Something I've noticed about this list is that quite a few novels on it haven't angered or, God forbid, offended me, but they are on this list because I really have a hard time finding anything redeemable about them. The Revolution of Marina M is one of them. Sure, there are good things about this book, and I originally wasn't going to put it on this list, but in the end I just... couldn't. Everything about it was just so overwrought and amateurishly done and not good at all. This was a torture porn romance disguised as a serious historical fiction novel with an unbearable main character. I mean, there is some good about this novel, mostly the Russian historical parts, but the amount of bad just overwhelms all good, no matter how much it pains me to put Russian historical fiction on this list.
Frankly, I did not think I hated Pointe, Claw enough to make this list at first. And then, I started to dwell on it and I realized that I really hate this novel. In fact, I really did not like this book so much that I think I kind of hate the author because of it, which is something that I try to avoid. It takes a lot of ego to write a book like Pointe, Claw, and if there's one thing I can't stand, it's ego. I know that a common refrain in the art world is that expertise excuses you for being a pretentious asshole, but that's something I've never bought. But I'm being a hypocrite here, because I've always stood by the idea that one should never judge a work by the creator, it's how I've been able to justify loving Woody Allan films or listening to the Smiths. The reason Pointe, Claw is on this list is not because of my perception of Keyser, it's because this is just a heinous novel with heinous characters, horrible "literary" writing, and just the stink of pretension that covers this entire novel. Ultimately, I think the only reason why Pointe, Claw, isn't higher on this list is because, well, in the end I just didn't care enough about it. Until I really began thinking about the book, I didn't care and could barely remember it. Even writing this snippet, the novel didn't incite the anger in me most of the other entries did. Also, my ratings are relative. In a better reading year, this book probably would have received a 2/10 or 1 star and would have ended up my worst book of the year. This year, no, there are worse dragons to slay.
A Good Idea was tied with This Is Our Story for the coveted 8th spot on my worst list, but in the end the apathy I felt for This Is Our Story during most of my reading experience and also the fact that I can barely remember it spared it. On the other hand, I was bitching about A Good Idea for like a month after I read it. The main character was just horrible, her relationship toxic but any acknowledgement of how horrible it was for both parties was brushed off. If I had an award for the worst couple of the year, it would be given to Finley and Serena. After reading this book, I came to the conclusion that perhaps revenge thrillers aren't for me, not because I don't like the idea of revenge thrillers, but because most of the ones I read are A Good Idea clones as opposed to Daughter of the Deep Silence.
This is my most viewed review of the year. My only explanation for that is that a lot of you hate this book as much as I do. I actually had a weird reading experience with this novel, because it was okay at first, and then after the first chapter I realized that I kind of hated it, but then it took a turn of the comically bad during the climax and I realized that I kind of love to hate this novel. Perhaps this book should be not as low as 7th on this list, especially since I put Pointe, Claw at ninth and I hated that novel, but eh, I guess I should stop acting like the ratings really mean anything. Anyway, the point is that Silent Child is not a very good novel and one that I can't believe received so much hype this year. I mean, why is this book getting nominated for thriller of the year awards? It blew. End of story.
This novel gets the distinction of being the first book this year I really hated. It seemed like a good idea on paper, being about a forensic psychologist accused of murder, but it just blew. The main character, Audrey, is a complete and utter bitch. She's obnoxious, full of herself, and, just to piss me off all the more, Kessler did that thing where all characters that hate her are evil and all characters who love her are fantastic. Not only that, the story went in a place that I... disagreed with, to say the least. Well, if there's one good thing about It Takes One, it is that it stopped me from having to get into another book series.
The success of Armentrout baffles me. I've read two books by her at this point and I have no idea why people like her work. I mean, sure, I haven't read her best-selling Lux series, but I can't imagine it being any better than The Problem with Forever or Don't Look Back. Don't Look Back is just a painful novel to read. This is a bloated, badly written novel with horrible characters and a plot line straight out of a soap opera but with none of the fun cheese. If this book was written by Natasha Preston, I'd probably love every minute of that disaster. But it's written by Jennifer L Armentrout, and because of that it's painfully bad. And it's only number five on this list! God, this was a bad year for me.
And the award for the most poorly written novel of the year is... The Rattled Bones by SM Parker! This is another book I have a hard time finding anything redeeming, worth recommending about The Rattled Bones. Sure, it does have an intriguing plot line, but the writing just kills anything good about it. Of course, it's not like the characters are anything special either. Four months after reading it, I can barely remember any of the characters, because it was obvious that they were constructed out of various common YA personality tropes. I just didn't enjoy reading it at all. It's not fun bad it's just bad bad.
Mosquitoland is the worst of the John Green knock-offs flooding the shelves since The Fault in Our Stars came out. The Fault in Our Stars is probably the worst book I ever read, but at the end of the day I'd rather have the original pretentious ass than anyone trying desperately to be him, that's for sure. I mean, in defense of this novel I knew I wasn't going to like it and I read it anyway, and I am not the target audience for this novel, but what I figured was that it wouldn't offend me nearly as much as it did. This is the worst kind of debut novel, the kind that makes me never, ever want to read anything by David Arnold ever again.
The best way I can describe Little Deaths is if someone sucked all the unintentional comedy out of Silent Child, leaving behind only the half-assed social commentary. My least favorite element of the story is Ruth, who was so innocent and downtrodden and had such a hard life that she couldn't possibly have done anything evil, oh no, why would she? One of my least favorite tropes is the idea that women, and especially mothers, could never commit crimes without having some kind of excuse, whether they were abused or controlled by someone, usually their boyfriends or husbands, whereas when men commit crimes, they never are allowed to have the same excuses women pull out. If there's one thing I learned from watching way too much of the ID channel, it's that both sexes have the capacity for absolutely heinous things and most of them don't even have a reason for what they do beyond a custody battle or an affair. Enough of that rant, though, Little Deaths is just a horrible novel, and I wish I never read it.
This is an awful, awful novel with a horribly contrived plot line, soap-opera twists, bad writing, and characters that have nothing redeemable about them whatsoever. This is a third rate horror film disguised as a serious mystery novel, like a fantasy book without any of the fantasy. Nothing in this novel makes realistic sense, and Kelley Armstrong has such a lack of talent writing mysteries that I hope I never see another thriller title under her again. I can't talk about this novel anymore, or else I'll get angry all over again.
We got five dishonorable mentions this year, because I can't narrow it down to three if I tried. In fact, I would put 10 dishonorable mentions, but that seemed excessive. I said it before and I'll say it again- God, what a bad year it was for reading!
So, what are your least favorite books of the year? I'd love to hear about what you think about any of these books/what your choices are. Let's commiserate together!
Thanks for your blog. Saw that you liked the "Unwind" series and hated "Silent Child" so I knew you were okay!
ReplyDeleteI listened to "Silent Child" on audio and completely agree! I picked it up because it had thousands of positive reviews, but it was a chore to get through.
Read "The Cabin" and it was a mess as well.
Tried to listen to "The Lying Game" and I gave up after 2 hours.
I do most of my "reading" via audio since I have a long work commute and I find that if a book is bad on paper, it make the audio 10x worse.
Thank you so much for the sweet comment! I love encountering Unwind fans and Silent Child haters out in the wild.
DeleteI was tempted by The Lying Game because it reminded me of a The Secret History type story but reading this, I'm glad I never got around to it.
Oh, and if you thought The Cabin was a mess, you should try The Cellar. It's the most fun I've ever had reading a bad book, and that's saying something.