Morbid Non-Fiction & Summer Thrillers | May Reading Wrapup

[@AlexaDonne]

SPOILER TIMESTAMPS I go into a spoiler discussion of One By One by Ruth Ware at 24:33. Skip past the spoiler discussion to Trial by Fire by Scott James at 32:49

[@bethanylaurell8081]

So glad I'm not the only one dealing with a reading slump recently. I've started a good number of books but haven't quite been able to finish any! I'm really excited for One by One and Home Before Dark, though--got 'em both pre-ordered! Thanks for sharing these; I always look forward to your thriller wrap-ups.

[@beekay1137]

Svetlana Alexeivich also wrote a book called "The Unwomanly Face of War" which is the same style but it's about women's war stories and it's brutal but so good

[@KrejcesCreations]

Yay, this is the earliest I’ve been to one of Alexa’s videos! Just wanted to say I hope everyone is well and staying safe during these uncertain times. Stay strong, stay united. Now, let’s watch this wrap up... 📖 ↩️

[@azoz273]

I just came across your channel recently and watched like 75% of your videos in three days only. I'm impressed, entertained, informed, and enlightened by your videos. Such an interesting industry and a unique career, it seems. You as a person are very inspiring. By your videos, I can tell what an awesome person you are; intelligent, honest, realistic, pragmatic, clear, direct, well-rounded, level-headed, experienced, self-confident, positive, optimistic, hard-working, friendly, genuine, and you-love-what-you're-doing. So many qualities I want to posses, honestly speaking. I wish you all the best in your writing career, and thank you for this amazing KZbin channel. The harsh writing advice two videos were my favorites. I liked them even more that the rebuttal, believe it or not. I was never into YA fiction. I only considered reading the Harry Potter series which I haven't done yet, and only read a couple mandatory YA novels for a course. But now I'm open to it.

[@NixLaLoupe]

Great job defeating that reading slump. I'm trying to push through mine right now. It's been rough. You mentioned a lot of awesome books. I love true crime so I'm super jazzed about giving a couple of those a shot.

[@LindsayPuckett]

Alexa! The Herd sounds so good! And they do have these woman's only co-working spaces-look up The Wing! I know Laura Sebastian is a member. :) I can't wait to read One By One!

[@camilleandreason9577]

I just finished the first 10k words of my very first draft! I’m so happy and motivated, I’d love to find some people that are also drafting their first book!

[@screaminggecko7660]

I got an ad for One by One in the middle of your review, good timing youtube

[@LariTanner]

For my reading goals, I finally finished "The Stars We Steal" I really liked it! I'll be honest I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did, being YA and all, (not as into YA as I use to be) but thoroughly enjoyed it, it gave me all the feels. "Persuasion" is one of my favorite books, so reading this retelling was so cool. Loved it! Heading into reading "Brightly Burning" here soon! (Another fave book, "Jane Eyre") Please tell me you'll be doing another movie review with "Persuasion!" Thanks for your videos they always help me!

[@ronniebessling6802]

I’ll be Gone in the Dark was by far my favorite book of 2019

[@b.t.3406]

Ruth Ware's name keeps on popping up. Need to read her this year. I like intense.

[@laconscozynook]

I always love hearing how you talk and describe thrillers!

[@BoundByWords]

The second half of my degree was one big reading slump. But it’s so satisfying to be making reading progress again

[@RB-eb9mr]

Wow, thanks for this! I've been in an... almost 2 year reading slump until about a month ago. So now I'm on the prowl for great books. Some of these I plan to add to my list!

[@siuzannavyshneva6312]

Trial by Fire premise reminded me of the scene in The Jennifer's body movie. For some reason, I felt it to be maybe inspired by that real-life tragedy.

[@Bookdragon11]

Haven’t read One By One, but I do understand why the thing you mention about the killer made you uncomfortable. (Wrote ‘the killer’ so that I don’t spoil anything 😊.)

[@dylanv3342]

I may not be first I may not be last But when she posts I click fast!

[@nadal2265]

Very great review. I hope you read more thrillers

[@AlysonMc]

On a weird note, when I was in college for technical theatre, my house management professor made the class watch the footage of the Station nightclub fire. I guess as a way to show us how fast things can go wrong and what NOT to do. It's haunted me for years. I may have to check out the book when it's published, see if that helps.

[@joannemarkov]

I didn't realize there was video footage, that's awful. A close friend from high school died that night. He was wheelchair-bound, so he never stood a chance.

[@AlexaDonne]

The book mentions the video and I'm just not sure I can watch. It's horrific. The book also addresses the person who filmed it. An interesting discussion of the line between documenting and not helping.

[@madelynmurphy6388]

This is completely unrelated but I would love a video about how the COVID-19 pandemic could potentially change the publishing industry and YA market trends!

[@alicialu4189]

Hi Alexa, I love your videos so much! I was wondering if you could do a video about how to deal with receiving hate and threats as an author? Thanks!

[@irishmoxie]

There is a women's coworking space...The Wing.

[@mishashmi381]

I'm just getting out of my own slump, although mine was.... Two years long.

[@mandiingham7608]

I'm with you but I think it's because I'm too stubborn to put down the series I'm reading 🙈

[@mishashmi381]

@@mandiingham7608 I've just become such a slow reader now 😂

[@princesskittyXx]

This was me after high school. Once you own your own time and life gets ahead of you and then nothing sounds interesting anymore

[@itzbunkbed8274]

Have you talked about how to find what genre you write best in? I really need help figuring out what kind of story I should write because I am totally lost ;-; I want to write mystery serial killer stuff with cops finding the bad guy but I can't ever seem to do it right. if you do end up seeing this could you tell me how to figure out what I should do?

[@maria-uy6wy]

Quick question. Hypothetically, if I were depressed, how do I write about a character that does have a will to live?? 😬

[@maddied5825]

Hi Alexa I love your videos I recently read your book brightly burning (can’t wait to read the next one)! I’m just popping in for some advice:) If your book has a huge plot twist that sets it apart from other books in the genre should you mention it in the query letter even if the twist isn’t in the pages the agent requested? Like what if it the theoretical plot twist happens in act three?

[@belletoro3100]

Does One by One do the whole “isolated in a snowy place and people die” trope better than the trainwreck (imho) that was An Unwanted Guest by Shari LaPena? This trope kind of soured on me after that book... );

[@AlexaDonne]

I did personally think it was better in a lot of ways. Structured differently though b/c it's not multi-POV!

[@belletoro3100]

Alexa Donne Thanks Alexa! I’ll check it out in Sep :)

[@devon6975]

Would love to see your take on #PublishingPaidMe