the julie and the phantoms book tag! (original)

Hello, friends!

This is my first time ever writing an original tag, which is super daunting, but I hope you guys like it!

Julie and the Phantoms was one of my 2020 saving graces and I was so obsessed with it, I watched it numerous times. So I decided to come up with a book tag inspired on the show (you don’t have to have watched it, in order to answer the tag btw!)

Also, I know Peyton Reads already came up with a JATP Book Tag, and while I definitely encourage you to check hers out, mine is quite different and we didn’t follow the same concepts or had similar questions, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal to share mine too.

As always, if you decide to answer it, please credit me (also so I can check everyone’s answers for my tag, hehe!) And feel free to use the graphics if you want to!

I really did love Sloane, from This Adventure Ends. So many things about this book were amazing, but I really liked how all the characters felt so *real*. Sloane was straightforward and honest, but also had a hard time letting people in. I also related to the way she felt like she had to tone down her obsessions so she wouldn’t come across as “annoying”, and how she never set expectations too high so she wouldn’t get disappointed. Sloane was a really complex character and I really liked and related with her.

I’d argue that Magnus’ is really iconic. This ain’t a spoiler, by the way: Magnus story only starts because he dies, lol. It’s a whole thing, and you’ll have to read to understand. BUT, I was thinking recently about how many memorable and iconic things the Magnus Chase trilogy gave us and how much I want Rick to release more books in this universe because I love everything about it too much.

“Yeah, Luke introduced you to rock” is literally a quote from JATP that makes me go feral no cap.

ANYWAY.

Considering I’ve been kind of a reader my whole life, there wasn’t necessarily one book that “introduced me to reading”. But the Percy Jackson books introduced me to book fandom, so there’s that.

As for contemporaries, I believe the first YA contemporary I read when I was in a biiiiiig fantasy mood was probably Fangirl. At the time, I was mostly reading fantasy/dystopian but I saw someone recommending this book and while it was pretty different to what I typically read, it was so fun I ended up picking several other books like this and here we are now.

Of course I’d have to say Ari & Dante. I really hope that this is a book people remember me for. In fact, recently, I got a message from a friend of mine from high school and we lost contact, but he told me that he remembered about Ari & Dante and immediately thought of me! I love that it is my legacy.

But also Maze Runner. Every single time one of the movies is on TV, my parents remember of me, and I feel happy knowing that they know it’s my favorite thing ever.

Not me wanting to answer Percy Jackson AGAIN.

But, literally though? Absolutely 10/10 my emotional support character, wouldn’t have survived without him.

Also Simon Snow from Carry On. I love Baz (even named my phone after him, funnily enough), but Simon Snow is just a child I must protect at all costs and who also gives me so much *light*.

As a disclaimer: this question is basically for you to talk about what kind of villain you think you’d be. A super sofisticated one? Or the one that lives underground and talks to no one?

I’d probably have like an evil lore behind a bookstore where I’d hide the bodies. Mysterious and quiet. Would only wear capes and gloves. Never makes eye contact, can disappear in the shadows, etc. Kinda like Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa’s love child but villain version.

I have to shoutout The Bromance Book Club. Like I talked about in my best reads of 2020, this book was as fantastic as it was because the banter between the members of the book club is hilarious. Even if the rest of the books in this series don’t appeal to me as much plot-wise, I still think about picking them up just because I know how hysterical and laugh-out-loud funny the scenes with the bromance book club are. I’m not one to read out loud with books, but it was impossible not to do so with this one.

I am not trying to cause controversy by using the word underhyped here, but I haven’t seen as many people I thought talking about Concrete Rose. Considering THUG’s hype, I’m surprised to haven’t seen this book in many 2021 releases and I’m dying of excitement for it.

I also haven’t seen many people talking about This Will Be Funny Someday, and as a Katie Henry stan, I am also *super* hyped. This one is about a girl who is into stand up comedy, and ends up lying to her group of friends that she’s in college when she’s actually a high schooler. *Chaos ensues*.

I think Charming as a Verb is a good example of a book that was able to work through a very popular trope really well.

In this one, we have our protagonist Halti feeling pressured to go to Columbia as it is his father’s dream. Even though the whole “no, dad, this is your dream” thing is suuuuper present in a lot of teenage fiction, I think the author was able to add a new layer by having Halti’s parents being Haitian immigrants, who had a lot of expectations around the “American dream”, that sadly never came true for them, making them project said expectations onto Halti and his potential.

It showed that, for a lot of immigrant kids, their parents dreams also do become their dreams in a sense, in hopes to make them proud and finally achieve what they were reaching for when they moved. It definitely made the conversation deeper and proved to me there’s still a lot of room for these clichés to be done, if done well.

It’s been forever since I last read a real slowburn romance, but Naomi and Nicholas definitely took their tiiiiiime in You Deserve Each Other.

I can’t complain, though! Their tension was the best part of the book by far! While I am not typically a fan of slow burn, I think it worked for this one so that we could root more for the characters and also so the author could have more time to develop them individually. It definitely felt like a reward when they got together!

Both of these characters are by Maggie Stiefvater, so I don’t know if she’s already given her perspective in this, but like:

Cole and Ronan. (Cole from The Wolves of Mercy Falls, Ronan from The Raven Cycle)

In my mind, they’d either love or hate each other. I can definitely see them being friends, with Cole finding Ronan’s snapping funny, and Ronan thinking Cole is an annoying show-off, but ultimately being friends?

Their banter would also be immaculate. Can Maggie Stiefvater write this crossover already?

I didn’t think I had the mental capacity to finish If We Were Villains, but guess what: I did and I even liked it?????

I may have brain cells???? Who could’ve thought.

Not me, tbh.

That’s it, friends! I will be tagging Marta, Lauren, Fiction Fixer and Dezzy (don’t feel pressured to answer it, though!) If you decide to answer it, please tag me so I can see it! And also let me know in the comments a book you didn’t think you’d be able to finish and your villain aesthetic!