i read that awful tiktok stepfamily romance so you don't have to 🌲🤠

[@abigail2699]

i like how kaleb is just straight up evil. like thats such an interesting literary choice

[@womankisserjermaluvr]

right ??? like i get having flawed protags/love interests but to make him just an absolutely abhorrent fuckin caveman and then to still try to convince readers to like him ?

[@portiabartel]

I listen to a lot of true crime and this is exactly how a sereal killer that only kills women would act. He scared me the entire time he was being talked about. This honestly could have been an ENTIRELY different story.

[@furrybastard27]

Honestly, I thought it was kind of hilarious

[@chaoskat4161]

Thats what i was thinking, like he's definitely got bodies in the woods and thats why he does woods​@portiabartel

[@_piranha]

HE HAD SLASHER VILLAIN VIBES

[@tweedledeee]

I’m like 75% convinced Kaleb is a caveman that thawed out of the ice up on the mountain

[@mayalansky]

I’m getting werewolf vibes from Kaleb but like in an unsafe murder man way

[@justaperson4656]

​@@mayalanskythere's hot, "I want you carnally if you consent" werewolf and then there's brain damaged chihuahua Kaleb werewolf

[@mayalansky]

@@justaperson4656 it would just explain why he does so much woods and doesn’t talk and has no concept of boundaries(and maybe why dogs like him, apparently. even though they should also be able to read his hideous vibes)

[@isengarde9490]

@@justaperson4656 Remus Lupin (Harry Potter), vs Jacob Black (Twilight) energy

[@justaperson4656]

@@isengarde9490 YES. VERY CORRECT. THANK YOU FOR GIVING EXAMPLES BECAUSE I KNEW NONE

[@bluej2206]

Every time you describe kaleb I keep imagining he appears silently like a jump scare

[@ecarter995]

He basically kind of does lol. When I read it, I never knew when he was going to pop up.

[@Thiccythiccreads]

The Babadook

[@supernaturalwitch5265]

Jason Voorhees

[@jess2877]

Bro just has a FNAF sound effect play every time he appears

[@humanbean4037]

It’s like jasper from twilight but insanely evil

[@jess-zo5hl]

This should in fact be a horror book about a group of men taking advantage of a young traumatized TEENAGER in a isolated cabin,,, but it’s not

[@elliotoliverr]

Make Tiernan realize that someone she calls uncle wanting to sleep with her is bad and it would be

[@Sienna6164]

As someone who studies medieval history.. I wholeheartedly agree…

[@abcd-jk4zb]

It is to sane, normal people. But there are batshit crazy people out there who are the target audience.

[@alexandrite61]

That plot alone would've been okay, there's literature about uncomfortable subjects all the time. The problem here is the author's actively romanticizing this, and BookTok's depravity cheering it on.

[@rarescevei8268]

I dont remember where this quote comes from, but: "Sometimes, the only difference between romance and horror is the music that plays".

[@Corvid2100]

The little nerdy voice you do for Noah to kill any semblance of sexual tension this book is trying to go for is the best part of this book

[@silent-hills]

right? genuinely had me rolling

[@GOLDEN_ARISS]

so true 😂

[@linaghoname6888]

And it's not even part of the book, it's her own addition to it 😭😭

[@panny7227]

IT’S KILLS ME 😭😭

[@cami_cosmos]

It sounds like Ben Shapiro, and that makes it EVEN WORSE.

[@isadoracalladonollasabbag2939]

cannot believe the line that can't be crossed here was monogamy

[@newlynova]

HAHAHAHA this was EXACTLY MY FEELING

[@orpheousreads]

“you are ours, we love you” the cult vibes are strong here

[@ThatNerdyMystic]

I was literally thinking that this author must have grown up in a cult... Like how Stephanie Meyer was a Mormon.

[@bagelprince3]

i want to like this comment but the fact its at 666 likes just feels too appropriate to fuck up

[@CoffeeBnuuy]

Funnily enough, I was playing cult of the lamb while watching this.

[@tsifirakiehl4250]

@MochaBunnyno-qy3qm I play Cult of the Lamb too! I’m really looking forward to the Sins of the Flesh update.

[@CoffeeBnuuy]

@@tsifirakiehl4250 it's tomorrow eeeeee :D

[@skyrimenjoyer792]

Man I really hate when I get a microscopic splinter and my uncle puts my whole hand in his mouth to remove it

[@littlewolfyzapling8810]

My immediate thought was Uncle Jake just. unhinging his whole jaw and Eating her hand and I think that would be a better book

[@skyrimenjoyer792]

@@littlewolfyzapling8810 YES LMAO

[@iriswinnow]

​@@littlewolfyzapling8810that just makes me think of bones and all 😭

[@onemin8729]

😭😭

[@adeleaslan8182]

When I see this comment I think about the Medieval English peasant who would combust on the spot if he read that

[@rat9128]

I like how all of this could've been avoided if she went with Mirai

[@moon7shinev150]

At least Mirai would’ve gotten her therapy

[@LakinMae5]

Mirai is the Alfred we don’t deserve!

[@littlewolfyzapling8810]

I have an OC called Mirai and I am incredibly upset that her name is in this

[@katherinehaidara2967]

@@littlewolfyzapling8810at least Mirai is the best character in this book

[@notatallfunctional]

@@katherinehaidara2967 Which says a lot about these characters. I can’t believe she got with the old man who SA her adoptive daughter, while knowing what he did.

[@vetus2271]

The fact that there isn’t really a place in Colorado where you will be snowed in for more than, like, a few days, maybe a week, maybe, let alone SIX MONTHS makes it just seem like they were lying to her to keep her in the mountain mansion, which is in character.

[@liaspooked4980]

that is terrifying

[@emilpug8100]

it would really track given that Terrance is able to get up there to se the barn on fire. like, if you're so snowed in, how did he do that?🤔

[@5nui_lovr]

seriously! i live in the mountains elsewhere and we get maybe a week if two blizzards hit?? (p.s. love to see an Azura pfp in this day and age 🩵)

[@Sylvieminja]

I live in the middle of nowhere and I have one neighbor (loose term) that doesn’t get her road plowed so she uses a snowmobile. Are you saying these boys have an excavator but not a snowmobile?

[@musicADHD]

@@emilpug8100 i wondered about that too but thought it was a continuity issue but honestly this would be more likely. ugh.

[@sheerechoes]

I love the way you describe her as “poorly socialised” it makes me think of an untrained dog

[@TyrannicalChicken]

this tracks well.Dogs like Kaleb after all

[@samsmith5266]

​@@TyrannicalChicken 😂😂😂 YES!

[@poisonmantis4191]

she has all the agency of a dog so

[@bingonight1504]

Actually if all the characters were dogs this book would still be weird but not nearly as disturbing. Dogs can have a little cousin loving as a treat

[@onemin8729]

AS A TREAT m crying right now​@@bingonight1504

[@Queencard_Hearts]

Wait...Booktok unironically likes this book? THIS is exactly why I don't take Booktok seriously.

[@arandomtoad480]

I swear booktok only cares about the smut. Almost all the books they promote are porn with a subplot

[@aquaair]

thankfully it is mostly ironic, tongue in cheek, or morbid curiosity but there always some..

[@rebecca537]

@@aquaairi dont really think it is tongue and cheek, ive seen a lot pf good reviews for this book lol

[@aquaair]

@@rebecca537 yikes. i must be lucky with my algorithm

[@cosmari245]

@@rebecca537 Well that's horrifying

[@mauratyson9580]

The family's last name being Van der Berg is so funny to me bc that literally means "from the mountain" and like yea they are from the mountain thats crazy. That's Colleen Hoover level of naming

[@helenaoreilly-finnie142]

Fork spotted in the kitchen

[@Delilahsdaisies]

not even colleen hoover, that's jk rowling level 💀💀💀💀

[@mauratyson9580]

@@Delilahsdaisies TRUE LOL

[@salemcrow5078]

Shocking that none of them were named Richard.

[@princeapoopoo5787]

I can excuse names like that if it's a fantasy or sci fi story, but damn, you telling me, this could be my neighbor's last name? Nahhh ...

[@soofietjelove4907]

Kaleb is doing Woods like Ken is doing Beach

[@eightmillionmaddies]

Maybe that’s why Kaleb needed to be spelled with a K 😨

[@certifiedhorsegirl]

@@eightmillionmaddieshes (not) kenough 😔😔😔

[@user-sg4ov7ng4h]

he's too much actually@@certifiedhorsegirl

[@neverfae442]

I guess hes kenough

[@alex.adamski]

real

[@jesswolfe.]

😂 Just like Ken's job is 'beach', Kaleb's job is 'woods'

[@jesswolfe.]

Imagine them having a 'wood off' 😄 I'll go home

[@gamingvyxxin]

😭@@jesswolfe.

[@chocomelo454]

however he is not Kenough he's not even bare minimum. His weird brother is closer to bare minimum than Kaleb is. and that's saying something because Noah is a weirdo.

[@starspectral]

this is what i was thinking 😭😭😭😭

[@aarasko]

“My job is just…woods” “And what a good job you do at woods!”

[@gianina02]

Why can’t dark romance just be “I can’t sleep with him, he’s my bodyguard, and I’m a princess”…why is okaying insanely awful abuse the new “romance” dude…

[@Bellaisthebestever]

Exactly “dark romance” makes me want to cry

[@justalittleme]

The guard and princess type of romance is also 100% better than anything else in the 'dark romance' section 😭😭

[@s.v3903]

Because that's romance, nothing dark about that. Welcome.

[@RatatoskClarke]

The dark part of it isnt my issue with it, you just cannot call it romance. Nothing about abuse or sexual assault is romantic. It’s just horror, and poorly written horror too.

[@gianina02]

@@RatatoskClarke thank you for adding this on, it’s more so what I was trying to get at!

[@kesochez8473]

I feel like if Kaleb spoke his only words would be OOGA and BOOGA since he’s genuinely a modern caveman

[@newlynova]

HAHAHAHHAHAA UNDERRATED COMMENT

[@alexjewett7455]

I think even a caveman would have better social skills.

[@thillirrr6579]

I kind of picture him as the Librarian from Terry Prattchet's Dysk World, though honestly, that's an offence to the Librarian's gentlemanly nature

[@zxyabxoojinkkl]

IM DEAD. LITERALLY CRYING BAHAHAHAH 😭😭😭💀

[@dauntlyss]

It's givinggg Dylan Is In Trouble

[@torionaashlee2000]

I’m sorry but her dad pushing her mom in the tire swing instead of her is insane and it has me giggling at 4:06 am 😂😂

[@heatherbocks]

For real. Peak comedy.

[@tizzytaz3321]

Gives off that same vibe of that SpongeBob meme where you see Squidward looking out the window as SpongeBob and Patrick run by 😂

[@LowSlungBadBitch]

That scene made me cry. I felt so bad.

[@thatrantinggirl7376]

I keep imagining her just standing to the side lmao😭 Edit: omg just got to the part where it describes her in the window watching them, how do people take this seriously

[@amyxu5221]

a book that did this "my parents loved each other but not me" thing so much better is deerskin by robin mckinley that actually really takes seriously how it would fuck up a child, but warning that it's also one of the most triggering books I've ever read

[@raydragerns3657]

Unironically, Tiernan gaslighting herself is pretty damn accurate to how trauma will make you do that as a survival mechanism.

[@Lutoria99]

@@M.H.I.A.F.T.it’s still not poor….

[@rihannasyummytoes]

@@Lutoria99 To her it is. She went from swimming in money to middle class. That’s a big drop!

[@IceRiver1020]

​@@Lutoria99 Do you not understand the word "relatively?"

[@justaperson4656]

It would've been such a good horror novel :( With the men constantly manipulating and sowing seeds of ideas (between the lust, women intended to serve, etc) and her own desperate need for attention trying to excuse it, it would have been an incredible Stockholm syndrome-esque horror. It isn't the theming that makes me uncomfy here, it's the way it's been phrased as acceptable and desirable

[@entity3810]

im pretty sure no survivor does whatever tf this is.

[@enby_kensei]

I miss the man I was one hour, fifty-seven minutes, and thirty-three seconds ago.

[@leek.3671]

You and me both dude 😭 this caused me irreparable mental damage

[@S-yo5tc]

AHAHAHAHAHAHHA

[@Michael-wp6em]

same dude

[@bernialonso-k6w]

​@leek.3671 just imagine have read it AT 18. it's like irreversible trauma

[@TheEmoMixAndMatchToy]

I rewatched it, so I miss the woman I was 3 hours, 55 minutes and 6 seconds ago.

[@alanis3429]

using a frederick douglass quote for this book is just... so insane???? 😭

[@isleavepossible]

tiernan choosing kaleb as her endgame is probably because he treats her as terribly as her parents did

[@KendleM]

No bc we really should talk about that

[@tiffiguevara2926]

OH MY GOD THIS COMMENT. I DIED LAUGHING

[@chillitheconqueror3567]

Freudcore

[@shr00m66]

DAM

[@erinw.9256]

@@chillitheconqueror3567 STOP

[@marsbarsdraws1453]

This is a genuinely terrifying book like imagine your abusive parent pass and youre ripped away from the only person who has cared for you to be trapped in the wilderness to be SA'd over and over again so your brain tries to cope by telling you that this is the way its supposed to be and when you finally see your mother figure again shES SMASHING THE OLD GROSS DUDE WHO SA'D YOU AND ALSO ACTING LIKE THIS IS ALL NORMAL

[@steamedsnails7789]

Right?! The stark contrast between the book framing Tiernan's experiences as just so incredibly healing and the absurdly traumatic reality of the situation is so disorienting I felt like I was going insane. It's like the author is trying to gaslight the readers into thinking everything's okay. Disturbing.

[@shelbyjoines96]

THAT PART! She literally told her everything that happened and that lady still somehow fell for him?? How could you even??

[@Linhdoesstuff]

I'm not that far into the video yet, but I did think of a plot where instead of Jake, Noah and Kaleb being her actual step-family, Jake could just be a dude Mirai met in town one day and moved in with after dating for a while, so consequentially Tiernan moves in to be with Mirai and it's just a slice-of-life found family story. Even then, a romantic sub-plot would be a little weird but at least it's less weird, maybe Terrance could be the horrible love interest and Noah and Kaleb beat him up for breaking Tiernan's heart or something. Any other plot would've been better than this one.

[@sillygirl242]

​​@@Linhdoesstuffand Jake is aged down Or she is aged up Cause you know..

[@vivivalley]

fun fact! mirai means ‘future’ in japanese, which explains why terrain threw her away!

[@hollypulley2006]

TERRAIN LMAOOO

[@YurgenLeitnerNotInThisEconomy]

I CAN'T WITH THESE COMMENTS OMG

[@Zephyrus-x]

The fact that her uncle was her one of her best love interests is fucking insane😭😭

[@oddbirdMusic]

Noah and kaleb had to work together to hold the bar low enough for him, but they did it

[@Nyantastic2015]

RIGHT?? This book is so insanely horrible that there was a moment when Lexi was describing some of many of Kaleb's crimes that for a second I thought "She should've stuck with Unc-WAIT, NO! NONE OF THIS IS OKAY!"

[@lena_xxxx]

fr tho 😭😭

[@Dashings2ndFavMod]

step uncle- they aren’t actually related because her fathers father was “part of the making” of jake and neither was his mother

[@Dead.bear00]

​@@Dashings2ndFavMod they still are brothers whether step or not Y'all are deranged teenagers as F*ck. Get some life (also therapy)

[@scliffbartoni9771]

"He growls 'I'm your fucking uncle'" 😭I'm calling the police

[@Everybodyhateskay0]

Right 😂

[@fergustusferg]

I said yuck outloud 😂

[@burnt-croissants]

and getting a restraining order 💀

[@amyquintanna5311]

What kind of fucking uncle?

[@PotatoMufffin]

Ik it's so weird!! Also homestuck pfp

[@KendleM]

I got recommended this book, and went in completely blind. I genuinely thought I was reading a found family at first and that she was gonna find a cute boy on the mountain. I was incorrect.

[@rebeeckiie]

Ong! I was soo confused the first few chapters so I skipped to the end only to see Miria had joined the circus 💀

[@bobtheball5384]

I'm so sorry 😭

[@cjboyo]

recommending this book with no warning is fighting behavior

[@KendleM]

@@cjboyo it’s prison worthy

[@zoeb3573]

Have you asked whoever recommended this what the hell they were thinking

[@knightofnhi6843]

Kaleb is good with the colored pencils because they're made of woods! Rember? He's woods! Woods guy go woods, do good woods job!

[@tr-st_me_bro]

“Kaleb does woods like Ken does beach” -someone from this comment section

[@ken-xg7np]

this sounds like something Danny Gonzalez would say

[@Meowstababy]

@@ken-xg7npor wendigoon lmfao

[@a1xndria]

“His frontal lobe must have atrophied into a fine dust…” I am crying crying

[@lachelnderhund]

Leave it to authors to sneak in unnecessary sexual assault into every piece of modern literature they make

[@almondwaet7966]

and romanticize and normalize it

[@lachelnderhund]

@@almondwaet7966 so the middle aged women can obsess over it and over-inflate how good the book is even though it's shit

[@PaperLoser-gv4wb]

This is so fucking true I’m tired of the normalization of Assault in writing now Jesus Christ

[@lachelnderhund]

@@PaperLoser-gv4wb people like to excuse it and say it's for awareness just to hide the fact it's a poorly written excuse to add unnecessary assault in the book to make it "good"

[@PaperLoser-gv4wb]

@@lachelnderhund god I can’t understand why it’s so hard for people to write grown adult characters. JUST MAKE THEM 25 WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. These weird and twisted decisions are so disturbing, I wonder what else goes on in these authors brains

[@mysanityisz3ro]

the fact that the stock picture for uncle jake is RONALD REAGAN rlly gets me bc every time i look over at the board to see yet another crime this book has committed i see the face of the 40th president of the united states STARING AT ME

[@Thepeanutcollector]

I KNOW I SCREAMED WHEN I SAW IT

[@FlyingLavaDragon]

oh my lord I thought it was john wayne lmaooooo

[@4c_aperture]

I AM HOLLERING I DID NOT CATCH THAT AT ALL 😭😭😭

[@menaaaa05]

😂😂😂.

[@OliviaCLTFC]

​@@FlyingLavaDragon ronald raegan wishes

[@alittlefrog2395]

It’s so unusual to see a non-verbal romantic interest and I wish that it was a like a cool interesting representation, and not the horrific abuse-glorifying dumpster fire that it is 😭

[@caryn7154]

If you want to see a non-verbal romantic interest done correctly, read Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan. It also tackles trauma pretty well and is NOTHING like the absolute dumpster fire that is credence. I highly reccomend it actually 🤩

[@soon_to_emerge]

​@@caryn7154omg thank you for the rec. I love non-verbal charcaters, and there's an actual LI like that? Bless you.

[@livonsaffron8874]

I think you will like A Sign of Affection. I don't know much but it is an anime about a deaf girl and her romance with a boy who ACTUALLY understands and respects her and it also has sign language :D

[@wynnonaengle-pratt7126]

Highly recommend The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan

[@crackheadradar7803]

A silent voice ❤

[@s_marib]

I need an apology video with tears from Penelope after this, and so does Frederick Douglass

[@panicfvx]

Don’t forget the ukulele💀

[@haileygrace1924]

What?😂

[@Plutoliketheplanet]

​@haileygrace1924 if you're talking about the ukulele, a woman named Colleen Ballinger made an apology on KZbin with a song and a ukulele

[@haileygrace1924]

@@Plutoliketheplanet omg lol

[@jessnorton812]

@@haileygrace1924does it make it better or worse that the apology was about showing nudes to chikdren 😅

[@bluebyyoufu]

I think this author should be writing horror as I legit thought at several points Tiernan was going to return from the barn to find Uncle Jake and Noah slaughtered by Kaleb and the rest of the story would be her trying to get down the mountain without dying.

[@mariac1984]

the vibes were so off the whole time i wouldnt have been shocked at any point if she was murdered or it turned into the plot if The Room

[@sheilajune9677]

I'm dying oh my god 🤣😭

[@TwistedTeaRex]

That would have been a FAR superior story.

[@one-onessadhalf3393]

@mariac1985 It should be noted that the movie you’re think of is Room, not The Room. Room is a serious drama about a mother and son trapped in a room, The Room is “You are tearing me apart, Lisa!”

[@bgebre4031]

this would make a great thriller hello

[@zubetp]

jules is the funniest book character i've ever heard of. i'm obsessed with her. she barges into a stranger's bathroom butt-ass naked, runs into a startled teenage girl brushing her teeth, and goes, "the difference between pizza and your opinion is i asked for pizza." i wish she was a running character. tiernan is awoken in the middle of the night from a dead sleep to the sound of someone loudly playing the tuba outside. she opens the window and sees jules. jules lowers the tuba from her mouth, turns, and calls up to her, "grab your kodak and take a picture, it'll last longer!" tiernan pays for her burger king order, steps to the side to wait for it. she notices jules at the soda machine, dressed in that bunny costume elle woods wore to the college party. jules says, "loser, loser. double loser. whatever, as if. get the picture, duh." i also imagine her aggressively dancing after she owns tiernan with these hot lines.

[@solar2209]

Your interpretation of Jules being a constant within the story is truly the funniest thing ever

[@lillyw2695]

please write more situations in which tiernan gets owned by jules, ms. "i do what i want" herself. i can feel my brain cells recovering the more of these i read

[@abbywolffe4114]

Tiernan spots her climbing a tree in the middle of the woods and she yells from the top of it "BOOK AN APPOINTMENT I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR ISSUES"

[@nojuanuknow]

I haven't even read this book and I'm not even sure why this video was in my recommendations (but I'm sure glad it was-- I've been laughing for 2 hours straight) but now I want a whole Jules spin off series 🤣😂💯

[@madcatter5293]

Okay this would actually be amazing 😂

[@bingonight1504]

I lost it at "Noah is who i should be with. He's young. He talks to me" like the bar could not be ANY lower

[@aidenssadagain]

tiernan's perfect man checklist ✔️not old enough to be ber father ✔️communicates like a human

[@bingonight1504]

@@aidenssadagain honestly thinking back to being 17 years old though it kinda checks out. Does he have a job AND a car? So hot.

[@aidenssadagain]

@@bingonight1504 WAIT STOP YOURE SO RIGHT😭

[@1WEareBUFO1]

​@@bingonight1504she's not 17 she's 18! That's like ... a couple months older? 😬

[@leiajiang7877]

​@@1WEareBUFO1legal ≠ moral plus its actually not legal since jake is legal guardian

[@sofiarocha9907]

I know this is going to be a wild ride just from the phrase "the protagonist is TECHNICALLY 18 before anything unhinged truly happens"

[@esobelisk3110]

and it’s not even true 😭

[@Inara-101]

just a great introduction.

[@tabithapritt6895]

She makes out with her like 50 year old uncle while still 17 💀

[@hockeygrrlmuse]

Followed immediately by saying "oh wait no she's actually not lol" PHEW

[@camilabandera7689]

"whenever I see a comment saying Kaleb eats i'm like I would rather starve personally" 😭😭😭😭😭 girl you just destroyed that man with a quick sentence

[@mikaylasirovatka8910]

the audacity of some authors to take things that should never leave fanfic and put them into books will never cease to amaze me

[@mikaylasirovatka8910]

@@M.H.I.A.F.T. ... my comment was a joke??? I hope yours is too???

[@UrMentalHealth]

@@mikaylasirovatka8910 What did they say?

[@mikaylasirovatka8910]

@@UrMentalHealth oh lol i dont really remember, it was something about me not respecting or understanding fanfic, which like, i think the only people that make jokes about fanfic are self aware people that respect fanfic, so like, idk what that was about but ok.

[@divineruins]

fifty shades and after popped off and about two thousand fanfic authors who have never been told no in their lives said "hey i can do that"

[@AstronomicalJelly]

that describes most "romance" books written within the past like 2 decades unfortunately

[@willgalarneau5655]

Every time a character says something rancid I get a toilet cleaner ad. Iconic.

[@Girl.bffr._]

You literally got cleansed omgg

[@Macklemorelov3r]

Can we please just address Uncle Jake’s “My Mexico” tattoo!?!?😭

[@JasmineNorman2007]

LMAOOO I WAS LIKE "???" 😭😭

[@fullkneegrowDaHuman]

No bc there’s no way Penelope thought of it, wrote it down on paper, reread it, and thought, “ts is heat” 💀

[@viivv6230]

goodbye as soon as i read this comment that scene came up and i gasped SO LOUDLY bc i thought u were joking. there’s no way this book is real

[@yoonthusiast]

FR LIKE WHAT WAS THAT,,???

[@zubetp]

i wish the "my" was left off. that would have been way funnier. "what did you love most about her?" "she was mexican"

[@sophiereadstoomuch]

“kaleb has just been doing woods” has me hysterically laughing

[@mikaylaa.k.8376]

Very "Woods" Ken

[@heatherbocks]

Doing woods, best at woods, etc got me every time

[@Thiccythiccreads]

“He was born in woods. He was molded by woods.” 🤣

[@abigailsalmanac]

He’s the best to ever woods 💀

[@briereads3214]

It was honestly the best part of this whole video.

[@theyoutubeguide1109]

As a black person myself, using a Frederick Douglas quote at the beginning of this absolutely horrendous book is not only a crime against his fight for change, but against Black History as a whole. 💀 Who is reading this and genuinely enjoying it? I’m so flabbergasted that this was written and popularized…

[@rikimaru700]

The minute I heard it, I could feel my ancestors turn in their grave in collective black anger

[@FubblerCo.]

Fr like thats gotta be racist right??? 💀

[@gab.bee123]

i was about to comment how my mouth fell open when she said whose quote that was. like.... what?? huh??? in THIS book?? right near a PLAYLIST??

[@stone_forest3802]

Certified hate crime

[@laylalacelle4232]

No actually. I heard that and was like this cannot possibly be real

[@DaysieRose]

I'm 100% certain Kaleb was raised by wolves in the first draft of this book. Like his mom lost him in the woods and wolves raised him until he was 12 or something. I'm calling it.

[@ZenitsusDad]

I’m also helplessly giggling at every banjo censoring this hellfire of a book review

[@AudileSiren]

The banjo really killed me too🤣

[@wolvie1618]

Ah yes, be silenced by the banjo of civility

[@Gwendoline666]

it somehow gives me Sweet Home Alabama vibes which is fitting🤣

[@aarasko]

ITS ACTUALLY SO FUNNY

[@Its_se2]

Banjo of justice

[@adeleaslan8182]

'I want her father to know how much she loves her Uncle Jake' ENOUGH

[@alasiiaa_1637]

we should put Ben from November 9 and Kaleb into a boxing ring and just let them fight it out for the worst book boyfriend belt.

[@fionariesen1699]

will the belt have carvings of a mountainside and holes until the buckle though?

[@alasiiaa_1637]

yes along with the outlines of fire for Ben.@@fionariesen1699

[@katherinegriffin]

LMFAOOOOOO

[@pinkapple3619]

and add in basically every coho male love interest

[@BananaSlushii]

OML 😭

[@noellomax801]

1:21:51 "But the dogs love him" Probably because he's not SA-ing the animals

[@LimeZestti]

"I can excuse SA, but I draw the line at animal abuse"- Kaleb probably

[@nont18411]

@@LimeZestti The same guy who skinned a deer in his introduction scene. So he’s selective at protecting animals then.

[@thedarkurge420]

@@nont18411ah so kaleb’s moral limit is “i don’t eat dogs”

[@corathestoryteller]

I am forever grateful that you're willing to read the most unhinged tiktok trendy books when I am too terrified to do it myself

[@jasmim6612]

AHAHAHAH, i thought the exact same thing.

[@chloejulianna_]

I will never get tired of these recaps of unhinged books

[@jasmineindoors]

If I ever see this being read in the wild it’s on sight

[@H-d4232]

same

[@samanthawhitby8164]

At last, we have something that is NOT still a better love story than Twilight

[@starry_skies]

Twilight is starting to look real good lately 😭😭

[@notatallfunctional]

“Perhaps I treated you too harshly…”

[@tsifirakiehl4250]

I mean, the last Twilight book had an 18-year-old falling in love with a literal newborn, so I’m not ready to let the series off the hook yet.

[@starry_skies]

@@tsifirakiehl4250 yeah the whole imprinting was veryyy iffy

[@efenedick1305]

"Finally... we've found it... a worse love story than Twilight!"

[@Snow-qo7kx]

What kills me is that the author came up with several drafts of this, re-read it and was like yeah this is perfect and then PUBLISHED IT? I’m applying for a lobotomy Ps. Someone put down Kaleb.

[@mjj7983]

Bold of you to assume the author reread this after writing it 🤣

[@kashinimeyo]

100% I started highlighting grammatical errors and spelling errors- she ain’t rereading anything, if sober 😭😭😭😭 PS someone put me down for having read this before

[@chillitheconqueror3567]

The PS is extremely funny to me because Kaleb sounds like Kelev, which is very literally the word for dog in my language 😭

[@Snow-qo7kx]

@@kashinimeyo I genuinely hope this was some kind of crack fic 😭

[@Snow-qo7kx]

@@chillitheconqueror3567 omg ☠️☠️

[@NyxFoxie-tm4lh]

We have Uncle "partially successful Lobotomy" Jake, older cousin "successful Lobotomy" Kaleb and cousin "failed Lobotomy" Noah.

[@rachelh9462]

Pleasee 💀😂😂

[@rachellme77]

this randomly ended up on my homepage (having never watched any of your videos before and never having heard of this book) and I'm just astounded by how literally every choice this author made was the worst one that could have been chosen???

[@Redheart709]

theres not a single good decision made. im trying to watch this video as background noise for drawing but i keep turning back like BRO HUH??? WHAT. SHES IN HIGH SCHOOL

[@brolys_maiden]

same,its truly ridiculous

[@jarpout]

i’m in the same boat as you, i’m a little over halfway through, this book is wiiiiiiiiild isnt it

[@forg3038]

​@@Redheart709omg, same!! Like...I'm using this to revise, but it's legit taking my focus away so freaking much. If I wasn't invested in Lexi's narration I would've already closed the video lol.

[@kashinimeyo]

Literally from the preface quote and everything 😭😭😭

[@katherinegriffin]

kaleb being spelled with a k explains everything about his character

[@Pend3m0nium]

I knew a Kaleb with a k once... he also was a horny wacko

[@RogosRinted]

i thought your pfp was like a little baby whos balding and has this clowns hair 🤡 😭😭😭

[@katherinegriffin]

@@RogosRinted WHY DID YOU FEEL COMPELLED TO TELL ME 😭😭😭

[@yourdad5799]

​@@katherinegriffin I'm sorry but he is spot on 😭

[@Nockgun]

@@katherinegriffinsorry mate its true :( that exposed forehead and small pfp unless we look into the channel

[@reyrapids63]

The hallmark of a bad book is that it immediately made me imagine a better version of the same story. This could have easily been about an adult woman who could also be a mountain woman, or even a townie, but due to bad luck ends up in the mountains during winter, and has to stay in a cabin with three hunky mountain men. All the same sexy stuff could have happened but like, there was 0 need for her to be 17/18 and 0 need for anyone to be related at all.

[@triplelex]

lol there actually is!! It’s called Three Swedish Mountain Men by Lily Gold. Much better than this monstrosity

[@erinys2]

also why is SHE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL Im turning 16 soon and horrified at what these people find sexy

[@reyrapids63]

@@erinys2 a disturbing amount of writers suffer from what I call, "Didn't age up their characters as they grew up"-itis. Most people start writing when they are young, High School aged give or take a few years. They write what they know, which is usually high school aged characters. The key step here is to let your writing mature as you mature. Some writers have elected to skip this step. With your help and only pennies a day, we can put an end to D.A.U.T.C.A.T.G.U. for good and secure a brighter future for all writers.

[@marmoth9786]

@@triplelex as a swede... why are they swedish😭😭

[@sathalel4084]

it wouldn't have sold shit though. the "I can't believe it's not incest" shit is half the draw of those types of stories it provided a huge amount of marketing through being so provocative and there is quite a sizeable audience that unfortunately finds it hot to wanna bang your uncle.

[@Aurama35]

Ha ha ha, as a person from Colorado who lives in the mountains... we have this thing called snow plows that can, you know, remove well... snow. Also, it rarely snows for that many months of the year. And the audacity of this author to have people from Colorado associated with this book. We do not claim this author nor this family

[@bye.7613]

“weird in an edward cullen meets four from divergent kind of way” was so vividly descriptive i almost spit my water out 💀 what an aggressively perfect way to describe it

[@kenjio-o3998]

And to think I am a 15-year-old who almost bought this book from Barns and noble unsuspectingly because TikTok said it was good is really fun silly and terrifying 😀👍

[@banrions]

yikes. people need to make things APPARENT when they are rec'ing a book that it is for adults only, and kids need to head those warnings and look into them for sure.

[@LakishaByabasheija]

I did actually buy it and read it then I went on reading hiatus for about a month because I felt like decades were taken off my life after I finished it💀

[@banrions]

@@LakishaByabasheija ohh noooo. i'm sorry

[@BroccoliAndCheese01]

Ooooh my God. There should be age restrictions on certain books imo.

[@apidgin30]

@@BroccoliAndCheese01there pretty much already is lol. But also an age restriction would not stop kids from getting their hands on it 💀

[@idontknow409]

The most egregious part of this entire video is that I was forced to imagine shirtless Ronald Reagan

[@musicADHD]

i ran to the comments just to find this because i kept thinking “i cannot be the only one disturbed by this?!?!”

[@josie8997]

omg THAT is why he seemed so familiar 🤢 that's extra cursed

[@star3catcherSEQUEL]

To be fair, Reagan was at one point a hot young Hollywood actor.

[@idontknow409]

@@star3catcherSEQUEL saw pics, hard pass

[@ladymoe5395]

the way i gasped when kaleb destroyed her furniture... obviously all the other stuff is horrible and unforgivable but oh my god that is just so cruel and scary

[@LimeZestti]

Everything else in the book is completely inexcusable, but in the weird fucking universe that is Credence, that act felt especially evil. Like Kaleb didn't have to do that, he didn't have to break any of her things. Noah explains the SA as Kaleb trying to eat after being in the woods for so long (UGHHHHHHH), but what did Kaleb get from tormenting this teenager's art???? Its so obvious that the furniture was his way of punishing her or breaking her emotionally, and it feels even more personal because of how much Tiernen used the furniture as a healing mechanism. That should have been the final, extremely personal nail in the coffin, and it's absolutely absurd that it wasn't.

[@Nockgun]

@@LimeZesttiand that furniture nails should be a nail for his coffin if he exists irl. jesus christ why does booktok like horrible men that is 10/10 horror potential but i rather eat a cactus like a camel rather than calling it romantic

[@emine5288]

Either my ADHD meds are working or you have a really interesting way of telling a story because there is NO WAY I jut watched a 2 hour video with no breaks.

[@newlynova]

by ADHD for ADHD

[@gooseberriesarentreal]

For real and I don't have adhd meds (i do have adhd)

[@anushkachatterjee8062]

I watched the whole video without meds.

[@lindsay2319]

It tricked my ADHD so well I thought this video had only been 20 minutes until I saw your comment.

[@stevie6900]

as a seventeen year old who turns eighteen relatively soon it is absolutely WILD to me how fetishized(?!) and glamorized age gap relationships are, especially with the younger party (or, more accurately, the Victim) being my exact age. because it seems like adults portray seventeen year olds to be “basically adults” and it makes me think that maybe they’ve forgotten what it feels like to be seventeen. i can’t imagine dating or having sex with anyone over 2 or 3 years older than me and even that’s pushing it. it’s genuinely insane how common this disgusting trope is. 😭

[@oxxn111]

happy early birthday

[@Everybodyhateskay0]

Yessss and it seems like every book is always freshly 18 or under 18 they seriously need help

[@MM-jf1me]

As you get older the "jail bait" trope/fetish will become even more disgusting as you realize that older adults KNOW how young seventeen year olds are compared to older folks. 🤮

[@Everybodyhateskay0]

@@MM-jf1me yesssss

[@charlieisacastle]

honestly im 22 and i cannot imagine dating anyone who is more than a year old two older or younger than me. even that is a stretch tbh. to each their own i guess but imma stick with people my age mostly. its usually the healthy option imo

[@sunnyandthechlo]

As a novelist, throwing myself lovingly out a window seems like self-care at this point.

[@realityisascam]

it's a necessity

[@analrightname]

defenestration is the only option after this book

[@JadeReloaded]

I never enjoyed a solitary sentence this much, please let me know where I can access more of your writing!

[@Thenoobestgirl]

Underrated comment 😂

[@isengarde9490]

How does one 'Lovingly' commit suicide?

[@YogurtNight_]

I hate the fact that they’re painting sexual assault as something you can just remove if you’re badass enough. Like if you’re strong willed enough you can just remove the trauma from it and prevent it from actually affecting you. It’s so disgusting and insensitive to all of the incredibly strong people who still get sexually assaulted

[@Celestialite21]

I laughed out loud at "we have criminal boyfriends at home."

[@amyquintanna5311]

But MOM,this ones on clearance!

[@theaquinnwrites]

I'm just imagining a better version of this book where where Kaleb is just a nice autistic non-verbal man who seems threatening bc he is huge, but is actually just a giant teddybear. Also, he isn’t her relative and they are both teenagers

[@blackrosejinx5563]

Yet another himbo opportunity missed. Tragedy. I hate this book sm

[@panny7227]

THAT’S WHAT I WAS HOPING FOR

[@Get-Frogged]

Many things are made better with the addition of a himbo. This is not one of those things. Also, Kaleb as a teenage giant who also happens to be Non verbal autistic makes me happy, that's honestly an adorable idea.

[@rxmz2386]

like the guy from mice and men

[@Stettafire]

No, cus then they'd write the most awful stereotypically autistic person known to man. Really need to stop using autistic people as your entertainment

[@amityislandchum]

The scene where Uncle Jake jokingly teaches Tiernan to shave could have been teally adorable in a normal family drama/coming-of-age book about an uncle genuinely learning to raise his young niece. I think Penelope Douglas needs to be on an FBI watchlist.

[@sapphiz]

@@M.H.I.A.F.T.oh that’s not….

[@shart6275]

@@sapphiz no in the sense that-

[@faye4437]

Well no, it couldn’t have

[@sillygirl242]

​@@sapphizwhy have I been seeing that person terrorizing the comment section 💀

[@Banana.600]

The fact that shes 17 at the starting, As a 17 year old going on 18, I have no words.

[@teetheatersanonymous]

SAME LIKE WTF

[@Hur1hur2hur3hur4]

Same, all those stories are even more horrifying when you're the same age as the characters...

[@trashpanda3544]

The most unrealistic aspect of this book is that the type of men who punch holes in walls agreeing to polygamy. You're telling me they have insane anger issues and yet are somehow chill with the idea of sharing a girlfriend?

[@florahorvath6794]

I mean.... maybe they are into ...sharing with family?

[@akwardmuchv3624]

​@@florahorvath6794 why... Does that sound even worse😭

[@danichii]

"it's like her options were eating a cockroach, licking the wall of a public bathroom or amputating all of your limbs" LMAO this was such a good joke i had to comment on it 😭💀

[@tsuki7964]

1:29:43

[@dangerousadvantage126]

and the worst part is, tiernan is going into this like, "UGH how can i CHOOSE!?!? 😩" as if this isn't the metaphorical and psychic equivalent of a gratuitously bad slasher horror book. as if it doesn't make me genuinely wish it *was* a gratuitously bad slasher horror book. i want a lobotomy

[@senor3556]

I’m in shambles right now just thinking about what this book would be like if it was a heartwarming coming-of-age story with the main character just working through her trauma and experiencing wholesome family moments. So many of these taboo romance books feel like that to me tbh, but this one hurts the most because there’s _actual scenes_ of platonic love that gets immediately ruined by the grim reality of the horny. I’m in misery

[@amyquintanna5311]

Grim reality of the horny is not a sentence id expect,but it is apropriate

[@emilywebster5706]

I'm on page 149 of this book rn because a bitch can't help herself and is nosy and I'm legitimately seething. I'm so upset that Penelope Douglas wasted Tiernan's character's potential on a weird underage stepcest romance. Like can I pls get a rewrite where Jake is a normal uncle, Kaleb is his mute son that is not Like That, and Noah is either not a love interest and still a cousin or is the love interest and is no longer a cousin because be so fr why do he and Tiernan have SO much chemistry that simultaneously gets ruined by alluding to a sibling/cousin-like bond 🧍 Actually genuinely banging my head against the wall because I love the concept of Tiernan's backstory so much, and then I have to sit through the horny

[@erinys2]

sometimes i hate human desire, the way they could not experience platonic love without some fucked up desire jutting in

[@serena841]

​@@erinys2 This happens in all sorts of media. You think you're watching a wholesome story then you get jumpscared by a s3x scene.

[@ヴォン-t5p]

the animalistic way Kaleb as a non-verbal character is written is so dehumanising and disturbing

[@thing2be]

yeah non verbal people are still people not r/pist cavemen

[@Autistic_Sandw1ch.official]

And the fact that this isn’t even the worst part of the book

[@RatatoskClarke]

As someone who goes non-verbal VERY frequently I feel not very friendly feelings towards this author

[@nooneeey]

@@RatatoskClarke This is a crazy take tho. It’s like people saying a black character can’t be evil because that casts a bad light on black people and they are not like that. It’s a a character in a book from a person who clearly is not capable of writing ANY good characters. They are all awful, equally. It’s not just this one who is written completely dehumanized and disturbed. Writing a non verbal person creepy and inhuman is not a bad thing if it’s wanted, just as you can write any other kind of human that way if it fits your story. The problem here is that the author seems to never have interacted with humans in general and didn’t purposefully write them like this.

[@RatatoskClarke]

@@nooneeey ​​⁠you know what, that’s fair. I wish there was more positive rep for nonverbal characters who are written well. But yeah I shouldn’t come to the bad writing store and ask for a well written character, that one is on me.

[@leximor]

her parents hated her enough to prepare ahead of time to send her off to her Evil Uncle but not enough to not give her an inheritance apparently… but the plot holes are what’s least abysmal here

[@TheZerech]

I feel like this book should have ended with the mountain men eating Tiernan. It feels like this building up to a Ravenous style cannibal mountain feast.

[@saturnfromalien365]

and honestly - it wouldve perhaps tied it up more nicely and kind of redeemed itself in the way that "yep these are literal mountain men who have no idea how to act and how to behave like a civilized person in todays society would" and mayhaps even healed some of the scarring of my soul of just going through this video and not even reading it..

[@anong8959]

I prefer this ending so much cause it would actually make it an interesting work😭

[@idkwhatdayitis]

Especially Noah's reaction to KCaleb

[@sarahmichelle473]

Knowing nothing about this book going into this movie, I honestly thought it was going to turn into cannibalism when she showed the one line about “how we survive the winter”

[@barbararab6390]

I wish it ended Until dawn style with them being wendigos

[@lc6871]

How this isn't labeled as a horror, is beyond me.

[@teambaby821]

deadass, too much "omg girl get out of there" moments 😭😭

[@NinjaKinga1NK]

Books like this are so motivating because if this can be successful then nobody should be afraid to do their own thing. Just so long as it isn't this thing.

[@arebs97]

“eating her breath” made me scream out loud, my skin is crawling lol

[@amyquintanna5311]

Think it was chewy?

[@candycane1744]

​@@amyquintanna5311 Imagine morning breath

[@chelchelchelchel]

the way I gasped hearing Noah is alone AND watching the MC’s and Caleb’s child from his tent… like I know damn well that man shouldn’t be left alone with an underaged relative

[@ettaetta439]

Exactly 💀💀💀💀 I'd be so afraid of Noah and Uncle Jake taking it up on themselves to groom yet another kid. And Caleb himself is going to be such a shitty father, this poor kid is doomed.

[@empressofkingfishers8656]

The townies need to send CPS their way cause like 😭

[@victoriamae4594]

So I was recommended this book with 0 warning a while back and I was trying to get into “dark romance” to, in all honesty, gain my libido back after some personal/health issues and I literally felt so violated and repulsed that I took a month of celibacy 😂

[@iwatchthemooooon3002]

Who was the devil that tried to turn you into a nun with this omg 💀💀💀

[@ignisvividi2400]

LMAO not the month of celibacy

[@zoeb3573]

The person who recomended this to you clearly doesn't want you to go back to the dating game

[@MekareP]

Why are there so many comments like this?! I love me some dark romance but you gotta warn a person!!

[@anonymousdratini]

The book that will win you no nut november

[@Cresil21]

"Your parents never gave you anything sweet, that's why you're not." IS WILD! 😂

[@tabithapritt6895]

FR, is that supposed to be sympathetic because it fails at that

[@taylorsimmons255]

he thought he was cooking with that one

[@athroneoflies8785]

"Kaleb does woods" exactly the same energy as "yeah, my job? it's just Beach" from Barbie and I don't know if it was on purpose or not but it WAS hilarious

[@franncesca]

I love how confidently I picked this specific video to play in the background while I do my homework and closed my notebook five minutes in.

[@The_gremling]

I put it on and wanted to scroll through my phone or something. Ended up putting it away and watching the video with an intrigued but disappointed/disgusted expression.

[@charlyeeohair5777]

Same honestly. I rewatch it all the time too on the background of all the homework I do. After you watch it once, the background noise is impeccable

[@Hur1hur2hur3hur4]

Me with cleaning my room

[@rachelc8368]

Cant unhear the noah voice as Ben Shapiro help

[@newlynova]

my secret is that the noah voice is just my mediocre ben shapiro impression so you're really ahead of the game

[@jellybelly1632]

i keep imagining PointCrow for some reason WHICH SUCKS CUZ I LOVE HIS VIDS :(((((((((((((((((((

[@merlockqueen4137]

@@jellybelly1632not point crow with the collector stepbrother anxiety

[@AminaHadjer-vy7bp]

1:41:34 “ why be mad when your man has revealed himself to be literate “ 😭😭 I’M DEAD!!! 😂😭

[@carolinavaz395]

This books suffers from Acute Passengers (2016) Disease in the way that the author markes it as a (dark) romance when in actuality its a psychological horror/thriller. A young teen, emotionally abused from her negligent parents, is separated from her only parent figure to live in an isolated environment with 3 disgusting misogynists who prey upon her trauma to satisfy themselves sexually; to cope with the sexual trauma, she begins gaslighting herself to regain the control of the narrative. This is not a coming-of-age through love romance this is a cautionary tale that men, even from your own family, can and WILL use your trauma to satisfy themselves

[@dschmidt1162]

That’s what I was thinking! I feel like she was going for Lolita but it lacks the subtleties to the reader

[@AzraelSeraphino]

Hey man that's fucked

[@ceinwenchandler4716]

_Some_ men. This cautionary tale doesn't apply to all of them by a very long shot.

[@lisanee]

​@@ceinwenchandler4716 love how quick men are to get offended by women being wary of them but never speak up against their predatory mates' behavior that make up the reason to be wary to begin with. says a lot about your priorities🤓

[@AstronomicalJelly]

tbh i feel like that's the case wity most "dark romance" books, they just use that label as a defense for romanticizing these things instead of actually writing about how fucked up they actually are lol

[@Yesi9693]

Here's how to make this better. Have it turn out that the reason her parents were shifty to her is that she's actually uncle jakes daughter. Have zero romance and just fatherly love between her and uncle Jake. Keep the flirting between Mirai and uncle. Have Noah be just a brother and not a creep because yikes. Lastly no rapey vibes from Kaleb instead make it that he's actually just uncle jakes adopted son that he took in from his abusive mom. Lol idk I tried

[@sh4rky466]

That’s so much cuter and better than whatever this is

[@moon7shinev150]

This is literally a much better story

[@elliotgrady1899]

Literally just rewrite the whole story at this point 😩

[@felicityhoneycutt8570]

you gave it a better try than the damn author did

[@alexandravazquez4183]

preferably also make kaleb Not Literally Evil. but yeah this idea that probably took you less than 5 min to type out is so much better than whatever the fuck this story actually is

[@confusionandcreation6036]

There's nothing like the solidarity between a disgruntled KZbinr and their increasingly worried viewers wondering how far this is gonna go.

[@PippaMcKinney]

add in the conspiracy board of characters and you have the perfect love triangle

[@pompadours8954]

I truly cannot get over the extra level of sinister horror that comes from the "we can't leave the mountain for six months" plothole. Even if they didn't have snowmobiles (which another comment says they do), even if years of living on that mountain hadn't inspired them to find some way to circumvent that isolation, even if you ignore that they could just live SOMEWHERE ELSE - Terrance gets up there in midwinter to light the barn on fire, so clearly you CAN get up and down the mountain even if you're not a Master of Woods! Which means that they know they can, which means they're trapping her there intentionally with their shitty cover stories, which makes what was already pitch-black even darker.

[@Nockgun]

this shit is vantablack

[@archienemesis652]

I do really fucking hate Kaleb for all the obvious reasons, yes, but also the functionatliy of making him in the way they do. Oh, man, this man who is nonverbal but not for any clear non-mental reason, and is defined by large outbursts that often times include physicality because he cannot express himself properly, and clearly has a deep and invested interest in one specific topic (woods), and isn't at all interested in traditional socialization, and when writing about previous social interactions he had before we met him includes that he pretty obviously struggles to interact with individuals, and defines socialization by a set of rules. MAN. THAT'S SUCH A WEIRD RANDOM SET OF TRAITS TO ASSIGN TO A CHARACTER WHO YOU MADE THE MOST DERANGED AND VIOLENT CHARACTER IN THE BOOK. HMMM.

[@momplspickmeupimscared]

Oh. My. God. You just opened my third eye, buddy. You're right, Kaleb IS literally ableistically autism coded that is SO FVCKED UP! THIS IS SOME PUZZLE-PIECE-OF-SHIT LEVEL OF ABLEISM NOW I'M EVEN ANGRIER THAN I ALREADY WAS 😡 🤬

[@jjju3]

it literally makes me want to drive my head through a wall it pisses me off so bad.

[@viridiannnn]

YEAH ONCE I NOTICED THAT I WAS LIKE. I DONT LIKE THE IMPLICATIONS THIS AUTHOR IS GIVING HERE

[@meme6314]

Maybe but CPTSD and other mental illnesses can make people seem autistic sometimes, we'll never know if he is really but autistic people can be bad too so i don't see the problem here, at least there's representation? Tell me if i'm missing something.

[@archienemesis652]

@@meme6314 rapists shouldn't be flaunted as rep, I'd say, esp considering the time frame this book's coming out it. Also, I accept that he could have CPTSD and not autism, but also I'm autistic amd that's why I assumed what I did. Either way, it's still super shitty, because the text excuses Kaleb's behaviour on the basis of these traits he exhibts. Having CPTSD or Autisim or any other mental illness does not excuse someone raping people, and this books choice to romanticism Kalebs actions on the basis of mental illness makes it seem like the author is attempting to say that mental illness makes you a bad person, and thats sexy. Autism doesn't make you a bad person. CPTSD doesnt make you a bad person. Neither of those afflictions make it okay to rape someone, and writing a character around those traits and establishing those traits AND ALSO conflating the rape with those traits whilst depicting them as something to be wanted in a relationship isnt chill. Making an autisitic rapist character is one thing, so long as you clear the barrier of Autism doesnt justify the rape. Sorry if I'm coming off harsh, here, btw; I just figure I should establish that

[@gabriellegoodwin4422]

I love when people talk about a character like they’re a wild dog lmao The uncle really went “he don’t bite”

[@zoeb3573]

But yes he do

[@Mathee]

@@zoeb3573 Both literally by biting her neck, and figuratively by destroying her hard work

[@thanatoast]

The uncle has a son like that and he had the GALL to tell Tiernan's main maternal figure who HAD BEEN TAKING CARE OF HER that he could do better.

[@barbararab6390]

​@thanatoast fr, hes got a lot of nerve for someone that: 1) groomed an underage girl he was supposed to take care of And 2) has sons who are massive incels and one who is physically violent and nonverbal

[@Mathee]

@@barbararab6390And it's weird how guys who apparently get so much sex, have such massive incel energy

[@Whisdom]

"Why be mad, when your man is revealed to be literate?" I spat up my drink

[@tsuki7964]

1:41:32

[@KeVVilde]

For context, I am not religious, and I wasn't raised religiously. However, I just finished Act Two, and I have googled my closest church to Confessor three times or how to find God. I'm traumatized and speechless. How did God allow this to be in the world? Penelope needs to pay for my next therapy session and apologize, or else my therapist will know her name very well.

[@susanritchie2394]

He gave us free will...for better or worse

[@adeleaslan8182]

@@susanritchie2394for the absolute worst. God makes a lot of mistakes and giving Penelope access to cousins, uncles, Colorado, and a computer was an unforgivable one

[@Nockgun]

@@adeleaslan8182i think everyone makes mistake including God (which he did alot, just hope he didn't do a cataclysm on us.)

[@belgianblonde]

the fact that 'van der berg' means 'from the mountain' in dutch like that's so on the nose i can't 😭😭 sorry that you had to suffer through this book, but this whole video was hysterical!!

[@Yusra99]

Do not forget about de Haas 🤣 meaning the hare. 🤡💀

[@belgianblonde]

@@Yusra99 i know right 🤣

[@Its_se2]

I'm convinced that the entire book is a nightmare that she had the night her parents passed away and in reality she's just going to live with the PA and never meet these....charming men who do woods every so often. That's the only way I'll sleep at night

[@katherinehaidara2967]

That headcanon is the only way I’m going to get through this video, thank you

[@tsifirakiehl4250]

I usually hate the “all just a dream” theory, because the story is already fictional, so there’s no point to making it even more not real than it already is, but in this case, it’s the best possible headcanon for this story.

[@Its_se2]

​@@tsifirakiehl4250it's the only way to view this book that makes it sound more mild than it really is. This book is TRULY off the rail and it only continues to spiral backwards untill its ending

[@witchecheveria9417]

Penelope Douglas really saw Frederick Douglass' name and was like. "Yeah. We're kindred spirits. Gotta use his uplifting and liberating words/work towards abolition to set the vibes for my reverse harem step-relatives smut novel in which a r*pist gets redeemed" the disrespect of it alone is breath taking. when lexi loosely described this book in her wrap up i thought it was gonna be bad, but my imagination was not enough to picture it THIS BAD adfghjk

[@bridgetbrennan6615]

I had a decent idea of what I was getting into when I obtained this book. Then I saw the Frederick Douglas quote and I had to take a few minutes to process that choice.

[@eliworshington1132]

really appreciate that when you chose the photos you didn’t feed into penelope douglas’ “all the men are soooo hot for no reason!!” trope

[@asteridshydrangea-jt2hf]

Oh my godddd the sheer laziness of wanting to write a bad boy and not having the craft or commitment to do anything other than ‘violently hates and violates women.’

[@skinnylegend9782]

Exactly

[@abbywolffe4114]

Every single time I see a booktuber video with a character map on the wall I'm instantly ten times more invested. Unfortunately in this case getting invested in said characters cost me a significant chunk of my soul.

[@starry_skies]

Same. I feel like I've lost something I'll never get back just from hearing those few excerpts 😭

[@shtuffssss]

put this on the aux on a road trip. we are all changed

[@newlynova]

HAHAHAHHAHAHA wow what an absolute HONOR

[@Inara-101]

changed like in a traumatic bonding moment? 😂

[@shtuffssss]

@@Inara-101 lets just say one of us left w a new prescription

[@enilicht]

Ooooh wait putting video essays on during road trips like ur listening to an audiobook or a podcast for everyone to hear and get traumatised by sounds fun as hell I’m definitely doing this when I get my own car lmao

[@hockeygrrlmuse]

You are so brave I would have had to pull over to scream. More than once

[@deerlyqueery]

The writers of these disgusting abusive THINGS def would be the type to think Lolita was a romance novel instead of horror