Hey guys, it's Trina and this is my monthly recommendations video for May.
Monthly recommendations is a Goodreads group that was created by myself and my
friend Kayla Rayne. May's topic is contemporary, which is a pretty broad
genre. We've been wanting to do it for a while. We thought it was very fitting for
the spring and summer months. I want to kind of take this opportunity to just
talk about my personal favorite contemporary books. My first contemporary
series that I want to talk about is the Anna and the French Kiss series by
Stephanie Perkins. Although I do have some mixed opinions
on some of the things that occurred in these books, I just remember that I did
not want to read this book. I thought it was going to just be so bad, and then I
finally picked it up and I just blew through it. Like, it was one of those read
it in one night kind of books for me. So I had a really fun experience with that
first book and then I ended up enjoying books 2 & 3 a lot more. So if you aren't
familiar with the series, these are three different companion novels, so each one
does follow a new character. If you're looking for books to just kind of
breeze through really easily and if fluffy romantic contemporary is your
thing, I definitely think that this series is a really good kind of standby
series to meet that fluffy romantic contemporary vibe. The third book, Isla and the
Happily Ever After, is definitely my favorite of the series because I felt so
much more connected to that relationship than I did to the first two. Whereas the
other two books just showed the swoony romantic build-up to getting together,
Isla actually showed a relationship in progress and I just really appreciated
it for that. So I definitely loved this series but specifically it's Isla and the
Happily Ever After out of this series that is my favorite. Next I'm going to
talk about the Burn For Burn trilogy by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian. This is a
revenge story. It's following three high school girls from completely different
cliques who have all been burned and hurt by the popular guy in school. So
these three girls all kind of band together and keep their friendship a
secret and they're plotting revenge to get back at this guy who is like ruining
their lives, and I'm just a sucker for good revenge story. I also
enjoyed watching these friendships develop because none of these girls have
a lot in common except for their desire for revenge and
then the revenge plot kind of goes off of its tracks at times and they get in way
over their heads. I thought it was fun so if you like revenge stories and you're
more in the mood for that as opposed to something very fluffy, although there is
some romance in that series too, then I would recommend the Burn For Burn trilogy.
Next up is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell which I know is a standby
for like everybody. Reasons why I love this book is because first of all,
it's set in college and I think at the time that I had read this, which was years
ago by the way, I think I hadn't really read any books
that were set in college. I just found this time of life to be so much more
relatable to me. But I also had an extreme connection to the main character,
Cath, because she does have social anxiety and again I don't think I had
ever read a book at that time of a character that had anxiety and I saw so
much of myself in her. I also really enjoyed the romance, the friendships, the
sister relationship, the family dynamic in this book and it is definitely a book
that when someone says, 'hey what are some of your favorite contemporaries?' this one
always comes to mind because of that connection I've had with it. Next up is
one of those grittier, more hard-hitting books and that is The Female of the
Species by Mindy McGinnis. It's one of my favorite contemporaries because this
book is so real. If you don't know, this is a rape revenge story and it is just
tackling rape culture. That's the entire purpose of the book. Now, because this is
dealing with rape culture you are going to have some scenes in this book that do
depict attempted rape and just some really horrible stuff, like there's
murders and stuff that happen in this book because of that revenge aspect too.
But on the other side I think that this book is approaching it in an informative
and a healing way. It's not doing these things just for shock value, just to like
get a reaction out of you. It's really an examination of them so I do think it is
a healthy examination. I also enjoy the friendships in this book and the family
of one of the main characters Peekay, like her parents were just so supportive and
I just think that this is a healthy conversation starter that we really need
to have in YA so I really love this book. It is a favorite contemporary of mine.
Next is The Girl Who Fell by S. M. Parker which is a... really dark book
because this one is examining an inside look at an abusive
romance. So we're following a girl who meets a new guy, she falls for him,
and then slowly but surely the reader starts seeing that this is an abusive
relationship. It's a very terrifying type of novel. It's definitely not a feel-good
book. You're going to hate it but that's the point, and as someone who has been in
an abusive relationship I actually love this book.
This is the best examination of an abusive relationship that I have ever
read about in a book. This book just offered a really well-rounded look at all
the things that might happen in a relationship like this. It offered me a
mirror yet again and I just felt very empowered by this story and I'm really
really glad that we have stories like this that exist in YA because I think
more teenagers need to be seeing examples like this so that they will
kind of recognize some of the warning signs. At least, I wish I had when I was a teenager.
Next is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.
I just read this a couple months ago and it's my favorite book that I've read so
far this year. Like, it really is that good. It follows a black teenager named
Starr who witnesses one of her friends being shot by a white policeman
and just kind of like the repercussions of this and the media coverage of it and
how it wants to paint her black teenage friend as just a thug, and hoodlum, and
you know he's a drug dealer and they're just slandering him and they're trying
to make the white policeman out to be like he was scared for his life
even though the guy was not doing anything threatening at all. Aside from
it tackling a very important issue this book was just amazingly well written as
well. Angie Thomas wrote so many different tones, so many different scenes
in this book. She transitioned between them flawlessly. The characterization was
amazing, the relationships between Starr and her friendships, and her family, and
the community, everything was just written so well. It was such a real story
and Starr's such a real character. I just loved everything about this book
so it is definitely one of my favorite contemporary stories. Next is If I Was
Your Girl by Meredith Russo, which is a book about a trans girl and her
experience. She has already transitioned and she's at a new school, she just moved
in with her father where she previously was living with her mother, and this book
is amazing at examining - again family dynamics. I feel like that's probably a
theme in why I'm liking a lot of these books because I keep saying, 'I love
the family dynamics in this book,' but I loved the family exploration in this
book. This one is ownvoices and I just think that there is a lot of value in it.
There's a really cute romance in it, there are some good friendships, although
some of the friendships I felt like weren't the best, but the story itself
and the characters were really really great and it's definitely worth
mentioning because every time I think of amazing contemporary stories this
one definitely does come to mind. Next is In Real Life by Jessica Love. It is
about two characters who know each other online. One of them has a crush on the
other. She decides to go out and meet him in real life for the first time ever and
tell him about her crush and when she gets there she realizes that he hasn't
been completely truthful about everything in his life. Now, I have
recommended this to a few friends and they say that they hate the tropes that
are in it and I do see that there definitely are a few tropes that are pretty
heavy in it but when I read it I felt like this book flipped all those tropes
on their heads like it was actively trying to subvert them because it would
like start going down this one path and the characters would be like, 'well why
are we really doing that?' and I just really enjoyed it. This one to me was
just like a feel-good happy making book so if you're looking for a book that's
just going to be really easy to fly through and just going to make you feel
happy this one did that for me so I still think it's definitely worth
recommending. Another favorite is Just One Day by Gayle Forman. This is about a
young girl who is on a college trip in London and then she meets a guy there
and they decide that they're going to take a train and go to Paris for just
one day to spend it together. She's never really taken a risk like that so she
just goes for it and they spend this wonderful day together in Paris and then
she wakes up the next morning and he's gone and she has no idea what's happened
to him. The story follows her as she tries to piece together this mystery of
what really happened during that day and how that day has changed her life. So,
this book does not all take place from start to finish in just one day,
that's about maybe the first third of the book and then the rest of the book
examines her life in like the following year after that and when I read this
book this is another one that just had a really deep personal meaning for me
because this character is a person that's struggling to move on from a
relationship that she doesn't know why it ended. She needs
closure and I had had a relationship like years and years ago when I read
this book and I never got any closure from it and when I read this I was like
oh my gosh this is a piece of my life. Obviously I didn't go to Paris but when I
read this book I remember feeling like it was medicine and this book again is
one that was set in college and it does explore things like family and
depression and pressure that's put on you for school and I just related to so many
aspects of this character. I mean, I know a lot of people have said that they
don't like this book but when I read it it meant everything to me.
I haven't reread it since then. I probably should but I don't want to like
ruin that first impression that I had of it, you know? Like it just meant so much
to me and I just want it to continue meaning that much to me so this is
definitely one of my favorites. Next is Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
by Becky Albertalli, which is about a young boy who is gay and he is not out
to his friends or his family but he is in an online relationship with
another boy at his school who is also gay and is also not out. So the two of
them don't know their real identities since they aren't out and our main
character Simon really wants a boyfriend. He really wants to find out who his
online crush is. This is another one of those books that is just so happy making.
If you're looking for something that will make you gush and swoon this is
definitely it. There are some heart-wrenching moments that just make
your heart drop like oh I can't believe that just happened, but overall this is just a
swoony story that I love it so so much. I just loved it. I loved it, I loved it.
If you have a recommendation for a contemporary novel that you think I would enjoy let
me know that down below too or just tell me what one of your favorite
contemporary books is. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the comments. Bye!
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