i spent 7 days reading like jack edwards... here's what happened

[@isleofmotif]

What I appreciate about Jack’s recommendations is that he approaches them from a literary perspective rather than just a general consumer angle. That said, I do think this sometimes leads him to overlook certain flaws in favor of literary criticism. So, I totally get where you’re coming from!!!

[@kitkatherine23]

i disagree, especially because hes claiming to read them from a literary perspective. Literary criticism is much more objective than general consurmer criticique and what readers actually want to read- this is one of the first things you go over when you enter English programs in college (im currently completing my senior capstone for my English Bachelors).

[@sava-smth]

He "overlooks certain flaws" bc he doesn't actually read books he claims to, he's been caught multiple times to lift his "analysis" from other people's goodreads reviews. He's just a poser

[@blueandpercy]

@@sava-smth when?? genuinely curious

[@isleofmotif]

@@kitkatherine23 i feel you! i lowkey messed up what i meant by overlooking flaws in favor of literary criticism because i wrote this comment late at night lol so my bad

[@isleofmotif]

i mostly just meant he’s able to overlook flaws in favor of looking at the book as a piece of “fine” literature, (which of course has its issues) if that makes any sense lmaooo, i misused the term literary criticism in my comment

[@heyyycarissa]

so glad you spoke up about how you feel truthfully about a book. booktok is getting out of control. i laughed out loud numerous times at content creators “fall book haul” videos when they were ALL posting the cinnamon bun book store when it takes place in the middle of the summer. everything is just for looks and “vibes” these days.

[@Queencereal]

That was one of the best critiques I’ve ever seen. Truly. I’m glad you said what you were thinking because it was so spot on to how I feel about the lack of nuance in contemporary fiction.

[@alicefoster3396]

I haven’t read ‘Elena Knows,’ but thank you for saying what you did! I’ve felt that way about so many books in the past-some books that I’ve agreed with, and some that I haven’t, that either way I couldn’t get behind because their entire aim was to preach, patronise and ridicule, often at the expense of a good story. If I remember correctly, Hye-Jin Kim’s ‘Concerning My Daughter’ did a decent job of portraying conflicting social views in a mother-daughter relationship in a more empathetic and balanced way.

[@skylarearnhart]

thank you for ur kind words ❤️ yeah i felt the same way :/ it just feels wrong and icky i’ll check that book out!! hehe

[@JordanS-ww4eu]

@@skylarearnhartI really really like you Skylar you’re my best friend ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@JordanS-ww4eu]

@@skylarearnhartyou’re very pretty as

[@Cxrriemc]

As much as I'm sure this was an anxious video to post, I think it's an important one and shows you have your own thoughts and feelings towards what you're reading and not just following what everyone says and thinks about a book. It's a reason I started reviewing arcs as I noticed new realeases I had read had loads of 5 and 4 star reviews for books that weren't even edited well and saw they were all arc reviews. I recently reviewed a 2-star that just came out last month and i'ts sitting at a 4.4 on Goodreads with only arc reviews and literally no one has given it less than 4 except me and I'm like how ?????????

[@manga_mia_]

You summarized exactly how I felt about piranesi! The beginning is laborious but so worth it. My sister is stuck at the exact same spot but I keep begging her to push through lol.

[@Janee-q5w]

I love the way you talk about books! Especially, the way you expressed your thoughts on Elena Knows so eloquently. You really summed up how I’ve felt about a lot of online discourse recently; we are all too afraid of being messy and not always knowing what we think or of being misunderstood which, I think, is leading us away from nuanced and compassionate conversations. As someone who is a big fan, I think Jack can get caught up in that sometimes in his videos where it feels a touch pretentious or like he wants to have the “right” opinion about a book.

[@hmtmth]

I know a few people who avoid Booker winners on purpose when considering books for their tbr-there's something about that particular contest that gives us books that tend to disappoint. 😅 As always, it was great to hear your thoughts and I might consider reading Piranesi 👀

[@ravent3016]

me - Booker winners are anti-recs for me until the hype passes (I did read Life of Pi and thought it was meh and the Remains of the Day which is my least liked of Ishiguro’s books) Only one on my TBR is The God of Small Things

[@optimisticfrogcollective]

Thank you for always centering nuance Skylar 🙏🏽 you are so refreshing

[@NovelFindsByKassi]

The end of the book is how his concsciousness is completely overtaken by the imagined consciousness of his friend and their pain and suffering merges, creating a type of insanity that can only be synthesised by the enormous force of war. Reading the author's description of the main character's decent into madness is horrifying from the point of view of anyone who has experienced psychosis either themselves or through the heartbreaking care of a loved one who suffers this way. The book is enormously human and describes the terrible ways that the French snatched African people away from beautiful lives to be placed into a psychological nightmare. I'm so confused as to how anyone who reads At Night All Blood is Black could not be amazed by it. On the other hand, some things just aren't for certain people. I was very disappointed by Elena Knows as well. Piranesi (along with At Night All Blood is Black) is one of my top 50 favourite reads.

[@skylarearnhart]

wow this is the best explanation of the ending that i've found! thank you! i was mainly confused and couldn't really follow the train of thought/didn't understand why he was thinking certain things (especially with the s*x stuff) but now that you explained that it's him taking the imagined consciousness of his friend that makes so much sense

[@NovelFindsByKassi]

@@skylarearnhart Oh I'm so glad that it helped clear something up for you! I think the book conveys this in a vague, disorienting way and that works for those who are able to make that leap and catch what is going on, but it feels almost impossible to follow for those who either aren't able to or are thinking of the book in a less abstract way. I can esaily think of just months in my life where I'm not wanting to work so hard while reading where this book might have slipped by.

[@skylarearnhart]

so true reading this during my work trip was likely one of my worst decisions 🤣

[@margaretwinds]

I HATE books that have an agenda and nothing else. Politics in books is super important and I love fiction that reveals something about our culture and current events, but I hate when authors think they have all the answers and need to hit the reader over the head with their "wisdom".

[@Horrorbabe4]

I dont think writers that you're describing go into the fiction book thinking that they only have an agenda. I think they just don't know how to write good fiction.

[@daisyd6793]

loved this video concept- would love to see more like it!

[@Thetrilingualreader]

Uhhh why would someone who got graped, then basically harassed and got their ID stolen and coerced into a pregnancy they didnt want and then years later have that same harasser come over asking for a favour be ever empathetic towards that person??? Why do they need to be humble??? Some people just deserve to be yelled at , not for any other purpose except that. There is a lot of ableism from what you mentioned but of all of that choosing to focus on that is kinda weird.

[@skylarearnhart]

i get where you're coming from and i think how you feel is what the author was trying to achieve, i just think there was just a lot of assuming on both sides but it just so happened that isabel assumed correctly of elena (that she was an entitled pos) my issue is with the way the author portrayed both characters like adding all this extra stuff that happened to isabel (like the grape is kind of glossed over in a paragraph, it wasn't enough for isabel to just not want a child, she had to add all of these horrible things to get her point across- which was isabel = good, elena = bad) i generally don't like media that pits normal struggling people against each other when i feel like the real enemy here is the institutions that put them both in this situation in the first place

[@Thetrilingualreader]

@skylarearnhart she harassed her , what is the rest got to do with anything

[@Aimeetime]

Love your blue nails and I won’t be reading that book! TY for saving me time!😜

[@starrynightfall00]

I appreciate what you said about the first book because I agree that that kind of approach is not helpful. And I love Piranesi 😄

[@sarash8002]

I love your book reviews! I haven't read Elena Knows, but it's interesting that the author made the character defenseless and then belittled them to "teach them a lesson." That doesn't feel like helpful activism to me either.

[@gonefiishiing]

NEW SKYLAR VIDEO.... YES..

[@isleofmotif]

real recognizes real!! two of my favorite booktubers reading the same books…immediate add to my tbr

[@CoreyJames-dt1il]

I read the Elena Knows book in Spanish for one of my classes. We have to write reflection papers on the books and stories we read. I hate Elena Knows. There are plenty of Latin American authors who write about politics that are better. Elena Knows starts out as a story but swiftly turns into a lecture from the author.

[@haleyscamcorder]

iconic.

[@readsbyemma]

Great video!!

[@thajunglelibrary]

I understand your point about the ending of Elena Knows but I do think your take is very reductive. The book says so much more about disability and ableism, the role of caregivers, mother-daughter relationships, aging, etc. Multiple things can be true and just because we don’t like a character doesn’t mean it’s a bad it book - we’re probably not supposed to like them.

[@m_6nus]

After his controversies this is the first time that i see that man again lol

[@siennawritez]

Wait, what controversies???

[@isaa1782]

Controversies?

[@m_6nus]

the information is publicly available, even typing his name plus the word controversy into the KZbin search bar is enough to see. How are people still so unaware 😭 crazy

[@siennawritez]

@@m_6nus damn, I'll have to look at it 😅

[@isaa1782]

@@m_6nus do you mean the membership thing? Because that's the only thing I found 🤔

[@ravent3016]

Jack is an English major who is into literary criticism - I take that into account

[@aitanacal]

Omg girl! I am Spanish and we read that book in school (Elena sabe) and I was so pissed off too. I didn't like that approach, as pro-choice I think we should be kinder and making it about hatred doesn't help.

[@NovelFindsByKassi]

I'm so glad that you mentioned this. Part of my wondered if it was the translation that made the book so much of an issue but I didn't feel like going back and re-reading a book I didn't like to that extent in a second language. ::hugs::

[@sandraschafskaese8471]

Holy shit, your little tangent about being terrible at school because of undiagnosed ADHD really hit for me. I don’t remember shit from history class except that my teacher had a funny name.🥲

[@skylarearnhart]

HAHA no i was so bad at school i was a C student lolol it's so funny bc sometimes i watch my videos back and im like literally how was i undiagnosed for so long it's so obvious