That’s my issue with rating books low based on the morality of the characters. If you can’t explain why it was bad writing other than “the main was a meaniieee” it isn’t the most pertinent point. What if they wrote an unlikeable character but they wrote them so well and so realistic? Books can give you an insight into another persons state of mind- even an evil person. So they don’t have to be relatable in my opinion, otherwise you’re limiting all “good” writing to characters who largely share your personality or life experience
@@picanigeorgello2847 you can like or dislike a book for whatever reason. you don't need a reason. if you don't like reading about road trips then it's fine to dislike a road trip story. it is fair. it's your reading.
I love how you film all these videos on the sly and upload them with no warning and we end up watching footage from half a year ago like it happened yesterday. I don’t know why but I find it hysterical
I absolutely love the content you put out. It is so different than what other youtubers put out and it keeps it fresh. I literally watch every minute of every video of yours. You are awesome
I'm not saying this to be disparaging, but the inability for the YA bookish community to distinguish between "problematic" characters and "problematic" writers/books is something that has bothered me since I've found Booktube. I think it is due to the persistent need to be excessively woke (which I find extremely condescending, but that's another discussion), where people will look for reasons to show how forward-thinking they are by picking apart everything they can. Authors should not have to bend over backwards to explain that obviously immoral characters are not role models. It is painfully clear that young women who call each other names, slut shame each other and sleep with each other's boyfriends are not role models. It's fine to dislike a book because it was unenjoyable to read, but I often see people saying "this book was sexist" rather than "these characters had unlikeable personalities and I didn't enjoy reading about their escapades". And, yeah, sometimes it can be difficult to determine if the character's flaws are written intentionally or whether they are a reflection of the author (I couldn't finish The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao because I suspected it was the latter and am now feeling quite vindicated), but I find that is not terribly common.
Amen. I can barely watch youtubers anymore, they exhaust me with their "righteousness" and then they praise books with plots and topics that are just as bad as they critique. I'm not liking this new trend.
agreed. and on the other hand so many well known books have "problematic" characters but everyone pretends to like them just to seem intellectual e.g. goethes faust
The Goodreads scan thing will scan the book from showing it the whole front cover and it finds the book a lot faster than waiting for it to register the barcode.
It makes it so fast! I just put a stack of books on the floor and move down the stack one by one just removing the top book. I went through 50 books in probably 10 min.
I think it's sad if people only read books that had likable or relatable main characters. There are so many great books out there, all three Gillian Flynn books come to mind right away. Thanks for putting this video together, besides just the time it took, but for your honest opinions and thoughts.
This is why I love you Kayla! I really dislike the trend of not liking a book just because a character or characters are unlikable. Books would be super boring if everyone went around doing and saying and being the cookie cutter 'right' way in them
I agree! Especially on the reversal when people complain about characters being too perfect. Often authors write unlikable characters ON PURPOSE. So to say they did a bad job because they succeeded in just that is nonsensical.
so many people don't understand that 1. you DON'T need an empowering, likeable character and 2. NOT EVERY STORY IS GONNA BE ALL FLUFFY RAINBOWS!! THE WORLD ISNT LIKE THAT
I love that you will say just because a book has a dislikable main character or situation, doesn't mean the book is inherently bad. Problematic things clearly happen in real life, and just because a book focuses on bad mentalities or problematic characters, doesn't necessarily make that book bad. I love that you call out the issues you have, but also say what you loved about the book rather than writing it off all together. Great video!!
Personally i think there are hard subjects like abuse that should be written and talked about. But i think that it is a problem if the author romanticizes the subjects or writes about it in a disrespectful way.
Talking about how to rate problamtic books I always look at it as as long as you are aware of the problematic aspects the rating doesn’t matter. To bring up a popular example: I personally love Twilight (at this point it’s actually more nostalgic love but oh well) but I’m very aware of the problamtic relationship and I’m not romantacizing it. Also on unlikeable characters I agree with you. If a character is unlikeable but it’s the point of the book I won’t rate my book less because of it but if the character is unlikeable but they’re not supposed to be than it will effect my rating. An example for that is Paper Towns. The main critic I see for that book is that people didn’t like Margo but that never effected my rating because that’s the point. Margo is not supposed to be liked, otherwise John Green would have written the ending differently. On the flip side I recently read I See London I See France and didn’t like the characters at all but it’s written to be liked and that did bring down my rating. This comment ended up being more rambly than I thought but I really enjoyed the video and it made me think about how we rate books (as you could probably tell).
I definitely agree. About a year ago I read the book Running by Cara Hoffman and really enjoyed it even though the main characters were despicable, because that's how they were written to be. However, later when I read The Rattled Bones by SM Parker, I hated the main character and rated the novel low because she was meant to be this likable cool girl. It's all about perspective!
When I first read the title I thought it said "Rereading my lowest rated books" and even though that's not what this video is, I think that'd be a great idea if you haven't done it yet! Love this video
Saw it pop up last night. Saved it for this morning. Came to work - opened it - got to the store so i can buy creamer for my coffee, made my coffee. Just sat and ready to enjoy.
Wanna know why you’re my favorite booktuber? You’re super creative and aren’t afraid to read books that won’t be your fave which makes your content so fun and enjoyable to watch. Keep ‘em coming!!
I appreciate the conversation you started in this video so much! I could even argue that I think it’s important to have “problematic” elements in books because it’s faithful to real life and we have to be able to learn how to handle those things whenever we face them or hear about them. Also I think too often we don’t give the reader enough credit to determine if what the character is doing is acceptable. The more widely you read, the more you’ll learn.
I get asked many times why I love booksandlala because our Reading taste are completely different and to that I always answer that her videos are absolutely amazing. The way she talks about books is so eloquent and her vlogs involving her family make me giddy. She brings a uniqueness to the BookTube community and there is no one on Booktube like her. I love Lala and would continue to watch her even if we have different opinions on books. TBH I wish I was her friend because she is a Graphic Designer (which I’m studying in college), she is hilarious, and I could listen to her talk all day. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk
I like books that have unlikeable main characters where there is maybe no distinct point to the story or thing to be learned from it (sort of like Those Girls I guess) because sometimes there are real people who are actually unlikeable and who don't grow and are generally "problematic". People like this exist, and they're different from me so it's interesting to read about. I don't always want to relate to a character and I don't always want a book to make me happy. My favorite art is not necessarily what I find the most beautiful but what makes me feel the strongest emotions - regardless of whether they are positive or negative.
You should read The Black Witch! One of the most controversial books on Goodreads because it’s about racism between non-human races in a fantasy world. Others have defended it, others have left 1 star reviews without reading it.
I also appreciate the time spent in videos like these. Scanning books is one thing but having the organization take videos through months to give us this content is lit.
I’d love to see the flip version of this! I don’t rate a book low just because I hated the characters. If they were obviously written to be unlikeable I wouldn’t rate the character category low either but a lot of times I hate characters that are not written like this. But to get a rating of 2 or lower from me the book has to have poor writing, poor atmosphere, a boring plot, I have to be so not intrigued that it takes a lot of forcing myself for me to finish it and I have to be not entertained at all 😅🙈
I absolutely loved this vlog! Multiple times you had really great points on why people felt the way they did but at the same time you explained why they don’t necessarily need to like the main characters to enjoy the book. You are one of my favorite booktubers and I just wanted to let you know ❤️
Ha ha, I loved your comment of "you're going to have to stick around and endure this because I have to" . The scan books feature from Goodreads works sometimes and other times it comes up with a completely random book. You made a good point about ratings. It can be hard to decide on something particularly if there is problematic content. I think it's important to read a book based on how you may like it and not just assume that because it has a low rating that it might be a terrible book. Sometimes the books that haven't gotten good reviews draw me in more than the popular ones. Generally I don't let the ratings decide if I'm going to read a book or not. I am curious to see you do a video on books that have been rated the highest.
Please do the flip! I love LOVE the discussion in this about rating a book based on the "problematic" topics and subject matter vs. rating a book for enjoyment.
This is so refreshing to watch. And thank you thank you for looking past what might be "problematic", and possibly unlikable characters. That makes me feel like I can really trust your opinions. I always feel like I know why you give the ratings you do, and you seem to look at books more the way I imagine the authors intended for them to be viewed and digested. Thank you!
you have become my favorite book channel. I love that you get the book , read it and review it all in one go. Its not like you buy a whole bunch of books , tell us what they were , read them and at the end of the month say what you thought. Good Job
I really enjoy how open you are to all topics of books and read to find out your own opinion. Also, you’re never offensive just honest with your own opinions. It’s so refreshing.
What a great video and cool idea! This is exactly why I don't put too much stock into star ratings, or even book reviews, to be honest. Every thing is subjective; just because something is "problematic" to one person doesn't mean it's "problematic" to another. Someone else might hate a character that I love or I may hate a character that every one else loves. As a writer I understand that characters, like real people, are are not perfect. They have flaws; they have quirks, and sometimes they just do, say, and think dumb shit. I have read many books with flawed, unlikable characters and still enjoyed the books. This is why I just read books that I think I may like instead of looking to Goodreads or UA-cam for ratings. Tfs☺
Wow I never comment on anything and I'm on my phone typing this so excuse any typos but here's my outlook on the whole "always rating problematic things low" topic: it depends on the reader. I know a lot of people (myself included) base a lot of their enjoyment of a book on how much they like the characters (aside from villans or antagonists, but people can like those too depending on the story) . Most people use books for escapism, and would much rather read something that makes them feel positive emotions. In another way, I feel like certain people just take more offense to problematic things than others; for example, I'm fit in pretty much every marginalized group under the sun and I personally don't take things like racism/homophobia/mysogyny/fatphobia in books lightly. If a reader doesn't take as much offense to those things in books, independent of whether or not they take offense to it in real life scenarios, then that's their opinion and they can rate a problematic book higher based on enjoyment if they so please. I think if anything, when someone rates a problematic book, whether high or low, they should AT LEAST talk about the problematic content in the review, so that others who may not like the book because of those things can know about the problematic issues and judge whether or not they would want to read that book from there. I hope that made sense! I love that you made this video and brought this point of discussion up in the first place, it should be talked about more!
I base my rating on my enjoyment level. On the other hand, I rarely enjoy books with unlikeable characters and problematic content. It only happens only if the writing is really good and the story is engaging. Most of the time, I stop caring about unlikeable characters and do not enjoy reading about them. Thanks for bringing up this viewpoint.
You should try to read a bunch of books from Canadian authors based in your hometown or places you’ve visited in Canada or Vancouver. Last semester I took a class where we read all Canadian authors who wrote books set in Ottawa (where I live), it was cool to see places I recognized kinda like that campfire book you read. Loved this video ❤️
I really respect how you can bring here a new and interesting idea or an experiment an how much time you take to make videos like this. I appreciate it so much!
Lala - PLEASE do the flip version! Your videos are great. You have the most innovative approach to UA-cam and I am here for it. Your content along with your personality just make me so so happy!
I saw you holding up If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch, and I really loved that book. I wouldn't exactly call it a thriller. It's more like a hard hitting contemporary, with a little bit of a survival story thrown in. Also, this is such a great idea for a video. It's fun to see all these books we've already seen you read recently pop up in here.
I love your ideas & how you analyzed and critiques the books. It reminded me that there are different ways of going about reviewing and viewing books rather than just how they make you feel emotionally or if the subject matter is difficult and instead take a look at the book itself and how it was executed.
Yes, I sat and watched this entire video. I don't mind long videos at all. :) That being said, and several here have said it already, I truly enjoy your content. It's fresh and original. You twist and turn things to suit your purpose and to keep everyone entertained while also being informative. Well done and thank YOU. :)
Can I say, that I hate the 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl cover, because if it makes me want to brush away the eraser shavings when it’s on a *screen* I don’t want to know how paranoid I would be with this physical book😂😂😂😂
Other book tubers can put out 10 min videos and I get bored and skip through them, but I consistently sit and watch the entirety of your long videos. Your content and personality are engaging and creative! Thanks for the video and I def. hope to see the top rated books edition!
Thank you for this! I already went ahead and added all my TBR (100+) books on goodreads and I'm so excited to start reading those w/ the lowest ratings 😂
I always think it’s interesting that people rate books low because they have unlikable narrators and that suddenly means the author is also unlikable. I don’t know I think unlikable narrators and characters have a place in literature, not everything needs to be or is positive.
Morgan Jenson also you wouldn't relate with every person you meet in real life. Why in books the main characters all have to be relateable. For a broad variety of people as readers that would be highly impossible. Also I find it nice to get new perspectives on things and in the end its a character in a book. Dunno how some readers life in real life with all these "unrelateable" people around them haha
On the other hand, I don't understand how people CAN enjoy reading about people being generally unlikable. But we're all different, and we all like different things. Personally, if the main character makes me extremely uncomfortable or I simply don't understand their reasonings (i.e unrelatable to me); I will probably rate it low. It doesn't mean I dislike the author, or that I think the book is bad/not well written, or that other people shouldn't read it. Just mean I didn't enjoy reading it.
When You said, “This book was so bad it gave me a pimple.” I died! 😂💀😂💀 As always, I love your videos!!!! You’re my fave and you looked absolutely beautiful at the end of this video! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
i really loved ur outlook on all the books, you really kind of take your opinions of the story out of it and talk about the book based on the writing and the actual content.
Such a great video idea! I laughed so much when you were talking about the short story collection. It was a ghost!! 😂 Yes for a video on the highest rated books on your TBR.
I stumbled upon this little gem of a video and genuinely really liked it. I normally don’t tend to watch videos this long all the way through but I was highly entertained ! I would also definitely love to see a top rated books version of this video, thank you for the content Lala :)
This was such a great idea! You should totally do something like this for the highest rated books on your tbr. Also a 40 minute Lala video is the quality content I know and love and I'm so hyped!
"This book is so bad it gave me a pimple." I died laughing! xDDDD I love your videos because of multiple reasons but the two most prominent ones are how creative and unique you are and how insightful your thoughts are too. I think this was such an interesting concept and I love how not only you choose the books based on their ratings but try to understand why their low ratings could be and then also compare your previous thoughts to the real reviews. It's so interesting to hear your thoughts on unlikeable characters and "problematic" books because a lot of what you say resonates in me and even the thing I don't agree with I can understand. I only found your channel like a couple months ago but I think you're quickly becoming my favorite Booktuber
i came across this video on a whim and honestly? you seriously deserve more credit on booktube. your views in this about, "do we necessarily have to have unlikable main characters who somehow give a commentary on what they're doing is wrong or if it's entertaining, is it fine?" is genuinely one of the first times i've heard someone ask this question, alongside, "if a book is boring and plain but gives a good message, do i have to give it a higher rating?". i've done some investigative work of my own and experimented by seeing where people stood on the catcher in the rye, which is one of my favorite books, and found that so many people dislike it because of holden. the thing is, what if i relate to an unlikable main character and i actually enjoy him? then what does that say about me? i think that there's another aspect to it too, where you shouldn't perpetuate hate about a certain character in a popular novel because then that could make people like me feel awful about ourselves and wonder what's wrong with us? (even though most of the complaints i see are that holden's rich. i still relate to him and i'm poor so i see that argument as invalid every single time). and i don't enjoy most young adult novels because i think that all the protagonists are written to be the stereotype of a teenager or young adult today (even if they're good! it's just the same character over and over again!) if you have any adult recommendations you think i'd enjoy, or a list of where to start, please send them my way because i'm genuinely interested in starting to read adult novels. i'm so glad youtube suggested you for me, you've earned yourself a subscriber and i'm gonna spread your channel where i can because you are awesome
Your videos are always so creative and different from everything I watch on UA-cam and I love them. This is such a great idea and it makes me want to see what the lowest rated books on my TBR are and do a blog post on them.
You know what would be so cool? If you did this same general challenge but did it based on the book’s popularity. Like, sort them based on how many people have read them and you can do both the most and least popular. I love this video though!
I’m working on a novel that explores racism/ labeling theory in a fantasy setting. Essentially, it’s the story of a girl discovering that the way her society separates its members is arbitrary. To do this, I have to introduce the world as she believes it to be pre-enlightenment, meaning she looks down on those of the “bad” race. I just hope people will get to the part where she starts questioning the order of things, and won’t automatically dnf it and give it a low rating.
I usually don't like reading vlogs, but I always watch and love yours! I love your personality so much and they're so calming and nice! And even if I prefer fantasy, scifi, and horror, not your faves, I always love hearing your opinions even of I'll never read the books you talk about!
god I love your videos. your opinions are so honest and intelligent. and this idea is so original! & makes such a good point on rating systems and giving books a chance. I also don't think you need to relate to a character to enjoy or appreciate the story itself. If that were the case all those crime thriller lovers would be in the hot seat lol
This was SO interesting. I really enjoyed the thoughts you had on reading and rating. Also, you should definitely do a highest rated books counterpart.
I love that your videos are different to other book tubers! I loved this video, I also loved your closet unhaul series, I loved the commentary and reaction to yourself. I also loved your DNA choose my TBR keep up the original content !!!
Your videos are seriously some of the best on booktube (and youtube in general). I love this video idea! I always look forward to seeing what you'll come up with next!
I am obsessed with your content! It's so original! I would say that I agree that just because you don't relate to a book means you should therefore rate it low. You just aren't going to relate to all of the characters out there - there are too many! But it is nice when you can find a couple who seem to "get you." And although a book doesn't need a "message" to be a good book, I would hope that Books steer clear of harmful messages. We get enough of that in the real world and from other media, I don't want to read about it in my books as well.. you know?
I love how the booktube community is so lovefull. I think it's the kindest and most beautiful youtube community. No drama, no hate, book tubers watch and support other boom tubers, people are intelligent and actually interested in the subject, having interesting conversations about actual things that are important and help them in life. I love this community. Thank you guys ❤
This was so awesome! I really appreciated your thoughts on why people tend rate books lower. Please do the video of you reading the highest rated books on your TBR.
I love your discussion about whether unlikeable characters/plot events make a book itself unlikeable. I think so many people give books with bad characters low ratings because they’re harder to get through (though I think we as readers can benefit from them because they help us remember that real life people aren’t always the perfect ratio of good traits to one or to obligatory flaws that many books would lead us to believe they are) and also because so often we read books to escape our own lives and struggles, and maybe to read about characters who don’t have their lives together and who are “problematic” in some ways is a little too close to reality. It’s so difficult because I want to support books that send good messages and treat delicate subjects with respect, but at the same time I feel like books that don’t always do that aren’t always inherently bad (though to be clear some certainly are) and have their own lessons to teach us.
That's exactly what I do every time with my book list that is 1600 long. But then I watch the list and go back doing something else. You're so good and can't stop telling this to you. Sorry if I'm repetitive because I'm writing this under all videos I'm watching since this morning, because I discovered you today and I have to watch all of them and repeat this many times again. 😂🤣
“Elizabeth came off as unlikeable, sad, and lost and I couldn’t relate” - lol what a humble brag
LOL
That’s my issue with rating books low based on the morality of the characters. If you can’t explain why it was bad writing other than “the main was a meaniieee” it isn’t the most pertinent point. What if they wrote an unlikeable character but they wrote them so well and so realistic? Books can give you an insight into another persons state of mind- even an evil person. So they don’t have to be relatable in my opinion, otherwise you’re limiting all “good” writing to characters who largely share your personality or life experience
This made me scream
As an Elizabeth I felt so deeply called out
@@picanigeorgello2847 you can like or dislike a book for whatever reason. you don't need a reason. if you don't like reading about road trips then it's fine to dislike a road trip story. it is fair. it's your reading.
You bring so much innovation to BookTube, Lala, this was a great video concept. I really enjoyed it!
Ariel! You're too kind 💕💕💕
True, it’s such an interesting cool idea.
True too. It’s such great to see someone talk about books in different ways.
"story number 5 wasn't a ghost...it was a ghost boat" LOL I just cracked up so hard. Loving this video!!!!
Omg me too!! Trying to be quite and not wake up kid
Me too 😂
yes read the highest rated books!!
Oml yasssss
I love how you film all these videos on the sly and upload them with no warning and we end up watching footage from half a year ago like it happened yesterday. I don’t know why but I find it hysterical
Morgan Macfie me too when she said it was June I was like "wait did my phone had a stroke why am I just getting the notification now" 😂
I love that! I hate it so much when UA-camrs tease everytime "I'm doing exciting things, that I can't tell you about", that's so annoying
Magi MiteinemG I know what u mean; I don’t mind people mentioning it but, when they say it all the time it’s comes across very arrogantly.
i love how the content you post on booktube is constantly changing and unique!!
I absolutely love the content you put out. It is so different than what other youtubers put out and it keeps it fresh. I literally watch every minute of every video of yours. You are awesome
I was JUST about to make a similar comment. I love her!!
I'm not saying this to be disparaging, but the inability for the YA bookish community to distinguish between "problematic" characters and "problematic" writers/books is something that has bothered me since I've found Booktube. I think it is due to the persistent need to be excessively woke (which I find extremely condescending, but that's another discussion), where people will look for reasons to show how forward-thinking they are by picking apart everything they can.
Authors should not have to bend over backwards to explain that obviously immoral characters are not role models. It is painfully clear that young women who call each other names, slut shame each other and sleep with each other's boyfriends are not role models. It's fine to dislike a book because it was unenjoyable to read, but I often see people saying "this book was sexist" rather than "these characters had unlikeable personalities and I didn't enjoy reading about their escapades". And, yeah, sometimes it can be difficult to determine if the character's flaws are written intentionally or whether they are a reflection of the author (I couldn't finish The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao because I suspected it was the latter and am now feeling quite vindicated), but I find that is not terribly common.
Amen. I can barely watch youtubers anymore, they exhaust me with their "righteousness" and then they praise books with plots and topics that are just as bad as they critique. I'm not liking this new trend.
I agree with this so much
I'm glad someone was finally able to put this into words.
I agree.
agreed. and on the other hand so many well known books have "problematic" characters but everyone pretends to like them just to seem intellectual e.g. goethes faust
The Goodreads scan thing will scan the book from showing it the whole front cover and it finds the book a lot faster than waiting for it to register the barcode.
Hannah Jeror Thank you for this information! It makes everything easier! ☺️
It makes it so fast! I just put a stack of books on the floor and move down the stack one by one just removing the top book. I went through 50 books in probably 10 min.
I was going to say the same thing! I've never used the scanner like that. I've only scanned the front covers.
Thank you for this info! It definitely would be easier than scanning the barcode
What?! Thank you for this. This will make everything so much easier honestly
I think it's sad if people only read books that had likable or relatable main characters. There are so many great books out there, all three Gillian Flynn books come to mind right away. Thanks for putting this video together, besides just the time it took, but for your honest opinions and thoughts.
This is why I love you Kayla! I really dislike the trend of not liking a book just because a character or characters are unlikable. Books would be super boring if everyone went around doing and saying and being the cookie cutter 'right' way in them
I agree! Especially on the reversal when people complain about characters being too perfect. Often authors write unlikable characters ON PURPOSE. So to say they did a bad job because they succeeded in just that is nonsensical.
To my husband: “Sorry I can’t go to the store with you because Lala just posted a 45 minute video.”
so many people don't understand that 1. you DON'T need an empowering, likeable character and 2. NOT EVERY STORY IS GONNA BE ALL FLUFFY RAINBOWS!! THE WORLD ISNT LIKE THAT
*and it was a ghost all along!* 👻👻👻
:0
I love that you will say just because a book has a dislikable main character or situation, doesn't mean the book is inherently bad. Problematic things clearly happen in real life, and just because a book focuses on bad mentalities or problematic characters, doesn't necessarily make that book bad. I love that you call out the issues you have, but also say what you loved about the book rather than writing it off all together. Great video!!
Personally i think there are hard subjects like abuse that should be written and talked about. But i think that it is a problem if the author romanticizes the subjects or writes about it in a disrespectful way.
name another youtuber who can put out nearly an hour long video and I dont get bored during it. Great video!
Talking about how to rate problamtic books I always look at it as as long as you are aware of the problematic aspects the rating doesn’t matter. To bring up a popular example: I personally love Twilight (at this point it’s actually more nostalgic love but oh well) but I’m very aware of the problamtic relationship and I’m not romantacizing it.
Also on unlikeable characters I agree with you. If a character is unlikeable but it’s the point of the book I won’t rate my book less because of it but if the character is unlikeable but they’re not supposed to be than it will effect my rating. An example for that is Paper Towns. The main critic I see for that book is that people didn’t like Margo but that never effected my rating because that’s the point. Margo is not supposed to be liked, otherwise John Green would have written the ending differently. On the flip side I recently read I See London I See France and didn’t like the characters at all but it’s written to be liked and that did bring down my rating.
This comment ended up being more rambly than I thought but I really enjoyed the video and it made me think about how we rate books (as you could probably tell).
I definitely agree. About a year ago I read the book Running by Cara Hoffman and really enjoyed it even though the main characters were despicable, because that's how they were written to be. However, later when I read The Rattled Bones by SM Parker, I hated the main character and rated the novel low because she was meant to be this likable cool girl. It's all about perspective!
A man stays in a hotel room. He sees a ghost* (*I'm on the edge of my seat!). The innkeeper the next day says, "Oh, that's my husband, the ghost." 😱😱😱
Highest rated... oooh! I’d love to see that. I find that many 5 star books are like 3 star for me 🤷🏻♀️
When I first read the title I thought it said "Rereading my lowest rated books" and even though that's not what this video is, I think that'd be a great idea if you haven't done it yet! Love this video
Chelsea Cooper same
came as fast as i could 😭 i made popcorn for this❤️
EDIT: you should make a closet unhaul 2019❤️
Juliannaa Michellee PLEASE
I know she won’t, but it would be SO GOOD!!!!! 💙💙
Saw it pop up last night. Saved it for this morning. Came to work - opened it - got to the store so i can buy creamer for my coffee, made my coffee. Just sat and ready to enjoy.
enjoy!! ☺️ always a good time with Lala
CLOSET UNHAUL!!! PLEASE!!
HOW IS LALA ALWAYS COMING UP WITH THESE TBR IDEAS OH MY GOODNESS LET ME GET ON HER LEVEL.
Wanna know why you’re my favorite booktuber? You’re super creative and aren’t afraid to read books that won’t be your fave which makes your content so fun and enjoyable to watch. Keep ‘em coming!!
I appreciate the conversation you started in this video so much! I could even argue that I think it’s important to have “problematic” elements in books because it’s faithful to real life and we have to be able to learn how to handle those things whenever we face them or hear about them. Also I think too often we don’t give the reader enough credit to determine if what the character is doing is acceptable. The more widely you read, the more you’ll learn.
I get asked many times why I love booksandlala because our Reading taste are completely different and to that I always answer that her videos are absolutely amazing. The way she talks about books is so eloquent and her vlogs involving her family make me giddy. She brings a uniqueness to the BookTube community and there is no one on Booktube like her. I love Lala and would continue to watch her even if we have different opinions on books. TBH I wish I was her friend because she is a Graphic Designer (which I’m studying in college), she is hilarious, and I could listen to her talk all day. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk
YES FLASHBACK TO THOSE YELLOW NAILS I LOVED THEM!
I like books that have unlikeable main characters where there is maybe no distinct point to the story or thing to be learned from it (sort of like Those Girls I guess) because sometimes there are real people who are actually unlikeable and who don't grow and are generally "problematic". People like this exist, and they're different from me so it's interesting to read about. I don't always want to relate to a character and I don't always want a book to make me happy. My favorite art is not necessarily what I find the most beautiful but what makes me feel the strongest emotions - regardless of whether they are positive or negative.
Also: 40 minute video?? HELL YES I am here for it
You should read The Black Witch! One of the most controversial books on Goodreads because it’s about racism between non-human races in a fantasy world. Others have defended it, others have left 1 star reviews without reading it.
I also appreciate the time spent in videos like these. Scanning books is one thing but having the organization take videos through months to give us this content is lit.
I’d love to see the flip version of this! I don’t rate a book low just because I hated the characters. If they were obviously written to be unlikeable I wouldn’t rate the character category low either but a lot of times I hate characters that are not written like this. But to get a rating of 2 or lower from me the book has to have poor writing, poor atmosphere, a boring plot, I have to be so not intrigued that it takes a lot of forcing myself for me to finish it and I have to be not entertained at all 😅🙈
AnniesBookworld u
I absolutely loved this vlog! Multiple times you had really great points on why people felt the way they did but at the same time you explained why they don’t necessarily need to like the main characters to enjoy the book. You are one of my favorite booktubers and I just wanted to let you know ❤️
"It was a ghost... boat" 😂💀
I simply adore you. "Well, 5 stars! This is my brand of bitter poison." 😂😂😂 You are amazing. I wish we were neighbors. LOL!
Ha ha, I loved your comment of "you're going to have to stick around and endure this because I have to" . The scan books feature from Goodreads works sometimes and other times it comes up with a completely random book. You made a good point about ratings. It can be hard to decide on something particularly if there is problematic content. I think it's important to read a book based on how you may like it and not just assume that because it has a low rating that it might be a terrible book. Sometimes the books that haven't gotten good reviews draw me in more than the popular ones. Generally I don't let the ratings decide if I'm going to read a book or not. I am curious to see you do a video on books that have been rated the highest.
plot twist: Campfire Stories of Western Canada wasn't even a book... it was the ghost of a book all along.
Please do the flip!
I love LOVE the discussion in this about rating a book based on the "problematic" topics and subject matter vs. rating a book for enjoyment.
This is so refreshing to watch. And thank you thank you for looking past what might be "problematic", and possibly unlikable characters. That makes me feel like I can really trust your opinions. I always feel like I know why you give the ratings you do, and you seem to look at books more the way I imagine the authors intended for them to be viewed and digested. Thank you!
I know what I am doing for the next 43 minutes! Yay!
you have become my favorite book channel. I love that you get the book , read it and review it all in one go. Its not like you buy a whole bunch of books , tell us what they were , read them and at the end of the month say what you thought. Good Job
I really enjoy how open you are to all topics of books and read to find out your own opinion. Also, you’re never offensive just honest with your own opinions. It’s so refreshing.
Oh my god. I read the title and I’m so excited to watch this video ❤️
This was actually a genius idea😂 Good on you LaLa👏🏽👏🏽😂
I decided to rewatch this and I realised that this is still probably one of my favourite videos you've done. You should do an updated one ;)
What a great video and cool idea! This is exactly why I don't put too much stock into star ratings, or even book reviews, to be honest. Every thing is subjective; just because something is "problematic" to one person doesn't mean it's "problematic" to another. Someone else might hate a character that I love or I may hate a character that every one else loves. As a writer I understand that characters, like real people, are are not perfect. They have flaws; they have quirks, and sometimes they just do, say, and think dumb shit. I have read many books with flawed, unlikable characters and still enjoyed the books. This is why I just read books that I think I may like instead of looking to Goodreads or UA-cam for ratings. Tfs☺
Wow I never comment on anything and I'm on my phone typing this so excuse any typos but here's my outlook on the whole "always rating problematic things low" topic: it depends on the reader. I know a lot of people (myself included) base a lot of their enjoyment of a book on how much they like the characters (aside from villans or antagonists, but people can like those too depending on the story) . Most people use books for escapism, and would much rather read something that makes them feel positive emotions. In another way, I feel like certain people just take more offense to problematic things than others; for example, I'm fit in pretty much every marginalized group under the sun and I personally don't take things like racism/homophobia/mysogyny/fatphobia in books lightly. If a reader doesn't take as much offense to those things in books, independent of whether or not they take offense to it in real life scenarios, then that's their opinion and they can rate a problematic book higher based on enjoyment if they so please. I think if anything, when someone rates a problematic book, whether high or low, they should AT LEAST talk about the problematic content in the review, so that others who may not like the book because of those things can know about the problematic issues and judge whether or not they would want to read that book from there.
I hope that made sense! I love that you made this video and brought this point of discussion up in the first place, it should be talked about more!
Love this perspective, thanks Amara 💕
I base my rating on my enjoyment level. On the other hand, I rarely enjoy books with unlikeable characters and problematic content. It only happens only if the writing is really good and the story is engaging. Most of the time, I stop caring about unlikeable characters and do not enjoy reading about them.
Thanks for bringing up this viewpoint.
"Oh, that's my husband, the ghost" 😂😂
"This one has too many big words too. Maybe I should just stick to YA". Girl, I felt that in my soul. 😭
You should try to read a bunch of books from Canadian authors based in your hometown or places you’ve visited in Canada or Vancouver. Last semester I took a class where we read all Canadian authors who wrote books set in Ottawa (where I live), it was cool to see places I recognized kinda like that campfire book you read. Loved this video ❤️
I really respect how you can bring here a new and interesting idea or an experiment an how much time you take to make videos like this. I appreciate it so much!
The campfire book review from you was hilarious!... "it was a ghost..boat" 😂😂
New to your channel so I'm catching up on your videos💛
"Do these have low ratings because they're CANADIAN???" 😂💕
Lala - PLEASE do the flip version! Your videos are great. You have the most innovative approach to UA-cam and I am here for it. Your content along with your personality just make me so so happy!
"It was a ghost BOAT"
I rewatch this video just for that line. Gets me every time
i really loved this video. especially the part when you said "i dont need to relate to a character in order for me to like a book" 👏🏼 so true!
You’re so creative with ideas for videos. Nice to have booktube videos that differ from TBRs, wrap ups, and the norm. Love your channel.
LALA, YOU GIVE ME LIFE WITH THESE VIDEOS. You're honestly my creative inspiration. 43 minutes with the queen? Sign me the hell up!
I saw you holding up If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch, and I really loved that book.
I wouldn't exactly call it a thriller. It's more like a hard hitting contemporary, with a little bit of a survival story thrown in.
Also, this is such a great idea for a video. It's fun to see all these books we've already seen you read recently pop up in here.
I remember enjoying the book too!!
I love your ideas & how you analyzed and critiques the books. It reminded me that there are different ways of going about reviewing and viewing books rather than just how they make you feel emotionally or if the subject matter is difficult and instead take a look at the book itself and how it was executed.
i really enjoyed the discussions on book ratings/how to rate books with controversial topics!
Yes, I sat and watched this entire video. I don't mind long videos at all. :)
That being said, and several here have said it already, I truly enjoy your content. It's fresh and original. You twist and turn things to suit your purpose and to keep everyone entertained while also being informative. Well done and thank YOU. :)
Can I say, that I hate the 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl cover, because if it makes me want to brush away the eraser shavings when it’s on a *screen* I don’t want to know how paranoid I would be with this physical book😂😂😂😂
The title of this video should have been lala: devils advocate 😂
Thanks for always keeping your videos fresh and different Lala! I totally think you should read the highest rated books on your TBR next! 💕
This was so good, and “he looks like a fun guy” about the author of the Flame Alphabet made me almost spit out my coffee😂😂
Other book tubers can put out 10 min videos and I get bored and skip through them, but I consistently sit and watch the entirety of your long videos. Your content and personality are engaging and creative! Thanks for the video and I def. hope to see the top rated books edition!
Thank you for this! I already went ahead and added all my TBR (100+) books on goodreads and I'm so excited to start reading those w/ the lowest ratings 😂
Oh my god definitely interested in another of these
I always think it’s interesting that people rate books low because they have unlikable narrators and that suddenly means the author is also unlikable. I don’t know I think unlikable narrators and characters have a place in literature, not everything needs to be or is positive.
Morgan Jenson also you wouldn't relate with every person you meet in real life. Why in books the main characters all have to be relateable. For a broad variety of people as readers that would be highly impossible. Also I find it nice to get new perspectives on things and in the end its a character in a book. Dunno how some readers life in real life with all these "unrelateable" people around them haha
On the other hand, I don't understand how people CAN enjoy reading about people being generally unlikable. But we're all different, and we all like different things.
Personally, if the main character makes me extremely uncomfortable or I simply don't understand their reasonings (i.e unrelatable to me); I will probably rate it low.
It doesn't mean I dislike the author, or that I think the book is bad/not well written, or that other people shouldn't read it. Just mean I didn't enjoy reading it.
Nyoka Steenholdt I really enjoy an unreliable (generally unlikable) narrator to understand vastly different view points.
Oh man, this is so good! And how you incorporated those into your readathon TBRs -- BRILLIANT!
When You said, “This book was so bad it gave me a pimple.” I died! 😂💀😂💀
As always, I love your videos!!!! You’re my fave and you looked absolutely beautiful at the end of this video! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
i really loved ur outlook on all the books, you really kind of take your opinions of the story out of it and talk about the book based on the writing and the actual content.
gurl at least you don't have Hot Pterodacyl Boyfriend on your TBR. That 2.22 rating is WELL DESERVED.
GHOST BOAT!
That title alone has me intrigued 😂😂
I love the ideas you come up with, when I watch a Lala video, I know it will be unlike anything else on BookTube!
Such a great video idea! I laughed so much when you were talking about the short story collection. It was a ghost!! 😂 Yes for a video on the highest rated books on your TBR.
I stumbled upon this little gem of a video and genuinely really liked it. I normally don’t tend to watch videos this long all the way through but I was highly entertained ! I would also definitely love to see a top rated books version of this video, thank you for the content Lala :)
I would love to see the flipped version! I love your content and how you seem to change things up from month to month.
This was such a great idea! You should totally do something like this for the highest rated books on your tbr. Also a 40 minute Lala video is the quality content I know and love and I'm so hyped!
"This book is so bad it gave me a pimple." I died laughing! xDDDD
I love your videos because of multiple reasons but the two most prominent ones are how creative and unique you are and how insightful your thoughts are too.
I think this was such an interesting concept and I love how not only you choose the books based on their ratings but try to understand why their low ratings could be and then also compare your previous thoughts to the real reviews.
It's so interesting to hear your thoughts on unlikeable characters and "problematic" books because a lot of what you say resonates in me and even the thing I don't agree with I can understand.
I only found your channel like a couple months ago but I think you're quickly becoming my favorite Booktuber
i came across this video on a whim and honestly? you seriously deserve more credit on booktube. your views in this about, "do we necessarily have to have unlikable main characters who somehow give a commentary on what they're doing is wrong or if it's entertaining, is it fine?" is genuinely one of the first times i've heard someone ask this question, alongside, "if a book is boring and plain but gives a good message, do i have to give it a higher rating?". i've done some investigative work of my own and experimented by seeing where people stood on the catcher in the rye, which is one of my favorite books, and found that so many people dislike it because of holden. the thing is, what if i relate to an unlikable main character and i actually enjoy him? then what does that say about me? i think that there's another aspect to it too, where you shouldn't perpetuate hate about a certain character in a popular novel because then that could make people like me feel awful about ourselves and wonder what's wrong with us? (even though most of the complaints i see are that holden's rich. i still relate to him and i'm poor so i see that argument as invalid every single time). and i don't enjoy most young adult novels because i think that all the protagonists are written to be the stereotype of a teenager or young adult today (even if they're good! it's just the same character over and over again!) if you have any adult recommendations you think i'd enjoy, or a list of where to start, please send them my way because i'm genuinely interested in starting to read adult novels. i'm so glad youtube suggested you for me, you've earned yourself a subscriber and i'm gonna spread your channel where i can because you are awesome
Your videos are always so creative and different from everything I watch on UA-cam and I love them. This is such a great idea and it makes me want to see what the lowest rated books on my TBR are and do a blog post on them.
You know what would be so cool? If you did this same general challenge but did it based on the book’s popularity. Like, sort them based on how many people have read them and you can do both the most and least popular. I love this video though!
I’m working on a novel that explores racism/ labeling theory in a fantasy setting. Essentially, it’s the story of a girl discovering that the way her society separates its members is arbitrary. To do this, I have to introduce the world as she believes it to be pre-enlightenment, meaning she looks down on those of the “bad” race. I just hope people will get to the part where she starts questioning the order of things, and won’t automatically dnf it and give it a low rating.
"This is my brand of bitter poison" Big, big mood.
I usually don't like reading vlogs, but I always watch and love yours! I love your personality so much and they're so calming and nice! And even if I prefer fantasy, scifi, and horror, not your faves, I always love hearing your opinions even of I'll never read the books you talk about!
Loved this! It explained some of your weird reading choices lately haha.
I'm so proud of the effort of putting all those books onto your Goodreads. I'd love to see a flipped version of this!
Such an original video! I loved it and I loved seeing how you had been planning it for months. I was really entertaining, I enjoyed it so much :)
This is such a good video idea. I’m having a great time going back through your catalogue! 😂😂
god I love your videos. your opinions are so honest and intelligent. and this idea is so original! & makes such a good point on rating systems and giving books a chance.
I also don't think you need to relate to a character to enjoy or appreciate the story itself. If that were the case all those crime thriller lovers would be in the hot seat lol
This was SO interesting. I really enjoyed the thoughts you had on reading and rating. Also, you should definitely do a highest rated books counterpart.
I love that your videos are different to other book tubers! I loved this video, I also loved your closet unhaul series, I loved the commentary and reaction to yourself. I also loved your DNA choose my TBR keep up the original content !!!
Your videos are seriously some of the best on booktube (and youtube in general). I love this video idea! I always look forward to seeing what you'll come up with next!
I am obsessed with your content! It's so original!
I would say that I agree that just because you don't relate to a book means you should therefore rate it low. You just aren't going to relate to all of the characters out there - there are too many! But it is nice when you can find a couple who seem to "get you."
And although a book doesn't need a "message" to be a good book, I would hope that Books steer clear of harmful messages. We get enough of that in the real world and from other media, I don't want to read about it in my books as well.. you know?
I love your outlook on ' problematic and how it should affect a rating of a book' and I totally agreed with your view 💕
I love how the booktube community is so lovefull. I think it's the kindest and most beautiful youtube community. No drama, no hate, book tubers watch and support other boom tubers, people are intelligent and actually interested in the subject, having interesting conversations about actual things that are important and help them in life. I love this community. Thank you guys ❤
This was so awesome! I really appreciated your thoughts on why people tend rate books lower. Please do the video of you reading the highest rated books on your TBR.
Your videos are so different to all the other common tags on booktube. I really appreciate the diversity and creativity.
I love your discussion about whether unlikeable characters/plot events make a book itself unlikeable. I think so many people give books with bad characters low ratings because they’re harder to get through (though I think we as readers can benefit from them because they help us remember that real life people aren’t always the perfect ratio of good traits to one or to obligatory flaws that many books would lead us to believe they are) and also because so often we read books to escape our own lives and struggles, and maybe to read about characters who don’t have their lives together and who are “problematic” in some ways is a little too close to reality. It’s so difficult because I want to support books that send good messages and treat delicate subjects with respect, but at the same time I feel like books that don’t always do that aren’t always inherently bad (though to be clear some certainly are) and have their own lessons to teach us.
That's exactly what I do every time with my book list that is 1600 long. But then I watch the list and go back doing something else. You're so good and can't stop telling this to you. Sorry if I'm repetitive because I'm writing this under all videos I'm watching since this morning, because I discovered you today and I have to watch all of them and repeat this many times again. 😂🤣
The campfire book: sounds like it was meant to be read one story a day/night or for the stories to be told at an actual campfire.