**What books have you lost sleep over? โ€” Transcript & Summary | SozAI** Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/books-lost-sleep-over/ Kirstyn Benson shares books that cost her sleep: A Little Life, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and Bunny, with trigger warnings and reading advice included. ## Key Takeaways - Books that are emotionally intense or weird can leave lasting impressions that disrupt sleep. - Trigger warnings matter for emotionally heavy novels like A Little Life. - Going into certain books blind can enhance the reading experience, especially for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. - Bunny is recommended for readers who enjoy dark, satirical, unpredictable fiction. ## What the video covers - The video is a book recommendation piece about novels that kept the host up at night. - A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is presented as emotionally devastating, polarizing, and carrying heavy trigger warnings, though praised for its character writing spanning college into the 50s. - The host highlights the friendship, love, and heartbreak moments in A Little Life as especially beautiful. - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke is described as a surprising, atmospheric, page-turning read best approached without prior knowledge. - The host praises the unique setting and beautiful writing of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and says it reminded her why she loves reading. - Bunny by Mona Awad is described as wild, unpredictable, satirical, dark, and creative. - Bunny follows Samantha, an outsider in an MFA program who is drawn into a clique of girls called Bunny. - The host notes Bunny explores the dark side of female friendship and creativity and calls it a perfect fall read. - The host mentions a sequel to Bunny she has not read and explains she prefers waiting for paperback editions unless she has an ARC. - The video closes by inviting viewers to share their own sleep-costing books in the comments. ## Chapters 1. 00:00 Introduction: Books That Kept Me Up at Night 2. 00:18 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara 3. 00:43 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke 4. 01:11 Bunny by Mona Awad 5. 01:40 Closing Thoughts and Viewer Call to Action Answers ## Questions about this video Why does the host say A Little Life should be read carefully? The host warns viewers to look up trigger warnings before reading A Little Life because it is emotionally devastating and very polarizing. She notes it is not a light book and that it caused her significant emotional distress and lost sleep. What makes Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell stand out according to the host? She describes its atmosphere as unlike anything she has read, with beautiful writing and a unique setting that stays in her mind. She also calls it a page-turner she finished in a couple of days and recommends going in blind. What is Bunny about? Bunny follows Samantha, an outsider in an MFA program who gets drawn into a clique of girls who call themselves Bunny. The book explores the dark side of female friendship and creativity in a wild, satirical way. ## Full Transcript โ€” Download SRT & Markdown 00:00 Speaker A books that have kept me up at night because I couldn't stop thinking about them, and they're all very different. The OG was A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Look, do not read this book unless you look up the trigger warnings, but whenever I see anyone else who loves this book, I'm like, "Okay, we get each other." Because this one is very, very polarizing, and I get why. 00:09 Speaker A warnings, but whenever I see anyone else who loves this book, I'm like, "Okay, we get each other." because this one is very, very polarizing, and I get why. 00:18 Speaker A However, I fell so deeply in love with these characters, but I have lost countless hours of my life from lack of sleep and just thinking about this book in general and the emotional devastation that it caused me. This is not a light book. This is not a book that anybody should read, for sure. But I think what's so remarkable about this book is the way Hanya Yanagihara writes characters. Her writing, her prose in general, the way she's able to make you buy into these characters for pretty much their whole life, from college into their 50s, and absolutely gut you, needs to be studied. The moments of friendship and love and heartbreak in this are some of the most beautiful I have ever read. 00:32 Speaker A book. This is not a book that anybody should read, for sure. But, I think what's so remarkable about this book is the way Hanya Yanagihara writes characters. Her writing, her prose in general, the way she's able to make you 00:43 Speaker A Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. This one was one that took me by surprise. I mean, I'd heard a lot of great things about it. It's a very popular book, but I didn't really know what it was about, and I went into it blind, and I feel like that's how you should go into it because it is transcending. The atmosphere is unlike anything I've ever read, and you're really reading to find out where the main character is and why his circumstances are the way they are. But the writing is incredibly beautiful. The setting is so unique that I can't get the imagery of it out of my mind. It's honestly such a page-turner, too. And I devoured this book in probably a couple days. I remember reading it, and it was one of those times where you read a book and you're like, "I just, I'm so grateful for books, for story, for authors who write such magnificent pieces of work." Like, it reminds you why you're a reader. 01:00 Speaker A Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. This one was one that took me by surprise. I mean, I'd heard a lot of great things about it. It's a very popular book, but I didn't really know what it was about, and I went into it 01:11 Speaker A Another controversial one, Bunny by Mona Awad. What I loved most about this book is how wild it gets. It goes somewhere you don't think it's going to go, and it's not predictable, at least in my opinion. The writing, satirical, dark, creative. I mean, I could go on. This follows Samantha, who's kind of an outsider. She's attending an MFA program, and she gets sucked into this clique of girls that call themselves Bunny, and she's still kind of an outsider in this group even though they start inviting her to stuff. It touches on the dark side of female friendship, creativity, and it is itself an incredibly creative book. It's dark. It's the perfect read for fall. There is a second book, and I haven't read it. I don't know why. I always wait for the paperbacks to come out unless I can get an ARC because I just prefer a paperback personally. 01:26 Speaker A the writing is incredibly beautiful. The setting is so unique that I can't get the imagery of it out of my mind. It's honestly such a page-turner, too. And, I devoured this book in probably a couple days. I remember reading it, and it was 01:40 Speaker A Again, I just lost sleep thinking about these characters and how weird this book was, and I love a weird book. Let me know what books you've lost sleep over in the comments, and I hope to see you all in my next video. Bye. 01:53 Speaker A by Mona Awad. What I loved most about this book is how wild it gets. It goes somewhere you don't think it's going to go and it's not predictable, at least in my opinion. The writing, satirical, dark, creative. I mean, I could go on. 02:09 Speaker A This follows Samantha who's kind of an outsider. She's attending an MFA program and she gets sucked into this clique of girls that call themselves Bunny and she's still kind of an outsider in this group even though they start inviting 02:22 Speaker A her to stuff. It touches on the dark side of female friendship, creativity, and it is itself an incredibly creative book. It's dark. It's the perfect read for fall. There is a second book and I haven't read it. I don't know why. I 02:34 Speaker A always wait for the paperbacks to come out unless I can get an arc because I just prefer a paperback personally. 02:39 Speaker A Again, I just lost sleep thinking about these characters and how weird this book was and I love a weird book. Let me know what books you've lost sleep over in the comments and I hope to see you all in my 02:50 Speaker A next video. Bye. Topics: book recommendations A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke Bunny Mona Awad BookTube literary fiction dark fiction Study this video - [Flashcards from this video](https://sozai.app/tools/ai-flashcard-generator/?from=transcript&id=87020) - [Quiz on this video](https://sozai.app/tools/quiz-generator/?from=transcript&id=87020) Free, made by AI from this transcript. No signup. --- This is the markdown twin of https://sozai.app/transcript/books-lost-sleep-over/ โ€” the same content, without the markup. Published by SozAI (https://sozai.app). 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