Hello Bookworms! Today we are talking about my most disappointing reads of 2019.
I have a pretty good idea of what my reading tastes are, so I’m lucky that I rarely read a “bad” book. If I’m not enjoying something pretty quick, I usually put it down/unhaul it. So I don’t often finish I book I didn’t enjoy or read enough of it that I feel qualified to review it.
So of the 5 books on this list, only I truly abhor 1 of them. The other 4 are just books that left me feeling a little let down because I had such high hopes for them.
THE BAD
»» Nevernight by Jay Kristoff ★
I tried. O, gentlefriends how I tried. But, I had to DNF this book at about 70% because I could no longer force myself to wade through pretentious and forced banter, metaphors that make no fucking sense, or gore/violence against women, etc just to prove how edgy this book is.
I tried the physical copy, the audiobook, the ebook, setting it down and trying again later. Nothing worked. It’s just not the book for me. It feels very “male gaze”-y when describing female characters, the sex scenes were cringe and awkward. I like grim dark fantasy – and I don’t mind gore and violence if it actually serves a purpose. But, when it just feels gratuitous, it’s very off putting.
THE DISAPPOINTING
»» Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir ★★ 1/2
I was expecting lesbian necromancers in space and a magical tournament, but what I got was a closed circle mystery that could have been set basically anywhere. It wasn’t a terrible book, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. Also, I kinda hated the ending.
»» The Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie ★★★
While I can definitely appreciate the technical skill of a well crafted narrative. I’m kinda left feeling like, “what was the point?”
I don’t mind/even enjoy morally gray characters, but I do like for there to be some glimmer of hope? And the moral of this story seems to be “the world is shit, and people are awful.”
»» City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab ★★★
I liked the plot and the characters in this book. The friendship between Jacob and Cassidy was very sweet. And seeing Cassidy make a new friend in Edinburgh was nice (especially with the little bit of ‘not like other girls’ vibe I got at the beginning of the story). But it seemed to lack some of the whimsy and humor that I enjoy in my middle grade. It honestly kinda felt like a YA book with a middle grade aged protagonist. And, I know this seems kinda nitpicky, but the constant Harry Potter references grated on me after awhile. It seems more like they were put in for the adult reader rather than the middle grade one.
»» A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer ★★ 1/2
So I’m admittedly trash for Beauty and Beast retellings. We all have our thing, and that’s mine. Haha. So I was really excited about this. The first half held a lot of promise, but second half was a huge letdown. And, I wish it had been a standalone.
Did you have any letdown’s in 2019? Did any of my disappointments end up on your list?
Happy Reading ♥
I thought Gideon the Ninth was disappointing, too. It read like Muir was jumping up and down and shouting about how cool she was.
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Exactly! I’m glad someone else feels that way. Everyone talks about how fantastic it was – I liked the plot, I just wish it had scaled down how “edgy” it was, if that makes sense.
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It does make sense. It seems like so many authors spend their time trying to be edgy that their plot and characters suffer for it. I would rather have complex characters than edgy writing.
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Agreed! I love a good plot, but I’ve got to feel connected to the characters to really feel invested in the story.
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I’m with you on morally grey characters, and I feel like it’s the hot trend right now in books unfortunately. You gotta give me someone to root for, someone to care about. Not liking any of the characters is what made me finally DNF the GoT books.
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Agreed! I don’t need perfect characters, but they’ve got to have some kind of redeeming characteristics – something that makes me want to read about them.
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I’m glad you liked city of ghosts 🙂 it really surprised me and I really liked it. I am wanting to get to curse so dark and lonely soon too. I’m also beauty and the beast trash lol 🙂
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Give me all the Beauty and the Beast retellings! Haha.
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Seriously! They’re my favorite kind of retelling right now
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Thanks for putting this list together. I now know which books to steer clear of.
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You’re welcome!
Some of these are super popular for other people, they just didn’t work for me.
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Oh no! I was going to start the Nevernight trilogy this year. I hope I still love it 🤞
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I’m definitely in the minority here. So many people love it! Hopefully you will too.
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Ahh, too bad that you didn’t get to enjoy these titles! Hopefully you’ll have a better reading experience this year! 💛
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Thank you! I’m hopeful too!
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I’m sorry these books disappointed you!! It is never the best feeling!!
I’m sorry Nevernight disappointed you, I had a similar problem with the book Black Leopard, Red Wolf. It felt very male gaze-y and it was a lot of violence and the plot was almost non existent. I DNF’ed it and I feel like it would have gotten better but I was not feeling it.
I read City of Ghosts and rated it 3 stars. I think my favourite part was it being set in Edinburgh especially as I was travelling to Edinburgh when I read it but it did have a lot of HP references and it had room for improvement!!
Hopefully you will have less disappointing reads this year!! 🙂
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Yeah, I tried Black Leopard, Red Wolf but only got about 40 pages in before I had to set it aside. I have a lot of trouble reading books with lots of sexual violence in them.
I loved the Edinburgh setting! I was just hoping for a little more whimsy. I am still interested in picking up the second book though!
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