Worst 13 Reads of 2015

Last week I posted my top reads of last year, so of course, I’m going to post the books I disliked. Again, these are in no particular order, except for the last book, which I have dubbed the worst book I read all year. Onward!

Repeat by Neal Pollack

I thought I’d find a story about a man repeating the first 40 years of his life intriguing, but I never connected with the main character and I was mostly bored.

Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg

The cover is gorgeous and the premise of magicians specializing in elements like paper, glass, metal, etc. was intriguing. But there were too many YA tropes and I soon tired of the main character describing her hair and clothing.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

I was craving some YA sci-f and that’s certainly what this is…yet it ended up feeling more like The Hunger Games and Percy Jackson had a baby…who just happened to live on Mars.

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

I decided to give Brown a second chance and read the sequel…but nothing drew me into this story. And there were so many bad analogies and similes (like in the first book) that I thought I would lose my mind. “He’s built like a squat block of dirty ice carved by a rusted blade.” Really!?

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

Mostly I bought this book because of the way it was designed. I totally didn’t understand what was going on and I think perhaps Murakami’s work is not for me (after a failure to enjoy and understand 1Q84). It’s still a cool book to look at though.

The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl

This book wasn’t terrible and I liked the idea of book hunters going after Robert Louis Stevenson’s last manuscript, but nothing really held my interest – not the characters or the pacing or the plot.

Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev

This tale is about a girl who lives in a magical theater, where characters from all sorts of plays come to life. When I picked it up, I thought it was middle grade, but it turned out to be YA and everything fell apart from there. It seemed too silly to be a true YA and yet had random racy parts that weren’t suitable for middle grade.

Footsteps in the Sky by Greg Keyes

Mostly I didn’t understand what was going on in this book and really couldn’t picture the world or characters. Because I was so lost, I grew bored and generally stopped caring about anything that happened.

Solarversia by Tony Downton

This was a bad mash-up of World of Warcraft and Ready Player One.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The protagonist wanted me to pity his circumstances yet suffered from a case of I-can-do-anything-better-than-anyone-else-on-my-first-try syndrome. He may be an unreliable narrator, but after 100000000 pages (okay, I might be exaggerating), I’d had enough of his shit.

Children of the Comet by Donald Moffit

There was just too much science jargon for me to really connect with this book.

Greyglass by Tanith Lee

As much as it pains me to say, my favorite author disappointed me with this book. I had no real idea of what was going on and I didn’t know what I was supposed to take away from the book. Also, it has the ugliest cover in the history of ever.

And now, for the worst book I read all year:

Lumiere by Jacqueline Garlick

Oh my gourd, this book. My review is mostly a rant and it’s hard to stay coherent when I talk about this book. In fact, so many things annoy me about this book that I still get ranty when I think about it. It might even make a  lifetime list of worst books I’ve read. My biggest issue is that Garlick made up the rules as she went in order to suit each ridiculous situation she created. There were no solid rules to the universe or the magic system she drummed up. She also attempted a relationship between the beautiful heroine and an “unconventional” hero but rather than appreciate that I was annoyed at their randomly generated insta-love. Also, the characters names were completely ridiculous – Eyelet, Urlick and Professor Smrt?! Okay, I can’t talk about this anymore because I’ll just rant forever.

*cover images from goodreads