 Okay, who's ready to get negative? Hello my loves, welcome back to my channel. Today we're going to be roasting some books because we're going to be chatting about my worst books of 2022. That's fun. Okay, ready to... Yeah, we're going to roast some books. I'm ready to cause absolute havoc. Today we're going to be chatting about my top 10 worst books. I've ranked them, we have a definitive worst book of the year. You know, this is all my personal opinion. Different people love different books. I think that's wonderful. And listen, I try to always like shadow the boundary between giving you my honest opinion in a way that's entertaining for you and a way that's completely honest. I never want to like try and sugarcoat what I'm saying or my opinions because I just don't think then that's interesting for you to watch and I'm not being true to myself but also recognize that you know a human being wrote these books and they worked really hard on it and a lot of other people might love these. So these are my opinions. It's just an opinion. It's just an opinion. How do you know what's good for me? That's my opinion. I just want to say I only had one one star this whole year and it's a book that I technically DNF'd. Usually I mark books as DNF and don't count them towards the books I've read that year but this book I just felt like I'd suffered enough and I wanted to give it a one star rating and that was a Zen in the art of motorcycle maintenance but it won't be included in this list because I DNF'd it and I don't include books that I DNF'd. So these are all two stars which means I saw some semblance of you know it not being like low low low. So let's just get into it but I just want to pre-warn you like when I hate a book my mind's like we're leaving that in the past right? My mind's like you know when you like get rid of trauma in your brain like whenever I'm very sad I then don't remember that in my life but I don't like make me sad. Sometimes especially some of these books I read in like January quite a lot of these I read at the start of the year. We're gonna have to drive up some information because to be honest it's very very deep down. Okay coming in at number 10 is The King of Crows by Libba Bray. Now this was like close to not being on the list. It's number 10 there was a few others that could have edged it out because I think I had about 13 or 14 two stars this year but this one I just felt like it was such a disappointment for it being an end of a series which I'd really enjoyed the first two from. Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray the second in this Divinus series I gave five stars. Why did I have to think? This is the last in the series and it was just such a disappointing end to the series. Firstly it's huge. She's huge but she's so beautiful. She's a mammoth of course. It's so long. It's like 550 pages long but the font in these is very small. These are always pretty long but this did not need to be this long. It's like over 20 hours the audiobook 20-something hours. Libba edit. And it especially didn't need to be this long if it gave us basically no resolution. Basically this Divinus series is set in New York in the 1920s and Divinus are people who have like special abilities and it's kind of a group of friends who all have or most of them have like divine powers. There's kind of monsters of the week in each of the books. Do you know what I mean? Like when Buffy van Plessay have monster of the week and monster of the series. Same thing in this. Each of the previous books have like a monster that they're fighting but the King of Crows is kind of the overarching villain throughout the whole series and I just think well we could have done so much more with him. He was just kind of boring. He's like in his top hat and he's like killing people and whatever. I can't even remember what he's doing like oh he's so evil but like he didn't give me enough energy. He's kind of camp. He kind of gives me camp energy. His character could have just been amped up to 10. I mean there's so many like storylines for each of our different characters. There's relationships and stuff and it just felt like the Bebray was kind of more interested in shipping everyone off in pairs by the end of the book rather than actually giving us an interesting story and personal development. My favourite in the series is Lair of Dreams and in that we follow is it Henry and Ling. I'm so bad with names I forget everyone but I think it's Henry and Ling are the kind of two characters whose story we follow in that. They're forgotten in the third and fourth books like zero character development, zero interest, zero and zero and it makes me so angry. Yeah no I'm bothered. I'm bothered. I'm really bothered. But I still love Libra Bray's writing and I love the setting. I think it's very evocative so that's why it's not you know the worst. Coming in at number nine we had one that I read more recently and that is Belladonna by Edling Grace. This got pretty high in the like Goodreads Choice was in YA fantasy I think. It got like quite a lot of votes. I feel like that's just on lives from people who haven't read it because this isn't great. So in this we're following an orphan who has kind of been bounced around from caretaker to caretaker and all of her life she's been able to see death because she was supposed to die when she was a baby. Parents died at this like poisoning party that they were holding and she had been like fed by her mother and so she had poison in her body but she couldn't die and death met her and he was like what is that? It's very strange and so yeah since then she's been able to see death if she gets close to near death she can see him and she goes to this new family that she's being sent to and the woman of the house has recently died and she thinks that she can see the ghost of the woman and the woman's trying to tell her no I was murdered like there was some foul play here and it's also a romance well it's a love triangle which is part of the problem okay I'm not a big love triangle girlie especially if you're gonna give me love triangle give me like a real choice because it's between death and the stable boy you know and regardless of who she chooses at the end like irrelevant but like it's not really a fair match right? Suave death who's mysterious and like haunts her dreams and it's like all this tension and the stable boy it's just not really a fair competition okay it's not really a fair competition and I just gotta tell you I hate the writing in this I'm so sorry I hate the writing I don't think I'm gonna read Adeline Grace in the future because for me a lot of the books we're gonna see on this list is I had a problem with the writing and I just could not vibe it just felt so juvenile but there's like stuff happens in this book like the writing felt middle grade energy but the topic matters like new adult like there's some sexy scenes and I'm like you know I love middle grade when I read middle grade but this is the problem I have often like if a writing in YA feels too dumb down I just don't vibe right? As someone who was reading Twilight at age eight maybe I'm just built different maybe I'm being unfair and what I was reading when I was a young adult I preferred more mature YA or adult books so maybe I'm just being unfair but for me I don't feel like YA should just be like it feels like someone writing an adult story but tried to dumb down the writing and I was never intrigued the mystery didn't interest me I was bored as hell throughout coming in at number eight is a thriller and that is Shiver by Ali Reynolds so in this we're following a group of friends who were skiers they were like these amazing skiers in competitions and I think one of like I can't even remember girl this was early they okay yeah yeah 10 years ago there was a disappearance of one of them they've come back to this deserted lodge that used to be at and they're trying to figure out what happened and there's like someone leaving notes accusing them like you know what happened you know he'll be whatever there again I just thought this wasn't written amazing it felt like someone who wanted to write a book about how great skiing is the author used to be a skier is that right and I feel like she just wanted to tell us how great skiing is and just thought out this kind of thriller murdery plot it's a conspiracy theory that I'm actually interested in but I remember just feeling really really bored and the reveal the ending for me is a little bit you know I wouldn't call it problematic but I feel like it gets a bit close I know it just made me feel a bit uncomfortable I was bored as hell throughout the characters weren't interesting the character dynamics weren't interesting usually I love an isolated murder mystery disappearance kind of thing but I was just bored do out you know and it made me want to read one by one because one by one is snowy mystery great and this is not that but before we get any further into the video I want a moment of positivity and to thank the sponsor of today's video which is Skillshare so I have loved using Skillshare for many many years I've spoken about them a lot on my channel I've been using them since I was probably 14 throughout the years I've used it to expand my creativity enhance my productivity and just to improve my life in general if you want to develop a new skill or hobby Skillshare is the perfect place to start from photography to illustration to graphic design creative writing and so much more you can find classes that will match your goals and interests there's new premium classes launched every week so there's always something new to discover and to learn now is honestly the perfect time to invest in yourself coming up to the new year Skillshare will really give you a place and a space to invest in yourself and invest in your hobbies I have really been enjoying participating in the class designing the life you want for exercises for clarity and motivation by Michelle B who is a youtuber that I've been subscribed to for many years so I'm super excited to see her with an original over on Skillshare I've really struggled this year with prioritizing what is important in my life and building the life that I want I've really struggled you know I kind of feel like I have all these abstract ideas of what is important to me and what I kind of want to implement in my life but I've really struggled to actually put that into practice and I feel like this class is really helping me to implement that coming into the new year it has exercises like applying the AT20 principle to your happiness and imagining your perfect day and it's been really helping me to think about what is realistic but what I can absolutely achieve this coming year in terms of with my lifestyle so I have a super exciting deal for you the first a thousand people to click the link down below we'll get a one month free trial of Skillshare I have loved using Skillshare for so many years I cannot recommend them enough so definitely go check them out down below using my link next at number seven is one that I read incredibly recently this was actually the first spoiler alert if you haven't seen it yet it was the first book I wrapped in wrapped up this year I unwrapped do I say wrapped unwrapped in wrapped up this year so it was like the second to last book that I read and it was the rest of the stock by Erica Waters I was surprised actually that this has been this high up on the list maybe it's this high up on this because I'm still like upset with it like I'm still angry at this because I was so excited for this this is about basically a competition is being held to find the bones or a body of a serial killer who was kind of terrorized this land and we're following three girls one who was that serial killer's almost his final victim one who is a true crime fan and one who is a psychology student they're like investigating everyone and it's being held by like a true crime podcast this so there's a lot of discussions around kind of true crime culture and fandom and like how it's problematic but also understanding why some people are into it you know maybe how for some women like reading about these stories or hearing about these stories helps them feel better prepared for like how dangerous it is to be a woman there's kind of those discussions but also how harmful you know being a fan of true crime is how it can kind of glorify serial killers etc so that was the kind of good thing about this right I hate the writing of this I've been so excited to read other Erica Waters like Ghostwood song River has teeth I think and yeah I hate the writing of this I'm entitled to my opinion the characters are like they each have like one personality like one is like possessive one is like a daredevil one is what I mean they all have these features to them they are written to a thousand these are not real people these are like cartoon characters it felt like and as the book went on it just like everything that was happening just felt so unrealistic and I just couldn't get into it and also the ending of this you know for a book that has had such a good discussion around true crime culture and serial killers and all this stuff I feel like the ending kind of like I thought I did something but actually it kind of devalued the arguments that we've been having throughout the book which had been the highlight for me and I just like didn't connect to the characters didn't connect to the writing had to force myself through it so it's a sad one because this was one of the books I was in wrapped up for me I was most excited to read and we didn't end up loving it so then at number six we have another one that I've read really recently and that is All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers so this is written by actually a host of a true crime podcast and it's such a come I can't be asked to tell you this I just read this in my reading the Goodreads top 10 for the mystery thriller category in the Goodreads Choice Awards and I would not have picked this up otherwise so it's your fault everyone who voted for it not everyone has to write a book just because you can doesn't mean you have to especially if you're going to rip off the story of Jombane Ramsey and be like uh never heard of her never heard of Jombane Ramsey whilst like every detail is Jombane Ramsey's story so there's kind of a uh cold case I guess that happened many years ago in this town where a girl was abducted from her home and eventually murdered she was a dancer you know the whole narrative around it with her parents was like oh you dressed her up too much a window was shattered in the basement when I tell you Jombane Ramsey I'm telling you it's like ridiculous and it's like did the brother do it did the mum do you mean it's like okay we get it and in the present day a kind of girl who was well a woman now who was friends with the girl and they were children is coming back and trying to investigate it and there's like other murders happening a little bit further afield and she believes they're all connected the rioting in this was not good I said in my vlog and I stand by this okay I'm not gonna be mean I'm just gonna be honest it felt like you know when you I feel like they're going around a lot there's awful like AI pictures that people make of themselves but like there's like four eyelids and like everything like it's just not okay it's not good because we shouldn't we should be like paying real artists etc we don't get into the whole discussion but anyways it feels like this is a book written by AI like it consumed it was given like the 500 most popular thrillers of the past five years and it consumed them all and it regurgitated something it didn't feel original like the ending was really bad again a lot of these are to do with the ending you'll notice because is it a coincidence is it a coincidence I ask you is it a coincidence because I feel like an ending is a bit of a stickler for me like I've invested all this time in you and then you give me that it had like a very open ending which I believe was originally the original ending because it felt like she's like you know as someone who's not an author traditionally she's a true crime podcaster she wrote the ending she thought wow people you know I really did something there and then the arcs went out and people were like you can't just end it like that and then there's this weird epilogue then after that that gives us answers whenever I believe she just wanted an open ending like have it you know but yeah again the writing for me in this just wasn't great I was incredibly bored throughout so there it is then I believe on number five we have one that I actually unhauled I didn't realise I unhauled this this is the first book I read this year and it is midnight in everwood but I cannot remember the author's name I have not thought about this book in a long time this is the first book I read this year and I believe wholeheartedly this is why I had bad vibes the first half of the year the first half of the year if you don't know for me was just like I was not happy nothing in my life was going well and I was like not reading whatever would you know I just believe this this book's full because before this I always read a five star book at the start of the year like I always pick a book I'm sure I'm gonna give five stars and like it gives me good vibes the start of the year this year we're gonna like go on a mission at the start of January to like make sure the first book I read is like at least a four this is like oh what is it nutcracker retelling I don't even know I cannot remember anything as set in Victorian times yeah uh and she goes into this like magical snow fairy world our protagonist from our world into this like fantastical world where there's like death and there's an evil king and like she has to be a dancer for the court and I prefer really not to not to speak I hated this again first book I read this year so it's been a long time it's been almost a year since I read it but I read it I remember for my patron book club and like we all thought oh girl it's not good there was a romance in this that I didn't care about the writing was honestly just confusing I just felt very confused about this whole book which for me is more annoying than it being shit right for example I gave survive the night two stars this year which I kind of feel like was a last year book but probably read that this year that is not on this list because I had a fun time reading it because like it was bad but like it was like I loved to hate it you know whereas this book I was lost I was like what is happening like what generally what is happening I could understand like you'd have like a page description on clothing or like food or whatever and I'm like can we speed things up a little bit please like that's all I have to say for this book a terrible description Megan but I generally have erased it from my brain then we have a number four The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna I have this gorgeous edition and I'm very sad about it okay I'm really sad about it there's another one I read very early on in the year good luck Megan talking about this we have these girls who have these powers and they're really seen as bad and then they are recruited though to serve in an army for the kingdom to defeat these animals that exist okay that's what you're getting from me this was one again where I just hated the writing and it felt very simple very dumbed down again but again this one deals with heavy heavy topics look up the trigger warnings for this if you're interested in it because I can't remember them all from my head and I don't want to get them wrong because again I read this in maybe like February time but I think there's essay violence you know so much stuff going on but yeah it often irritates me when a book reads really young in terms of its writing style but has some of the kind of most mature topics you can possibly get in YA and I'm like then well who is this for because I wouldn't think that like a 12 year old should read this you know what I mean the ending of this irritated me I just this one made me really sad because this was one that I really expected to love I know that the author of this is like a screenplay author as well I would say a pro of it is that it read very vividly like everything was like these grand designs and sets but it did feel I think the flip side of that is that it felt more like a movie player and that it didn't have the depth that you need from a book because you're not seeing it acted before you everything needs to be conveyed or described in words and I didn't feel like that necessarily happened then coming in at number three oh god rupture number three we have one of the wildest books I read this year and it is a disassembly of Dorian Durand by Ryan Collett ask me to describe this I'm not sure if I I don't remember I don't remember love I don't remember at all I really don't because I know full time ago okay so our main character sees a hit and run happen I think like a murder like a horrific accident happened outside her flat there's a police want to come talk to her she did nothing wrong right she just witnessed this happening the police want to come talk to her she's like well I'm just gonna run away I'm just gonna like run away from this officer so it's her gallivanting around this world with this weird like rich woman who like takes her under her wing and the police officer is like chasing after them around the world and then she's just like I'm just not gonna talk to them I'm just gonna talk to them and the ending of this I don't even know what to tell you I I still haven't figured out what happened the ending is one of the strangest ending I wish I could tell you I wish I could spoil this book for you I won't do that I changed my mind okay just skip ahead like I'm gonna put big spoilers on the screen okay skip ahead because I have to tell you this I have to just a piece of information but put no skip ahead if you don't want to know violet cascade the rich woman like her body starts like breaking apart she's like running down this hill and like the leg like her left leg detached itself it broke off slowly like her road's diverging like what is happening like her body and muscles just start like breaking apart and I'm like what and then there's like this little like piece of flesh left and Doreen swallows it whole down her throat like a small boiled egg and then like that's the ending it just ends I generally don't know what this book is and what it's trying to do all power to the author for trying to write something different but like is everything okay the second worst book that I read this year so this one I'll clarify why it's this on the list I'm putting rock paper scissors by Alice Feeney now this one is following a husband and wife who are having marital issues the husband has face blindness and they go away and they're trying to work on their relationship and we also have like letters the wife wrote to her husband every year I hate how face blindness is used in this book I really didn't like it I didn't like Alice Feeney's writing it's so like like over the top dramatic every like end of chapter every moment she'd be like you know when she writes a line and then she like looks at herself in the mirror she's like and I just felt like this was so predictable I predicted what was happening very early on the ending is absolutely diabolical but this is also this high I think I put it up this high to like vent some of my frustration at Daisy Darker which I just read and absolutely hated by DNF did so it can't go on this list but like Alice Feeney is my enemy apparently just don't buy with her I'm never reading another book from her unless I have to for a video unless I have no choice other than that we are cut the cord dead ass like I'm like we're done yeah yeah this was predictable irritating upsetting emotion and yeah I really didn't like how face blindness was used in this book because like a plot twist it's like you know how the plot twists happen like I just was like oh could see that coming a mile off as soon as you decided to use this in your plot you know and then finally the worst book that I've read this year my goodness I feel terrible about this one because it was like a debut author and I feel bad maybe we were actually to put Alice Feeney at the top because I feel like I'm punching up but I don't necessarily feel like that with this but I chose theatre of marvels by Leanne Dilsworth I was so excited for this right it's like a historical set in London murder mystery not murder mystery I thought it was murder mystery I was wrong and we're following our main character something that I did think was interesting is that there was discussions about how she is black I think or mixed race I can't remember which of those she is but she performs as like an African queen in this circus which she isn't she was born in the UK but that's kind of her performance and I did like the discussions around that and around identity and stuff but more of this book is around god I'm gonna do a terrible job of explaining this to you a lot of the book is about how she's like dating this really rich man and like how she fits into society but it was just like a lot of balls it was a lot about like rich men dynamics between rich men rather than the actual like interesting stuff about this woman that she's trying to save who she believes the circus owner has kind of like captured for me the writing was the biggest part of this I thought I I didn't think the writing was very good again it was very like simplistic over descriptive it felt like I don't want to be mean but like sometimes I read a book and I'm like it no I can't say that that's really mean I really can't say do you want me to be honest okay it reminds me of like what my writing was like when I wrote in like year five or year six and you'd be so over descriptive and just so like surface level description and like okay I didn't feel like the mystery was very interesting the ending was incredibly annoying what happened this whole scene on these boats and people leaving England and I really felt like this plot was really for me and then didn't love it so there we have it that is my top 10 worst books of 2022 let me know what you thought of any of these which you read I would love to know your opinions on any of these whether you love them please let me know if you love them and yeah again make sure to check out our skill share down below I'll leave a link down below if you got to the end of the video put the angry face emoji because I'm angry because I wanted to love all of these and yet I didn't so put the angry face emoji if you got to the end thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another video bye