Top 5 (Worst) Books of the Year

Happy Hump Day! Today’s topic is top five books of the year, but since I plan on doing a top books at the end of the year once I actually make my reading goal, I’m altering this topic a bit to do the top five worst books of the year. I figured it’d be fun.

If you’d like to participate in T5W, you can do so here!

At the time of writing this, I’ve read 48 books. I hope to round it to 50 by the new year, and the ones I’m currently reading I’m really liking, so the likelihood of them ending up on this list are minimal. They might end up on the ‘top’ though, so that’s why I wanted to wait a bit on that post.

Anyways, here we go!

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5. A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin

3 stars. I didn’t hate this book…. but considering only four of the books I read this year were 2 stars or less, I needed to pick a 3 star book to add to this list. Out of my 3 star reads for this year, this is the one I liked the least.

This book, plot-wise, I liked. Character-wise, I liked. But writing? I did not like the writing in this book. I’ve been feeling that Martin’s writing was not for me for a couple books now, but this one really drove it home for me. It’s unnecessarily thick and its verbiage is way too descriptive when it comes to women’s bodies, especially when the description is not needed at all. I know exactly how big each female character’s boobs are, and none of those boobs were relevant for the scenes they were in.

I listened to this on audio, and even then, it was a chore for me. I dragged myself through it. And as much as I want to know what happens next, I’m hesitant to pick up Winds of Winter when (if…) it comes out.

4. The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

2.75 stars. I’m just rippin’ up all the beloved fantasy in this post, I think. Any of you know even remotely follow my blog know that I didn’t like this book. I wrote a bit of a rant on this one, detailing the reasons in greater exhaustion, but the main reason I disliked this book was the main character. Kvothe just kills me. He’s a Mary Sue, and if he’s not, if he’s just describing his own life in an inflated way, then he’s an arrogant, insecure individual who feels the need to bolster his own life beyond believability. Either way, he really ruins the book for me. The rest of the book I rather liked. Heck, I even gave the first volume in this series four stars… I was iffy about Kvothe in that one, but in this one, he jumped headlong into insufferable, and my enjoyment of the book melted away because of it.

3. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

2.5 stars. This is the last ‘popular’ fantasy novel I’m going to list, I promise. This book was so built up for me. I had heard so much about Tolkien’s beautiful if not difficult writing, about his world building, about his storytelling. I went into this expecting to love it, and I think that’s why I was let down so hard. This book was not for me. I felt like scenes were rushed, the I barely knew any of the character’s personalities, that the only context I had for the world it took place in was from the movies.

This book was an utter disappointment for me.

 

2. Blankets by Craig Thompson

2.5 stars. This book was a weird experience for me. I really liked probably the first two thirds of it, but I found the ending totally pointless. I get that it’s a memoir, but like… why would you leave off there? There’s obviously more to your life – you’re writing the thing several years later. Why leave off on such an anti-climax? It took my liking for the book and smushed it into the ground. I actually got rid of the thing shortly after finishing it – I donated it to the local charity shop, and I hope that somebody picks it up and absolutely loves it. All books deserved to be adored, I just wasn’t the person for this book.

1. Weaveworld by Clive Barker

Not rated. This is my one and only DNF of the year. And as is my custom, if I quit a book before I hit the 50% mark, I don’t rate it out of fairness to the other half the book that could have potentially been better.

But this book, man.

And I feel awful that this is the one book I didn’t finish, as it was a book my mom lent me, one that she loves. It’s one of her all-time favorites and I just couldn’t do it. I have no idea what she sees in it. I gave it back to her and nicely (hopefully) told her that I tried, but it just wasn’t for me.

Like, I didn’t get the point of anything. This magical world that is supposed to be locked in a carpet, I had no idea why I was supposed to love it. It was told it was great in the book, but like why. You can just tell me ‘oh this is wonderful because I the author say so’ and then not do anything to back up the claim. I felt nothing for the characters, the magic, the plot, the setting. I ended up skimming for about forty pages before I just called it quits at just under half way through. I just couldn’t do it.

So while I didn’t leave a rating, this was my least favorite book of the year.

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So, did I steam you up about any of these? Neat! Different opinions are fun. 😀

See you tomorrow!