I kind of love that I'm wearing this sweater that is kind of like bucked up because it kind of goes with the book. I'm gonna talk to you about today. Hi guys, I'm Monica and welcome back to my chat on Winnie Reads. And today I have a really exciting video, a video that I wasn't expecting to film at all because what happened when I read a book this month was not something I was expecting to ever happen. And that is that a book I read actually beat out Dune for my favorite book of all time. In fact, it almost beat out my favorite book of all time, which if you haven't, if you don't know what it is, I'll link a video up here, it talks all about it, but it's called Eleterno Escudo by Miguel Ángel y Adó. Here's a picture of it. It almost beat it. It's, that one is still my favorite book of all time, but this one is my new favorite book and let me talk to you about it. If you have been on my channel for any length of time, you know that I don't do book reviews. And that is because I don't even know where to start with book reviews. Like, why do I even talk about when it comes to a book review? To talk about literary merit? What do I talk about? So basically, what I'm gonna do is just gonna gush about this book. Now, first of all, let me get into the synopsis of this book and I'm gonna keep it really short and sweet because I feel the less you know going into this book, the better. Like, honestly, the less you know the better. So this book is about a woman named Rachel and Rachel is a scavenger and she lives in this post-apocalyptic world where basically it's not your stereotypical post-apocalyptic world where machines have taken over or everything is kind of desolate, but in deaf and deaf vampires writing, which I think really reflects his childhood in the Fiddi Island. It's nature that kind of takes over the world and it's this idea of mutation, of nature mutating. And the world that Rachel lives in is horrific. It's full of radiation and disease and amongst all this, she finds this creature, which at first she thinks is a plant and she calls it born. Because basically, she feels like she is carrying this creature. And what ends up happening is that born actually turns out to be sentient and she becomes like a mother figure to born. There is another character in this that is really important who is WIC, that is Rachel's partner. And that's where I'm gonna leave you with the synopsis. I don't want to talk anymore about the synopsis, but I want to talk to you about my feelings about this book. First of all, this book talks about motherhood in a way that is so beautiful, so raw, so real. Rachel really does feel like she's a mother to born. And because of the way born is, born isn't a morpheus thing. He can turn into things. This world is just full of monsters and born basically is a monster. But Rachel believes that he's a person and Rachel's love really is what permeates this whole entire book. And that doesn't take away from the fact that Rachel is a bad ass. And I think that that's one of the parts that really got me about this book is that usually when we talk about mothers in sci-fi, mothers are either evil, not present, or they kind of are turned into like this version Mary, like trope where a mother is like all this significance signifies love and she's like this nurturing thing. But we never kind of have both a bad ass, strong female protagonist. That is also a mother and Rachel is that and the way that she deals with grief, the way she deals with loss, the way she tries to teach born and how she makes mistakes and how willing she is to forgive is the heart and soul of this book. I feel that what sets this book aside for me for the rest of Jeff Vandermeier's works is the fact that he really delves into human emotion in a positive way because if you read annihilation, you see that there's kind of a cold separation aspect to Jeff Vandermeier writing those characters to the point he doesn't give them names. In fact, I read an envelope last month from Jeff Vandermeier where he also didn't give the characters names. In this book we have a name, we have a character that has a past that loves, that hurts that feels and she is incredible and the way that she loves her love, her hope, her ability to deal with those emotions with loss and her perseverance through her ability to forgive is the most beautiful, hopeful thing that I think I have ever read in my life. And that is saying so much. Like I said, I have a whole vlog where I actually read this book and you get my raw emotions when I finish this and I say that actually this book is now tied in the first spot with Eleterna Escuro for my favorite book of all time. And I think it's because the Rachel and the main character in Eleterna Escuro have something in common which is this unwavering faith and believe in the good of people and in the good of anything, in the good of nature, the good of humanity, the good of the world. And even though they're faced with the most horrific events possible, even though everything is against them, Rachel never gives up hope that things can be better and that she can make them better. I love that. I love her motherly side. I love how she is as a partner. I love how this book discusses what it's like to be in a relationship where there is no trust and how you build trust within a relationship that is broken and how forgiveness is a factor. I'm not saying that you should forgive everything, but in this book what happens, it's just beautiful. It's beautiful. I think Jess Sandermere did a very good job of capturing a multifaceted human, a complete human that is a woman. And I feel that that is missing from a lot of science fiction. I think in a lot of science fiction, sadly humans and women are two dimensional characters. And I feel that I know Rachel. I feel that I see Rachel's every day. I feel that I, that that Jess Sandermere was able to tap into something so realistic, so beautiful, so feminine. I'm going to say it is feminine. It's so beautifully feminine and how that ties into nature and and and how women have power to change things because we are women. I don't know if that makes sense. I don't want to make like I don't want to make it seem like like I think that we don't live in a paratry or a close society. We do, but I think Jess Sandermere really taps into a very feminist book here and I love it. I just love everything about this book, every single thing about this book. Now this is a weird af book. This is still Jess Sandermere. There are things here where I'm still like, what was that? But I don't care because the parts that I care about, the parts that are beautifully written just spoke to my spirit, spoke to my soul, spoke to me as a woman. It spoke to me as a woman that wants to be a mother. I also love that this is an older character because and it's not anything to do with YA. I know that it only sounds like I hate on YA, but no. It's the fact that women as badasses seem to have an expiration date. Rachel doesn't have an expiration date. Women don't have expiration dates. We can be heroes from 0 to 60. Okay, well, okay, maybe not zero because you know we're babies. But you know, I like that. I like that she continues to be a hero up until the very end and she does it not only through her physical care. Capabilities, but through here emotional capabilities and through her ability to heal and through her ability to love. And I just, I get emotional thinking about this book because I feel that this is a character that most, that a lot of women should read about. We should read about more characters like Rachel. And I'm really just in love with this book. That's the reality. It's, it beat out every single book that I've read this year and that's a lot. Alright, well, I think that my camera is flashing at me how strange. I should really get more batteries for this camera. But anyway, thank you so much for watching. Thank you for being interested in my thoughts about this book. If you pick it up, please let me know. If you have any inkling to pick it up after you've seen this video, please let me know down in the comments. And before my camera dies, I'm gonna beat you a du with a further reminder that I post videos every Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays and sometimes. If I feel a little bit extra throughout the week and the weekend. And yes, without any further ado, I beat you a du and I will see you in another galaxy far, far away. Thank you guys for watching. Bye.