 Hey guys, it's Leanna and I'm here today to talk about the worst books that you got in 2020. These are, I want to say kind of in no particular order, I did make the worst of the year the worst, number one worst, but two through 10 is kind of a toss. It was really hard for me to kind of rank them because I was like, I don't know what I based that on because I hated them all while they're on the list. So it was kind of the order that felt right as I made my list, but I'm not married to that order. Even as I'm looking at it right now I'm like they're all terrible. So I don't recommend any of these books. So we're still gonna go 10th to first in theory in ascending order of horribleness, but again like so 10th worst is Black Chalk by Christopher Yeats. This is Dark Academia that takes place in Oxford and is about this sort of group of students that were playing this game where you don't actually know anything about the game that they're playing but the point of or the reason the game is important is because the consequences of doing badly in the game are these escalating dares. So it's told both in the present day and in the past. So in the present day we're following one of the students whose life is crudely a shambles and you're led to believe that this is most likely in some way the result of directly or indirectly of the game and then you go back to find out he's kind of writing a memoir about how he went to Oxford, how this game started to be a thing and how it escalated and affected all their lives so horribly. So it basically sounded like all the secret history vibes. I love the secret history and I need I go into most Dark Academia not expecting it to be as good a secret history because it's never going to live up and if it does well wowza. I don't expect it. It was so boring. It completely failed to write compelling characters which is really what you need in order to tell a story like this because that's what's interesting. If that's what makes a story like this is the characters being compelling. It's always going to be a character driven story and if your characters are shitty that's what makes your breaks it. The characters were really two-dimensional and they don't have to be likeable. They absolutely I mean it's weird if they are likeable they have to be interesting and believable in terms of how they're reacting to things even if it's reprehensible. The characters were really dull and honestly the consequences these escalating dares that I think I'm meant to be shocked by failed to shock me. I mean it was not good things. I mean it was kind of bad things and I guess if I knew somebody personally I'd be like that's kind of messed up that you made them do that but it wasn't really anything that horrible salacious or criminal. It was like uh that's kind of fucked up I guess. It was really I don't know I feel like I could come up with word stuff. I just thought especially the way that it keeps building up is like okay but it got worse and it got worse. I was like okay well I mean I guess we're just starting out so I guess it all get worse but it never really did like none of the dares really rid that bad. Honestly I feel like a better example of escalating dares to really fuck with people's lives is actually one of my all-time favorite movies that I don't know that I've ever had occasion to mention on this channel but I recommend he's Love Me If You Dare with Marion Coutillard. It's in French but if you want escalating dares watch that. It's a great movie. Next up I've Got Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin. I think that's how you say her name? Mahurin? I don't know. I was tricked into reading this. I know it was a hate to love enemies to lovers which hunter meets which love marriage of communion story. I heard some strange things about it before I picked it up i.e. that it kind of it doesn't really it's not a fantasy world and it's not historical fiction it's kind of trying to have its cake and eat it too. It doesn't really bother creating its own world but it is technically not our world but it's basically France with magic where it's but it's also not France so it can get away with messing with things it's just really lazy. The characters in a story like this if it did have really lazy world building like that I'd be willing to forgive if it was like a really cool character study character portrait a really compelling romance that kind of swept me away I'd be like well who cares if it's kind of like just vaguely France like that's not what we're here for but the characters weren't interesting either they were really childish silly two-dimensional cardboard cutouts of Barbie dolls and I was like this is so painfully boring and stupid and melodramatic and I hate the main characters I don't find them like I don't ship them because I hate them it was so painful to read and so bad like from every perspective it wasn't something like I've read bad books that were still like enjoyable you know because like the writing was kind of addicting in a way where it is kind of trashy over the top or melodramatic in some way but it kind of like sucks you in and you kind of want to read more it is also like that this was just so dumb it was so dumb I hated it so much next up I have a guinevere deception by kirsten white this is an Arthur retelling but from the perspective guinevere except the guinevere is a changeling so she's not actually one of here and this was just such an odd book and despite all of its oddness it was so boring every point in the book where I or you had the opportunity to make it interesting she managed to make it boring by immediately removing uncertainty and mystery and uh that's really all there is to a story like this if you're going to be telling a story that's kind of all guinevere just kind of wandering around being a change like there wasn't really a romance in it to suck you in there wasn't really a mystery to suck you in the world was kind of like a flat boring simplified version of the Arthur legend so there wasn't really anything interesting in terms of the atmosphere to suck you in it was just so flat and boring and dull and I was shocked that kirsten white wrote it because I love her conqueror saga and the dark descend of Elizabeth Frankenstein so I expected her to be able to handle Arthur decently well it was so childish and boring I honestly don't know how you make a story like that boring but it was so boring next up I have nocturna by Maya Montaigne people had sort of pitched this to me or I'd heard it compared to the shades of magic series by vishwa but like Latinx shades of magic and um this book was so I'm gonna say that about all of them but it was like a shitty version of shades of magic but nothing even like internally made sense and the idea of having sort of like Latinx inspired magic system is like cool but it was executed so horribly where like Spanish was like the language of magic so like okay I guess that's kind of cool idea is that they also speak Spanish sometimes but it's like spanglish and I was like is spanish magic or no because like y'all are using Spanish as like spanglish slang but also using it for magic and then the character decisions literally did not make sense one of the character decisions was so stupid and so poorly explained and motivated that it's the kind of thing where I'm like I really how am I supposed to sympathize with you when you did a like such a horrible thing for such a stupid reason like how are you not the villain I don't sympathize with you and I'm like oh man you know that was a tough situation like no that was like the dumbest possible thing you could have done with horrible consequences you're the worst you're the absolutely the worst I hope you die it was so dumb and so badly written it was it wasn't just that it was like kind of childish which it was it just wasn't it didn't make sense internally and it was so frustrating to read oh I hated it next up I have dangerous alliance by jenny key cullen I think is her name I don't know how to say her name and this was purported to be this kind of like fun historical romance with nods to Jane Austen which I didn't have high expectations for it being like quality literature but I thought it'd be like a good time I thought I'd have some sort of like fun banter some historical vibes a cute romance some cute nods to Jane Austen that's really all I wanted out of it and it even failed on that level because the main character was so painfully unlikable the Jane Austen nods were so many and so hamfisted that they weren't cute fun little nods it was like Jane Austen you know yeah like I know it was really anachronistic to a point where it wasn't like something where I suspend my disbelief because this is a fun little quirky romance like it wasn't a fun romance so that the anachronisms were more painful and it was just above all it's it's it's worst crime as being boring as shit next up I have kings of the wild by Nicholas Ames I know I'm in the minority on this one but uh I found it to be disgusting kings of the wild is uh it was kind of pitched to me as joe abacromby meets spinal tap two things that I adore I love joe abacromby books and I love this is spinal tap and uh this is the worst of both worlds it is not really grimdwar fantasy but it is adult fantasy where it's the idea that it's a band of mercenaries but a band of mercenaries kind of like a rock band oh that's the that's why it's compared to spinal tap because the ideas sort of bands of mercenaries are kind of regarded almost as rock bands so it says over the hill band of mercenaries it's come back together for one last tour but it's like to rescue somebody so I went into it expecting and hoping for some subtle nods that it's kind of alluding to how this could possibly kind of sort of be compared to a rock band but I didn't expect it to be so overtly wink wink nudge nudge they're like a rock band and the humor in it was so gross so juvenile so lacking and subtlety like the jokes were like american pie it was like renaissance fair american pie where like these dudes are like in armor doing some dumb magic that makes no sense the character didn't really make sense and motivations didn't make sense making these really stupid juvenile sexist jokes the story was boring it wasn't compelling the rock band references were frequent and stupid I just I was so disgusted disappointed and bored the whole time I was reading it I was just like really really next up I have malice by John Gwynn which I expected to love I bought all four books in the series in one go because I expected to love it because I'd heard it had sort of viking e-vibes was this epic adult fantasy with like lots of adventure and violence and a cool cast of characters and I was like oh yeah like I'm gonna chew my way through that no problem that is gonna be my shit it was so childish there were so many characters thrown at you none of them really felt fleshed out or made sense so many things were shown to you from like the multiple perspectives but they're like in the same house in the same place at the same time and I was just like you don't need all these perspectives you really don't and it was it felt the world didn't feel like a world it felt like a cardboard cutout set of a world where we have this sort of wish fulfillment to slightly viking inspired hero on a hero's quest with the most generic derivative conversations of like the mentor talking to you about how to be a hero and what it means to face your fears and why you're so different and you fight like nobody else it was just so so that I was like it I guess if you're like inserting yourself in this and living out your dream I guess that could be kind of interesting and compelling but as a story it was boring as a hell and it wasn't it wasn't original or interesting in any way next up I have uprooted by Naomi Novik I really had to push myself to finish that book it was so boring everyone talks about how oh it's this like really cool dark magical forest and this sort of unlike woman character but the writing is so lush and the prose is so purple and it's got these like slavic vibes and I was like oh yeah give me that except the prose I found to be really quite dull really flat and boring and simple except for when the magic was described and then all of a sudden it got purple or shit because the magic made no sense so it felt like it was kind of like you know when essays get really long when you don't know the subject matter but you're trying to get a passing grade that's how the magic was written like it was just like lots and lots of words so that the reader would be like magic but it's just a lot of words the magic made no sense even for a soft magic system the main character didn't really have a personality and what personality he didn't have was not compelling interesting or more sympathetic the romance was kind of yikes because the main the dude that's like the romantic lead or hero or interest he was this like horrible grumpy kind of abusive character that that behavior is never questioned it's never explained it's never changed it's not that like you find out some like some some mitigating factor or that he sees the error of his ways or like he was somehow mistaken and that's why he was behaving that way but that misunderstanding is result no like he is that horrible grumpy thing and that's who she falls in love with and I was like what what I was so so boring I had I struggled to push myself to finish that freaking book oh no next up I have deadly education by Naomi Novik I read two Naomi Novik books this year both were terrible and I intend to read Spinning Silver for some fucking reason deadly education had all the opposite problems of uprooted I had too much royal building too much magic building too much explanation in fact the entire book was just one giant explanation for how this bonkers school and magic were supposed to work which honestly doesn't make a whole lot of sense like there's so many rules and so many things and so many deadly circumstances that when you actually it's like we were told about each individual leaf on each individual tree but when we look at the wood this wood does not work as a cohesive whole you cannot have this forest function that's an odd analogy considering uprooted has an actual forest basically trying to say that she missed the wood for the trees in deadly education the main character isn't a character she's a vehicle for delivering exposition and she's not likable what little character she does have the deadly school makes zero sense and it doesn't feel deadly or dangerous or suspenseful because everything is deadly so when you paint everything black doesn't really stand out does it and yeah it's just bad boring and bad and my number one worst book of the year was Daring in the Duke by Sarah McLean this is a book that Amanda picked for her buddy Reed so I'm sorry Amanda but I hated it like burn it with fire oh that's when the worst books have ever read in my life it was a bodice rip or what I knew going into it which is fine but the characters like didn't make any sense their choices make no sense the world makes no sense they were horrible it was horrible I kept like every few pages I kept going like really really that's so dramatic for no reason and the most painful thing about it was that it's it's taking the like miscommunication thing that drives the plot of so many romances which I don't really like romance often because I hate that but it's this it was turned up to 11 it wasn't even that they kept failing to have the opportunity to explain themselves and to resolve this misunderstanding they had opportunities galore like so many opportunities where they were one on one and they could explain themselves and completely resolve this misunderstanding that carries on throughout the entire plot of this book if you can call it a plot and they just don't take the opportunity to explain themselves they think about it if only she knew this thing then you know she might understand well she's standing right in front of you bro and there's no one else around now would be the time but nope we're just gonna think about how only she knew only there was a way that I could communicate to her like with my words or something oh man they deserve each other those two ninkum poops and there's this like weirdly like completely absurd feminist plot that wasn't a fun feminist plot it can be unbelievable as long as it's kind of like fun or believable within its own internal logic and it wasn't it was stupid it was so stupid and it was so ham-fisted it was so hashtag feminist she's running around wearing pants and being a fighter and like owns her own gambling then it was just like so extra I feel like part of what makes a feminist character compelling in a historical time period is how much they kind of have to fight to carve out even their own small space and she carved out basically a massive empire for herself and all of her ladies to the point where I was like so you like rule the world it's not really feminist when it seems just so doggone easy it's kind of it's a lot more feminist when women in historical time periods have to fight and have to sacrifice in order to carve out some piece of independence they she sacrificed nothing she has her own like empire of gambling and iniquity and he's a complete psychopath honestly even his explanation for why he did the things he did I was like those are also like I know you keep thinking to yourself you wish she knew and you could tell her but you're choosing not to but also if she knew like I'm not sure that your explanation is actually mitigating in any way because you're still cuckoo those are not okay things to have done I don't those are not good reasons to have done those things so the book was one giant massive fucking yikes so those are my worst books of the year let me know the comments down below if you've read any of these books if you felt the way that I did upon them if you felt the opposite if these are in fact your favorite books of the year let me know all the things I post videos on Saturdays other random times as well but definitely Saturdays so like and subscribe and I'll see you when I see you bye