It's officially 2019! A year that is going to be a big one for me, but for now I am excited to reflect on my worst books of 2018! So, some of these may not have been published in 2018 but I did read them in 2018. I don't think this is needed, because we all understand that everyone has their own opinions and it's okay if I ended up disliking a favorite of yours. However, I will be immediately deleting any mean comments. I'm up for discussion but let's keep it civil But for now, let's jump into the book I disliked! I am going to try to rank them this year, so it'll be the ones I kind of dislike to my most disliked book. I need to warn you that I may not have a lot to say about some of them because I may have forgotten some of the details if it's been a while. Also, the ratings don't always match with my overall feel over a book, so I may have disliked a book more that has 2 1/2 stars than a book that has 2. It's all how I felt when reading the book mostly.
The Girl From Everywhere
Heidi Heilig
⭐⭐
I was super disappointed about this one because of how excited Ii was to read it. I read a lot of raving reviews and saw that people on Twitter were loving it. But I just found that a lot of it felt boring to me. This is definitely one I'd totally try to read again maybe while listening to an audiobook this time. Who knows, but for now I am just overall disappointed.
Empire of Storms
Sarah J. Maas
⭐⭐
This is such a disappointment because I do enjoy the series as a whole I just have some issues with this one and Queen of Shadows (which barely missed the cut for this list). I think that the story was slow and boring at times, and the ending being almost exactly the same as the other book Maas published that year was lazy and unprofessional. I haven't continued the series yet, but I hope Tower of Dawn & Kingdom of Ash are better.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
⭐⭐ 1/2
This was such a huge disappointment. I was really excited to read this before the series was released on Netflix (which I loved, by the way) and I just wasn't vibing with it overall. I did really enjoy Sabrina and Ambrose's characters but that was mostly it. I do plan on continuing watching the show but I doubt I'll pick up anymore of the comics.
Zenith
Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings
⭐⭐ 1/2
This was a book I at first was really excited about, and then the reviews started rolling in and I felt less excited. Then I finally decided to read it so I can see what I thought about it, since everyone seemed to have so many opinions. And although I definitely disliked a large portion of this book I don't think it deserves the vitriol it has been getting. It has a lot of issues that should be blamed on the authors along with the editors and publishers, but it also had a lot of potential. I am considering reading the second book and seeing if it improves, but overall this just wasn't great.
Uprooted
Naomi Novik
⭐⭐
This
was such a disappointment. I know that is how I have been opening every
one of these but it's true for so many. A lot of these had so much hype
so I had high expectations. This book was honestly just boring. The
beginning was interesting but the characters were bland, the plot was
boring, and the writing wasn't my favorite. I honestly just don't get
the hype at all. The only thing I did like was the forest. It was creepy
and basically it's own character.
Renegades
Marissa Meyer
⭐⭐
I was looking forward to this book for so long. I had been following since I believe it was being talked about when Marissa Meyer talked about it being a NaNoWriMo project. I heard a piece of the synopsis and thought it sounded so amazing. And honestly, the premise of this book still sounds amazing. I just think we were following the wrong characters because my god were they dull. They were both these boring clichéd characters who were driving me insane when the cool side characters didn't get the time they deserved in the story. It was generally uninteresting and I was really bummed.
An Enchantment of Ravens
Margaret Rogerson
⭐
Tricked by a beautiful cover. I picked this book up because I thought it was going to be a quick and fun read, but it ended up being so boring. The book was so short for a fantasy novel which made the characters two dimensional, the plot was both too fast and boring all at the same time, and the writing was bland because everything was so rushed it didn't really get to shine. Overall I think this was just either a bad idea or not for me.
The Summer the World Ended
Matthew S. Cox
⭐
This is going to be one I'll forever feel guilty about hating so much because a friend of mine not only absolutely loved the book (as did many of the reviewers I've seen, more on that in a moment) but she gifted this to be out of the blue as a sweet surprise. So I was really assuming I'd love it, but it was not for me at all. I disliked the writing, the plot, the characters. I though the dad was really creepy with his daughter, the writing read like someone trying to sound young especially with the younger characters, and the twist was easy to guess because it's been done so many times. It just honestly wasn't for me. Fortunately, this doesn't seem to be a popular opinion and many of the reviewers I've read ended up really liking it so I am guessing this is more of a me thing.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Roald Dahl
⭐
This was so frustrating because I remember enjoying it when I was little. But that was before I would have noticed how absolutely fatphobic this book is. It's ridiculous. Roald Dahl is constantly commenting on these kid's bodies, his opinions (although outdated because of the time it was published, which is understandable) are over generalized and not subtle at all, and it's overall incredibly toxic. I have kind of sworn off of ever reading a Dahl book again because I don't know if I would be able to handle the fact that Matilda is an awful book now too. He is the writer of one of my favorite quotes: "If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you'll always look lovely" and now even that feels somehow ruined.
Snow Falling
Jane Gloriana Villanueva
⭐
This was such an awful cash grab kind of book. I bought into it and borrowed it from my library thinking it would be a cute romance and we'd get a taste of "Jane"'s writing but it was a mess. And now everytime I watch the show and they bring up her book and writing I can't help but roll my eyes because I actually don't find "Jane" that great of a writer at all which sucks because I still want her to succeed. This book was badly written, incredibly boring, seemingly unedited, and not that romantic considering it's a romance book. I know this is kind of anticlimatic when it comes to "worst book of 2018" but this still rubs me even after reading it like nine months ago.
So that is it! The books I ended up being the most disappointed by in 2018. Hopefully next year I will have a smaller list but honestly these didn't "make the cut", they were basically the only ten I disliked. So 10ish books out of 100+ I say that is a pretty good year in regards of reading! How did your reading year go in 2018? Did you have any books you really disliked also? I'd love to know.
Sorry these didn't turn out well for you. I've been wanting to read The Chilling adventures of sabrina. I love the show Netflix made for it.
ReplyDeleteI love the show too! I hope you end up liking the comic more than I did! :)
DeleteTotally agree about Renegades. After the amazingness that was the Lunar C, I expected so much more!
ReplyDeleteIt's such a bummer! I feel like I am missing something because everyone seems to love it so much. And it sounds like such a me book.
DeleteAll are new to me. I am sorry they were all a disappointment
ReplyDeleteAw thank you! Hopefully we both have a 2019 filled with 5 star reads :)
DeleteHey, good on you! It can be really tough to go against the rising tide of popular opinion, and I totally get where you're coming from - I wrote decidedly critical reviews of a few super-popular books in 2018, and felt like I had to duck the virtual rotten tomatoes thrown by fans 😂
ReplyDeleteReally interested to see Charlie & The Chocolate Factory on here. I haven't looked at it in so long (like you, since I was a kid), but thinking back I can totally see where you're coming from. I must say, the more I learn about Roald Dahl, the more I surmise that he could be... well, kind of an a-hole in real life, which just seems so weird given how much joy he brought to children.
I'm scared of ruining the childhood memories too, so I don't think I'll pick up any of his kid's books for a re-read, BUT I did recently find a collection of his short stories for adults, so I'll be giving them a go this year. Fingers crossed he was a bit more reasonable in those! And keep up the great work doll, hope you have a great reading year in 2019!
I didn't even KNOW Dahl was such a jerk until after reading Charlie! I looked it up and dang he was kind of the worst. Which sucks, since he wrote so many well loved books for kids!! Phew. What an absolute bummer.
DeleteMaybe I'll check out his adult stuff! It's a little wary for me because if you're fatphobic with kid's books who knows the kind of garbage he spews to adults, but I'd definitely give it a chance.
I hope your 2019 is FILLED with amazing 5 star reads! <3