestly I don’t hate the camping premise, if it was limited to the well off kids it could recognize the way that resources that could be used to help people in need are used for the wealthy as a frivolous risky bs
"Maks" literally means liver in Estonian, so it makes it extra weird
13:00 Actually oxygen is the most abundant element on earth (If we go by number of atoms, by weight it’s iron because ironatoms are a lot heavier). The atmosphere is only a minuscule part of the earth, most of it consists of rocks and metals, and rocks are mostly oxygen in the form of silicate.
Edit: 39:29 „Cops in the US make 6 figures“. Actually they make on average about 60k per year, I’m not trying to make this a debunk but James does have to improve his fact checking, that are just the things I noticed while passively watching the video and I’m not even halfway through.
It is really crazy anyone thinks cops make 6 figures. They do a job most of us couldn't do for less than most of us would accept if we were all honest with ourselves
i just figured he misspoke and meant to say "earth's atmosphere" instead of just "earth" lol. not to attack or anything but did you mean to say that the earth's "crust" is only a fraction of its volume and mass instead of the "atmosphere"? i'm not an expert but i figured the atmosphere was mostly gas, not rocks, but i'm so sorry if i'm wrong and please correct me if so, i don't know much about this area of science!
also thanks for the new fact about oxygen, i looked it up and read a bit about the chemical composition all of the earth's layers and it's all so interesting - thank you so much!
@@projectjupiter5523 What I meant was that the atmosphere is only a minuscule part of the earth as a whole and that the earth as a whole mostly consists mostly of metals and rocks, the atmosphere is of course mostly gas.
@@laecard1778 ah i see, thank you so much for clarifying and sorry that i misunderstood!
Funnily enough I was JUST rewatching Sarah Z's dystopia video today when the algorithm finally did it's job right and showed me this gem 🤩
I forgot this book existed. I remember seeing it in an online bookstore and thinking the premise sounded like a parody of a dystopian novel.
Here’s my plot twist; nature recovered because aquatic creatures, plants or not, have been creating enough oxygen, not to mention that the pods were hiding dormant seeds that were starting to grow, so the planet was recovering & the serpents of the setting wanted to keep everyone in control still so they pretended the outside world was dead.
Meanwhile, the shishigami was guiding the main characters via various tricks that nudged them into [[HYPERLINK BLOCKED]]
I heard the author’s name as Sarah Croissant and I refuse to acknowledge any other pronunciation now.
Okay genuine question: where does james gets the books her reviews? Like where does he find these batshit crazy plots?
My best guess? Either internet sleuthing or he spends a lot of time in charity stores looking at the book sections
goodreads has many things listed and a somewhat functional search
Searching through any obscure sources?!
He's said in the past that he got a bunch of YA romance books and YA dystopian books from a discount store a few years back, all in the quest to find a good books in these subgenres/trends. It seems like he's still going through those piles.
That Pueblo, Colorado reference is painfully accurate. RIP if you lived/live there lol
I want somebody to make a novel set like a decade after a YA novel's story just to explore the chaos and suffering that oftentimes succeeds militant revolutions
Mistborn:Well of Ascension.
He's speaks for the trees and breaks people's knees
As someone who works in Pueblo, CO, i confirm i laughed at that joke. 😂
I really like your long reviews of books like this. You do a good retelling and great commentary, and doing either of this well is a lot of work.
Appreciate all the hard work you put into these videos james
When you paused after mentioning the rebellion against the evil government, I asked "Who would've seen that coming?", and then immediately you said "I bet you didn't see that coming." It was perfect timing and that got me. XD
Sounds like something I'd write tbh. I haven't finished the whole video so I'm gonna guess it has random torture scenes and teen angst
Ngl Knavery is a cool name for an evil megacorporation, I might write that into my books
With the customers all buying, and the money multiplying, and the PR lying, and the lawyers all denying, who cares if some things are dying?
It seems like the author wants to write fetish fanfic of their own book
I like how you are fair and not playing the Nostalgia Critic game of hating book exaggeratedly for views. Keep up the good work!
Subscribed when I heard the words "it's like having sex with a ghost I can't feel anything but I'm aware that I should be feeling things" lmao
48:30 Tanks used to not have keys, the ignition was just a button you push to activate(like how some stationary industrial machines operate). Most modern tanks do require keys, since there's a couple of incidents where people tanks. None of them got very far mind you, it's not exactly something you can make a clean getaway with.
Also, "Niahm" is sometimes pronounced as "Nieve" or "Nia-eem", no idea why.
cain knavery is such an ace attorney villain name i fucking love it
13:15
“RM Huffman’s insistence that dragons are real”
I need to know that video and see that book review.
10:38 had me bust out laughing. Just the look on your face killed me.
I may be wrong, but I think I remember hearing on some Dutch news show that the reason that they don't have a lot of tanks is because they sold most of them to Germany. I'm not sure, though, and I'm also not sure how many they sold to Germany.
12:48 It says: "...the most abundant chemical element on Earth..." Emphasis on the "On." The Earth's SURFACE is mostly water, and water is mostly oxygen. Twice as much as it is hydrogen.
I had to read this for school in grade 7. It wasn't even the worst thing I had to read in high school. That honour goes to How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
So fun that Quin has love interests A and B
1:10:18 The only place anyone can leave Bea with Jazz, outside of Transformers.
21:00 this joke killed me. I listen to these while sewing, like a podcast almost, and I pricked my finger laughing my ass off
I wasn't looking at the screen when you brought up Leviathan, and I thought I was going to have to fight you, because Scott Westerfeld's "Leviathan" is so good!
I served on submarines and we would occasionally run on low oxygen when there were problems with the O2 generator. You get headaches and are tired and lighting a cigarette becomes almost impossible. That's with mid to low teen percentages of oxygen, 6% and you aren't doing anything.
mh in Irish is a v sound.
This is good for engagement honestly
What bothers me about the cult plotline is that there's no reason given why anyone would want to be in the cult, and a bunch of people apparently just want to up and leave as soon as the protagonist suggests it. In real life cults, the leader has a strong personality and some sort of message to unite people behind, and in cases where they have a ton of babies, often convinces young female members that having the leader's baby is the highest possible honour he can give them, people aren't just following a cartoon villain because they have nothing better to do. Heck, even in Lovecraft, the super evil cults of evil gods of evil is shown to promise their followers supernatural powers and magical extacy in return for joining the cult.
i was not prepared for the very first line to make me angry
13:00 Oxygen is actually the most abundant element on earth, since most of the earth by mass is silicon dioxide. It's not breathable, but it's... there and technically true.
6:47 "Breath" I've heard that as a title before 🤔 wasn’t there like a Doctor Who episode called that? Oh yeah! It was called "Just Breath" and it was a 2016 episode with the 12th Doctor and it was the same principle. Air wasn’t free. Although it was on a spaceship and the people had to pay for the oxygen linked to their spacesuit and at some point the corporation financing that space expedition decided to cut the crew's refill of oxygen completely. Which was also a criticism of capitalism, Doctor Who kinda does that a lot.
The episode was called "Oxygen". You may be mixing the title up with "Deep Breath"
@@Pterosauria possibly lmao, it’s been awhile
every time i heard "Switch" i just think of a nintendo switch flipping an actual switch to just drain out all the oxygen and magically kill all the plants (but not the ones at the start).
James: The Minister is called Cain Knavery.
Me, listening to the video while I work: "Cain Navary"? Eyeroll-worthy first name, but surname is okay I guess-
James: Please look at the screen.
Me: ... Oh no. Oh noooooo
2:06 What!? I’m pretty sure the book should be the first thing that comes to mind from the name, not the movie!
A lot of characters in these books again remind me of Red Queen. The love interest is a prince who joins the rebel faction in those books. He was tricked into it at first by the main character and when he learned that he was furious and felt betrayed. Very fitting. But after his brother betrayed him and he basically lost his chance at the throne he started helping the rebel faction because he had nothing else to do with his life. But at the first chance he got at maybe regaining his right to the throne he took it because that's how he was raised. He's not at all a villain but he's still a part of the problem that the book illustrates: that society cannot move forward towards acceptance within a monarchy. That even if he swears to be "a good king" it won't change the fact that the next king after him might not be like him or hold his same values. Just a way more interesting character study. Hell ignoring the side stories the main character does not get with him because of his obsession with wanting the throne.
You love to see a fellow ASOIAF fan reading Dr. Seuss fanfics.
look at my man getting sponsored, mr moneybags himself :P
I'm fine with breathing but thank you for reading the book Breath for me anyway.
Niamh is and irish name so it actually is said like "Neeve". So that character's name would be like "neeve knavery" which is even more silly sounding if you ask me.
I feel like this would work way better worldbuilding-wise if they just leaned fully into sci if. The plot as it is is nigh-nonsensical, but if you reframe the story as a generation ship that lands on a planet they are supposed to terraform, only for the existing leadership to decide to control the population by leaving it uninhabitable? That’s a relatively realistic and even compelling story with only a few minor setting changes.
1:18:08 honest to god missed an opportunity to say "touch grass"
I don't know which is more impactful as a stroy beat. the government forcing oxygen rationing on the lower classed or the lower classes rationing themselves because they can't afford more. The latter feels more realistic and makes me think the lorax did it better.
Omg i bought this one like a year ago, read one page, and left it to rot on my bookshelf. By the looks of it this vid will have more entertainment value lol time for some popcorn!
For a solid second I thought the 'Breathe' in the title was giving people a chance to calm down after reading the title
33:45 “sometimes foreshadowing is obvious”
Going into a place with super aggressive people and no oxygen is like sending your kids to an alien planet populated with life for fun
I’ve read some of Crossan’s other work- her verse novels are really good! I read Toffee, Moonrise, and One and they all made me cry. I definitely think that her verse novels were a lot better than her YA dystopian prose lol
the second i realised that the cover looked practically identical to divergent was the second i knew this was gonna be wild
20:58 bro didn't even hesitate ☠️
Oh, also: tanks typically don't have ignition keys, and in fact are usually stored with fuel in them as well since the fuel vapour displaces moisture and so stops the fuel tank from rusting internally due to condensation. The main security is physical (they have assigned guards), if they're in storage they just put padlocks on the hatches. That's how that guy who stole a tank in the US managed it, he just got the lock off the driver's hatch with a pair of bolt cutters.
They really had an cane and able in the story huh
Also Tanks need oxygen for the engines to run so it probably wouldn’t run outside the pod