Welcome to day four of blogmas! We are nearing the end of the year, which means wrap-ups of favorite and least favorite books. Today, I am covering my five least favorite books that I read in 2021.
In general, I like to be positive about books. But lets be real, there are some books that I just cannot be positive about. Plus, it can be a little fun sometimes. Definitely no shade to you if you did like any of these books, everyone has different tastes. It just so happens that these do not fit my taste. Unlike previous posts, where I listed books in the order that I read them, these are listed by preference, with my absolute least favorite of the year being number 1. Let’s get down to it!
5. Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
I read this because I had so many people recommend it to me. Family members whom I usually trust with book recommendations generally said it was sad, but worth the read. Unfortunately, I did not like it at all. Sarah’s storyline reads a bit like tragedy porn. As a character Sarah is incredibly generic, the reader doesn’t spend enough time with her to connect with her, we are just supposed to be sad about her tragedy. Boy gets locked in cupboard and dies there is obviously incredibly tragic, but we all saw it coming, and we certainly didn’t need a whole book to build up to it. Then, way too much of the book is spent on Julia, who is vapid and self-centered. She was completely insufferable. Plus, the prose just wasn’t good.
4. The Viscount who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
Literally one of my first posts on this blog was about how much I disliked the Bridgerton books, and this book in particular. I knew going in that The Duke and I would be problematic, but I was so looking forward to a regency enemies to lovers! Unfortunately, The Viscount Who Loved Me didn’t have strong enough characters or strong enough character development. I thought the characters got together too early, but even if they hadn’t the misogyny completely ruined it for me.
3. Filthy Sugar by Heather Babcock
I don’t even know what to say about this book. For one, it was boring. It didn’t really have a plot, and the characters weren’t strong enough to drive the plot. Our main character Wanda is exceedingly stupid and naive, and as a reader I could never understand any of her motivations. Also there was just…so much unnecessary sexualization in this book. I think it was supposed to be making a point about men sexualizing women, and women reclaiming their sexuality but it did not get there.
2. Plot Twist by Bethany Turner
With this book, I was looking for a romcom, but what I got was a poorly written book that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. The writing was extremely clunky, the main character was insufferable (hmm, I’m sensing a pattern). She treated the people in her life horribly, and she was constantly complaining. She also had some serious self-esteem issues that never really got addressed. It was bad writing, bad themes, and bad characters.
And now…the moment you’ve all been waiting for…my least favorite book of the year…
1. The Man Ban by Nicola Marsh
This book was simply so boring. I couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters or their relationship. It was super insta-lovey, there was no will-they-won’t-they. The third act breakup was incredibly contrived and also gross. It was a weird romance in that there was a chapters-long build-up to them having sex for the first time, only for there to be no smut. And I don’t mind there not being smut but again, chapters-long build-up. And to top it all off, there were some vaguely transphobic and also anti-feminist remarks.
The first two books were recommended to me by people over the age of 50, and the last three were all not-very-well-known books that I requested on Netgalley. So I think the solution here is to be incredibly wary of these things in the future. Not to never read books that fit these descriptions, but perhaps to be a little more cautious so I have more time to read books I actually enjoy.
As always, thank you so much for reading! Join me tomorrow to hear about the books that I enjoyed the MOST this year with my final top ten of the year list!
Reading with Delaney 