I just read Catherine House and The Pallbearer's Club and loved them both! I think this is a good idea because certain books just need to find the right audience to be loved
I would love to see a video recommending books based on childhood/teenage favorites. Like if you liked Twilight and want to get into more adult books, try this! It would be so nice to have go-to recommendations for people that haven’t read since childhood but want to get back into it.
I’m really enjoying these recommendations, what a cool way to make a recommendation video!! Planning on trying all of those dealing with the elements thrillers.
The fact that you and Gabby made the same type of video!! Great minds think alike. You two definitely have the most captivating types of videos (to me) , along with Ashley from Ashley's Little Library
I loved this vlog and have saved Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight to pick up! I think that every book has an audience but not every publisher or seller attempts to make sure you know that. This could definitely help people find new favorites, but it could also help several authors on Goodreads that have not been given their due there.
Girl!! I’ve added *SIX* more books to my endless TBR😳🤷🏼♀️ I appreciate all your hard work, giving us all suggestions for that never ending TBR💜 Thank you for all you do!
Kayla your ideas are always so cool, I loved this hybrid concept!! I already wanted to read Luster, and now I want to even more to see if I might enjoy Catherine House too!
This was a fun topic and explained so much of my ratings like Bunny (5 stars) and The Secret History (1 star) ended up with me giving Catherine House 3 stars. This pattern happened on so many of these combos lol
I LOVED the concept of this video. I would have never thought to read some of these, but the examples and recommendations really have me adding to my TBR list.
Leave the World Behind was one of my favourite books of last year easily!! I read it mainly because all the reviews from people giving it low ratings were describing all positive things for me 😅 Looking forward to trying Pallbearer's Club next month!
This was such a fun video idea, I loved it!! I’ve been persuaded to pick up the wild ones and the dreamers. For Lakewood I would recommend Radium Girls and the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - both are actually nonfiction, but they’re narrative so the storytelling is quite good. Henrietta Lacks is probably a better como content-wise because it has to do solely with improper medical care, whereas Radium Girls has a bit of that as well as industry corruption. Them being true stories actually makes them more horrifying though. I liked Radium Girls better, but both stories are definitely worth learning about regardless.
This was a great concept! I enjoyed it. I am definitely picking up The Wild Ones ASAP because I loved We Ride Upon Sticks and also dig Anna-Marie McLemore
This was such a cool idea! I loved the way you pitched these! I think it might be a fun challenge to read all the books pitched for a particular book. Thanks for the fun video!
I really liked this video because I find so often the books that "GET ME" (or is it the reverse, that I "GET THEM"?) waver around a 3 star rating. And I think it's often, as you say, because people go into them expecting something and getting something else. Or some people don't like books with specific styles - ambiguity, minimal plot, slow build up, odd genre mash ups - which are all things I'm totally down for. I think you did a much better job of "If you like these you'll like this" than Goodreads does, their algorithm lacks your insights. An extra match that popped into my head for books about sleeping pandemics is Severance by Ling Ma. Not sure how much I liked the book, it's more that it left me thoughtful about it. In the end for me it's about vibe. The book I'm reading right now is The Quick, written in 2014 with only a 3.25 average rating, thick and slow, but I'm loving the vibe and happy inside its pages. (It's reminding me of Ordinary Monsters, which I just read, and even though Ordinary Monster has a lot more action, I think I'm liking The Quick more. We shall see, I'm only about halfway through. It also reminds me a bit of Jess Kidd's Things in Jars, but without Kidd's dark whimsy.)
I love this format, so many recommendations! Some of the groupings I haven't read all of the books, but it just means I can try all of the others in the grouping especially if I'm already interested like for Catherine House and Luster.
I loved this concept so much, you just gave me 12 new books to read!! I’m still hesitant to pick up I crawl through you 😅 it’s been sitting on my tbr for so long but I’m just afraid I won’t love it and I don’t gave audiobook for it so it will also take me more time arghhh. But I will give it a try someday.
Love how this video worked both ways - if I liked ones the were you were pitching (loved The Dreamers!), I figure I’ll be interested in the others like it.
every time you bring up The River at Night in your videos I get reminded how desperately i want to read it because i love the idea of just thriller no mystery!! gonna make it a goal to read it by the end of the year!
Okayy I'm a big Lisa Jewell fan & loved the twist in Behind her eyes so I'm definitely picking up the Riley Sager book! I love the idea of people watching/being nosey tbh 😂 Really love this idea of a video! I would love to see you do this again in future 🥰
Saw Confessions of a Shopaholic in there, and you said you didn’t know who to recommend that one to. I will give you a reverse recommendation because you said somewhere you MIGHT be entering your romance girlie era: if you enjoyed the Shopaholic series (or Sophie Kinsella in general), I think you would love Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall. It’s a romance (bordering on “chick lit”) about a bisexual single mom in the UK entering into a Great British Bake Off type competition. The book is super fun and hilarious (as are all Alexis Hall books I’ve read so far) and the narration of the audiobook is an absolute treat as well because the narrator does all these British dialects. I think it would also make a great “beginner romance” for newbies to the genre.
i love this video idea!! as soon as you describe a mystery/thriller as action packed, fast paced and fun, i add it to my tbr and so far we have a 100% success rate ;)
kayla, i am BEGGING you to read The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy. it’s got the kind of medical setting going on, but it’s sooo interesting. it’s an older book, and i never see anyone talking about it, but i Loved It So Much, and i think it could be a good match for your taste! it also reminds me a lot of the show Severance, if you’ve seen/heard of it.
I like the video concept, but since I didn't know the books or the books you said they were similar to, a little more plot synopsis would have been helpful! Thanks for the video!
Thank you for the recommendations ! A House At The Bottom Of A Lake and Night Of The Mannequins both sound like books I will like. I put them at the top of my want to read list.
I think it would be so much fun to take one of the books that I'd never thought of reading (with comparisons I'd never thought of reading) and reading those and seeing if I agree with your recommendation!
ok I love celeste ng so much especially everything I never told you so I guess I need to read that one ty🥰 we don't often have crossover in our reading recently so I wasn't expecting to get a recommendation heheh
I really liked The Dinner, so now I need to see if I will like The Confessions to see if I should read Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight 😁 This is such a fun video idea and I’m super impressed with your memory!
It could also be cool to correct comp titles? I’m not sure if that would strain your relationship with publishers, but I notice that a lot of books are just marketed wrong, and i’d love to know how you would have marketed it instead
I haven’t read Under Lock & Skeleton Key yet but it always reminds me of Acts of Violet by Margarita Montemore. I don’t know if they’re good comp titles, but I think you might like Acts of Violet either way!
If you loved Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby you might like Cold In July and Hap & Leonard by Joe R. Lansdale. He has some really weird stuff but those two are really similar in tone to Razorblade Tears 😊
I just read a book and thought "Kayla would appreciate this". Not enjoy, necessarily, because it's heavy subject matter. The book is called "One of the Boys" by Daniel Magariel. It's a character driven story about the relationship of brothers experiencing abuse and neglect. I live for the exploration of sibling dynamics, especially after becoming estranged from my own sister due to how we each separately handled our childhood trauma. I think this topic is so important and under-navigated (not a word). I really appreciated this novel (novella?). The audiobook was narrated beautifully.
This was a great concept for a video- very entertaining. If you do something like this again, I vote you go just a touch slower and more in depth and then make 2 videos out of it. It was too fast for my brain to keep up with! I had to keep pausing and rewinding a bit
Are you excited for the Cabin at The End of The World movie? I was surprised they changed the name to Knock at the Cabin. But I am always pumped for a M Night Shyamalan movie!
I just read House Across the Lake as a "spite read" as I normally don't enjoy Sager...but this one 100% entertained me. I will never say he's a great writer, but that book? 10/10 entertainment.
This video format does work for me. Because I too love questionable books. Lol Also, everyone please read Mary: an awakening of terror by Nat Cassidy because it is honestly the best book I’ve read in a long time. Top tier. On the shelf next to Bunny. It’s so so good.
omg i think i am grateful you made this video. I dnf'd leave the world behind only cause i have not seen anyone who liked it at all. but i like the mist so now i am thinking i should at least go give the book a try. lol
This video made me want to reread The Dreamers too - I think you should start a reread book club for the channel members! You can start with some of these books and force us to read them 😛
omg get the goldfinch away from the pallbearers club right now!!!! the goldfinch is my favorite book of all time and pallbearers is my worst read of this year 😂 love this video! ❤️
I think The Two Doctors Górski might be similar to Lakewood BUT this book hasn’t come out yet 😅 but the premise says something about it being a medical trauma story. It reminds me also of the movie Shutter Island.
I just read Catherine House and The Pallbearer's Club and loved them both! I think this is a good idea because certain books just need to find the right audience to be loved
I would love to see a video recommending books based on childhood/teenage favorites. Like if you liked Twilight and want to get into more adult books, try this! It would be so nice to have go-to recommendations for people that haven’t read since childhood but want to get back into it.
I’m really enjoying these recommendations, what a cool way to make a recommendation video!! Planning on trying all of those dealing with the elements thrillers.
The fact that you and Gabby made the same type of video!! Great minds think alike. You two definitely have the most captivating types of videos (to me) , along with Ashley from Ashley's Little Library
I loved this vlog and have saved Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight to pick up! I think that every book has an audience but not every publisher or seller attempts to make sure you know that. This could definitely help people find new favorites, but it could also help several authors on Goodreads that have not been given their due there.
Girl!! I’ve added *SIX* more books to my endless TBR😳🤷🏼♀️ I appreciate all your hard work, giving us all suggestions for that never ending TBR💜 Thank you for all you do!
I’m so impressed at how you did these recommendations! They are so well thought out. I added several holds at the library with these recommendations!
Kayla your ideas are always so cool, I loved this hybrid concept!! I already wanted to read Luster, and now I want to even more to see if I might enjoy Catherine House too!
This was a fun topic and explained so much of my ratings like Bunny (5 stars) and The Secret History (1 star) ended up with me giving Catherine House 3 stars. This pattern happened on so many of these combos lol
I gave Bunny 3 stars, The Secret History 5 stars, and Catherine House 3.75 stars 😂
I love this idea! Breathing new life into books that may have been overlooked due to ratings
This was an awesome recommendation video. There should definitely be a part two 😊
I LOVED the concept of this video. I would have never thought to read some of these, but the examples and recommendations really have me adding to my TBR list.
really great video - impressed by your ability to pull different narrative threads together!!
Leave the World Behind was one of my favourite books of last year easily!! I read it mainly because all the reviews from people giving it low ratings were describing all positive things for me 😅 Looking forward to trying Pallbearer's Club next month!
You have me so excited for Riku Onda's new book because confession is one of my fave books EVER, and I LOVED the dinner!!
This has to be the best video you’ve ever made!!! I got so many recs!!!!
I DNFed both “night film” and “plain bad heroines” so that’s got to be a good pairing
This was such a fun video idea, I loved it!! I’ve been persuaded to pick up the wild ones and the dreamers. For Lakewood I would recommend Radium Girls and the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - both are actually nonfiction, but they’re narrative so the storytelling is quite good. Henrietta Lacks is probably a better como content-wise because it has to do solely with improper medical care, whereas Radium Girls has a bit of that as well as industry corruption. Them being true stories actually makes them more horrifying though. I liked Radium Girls better, but both stories are definitely worth learning about regardless.
This was a great concept! I enjoyed it. I am definitely picking up The Wild Ones ASAP because I loved We Ride Upon Sticks and also dig Anna-Marie McLemore
This was such a cool idea! I loved the way you pitched these! I think it might be a fun challenge to read all the books pitched for a particular book. Thanks for the fun video!
I love this concept! You've convinced me to try some. I think you were SPOT ON with The Pallbearer's Club--especially with Woman, Eating.
Hahhaa omg I love the way we unintentionally twinned today 👯
Love the idea! Very well done!!!
It could just be a huge coincidence but I feel like this could be part of one of Kayla's experiments...gives new meaning to being a booktube twin 😄
i dig this theory
I secretly think everything is somehow a fun Kayla experiment 😂
I really liked this video because I find so often the books that "GET ME" (or is it the reverse, that I "GET THEM"?) waver around a 3 star rating. And I think it's often, as you say, because people go into them expecting something and getting something else. Or some people don't like books with specific styles - ambiguity, minimal plot, slow build up, odd genre mash ups - which are all things I'm totally down for. I think you did a much better job of "If you like these you'll like this" than Goodreads does, their algorithm lacks your insights. An extra match that popped into my head for books about sleeping pandemics is Severance by Ling Ma. Not sure how much I liked the book, it's more that it left me thoughtful about it. In the end for me it's about vibe. The book I'm reading right now is The Quick, written in 2014 with only a 3.25 average rating, thick and slow, but I'm loving the vibe and happy inside its pages. (It's reminding me of Ordinary Monsters, which I just read, and even though Ordinary Monster has a lot more action, I think I'm liking The Quick more. We shall see, I'm only about halfway through. It also reminds me a bit of Jess Kidd's Things in Jars, but without Kidd's dark whimsy.)
I read Leave the World Behind last week because of you and LOVED it. 5 stars! Now Im just adding half of these other "low" rated books to my TBR.
I love this format, so many recommendations! Some of the groupings I haven't read all of the books, but it just means I can try all of the others in the grouping especially if I'm already interested like for Catherine House and Luster.
I loved this concept so much, you just gave me 12 new books to read!! I’m still hesitant to pick up I crawl through you 😅 it’s been sitting on my tbr for so long but I’m just afraid I won’t love it and I don’t gave audiobook for it so it will also take me more time arghhh. But I will give it a try someday.
Yay I really loved this video idea! I really appreciate the idea that not every book is for every reader, but there are readers for that book!
I loved both The Dreamers and How High We Go In The Dark, which means I really need to read Emily St John Mandel!
Brilliant video. Very very helpful. Thank you so much 😊
I don't read mystery or thriller stories but damn! I love this style of recommendations and would love to see you, and other booktubers, do this more!
Love how this video worked both ways - if I liked ones the were you were pitching (loved The Dreamers!), I figure I’ll be interested in the others like it.
I really liked Catherine House, hated and dnf’d Secret History, and am planning on reading Bunny this month if I can fit it into my TBR
i liked catherine house, hated the goldfinch (same author), and bunny is my favorite book ever. so hopefully thats a good sign for you lol
Wow! Thanks for the perfect amount of info for the book recs!!!!!
I loved Catherine House, it's such an atmospheric book! I read it in one sitting and I never do that with books so that's how you know I was gripped.
Catherine House is still one of my favorite books because of your recommendation! Planning to reread it this fall 🥰
love that you put your own twist on this trend 💖
I really love the concept of this video. Good job!!
Love this idea, I’ve definitely got some recommendations from this ❤️
every time you bring up The River at Night in your videos I get reminded how desperately i want to read it because i love the idea of just thriller no mystery!! gonna make it a goal to read it by the end of the year!
Okayy I'm a big Lisa Jewell fan & loved the twist in Behind her eyes so I'm definitely picking up the Riley Sager book! I love the idea of people watching/being nosey tbh 😂 Really love this idea of a video! I would love to see you do this again in future 🥰
Oooo you comparing The House Across the Lake as being as weird as Behind Her Eyes has me intrigued. I also have Watching You on my tbr.
I have been looking for something similar to No exit in the fast paced thriller and atmosphere! Thank you ❤️
I loved this recommendation format - great idea!
This is fricken GREAT! Do not get self conscious about this video style… absolutely love it!
Saw Confessions of a Shopaholic in there, and you said you didn’t know who to recommend that one to. I will give you a reverse recommendation because you said somewhere you MIGHT be entering your romance girlie era: if you enjoyed the Shopaholic series (or Sophie Kinsella in general), I think you would love Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall. It’s a romance (bordering on “chick lit”) about a bisexual single mom in the UK entering into a Great British Bake Off type competition. The book is super fun and hilarious (as are all Alexis Hall books I’ve read so far) and the narration of the audiobook is an absolute treat as well because the narrator does all these British dialects. I think it would also make a great “beginner romance” for newbies to the genre.
What a fantastic and smart video! Though you have me worried now- I put The paulbearers on hold at my library- but I hated those other books lol
I read Leave the World Behind and Death in Her Hands because of you and I LOVED them.
I saved some of the recs to check later. Loved the concept!
i love this video idea!! as soon as you describe a mystery/thriller as action packed, fast paced and fun, i add it to my tbr and so far we have a 100% success rate ;)
I loved this video I hope you do more like this, it really gave me some good ideas.. thank you so much!
I love this video concept. I find that just using ratings is hard, I have to dive into comments for a book to see if I’m going to pick it up.
LOVED this video!! Especially the mishmash recs- do you have more of these? If so can you send links to them?
I absolutely adored Tripping Arcadia, and I of course love love love, Turn of the Key. That is a perfect pairing.
This is an EXCELLENT video idea!! 🥰😊
Our tastes are so similar when it comes to weird/under loved books! All of these books I either loved or think I'll really love once I get to them!
kayla, i am BEGGING you to read The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy. it’s got the kind of medical setting going on, but it’s sooo interesting. it’s an older book, and i never see anyone talking about it, but i Loved It So Much, and i think it could be a good match for your taste! it also reminds me a lot of the show Severance, if you’ve seen/heard of it.
I like the video concept, but since I didn't know the books or the books you said they were similar to, a little more plot synopsis would have been helpful! Thanks for the video!
Thank you for the recommendations ! A House At The Bottom Of A Lake and Night Of The Mannequins both sound like books I will like. I put them at the top of my want to read list.
I think it would be so much fun to take one of the books that I'd never thought of reading (with comparisons I'd never thought of reading) and reading those and seeing if I agree with your recommendation!
Did you and Gabby plan this?!
Haha no but I love how this video concept is going around cause its so fun to watch!!
ok I love celeste ng so much especially everything I never told you so I guess I need to read that one ty🥰 we don't often have crossover in our reading recently so I wasn't expecting to get a recommendation heheh
I really liked The Dinner, so now I need to see if I will like The Confessions to see if I should read Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight 😁 This is such a fun video idea and I’m super impressed with your memory!
The way I audibly gasped when I saw you uploaded a new video 🤩
Omg I love this video concept Kayla! 🤍
The Dreamers was one of my favourite books the year I read it, and I own How High We Go in the Dark so that makes me very excited to pick it up!
This video is amazing but I don’t have time right now to add these books to my tbr! I will need to come back here!
This was fun!! Added so many books to my TBR!
I just finished The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun and I feel like it qualifies as a medical social horror. Wasn't my cup of tea but maybe you'll like it
ok well just added Catherine House to my TBR because i really liked Luster and The Secret History (and reading Bunny soon!).
Added "So Happy for you" and "Searching for Sylvie Lee" to my TBR. 👍
It could also be cool to correct comp titles? I’m not sure if that would strain your relationship with publishers, but I notice that a lot of books are just marketed wrong, and i’d love to know how you would have marketed it instead
This was such a good idea! And I have to read Reprieve now lol
I haven’t read Under Lock & Skeleton Key yet but it always reminds me of Acts of Violet by Margarita Montemore. I don’t know if they’re good comp titles, but I think you might like Acts of Violet either way!
If you loved Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby you might like Cold In July and Hap & Leonard by Joe R. Lansdale. He has some really weird stuff but those two are really similar in tone to Razorblade Tears 😊
I just read a book and thought "Kayla would appreciate this". Not enjoy, necessarily, because it's heavy subject matter. The book is called "One of the Boys" by Daniel Magariel. It's a character driven story about the relationship of brothers experiencing abuse and neglect. I live for the exploration of sibling dynamics, especially after becoming estranged from my own sister due to how we each separately handled our childhood trauma. I think this topic is so important and under-navigated (not a word). I really appreciated this novel (novella?). The audiobook was narrated beautifully.
This was a great concept for a video- very entertaining. If you do something like this again, I vote you go just a touch slower and more in depth and then make 2 videos out of it. It was too fast for my brain to keep up with! I had to keep pausing and rewinding a bit
I love the recommendation system!
Oh no, booktube dilemma. Gabby and you posted the same video on the same day! Can't decide which to watch first!
I 100% agree with you about The Maidens, I liked it wayyyyy more than The Silent Patient!
catherine house and leave the world behind are two of my favourite books of the year so clearly you’re doing something right
💃💃💃
I’d love a “trying to read/finish one book every day for a week” super challenging but I wanna know if it’s possible!
What a great way to give recommendations!
Vita Nostra is a great rec if you liked Catherine House. I saw a lot of parallels between the two of them
Are you excited for the Cabin at The End of The World movie? I was surprised they changed the name to Knock at the Cabin. But I am always pumped for a M Night Shyamalan movie!
I just read House Across the Lake as a "spite read" as I normally don't enjoy Sager...but this one 100% entertained me. I will never say he's a great writer, but that book? 10/10 entertainment.
I loved this idea!! 💕
Absolutely loving the concept of "if you liked this AND this, read this"
This video format does work for me. Because I too love questionable books. Lol
Also, everyone please read Mary: an awakening of terror by Nat Cassidy because it is honestly the best book I’ve read in a long time. Top tier. On the shelf next to Bunny. It’s so so good.
Such a fun video!
You nailed it. I agree, I agree, I agree.
One of my favorites is The Body Double by Emily Beyda and it’s like 2something out of 5 on GR
Has anyone read When Tracks Fade by N Forbes Matheis? I would love to hear what some of you think about this novel and how you would rate it.
Friend, if you want reviews for your book, emailing book reviewers directly would be a better avenue 💕
@@BooksandLala Thanks. I am just getting started and trying to find out how to go about it. I appreciate your suggestion. I will research that.
you have convinced me to read The last boy and girl in the world
omg i think i am grateful you made this video. I dnf'd leave the world behind only cause i have not seen anyone who liked it at all. but i like the mist so now i am thinking i should at least go give the book a try. lol
This video made me want to reread The Dreamers too - I think you should start a reread book club for the channel members! You can start with some of these books and force us to read them 😛
OMG I never even thought of doing rereads for the besties book club-FUN!
I read The Dreamers the first summer of the pandemic which made it……challenging lol but I think I would LOVE it now, so count me in for this idea 🙌🏻
I also have the Dreamers on my tbr, so I’d be totally up for this idea if it ever happens too!
Saving this video under a “favourites” playlist to use it as reference later.
omg get the goldfinch away from the pallbearers club right now!!!! the goldfinch is my favorite book of all time and pallbearers is my worst read of this year 😂 love this video! ❤️
I think The Two Doctors Górski might be similar to Lakewood BUT this book hasn’t come out yet 😅 but the premise says something about it being a medical trauma story. It reminds me also of the movie Shutter Island.
I would also loosely pair it with Misery or The Hole.