My Top 10 Most Disappointing Reads of 2018

Last year I did a yearly wrap-up on some of my favorite romance novels that I read in 2017. (I know, I know - me and everyone else.) But when you're passionate about books, there's nothing that gives you the warm fuzzies like thinking back on the books that gave you all the feels.

This year, I'm going to mix it up a bit and talk about some of my biggest disappointments of 2018*. At the risk of being a Negative Nelly, I also think it's important for book bloggers to talk about why books didn't work for them - especially since fans and sometimes even publishers can be not so gracious or nice about negative feedback. I am always 100% honest about my thoughts and feelings about what I read and will sit on a review for a few days if I'm not completely sure about how I feel about it, because I value honesty and transparency so much in my reviews.

So for that reason, I'm going to talk about some of the books that were highly anticipated - by me, by others, or both - and talk about why they didn't work for me, personally. Maybe they'll work for you, maybe they won't. Either way, I'm about to take the roast out of the oven - and it's coming out hot.

*Unlike last year's post, these are all going to be 2018 publications so I seem at least somewhat relevant. -wink-

10. THE PROTEGE by Brianna Hale
My Goodreads review: [⭐️]
My blog review: [⭐️]

Genre: Erotica/Daddy kink

THE PROTEGE is a book that I was hotly anticipating as soon as I caught word of it. I am an ex-musician, and I'm a big fan of romance and erotica. The idea of an angst-packed darkly erotic romance of two star-crossed lovers sounded, um, amazing. Also, I loved her two other books, SOFT LIMITS and MIDNIGHT HUNTER, and gave them both five stars. Sadly, I was not a fan. I didn't like the sex scenes or the hero, who seemed incredibly skeevy to me and gave off pedo vibes.

I haven't written off this author yet, because I think she's incredibly talented and her two previous books that I read were both super good, but man, THE PROTEGE really put a damper on my enthusiasm. I'm hoping her next books will land her back in my good graces - I want to like her!

9. PROVIDENCE by Caroline Kepnes
 My Goodreads review: [⭐️]
My blog review: [⭐️]

Genre: Thriller

This author's other book, YOU, is one of my favorite thrillers of all time. I recommend it to strangers because it's so good, and when I found out it was being made into a TV show, I was thrilled. PROVIDENCE, on the other hand, was a huge disappointment. Two-dimensional characters, slow plot, and a weird twist that kind of reminded me of Stephen King at his worst - all this combined led to a pretty unhappy reader! A lot of the reviewers who liked this book were saying, "Well, don't expect another YOU." I get that, but at the same time, can we get the same quality, please?

Definitely a solid candidate for what I call "the langoliers effect."

8. THE RAGING ONES by Krista and Becca Ritchie 
My Goodreads review: [⭐️]
My blog review: [⭐️]

Genre: YA/Science-fiction

As with the two previous books, THE RAGING ONES was another case of "man, your earlier stuff is great, but this latest thing you did is not my cup of tea at ALL." The Ritchie sisters normally write new adult smut, but it's the fun kind of smut that's well-written and addictive in a way that keeps you engrossed in the story. I was hoping for something similar when I found out they were writing a YA sci-fi story, envisioning something like THE HUNGER GAMES, only with more sex and edginess. Instead, I got something that was pretty nebulous and kind of felt like a half thought-out idea.

THE RAGING ONES reminded me of one of those weird old sci-fi books from the 70s, that had weird castes based on sexual mores and unexplained psychic powers. Maybe if Robert Heinlein is your thing, you'll like this book, but for me it was everything I don't like about the genre. Boo.

7. KINGDOM OF ASH by Sarah J. Maas
My Goodreads review: [⭐️]
My blog review: [⭐️]

Genre: New Adult/Fantasy

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't really expecting this to be good. I've read the entire series minus the bonus short stories and TOWER OF DAWN, mostly because people asked me to (sometimes I'll read things people suggest/request; apparently my Goodreads friends have it out for me LOL), but it was not a pleasant journey. Still, after committing myself to several thousand pages, I had hoped to find closure. Maybe the author would surprise me, the way her stans kept assuring me she would. Well, she did... sort of. She surprised me with how bad this book was. One of the characters I actually liked became problematic and sexist AF. The main character became a raging Mary Sue with god-like powers. Everyone ended up paired off and/or pregnant, even if there was no indication that they would be in previous books. It felt like the gross fanfiction I read as a teenager, in between the next release of Animorphs or Confessions of Georgia Nicolson. It was, to be clear, a disappointment.

6. CATWOMAN: SOULSTEALER by Sarah J. Maas
My Goodreads review: [⭐️]
My blog review: [⭐️]

Genre: YA/Science-fiction

I feel kind of bad for putting SJM on this list twice, but that's what she gets for doing me dirty two times this year. I actually really wanted this one to be good. I'm a fan of Batman comics and movies, even at their cheesiest. I tell people that Batman & Robin is my favorite Batman movie, and it honestly is. I love the cheese. I love the Batsuit with the bat nipples. I love how Poison Ivy is so over the top and ridiculous in that movie. She owns it, she slays it. Trust me, I have 100 arguments for why it's good. SJM is so cheesy that I honestly thought her style might work with Batman, if she went for the B&R "we do what we want with Batman and it's going to have lasers and Bat-credit cards and fifteen million jokes about ice!" route. Instead, I got... well, basically, I got THRONE OF GLASS: CATWOMAN EDITION. She basically rewrote Celaena as Selena, made her super annoying, gave her a backstory where she was used and abused by men, wrote her a privileged love interest of color (who was bloody rich, so oppression/inequality wouldn't be an issue), and had her throw around her skinny aerobecized butt like she thought she INVENTED bravado.

Reading this book made me angry in a way that the THRONE OF GLASS series didn't, because I was really, really hoping that this would be good or self-satirical or something other than it was, which was bad. Just... bad. I didn't like anything about this book. I thought it was awful. And this is coming from someone who thought George Clooney slayed as the Dark Knight. I rest my Bat-case.

5. A THOUSAND PERFECT NOTES by C.G. Drews
My Goodreads review: [⭐️]
My blog review: [⭐️]

Genre: YA/Contemporary

There are few things that annoy me more than being talked down to, and that's kind of how I feel when I read books by authors like Maggie Stiefvater or Rainbow Rowell or C.G. Drews. It's like they don't trust the readers enough to come to conclusions about anything by themselves and feel the need to explain everything to the reader, as preciously as possible. I could not stand the writing in this book. It was like the literary equivalent of sandpaper to me: abrasive and unpleasant. I guess she's actually a pretty popular YA blogger, so it seems like she should have a pretty loaded toolbox of what to do and what not to do in YA, but this felt very derivative. The abusive mother is a horrible stereotype with no dimension. The two main characters are awful. The hero is a sad emo trash baby (found that in a Star Wars meme and loved it) and the heroine is a manic pixie dream girl whose sole purpose in the narrative is to make him less trash baby-like and give him courage to save himself.

Thinking back on my reading now, I think this might have worked for me if I was fourteen or fifteen, when "telling instead of showing" didn't bother me as much and I was willing to suspend my disbelief about ridiculous cartloads of angst if it meant drama and feels. But now? Pass. Hard pass.

4. THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL by Maurene Goo
My Goodreads review: [⭐️]
My blog review: [⭐️]

Genre: YA/Contemporary

This is one of two books on the list that I couldn't finish. I wanted to like this so bad. Feminism. Pranks. Heroine of color. Food trucks. There was nothing in that blurb I didn't like. But when I started reading the book, I instantly wanted to throw it at the wall. The heroine in this book is one of the nastiest, most unlikable characters I've ever encountered in fiction who wasn't meant to be the villain. In any other book, she would be the villain, because she was such a bitch. She had nothing nice to say about anyone, and it was clear her hatefulness was supposed to be endearing. How about no.

3. FIRE & BLOOD by George R.R. Martin
My Goodreads review: [⭐️]
My blog review: [⭐️]

Genre: Fantasy...sort of

This is the other book I didn't finish on the list. Does the idea of reading a 600+ page book about the made-up history of the made-up rulers of a made-up country intrigue you? Did you like J.R.R. Tolkien's THE SILMARILLION? If you answered yes to both those questions, maybe you'll like this book. Me, I only heard "Targaryen" and was envisioning a bad-ass novel of all their exploits and scandals. Instead, I got this dry-ass tome that was making out as if it was going to "teach" me Westerosian History 101. I was very disappointed and angry with this book, and looking at the reviews for this, it seems like a lot of his fans are, too. Honestly, I can't say I blame them.

2. GIRLS OF PAPER AND FIRE by Natasha Ngan
My Goodreads review: [⭐️]
My blog review: [⭐️]

Genre: YA/Fantasy

This book. This book. As soon as I heard about this book on Book Twitter, I was beside myself. It sounded amazing. A lesbian love story set in a fantasy world based off Malaysia where two girls are taken as concubines in a demon king's court? I had visions of InuYasha, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Annie on My Mind combined. I thought to myself, "No way can a female friendship-slash-love story set in Asia with demons be anything but good." Well, that appeared to be a challenge to the book gods, or the fates, or whoever, because they sure showed me. The writing was totally wooden, the "love" was totally insta and if this was a hetero romance people would be screaming from the rooftops about how problematic it was and how possessive and creepy the heroine was towards her love interest. The premise was really promising but the payoff was really disappointing - for me, at least. Others seemed to like it, which seems to be a running theme this year because I give you...

1. CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE by Tomi Adeyemi
My Goodreads review: [⭐️]
My blog review: [⭐️]

Genre: YA/Fantasy

I was so disappointed by this book that I wanted to cry in anger. I had heard NOTHING but good things about Children of Blood and Bone. Like GIRLS OF PAPER AND FIRE, it was YA fantasy set in a non-Western universe, filled with people of color. CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE was supposed to be set in a fantasy world inspired by Nigeria and with a magic system inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender. It sounded so great, I couldn't wait to read it. Then I picked it up and found... bad writing, dull plot, ridiculous and instantaneous love story, and characters whose narrative voices all sounded indistinguishable from one another, to the point that I had to keep checking back to see who was talking or else I'd forget. It was so bad. I honestly don't get the hype for this book, and others seem to feel the same way because this is my most popular review on my Goodreads account (and one of the top 3 most popular reviews on the book's page, last time I checked). I'm sad that my most popular review is a negative one, and sorrier still that I couldn't endorse this book that promised to be such a game-changer for a genre that is filled with overwhelmingly white (and straight) characters, but I'm not going to write a positive review for a book I hated. And I did hate this book, I'm sorry to say. I hated that it was such a crushing disappointment when I wanted badly to love it.

So those are my top ten biggest disappointments that were published in 2018. YMMV with regard to how you felt about these books, and if you haven't read them yet and still have doubts, I'd recommend downloading a Kindle sample to see if it's worth going through the purchase. One person's trash is another person's treasure, as they say, and lord knows that I read more than my fair share of what other people would call trash.

What were your biggest disappointments of 2018?