So glad you posted this... If I had seen "Cartographers" in a store I might very well have purchased it thinking, "Yes! Map makers! History and adventure awaits!" Whew, bullet dodged. 👍
Man, you make me feel pretty good about my reading choices last year. I didn't read a single one of these. And only two of them were even on my radar at all. EotV just sounded like something I would loathe so I stayed far far away. And Babel I actually wanted to read before I saw a bunch of reviews that were luke warm on it at most.
Thanks for being our guinnea pig and helping us weed out the TBR a bit, lol. I feel you so hard on The Cartographers btw, that was just one big mess. And I am so sad to hear that Daughter of Redwinter didn't hit the mark for you, because it sounded SO cool. Also, your liveshow of EotV was definitely one of the highlights of my booktube watching in 2022, hope all that ranting was cathartic hahahah. Great video 🤩
This video just makes me want to read some of these just to see how bad they are, although I was planning on reading Empire of the Vampire anyway as I loved the Nevernight Chronicles
what you said about the cartographers about the author being wrong about them being cartographers is so funny bc that's one of the main issues I have with many reviews of Babel that say its about linguistics bc I haven't read it but I'm pretty sure it deals with translation and not linguistics which are two very different areas of language study
While I didn’t like Babel it does deal a bit in linguistics because the students studying the translation magic also study the etymology, history, etc. of the languages they are using in the translation in order to suss out every possible meaning and usage
Your bad book lists are always so fun to listen too, I get all the high points without the pain of having to read though the whole book :D I had mixed feelings on Blackwing but the world was so interesting, it was my first time reading a Lovecraftian fantasy and that part was awesome. Glad I kept reading because I liked the next two books a lot more. Shame his new book is bad, but it makes sense if it's actually his first. I'll skip “Daughter” and wait for his next book and your review of it :)
I do love the worldbuilding in Raven’s Mark and I also think he does a good job with characters, mostly the main character - whereas the characters in Daughter were not well done at all
Oh crap… I just started Babel this morning. 😅 hopefully it’s alright for me unfortunate it didn’t land for you. Definitely saved the rant video on it though lol. Great video
Language nerd here and it made my #1 book of the year! I TA'd for Linguistic Anthro in college and studied ~9 languages (5 or 6 academically), and have a lot of family history similar to what's brought up in Babel. I didn't care for The Poppy War series, but Babel... I've honestly never been hit so hard by a book. :)
re: critical acclaim for Norwegian Wood - it was published in 1987, and Murakami is still an active author, still writing, so it’s too soon for a critical reevaluation. I think Norwegian Wood’s popularity can be attributed in part to Boomer nostalgia. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the book will fall out of favor with the reading public in the future. But that is unlikely to happen while the author is still around, and the people who champion the work are still around. It is only in the last few years that people in publishing have noted the drop off in readership of certain celebrated authors published in the 40’s and 50’s. This is a decade, give or take, after the authors in question have passed on.
While there is some truth to that, there are plenty of books written authors who are still living that are being critically examined, interrogated, and condemned
I think with Babel, the format tricked people into thinking that it’s more researched that any other book with an informational component, which isn’t true. RF Kuang also seemed to assume that the less-common China element would make readers unable to apply what we already know about race and colonialism.
Here's my list Rhythm of war by Brandon Sanderson The war of two queens by Jennifer l armentrout Toll the hounds Reaper's gale From a Buick 8 by Stephen king The regulators by Stephen king Cell by Stephen king The bone orchard Husband material by alexis hall sequel to boyfriend material
Babel is not really about the Tower of Babel, it just uses the name Babel because it deals with language and translation - it’s about socia-economic revolution during the peak of British colonialism
The Book of Life is one of the worst books I have ever read. It's just the epitome of, like, unedited fan-fiction? The writing, the development, the pacing, setting things up, having any balance whatsoever, ridiculously over-powered/wish fulfillment author insert... It just fails on every metric I can think of. Lessons in Chemistry... The Maid... The Lost Apothecary... The Cartographers... Killers of a Certain Age... The Change... The Book Eaters... Sign Here... It's getting to the point where if I hear a book is going to be a BotM pick, my interest immediately drops. Kate Alice Marshall has so far been basically a 5 star author for me, but I saw her upcoming Adult debut is BotM and now I'm worried 😬
Got Empire of the Vampire as a gift so I was obligated to read it. Don't give people books you haven't read yourself (if you expect them to read it). Reading it was like having an angsty 13-yo screaming loser in your head for 800 pages.
@@LienesLibrary My brother-in-law from my youngest sister gave it to me. It would be an insult if I didn't read it. With friends it's different. I had to be very diplomatic to convince him not to give me anymore books. Socks or boxershorts are just fine.
I've yet to read Norwegian Wood. But my worst book of all time is 1Q84. I feel like if anyone tells me they love that book it's a big red flag for me. I completely agree with you about his depiction of woman. He writes like he's never spoken to a woman in his life. Also his descriptions of attractive woman who all seem to have child like bodies is extremely disturbing and gross wish fulfilment.
I DNF’d Norwegian Wood early on and it was clearly a good decision. I’m so tired of male authors writing wish fulfilment and female characters. It happens mainly in lit fic and thrillers. Some male authors just write women in such disgusting ways and it annoys me that these types of books get so much acclaim.
@@LienesLibrary I can understand that, there are some heavy topics involved, but the first book does Dark Academia well. Better than most of these other wannabies. Try it, you can always DNF it if it goes too far, and even if you hate it, at least it would make a great rant video😆
Age of consent in Japan is 13, btw. I think that frames Norwegian Wood in a different way. Also Murakami was/is trying to deliberaly be graphic when it comes to sex as part of his attempt at a 'new' style of literature in Japan. I don't like all that stuff in his books either, but I love everything else.
If it was just sex in the book I’d probably not be a fan but it wouldn’t bother me that much, it’s the way that every single description, interaction, thought, or reference to a female character so utterly fails to regard them as humans, as three-dimensional, as something more than a stereotype, an object of desire, or a plot device. That’s what’s so offensive about it.
As a Japanese person, I wish people stopped spreading this when it's really not true and gives harmful conceptions about Japan. 13 is the minimum age that a prefecture can set the age of consent to, but literally NONE of the prefectures set it that low, and it's usually 16-18 to be the age of consent. I'm also not sure about this claim about Murakami's graphic sex being a "new" style of literature in Japan? Plenty of his predecessors and contemporaries have explicit and graphic sex (ex. Murakami Ryu). Anyways, I agree with Liene and I detest Murakami's writing. Many female Japanese critics criticize his books for the same reasons Liene mentions. He writes his female characters terribly.
All I can say is that Omg 😮 wow 😮 you don’t hold back in this amazing and fantastic video love it 🥰 love you and your amazing channel please stay safe and enjoy your reading love your Aussie subscriber John ❤❤❤
My worst books of 2022 (no particular order): The Maid, Ogres, People We Meet on Vacation And shout out to a book that I technically gave 4 stars to but also absolutely hated and can't bring myself to finish the series: Ship of Magic. Writing? superb. Character work? excellent. But I resent the negative feelings the book gives me. I do not want to dwell in the pain with no cathartic release. And from what I know of Ship of Destiny (Kennit)? Yeah, _absolutely not._
@@LienesLibrary lol. My loathing for Kyle has not diminished even 1% in seven months! But knowing how things are handled in the finale? How the characters react to these events? I do not understand why everyone gives the series such glowing praise without caveats about some very questionable authorial decisions there.
Lessons in chemistry sounds as bad as that awful novel that was basically murder fetishist, er "true crime", podcaster but make it Victorian and have her constantly vomit 21st century feminist strawman talking points like the suffragettes didn't exist. Also for a pretty good book with an actual cartographer a map of salt and stars
i dnfed my first (and most likely) last haruki murakami this year bc of how weird and sexual the writing was. bear in mind the weird sexualisation is of a 17 year old girl. i don't get how ppl like him, i just dont
What I find weird at americans (and some brits), is the use of the word "offensive". If you are offended by anything, especially by another human's point of view, it is a big red flag. You can dislike it or have a different perception, but to get offended is a weird response. People have widely different sets of values, and if you are offended by anyone who sees society or humans different than you, your life will be a series of struggles and negative emotions. This is why the american society basically crumbled, because both sides ("Woke" and "Conservative") are offended by everything and can't accept the other's perception of reality and humans. In a normal society, diverse point of views are accepted as they are. Point of views.
Yeah its a weird trend. If someone thinks lesser of me cos I eat pork or something thats not halal for example, it would really not be productive for me to dwell on it. I think its much better just to keep doing me and the other person to keep doing them. But if you want to dwell on it and feel that makes you more fulfilled I guess keep doing you.
@@Cl0ckcl0ck it is not the character’s sexism that is in question, it is the author’s depiction of female characters - the main character can think lesser of women if that’s part of his character and arguably typical for the time period but it’s Murakami that validates those views by portraying female characters that vindicate those views, making them caricatures
@@ChischtofThrash4Life if you found out that someone wrote a book that makes it clear they think you are lesser because of something innate about you (race, gender, etc) and then that book is lauded as one of the greatest books of all time, making it clear that most people reading it at best aren’t bothered by that position and at worst agree with it, that is troubling
A reminder... I really believed that *everybody was dead* in Norwegian Wood. I believed the only way that the book could make sense is if EVERYBODY WAS ACTUALLY DEAD. Thank heavens I recommended Paper Menagerie to you or you might never read anything with me ever again 🥲
![WORST BOOKS OF 2022 [CC]](/img/1.gif)
So glad you posted this... If I had seen "Cartographers" in a store I might very well have purchased it thinking, "Yes! Map makers! History and adventure awaits!" Whew, bullet dodged. 👍
That was my reaction when I saw it as an option for BotM 😂
Man, you make me feel pretty good about my reading choices last year. I didn't read a single one of these. And only two of them were even on my radar at all. EotV just sounded like something I would loathe so I stayed far far away. And Babel I actually wanted to read before I saw a bunch of reviews that were luke warm on it at most.
Thanks for being our guinnea pig and helping us weed out the TBR a bit, lol.
I feel you so hard on The Cartographers btw, that was just one big mess. And I am so sad to hear that Daughter of Redwinter didn't hit the mark for you, because it sounded SO cool.
Also, your liveshow of EotV was definitely one of the highlights of my booktube watching in 2022, hope all that ranting was cathartic hahahah.
Great video 🤩
lol EotV, the gift that keeps of giving
This video just makes me want to read some of these just to see how bad they are, although I was planning on reading Empire of the Vampire anyway as I loved the Nevernight Chronicles
what you said about the cartographers about the author being wrong about them being cartographers is so funny bc that's one of the main issues I have with many reviews of Babel that say its about linguistics bc I haven't read it but I'm pretty sure it deals with translation and not linguistics which are two very different areas of language study
While I didn’t like Babel it does deal a bit in linguistics because the students studying the translation magic also study the etymology, history, etc. of the languages they are using in the translation in order to suss out every possible meaning and usage
@@LienesLibrary okay thank god, that was driving me crazy lol
Your bad book lists are always so fun to listen too, I get all the high points without the pain of having to read though the whole book :D
I had mixed feelings on Blackwing but the world was so interesting, it was my first time reading a Lovecraftian fantasy and that part was awesome. Glad I kept reading because I liked the next two books a lot more. Shame his new book is bad, but it makes sense if it's actually his first. I'll skip “Daughter” and wait for his next book and your review of it :)
I do love the worldbuilding in Raven’s Mark and I also think he does a good job with characters, mostly the main character - whereas the characters in Daughter were not well done at all
Oh crap… I just started Babel this morning. 😅 hopefully it’s alright for me unfortunate it didn’t land for you. Definitely saved the rant video on it though lol. Great video
As usual I’m in the minority hating it, hopefully you love it!
Language nerd here and it made my #1 book of the year!
I TA'd for Linguistic Anthro in college and studied ~9 languages (5 or 6 academically), and have a lot of family history similar to what's brought up in Babel.
I didn't care for The Poppy War series, but Babel... I've honestly never been hit so hard by a book. :)
Hello 👋 I’ve had around 13 DNFs book myself... I hope this year reading for us is better.. happy reading to u! 📚🎧
Here’s hoping!
Also how you feel about Norwegian wood is how I felt about Brazil by Ian mcewan
good list now i don't even have to waste my time with Babel
re: critical acclaim for Norwegian Wood - it was published in 1987, and Murakami is still an active author, still writing, so it’s too soon for a critical reevaluation. I think Norwegian Wood’s popularity can be attributed in part to Boomer nostalgia. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the book will fall out of favor with the reading public in the future. But that is unlikely to happen while the author is still around, and the people who champion the work are still around. It is only in the last few years that people in publishing have noted the drop off in readership of certain celebrated authors published in the 40’s and 50’s. This is a decade, give or take, after the authors in question have passed on.
While there is some truth to that, there are plenty of books written authors who are still living that are being critically examined, interrogated, and condemned
I think with Babel, the format tricked people into thinking that it’s more researched that any other book with an informational component, which isn’t true. RF Kuang also seemed to assume that the less-common China element would make readers unable to apply what we already know about race and colonialism.
This was absolutely epic. I'm still chuckling.
lol glad it amused 😋
Here's my list
Rhythm of war by Brandon Sanderson
The war of two queens by Jennifer l armentrout
Toll the hounds
Reaper's gale
From a Buick 8 by Stephen king
The regulators by Stephen king
Cell by Stephen king
The bone orchard
Husband material by alexis hall sequel to boyfriend material
I love a good descriptive rant.
If you like manga/manhwa then Tower of God is a version of Babel to consider. There’s even one season of anime for it.
Babel is not really about the Tower of Babel, it just uses the name Babel because it deals with language and translation - it’s about socia-economic revolution during the peak of British colonialism
Murakami prevailed! 🤣
The Book of Life is one of the worst books I have ever read. It's just the epitome of, like, unedited fan-fiction? The writing, the development, the pacing, setting things up, having any balance whatsoever, ridiculously over-powered/wish fulfillment author insert... It just fails on every metric I can think of.
Lessons in Chemistry... The Maid... The Lost Apothecary... The Cartographers... Killers of a Certain Age... The Change... The Book Eaters... Sign Here... It's getting to the point where if I hear a book is going to be a BotM pick, my interest immediately drops. Kate Alice Marshall has so far been basically a 5 star author for me, but I saw her upcoming Adult debut is BotM and now I'm worried 😬
Yeah I’ve tended to have best luck with BotM when I pick things that are not speculative, they aren’t good at choosing SFF
Got Empire of the Vampire as a gift so I was obligated to read it. Don't give people books you haven't read yourself (if you expect them to read it). Reading it was like having an angsty 13-yo screaming loser in your head for 800 pages.
I never feel obligated to read books that are gifted to me if I don’t want to lol
@@LienesLibrary My brother-in-law from my youngest sister gave it to me. It would be an insult if I didn't read it. With friends it's different. I had to be very diplomatic to convince him not to give me anymore books. Socks or boxershorts are just fine.
I forgot killing of kings was 2022 😂
I've yet to read Norwegian Wood. But my worst book of all time is 1Q84. I feel like if anyone tells me they love that book it's a big red flag for me. I completely agree with you about his depiction of woman. He writes like he's never spoken to a woman in his life. Also his descriptions of attractive woman who all seem to have child like bodies is extremely disturbing and gross wish fulfilment.
yeah, I'm never reading that...
Ed McDonald had a lot of shit going on in the past couple of years, so I'm not surprised the book didn't come out well.
Unfortunate if that’s what kept it from being as good as Raven’s Mark, I’d happily have waited longer for a better book
I DNF’d Norwegian Wood early on and it was clearly a good decision. I’m so tired of male authors writing wish fulfilment and female characters. It happens mainly in lit fic and thrillers. Some male authors just write women in such disgusting ways and it annoys me that these types of books get so much acclaim.
Agreed
Empire of the Vampire is offensively bad but I'm glad we got some good content out of it. Truth be told.
oui, merci!
happy to say i've read none of these
LOL! i looooove Empire of Vampire
To each their own 😂
The Magicians, is a good fantasy-dark academia.
I was originally interested in that one but I’ve heard things that have made me think I wouldn’t like it
@@LienesLibrary
I can understand that, there are some heavy topics involved, but the first book does Dark Academia well. Better than most of these other wannabies. Try it, you can always DNF it if it goes too far, and even if you hate it, at least it would make a great rant video😆
Age of consent in Japan is 13, btw. I think that frames Norwegian Wood in a different way. Also Murakami was/is trying to deliberaly be graphic when it comes to sex as part of his attempt at a 'new' style of literature in Japan. I don't like all that stuff in his books either, but I love everything else.
If it was just sex in the book I’d probably not be a fan but it wouldn’t bother me that much, it’s the way that every single description, interaction, thought, or reference to a female character so utterly fails to regard them as humans, as three-dimensional, as something more than a stereotype, an object of desire, or a plot device. That’s what’s so offensive about it.
As a Japanese person, I wish people stopped spreading this when it's really not true and gives harmful conceptions about Japan. 13 is the minimum age that a prefecture can set the age of consent to, but literally NONE of the prefectures set it that low, and it's usually 16-18 to be the age of consent.
I'm also not sure about this claim about Murakami's graphic sex being a "new" style of literature in Japan? Plenty of his predecessors and contemporaries have explicit and graphic sex (ex. Murakami Ryu).
Anyways, I agree with Liene and I detest Murakami's writing. Many female Japanese critics criticize his books for the same reasons Liene mentions. He writes his female characters terribly.
All I can say is that Omg 😮 wow 😮 you don’t hold back in this amazing and fantastic video love it 🥰 love you and your amazing channel please stay safe and enjoy your reading love your Aussie subscriber John ❤❤❤
Not surprised that you hated empire of the vampire not a fan of Jay's writing
My worst books of 2022 (no particular order):
The Maid, Ogres, People We Meet on Vacation
And shout out to a book that I technically gave 4 stars to but also absolutely hated and can't bring myself to finish the series: Ship of Magic.
Writing? superb. Character work? excellent. But I resent the negative feelings the book gives me. I do not want to dwell in the pain with no cathartic release. And from what I know of Ship of Destiny (Kennit)? Yeah, _absolutely not._
Oh no! I love Hobb but there are plenty of books out there, no reason to force yourself to read something that you find unpleasant
@@LienesLibrary lol. My loathing for Kyle has not diminished even 1% in seven months!
But knowing how things are handled in the finale? How the characters react to these events? I do not understand why everyone gives the series such glowing praise without caveats about some very questionable authorial decisions there.
Lessons in chemistry sounds as bad as that awful novel that was basically murder fetishist, er "true crime", podcaster but make it Victorian and have her constantly vomit 21st century feminist strawman talking points like the suffragettes didn't exist. Also for a pretty good book with an actual cartographer a map of salt and stars
Pretty much lol
I feel bad for you :D but I laugh anyways :D The cover of The Daughter of the Redwinter is gorgeous though. You should've stopped on the cover :D
such a gorgeous cover - the sequel looks great too
Not a murakami fan in general.
Yeah I’m not gonna be giving him another chance I don’t think
i dnfed my first (and most likely) last haruki murakami this year bc of how weird and sexual the writing was. bear in mind the weird sexualisation is of a 17 year old girl. i don't get how ppl like him, i just dont
Yeah I doubt I’ll ever read another Murakami 😬
What I find weird at americans (and some brits), is the use of the word "offensive". If you are offended by anything, especially by another human's point of view, it is a big red flag. You can dislike it or have a different perception, but to get offended is a weird response. People have widely different sets of values, and if you are offended by anyone who sees society or humans different than you, your life will be a series of struggles and negative emotions. This is why the american society basically crumbled, because both sides ("Woke" and "Conservative") are offended by everything and can't accept the other's perception of reality and humans. In a normal society, diverse point of views are accepted as they are. Point of views.
If someone’s “point of view” is that I am lesser because of my sex then yes, I feel it’s appropriate to be offended by that
@@LienesLibrary If Murikami had made a 1960's 17 yo Japanese boy an 2020 US feminist then the novel would have been a complete joke.
Yeah its a weird trend. If someone thinks lesser of me cos I eat pork or something thats not halal for example, it would really not be productive for me to dwell on it. I think its much better just to keep doing me and the other person to keep doing them. But if you want to dwell on it and feel that makes you more fulfilled I guess keep doing you.
@@Cl0ckcl0ck it is not the character’s sexism that is in question, it is the author’s depiction of female characters - the main character can think lesser of women if that’s part of his character and arguably typical for the time period but it’s Murakami that validates those views by portraying female characters that vindicate those views, making them caricatures
@@ChischtofThrash4Life if you found out that someone wrote a book that makes it clear they think you are lesser because of something innate about you (race, gender, etc) and then that book is lauded as one of the greatest books of all time, making it clear that most people reading it at best aren’t bothered by that position and at worst agree with it, that is troubling
A reminder... I really believed that *everybody was dead* in Norwegian Wood. I believed the only way that the book could make sense is if EVERYBODY WAS ACTUALLY DEAD.
Thank heavens I recommended Paper Menagerie to you or you might never read anything with me ever again 🥲
LOL I still question our friendship every time I think of NW