I read your fave white authors and only liked one (VE Schwab, Alice Oseman, Emily Henry, and more)
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- Опубліковано 5 лип 2024
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🧑🍳 In this new ep of Cook & Book, I attempt to cook mac and cheese while chatting about the books I read during the month of June. This monthly reading wrapup includes queer graphic novels, dark fantasy, subversive romance, and more. I only rated one book 5 stars though, can you guess which?
🧑🍳 Mac and cheese recipe: www.hellofresh.com/recipes/ep...
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TIMESTAMPS
⌛ 0:00 - Intro
⌛ 0:40 - NordVPN [ad]
📕 02:01 - Heartstopper: amzn.to/3NSdNEF
📕 07:00 - Aquicorn Cove: amzn.to/3N0MWpD
📕 09:13 - Yerba Buena: amzn.to/3QoEQKr
📕 13:16 - Book Lovers: amzn.to/3MX3Khd
📕 18:50 - Gallant: amzn.to/3QnFTKy
📕 23:06 - The Moonlight Child: amzn.to/3nUkr2R
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Honestly, this video has been the best thriller I've seen all year because the making of that mac & cheese kept me on me on edge the whole time.
it didnt turn out too bad right?!
@@withcindy It didn't look terrifying to eat. How was the taste?
The way my jaw hit the floor after she revealed the pot was boiling. Cinema
@@nailinthefashion Truly Oscar worthy.
"Because men can have careers too. That's called equality."
Look who enrolled in the same community college as Rhysand and took a men's studies class.
He was the professor actually
😂
cindy's pipeline from "sorry, I'm straight" to "i, too, want to be rescued by a hot siren lady" is truly an inspiration
thats how i became gay actually
@@withcindy and I love that for you. the universal sapphic awakening is wanting a hot lady to rescue you
I'm sure she would have reached it sooner if she hadn't suffered through Morrigan's "Six entire pages of gay".
Now all she needs is like 2-3 dozen cats
I feel that the whole soft and feminine boy stereotype can actually be quite harmful. That was a pretty big source of pain for my best friend. He was gay, black, and not skinny or feminine, and finding a relationship where he wasn't expected to be, for a lack of a better term, the dominant and assertive partner, was difficult. It contributed to a lot of body issues and his eventual passing 😕
that's so sad, i'm so sorry to hear :(
Dear 'Just Call Me Teacup', I hope that your friend that you are talking about can find the joy, the cheer, the bliss, the community, the happiness, and the good love, so that he can heal and grow into something new and for the better. 🍁🍃🌱🌿🥀🌺💐💐🌺🥀🌿🌱🍃🍁
@@withcindy hey Cindy gentle reminder nick is bisexual and you refer to that as gay teens
I hope he’s resting easy 💕
@@farahanshaik8860 gay is sort of an umbrella term, I don't think she meant it literally
Im not even a big Heartstopper fan, but Alice Oseman wrote the scripts for the tv show, so it was her decision to make the Heartsopper universe more expansive and give more LGBTQIA representation. She wrote the web comic in 2016 when she was in her early 20s so it makes sense that she has grown as a writer and has improved her storytelling.
Yep I'm aware!
And you meet the other more in vol3&4 and they mushed it a bit together to make it more fitting for a tv show
Also an interesting fact Alice Oseman is AroAce
Plus she writes other books one based on her experience being aromantic and asexual called loveless
So many people fetishised Nick and Charlie from Heartstopper. If I remember correctly, there were people complaining about Charlie's actor not being "attractive enough" back when the show was coming out. Like you're not even hiding it at that point.
People also just started babying them cause they are an mlm couple. People on tiktok were getting so shocked at the fact that one of the novellas referenced them having sex and acting like it wasn't a normal things for teenagers.
tbh Heartstopper fans are either completely chill or just straight fetishisers
to be fair, 90% of people I saw that were calling Joe ugly before and after the show came out were gay men😬
oh nooooo!!
Most heartstopper fans I know are super chill people but there are some people who are so weird about sexualising the actors and it's so uncomfortable
Joe Locke & Kit Connor (Heartstopper's Charlie & Nick) actually mentioned they got a "backhanded compliment" about their attractiveness. Someone tweeted that they were so glad that Nick & Charlie were cast with "unconventionally attractive boys." It was quite funny. lol
Yeah, but lets not blame the author for the way people have interpreted her story. I disagreed with cindys comparison of the heartstopper comics to yaoi stereotypes and fetishization. To me at least as a trans bi dude, it felt pretty neat to have two complicated characters not JUST defined by their percieved masc or femininity. “Fetishization” came from the audience, not the source material.
cindy: **calling out the gays in her audience before discussing heartstopper**
me: oh so for today's cook and book we're roasting me
Yes we are 😊
She waited for June to end, and now, nobody's safe. 💀
😂
She put guns to ALL our heads
@@francescakyanda9182 putting emphasis on the rude in rudegoldberg machine
I don't understand why people get so bent out of shape when a booktuber doesn't like a book they loved. Lately I've noticed that a lot of the people I watch are very deliberately softening their critical opinions, and its sad to see people walking on eggshells because they didn't like a certain book. Maybe some viewers are letting parasocial feelings get out of hand, or their personal identity is tied into liking that book? Idk but they need to chill out.
i think ppl tie a lot of their personal identities into books so readers tend to get more sensitive lol i see less of these sensitivities with other forms of media like tv shows and movies
Not everyone likes everything, and that is ok! People should remember that.
She's not wrong on media stereotyping gay couples, one as soft and feminine and the other as masculine and buff, I mean look at the Tian Guan Ci Fu manhua. Hua Cheng's appearances in the novel and manhua are so different and the artist just stereotyped Hualian😭
oh nooooo 😭
I think it's definitely to allow women to project onto the more "feminine" man in the relationship. there's a lot that goes into why women ship (or fetishize) gay ships, like sexism (lack of development in female characters, and subsequently heterosexual ships), exploration of sexuality (figuring out their gender), etc etc. Idk it's interesting to look at in a kind of "this is really strange and kinda sad" typa way
TOTALLY agree oh my god. Most people eat it up but yeah the way that artist changed actual canon for her liking is kinda disturbing tbh
@@rice3844 nah not everyone is "fetishizing", women can look for the things you listed in BLs without necessarily fetishizing.
You don't sound as supportive as you think you are, as a matter of fact you sound sexist
(From a gay guy. So yeah if you're an adult woman who's able to separate fiction from reality and loves BL... go on queen)
@@disasterwriter3241 I don't think women are always fetishizing! It'd be a blanket statement to say that. Like I said, there are lots of reasons why mlm stories/ships get so much attention, and it's interesting to look at because of the many factors that go into it
wake up babe, new cindy video dropped
lets GOOOOO
I read a comment somewhere about the Heartstopper graphic novels feeling more like a limited storyboard for the show, and I couldn't agree more. I feel like it served as a great framework, but the story didn't feel fully realized and fleshed-out until it was put to screen (with the input of actual LGBT actors into the characters' speaking patterns, mannerisms, etc.) Alice did a great job with the screenplay, of course, but it definitely felt like they used the opportunity to make Heartstopper what they TRULY envisioned while writing the graphic novel...leaving the graphic novel itself feeling a bit empty as a result.
ooooh this is 100% on point!!!
I think of you keep in mind that it started as a webcomic that developed over time it makes sense that the other characters were added later on because heartstopper developed a lot over time and I'm glad that she show shows everything it is now (even though obviously there's still plot left to cover in future seasons) and even more it's amazing
I definitely agree with this.
I completely disagree - the novels were warm, cozy, comfort read. The show was boring and it even added useless drama to make it more watchable, and if it wasn't queer, no one would care about Heartstopper
@@luizabianco this sums up my entire opinion on it
The confusing fact is that accurate depictions of LGBTQ+ in media, people find them boring
Cindy may be cooking but irl she's spilling tea
always
I also loved how Nora (Main character in Book Lovers) is very feminine. I think we get too many stories about career driven women that shun their femininity - of course masculine and androgenous career women are badass, but I feel like they make up a majority of the trope. Its great to see how Nora loves skin care and traditionally "feminine" things while still being a successful business woman.
Edit: I...worded this poorly. My original point I was intending to make was that I personally don't see many feminine women in media that are never teased or mocked for liking skincare/makeup/etc. This does not mean that feminine women are not represented in media (a lot of tomboys in early 2000's movies, and even today, are usually put in a "makeover" situation which suggests that being feminine "fixes them"). I think growing up in a generation where being "not like other girls" was a goal for most girls my age, it was refreshing to see Nora be so conventionally feminine and not be a mean girl/catty/ the butt of the joke. We should get more representation of masculine leaning women as well, especially in the romance genre please and thank you!
thats very true! and how "high maintenance" she is but its not villainized like many other characters in a similar archetype are
Im sorry… but WHERE? Where are these so called masculine and career driven women that everyone is always talking about? “They make up the majority of the trope” SO WHERE ARE THEY? Where’s the positive representation for butch, masculine and androgynous women? I dont see it. All i see is feminine women being praised and ppl always commenting how that is such a win bc there’s too much focus on masculine women… i wish i lived in your fantasy world where masc women are portrayed in a positive light by the media but alas im stuck here. Give me some recs from your world where masculine women are the protagonists or something.
@@lunnaris27 I think the original post was meaning more of how the typical "girly" characters are seen as absent minded or as the mean girl. Example in media would be Sharpay Evans. At least when dystopian novels were big, the girls who were more "tomboy" and "not like other girls" were the main protaganists. I think of Katniss Everdeen. I see your point of women who actually embody masc traits are not represented much. Even the "tomboy" female characters are portrayed as beautiful feminine looking women. The only thing that makes them masc is some of their personality traits.
Basically, I think I see what you and OP mean, but please correct me if I'm misunderstanding!
@Linds Yes, that was the meaning of my post! I absolutely agree that more butch, masculine and androgenous women need more representation in media. In my eyes, I see more feminine women being seen as "toxic" or "airheaded" in media, so much so that we don't really see a lot of them in positions of power, even in the world of fiction. It was cool to see this turned on its head in Book Lovers. I understand that I wasn't that clear in my original comment and I should have clarified.
@@kianaalagha3988 What characters are you thinking of specifically? Because I feel like even though those characters act like they are not into makeup and "one of the guys", they are almost always still preventing feminine and fitting into beauty standards. ie Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality. There's no lack of "feminine" representation in any media of any kind. Even these women who you are describing are still feminine. I think you chose the wrong words because an over abundance of butch/masculine female characters is non existent. Women shunning "girly girls" but still presenting feminine are not "androgenous". Also, there are tons of female characters that participate in things like makeup and hair etc who are portrayed in a positive light. It's really not groundbreaking at all to have female characters celebrate femininity. People have been trying to turn make-up and skin care into some kind of feminist statement when it's impossible for make-up and trying to fit into beauty standards to be "feminist"
As a gay man, thank you. I also felt oddly portrayed in the graphic novel, and I’m especially tired of not being allowed to dislike it without being berated by fellow queers.
You also nailed it on the head, it’s decision to move into being an overall queer show vs gay romance saved it a bit.
I really need my fellow queers to show up and support shows made and written by gay men as much as they show up for white women mlm’s.
yes yes!!
Would love suggestions.
Also I think a lot are written by women because they fantasize of equal and soft emotional relationships
TW: ED. Body image issues. Anxiety.
So I know Cindy is only like, two volumes in and she hasn't gotten to that part. But Charlie saying he's skinny and weak is because he has eating disorders and body image issues. It gets pretty heavy later in the comic and it's revealed slowly that Charlie has these issues. Now, I think that's the reason Charlie says that, not because Alice wanted Charlie to be feminine or uwu. Knowing the character, I kind of feel iffy about that particular point.
i didnt know that, thank you for providing that context!
@@withcindy You're welcome!
Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think Charlie suffered from any body image issues? I could have just forgotten, but from what I remember his ed was due to his ocd and need of control, nothing about his body image
@@icarus4172 that is incorrect, in fact, in the current volume of Heartstopper, Charlie has issues with getting more intimate with Nick because of body image issues.
@@icarus4172 you're half right i think. i felt it was the other way around - he doesn't like his body because of how his ed has affected it. he both stares dissapointedly at his reflection and expresses discomfort with undressing several times :/
side note: i cought several hints at an anxiety-/control-motivated ed in the early arcs, both the comics and the show, but someone without personal experience on the matter could easily miss them
When I become a generic white author I swear I will TRY to not be cringe I'll TRY
i support u
I think it is kinda strange how we are willing to notice when men in mlm relationships are stereotypised as feminine and masculine for each, yet when it happens to women, it seems only welcome and expected to see one of them as butch and other as femme even if they are not that feminine/masculine. Never seen people call women butch and femme when it's a two more masculine women together or two more feminine women together. Maybe it's just me though
interesting point!
That is true. I never really see people talk about how it's bad there is a more stereotypical feminine girlfriend and a more masculine girlfriend. But I see it so much with male relationships.
Definitely food for thought
Agreed. I've read about lesbians that were supposed to be butches that were just your regular woman in a business suit/woman that prefers wearing jeans and a T-shirt, while also being feminine in almost all other ways. It's become a trend in sapphic books to have a woman that's more low-maintainance because she prefers simply putting on a pair of jeans be labelled as butch and be presented as dating a woman that is considered femme because she wears skirts and dresses. However, there aren't a lot of genuinely butch women in sapphic books.
It’s because femme/femme is the straight projected ideal for wlw relationships and is seen a lot in sapphic works made by men for men, NSFW or not, which is the majority of what’s in the mainstream media. Butch/femme, as far as I’ve seen, comes from mostly OV creators. It’s like the opposite of what happens to mlm.
Gay romance written by straight authors is more popular than books written by actual gay men because it caters to stereotype people already have rather than having them confronting actual queer people and how we are, well, people. With all the complexities and rough edges it entails.
That's where the soft boi gay comes from. Because it must be soft, and cute, and most importantly basically harmless to compensate the fact that he is gay, because being a gay man is still seen as something bad and scary so they have to compensate it (including making their love something soft and ethereal because it must be platonic so that the audience won't confront the fact gay people get physical too).
Not to mention how they have to make it so that one is the "man" and the other the "woman" in the relationship, because it's queer for marketing but it can't be actually queer.
do you have recs of queer media written by own voices authors, specifically gay men given this context? ☺️
@@lettytorres5449 not much recs, I'm not much into booktube and similar channels. I have some ownvoices books, though I tend to look more for trans authors.
Yeah I agree, but Heartstopper was written by an asexual woman. Her book “Loveless” represents asexual and nonbinary people well I think.
@@ccckmp don't know enough about loveless to talk, but being an asexual women doesn't mean she can't contribute to stereotypes about gay men.
Actually the fetishization of gay man and the soft boi stereotype very often comes from women, and it's something that it's not discussed enough.
The fact that she is asexual isn't too relevant since she is writing other queer people and so risks playing into their stereotypes (as she ends up doing).
@@themantyf1116 oml
The line between gay fetish and just a BL fan can be very vague imo that some possibly odd behavior towards it were being normalized
definitely!!
Given how normalized it is for guys to look at lesbian porn, although objectifying. It isn't really all that weird for the reverse to apply too.
Esp when str8 creators apply heteronormatives into r/s between mlm like?? Huh
@@yourmamandi what does r/s mean?
@@haleyandrews74 Relationship
I've been thinking about your heartstopper commentary for a bit and I had another thought: MLM books or ships in general tend to get so much more popular than WLW books / ships and there's just more representation in general and while I think all the MLM representation totally should exist I wish we'd see the same amount of love for WLW couples because they're often underrepresented and it's a shame.
I can still get something out of male characters figuring out their sexuality but I just want MORE SAPPHIC CHARACTERS PLEASE.
if anyone wants to recommend sapphic romance books that will melt my heart please do
she drives me crazy is really good
Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating
She Gets the Girl
The Falling In Love Montage
Not My Problem
All of these are pretty good!
Leaving a comment to be notified because I’m in a desperate for sapphic books 😭
Here’s the added thing about MLM books no one addresses. You’ll mostly find mlm romances written by white women, and we need to remember these are job opportunities too. So when we say we’re ready to move on from gay romance into other forms of rep, the market was mostly dominated by cis het women.
Support your gay men authors too, especially since you won’t see many of their stuff in bookstores, or as much as their white cis het counterparts.
@@willow_rose she gets the girl is the next on my tbr ^^ thanks for all the recommendations
The amount of elation I’m currently experiencing because Emily Henry was your fav is immeasurable because she’s one of my favorite authors right now and I crave your book approval
she def has the romance genre in her pocket!!
Thank u for letting me know in the comments bc as someone who truly loves Emily Henry, I was concerned lmao
Me 2 girl!!!
Most of my comments on Cindy’s channel is about Emily Henry LMAO
Boosting
Cindy is committed to authenticity. Trying to cook a meal and creating a bland concoction that you can't really put into words is peak whiteness. Thank you Cindy. This is the representation we deserve.
thank u for seeing the layers
is being white so awful?
@@crazysmall.artist yes
@@acinova9895 sounds pretty fucking racist to me, especially bc my great grandmother is white. fuck off-
@@crazysmall.artist no. People are just quick to be hateful. It’s a human thing. It’s an active choice. No good comes from it. Everyone, however they are born, is ok.
If a community tells you that the representation is not valid or it’s wrong, people should listen to their voices rather then argue.
I study queer literature and queer theory for my degree and I absolutely hate how people who the representation is not for fetishize it. I’ve had 3 women come up to me and say “hey you’re gay, what gay smut do you like” because where I live the queer population is so small and no one has boundaries. What’s worse is that these are teens who are like “I’m an ally, I can ask this shit” when no you cannot. I was floored at the audacity. But then again, being trans, people asked me where I am regarding transitioning and I’m like “do you just have no boundaries or shame? I don’t ask if you are getting a boob job, leave me and my chest be”
yes!! it rly sucks how people do not know boundaries :\
sorry to burst your bubble but this "representation" that you're referring is, a lot of times, not actually meant to represent you. y'all get mad at women for reading and liking things that are aimed at them lol. the gatekeeping and misoginy is not cute
@@user-we6ks6pw5j i think critiques for this are valid and dismissing them as "misogyny" isn't that simple. this isn't the same thing as making fun of women who like pumpkin spice lattes or pink things. these are gay men. what does it mean when media about a marginalized group is catered towards people who don't identify as part of that group, to the point where the only mainstream media and non-identifying authors are upholstered? if we lived in an alternate world where it was the reverse -- where queer media was largely gay women and written by men and catered to men -- this would be up for scrutiny as well.
@@withcindy it is when it comes to porn. Ironically, the demographic that consumes the most lesbian porn is straight men who fetishize it. It honestly feels like the community can never win and we are just seen as a sexual fetish. And there deserves to be criticism of that, just as there deserves to be criticism of BL.
What bothers me about the post you are referring to-person you and I both replied to-is the fact that the gay men in the community can be viewed as a fetishization because women say it’s okay. It feels very rad fem and TERFish.
@@desmondandtheirqueerdragons i replied to cindy last night but youtube deleted my comment. let me try again lol
the point that y'all are missing is that these are FICTIONAL gay men. fetishizing doesn't mean what you think it does. i never said it was ok to fetishize anyone. because that is obviously a problem. but if you're a sane person who knows how to tell fiction from reality, there is no issue whatsoever in you consuming this type of content. it stops being a fetish there. it's fiction, it's not real, it's free real estate, and it should be a safe space for people to explore the depths of their imagination and it won't have any negative consequences in real life. like, i'm sorry that you had a couple of bad encounters with fujoshis and it sucks that a couple of bad apples rotten the whole bunch (the bad apples being 99% of the time dumb hormonal teenagers who will regret their actions in a couple of years so why do we care anyway) but for the most part, the people that i encounter online who consume MLM content are extremely mindful, considerate and actual allies.
y'all don't even realize that each time you falsely and wrongly accuse women of being fetishists for liking BL and other MLM content you're jst feeding into the patriarchy
and to cindy's point, yeah, we currently live in a transitional period where queer voices are still often overlooked, but how is that the fault of women 😭
“Why do people are so pressed whenever I feel lukewarm about the books they love?”
The bias is coming from inside the house and it smells strong
👀👀👀
I thought it was interesting to see that Alice Oseman was the sole writer of each episode of the tv series, I liked seeing that she chose to expand the story and add more representation when given the chance :)
Alice definitely improved their story into a great show! The comics were a good basic storyboard to jump off of
Super agree on the Heartstopper books but would really recommend Loveless by the same author which is actually focused on her own experience of aromanticism and asexuality, with the main side romance being wlw. I found it a lot more authentic and less saccharine (although still very YA), but I guess it's worth noting she had a lot more experience by then and Heartstopper began as a fun passion project webcomic that I think she started when she was still a teenager, so never intended to be the same level of depth and polish
ive heard great things about it and have also enjoyed radio silence :)
I actually 100 percent agree, as a gay man I definitely didn't connect as much to the Heartstopper graphical novel than I did with the Netflix series.
Honestly, I can almost always always tell when a book about gay men is written by women. Usually the characters are conventionally attractive to women, usually thin, doe eyes, demure, soft. It's not that those things are inherently bad, but damn when am I gonna get my romance series between two gay college bears?!
I actually love what you said about Heartstopper. I reread them last month and it kinda fell flat and I think that's why. In the show we get more storyline and more diversity with the girls added. I also love that in the show we see Nick go on a Bi journey where as in the graphic novel we saw a tiny bit of his gay crisis, but him discovering that he's bi just seemed to be Charlie mentioning that he could be and then bam crisis solved.
I love the later graphic novels and what they brought for representation. I can't wait to see how the show adapts them (which is not something I normally say)
yes i agree!! i cant wait for season 2 :)
I didn’t know that Nick going on a bi journey was a show only thing. It was my favorite part of the show, and as a bisexual person, this is the only time I’ve felt represented by a bisexual character in any kind of media. It sounds dramatic, but I don’t think it’s that strange, considering that most bisexual characters are either promiscuous and unfaithful (if they’re in a relationship) or clearly only bisexual for the sake of the plot.
yes sometimes the storylines may look too easy to resolve, but i believe that if it was a normal novel, there will be more details, but as a graphic novel, its challenging to put all the ideas you have with a few words and drawings.
I'm a trans woman who identified for most of her life as a femme gay man and then realized nope Transwoman. I kind of realized in my own writing that I would write a lot of femmine gay men because I thought that's what I was and then realized the problem with making every single relationship femme and masc it really leads to stereotypes especially since I no longer identify as male. I've grown a lot, but there's still more room for improvement
i love that youve learned from that!!
Omg Cindy. Your whole opinion about Heartstopper comic says that you HAVE TO read Loveless, also by Alice Osman. She’s aroace herself, so it’s not like writing heartstopper.
ive heard great things about loveless and my friends love it! ive read radio silence and have enjoyed that one :)
@@withcindy aww that's awsome, I hope you'll enojy it if you choose to read it
@@withcindy also there's a sapphic side plotline so you might really like it
@@withcindy radio silence is truly my favourite book
Loveless was a MOVIE it was a novel it was a moment
"if you spend your time watching some asian lady cook you definitely have anxiety issues"
me, recently diagnosed with an anxiety disorder: "she got me there"
personally i feel like alice oseman does a rlly good job at representing gay men (as a bi man). its not perfect but definitely a lot better than some women i've seen. also, sometimes even better than some mlm romances i've read written by mlm people (in rare circumstances). i tend to get easily icked by bad mlm rep and alice never icked me that way.
i don't think charlie was ever depicted as feminine, he has an ed caused by ocd which causes body image issues. thats why he describes himself as small and such, but charlie was never viewed as a feminine stereotype to me. i also used to have an ed so this was an extremely needed representation for me as a boy with a past ed.
ive followed the comic for about four years and have been a huge fan, so i'm probably a bit biased but uhhh yeah. i do agree with the point about how its better as a queer story rather than just about nick and charlie! the show was great in that way :)
anyway good video ! just wanted to share my opinion^^
I tend to nope out pretty fast from bad mlm romances. Like I tried to read "Heaven official's blessing" because people were saying it was good. I liked like the first half of the first volume then the love interest just became insufferably annoying, steals the spotlight whenever the MC was about to do something cool. Then spoilers told me the MC also becomes insufferable later like "why doesn't love interest worship the ground I walk on anymore, boohoo." kind of shit and I was out.
Still not as bad as "I don't want to be loved" where the MC is insufferable and has a victim complex which involves her constantly shooting herself in the foot then gaslighting and blaming her love interest for everything. He's the only one putting his hand out halfway to try and fix their relationship, working on himself to become a better person, and breaking his back carrying the entire relationship on his own, meanwhile the MC just keeps doubling down on stupid decisions. He deserved so much better, yet I see commenters like "He is the only one in the wrong" when the author clearly shows how much on an unreliable narrator the MC is, boggles my mind. Literally the worst novel I've read in the post couple of year
i think Cindy gives really thought out reviews of the books she reads, even when she doesnt like them very much, she's good at separating real problems from things that just didnt land with her, and always acknowledges that she's not the authority on whether the book is good, just how she felt about it. I would still give most of the books Cindy has reviewed a chance if they were genres i liked. i think authors are just so attached to their work, it's hard for them to hear someone give an in depth critic that is either simply unenthusiastic or even negative because they put a lot of time into writing that book, but that's not Cindy's fault, so they are allowed to feel sad hut they arent allowed to take it out on other people.
thank you!! i appreciate that lol
I personally like the heartstopper comics a lot. I’m a gay guy in high school and it felt really good reading it. It felt super authentic to how queer relationships work in high school, and also just relationships in high school in general. And I understand where you’re coming from for sure, I prefer how the show explores Tara, Darcy, Elle, and Tao a lot more to how the books do it, but I also prefer how the books handle Nick a lot more than how they handle him in the show. There isn’t really a huge difference but you can definitely tell in my opinion. I also love Nicks three friends in the show, and how they slowly realize Nick is dating Charlie, and how they start to learn a little bit more about queer people. I also really wish the show had Charlie’s little brother. It’s such a small thing but he really added so much. Idk, I love both the show and the books for their own reasons, and I definitely think the show has the potential to be so much better than the books in season two, but we’ll see I guess. Also I miss Aled lol, that’s all tho! I loved your take as well!
Something else to mention about the Heartstopper graphic novels...the characters Nick & Charlie, believe it or not, were ORIGINALLY side characters themselves! The writer, Alice Oseman, originally wrote a book called Solitaire that starred Charlie's older sister, Tori (the scary girl who pops up out of nowhere in the tv series lol). But Alice loved the characters of Charlie & Nick so much that she created a whole arc just for them called Heartstopper. The Heartstopper story itself is ONLY about Nick & Charlie's story, really. But when they decided to adapt for tv, they couldn't just use 2 primary characters and that's it. That wouldn't work for tv. That's why the other side characters were given more to do compared to the graphic novels. Note: Alice's first novel, Solitaire, actually takes place roughly a year AFTER the events of the Heartstopper graphic novels.
Also, the character of Imogene was a brand new character created just for the show. Alice Oseman said the reason they created her was they needed a bit of added drama midway through the season for Nick to go through. The character of Isaac also does not appear in the graphic novel at all...but he IS based on another character from the novels named Aled. Aled was the main character of her 2nd novel called Radio Silence. Alice Oseman chose to not use the Aled character as it's possible he may get adapted with his own tv story later on down the road, but Isaac is basically a near-copy.
Anyways, if you choose to read all of her novels, this is the order you should read them to keep in the best timeline order (Note: Her books don't actually pertain to a specific year, the years listed are just for ease of reading. She specifically says her novels take place in "present time" at the time you read them):
January 2010: Heartstopper Volume 1 begins. (Volume 1 & 2 were used for Season 1 of tv show)
April 2010: Heartstopper Volume 1 ends/2 begins.
May 2010: Heartstopper Volume 2 ends/3 begins. (It is expected Season 2 of Heartstopper will be based on Volume 3)
August 2010: Heartstopper Volume 3 ends/4 begins. (It is expected Season 3 of Heartstopper will be based on Volume 4)
December 2010: Heartstopper: This Winter takes place (Nick & Charlie Christmas story)
January 2011: Solitaire begins
February 2011: Solitaire ends/Radio Silence Prologue takes place)
June 2012: Nick & Charlie novel begins
July 2012: Nick & Charlie novel ends
May 2013: Radio Silence begins (except for the prologue)
August 2014: Radio Silence ends
August 2017: I Was Born for This takes place.
August 2018: Loveless begins.
May 2019: Loveless ends.
aliceoseman.com/ya-fiction/in-what-order-should-i-read-your-books/
Your thoughts about heartstopper are exactly mine but for both the og source and the netflix show. Either way im glad for people that really loved it and felt like they got what they needed which is pretty cool. I have to say though, that I still wish non western media with more variety in representing lgbt were as popular, that what hits big isnt always about two white boys, and that people that love heartstopper respect other lgbt media that isnt western. Btw youre always so funny I love watching ur vids while cooking as well!
yes 100% !!!
@@withcindy im in an asian country and my gay friends and i were talking about whether or not we were going to watch the heartstopper series. i said to my friend "it's about white british boys 😭" and she said "yeah thats a big reason i havent started" LMAO
I BAWLED just reading the prologue of Book Lovers idk what that says about me but that book is my virtue 😭✨❤️
my friend also cried reading the last 1/3 LOL
the way I was holding my breath while you started talking about Book Lovers because I hold all of Emily Henry's books near and dear to my heart 😭 glad we're on the same page (teehee) when it comes to how good it is
she put her emily henrussy into it
Does anyone know if Cindy has read Gideon the Ninth? Cindy, I feel like the lesbian necromancer atmosphere and humor in that book would be right up your alley
@Alyssa Martin hahahaha YES. It is quite gory. And book two gets even worse (which I love, but can definitely see how that can be off putting for some people)
I (as a bi girl) love heartstopper because I relate to nick a lot and just the whole cast of characters is amazing and I love this comic. Alice Oseman is amazing
Maybe you'd enjoy the later volumes where the side characters are more present ^^
Edit: I really appreciate that about the show gave the side characters more space, I think parts of the Tara and Darcy scenes existed as bonus comics or something and I'm happy they expanded on it
i did like seeing nick's realization w being bi since that was similar to my journey too :)
I agree with you and was here for this comment, as well. The criticism of the side characters not being as much a part of the books as the show is because the show is based on more than one volume, IIRC. So I feel like I’d be interested to see if she had the same reaction with the rest of the series.
@@whitneymouse yes, I agree. The comic was amazing from the beginning but over time it developed so much and I'm glad all that heartstopper is now is already in the show. I think Cindy would really like volume 3 ^^
i heard the later volumes have a lot of discussions of EDs which a lot of people dont mention and can be really triggering 😅
@@zorro...... I think the books themselves have content warnings in the beginning, I know the chapters of the webcomic do and solitaire as a book had content warnings too
I agree so much on the stereotyping!!! As a feminine person myself, I think many people are surprised when I say that I'm pansexual (or that I like girls). I often feel like I'm not masculine enough for men to take me seriously. Or that they'll just fetishize us because of being feminine.
Especially in gay male relationships, I know several people who fetishize it. It's very strange. It reinforced very heteronormative types of roles in relationships, rather then letting people just live their lives and enjoy who they are. Or who they want to be.(Ex, two fem girls, two masc guys.)
yea there needs to be more variety in how queer relationships are depicted!! we have more of a range!
i feel like reinforcing heternormative roles even in hetereosexual relationships is extremely damaging in and of itself. why cant there be two of the same? a masc women and a masc man or a fem women and a fem man. or with the roles switched a masc women and a fem man. it really makes me sad that people think they dont have options
I'm glad I watched the show before reading the Heartstopper books because now I can be like
"ah yes, it doesn't show it, but right now Darcy and Tara are making friends with Elle"
or
"ah yes, it doesn't show it, but right now Tao and Elle are sitting alone in Tao's bedroom, madly in love, but refusing to act on it"
awww i love that!!
“If you’re spending your free time watching some Asian lady cook, you definitely have anxiety issues.”
You’re right on the nail on that one but damn you don’t have to call me out 😭
I really appreciate how you dont read strictly hyped up ya books. You've truly grown my tbr pile and have gotten me to read out of my usual choices and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Love ya, keep it up girl. ❤👏🏻
You're so welcome!
i actually like hearing your criticisms on books that i liked, i can always see where you're coming from and you're not mean about it.
i also love that you lay out exactly why you're criticising something it's so helpful for my tbr list because i can decide if it's something i care about or not (i had to remove portait of a thief bc ik i would not be able to stop thinking about everything being "full of possibility" lol)
These types of videos are actually so good to watch, as it gives actual criticism and helps me with developing my stories and future books!
your cook and book videos bring me so much comfort
I'm so glad!
I don’t like Mac and cheese normally but I’m would be willing to try this. But also the intro lmao love it
[squelching]
A gay book i wanna reccommend to save yourselves from white authors: Aristotle and Dante. Written by a gay Mexican author. I love this books because it shows how despite all odds of homophobia in the 80s, these two boys were able to live their lives, with supportive parental figures.
And the movie will be out soon. Promotion starts in August. The director is trans and they casted 2 teenage Mexican boys for the parts. Lin Manuel Miranda is also one of the producers
I find it hard to find w/w centred books where the characters actually have chemistry and aren’t just a case of convenient insta-love. ‘Of Fire and Stars’ by Audrey Coulthurst and ‘How to Make a Wish’ by Ashley Herring Blake are two books I highly recommend as the chemistry is just *chefs kiss*
How to make a wish is so underrated!
oooo ty for the recs!
and again you stun me just with the intro!!!
please read "Briefly, a Delicious Life" that Sapphic girl ghost falling for one of the best regarded female authors of the 19th century is a whole delicious mood
omg what!!! that sounds so good
"If you spend your free time watching some Asian lady cook for fun you definitely have anxiety issues."
The saddest part is, she isn't wrong. I'm gay and I have anxiety, I am the stereotypical queer.
Cindy has uploaded. Therefore I must drop everything I was doing and watch
welcome welcome!!
I love the way you breakdown what you do and don't like about a book. It's very insightful.
Oooo looking forward to another Cindy writing vlog whenever the time is right 🤓
Yay, thank you!
Thank you for reminding me of the Tara and Darcy scene in ‘Heartstopper’ because I want to hear ‘Clearest Blue’ again. Such a beautiful song and it was so beautifully captured on screen.
it was soooo gooodddd
literaly cannot stress how much i agree with cindy’s review of book lovers.
I love your cooking with book reviews videos they are so relaxing
Aww glad u enjoyed !!
Please give the rest of the Heartstopper comic a chance. It gets so much better. I haven't felt this much emotion reading something. It's truly wonderful
YAY WE HAVE A COOKALONG VIDEO! There should be knife swerving in every video.
less knife swerving this time
I LOVE how the Heartstopper show brought more layers to the story, and we got to explore all the other characters in much more depth and how it’s about all of them together!
yes i totally agree!!
Hi Cindy, I hope you’re doing well, I just wanted to say that I really agree with your review of Heartstopper especially after re-reading the comic again after watching the show. I love how the show was more about all the characters and gave them more nuance (especially Tara & Darcy ❤️ and even Ben). The comics will always hold a special place in my heart because during quarantine I felt lost and was questioning my sexuality and the bisexual rep that I saw in Nick made me feel so seen and comforted. I love the comics, but the show has really built upon its source material and made Heartstopper into an even more incredible story. Anyways loved the video, have a great day!
Thank you, Cindy, for finally diagnosing my anxiety
its what im here for
I LOVED book lovers. I related to the main girl so hard. I cried so hard at the ending.
we love a girlboss !!! lol my friend cried at the ending too
Cindy! How have you not read Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir yet? Do the words Lesbian Space Jesus mean nothing to you?! 💀😜 Haunted gothic palace! Childhood enemies! Necromancy! Obscure meme references! Skeletons!
And the reason I like your channel/videos is that you have unpopular opinions and you’re honest about those opinions. You think in a different way than other booktubers and I appreciate that about you!
Cindy videos are just the best
If you're looking for anymore great queer graphic novels, I highly recommend Molly Knox Ostertag's The Girl from the Sea. The focus of the story is a sapphic relationship between two teen girls, one of which is a selkie! It's amazing
Adding milk to your cheese sauce would have thinned it out. But you're getting better at cooking, I was only scared a couple of times!
Omg I’m SHOOKETH that I was just about to sleep and then I see the notification. Sleeping can wait.
hope u get some rest babe
Love your Cook n Books. Making me hungry for books and macaroni. :)
Alice oseman actually wrote the script for the Netflix adaptation as well and several books about other characters in the same world as the graphic novel I really liked radio silence
i think the script for netflix improved the story so much!
Later in the books it brings more focus towards the side characters and I do think the story improves as the series goes on
Loved the reviews, as for heartstopper. I felt the same after reading it, they didn't show Tara and Darcy as much as they did in the show. And Alice responded to this by saying that Netflix wanted to a show a bit more "drama" so she decided to include more of Tara and Darcy, also Tao and Elle into the screenwriting.
Cindy I don't read any of the books you've read, I don't read Western books in general, but I love your insightful take on these books and put your twisted humor on them.
I just want you to know that your insights actually changed my perspectives a lot in a positive way!
do you have any Eastern book recommendations? please id love to branch out
This entire series is amazing
Your comments on Heartstopper reminded me of a Thai show I watched that follows a girl who writes fanfic about two of her male classmates (along with her best friend). One day, she gets a ride home from one of them and ends up in his body after an accident. By the end of the series, she figures out that her ship was secretly canon. Sadly, it was a tragedy drama and the other part of the ship was already dead, never inhabiting the other person's body in return. Had a satisfying ending though. It was a silly show i watched for a laugh, expecting it to be super cheesy, but it was surprisingly good
your thing about how the show expanded to more abt nick and charlie- the later volumes expand on that! they moved around some stuff chronologically i think
nice!! cant wait to see season 2 :3
your the first person to echo my feelings about heartstopper. all of my friends loved it and think i’m crazy for having a few qualms.
I'm glad I'm not alone 😭
I’m so excited to read Book Lovers after your review
I hope u enjoy it !
Dear Cindy,
Please pick up lessons in chemistry as your next read. It was one Star for me but I am interested in your thoughts. You are the best book roaster ( when u don't like a book)
i just finished yerba buena and totally agree!!! it felt like two completely separate storylines that got slapped together. i wish we got more conversations between emilie and sara so we could better understand their connection and root for them as a couple
apparently the author was working on this for like 10 years and i was like how?! i wonder if her original ideas or themes got diluted over the years and thats why it feels disconnected
I'm glad to hear good things about book lovers. I was prompted to pre-order it through good reads so I have it and put it in the read pile since I moved out of romance novels when I aged out of Sarah Dessen but I wanted to take a chance on this book.
I literally JUST finished Yerba buena and had a lot of mixed thoughts about it. Clicked on this video immediately after seeing the thumbnail, thank you for this
When I saw Book Lovers in the title i got soooooo nervous b/c i wasn't sure if i should try other emily henry books b/c i literally read People We Meet on Vacation b/c you sold me on the friends to lovers romance so hard. I'm new to contemporary romance but despite the preppy privileged white girl vibes of the protagonsit I really, really liked it b/c the way you described it reminded me so much of When Harry Met Sally which is one of my fav movies & turns out i was right on target. I wasn't sure if i would enjoy her other books without that WHMS homage aspect, but i think i might. Everyone says that Emily Henry's romance books tend to place other subjects also at the forefront but for me, i think that would be a feature, not a bug. Guess I'm gonna have to pick this one up too!
yes as someone who enjoyed PWMOV i also enjoyed book lovers! the latter is less romance and more about the familial issues and interpersonal reflections that the MC deals with
I really want to read ‘Book Lovers’. I’ve heard great things about it. A subversion of Holiday Movies? You have my vote.
hope u enjoy it!!
Just finished book lovers and totally agree with you on the third act bit! I really loved how it wasn't some stupid misunderstanding that wasn't dealt with properly
The whole process of watching you make the mac n cheese was actually anxiety inducing. My heart was literally pounding 😭 But another 10/10 review vid.
Ugh I missed it again. I wish I could be there as soon as you uploaded, it's really nice watching and chatting with you but job is such a b... Still glad every time you upload. Your humor always makes my day better. Have a nice day, Cindy
No worries! hope ur doing well
Schwabussy and the whole bit about a bullshitter knows another bullshitter.
I like the chill vibes of watching you make food while talking about books. It’s weirdly engaging lol.
haha we're just hanging out!!
the first time i saw one of your videos I just knew you were one of us. love youu girl
love u
I finished Book Lovers today and I thought it was boring. I really liked Nora and Charlie, as individuals, and together, but I feel like it was more of a contemporary book with a romance subplot. Maybe if I knew the romance wasn't A tier, I would've enjoyed it more.
OOOOO but the scene when the lights go out!!!!! FIVE STARS!!!!!
I've been thinking about reading Book Lovers but I'm really picky when it comes to romance. After watching Cindy mentioning how the book does right all the things that usually annoys me, I paused the video and bought it.
You put how I felt about heartstopper into words perfectly and it feels so good to know I’m not alone lol it was cute but didn’t feel authentic. That’s why I only read one volume but I’ll check the show out since it sounds different from the graphic novel
i feel like the show was much more well rounded!!
Woah Cindy got so big she's getting the big UA-camr sponsors so proud
thank you!
One of the things I appreciated about Heartstopper was the decision to make Nick bi. I feel like there is not a lot of bi boy representation, and bi erasure is so real that when Charlie said ‘ I people exist’ I was like, ‘yea they do!….wait, I mean yea we do!’. I bi erasured my damn self 🤦🏽♀️
slayyyed this is perfect i get a cindy video to watch while I watercolor a duck
omg i want to see ur finished product
your description of gallant just being in a spooky house immediately reminded me of a dowry of blood by s.t gibson bc like the first third (???? bad memory but they're there for a while) of the book is just reading about the main character walking around in one house KSJFGSDGK 😭 (also if anyone was interested it's a queer retelling of dracula & his brides and i literally read it in one sitting bc i couldn't stop)
I loved book lovers- the technicalities of that story work so well. Emily Henry does such a good job with real relationship conflict coming from external unchangeable circumstances. The third act misunderstandings drive me up the wall and make me bored of those relationships.