This will be the last top whatever list of 2017. I originally wanted to separate these two lists, but I didn't really have enough pleasant surprises to 2017 to warrant that. There are 10 disappointments (and that's me limiting myself) and 6 surprises. I will start with the disappointments.
I had a really disappointing year reading wise, especially with my new releases, which is why a majority of them are on this list. Something you'll notice is that I will include books I gave a kind of high rating to. This is because I can still think it was a solid novel, but not one that lived up to my expectations or clicked with. So here are my most disappointing books of 2017!
I had a really disappointing year reading wise, especially with my new releases, which is why a majority of them are on this list. Something you'll notice is that I will include books I gave a kind of high rating to. This is because I can still think it was a solid novel, but not one that lived up to my expectations or clicked with. So here are my most disappointing books of 2017!
The Bright Young Things trilogy is my favorite guilty pleasure historical fiction series. The Lucky Ones, however, is a weak finishing novel, which I'm starting to guess is Godbersen's signature move since The Luxe also had an unsatisfactory end. The Lucky Ones just did not end the series in a decent way, and the only character arc I was at all happy with with Letty's, since I was always on Team Grady for her. And I hated Astrid's resolution, but then again Godbersen seems to like to destroy the main couple at the end of the series. I mean, I still will read Godbersen's next series, but her series enders leave much to be desired.
I have not talked about Never Missing, Never Found since I read it back in February. But it is on this list not because it stuck with me, like gum on the bottom of a new shoe, but because it hasn't. And also because I loved Damage Done, the first book by Amanda Panitch, counting it among my favorite thrillers. I though for sure I would love this one as much as I loved her debut. And yet, I didn't. Never Missing, Never Found has a ton of potential, but it feels like she's trying to write a second Damage Done at points, following the same basic story-line, but the twists don't seem as sharp and the reveal isn't as deliciously twisted as it was in the first book. Never Missing, Never Found knocked Amanda Panitch off my list of thriller writers to watch, and unless she does something dramatically different with her third novel I'll probably just ignore her altogether.
The Midnight Dance seemed like the kind of book I would really like, in a guilty pleasure kind of way, being about a mysterious ballet academy in Italy, of all places. I figured this would be a Black Swan kind of contemporary mystery. Which is why I was surprised that it was a steampunk kind of historical fiction mystery. At first, I was pleasantly surprised, but the book started to get really bad really quickly. It has no basis in actual history, none in science, no world-building whatsoever, and it's not very well written either, and characters were sub-par. This is just not a good novel, which is a shame. It could have been a really fun guilty pleasure Glitter-esque book.
Damn Peter Bognanni, I was really rooting for you. I really liked his The House of Tomorrow, a fun, punk rock book that felt unique, and I still have never encountered a book quite like it. Things I'm Seeing Without You is a major step-back, in my eyes at least. It could have been written by any of the John Green wannabes out there from David Arnold to Scott Stambach. There is nothing original about this book, and it makes me sad. Bognanni could have been such a force for good in the oft-monotonous world of YA contemporary but I don't really have much faith in him at the moment.
6. John Belushi Is Dead by Kathy Charles (8/10)
I thought I would love this novel. It seemed like the kind of book that would be tailor-made for me, a dark novel about dark subject matter with, hopefully, a lot of dark humor, written by an Aussie. But it just wasn't anything special. The humor was mostly cutesy banter I don't care about, Hilda was kind of a rebel without a cause, and the whole novel had a very Wattpad famous vibe. I did give John Belushi Is Dead a fairly high score, but I think I tried to convince myself I liked the book more than I actually did.
I thought I would love this novel. It seemed like the kind of book that would be tailor-made for me, a dark novel about dark subject matter with, hopefully, a lot of dark humor, written by an Aussie. But it just wasn't anything special. The humor was mostly cutesy banter I don't care about, Hilda was kind of a rebel without a cause, and the whole novel had a very Wattpad famous vibe. I did give John Belushi Is Dead a fairly high score, but I think I tried to convince myself I liked the book more than I actually did.
Elizabeth Wein is fine writer, don't get me wrong. She's a great beginning historical fiction writer, and when I heard that she was writing a new book, this one a prequel following Julie from her Code Name Verity companion novel series, I was interested. But The Pearl Thief ended up being my first big disappointment of the year. This is without a doubt an Elizabeth Wein novel, being about a close female friendship, and written in this pseudo-journal way, with crossed out words and caps-lock (think Meg Rosoff). It's not a writing style that I like, personally, and feels very juvenile. Also, the friendship between Julie and the other girl wasn't as developed as it is in her other books. This just wasn't a book that worked for me, unfortunately.
Leigh Bardugo is my favorite fantasy writer. And yet, The Language of Thorns was a complete miss for me. Not one of her fairy-tale retellings stuck with me, and the book wasn't marketed well at all. There was no where in the summary that it was a collection of retellings, frankly if it had I probably wouldn't have gone near it. Retellings normally don't do anything for me- if I want fairy-tales I'd read the original work, not to mention they often feel like cop-outs to me, like an author isn't creative enough to come up with her own stories so she jacks someone else's, but that's beside the point. I was under the assumption that this was an original collection, a creative collection of short stories drawing on the mythos of the Grishaverse. I don't really know why this takes place in the same world as her other books, because it really has no connection to it. The only explanation is that Bardugo realized she could move a lot more copies of The Language of Thorns if she marketed it as a Grishaverse novel. The stories themselves were also repetitive and not really anything unique. Yeah, there was very little about this collection that works for me except for the language and the illustrations, both of which are quite beautiful.
I loved the first book in this trilogy. It was basically everything I wanted a mystery to be, dark, twisted, and unique. The Roses of May, on the other hand, felt significantly less, let's say well put together, than The Butterfly Garden. For one, I wish that Dot Hutchinson went for more of a companion series feel. Most police procedurals don't follow set story lines, instead taking it one book (and one case) at a time and only calling back previous novels in passing. I feel The Roses of May would have been much stronger if it went that route. Instead, it tried to be both a sequel to The Butterfly Garden and its own story, which made the book feel very cluttered. I also didn't really like how special the main character was portrayed as being, and wish we got more details about the actual crimes of the serial killer and feels for his victims as opposed to Hutchinson just focusing on the life of the main character, which was boring, to say the least. I will still be continuing on with the trilogy for its final book, but am much less enthusiastic about it, sad, because The Roses of May was my second most anticipated release of 2017.
On the Jellicoe Road is the quintessential Aussie YA novel, a beautifully written, summery contemporary with more depth than your average American contemporary. For many, On the Jellicoe Road is what turned them on to Australian books, and its success probably opened the doors so that writers like Cath Crowley or Kirsty Eagar could break in to the American audience. Because I have a long established love for Australian writers to the point where two of my favorite contemporary novelists are Aussies (Markus Zusak and the aforementioned Cath Crowley), I figured I would love this book just as much as I loved I Am the Messenger, and Melina Marchetta would become one of my favorite writers ever. That did not happen. In reality, I found myself underwhelmed by the book. There are parts of this novel that work super well, like Hannah's manuscript, as well as some of the summer-y parts, but, I don't know, it felt disjointed and overall, On the Jellicoe Road and I just did not click. What a shame. This novel had been on my want to read list for years and I have not been this disappointed in a long time.
This was by far my most anticipated read of the year. I was so excited for this book, and, as the publication date grew closer and the hype surrounding it grew, I got more and more sure that The Gentleman's Guide would be my new favorite guilty pleasure historical fiction novel. When I actually found the time to read this book, I actually liked it just fine, because it started out kind of well. Lee was trying to write in this pseudo-18th manner, which I was cool with, even if she didn't do it quite as skillfully as, say, Anna Godbersen copying the writing style of the Lost Generation, but it lent a good amount of atmosphere. And then Felicity was introduced and I really liked that she read romance novels and hoped that maybe she a girl who was on the frivolous side and liked clothing and etc, because that character seemed far more interesting than the usual smart, suppressed YA historical fiction cliche that Lee shoved down our throat. I was baffled by everyone loving on Felicity, because I couldn't help but think- really? You guys must never read historical fiction then, 'cause I see characters like her everywhere. But I don't think I'm the target audience here, being someone who actually loves history and never had any patience for that My Lady Jane-esque fantasy infused crap YA writers like to pass off as historical fiction nowadays. This isn't necessarily a bad book, per say, and it does remind me somewhat of my favorite book of the year, but I am extremely, almost bitterly disappointed in this book and will not be continuing on with The Ladies' Guide to Petticoats and Piracy. God, even the name makes me want to gag myself.
And now, for my considerably shorter most surprising list. Some of these books are books I haven't necessarily rated highly, the only criteria to get on this list is that it had to be a book I thought I would hate only to find out that I really liked it.
The Romanovs are my favorite royal family, and when I encountered a fantasy novel based on the Romanov sisters, I was skeptical, to say the least. I am not a fantasy fan, and this is also not a highly rated novel on Goodreads. It is also translated, and, while I usually have a good luck with translated novels, I find that, writing-wise, they usually have a certain... feel to them, and it often seems obvious that they weren't originally written in English. I figured, well, if fantasy fans aren't into this book, I'm not going to like it, but mind as well give it a chance, right? And I was pleasantly surprised! Sure, there are flaws, like the fact that there is indeed a certain translated quality, or that it does drag on for such a short book, but I really liked the world building and how Likitalo didn't directly rip history off but instead decided to pay more of a homage to Russia in the early 20th century. So, good on you, The Five Daughters of the Moon, for lowering my expectations and surpassing them. I might eventually get around to the second book, but the damn thing's over 400 pages and I can't do that to myself at the moment.
I feel like I shouldn't like this novel nearly as much as I ended up liking it, but I just had a complete blast reading Forbidden. It was basically everything one would want in a guilty pleasure romance novel- forbidden love, angst over said forbidden love, and I just had a really fun time reading it. Sure, it's overly dramatic and very, very angsty, and some may be weirded it out by the plot, but it does also have a lot of genuinely good moments in it. I really liked how Suzuma tried her best to avoid complete cliches when creating characters. The scene that best illustrates this is probably when Maya goes on a date with a wealthy, pretty, and popular boy and he's nice, normal, and is actually interested in her. I don't think I've ever seen a character like that in a YA novel. I also completely flew through this book- I think I got through the first 100 pages in like 20 minutes without skimming. Honestly, writing this review makes me want to read it again- it's the perfect guilty pleasure romance.
Like I said above, I have a soft spot for the Romanov girls, and this is a historical fiction novel from their points of view that I have been avoiding for some time, because I figured I wouldn't like it. I thought it would be twee-ish, or rife with cliches from YA historical fiction. But The Lost Crown is a great novel, one that would be perfect for a preteen girl obsessed with Anastasia. The reason it didn't make my best list was because I found it too juvenile-y written, but it is wonderfully factual and written by an author very concerned to do her subject matter justice.
3. Night Film by Marisha Pessl (8/10)
Another book I kind of feel ashamed to actually like, since I found it on Booktube and realized that the people who give every damn book they read 5 stars are the ones who love this novel whereas the people whose reviews I actually trust think it's a middling book to not good at all book. There are some exceptions, but for the most part there's a pretty even split. And for the first part, I was sure I'd fall into the second camp. The writing wasn't great (those goddamn italics) and the characters weren't fantastic, but in the middle of the book, well, I couldn't put it down. I just couldn't stop reading. The end knocked the book back down to mediocre, but I gave it a higher score than I think it deserved because, well, I had to give it points for having such a great middle part. But yeah, Night Film isn't a book I'd readily recommend to people, mostly because of how hit or miss it is, but it's much better than I thought it was going to be.
Another book I kind of feel ashamed to actually like, since I found it on Booktube and realized that the people who give every damn book they read 5 stars are the ones who love this novel whereas the people whose reviews I actually trust think it's a middling book to not good at all book. There are some exceptions, but for the most part there's a pretty even split. And for the first part, I was sure I'd fall into the second camp. The writing wasn't great (those goddamn italics) and the characters weren't fantastic, but in the middle of the book, well, I couldn't put it down. I just couldn't stop reading. The end knocked the book back down to mediocre, but I gave it a higher score than I think it deserved because, well, I had to give it points for having such a great middle part. But yeah, Night Film isn't a book I'd readily recommend to people, mostly because of how hit or miss it is, but it's much better than I thought it was going to be.
Girl in Snow is my favorite 2017 new release, which isn't saying much. I have been consistently underwhelmed by every book I actually planned on reading this year, even outright hating a few. When I put this novel on my preorder list, I was pretty sure that I wouldn't like it, especially since the ARC reviews weren't too hot. And yet, for most of Girl in Snow, I actually really enjoyed it. Admittedly, this isn't a book that would appeal to everyone. It's more of a Twin Peaks than a Law and Order kind of mystery, if that makes sense. Slower, more character-driven and not really in any hurry to solve its own mystery as opposed to book where the mystery takes over. I also found the writing very beautiful. Where this book falls short is the resolution of the mystery, and a lot of the choices Kukafka made towards the end of the book. This isn't a great novel, but it's the best new release I've read all year.
Little Monsters is at the top of this list because, if there's ever a book that blew away my expectations, this would be it. I thought I would hate this novel, but instead it ended up in my Honorable Mentions for my Best of 2017 list! It probably would have made the list, too, but, like I said there, even the best YA mystery of the year isn't good enough for me. Anyway, Little Monsters took every annoying YA mystery trope and threw them out the window, which I loved. Admittedly, it's not the most original novel ever, but it is a damn good YA mystery. I should also mention, though, that Kara Thomas' work is kind of hit or miss for me at least. I was underwhelmed by her debut, Darkest Corners, which I read after this, and also didn't really like the short story she wrote in the same universe as Little Monsters, which you can read online. This is a solid little mystery novel, and one that definitely put Kara Thomas on my radar.
So, what are your most disappointing/most surprising books of the year? I'd love to hear about what you think about any of these books/what your choices are.
So, what are your most disappointing/most surprising books of the year? I'd love to hear about what you think about any of these books/what your choices are.
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