Updated on September 17th, 2026
I recently shared a post rating YouTuber brands, and I thought it would be fun to rate YouTuber books. Years ago, I previously reviewed This Book Loves You by PewDiePie (110 million subscribers), I Hate Myselfie by Shane Dawson (18.7 million subscribers), and Dream House by CutiePieMarzia (7.16 million subscribers) though Marzia has deleted all her videos since. My thoughts on the books were all over the place. PewDiePie’s book seemed like a cash grab whereas Marzia’s book was not perfect, but it was an interesting mystery to read. I am excited to give more YouTuber books a read in this post.
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One Minute Mysteries by Michael Gray
Michael Gray runs the YouTube channel Arglefumph (65,000 subscribers) where he plays mystery and adventure games. His book One Minute Mysteries features 60 short mystery puzzles. The mysteries do follow a plot, which I enjoyed, and the logic puzzles were fun to solve. Some of the puzzles are easy to figure out whereas for others I needed to read the hints. Each puzzle has a hint and a super hint, and there are answers for the puzzles in the back of the book as well. One Minute Mysteries is a great book to pick up every now and then and solve a few puzzles. If you enjoy logic puzzles, I believe you would enjoy this book.
Available at Amazon
Rate: 8/10
Baking Yesteryear by B. Dylan Hollis
B. Dylan Hollis is mostly known for his TikTok videos where he tries vintage recipes. However, he does have a YouTube channel with 2.39 million subscribers. I received his cookbook Baking Yesteryear as a birthday gift, and it features 101 recipes from the 20th century. The cookbook starts with an introduction including ingredients and utensils to have in your kitchen. Next, the recipes are divided into each decade from the 1900s to the 1980s, and each chapter includes 9-11 recipes for cakes, pies, cookies, breads, and more. Each recipe includes a description, ingredients, and numbered directions, and a majority of the recipes include pictures, which I appreciate. Also, since the recipes are vintage, they do not include hard-to-find ingredients and are simple enough to follow.
A few of the recipes I would love to try are the Hot Cross Buns from the 1900s, Dutch Apple Cake from the 1920s, Potato Doughnuts from the 1930s, and Avocado Pie from the 1960s. He also includes a recipe for Magic Peanut Butter Cookies, and I have made them multiple times as they are so easy to make with just peanut butter, sugar, and an egg. I also made the PB&J Cheesecake at my daughter’s request, and it is actually delicious! The last chapter of the cookbook features 5 worst of the worst recipes, which definitely look unappetizing. At the same time, I am curious. How bad can pickle cheesecake really be? Haha. Anyways, if you are interested in baking, I highly recommend Baking Yesteryear as the cookbook does have a variety of recipes that are easy to follow.
Available at Bookshop
Rate: 9/10
The Haunting of Clandestine House by Celina Myers
Celina Myers’ YouTube channel, CelinaSpookyBoo, has 3.22 million subscribers where she posts ghost-hunting videos and reaction videos. Celina has published several books including her first fiction novella The Haunting of Clandestine House. The story follows Hannah who is recently unemployed, and she buys Clandestine House on a whim during an auction. Hannah is excited by the opportunity to pursue her dream of writing, and she travels the 4 hours to the house with her dog Mia. When Hannah arrives in town, she starts hearing stories about Clandestine House and the previous family that lived there.
The Haunting of Clandestine House definitely gives me The Haunting of Hill House vibes with a big house that has a dark past. The book is creepy as you learn about the house, the Clandestine family, and Hannah’s experiences there. I listened to the audiobook on Audible, which is narrated by Celina, and I think she did well as a narrator. The Haunting of Clandestine House is not the best mystery I have read, but it was entertaining, and it would make a great read for the fall.
Available at Amazon
Rate: 7/10
The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook: Sweet Treats for the Geek in All of Us by Rosanna Pansino
I am usually not the biggest fan of nerdy-themed cookbooks because I find the recipes impractical and they take more ingredients, time, and effort to make than a standard recipe. I actually found The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook at a thrift store and got it without knowing anything about Rosanna Pansino because it did look interesting. Rosanna Pansino is a YouTuber with 14.6 million subscribers, and she does a lot of baking and food videos. Her cookbook contains geek culture-themed baking recipes.
The cookbook features recipes based on math and science, space, fantasy and sci-fi, gaming, and tech and web. The cookbook starts with basic recipes for various pies, cakes, and cookies, which I liked because even if I do not follow one of the geeky-themed recipes, I could still use the basic recipes. The geeky-themed recipes themselves are over the top and not something I would normally do. For example, the first recipe is for Apple Pi Pie, and it requires you to slice the apples and use a cookie number cutter to make the apple slices into numbers. Then, you also use the cookie number cutters for the dough to write out the number for pi.
The cakes are also over the top and there are cakes for everything from a volcano and the earth to a castle and a chess board complete with chocolate chess pieces. The cupcakes and cake pops seem fine enough to make, but the decorations at points are excessive. There is a cupcake recipe to make the whole periodic table or geodes made from fondant and sugar syrup which needs to sit for 12 hours then an additional 2 hours!
The least over-the-top recipes are the cookies as it is easy enough to use a cookie cutter for the cookie dough, but I do not want to take the time and effort to make royal icing of different colors to make rockets or video game controllers. Besides cakes, cupcakes, and cookies, there are recipes to make Petri Dish Jellies (which honestly looks like the easiest nerdy recipe in this cookbook), Moon Phase Macarons (I have made macarons before and they are tricky!), Robot Brownie Pops, Fantasy Sweet Rolls, Hard Candy Rupees, and Wi-Fi Cheesecake, among others. Even though the recipes in the cookbook are fun to look at, they are mostly impractical besides the basic recipes at the beginning. They do take more ingredients, time, and effort and oftentimes require special molds and decent decorating skills, which the everyday person including myself does not have.
Available at Bookshop
Rate: 5/10
The Game Master: Summer Schooled by Matt and Rebecca Zamolo
Rebecca Zamolo has 18.7 million subscribers on her channel, and her husband Matt (@MattSlays) has a channel with 8.14 million subscribers. Together with their friends, they run the Game Master Network channel with 3.02 million subscribers, where they do challenges, which The Game Master book series is based on. The Game Master: Summer Schooled is the first book in the series that follows Becca, Matt, and their classmates during summer school. While waiting for their teacher to arrive, they discover the doors are locked by the Game Master and they will have to solve puzzles and escape the school before the time runs out.
The book is definitely geared towards kids, which makes sense considering their YouTube content. There is the escape room plot where the characters solve various puzzles, which I thought was entertaining. I listened to the audiobook on Audible that was voiced by Rebecca and Matt, and they did a fine job of narrating. I think the book would be appealing to kids who like mysteries or enjoy Rebecca and Matt’s YouTube videos.
Available at Bookshop
Rate: 7/10
The Pointless Book by Alfie Deyes
I do not watch Alfie Deyes, but he has a YouTube channel (@AlfieDeyesVlogs) with 3.61 million subscribers where he creates family content with Zoe Sugg and their daughter. I did not buy this book, but I did have a look through it as it was not a cookbook or work of fiction like the others in this post. Instead, The Pointless Book is an interactive book where you are encouraged to write, draw, cut out pages, play games, and do various other activities. Some of the activities do seem nice, like there are writing activities to write things you like about yourself and your life ambitions, or draw what you would like to be when you are older, as well as a reminder to drink water.
However, there are some immature activities such as seeing how many crackers you can get in your mouth, taking a bite out of the page, and making a cocktail with the suggested ingredients of ketchup and mustard. There are also pointless pages, which are blank pages where you are encouraged to do whatever you want, which are, in fact, pointless. Furthermore, The Pointless Book is a little similar to Wreck This Journal, but The Pointless Book seems geared toward younger kids, and there are no activities to wreck the book. With that said, The Pointless Book is definitely not a book I would want to work through, and I doubt my daughter would either.
Available at Bookshop
Rate: 5/10
The Unofficial Sims Cookbook by Taylor O’Halloran
The Unofficial Sims Cookbook is another book I received as a birthday gift. I had no idea Taylor O’Halloran had a YouTube channel, but she does have a channel (@taylorsaurus) with 78,500 subscribers. I love The Sims, and I have been playing the games since the first iteration. The cookbook includes 88 recipes based on food in The Sims games. There are recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides, dessert, and drinks. Each recipe lists what game or games the recipe can be found in and includes ingredients and numbered directions. The ingredients for pancakes, waffles, cookies, and cakes often ask you to use premade mixes, but there are a few recipes that have you actually making the dough, so I believe the cookbook is good for both beginners and home cooks.
However, only 35 of the recipes include pictures, and I would have loved to see more photos of dishes. There are photos of the Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus but not of Cioppino. I have no idea what Cioppino is, but apparently, it is a dish with mussels and shrimp. I am unsure how it was decided what dishes got photos because the cookbook would definitely benefit from more photos, especially of the desserts. Also, I would have loved to see pictures from The Sims games to see the reference! Besides the lack of photos, I do enjoy this cookbook, and I have already made several recipes including the Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich, Roast Chicken, Caprese Salad, and Caesar Salad. I am excited to try out more recipes including the Autumn Salad, Butternut Gnocchi, Elote, and Minty Mocha Cupcakes. My daughter would also love to try the Silly Gummy Bear Pancakes.
Also, I do want to address a criticism I have seen of this cookbook. Even though there are 88 recipes based on all The Sims games, a majority of the recipes come from The Sims 4. In fact, there are 63 recipes based on dishes in The Sims 4, 11 based on The Sims 3, 4 based on The Sims 2, and 10 that are based on a combination of the games. I personally do not mind that most of the recipes are based on The Sims 4 because I play that version the most while I will pop into The Sims 3 every now and then. If you play The Sims and you like to cook or bake, I do recommend this cookbook.
Available at Bookshop
Rate: 8/10
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
I do not follow Hank Green, but his tweets have shown up on my Twitter feed, and he has a YouTube channel (@vlogbrothers) with his brother that has 3.89 million subscribers. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is the first book in a two-part saga that follows April when she discovers a giant sculpture that looks like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing samurai armor. April and her best friend Andy make a YouTube video with the sculpture that she dubs Carl, and the video goes viral. As more and more Carls are discovered around the world, April and Andy find themselves at the center of attention.
I read nothing about this book (not even the synopsis) before going into it, and I was pleasantly surprised. I was curious about what the Carls were, and I enjoyed the sci-fi elements of the story even though sci-fi is one of my least favorite genres. Also, I do like that the book highlighted the pros and cons of becoming viral, but April is not the most likable protagonist. However, I enjoyed the story nonetheless, and I am curious about what happens in the second book as the book does end on a cliffhanger.
Available at Bookshop
Rate: 8/10
Selp-Helf by Miranda Sings
Colleen Ballinger (@ColleenVlogs) has come under fire lately due to allegations of inappropriate conversations with minors, along with inappropriate on-stage interactions with fans at her shows as Miranda Sings. Now, people are looking back at the two books she wrote as Miranda Sings (10.4 million subscribers) and their questionable content. I looked through Selp-Helf, which is available to read for free on the Internet Archive (all you need to do is make a free account to read the full book). I am not going to go too in-depth, but the Miranda Sings YouTube channel mainly appeals to children and teens. Her book is intended for her fans to read. However, it is completely inappropriate for children.
Some inappropriate themes include sexualizing children and there is a whole section on p*rn and “how not to be p*rn” by wearing a buttoned top and pants that cover your ankles, and there is a love quiz with results of “slutty bae” or “sensual bae”. There is also a theme of incest, as apparently, Miranda Sings’ uncle is a questionable character. There is a section on date locations including uncle’s house because it is very private and you “can play with daddy saddle” and there is a section on how to cuddle including “the uncle” which shows Colleen laying face up and a man lying on top of her with his legs spread over her.
Furthermore, there is a theme of racism, and in the social media platform section, you can use Vine, “where you scream a lot, say bad words, or be racist,” and it asks which one readers want to do. Also, the chapter on love is about how to get a boyfriend and not a girlfriend because Miranda/Colleen states “Im not a lebonese” and there is a section on avoiding the arcade machine and soda fountain because they are “jips” which is a misspelling of an offensive term used to refer to the Romani.
The book also encourages readers to be physically and emotionally abusive by stating, “a great way to make yourself better is to make other people feel worse,” and includes 2 pages of insults. There is also the first date etiquette to play hard to get by punching, hitting, spitting, pulling your date’s hair, telling them they are ugly, and acting uninterested. The book also promotes dangerous acts, including cutting a soda can in half with a knife, getting rid of a pink eye by rubbing on peanut butter and squeezing a lemon on it, and using paint, candy, blueberries, and puffy cheese snacks as eyeshadow.
There are a few parts of the book that are appropriate for children, including a matching activity where kids are encouraged to cut out and match different outfits, play money that kids can cut out to play with, a hidden picture activity, as well as a color-by-number page. Selp-Helf is intended as a parody, but it is just a horrible book that is highly inappropriate for her audience.
Rate: 0/10
Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna
Gabbie Hanna’s YouTube channel @TheGabbieShow has 5.04 million subscribers, where she most recently shares music videos for her songs and vlogs. Adultolescence is a collection of poems written by Gabbie and includes illustrations by her too, which I found fine. The book is not the worst collection of poems, but the poems are not good either. Some of the poems are okay and cover topics of bullies, loneliness, heartbreak, anxiety, and depression. There are some positive poems as well with messages that you are perfect the way you are, you should be your own person, and you cannot make everyone happy, so just make yourself happy. However, the poems are very simple and do not include a deeper meaning. Furthermore, some of the poems use text type, for example, “because” will be shortened to “bc”, “what” will be “wut”, and “you” will be written as “u” for literally no reason.
Additionally, Gabbie talks down on herself in numerous poems, and there is a theme of her wanting to die. For example, she wants to trade lives with Marilyn Monroe because she is dead, and she unbuckled her seatbelt because she kept envisioning a head-on collision with a semi. Other poems are off-putting, including an advice poem about how you should lock the bathroom door because if a murderer comes, you want time to pull up your leggings. There is also a poem about a woman who choked on a meal at a restaurant and collapsed, and Gabbie writes, “I’ll have what she’s havin'”.
Then there are filler “poems”. At the end of the book, Gabbie states that some poems were written because inspiration struck, while others were written because she had a deadline and needed to fill pages. You can definitely tell which are fillers. A few filler “poems” include “SAD isfied”, “LINK in bio”, “IDK I dunno, yanno?”, and “EW you’re disgusting ly perfect”.
The poems would definitely benefit from Gabbie having more time to fully flesh them out and rewrite the filler poems. As it stands, the collection is not worth the £12.99 price tag.
Available at Bookshop
Rate: 4/10
Reflections on Healing by Rachel Oates
After the disappointing poetry collection by Gabbie Hanna, I wanted to read good poems, and that is where Rachel Oates comes in. Rachel Oates has 351,000 subscribers and does book reviews, poetry analysis, and social commentary videos on her channel. Reflections on Healing is her first poetry collection, with 17 poems alongside photographs she took. The poems cover Rachel’s journey towards healing from trauma as she makes sense of her experiences with difficult families, abusive relationships, mental health struggles, and taking back control of her own body.
The poems are beautifully written and have deeper meanings. Furthermore, the poems are worth re-reading to understand the full message behind them, as compared to Gabbie’s poems, where you read them once and you know what they say. My favorite poems in the collection are Puppet Master and Romb, and I enjoyed the formatting of Repeating Cycles. I also thought Rachel’s photos were a wonderful addition to the poetry collection. I highly recommend Rachel’s book if you want to read a good poetry collection.
Available at Rachel Oates
Neat idea for a blog post. Haven’t heard of these channels or books but this certainly made for some interesting reading!
Thank you! It is interesting how YouTubers have written a wide variety of books.
We were all so excited when copies of Baking Yesteryear first started arriving in our store! We had so much fun flipping through the cookbook. Kinda sad to hear the Sims cookbook is mostly Sims 4–absolutely my least favorite in the franchise. It lacks the imagination that the others had, so I can imagine the recipes would also just be missing the charm of the earlier installment recipes.
I LOVE the Baking Yesteryear cookbook, and that’s awesome you had fun flipping through it!
The Sims cookbook does seem like it wouldn’t be for you. I loved The Sims 3, but I do highly enjoy The Sims 4.
This is a great idea for a post. I haven’t read any of the ones you have mentioned but I have read books from Fleur De Force, Sprinkle Of Glitter and a couple others. Whilst some were good, I felt others were underwhelming.
Thank you! That’s awesome you read some books by YouTubers, and yea some books are better than others!
Oh gosh – Miranda Sings is AWFUL! I cannot believe that book got published and happy to see you rate it a 0!
Corinne x
https://skinnedcartree.com
I completely agree, and what’s even worse is that she published a second book too! I haven’t read it, but I imagine it has very similiar and highly inapproriate content.
This was fun to read as I now have some YouTube channels to check out and some books to add to my reading list! The one I really like the premise of is the cookbook by B. Dylan Hollis, it’s such an interesting idea to try out recipes in this way!
Thank you! I definitely recommend his cookbook because the recipes are simply enough to follow, and the ones I’ve tried have been delicious!
I’ve never read a book by a YouTuber that I know of. This was a really interesting list to read through. The One Minute Mysteries sounds like a lot of fun, so I’m going to look and see if that’s available near me. I love a good logic puzzle. The Miranda Sings book sounds like a nightmare. I’m a bit horrified to think that it is marketed to children.
Thanks! I definitely recommend One Minute Mysteries since you do enjoy logic puzzles!
The Miranda Sings book is horrible!
The Sims cookbook looks fun, I love themed cookbooks! Baking Yesteryear sounds very good too. I had Alfie Deyes’ book when I was younger and enjoyed it, but not sure what to do with it now aha x
I love both The Sims Cookbook and Baking Yesteryear!
That’s great to hear you enjoyed Alfie Deye’s book when you were younger! It does seem like it would appeal more to younger people.
I enjoyed reading your reviews for each book. I haven’t heard of any of these, but I’d love to check out One Minute Mysteries. I’m familiar with Celina from TikTok and had no idea she had a book out. It sounds like a good one to pick up for Halloween. I’ve heard about some of the things surrounding Miranda, and I’m just appalled to see that it’s in her book too. Thank you for sharing Karalee!
Thank you! I definitely recommend One Minute Mysteries if you enjoy solving logic puzzles.
Yea Celina is popular on TikTok too and she actually published 4 books! This one plus Hollow which is a vampire romance, Blackwick Falls: The Marked Witch which is a witchy story, and The Home Reader which is about her paranormal experiences. She also came out with SpookyBoo’s Night Frights this month, which is only on Audible, and it is 5 short stories she wrote and narrates. I just finished listening to them, and I enjoyed it!
I only two of these people Alfie Deyes and Colleen. Alfie’s seems good and interactive for his audience. All the things that have come out about Colleen is frightening. I’ve never really watched her seen random memes etc over the years. But I am with you on the 0/10.
Lauren – bournemouthgirl
Alfie Deyes book does seem like it could be good for his audience, and I know he has published The Pointless Book 2 & 3!
I haven’t watched any of Colleen’s videos either and I never saw the appeal of the Miranda Sings character, but it is disturbing the content in her book and everything that has come out about her.
I’ve not read any books by a YouTuber but based on your review, I’d give the Miranda Sings one a very wide berth! Baking Yesteryear sounds much more my vibe 🙂
I definitely recommend avoiding Miranda Sings books because the content is horrible and highly inappropriate for her audience.
However, Baking Yesteryear is FANTASTIC! I made the Banana Split Bars the other day, and they were delicious! Next I’ll be trying the Avocado Pie!
I really want to read Baking Yesteryear! These YouTuber books all sound really good, I like that they’re all different genres! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
I definitely recommend Baking Yesteryear! Well most of the books are good!
I’ve not read any of these books before. I don’t watch youtube at all now really these days. I used to all the time a few years ago, but it’s kind of slipped away from me as something I want to do. I don’t know much about Colleen however the book sounds just as horrible as everything I’ve read about her previously. Makes you question how it even got published in the first place. I love the idea of the sims cookbook – That’s so unique! I mainly played Sims 4 so it’d be ideal for me. I also really like the sound of one minute mysteries too.
Claire.X
http://www.clairemac.co.uk
I still enjoying watching YouTube around lunch or in the evenings!
It is shocking that people thought Colleen’s book was perfectly fine to publish, and she even published a second book called My Diarrhe. I haven’t read it, but it probably has similiar themes.
I LOVE The Sims cookbook! It is so fun making a dish IRL and then having my sim make it in the game.
I like the idea of baking from history. Great range of reviews.
That cookbook is so fun, and I shopped for ingredients to try out the Banana Split Bars.
Thanks!