The Worst Books of the Year | 2022 Wrap-Up Pt. 1

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog! 

Alright, the time has come everyone. The end of the year posts are upon us. There will be four posts in this end-of-the-year series: the worst books, the best books, a year in review, and my December wrap-up. And the last four days of the year will be dedicated to these posts. So to start it off, today we have the worst books I read this year. 

Now, here's the thing: this year was great, reading-wise. I don't think I had any 1-star reviews, and very little 2-stars. I really focused on picking up books I was really excited to read, and that I had high expectations for. And surprisingly, I was pretty spot on with that. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. 

Let's look at some stats: There were 7 books that I DNF'd this year, 1 book I rated 1.5 stars, 3 2-star books, and 2 books I rated 2.5 stars. We'll talk about all of these, plus a couple disappointing reads that had higher ratings. 

Okay, without any further ado, let's get into it!

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DNF'd Books

Fire by Kristin Cashore
    Reason for DNFing: I was just bored. I really liked Graceling but I didn't care about these characters or the conflicts that were being brought up.

Dragonspell by Donita K. Paul
    Reason for DNFing: Again, I was pretty bored. Also I was getting annoyed by all of the religious parallels.

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
    Reason for DNFing: This was so pretentious and overcomplicated, I could feel my brain leaking out of my ears. I will not be reading anything else by this author, either, because everyone tells me her writing is consistent throughout all of her novels.

Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour
    Reason for DNFing: There was a lot of triggering content in this novel that I felt it would be detrimental to my mental health to continue on.

There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura
    Reason for DNFing: Again, this felt very mentally draining. The narrator's apathetic nature was making me fall into bad habits and the idea of finishing this book was hard to swallow.

The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller
    Reason for DNFing: I was just so confused. I had gotten half-way through and still had no idea what was going on. I know that you're supposed to be confused by this book, but it was too much for me. 

Soul of the Deep by Natasha Bowen
    Reason for DNFing: I just lost interest in this story. I've found that I haven't been enjoying YA as much as I have in previous years, and I think that's the main reason this story just lost all appeal to me.

Low-Rated Books

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix - 1.5 stars
    Goodreads Review: I didn’t hate it, but I definitely didn’t like it either. It’s not like it was offensive or anything (though there were certainly parts that made me cringe out of anger, embarrassment, etc) but it definitely wasn’t enjoyable. I don’t know, nothing about this book makes me want to keep thinking about it. I will gladly forget about it.

People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami - 2 stars
    Goodreads Review: That was extremely odd, though it’s the exact flavor of magical realism that Japan seems to be known for. However I don’t think it’s really my thing. I’ll definitely be trying more of Kawakami’s writing, but I would be surprised if this ended up being my favorite by her.

Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu - 2 stars
    Goodreads Review: The writing was beautiful but other than that there was little to no substance. However I'm clearly in the minority here since this won the National Book Award, but I truly do think part of it was the translation. You just can't get everything from translated fiction, I'm sure in the original Japanese it is much more profound.

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata - 2 stars
    Goodreads Review: You know, I think this just showed me that Sayaka Murata is just not the author for me. I really only enjoyed the last two short stories in this collection, and "enjoy" feels like too strong a word at this point. Her stories are all fascinating in one way or another, I can't deny that, but they're just a little too out there and disturbing for my taste. I really did like Convenience Store Woman, but Earthlings was one of the worst books I read last year, and while I liked this a little better than Earthlings, it still wasn't something I would say I actually liked. So, I think I'm giving up on Sayaka Murata, sadly.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw - 2.5 stars
    Goodreads Review: Ummmmmm…..yeah, this wasn’t great. The characters were all one-dimensional with no real development or even personalities except what we are told. The juxtaposition between the prose and the dialogue was super shocking, bc the descriptions were very heavy handed but then it felt like I was reading a middle-school chat room whenever someone spoke. I feel like this could’ve been a lot better if the author chose a single writing style to implement throughout the story instead of bouncing back and forth.

The Coldest Touch by Isabel Sterling - 2.5 stars
    Goodreads Review: Eh? I’m not super impressed by this. I know I like Isabel Sterling’s writing because I really enjoyed her first book (series) but this was kind of a let down. The plot felt very convoluted and there was a lot that was never explained, and the characters were flat and one-dimensional. I’m pretty disappointed, not gonna lie.

Disappointing Books

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston - 3 stars
    Goodreads Review: Honestly, this wasn't great? The last 100 pages were everything I've come to expect from a Casey McQuiston novel, but the first 250 were really random and kind of boring and just a little off. Like, the whole paper towns-esque storyline trying to find Shara felt really unnecessary, and that is literally the main plot of the book! I don't know, to me it wasn't Casey's finest work but I still enjoyed it well enough. But overall this was definitely a disappointment.

In Defense of Witches by Mona Chollet - 3 stars
    Goodreads Review: This was interesting but honestly I think a little misleading. I went into this thinking it was going to be a history of the witch-trials and the impact they have on todays society, and while it certainly has those aspects, it’s more about the feminist movement and the ways that women are oppressed, using some examples of the witch trials to support these claims. So I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little disappointed that there wasn’t much discussion on the actual trials.

Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan - 3 stars
    Goodreads Review: I’m actually pretty disappointed in this book. I really liked the first one and had high hopes for this one but I found it rather lacking. It felt much too long, dragging in places and I was irritated with all of the back and forth between the love interests. The plot felt pretty copy and paste from the first book as well. And, though this is absolutely just my opinion, I think the wrong love interest was chosen. But again that’s just me. Anyway, it wasn’t bad by any means, but it didn’t really live up to the first book.

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Alright, that's all for today! I'm pretty happy that there weren't many books for this post, and I'm hoping that next year will be even better. Tell me, what is the worst book you read this year? Let me know in the comments below!

Until tomorrow!