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Bonus: February 2026 Reading Wrap Up · Rachel Oates

• 0:00
  All right, hi everyone, welcome back to my second channel.
• 0:02
  I'm currently sat in Omundo cell at my parents house because this
• 0:06
  is the quietest place I can find a film while I'm staying here.
• 0:10
  It's a little bit a little bit tough.
• 0:12
  My parents are quite old, they're in their 70s and they
• 0:16
  are quite hard of hearing and they like to have the TV on all
• 0:20
  day every day. So my options of filming are
• 0:24
  either trying to find a quiet space as far away from the TV
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  noise as I can because it echoes around the whole house because
• 0:30
  it's an old Victorian terrace. Either this or like one in the
• 0:34
  morning after they're asleep. And I've been trying to do that
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  for the last couple of nights and I just, I'm too tired that
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  time at night. So we're trying this.
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  Hopefully you can't hear the background noise.
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  We'll see how this goes. This year I wanted to do a
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  little like reading wrap up review every month, but
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  obviously with losing Kyra, I got a little bit behind.
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  So today I'm going to do February's reading wrap up even
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  though we are now in April. I'm sorry, but I February was a
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  little bit tough because obviously I wasn't reading as
• 1:01
  much because I was dealing with character health issues and then
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  the grief and it just messed me up.
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  And then March I really fell into like reading a lot and
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  constantly and like quite easy to digest books that I got
• 1:13
  through quite quickly. But it was my escape from the
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  world. So this month I've got a few
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  books to talk about, and then in the next video that I'm going to
• 1:20
  film after this March, there's quite a lot to talk about.
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  But let's get into what I read in February 2026.
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  OK, so my first book of February 2026 was One of the Good Guys by
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  Araminda Hall. And this was so good, I gave her
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  five stars. And I even gave it to my partner
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  to read because I was like, read this.
• 1:35
  Let me know what you think. I want to talk about it with
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  someone. Basically, you have this guy who
• 1:40
  has just got divorced and he moves to this little like
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  hillside cottage in the middle of nowhere, like on a Cliff edge
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  basically, or near enough. And he's working in nature
• 1:51
  essentially. And he kind of becomes obsessed
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  with this other woman who is living in this cottage, who's an
• 1:57
  artist. And while he's there and he kind
• 2:01
  of becomes a little bit obsessed with her and thinks like, oh,
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  this could be a thing between us.
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  Two young women go missing. And it's a bit like receipt from
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  his perspective and the artist perspective of kind of what's
• 2:11
  happening. And, and it's really interesting
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  to see both the positives and negatives of kind of how people
• 2:19
  view gender in response to violence against women.
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  Because he feels like he is one of the good guys and he would
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  never do anything to hurt them. But at the same time, a lot of
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  his behaviour that he sees as like completely normal or
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  acceptable or flattering is to a woman kind of scary and
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  obsessive and worrying, you know what I mean?
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  And it's it's things where we'd be like, well, he's not one of
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  the good guys. But then again, you also have
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  these women who kind of demonise men and are kind of looking for
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  faults with them. And it's very interesting at
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  portraying like kind of both sides, but also highlighting the
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  very real problems. And so I really enjoyed this and
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  I felt like it gave me a hell of a lot to think about.
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  And I would really recommend it. And Next up, I read Listen for
• 3:01
  the Lie by Amy Tantera. And again, I really, really
• 3:04
  enjoyed this. I think.
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  Did I give it five stars? I'm just double check.
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  Yeah, I gave 15 stars as well, and I thought it was really,
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  really cool. It's about a woman who goes back
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  to the small town where she grew up where and something like 5-6
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  years ago, her and her friend ended up at this party with
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  their respective husbands. And the best friend ended up
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  missing, potentially murdered. And she remembers nothing of the
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  night like the main character. And so 5-6 years later, this
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  podcaster comes to town and he's interviewing her and everyone
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  else who was involved and trying to figure out what happened to
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  the friend and trying to see if he can kind of jog this woman's
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  memory and help her figure out what happened.
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  Because everyone kind of thinks she did it.
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  And she's like, oh crap, what if I did it?
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  I don't know if I did it. And it's like a whole thing.
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  And so you've got a lot of unreliable narrators in this.
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  You've got a lot of people who review the same situation from
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  just different perspectives. And I just thought like, as a
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  thriller goes, it was really, really fun, really interesting.
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  I loved the different perspectives.
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  I loved the podcast format because you had a mixture of
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  narration from the main character and then these podcast
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  style interviews, which I just thought worked really, really
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  well. And one of my critiques of
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  Colleen Hoover's A Woman Down that I reviewed in my channel
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  the other month was that she she portrayed podcasters.
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  It's like, really kind of like cartoonish and like a caricature
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  and like, Oh my God, Can you believe that they said this and
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  anything in it? And it was, it was just really
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  annoying to read. Whereas this, I think, really
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  did capture the podcast voice well, where like, they've got to
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  be professional at times, but also it's still quite chatty and
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  natural and like, it felt like real people talking and trying
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  to like, get to the bottom of something.
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  So yeah, I really enjoyed this. I thought it was great.
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  And some people didn't like the story because of the whole like,
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  oh, you know, the woman forgets everything after a trauma thing
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  is oh, so cliched. But I felt like this did it
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  really well and it handled it well.
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  And yeah, I just enjoyed it. And I did really like this.
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  Next up, Yeah, I did read Woman Down by Colin Hoover.
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  I've got a full review of this over on my main channel.
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  As you can probably tell, I didn't like it.
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  I did give it two stars because I think it's the best thing that
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  Colin Hoover has ever written. I think it has shown a lot of
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  improvement. However, as a book, it was still
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  boring. It was still poorly written.
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  It was a major self incert for Colleen.
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  It just, yeah, it did nothing for me.
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  I didn't like it at all. And then read a short story that
• 5:24
  one of my best friends in the world, Sammy, wrote.
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  It's called Terminal, a dark cyberpunk romanticy short story,
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  she called it. I read that to support her
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  because, you know, so it's good to support your friends.
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  And then I read actually, for all the crap that was going on
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  in my life, February was a really good month for reading
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  for me because I read Murder in the Family by Kara Hunter and I
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  gave this four stars. This was another kind of true
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  crime media insert of a book, if that makes sense.
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  Like that, I did not explain that right up.
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  Basically this one, well, last thriller read was centred around
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  a true crime podcast. This was centred around a true
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  crime documentary. And in my mind, it was like a
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  few years ago, I watched the documentary about Jon Benet
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  Ramsey where they brought in a bunch of like forensic experts
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  and they're like, OK, 20 years on, we're going to re examine
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  all, re examine all this evidence.
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  We're going to redo the DNA test.
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  We're going to do this, this and this.
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  And then we are going to try and come up with a obviously non
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  legal, but like conclusion of what we think happened.
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  And I found it a really, really interesting documentary.
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  And I feel like that's the format of the documentary in
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  this book. So basically, and it's about
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  this guy called Guy Howard, who when he was 10, his stepdad Luke
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  was murdered in the family home. And no one else was home at the
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  time except Guy the kid. And then like his sisters came
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  home later. And how many years on, like
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  what, 20 years on or something? He's like, I want to find out
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  what happened to Luke. I want to know what happened to
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  him. So I'm going to like get all
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  these experts together in this true crime documentary.
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  They're going to readdress all the evidence.
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  They're going to re examine it. They're going to try and figure
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  out what happened. And over 6 episodes, it's all
• 7:07
  kind of is uncovered. And it's really cool because
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  it's all written like like TV scripts.
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  So like a so it's all written like TV scripts and like, you
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  know, dialogue and bits of evidence shown and like shown on
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  screen right now there's like photos of this and footage of
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  this and blah, blah, blah. And there's a reconstruction of
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  this and whatever. So the format might not be to
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  some people's liking because it's not written in regular
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  prose like that. It's written like, and it's
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  written more like a screenplay for a documentary.
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  But I've really, really enjoyed it because it turns out that all
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  the experts that they've assembled are actually involved
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  or connected to the case in some way.
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  And then it digs into what's happened with the family and
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  everyone's assuming this person did it and this person did it,
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  and they think this person did it.
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  And then the reveal at the end was honestly, like, I would say,
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  little predictable. Like I did see it coming.
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  But that's not a bad thing because for me, it was a very
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  satisfying ending and it all tied together very well.
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  And the way it all unfolded was really, really good and really
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  fun. I gave it four stars at the
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  time, but like thinking about it now and thinking back, I'm not
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  sure why I didn't go up to five. So I did really enjoy it and I
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  would recommend it. So I know it's probably not for
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  everyone, but I really liked it. Then I read the only one left by
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  Riley Sager, who I constantly heard the name Riley Sager and
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  Riley Sager. I thought it was a woman.
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  I read this whole book thinking it's written by a woman and I
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  found out it's a man and I was like, oh, and it, it was really
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  weird. It was like, it makes no
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  difference. The the gender of the author
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  makes absolutely no difference. But it was like a little kind of
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  reality shift in my head. And I was like, oh God, this
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  person who had been like picturing in my mind right in
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  these books I'd heard of was not at all the person it actually
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  was. And it was, it was like, so I've
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  spoken before on my videos about reading one of the murder bot
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  books and I know everyone really loves them, but for me it didn't
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  really, It didn't really catch my attention.
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  I didn't enjoy it that much. So I haven't read the others And
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  I just, I just don't think it's for me, which is fine.
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  I can see why people like them, but it just wasn't for me.
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  But when I read the first Murderbot book, even though
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  Murderbot themselves is meant to have like no gender or whatever
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  in my mind, I still pictured like a female voice and a
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  slightly more effeminate robot, which is just, you know, it's
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  fine. That's just what I pictured.
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  And and then when other people that that, and then when I spoke
• 9:19
  to other people who read it, they said and they actually
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  pictured like a masculine voice, a more masculine robot even
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  again, even though it's not meant to have any gender.
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  And then I went and looked at like the preview preview for the
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  audio book. And the audio book is narrated
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  by a man. So it's like, again, you know,
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  one of those like weird little reality shiftings where you have
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  this picture in your head and it's different to either what
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  other people picture or the reality.
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  It's just like, Oh, it's interesting.
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  And like I say this like not as a good or a bad thing or like to
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  make any judgements, just is interesting the assumptions we
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  make sometimes when we don't have the full information, you
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  know? Anyway, not the point.
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  I read the only one left by Rally Sega.
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  Again, this was another thriller and I've been saying I've been
• 10:02
  being a lot of thrillers recently because they're it's
• 10:04
  going to sound very silly. They're kind of a comfort read
• 10:07
  for me when I'm going through emotional stuff.
• 10:09
  So while I've been dealing with this grief about Cairo
• 10:12
  thrillers, I've been kind of my go to books because they're easy
• 10:16
  to digest, they're easy to get through.
• 10:17
  They don't require a huge amount of concentration, which I just
• 10:20
  don't have at the minute. And also I quite like that a lot
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  of them have this kind of, if not a happy ending, then like a
• 10:27
  satisfying ending where you can be like, OK, well the bad guy
• 10:30
  got caught or justice was served or something like that.
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  And that's something I need at the minute, you know?
• 10:34
  And not all of them have this, but a good chunk do.
• 10:37
  And I'm finding that quite helpful.
• 10:39
  So the only one is the first rarely Sega book I've ever read.
• 10:43
  But this was about she's, it's about this one who she's not a
• 10:46
  nurse, but she's like a carer for people who are elderly or
• 10:49
  disabled or have like certain needs.
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  And she goes to work for a woman called Lenora Hope.
• 10:57
  And it's assumed that back in 1929, she killed a bunch of
• 11:00
  people in her family, including her parents and her sister.
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  However, there was never any proof of it.
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  So Lenora's just kind of carried on living in this house over the
• 11:08
  years, however, her health has really, really deteriorated.
• 11:13
  She says she's had a stroke. She can't communicate properly.
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  So when this carer starts working with her, she finds a
• 11:19
  way to communicate with Lenora through a typewriter.
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  And Lenora very slowly types out her story to this carer, and we
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  find out what really happened. And it's set in 1983.
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  But I don't know, it doesn't really necessarily feel like the
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  80s that said, and there is that lack of technology we have
• 11:37
  today. So there's things like landlines
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  going out, which are a problem in this.
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  That wouldn't be a problem today.
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  So I guess that 80s setting is relevant.
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  It just, it doesn't feel jarring or anything.
• 11:49
  It just, it just makes sense. It's very natural.
• 11:51
  I quite like it. And yeah, as you uncover this
• 11:52
  story and find out like what happened in the family and what
• 11:55
  happened on that night of the murders, Yeah, I won't give any
• 11:58
  spoilers. But again, it was a very
• 12:00
  satisfying story and conclusion and I really enjoyed it.
• 12:06
  And it did shock me a little bit in places.
• 12:08
  There were things that I partly saw coming, but I didn't, I
• 12:12
  didn't guess the whole thing. And so in this case, it was a
• 12:14
  shock that like I did quite enjoy and I did like, I also
• 12:18
  feel like I like the whole setting because it's all set in
• 12:20
  this like old mansion that's on a Cliff edge and the whole Cliff
• 12:24
  is kind of ready to fall down any minute.
• 12:26
  And it's all very, like, vulnerable to the elements and
• 12:28
  the sea and the house could fall down and the house is creaking
• 12:31
  and tilted and everything. Like, it makes you feel so
• 12:34
  uncomfortable and unsafe and like you don't know who or what
• 12:37
  to trust. And yeah, I really, really
• 12:40
  enjoyed this. Again, I only gave it four stars
• 12:42
  because I did feel like the pacing was a little off in
• 12:44
  places. And I did find myself feeling it
• 12:47
  was a little slow at times, but overall, I did really enjoy it
• 12:50
  and I would recommend it. And I would definitely read more
• 12:52
  by Riley Slager, who is apparently a man.
• 12:55
  Next up, I started a reread of the Superman Son of Khalil
• 12:59
  comics, and I read volume 1, The Truth, and I really enjoyed it.
• 13:02
  I remember when this comic series first came out, in what
• 13:06
  year was it, 2022, there was a whole bunch of uproar of people
• 13:09
  being like, Oh my God, they made Superman gay.
• 13:12
  Hey, you mean you mean it? And they were like really mad
• 13:13
  about it. And it's like, well, no, they
• 13:15
  haven't. Superman's still Superman.
• 13:17
  He's still with Lois Lane as a whole whole thing.
• 13:19
  It's just this is a focus on literally Khalil Clark Kent, his
• 13:23
  son instead and Jonathan Kent. And it's a focus on him and.
• 13:27
  And Jonathan is gay and Jonathan is younger and Jonathan cares
• 13:30
  more about environmentalism that oh, God, the birds are beautiful
• 13:33
  out there. Sorry, I'm watching all the
• 13:35
  Birds Day. They're distracting.
• 13:36
  Yeah. Jonathan's more interested in,
• 13:38
  like, environmentalism and activism and actually like doing
• 13:41
  something to help people rather than just, like, full prostate.
• 13:44
  He wants to help on a biggest scale than just individual
• 13:48
  saves. You know, he wants to actually
• 13:50
  help enforce big societal changes and political changes.
• 13:54
  And that's kind of the focus of these comics.
• 13:56
  And I really enjoyed them. I thought it was great.
• 13:58
  And they're not my favourite comics ever.
• 14:00
  But I didn't finish the series when I started reading it
• 14:03
  before. And oh, because I'm.
• 14:05
  Yeah, I made a video about the site.
• 14:07
  How long ago was it? 4 years.
• 14:08
  Oh my God, Time is just flying in this decade, isn't it?
• 14:11
  Yeah, I made a video about this about four years ago, and the
• 14:13
  whole series wasn't out yet, so I hadn't read it.
• 14:15
  And then for some reason I just never bought the new issues and
• 14:19
  kind of fell behind with it. So I was like, oh God, I
• 14:20
  actually do want to finish it. And it's 3 volumes in total.
• 14:23
  So I read the first one this month and then the next two in
• 14:25
  March. And yeah, just thoroughly
• 14:28
  enjoyed it. It's really, really good.
• 14:29
  Yeah. And that was the worst books I
• 14:32
  read in February 2026. So I read some really, really
• 14:36
  good ones overall aren't that many bad ones other than the
• 14:38
  Colleen Hoover book I read for review of on my main channel.
• 14:41
  I've read a lot, lot more in March.
• 14:43
  And as my lights going now, I'm losing daylight a bit.
• 14:45
  I think I am going to wait until this evening and try and film my
• 14:49
  March 1 this evening. So I'll do that later and I'll
• 14:51
  post it in a couple of days hopefully.
• 14:53
  But for now, yeah, let me know what you thought of this video.
• 14:56
  And if you've read any of these books, please let me know your
• 14:58
  thoughts of them as well. And if you have any book
• 15:00
  recommendations for me, I'd love to hear them too.
• 15:03
  If you like this, but you want something a little bit more in
• 15:05
  depth. And please feel free to check
• 15:06
  out my main channel where I do big in depth book reviews and
• 15:10
  poetry analysis and also talk about issues that I really care
• 15:13
  about, like feminism in particular, intersectional
• 15:15
  feminism, and all sorts of fun stuff like that.
• 15:18
  But for now, thank you for watching and I'll see you again
• 15:19
  soon.