Trigger Warning: Revenge Porn
*post written and completed in late June, so this reflects all my thoughts and feeling up until that point in time*
Hi Guys! Considering we’re now over halfway through the year I thought I’d share a list of my most disappointing reads of the year so far so I can talk about what went wrong with these books. I’m also going to post my favourite reads of the year tomorrow so it’s not all negative on this blog!
By ‘disappointing’ I’m going to include books I didn’t enjoy, and books that I had high expectations for and they just ended up not living up to those for certain reasons. You will quickly see though quite a few of these are down to recommendations from Buzzfeed (no big surprises there).
Loveboat, Taiperi by Abigail Hing Wen (1 star)
This is the first book I read for my ‘Buzzfeed Recommends‘ series, and boy was it a massive disappointment. I mentioned in the post where I announced this series I wasn’t sure this was my cup of tea, and I was right, but my disappointment goes way beyond that. This book includes revenge porn, and not only tries to excuse it, but also uses domestic abuse as a plot method for the victim and perpetrator of the revenge porn to become friends again – it was handled way too poorly for me to forgive and it disappointed me not only did the author write this, but Buzzfeed recommended and promoted it. Read my full review here.
The Queen’s Assassin by Melissa De La Cruz (1 star)
Again, this was an another book I read for my ‘Buzzfeed Recommends‘ series, and it was one I was actually excited to read – I should have known better. This wasn’t good. The characters were underdeveloped with sloppy characterisation, there was a boring romance, confusing world-building, the writer told us everything rather than showing, and even when writing a review I couldn’t recall the plot. This was a huge disappointment and this still invokes anger in me when thinking about it. Read my full review here.
A Heart So Fierce And Broken by Brigid Kemmerer (3 stars)
This was a very strange sequel as it read more as a spin-off than as a continuation of the story established in ‘A Curse So Dark and Lonely’. I really liked Rhen and Harper in the first book and their relationship arc, the first book left unsure of whether they were in love or not – but the second book confirmed they were destined for each other and destroyed their characters arcs, which was beyond disappointing and also very strange. The book had great things going for it though with Grey and Tycho in particular, but it was a disappointing sequel.
Tweet Cute by Emma Lord (2 stars)
This was another book I read for my ‘Buzzfeed Recommends‘ series and boy it was not for me. Out of all the romance books on the list I had to read, this was the one I had the most hope for, and I lost that hope pretty quickly. I didn’t enjoy this at all, I found it to be very boring and the romance wasn’t special nor did it draw me into the story. I didn’t leave this book feeling any strong feelings, and I think that’s the most disappointing thing – I didn’t feel anything. Read my full review here.
Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed (2 stars)
Surprise, surprise another book from my Buzzfeed series! I was a bit wary going into this as I’ve never loved or hated any books by Albertalli before, so I thought this would be another ‘meh’ read for me. However, I did like the opening for this and it got my hopes up, just for them to be dashed as the book went on. I found the characters to be largely underdeveloped and so their romance was dull, as well as the fact Maya’s relationship with her faith was poorly handled (please read May’s review to learn more).
The Unbound by Victoria Schwab (3 stars)
I know, I know, some of you are going to be horrified I would allow Schwab’s name to grace this list. I have to be honest though, this was a disappointing sequel. As soon as I finished ‘The Archive’ I immediately picked up this one to carry on the story, and it just didn’t hit me in the same way emotionally. I found this one to be a little bit more tired and slow, and I didn’t like the characters in this one as much. I think my biggest problem was that it was set three weeks after the finale of book one, which meant there was no time or space for our characters to grow or breathe in, leaving them to feel stagnant and wasted.
The Priory of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (3 stars)
God, I wanted to love this book. I love ‘The Bone Season’ and I thought I would love anything Shannon wrote after that read, but this wasn’t the case with this book. Whilst this wasn’t the worst book I’ve read this year nor was it that bad, I felt really let down as I thought it would be at least a four star for me. Unfortunately there were problems with some of the characters and the finale let down the whole book for me. Read my full review here.
The Truants by Kate Weinberg (3 stars)
I read this for my ‘Waterstone’s Book of The Month’ series, and I thought I was going to love it after it was sold as Agatha Christie meets ‘The Secret History’ – it obviously did not live up to that. I think a lot of things were done well in this book and I could see where the author was trying to take the characters and the plot, but they never quiet got there, and it all fell a little short. The main issue was the mystery was great, but not the conclusion. Read my full review here.
The Year is ’42 by Nella Bielski (2 stars)
I just wanted more from this book, I wanted more from a premise that was so enticing. The book promised to follow the lives and tales of three different people living in 1942, but only one of those three people were interesting, and we spent the most amount of time reading about arguably the least interesting character. Perhaps my problems are down to personal taste than any real problem with the novel, but I still finished this feeling more disappointed than anything else.
The Silence of The Girls by Pat Barker (3 stars)
In a book that promised to ensure we would hear the women and their stories from a war waged on their community by the Greeks, we hear little from them. It is ironic in a book titled ‘The Silence of The Girls’ the girls stay silent and their stories are not heard. Instead we hear the same stories of Greek heroes, of Archilles, from a woman’s perspective. Whilst it’s an enjoyable read it’s not the new feminist perspective it promised, and that was disappointing to discover. Read my full review here.
Moonlit Books 
Sad to see that these books disappointed you..
I already did not like A curse so dark and lonely, so I guess it is good I do not plan on continuing!
(www.evelynreads.com)
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haha funnily enough you may actually like the sequel if you didn’t like the first book – it’s really strange!
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I have a lot of these on my TBR list…maybe they’ll need to get pushed to the bottom, lol
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Haha sorry! Not all of them are that bad, some of them just couldn’t live up to my high expectations!!
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I feel called out for liking some books on here lmao. I loved A Heart So Fierce and Broken but agree that I hated how Rhen’s character was just destroyed, and I really enjoyed Loveboat Taipei, although I agree that the revenge porn wasn’t handled well at all unfortunately.
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