Shadowing Practice: I read Stephen King for the first time... while home alone 😳 - Learn English Speaking with Video

One reader, three books, and no one else home.

I'm gonna scream.

Grotesque.

Oh my god.

Oh my god, I just got so scared.

I thought it would be fun reading horror for the first time while home alone, but turns out scary was a better word than fun.

I'm so excited to start filming this video.

I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning all day because I love, I love, I love scary things.

I love horror movies.

I love haunted houses.

I cannot believe that I have never, ever, ever read a horror book before.

I guess I have like semi-read horror books a little, but I feel like they don't really count.

I've read quite a few mystery thrillers and some of them like maybe have a little horror elements.

Like probably the closest horror book I've read is The Only One Left by Riley Sager.

But even that one I feel like is 90% mystery thriller.

So this video is me reading my first official horror books ever.

My first time ever reading Stephen King.

And I'm doing it all while completely alone in my apartment.

My boyfriend is on a trip right now.

But despite the fact that I will be reading these books completely alone, I will not be choosing these books completely alone

because I have called in some Stephen King experts to choose what books I read in this video.

I'm going to be reading three Stephen King books in this video, chosen by three different experts and our first expert is probably the biggest Stephen King fan

that I know and a fellow booktuber Ian Gabelli.

If I had to guess, I don't know.

I would think

that he would recommend me maybe like a really really iconic

Stephen King book since I've never read a book by him before.

My guess will be It by Stephen King, although that book is so insanely long.

I think it's like a thousand pages?

How long is it by Stephen King?

1168 pages.

Actually, I hope he doesn't do that one because that's so long.

Okay, let's see.

Hello, Allie.

Thank you so much for asking me to be a part of this video.

It is always an honor to be asked what Stephen King book should I read.

I am a really big Stephen King fan, so you come to the right place.

When people who don't really read Stephen King much come to me and ask for a recommendation, it's always the hardest thing to pinpoint what book would be perfect for them to start with, but really there is no wrong answer.

However, for you, I'm leaning more towards some of his popular or critically acclaimed works to start with, because you really can't go wrong with any of them.

And the one that I have specifically in mind for you is Misery.

Don't let that close to Little Cabin in the Woods fool you.

This book is absolute nightmare fuel.

Author Paul Sheldon gets in a near-fatal car accident and is saved by none other than his biggest fan.

She nurses him, she mends him, she feeds him, and at the same time, holds him captive.

This book is pure psychological horror.

There is nothing supernatural about it.

The terror in this book just mounts and mounts and mounts.

You don't know what's coming around each corner.

You don't know what's going to happen next.

This book keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time.

And in Stephen King's own words, this is one of his favorite, if not his favorite antagonist he's ever written.

I think this is a perfect launching pad for anyone looking to get into Stephen King and for you, Allie.

I think you'll appreciate this so, so much.

That's my recommendation.

Yay.

Okay.

I'm so excited.

I have not heard of Misery by Stephen King.

And of course, I do not own it, but by the plot description and Ian's personal wreck, I'm very, very intrigued and I'm glad he described it as very scary.

So now we need to go to the bookstore and buy it.

I just got to page 10 and we got a mention of the title.

I love in books

when you first pick it up you have no idea what the title means

and then as you read you learn the significance of it.

Our main character is an author and he has a series of novels called Misery.

Right at the beginning he's also being held captive and his captor's favorite books are his Misery novels.

I have quite the hole for you guys.

I got Misery as you guys saw

and I also got a few other books for a book shopping video I just filmed.

Also, if you haven't met my cat, this is Luca.

The other books I got are Tour Season, Twilight, and Fake Skating, which I also think are gonna be great seasonal reads.

And I also went grocery shopping.

I went to Trader Joe's.

They, I think, just put out a bunch of their fall stuff.

I thought we needed some cozy fall vibes as we enter the darkness and spookiness of reading this book at night tonight.

So for dessert tonight, we have pumpkin sugar cookies.

I'm also gonna make pasta, so I got some sausage, sauce.

And my number one goal was to try their pumpkin gnocchi, but they didn't have it, So I just got regular gnocchi.

One more Halloween product is pumpkin ale.

I was talking with the cashier, and we both agreed we are skeptical but intrigued of this flavor.

Putting our pumpkin ale in a little cocktail glass because we're classy.

Oh, that is not good.

It does taste like pumpkin.

Is it growing on me?

Maybe.

Wouldn't buy again, but will drink what I bought.

Mmm.

Wait, this is so good.

Pumpkin sugar cookies made. and they taste great.

And then in the book, I'm on page 80.

One of the big questions I had before starting this video is, like I said, I love horror movies, and I feel like a lot of horror movies obviously rely on like visuals and sound to be scary.

It scares you by the element of surprise.

Maybe there's something visually super creepy.

So a big question I had is like, how will words spook me?

And I would say so far, I'm not like, oh my god, I'm scared.

I think it's more I'm on edge.

Obviously, this is the first horror book I've read, so I don't have anything else to compare it to, but this book is very subtle.

I feel like it uses a lot of descriptions to come across as very unsettling.

Like, even in this sentence, it's describing Annie, Paul's captor's smile, and it says, she smiled, a pulling of the lips that was grotesquely puppet-like.

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Her dead, alive smile widened.

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The kind of unsettling part is, like, we just can't trust Annie to be any kind of reliable narrator.

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Obviously she's literally a kidnapper but even beyond

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that it's almost like she doesn't even live in the own reality of her kidnapping.

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She's constantly trying to kind of like make herself feel better about the kidnapping by saying she's saving him, she's nursing him back to health.

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So I'm very intrigued to see as I keep reading

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if I have a moment where I'm genuinely like oh my god quaking in my boots.

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Spooked or if it's more like the tension, the unsettling, the what is What's Annie gonna do next feeling?

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I'm literally just two pages later and things are escalating very quickly.

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Okay, I see how things might start getting more and more and more intense as the book goes on.

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had to light my pumpkin candles to set the mood i've done a lot of reading

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so far today and i'm on page 248 and something happened

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that had me like it made me so squeamish it was

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so gruesome and what i really like is

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that you can see both of their mental states just getting worse and worse as the book goes on.

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Now Paul has been Annie's captive for quite a while

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and just seeing like how that wears on him and also on her is really interesting.

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I just got to page 263 and something juicy is happening

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and it's got me thinking about what I predict the ending to be.

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Like I said I've never read horror before so I don't know

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if like other genres it typically has a happy ending or not.

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My objective guess is

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that it's gonna have like a mixed ending like a little bit of like bittersweet

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but I just want there to be a perfect neat happy ending

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because Paul has been through so much like this man deserves a happy ending.

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I finished the book.

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The ending got me multiple times like there's multiple moments.

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I can't even say because I don't want to tell you anything.

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I feel like you just have to go in being surprised.

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I think the last 100 pages of the book were my

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favorite by far like very high stakes I was on the

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edge of my seat the entire ending for a star rating

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I think i'm gonna say 4.25 stars The only reason it's

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not higher is I do think like some points moved a little slower for me more

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so kind of like the beginning middle But I think it's

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so so impressive that the majority of this book takes place in mostly one room

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or at least one house with just Two characters like that's crazy to be able to write an entire novel

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and hold a reader's attention with such a limited number of setting and characters.

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Good first start, I would say, to Stephen King.

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And now I think I'm gonna watch the movie literally tonight while it's fresh in my mind.

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I'm like so excited to see how the actors are gonna bring these characters to life, particularly Annie.

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Oh my God, I just got so scared.

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I turned on the TV to look up the movie, but I didn't play the movie yet.

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I just turned the TV on and then I came back in my bedroom to get my camera.

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And then I heard voices and I was like, oh my god, I'm home alone.

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Why are there people talking in my apartment?

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It was the TV, which may be obvious to you, but it wasn't just like cable TV or whatever.

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It's like, I think I have like a fire stick or something.

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So like, it should just be the homepage with the app, but it started playing something, which I didn't know it was going to do.

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I was really in here.

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Like, I'm going to have to fight off these intruders.

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Okay.

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I'm now going to watch a scary movie now that I am currently heart pounding.

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Wish me luck.

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Good morning!

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I finished watching the movie last night.

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I really like the movie.

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I think I'm going to give it maybe like a 7.5 out of 10.

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I think it's funny we do book ratings on five star scale, but then to me movies are in a 10 point rating system.

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I don't know why they're different, but it just makes sense to me.

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And now it's time to reveal our next expert

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and the next book they pick for me to read our

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next expert is Ashlyn who is Ian's wife both booktubers

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if you hadn't heard of them they both have the same

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amazing qualifications of being the absolute biggest Stephen King fans I know

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so let's watch the video and see which book she recommends

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as you've seen we own a lot of Stephen King

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and there's even more behind me Ali thank you so much for asking me to give you a Stephen King recommendation.

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You know this is like a huge honor to me.

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Thank you thank you thank you a million times.

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I could not decide between these two books

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that I wanted to give you that are some of my favorite

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but based on what you've told me that you just love in horror movies I decided there's there's only one right answer.

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So the one I'm going to be giving you is actually like my favorite book of all time.

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Oh I really gotta to move this around actually.

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That is Pet Sematary by Stephen King.

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You have to read this book.

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Like I one need to talk to you about it.

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From the man himself he has said this is the scariest book he has ever written.

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That will make a lot more sense after you read the book

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and then you have to read the author's notes at the beginning.

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If you don't know what Pet Sematary is about it follows the Creed family.

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They just move into this small town and they have this huge road

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that is right outside of their door where there are these big trucks

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that are constantly driving down it

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and unfortunately a lot of the neighborhood pets end up getting killed by the trucks on this road.

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Because of this the community has a pet cemetery which happens to be on the property of the Creed family.

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They are warned by a neighbor across the street

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that the pet cemetery might be more than it seems

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and as it says on the back of the book sometimes dead is better

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and let me just say the less you know about it is kind of better especially

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if you like horror then you can just jump right in

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this made me constantly look over my shoulder i was terrified as i was reading it

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and my skin was just crawling i cannot wait to see what you think thank you

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so much for asking me and best of luck to you friend i am excited

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but nervous for you okay i'm

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so excited to be honest i'm not really surprised i didn't know before watching this video for sure

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that she would pick pet cemetery

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but Ashlyn has told me so many times that she loves

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that book that I'm pretty sure it's like one of her favorite books ever

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if not like her top Stephen King book for sure

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so I had a feeling she would pick

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that book honestly I was hoping she would pick it just

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because I've heard so many amazing things from her about

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that book for so long I'm also excited

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that she said it's like one of his scariest books I did not know

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that and I don't really know anything about Pet Sematary obviously besides the summary she just gave

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so I'm glad she said to go in kind of blind like the less you know the better

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because that is currently where I'm at and I also know there's a movie

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so another one where we can watch the movie after reading the book.

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I also wanted to reveal the third book we'll be reading in this video

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because we have kind of an interesting timeline coming up that I'll explain in a second.

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But first, our third book reveal is a book I actually already own right here, 11-22-63 by Stephen King.

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I picked this book for a few reasons.

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Number one, Ashlyn and Ian actually convinced me to buy this book, I think earlier this year.

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So they are also kind of re-dually the experts for our third book pick.

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I know Stephen King is so well known for horror, but this book is actually not horror.

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And before they told me about this book, I had no idea that he wrote anything besides horror.

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So I thought it would be fun in this video to do two scary books, which is his classic bread and butter, but to also do one that's a different genre.

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So to kind of get the full Stephen King experience.

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And now to discuss the timeline that I mentioned, coming up, I actually have almost a two week trip to Europe that I'm going on with my mom.

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And then when I get back from Europe, I'll be home alone again because Dani will be on a work trip.

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Because of that kind of weird timeline, I thought it would be fun to read 11-22-63 next while I'm on my trip.

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Since this one isn't scary, I don't need to prioritize reading it while I'm home alone.

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And then we'll pick up Pet Sematary when I get back from my trip.

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So that's kind of our calendar for the rest of this video.

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I literally just read chapter one and then realized I did not tell you guys at all what this book is about.

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Our main character Jake is going to go back in time to the 60s, which is where we get the title 11-22-63, to stop the assassination of JFK.

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And beyond that, I know absolutely nothing.

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So I'm so intrigued to see, like I literally have so many questions about that, like why

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go back in time to do this how to go back in time to do this how does he accomplish

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that how does like the magic time travel system work

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and the only other thing i know is that ashlyn also told me

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that this book is very genre bending

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which i think is cool obviously historical fiction sci-fi and i believe there's some romance too

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I just made it to part two chapter six.

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I have felt instantly hooked

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which I feel like is rare normally I feel like it takes a little bit for a book to hook me.

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I think what makes it so good is it feels so immersive.

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The second he stepped back in time I literally felt like I was right there with him.

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All packed.

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And the next time I see you guys, I will be in Europe.

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Okay.

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See you guys on my trip.

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I ended up only reading about a hundred pages on the flight there, which our flight was 11 hours.

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So not very much at all.

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We took an overnight flight.

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So I think I was just so tired and trying my hardest to sleep.

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And then we made it to Munich, Germany.

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I loved Munich.

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It was my favorite city on the trip.

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And then we took a train to Austria.

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We spent a day in Halstead, which was stunning

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and then the rest of our time in salzburg we did

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a sound of music tour tons of cool historical buildings

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and churches and a fortress and my favorite part was this mozart concert

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that we did it was

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so fun getting dressed up eating fancy food listening to great music

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and then i did a lot more reading on the flight back

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and we got a romance plot introduced to the book

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i'm back from my trip and i'm on chapter 27

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which is page 689 so i have just under 200 pages left And the start of this chapter is 11-17-63.

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So we are nearing the date of the book, 11-22-63.

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And I'm so scared for the main character.

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Everything is going wrong right now.

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And I don't know how he's going to pull off his mission.

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But I'm so excited.

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We are literally, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm just recalling so much that has happened since I last updated you guys.

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We got so much of the romance, which I love so much.

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I remember Ashlyn telling me

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that I think she said this book is her favorite romance ever in any Stephen King book

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that she's read and I can see why.

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Like I feel like it's just such a great love in this book and I just love the people.

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I thought I'd more so be in it for the sci-fi plot

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which I am but I just really really care about their main character Jake

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and like all the people that he's met and

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that are a part of his life now in the past

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and I'm so scared too because I'm like at the end is he gonna go back to present day?

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Is he gonna stay in the past?

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Because I also love like the life he's built in the past

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but he probably also wants to return to his actual time period.

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Anyway tonight I'm actually going to my friend Jordan's house.

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I'm gonna have a sleepover at her place.

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I haven't had a sleepover since I was a kid.

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I feel like so.

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I'm so excited.

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I'm gonna grab sushi for us.

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I think we're gonna watch a movie.

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She just read this book.

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I was just watching her vlog of her reading this book.

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So I'm also very excited to talk to her about this book. so

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i'm back from my sleepover with jordan i got to page 816

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and everything i read at jordan's was so suspenseful

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so intense we went through the actual day 11 22 63

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which is what the entire book has been leading up to

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but i don't want to say anything more

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because i feel like the less you know about this book the better just the more like surprising

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and good it is but i'm

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so excited to binge the

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ending right now

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hello it's

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editing ally just jumping in

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because for some reason i forgot to film my final review

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of 11 22 63 don't know what happened there also i am sick

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so please excuse my nasally voice but i loved the book i loved the book

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so freaking much i would say six out of five stars

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literally broke the scale i think one of my new like all-time favorite books ever it just had everything

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so many genres that i love so much to sink your teeth into i cared

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so much about the politics the history the magic of the time travel the romance didn't expect this going in

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but i think the romance is the thing

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that will stick with me the most

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and i think it was amazing how Stephen King wrote about the time in the 1960s.

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At first when he steps back in time it feels

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so magical like all this attention to detail of just how people lived then, how much things cost, how they talked, what kind of items they bought,

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but then he also starts to weave in the really horrible parts of that time as well.

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Very realistic and heartbreaking feel of what America was like in the 60s and the ending was such a roller coaster.

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I feel like I felt every single possible emotion that ever exists

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and just for like a book to take you on

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that emotional roller coaster amazing anyway back to the video

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and starting the last and third book it's a few days later

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and it's time to start pet cemetery i'm literally so excited

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and i just put the book on hold at my library

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and it's now ready for me to get

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and danny just left he's out of town again for the next few days

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so we will be potentially reading stephen king's scariest book as he has said

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while home alone for the next few days

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so we have a little to do list for today number one i need to run to the library, well walk, I will be walking, and grab Pet Cemetery.

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Two, I currently have a little side quest happening right now.

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I joined this in-person book club with some of my friends and the meeting is tonight and our book is Swordheart.

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And I realized yesterday afternoon that I hadn't read the book because I kind of forgot about the book club meeting happening.

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So I have been absolutely binging Swordheart last night and today.

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I know this is not related to our Stephen King content at all, but bonus book in this video.

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I have two hours and 30 minutes left up the audiobook

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and we meet for book club in three hours and 15 minutes.

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So also on our to-do list, finish Thord Heart, attend book club, and then start Pet Sematary tonight.

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Okay, daily task to-do list montage starting in three, two, one.

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Let's go.

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I'm back from my book club and I finished reading Sword Heart.

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If you noticed in the footage, I did finish reading the book after my book club meeting, which was unfortunate.

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I did have about 40 minutes left of reading and then it was time to go to my book club.

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So I didn't finish it in time, but I feel like I read enough to where I could fully discuss the book with everybody.

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And for Swordheart, I think I'm going to say like three to three and a half stars.

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I did really enjoy it.

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It's such a cute book.

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It's a cozy fantasy book.

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It was like an adorable, great time reading it.

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Love the humor style.

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It's very much like Princess Bride kind of humor.

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But I have realized that I'm just really overall not a cozy fantasy person.

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I love high stakes.

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I want to be on the edge of my seat.

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and then I also started Pet Sematary.

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I'm on page 88 chapter 20 and I do feel pretty instantly hooked which is a great feeling.

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So far nothing like really scary has happened

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but I definitely have this very unsettled feeling with the town that this family lives in and specifically the Pet Sematary.

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It's also really cool in the like author's note

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or like forward kind of thing at the beginning Stephen King talks about

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that he actually had this teaching position in real life

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and he was living in this town temporarily for this teaching position and there was a pet cemetery

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and it was spelled just like the title spelled incorrectly

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so i was like that's so cool that he got the idea from an actual real location

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it's two days later i'm making a little mediterranean salad

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and some chicken salad for dinner just all the salads basically

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and on page 169 of the book and things are definitely getting a lot spookier, a lot weirder.

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Particularly, there was a scene a few chapters ago where they go to the pet cemetery and it was so creepy.

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I was reading it this morning so I feel like I didn't get too spooked because it was daylight, but I feel like if I read it tonight, I would have been a little bit quaking in my boots.

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I think what makes him such a good writer is his detail, like the description of the dad going to the pet cemetery,

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the way he described like the noises that he hears.

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The night time.

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His skin like crawling.

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His heart racing.

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Looking at the guy he's with and seeing like this weird look in his eyes.

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Like all those descriptions had me like I'm scared.

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It felt like the moment in a horror movie where you know a jump scare is coming and you're like bracing.

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It was cool to feel that in a book because

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that was kind of like the big question I started out

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with at the beginning of this video is like can words be as scary as like visuals in a movie

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and this is the first moment where I started to feel like I think they could be.

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I feel like I should not be holding a knife while reading a horror book.

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I'm just gonna put that down.

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Well I still have to cut so.

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Update I'm in a blanket fort.

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I built a blanket fort yesterday for a video I was filming.

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Oh my gosh I've read

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so much since I last updated you guys I've been hooked I'm on chapter 43

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which is page 289 I think I have just about exactly 100 pages left

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and something unexpected and very bad happened and now it's about to get worse

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so that's kind of my only update is bad things bad

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and I started listening to the Pet Sematary soundtrack from the movie

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and it's definitely up to the spooky effect literally just listen to this

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no I'm already getting spooked out just listening to that sound okay wish me luck

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it's next night i'm having some chicken salad for dinner a lot of great dinners in this video

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And Danny gets home in two hours, which is very soon.

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So I want to see if I can finish the book before he gets back.

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So I will truly have read this entire book home alone.

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I'm a very slow reader though.

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So I think I can do it in that amount of time.

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But that would be like the bare minimum amount of time I would need.

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I just got back from going on an evening walk and listening to the audiobook in the scene just described.

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The image I have in my head of what is playing out.

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I'm gonna scream.

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Grotesque.

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Oh my god.

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I'm gonna switch back to the physical book now

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and I'm actually scared because I feel like it's

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so much scarier physically reading it with my music playing like I was saying yesterday.

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Also I feel like my comments on this book in particular have been kind of vague

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but I just truly feel like this book, the less you know, the better because everything happening, I had no idea was going to happen.

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Dead is better.

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Dead is better.

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Okay.

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Oh my God.

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I finished the book last night.

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I didn't quite finish it before Danny got back, but I almost did.

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Also, I woke up this morning feeling sick, so sorry if I'm a little sniffly, but I really loved it.

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I am so torn on my final rating whether to give 4.5

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or 5 stars because I think most of the book I was at like 4.5, 4 stars and then the ending was a 5 star ending.

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It had me oh so creeped out.

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I think I am gonna say 5 stars.

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I just I loved the ending.

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This felt like true true horror.

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I think Misery in comparison felt very like unsettling

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but this one especially the ending was scary

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and just to make you feel those feelings of like your skin crawling through writing.

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Oh I love it.

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It's that makes his writing

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so well is they're not just like light fun horrors he

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also weaves in serious themes under kind of the guise of horror

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and I don't want to say the serious theme in this book

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because it surprised me but just know it's there and then Daniel

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and I also ended up watching the movie last night which was

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so fun it was fun to see his reaction not knowing

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anything he guessed the whole plot like 20 minutes into the movie

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and I was like I thought the book was surprising I'm kind of bummed he guessed the plot

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but the movie we watched the 80s version I liked it

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I thought it was fun we both thought there was a few moments

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that were a little more cheesy

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or kind of had a little too much foreshadowing in them

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which is how he guessed a lot of the plot

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but I thought the movie hit all the main key plot points in the book

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which I really liked I would say like 6.5 seven star rating for the movie

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and it was so cool to try an entire new genre big horror fan but

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if you guys have any more Stephen King wrecks I would

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love to read a ton of his books I know he has

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so many books so I'm not sure where to go next in my Stephen King journey

445

or if you just have more horror wrecks in general okay I'm not gonna go take a nap

446

because I'm sick but I hope you guys got some good Stephen King wrecks in this video

447

and I'll see you guys in my next video bye

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137 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “I read Stephen King for the first time... while home alone 😳”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: stephen, King, horror, reading, movie. This video has 447 sentences and 5369 words to shadow. The speech runs for 28:35. The speaker talks fast, about 188 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
cemetery noun	/ˈsɛm.ɪˌtɛɹ.i/	A place where the dead are buried; a graveyard or memorial park.
pumpkin noun	/ˈpʌm(p).kɪn/	A domesticated plant, in species Cucurbita pepo, similar in growth pattern, foliage, flower, and fruit to the squash or melon.
romance noun	/roʊˈmæn(t)s/	An intimate relationship between two people; a love affair.
genre noun	/ˈ(d)ʒɑnɹə/	A kind; a stylistic category or sort, especially of literature or other artworks.
intrigue noun	/ˈɪntɹiːɡ/	A complicated or clandestine plot or scheme intended to affect some purpose by secret artifice; conspiracy; stratagem.
unsettling adjective		That makes one troubled or uneasy; disquieting or distressing.
wreck noun	/ˈɹɛk/	Something or someone that has been ruined.
rat noun	/ɹæt/	Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length greater than…
cosy adjective	/ˈkoʊzi/	Affording comfort and warmth; snug; social and comfortable.
sleepover noun		The act of spending the night as a guest in another's house, especially when the participants are children.
spook noun	/spʊk/	A ghost or phantom.
captive noun	/ˈkæptɪv/	One who has been captured or is otherwise confined.
crawl verb	/kɹɔːl/	To move by dragging one's body along or close to a surface, like a worm or insect, or on one's hands and knees, like a human baby.
recommendation noun	/ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/	An act of recommending.
timeline noun	/ˈtaɪmˌlaɪn/	A graphical representation of a chronological sequence of events (past or future).

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
get back verb		Return to where one came from.
come across verb		To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition.
come around verb	/kʌ.məˈɹaʊnd/	To change one's mind, especially to begin to agree or appreciate what one was reluctant to accept at first.
dress up verb		To put on special or fancy clothes.
drive down verb		To cause or force a price, quantity, rate, etc. to decrease.
fight off verb		To succeed in defeating a challenge, or an attack.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I'm so excited to start filming this video.
If I had to guess, I don't know.
I think it's like a thousand pages?
Is it growing on me?
Why are there people talking in my apartment?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've read · have called · I've never read
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	be asked · is saved · being held
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who don · books, which is · Halstead, which was
Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past	was talking · was reading · was just crawling

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 149 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, gonna, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: genre /ˈ(d)ʒɑnɹə/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, foreshadow /fɔːˈʃædəʊ/, cashier /kaˈʃɪə/
Long words — get the stress right: cemetery /ˈsɛm.ɪˌtɛɹ.i/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, audiobook /ˈɔdi.oʊbʊk/, antagonist /ænˈtæɡənɪst/, incorrectly /ˌɪnkəˈɹɛk(t).li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like cemetery, pumpkin, romance.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?

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