Pretty good reading year for me, although I wasn't wild about (1) How to Lose the Time War. I thought that it was intentionally abstruse too often with its hints as to a history some people - maybe not you or me tho - will surely recognize. Also I read on Kindle a short Patterson novel, who usually I enjoy, titled (2) Alex Cross Must Die. Very little of the characteristics that make Detective Dr. Cross a great hero - like a modern day Sherlock Holmes - were visible and the side characters were not able to carry the story without him IMHO. And while technically Didion's (3) White Album was a bit of a disappointment to me, it was easily recognizable as a great book.
Babel while reaching for great and important topics, fumbled it for me. I’m a linguistics student and a women working in STEM so this was right up my alley. While it was not horrendous and the message is very important, it could have been 200 pages shorter. Yet despite not being shorter I felt like besides the main character, there really wasn’t any character development and then the ending was rather dissatisfying to me. It felt like at times she was beating you over the head with her point, which again I agree with her! But I also want to have the author have faith in my ability to pick up on subtext
The Memory of Animals!! From my Goodreads review: “I’m not mad I read this?…I just found the ending so unsatisfying it led me to revisit the whole book and my thoughts and the things that initially piqued my interest started collapsing…I’m trying to decide if it’s good and I just don’t get it or if people are so distracted by the prose that they are ignoring that it’s not good.”
@@chanelhutchison4813 I felt the same about Babel. It was 3 stars for me, but I was very frustrated by the author’s lack of trust in her readers to understand her themes!
I like Jane Eyre, but Mr Rochester is a horrendous character. I will never understand how people romanticise their relationship. The man was a walking red flag in every way and his treatment of Jane was awful; he put her down at every opportunity… can you tell I hate him?
Completely agree! I was shocked when I read the book the first time because things were not romantic at all. I will say I did decide to re-read this and I actually liked the book more the second time because I knew what to expect
Sometimes I think that you should be a book agent or an editor. You are so insightful with your criticism and your points, and I think that could serve some of these authors so well!
7:59 I liked Britney’s memoir, but that said, I highkey agree with you about her needing to wait to cowrite/write this book because it’s too soon after everything she’s gone through. Side note: Reading Julia Fox’s memoir Down the Drain, right after Britney’s, blew me away and was well above Britney’s memoir in my eyes, even though I still liked Britney’s. I’d recommend Julia’s to anyone looking for an entertaining memoir.
I’m only familiar with Julia Fox through some fashion subreddits I’m in that occasionally post her outfits. I’m not sure I’m invested enough to read her memoir, but this has intrigued me! I definitely liked some of the moments in Britney‘s memoir, mostly the passages about her childhood, which, ironically, she’s had the most time to process and gain perspective on. I could really relate to the way she talked about her love of performing, singing, and dancing at a young age, and it breaks my heart for her that that joy was taken away by the people who should have protected her most.
THANK YOU for mentioning how questionable it was to use a real historical figure in Ministry of Time! I could not get over how gross that made me feel.
What I love about Wuthering Heights that I think Jane Eyre desperately needed is the awareness in the writing of how awful and horrendous the characters are. Heathcliff is bad and I don’t want him ever near me, and the book doesn’t try to get you to like him. Mr. Rochester the other hand is written like he is Prince Charming, Which truly disappointed me when I got to know who he actually was! It’s OK to write about a young woman falling for elder man who is not good for her, but making it romantic is definitely not the move.
I think this is a great point! I think I’ll enjoy WH more on a reread knowing what it is/its themes (and that it isn’t a romance as I was lead to believe), but I’m not sure JE will improve on a reread for me for this very reason.
Catherine in Wuthering Hights is not a great person either... I think both her and Heathcliff are very immature and a product of their environment. In my opinion, it is why the book is called Wuthering Heights. And in the end, the happy ending is the overcoming of generational trauma...
I've read Wuthering Heights as a teen and was totally led to think I was going to read a romance because of how people talked about it. I absolutely hated, as you can imagine, and for years now, after having seen some better discussions about it, I'm torn between giving it a second chance with mature and more informed eyes or being terrified I'll still hate it. But I love the comparison you made, since I still haven't read Jane Eyre. I can go into it (or maybe both of them) with this in mind.
I also read Jane Eyre this year and really liked it, though I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I had no idea so many people like Mr. Rochester lmao (I absolutely hated him). What I loved about the book was Jane's refusal to live life on anyone's terms but her own (this was especially prominent to me when she refused St. John's proposal to marry him despite him trying to manipulate her into it with religious guilt). In my interpretation, the only issue Jane ever had with Rochester was the fact that he was still married and that she didn't feel like his financial / social equal. Now personally that would NOT have been my only issue with him (he literally betrayed her trust and has been super condescending since he met her) but I can respect that Jane has her own opinions and expectations and for her, those issues were resolved at the end of the book. Idk given when this was published, I just loved the portrayal of a female character who makes her own (albeit imo terrible) decisions based on her own moral compass and refuses to let herself be talked out of living life on her own terms. Ultimately, I think a big part of why I liked it was that I went into the book not knowing anything about the storyline so I never expected a love story and didn't expect to like Rochester. It was more of a character study of Jane to me (if that's the right term) and though I hated that she went back to Rochester at the end (or even agreed to marry him in the first place), I think it made sense given how her character was portrayed. I'm not sure what Charlotte Brontë's intention was when writing (though I'm assuming it was to be a romance), but not knowing that basically saved the book for me lmao, I think if I had expected a romantic male character I would've been super disappointed too.
My grandmother gave me “Jane Eyre” when I was 12 or so and I loved the book for the very reasons you do. You might enjoy a prequel of sorts, “Wide Sargasso Sea,” by Jean Rhys. It’s about Bertha Rochester’s young life in the Caribbean.
Wow, I felt the same way about Jane Eyre. I even DNF'd it after half way through. Really was looking forward to The Ministry of Time but after your review, not so much. Thanks for sharing!!
It’s a relief to know I’m not alone - people really go to bat for this book and I just don’t get it 😅 I’m glad I could save you from reading a book you wouldn’t enjoy!
Me too! The Dark Tower series is a top five all time series for me and I couldn't help but feel a little insulted by her reaction to it. 😂 It's interesting that she focused so much on the character shortcomings of Susanna when Eddie Dean is just as much a trope. And the reasons behind it all are revealed over time...Ah well.
I'm new to watching Book Tube this year but I must say I love all your videos and am so glad I found your channel. I just ordered Between Two Fires from my local library based on your recommendation. It sounds so good! I'm not a romaance reader usually but when I read them I prefer Sapphic stories so I'm putting Delilah on my TBR. My top 3 this year were We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer, Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher and Magdalena by Candi Sary.
Some things in The Dark Tower did not age well. That being said... Detta and Odetta are stereotypes for a reason, they are both creations of a fractured mind based on what is "expected", not who she actually is. This is resolved later, if you care to keep going. This story is multi perspective, Roland is really just the driving center around which the others orbit. There are several other books in the SK Universe that offer insights and easter eggs throughout. However, this series isn't for everyone and there will be things you actively hate (at least based on your reviews here). I read it once a year, at least, for nearly a decade. I read the first 4 books over and over before the series was finished, as well. Because of that... I know exactly what is going to offend people about it and I don't blame them. I just have a very clear line in my head for fiction so there is very little that offends me, personally. If it happens in the real world and an author uses it in a book (good, bad or indifferent) then it's fair game to me, most of the time. As for Jane Eyre... yeah, don't expect current sensibilities to apply in anything by the women writing back then. lol These women were writing against norms, yes, but they were still products of what was acceptable and fashionable in their time periods, even while they broke some of those rules. I didn't actually hate Mr Rochester, I understand the type of man he was and why he became what he did and so did Jane. One of the tropes of the time was "A good woman can inspire a hard man to be good, as well. They can redeem him." Is it true? Mostly no but a lot of women still think that today so... Heathcliff... Heathcliff was terrible, so was Catherine. There's a reason the meme says, " Catherine: I can make him worse." It is labeled "Romance" because it is in line with the Romantic literary movement's emphasis on powerful feelings over reason and societal norms, not because it is actually a romantic story. It was more a what NOT to do. Kinda like Romeo and Juliet... moral: Teenagers are stupid... always... and sometimes it kills them. Shoot! I forgot Anne of Windy Poplars... no disagreement... I pretend everything after the first 3 books doesn't exist. 🤣🤣
THANK YOU!!! you are validating my anne of windy poplars hate 🙂↕️ somehow i didn’t know that she wrote it years later??? what!!! it makes so much more sense now!
Gaslight is strange to me, because it was a podcast/web drama from 2019. Chloe Grace Moretz voiced the main character. I can’t remember much of it except each episode was mostly ads and it just ended so abruptly. Not even in a cliffhanger way. Really strange to see it was made into a book. Also, very upsetting that it was so heavily based on a real cult.
Oh that’s odd! I’ll have to look into the podcast. There are many podcasts with victims of NXIVM talking about their experiences (that’s how I first learned about the cult, a Canadian podcast interviewing Sarah Edmonson, a victim of the cult based in Vancouver). It’s weird to me to make fictionalized versions of this story so soon after it happened, especially while not mentioning the inspiration at all. The leader of NXIVM was only sentenced to 120 years in prison four years ago!
I read Jane Eyre for the first time last month and I felt the same about Rochester. What I liked most about the book were the gothic elements, and I really enjoyed Jane as a child but there were more things that let me down than I anticipated. I would say it’s a good representation of a gothic novel, and I want to believe that the romanticization of Rochester was due to the context of the time in which it was published and that it has just unfortunately endured this long, but I’m not 100% sure about that. I also picked up Wide Sargasso Sea upon your review of it and Jane Eyre so I’m really looking forward to starting that next. Rochester’s wife’s story seems like a more compelling story to me so I’m interested in how WSS will expand on that.
I read Jane Eyre this year and you plucked the thoughts right out of my head. The high praise for it being an amazing gothic romance definitely added to my expectations and thus disappointment. Aside from that, I have two other disappointing reads this year: This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno. It felt like it didn't know what kind of horror it wanted to be. I enjoyed the beginning, but it eventually felt all over the place; and Almond by Sohn Won-Pyung. The premise was interesting but the end (SPOILER: the MC's disorder gets "cured" by the power of friendship/having a crush) was a huge WHY. Looking forward to your worst books of the year video!
I HATED Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre. I read it in an English class in college, and then we had to read Wide Sargasso Sea - a retelling of Mr. Rochester and his first wife. Loved that one more than Jane Eyre.
I think the way we analyze books is quite similar and Ugh i'm so sad about ember in the ashes... I have also read book one and haven't picked up the rest of the series because I don't want to be disappointed... i may just read a recap or cliff notes on the series to see how to ends hahaha
I'm sure you get this question all the time, but I couldn't find a video on it: how do you read so much? Are you a naturally fast reader? Do you listen to audiobooks, or read multiple books at the same time? How do you do it?
There's a very good comic strip about the elder Bronte sisters' taste in men, with a baffled Anne Bronte, and I love it so much. I think maybe you'll enjoy The Tenant of Wildfell Hall!
This year I had to read Jane Eyre for my english class and it was the first classic i read in this language as a non-native speaker, so that made me kind of proud. However, I totally agree with your opinion, even though you can´t deny that this book is beautifully written and has some lovely moments I did not fall in love with it (especially not with Mr. Rochester)😅
Definitely an achievement! It’s beautifully written, for sure, but so many books are beautifully written, and many classics are beautifully written, so I don’t understand why this one is so lauded and put above all the rest!
Enjoyed the video. Happy New Year Elizabeth!🎉 My most disappointing reads were Happy Place by Emily Henry (I actually enjoy her other books but this was unbearable), and Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede (was described to me as a "feminist" horror book but there is nothing remotely feminist about it)
I also read the Brittney I agree it was disjointed. Much of that would be the writer but many times I got the feeling she was intentionally holding back based on some of the word used, maybe she is still afraid. I know while writing the book she still had ongoing legal battles with her family.
That was also my impression. In some ways, I can understand her choice to speak out as soon as she was able to, not knowing what the future would bring or if she’d continue to be able to express herself freely. What I’m really hoping is that in another 10 to 15 years, she’ll write another memoir with a lot more perspective on this period of her life after, hopefully, having had a lot of healing and happy years.
@@PlantBasedBride I agree. She wanted to rush this to allow for her voice to be heard. Especially with so much unknown. I would love for her to have an opportunity to heal and some time to process and if she feels up to it get a chance to share her real voice with the world later on.
How you felt about Gaslight was how I feel about Young Bright Women, it has been on SO many favourites lists of these past year. I understand the point of the book was to take the power away from the serial killer and give it to the victims just feel a bit yuck using a true storyline with living victims, one of which put out a memoir at the SAME TIME which has barely any coverage.
I enjoyed An Ember in the Ashes. I read the second book but do not remember anything about it (maybe something with a garden and a star and one of the characters taking on the duties of a supernatural entity (?)) and never got around to the third one when it came out. Might be worth trying again. I tried to read Jane Eyre over 20 years ago during a high school summer break, put it down sometime after the childhood portion, and just never picked it up again.
Absolutely agree with your opinions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. As you were talking about Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, my mind went to Heathcliff, and then YOU SAID IT!!! My EXACT thoughts. I screamed, because no one I discuss books with thinks there is an issue with these men. It's December 31, 2024 and you just made my year. Thank you.
OMG as a kid I hated Anne of Windy Poplars and I felt absolutely awful for feeling that way because Anne of Green Gables was my favorite series growing up. I couldn't explain why I hated it back then and it truly was a chore getting through it (DNFed it like 3 times). I haven't looked up any reviews since reading it ages ago and this was very validating
I feel like anyone who thinks Jane Eyre is a romance novel is living in a different world. It's like viewing Romeo & Juliet as a romance. I love the book, but yeah, if I'd gone into it having been told it was romantic, I'd be very confused and disappointed, lol
Fully agree with you about Jane Eyre, even though I know we are in the minority. I didn't hate it, but I was horribly disappointed with it (whereas Wuthering Heights was a novel I **did** dislike intensely). I didn't find it at all romantic and I felt it had problematic characters and storylines. The best Bronte I have read is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which was superb.
I am here for the jane eyre slander, I have a grudge against that book from middle school... Wuthering Heights on the other hand is psychological horror and I love it
I have never understood the appeal of Anne of Green Gables. My entire life, apparently because I am a redhead (?), every person I meet tells me I MUST read/watch/see something Anne of Green Gables. So I have tried. I tried reading the books (snore), I tried going to the play (hated it), I tried watching it on TV (so bored). It's just not for me. I'm always a little nervous to read biographies of people I love/admire for the exact reason you describe here with Britney's book.
Rochester is terrible! I agree with you on that one and have never understood why people find that relationship romantic. When I read it, I decided it wasn’t a romance and read it as Jane’s journey. I think of it is a great book about Jane and her coming of age although a big chunk of it is about her really bad relationship.
Thank you! I had a hard time getting through Jane Eyre too! My worst book this year was Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater. I could not relate to the protagonist or the story. In fact, I finally gave up on it.
"Ive read 130 books this year." You giant of a woman! As a dyslexic, it takes me a year to read ONE book! Seriously, that is absolutely insane to someone like me 😮😮😮
I had the same experience with Ember in the Ashes. Devoured the first two books, and then the third felt like a slog. The characters couldn't find their footing and it felt like they lost all their agency as well. I want to finish it out, but definitely lost my enthusiasm after Reaper at the Gate :(
Wow, I remember we discussed our different thoughts on Britney’s book but I could have sworn that was last year! 😆 I always love how thorough you are in all of your reviews, even after reading a large volume of books. My most disappointing read was I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts by Nora Ephron. I was expecting to be humorously commiserating together about feminine things, and parts of it came off a bit depressing and sobering, like the amount of time and money that can be spent on personal grooming in a lifetime. That may just be a subjective thing, but I left feeling existential when I wanted to have fun!!! 😂😂😂
Ooof heavy on Anne of windy poplars. I'm still surprised even after watching that video that you got through it, I never finished it😂 My biggest disappointments were definitely Salt & Broom (because a witchy jane eyre retelling sounds like something tailor made for me, it was not) and Emily Wilde (Heather Fawcett is now one of my favourite authors of all time but her most popular series I don't care for at all.
Haha yeah Windy Poplars is not a book I ever plan to reread 😂 I liked Emily Wilde but it’s not a few favourite. I’m curious to read the sequel and Fawcett’s other books!
I think 'Braided Lives' by Marge Piercy was the biggest let down for me. Not terrible, but I read 'City of Darkness, City of Light' by her a few years ago and was so blown away. Maybe I had too high expectations! Also I will join your unpopular club: I read Jane Eyre years ago and felt much the same as you about it.
I feel like Britney sent voicenotes to the ghostwriter and that's why it felt so all over the place and repetitive. It reads like one of her instagram posts. I wrote in my review that Michelle Williams did A LOT of the heavy lifting narrating this book. Reading it would have been excruciating.
Thanks for your rant on The Ember in the Ashes series.. I totally agree! The first book was amazing and then I DNF'd halfway through book 3 because I couldn't handle the nonsense anymore! Such a letdown.
An Education in Malice was my most disappointing this year. I remember absolutely loving A Dowry of Blood and thinking the writing was impeccable but An Education in Malice was just all tell don’t show and just such a let down. No subtlety just spelled everything out so plainly I actually wondered if A Dowry of Blood is as good as I remember
Same Same!!!!!! I enjoyed Jane's younger years but.... after she left school it was so boring. I hate Rochester and everyone seems to love this book so I felt really alone lol 😂 I'm so glad I found someone that did not enjoy Jane Eyre as well
100% agreed on Jane Eyre. Did not get along with it, or them at all. Also, if you disliked I'm a Fan, I would avoid The Flight Attendant, if you've not already read it. I was trying to get back into reading more regularly this year, and was doing very well with it up until about July, when I read it. It was such a slog to get through. The protagonist was a terrible person and her life was a trainwreck, and I realise that this is kind of the point, but it's painful to read. She learns nothing and is more or less the same at the end as she is when it opens. I loved the series, but turns out it's so much better than the book.
I am a huge LM Montgomery fan and I think people might appreciate Anne of Windy Poplars more if they like her short stories. Each chapter very much reads like her short stories, which are formulaic and trope-ish on purpose because she was writing for money. I love them because you can see her process and the techniques she turns to again and again to elicit emotions from the reader. Windy Poplars is definitely not as good as the first three books in the series but I have an appreciation for it lol.
I just want to say, thank you for being brave enough to mention Jane Eyre T_T when I heard you mention that you despised Mr Rochester I audibly screamed because FINALLY SOMEONE WHO SHARES MY OPINION T-T T-T
@PlantBasedBride thank you it felt so validating 😭 I thought I was just way too dumb to understand the text and ngl i felt very left out bc I really wanted to love this book 💔
I liked Jane Eyre (the book) OK, but I don’t think I ever would’ve read it if it hadn’t been for seeing the movie with George C Scott and Susanna York. I LOVED that movie! I actually got a crush on George C Scott! Never let anyone know, though; until now. 😅
When looking at Jane Eyre through a historical lens. Oh jeez that sounds so pretentious but I don't know how to word it sorry. Jane Eyre was a big deal because Jane had autonomy and agency. She didn't just do what she was told. Now whether she made the correct decisions is another matter entirely. But it shows her choosing for herself instead of doing what everyone else is telling her to do. Or refusing to do something she finds morally wrong. As on marrying Rochester while his wife is still alive and in the attic. It doesn't matter if she is insane and can not be a proper wife her and Rochester are still married and Jane Eyre refuses to compromise her morals. What she sees in Rochester is beyond me unless it some sort of weird bond because he was kinda the first person to actually be nice to her.
Anne’s book 4 was terrible for me as well (the cat, the fricking porcelain dogs and the uncomprehensible removal of any sweet words in Anne’s letters to Gilbert - I felt so robbed lol), and I had a hard time with the two following. I even thought of giving up the series. But I somehow learnt that these three books were written way later than the last two (if you consider the chronological order in Anne’s life) and that explained a lot indeed. So I decided to give a chance to books 7 and 8 since they were written earlier. I still have the 8th on my shelves but the 7th truly reconnected me with the series, with the joy of childhood and youth. As for the 8th, I am very curious of how the author will manage the ahem, losses, when she has such a habit to "fade to black" each important and traumatic event. Like how will she dodge (if she does try) the first world war ??
@@PlantBasedBrideI plan to read it in the first quarter of 2025, I have a reading prompt in a seasonal challenge asking to finish a series. I’m looking forward even more !
I feel like my list of disappointments this year is longer than of love😅 so many books are just written sooo bad! At the level that it seems like they never seen any professionals before publishing 😮 what is going on(((
Not a novel, but a manga that was so incredibly disappointing was “Boy Meets Maria” by Kosei Eguchi. The synopsis described the story as a gender-identity and sexual-identity journey. But what actually transpired, was a story about a boy who was so traumatized by his mom forcing him to be a girl as a kid and his predatory elementary-school teacher attacking him, that as a high school student he didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl (even though he identified as a boy and appeared male and didn’t like when his classmates would refer to him as a girl). So to me, it read as a strange explanation that some people don’t identify as their born gender because of parental abuse and childhood SA??? The weirdest part was how his classmates referred to him as a girl and were all “so confused and frustrated” because they didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl. I disliked it so much I made my very first goodreads review about it. 😂
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. I love thrillers. Was excited to see good reviews, popular, recommended. 2 stars. It was missing something. I just couldn't connect. It felt very much like she took aspects from my favorite thrillers and badly weaved them together. I was sad. Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights. I think everyones reaction is the one we are sopose to be having. (Hell in the late 90's in English class we as a class desamated the book and movie) one the are examples of actual romantic and gothic literature. And i think it is a bit of a warning about wanting certain things. And the reality of those things. Willow talks books on RUclips has a great video on both books.
i can't speak to its quality as i haven't read it yet, but there's a queer re-telling/re-imagining of jane eyre called escaping mr. rochester on my TBR! it seems we're not the only ones who can't stand mr. rochester.
my disappointing reads: I read 26 books last year which is more than I've read in several years. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches Pineapple Street Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries The last book of Richelle Mead's Bloodlines series and Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult
I have different reasons why for all of them and don't want to get into it or write a novel in a youtube comment lol. Also, your top10 I've never heard of any of them except Jane Austin and Brittney's memoir. The memoir is still on my TBR but I've heard a lot of negative reviews about it that it makes me nervous and maybe I don't want to read it after all. Is it still worth it? would you still suggest people read it or are there more worthwhile memoirs out there? I read I'm glad my mom died and very much enjoyed it.
Extinction disappointed me too. I felt like it was two different stories, trying to be one, because he wanted to veer much farther from Jurassic Park type stuff than readers would expect, and also because he was perhaps stumped on how to write what it looked like the book was supposed to be, and still differ enough from Crichton, , and still be awesome and twisty, so he jumped the shark (even a Megalodon would have been more interesting than what he did) and mashed in a plot that felt like it needed to be a different book. Forgive my run-on, I have fibromyalgia brain fog. I was also somewhat disappointed in Hello, Beautiful, but I am starting to figure out that stories that cover 3 or more decades of someone's life, may need some kind of other hook for me, as reading such a length of life can feel like a bungee stretching further and further, and when you reach the end, if the result isn't as satisfying as seeing the bungee finally yank back the other way, it falls a bit flat for me. This tells me that perhaps this story structure doesn't suit how my brain is wired, and that it's at least partially me, and not the story. I also tried to read Things We Never Got Over,and Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. The former I dnf'd because, for myself (not judging otherwise) i find the term, panty-melting to be a bit eyerolling cringey. I tolerate it it if not excessive, because some things are just generational differences perhaps, but this started so early in the book, and kept on, so I dnf'd it because it was going to drive me nuts. H&E Grocery, I dnf'd partially because I found the writing style much drier than expected , but also because it was becoming clear it was gonna be that long bungee stretch over decades. I knew going in it would be, and the book's description had me thinking the end might be more satisfying than Hello, Beautiful, so I pushed farther into the book. At 30% I dnf'd, because the writing style was making it a slog. This may be one I would prefer as a movie, if done right. Happy Place, the one little thing that would have solved the main characters 's problem, reduced my enjoyment. However, I enjoy so much the setting, the other relationships, and so much else about the book I give it a 4 anyway. .
Usually I enjoy Stephen King (I've read about 20 of them, or so) but beside the attack of the 60lb lobster on the beach scene I didn't go for The Gunslinger. As for Ministry of Time I would disagree on at least one point: As a spy novel it was very good in its real-life presentation of actual agents working at a Ministry. Additionally, I think any author who spends too much time on the mechanics of time travel has difficulty re-finding the main story's thread. King did it very well in 11/22/63: There's a portal that takes you back to 1959; I don't know how it got there or how it works. It's just there. Doesn't waste time explaining something that doesn't exist. Jane Eyre is exactly what you describe and I find the adoration it inspires totally inscrutable. Nonetheless, the human heart is a mystery, as is the world in which we live. Some of that mystery is our own fault and some of it seems built in. However, a good coincidence and a good reveal with a twist are important to novels. Enjoyed very much - thanks.
Do you ever like novels with irredeemable or terrible protagonists? I sometimes enjoy them (Gone Girl) and sometimes can’t finish them (American Psycho), but that seemed to be a common thread among many of the books mentioned here.
I have, yes! But they’re definitely a hard sell for me as a character-driven reader. It’s one thing if it’s an unlikeable protagonist, but they’re really layered and interesting, and the themes are engaging and so on, but with a book that’s just meh overall that has a main character I can’t stand, I’m unlikely to enjoy it.
@@PlantBasedBride That’s totally fair. I just know some things are an absolute NO for some readers, and didn’t know if this tends to fall in your ick pile. 💚 Also, I HATE it when a sequel or book in a series is just garbage. Possibly unpopular opinion: couldn’t finish “Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” because I couldn’t find the energy to care about any of it, even though I loved and have re-read the Hunger Games trilogy. 🤷🏻♀️
I cannot agree more about the Charlotte and Emily Bronte male protagonists. Apparently I need to read something by Anne, because she's allegedly the only one of the three who didn't romanticize abusive jerks. 😂
It breaks my heart that you disliked "drawing of the three" so much. The dark tower series is one of my favorites. But I understand. Totally agree on all the other stuff though. I cannot believe how overhyped "the ministry of time" is.
Book 5 and book 8 are worth the read, in my opinion! Anne’s House of Dreams (book 5) was published 2 years after Anne of the Island (book 3) and books 7 and 8 were published after that. It’s books 4 and 6 that were written later, and you can tell. Rilla of Ingleside (book 8) is gorgeous!
I was quite disappointed with The Ministry of Time as well. I initially had high hopes, but the audiobook experience unfortunately detracted from my enjoyment. The acting performances were, frankly, quite poor. Similarly, I was let down by The Only One Left. This was my first (and likely last) Riley Sager novel. I found it underwhelming.
THANK YOU for your take on Jane Eyre. I expected this groundbreaking piece for its time, only to feel enrage as the story progressed. While I had a different opinion from you on Mr. Rochester, in my review on Storygraph I’d said that he would’ve needed TONS of therapy and introspection before he can ever think of having a relationship with *anyone*, let alone Jane. I DNF’d 70% in and am not sure if I should continue, because where I was at Mr. Rochester gave me the ick after his love confession post reveal, and it infuriated me that it’s set up for Jane to end up crawling back to him. I may have to see your review for myself to see if it’s worth trying to pick it back up again.
The Honey Witch is a new witchy fiction that dropped this year and it was so disappointing. The magic system, the way the author wrote thing, the character's description and the choices she has to make .. all horrible. I also recommend avoiding the Belladonna trilogy (YA fantasy) by Adelyn Grace... Gorgeous, captivating covers, mid-level, repetitive, uninspired writing at best. 2-3⭐ per book for me, not worth it.
I've just finished a disappointing book: Chicano Frankenstein. I mean, the premise sounded great to me and I thought it was going to be more wholesome, but it got me thinking about how reanimation works by erasing your identity (not a spoiler, it's in the description of the book) and there were a couple of plotholes that bugged me... it's a short novel, and unlike many others, I feel there are around 50 pages missing here to fully enjoy it 🫠
The worst book for me was I wish you were here by Jodi Picouit. The very beginning and halfway through was really good but after that like wowww really. Love your channel btw.
RE the Dark Tower series, my husband says "Nooo, get out, get out now!" RE Jane Eyre, I had little to no knowledge of the book when I had to read a passage for a class last year and I was REPULSED by Rochester! I had no idea from the passage that he was the leading man and not just some creepizoid. I'm currently reading the Tuesday Next series and they make Mr. Rochester a noble character rather than an adulterous creep AND give his wife a role, so that's fun. I think Jane Eyre still worth the read, obviously (it's on my TBR again for 2025) but to me it gives me the same vibe as young women getting swept up by ~older experienced men~ and it's so special to be ~chosen~. Reading with a modern feminist eye is very asynchronous and gives a wildly different experience.
LOL people seem to either love or hate the dark tower series 😂 I don’t know what to think! Yeah, Mr. Rochester is awful. He reminds me of older men who tried to take advantage of my youth and inexperience when I was fresh out of school and it gives me the ick 😑
I hated “The turnglass” so much, the premise was great, the writing and story awful. And “The familiar”, even though I wasn’t expecting very much of it, it ended up being even more awful than expected.
I really love the Dark Tower series and especially loved Suzanna, so do agree with the King fans that she does become one of his best characters. HOWEVER I think the Dark Tower series would have been better in hindsight without her inclusion as Stephen King is absolutely not the person to tell the story of a disabled black woman. I must admit though, early Stephen King is a problematic fave of mine. I can look past a lot because I find his world building and ability to create fully realised characters in their introductory paragraphs so compelling.
Ministry of Time definitely tops my list. The "kill your gays" trope is unfortunately present, and the main character RUNS to out a queer woman out of jealousy instead of just letting Maggie come out when she wanted to. Not to mention how the treated Simellia. The main character is full of microagressions and at one point insinuates Simellia is playing the victim while she is trying to have a conversation and relate to her and is "afraid" to pay her a compliment because she apparently can't do it without figuring out how not to be r@c!st? Unnamed protagonist leans very heavily on her white privilege and chooses not to reveal her mixed race heritage until people out right ask and is upset with her sister for being an activist and speaking out about their mother's treatment in England. I wanted to like Graham, but his decision to be friends with an objectively awful person (1743) was problematic. so many major themes were glossed over, like Grahams involvement in the Slave Trade and displacement of Indigenous peoples including the Inuit. Some of the dialog was hilarious (the discourse surrounding germs) and I loved how Maggie's character talked! But overall a HUGE miss for me.
What was your most disappointing read this year? (And why?) 👀
Pretty good reading year for me, although I wasn't wild about (1) How to Lose the Time War. I thought that it was intentionally abstruse too often with its hints as to a history some people - maybe not you or me tho - will surely recognize. Also I read on Kindle a short Patterson novel, who usually I enjoy, titled (2) Alex Cross Must Die. Very little of the characteristics that make Detective Dr. Cross a great hero - like a modern day Sherlock Holmes - were visible and the side characters were not able to carry the story without him IMHO. And while technically Didion's (3) White Album was a bit of a disappointment to me, it was easily recognizable as a great book.
Babel while reaching for great and important topics, fumbled it for me. I’m a linguistics student and a women working in STEM so this was right up my alley. While it was not horrendous and the message is very important, it could have been 200 pages shorter. Yet despite not being shorter I felt like besides the main character, there really wasn’t any character development and then the ending was rather dissatisfying to me. It felt like at times she was beating you over the head with her point, which again I agree with her! But I also want to have the author have faith in my ability to pick up on subtext
The Memory of Animals!! From my Goodreads review: “I’m not mad I read this?…I just found the ending so unsatisfying it led me to revisit the whole book and my thoughts and the things that initially piqued my interest started collapsing…I’m trying to decide if it’s good and I just don’t get it or if people are so distracted by the prose that they are ignoring that it’s not good.”
@@jamesduggan7200 I loved HTLTTW but I also get how it wouldn’t work for a lot of people 😂 I’m not familiar with the others, though!
@@chanelhutchison4813 I felt the same about Babel. It was 3 stars for me, but I was very frustrated by the author’s lack of trust in her readers to understand her themes!
I like Jane Eyre, but Mr Rochester is a horrendous character. I will never understand how people romanticise their relationship. The man was a walking red flag in every way and his treatment of Jane was awful; he put her down at every opportunity… can you tell I hate him?
Haha, I love this nuanced take! People seem to get very defensive of him, and I just don’t understand it because he’s the worst 😂
Exactly! I hated him when I read it so much
that's kinda the point about him. and then its about how jane reacts considering the options she has
Completely agree! I was shocked when I read the book the first time because things were not romantic at all. I will say I did decide to re-read this and I actually liked the book more the second time because I knew what to expect
It's why I watch the movie not read the book😊
Sometimes I think that you should be a book agent or an editor. You are so insightful with your criticism and your points, and I think that could serve some of these authors so well!
Aw thank you, that’s so kind! I might enjoy that 😂
I’ve had the same though! She’d be a fantastic editor!
7:59 I liked Britney’s memoir, but that said, I highkey agree with you about her needing to wait to cowrite/write this book because it’s too soon after everything she’s gone through.
Side note: Reading Julia Fox’s memoir Down the Drain, right after Britney’s, blew me away and was well above Britney’s memoir in my eyes, even though I still liked Britney’s. I’d recommend Julia’s to anyone looking for an entertaining memoir.
I’m only familiar with Julia Fox through some fashion subreddits I’m in that occasionally post her outfits. I’m not sure I’m invested enough to read her memoir, but this has intrigued me!
I definitely liked some of the moments in Britney‘s memoir, mostly the passages about her childhood, which, ironically, she’s had the most time to process and gain perspective on. I could really relate to the way she talked about her love of performing, singing, and dancing at a young age, and it breaks my heart for her that that joy was taken away by the people who should have protected her most.
THANK YOU for mentioning how questionable it was to use a real historical figure in Ministry of Time! I could not get over how gross that made me feel.
It felt so unnecessary to me! And was definitely uncomfortable.
What I love about Wuthering Heights that I think Jane Eyre desperately needed is the awareness in the writing of how awful and horrendous the characters are. Heathcliff is bad and I don’t want him ever near me, and the book doesn’t try to get you to like him. Mr. Rochester the other hand is written like he is Prince Charming, Which truly disappointed me when I got to know who he actually was! It’s OK to write about a young woman falling for elder man who is not good for her, but making it romantic is definitely not the move.
I think this is a great point! I think I’ll enjoy WH more on a reread knowing what it is/its themes (and that it isn’t a romance as I was lead to believe), but I’m not sure JE will improve on a reread for me for this very reason.
Catherine in Wuthering Hights is not a great person either... I think both her and Heathcliff are very immature and a product of their environment. In my opinion, it is why the book is called Wuthering Heights.
And in the end, the happy ending is the overcoming of generational trauma...
@@mariaw222 oh yeah, they’re both terrible 😂
I've read Wuthering Heights as a teen and was totally led to think I was going to read a romance because of how people talked about it. I absolutely hated, as you can imagine, and for years now, after having seen some better discussions about it, I'm torn between giving it a second chance with mature and more informed eyes or being terrified I'll still hate it. But I love the comparison you made, since I still haven't read Jane Eyre. I can go into it (or maybe both of them) with this in mind.
I also read Jane Eyre this year and really liked it, though I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I had no idea so many people like Mr. Rochester lmao (I absolutely hated him). What I loved about the book was Jane's refusal to live life on anyone's terms but her own (this was especially prominent to me when she refused St. John's proposal to marry him despite him trying to manipulate her into it with religious guilt).
In my interpretation, the only issue Jane ever had with Rochester was the fact that he was still married and that she didn't feel like his financial / social equal. Now personally that would NOT have been my only issue with him (he literally betrayed her trust and has been super condescending since he met her) but I can respect that Jane has her own opinions and expectations and for her, those issues were resolved at the end of the book. Idk given when this was published, I just loved the portrayal of a female character who makes her own (albeit imo terrible) decisions based on her own moral compass and refuses to let herself be talked out of living life on her own terms.
Ultimately, I think a big part of why I liked it was that I went into the book not knowing anything about the storyline so I never expected a love story and didn't expect to like Rochester. It was more of a character study of Jane to me (if that's the right term) and though I hated that she went back to Rochester at the end (or even agreed to marry him in the first place), I think it made sense given how her character was portrayed. I'm not sure what Charlotte Brontë's intention was when writing (though I'm assuming it was to be a romance), but not knowing that basically saved the book for me lmao, I think if I had expected a romantic male character I would've been super disappointed too.
My grandmother gave me “Jane Eyre” when I was 12 or so and I loved the book for the very reasons you do. You might enjoy a prequel of sorts, “Wide Sargasso Sea,” by Jean Rhys. It’s about Bertha Rochester’s young life in the Caribbean.
Wow, I felt the same way about Jane Eyre. I even DNF'd it after half way through. Really was looking forward to The Ministry of Time but after your review, not so much. Thanks for sharing!!
It’s a relief to know I’m not alone - people really go to bat for this book and I just don’t get it 😅 I’m glad I could save you from reading a book you wouldn’t enjoy!
Same
I loved Drawing of the Three but can definitely see how it might throw people off. It’s such a bizarre rollercoaster of concepts and events haha.
Me too! The Dark Tower series is a top five all time series for me and I couldn't help but feel a little insulted by her reaction to it. 😂
It's interesting that she focused so much on the character shortcomings of Susanna when Eddie Dean is just as much a trope. And the reasons behind it all are revealed over time...Ah well.
I'm new to watching Book Tube this year but I must say I love all your videos and am so glad I found your channel. I just ordered Between Two Fires from my local library based on your recommendation. It sounds so good! I'm not a romaance reader usually but when I read them I prefer Sapphic stories so I'm putting Delilah on my TBR.
My top 3 this year were We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer, Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher and Magdalena by Candi Sary.
Some things in The Dark Tower did not age well. That being said... Detta and Odetta are stereotypes for a reason, they are both creations of a fractured mind based on what is "expected", not who she actually is. This is resolved later, if you care to keep going. This story is multi perspective, Roland is really just the driving center around which the others orbit. There are several other books in the SK Universe that offer insights and easter eggs throughout. However, this series isn't for everyone and there will be things you actively hate (at least based on your reviews here). I read it once a year, at least, for nearly a decade. I read the first 4 books over and over before the series was finished, as well. Because of that... I know exactly what is going to offend people about it and I don't blame them. I just have a very clear line in my head for fiction so there is very little that offends me, personally. If it happens in the real world and an author uses it in a book (good, bad or indifferent) then it's fair game to me, most of the time.
As for Jane Eyre... yeah, don't expect current sensibilities to apply in anything by the women writing back then. lol These women were writing against norms, yes, but they were still products of what was acceptable and fashionable in their time periods, even while they broke some of those rules. I didn't actually hate Mr Rochester, I understand the type of man he was and why he became what he did and so did Jane. One of the tropes of the time was "A good woman can inspire a hard man to be good, as well. They can redeem him." Is it true? Mostly no but a lot of women still think that today so...
Heathcliff... Heathcliff was terrible, so was Catherine. There's a reason the meme says, " Catherine: I can make him worse." It is labeled "Romance" because it is in line with the Romantic literary movement's emphasis on powerful feelings over reason and societal norms, not because it is actually a romantic story. It was more a what NOT to do. Kinda like Romeo and Juliet... moral: Teenagers are stupid... always... and sometimes it kills them.
Shoot! I forgot Anne of Windy Poplars... no disagreement... I pretend everything after the first 3 books doesn't exist. 🤣🤣
THANK YOU!!! you are validating my anne of windy poplars hate 🙂↕️ somehow i didn’t know that she wrote it years later??? what!!! it makes so much more sense now!
Right?? She inserted it much later between Anne of the Island and Anne’s House of Dreams and it really sticks out like a sore thumb, in my opinion.
Gaslight is strange to me, because it was a podcast/web drama from 2019. Chloe Grace Moretz voiced the main character. I can’t remember much of it except each episode was mostly ads and it just ended so abruptly. Not even in a cliffhanger way. Really strange to see it was made into a book. Also, very upsetting that it was so heavily based on a real cult.
Oh that’s odd! I’ll have to look into the podcast. There are many podcasts with victims of NXIVM talking about their experiences (that’s how I first learned about the cult, a Canadian podcast interviewing Sarah Edmonson, a victim of the cult based in Vancouver). It’s weird to me to make fictionalized versions of this story so soon after it happened, especially while not mentioning the inspiration at all. The leader of NXIVM was only sentenced to 120 years in prison four years ago!
I read Jane Eyre for the first time last month and I felt the same about Rochester. What I liked most about the book were the gothic elements, and I really enjoyed Jane as a child but there were more things that let me down than I anticipated. I would say it’s a good representation of a gothic novel, and I want to believe that the romanticization of Rochester was due to the context of the time in which it was published and that it has just unfortunately endured this long, but I’m not 100% sure about that.
I also picked up Wide Sargasso Sea upon your review of it and Jane Eyre so I’m really looking forward to starting that next. Rochester’s wife’s story seems like a more compelling story to me so I’m interested in how WSS will expand on that.
I hope you enjoy WSS as much as I did! I agree the gothic elements were great but unfortunately Mr,. R kind of ruined it for me 😂
@ saaaaaame
I read Jane Eyre this year and you plucked the thoughts right out of my head. The high praise for it being an amazing gothic romance definitely added to my expectations and thus disappointment. Aside from that, I have two other disappointing reads this year: This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno. It felt like it didn't know what kind of horror it wanted to be. I enjoyed the beginning, but it eventually felt all over the place; and Almond by Sohn Won-Pyung. The premise was interesting but the end (SPOILER: the MC's disorder gets "cured" by the power of friendship/having a crush) was a huge WHY.
Looking forward to your worst books of the year video!
I HATED Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre. I read it in an English class in college, and then we had to read Wide Sargasso Sea - a retelling of Mr. Rochester and his first wife. Loved that one more than Jane Eyre.
My reading vlog is a double feature of JE and WSS! I had a very similar experience to you 😅
@PlantBasedBride yay! I'll watch it now!
I think the way we analyze books is quite similar and Ugh i'm so sad about ember in the ashes... I have also read book one and haven't picked up the rest of the series because I don't want to be disappointed... i may just read a recap or cliff notes on the series to see how to ends hahaha
On your bonus book, it’s a reminder that Anne Brönte’s Tennant of Wildfell Hall is the superior book between the the three sisters.
I’ve heard that! It’s on my TBR.
I'm sure you get this question all the time, but I couldn't find a video on it: how do you read so much? Are you a naturally fast reader? Do you listen to audiobooks, or read multiple books at the same time? How do you do it?
There's a very good comic strip about the elder Bronte sisters' taste in men, with a baffled Anne Bronte, and I love it so much. I think maybe you'll enjoy The Tenant of Wildfell Hall!
I’ve been wanting to read Anne’s work! Seems like it might be more to my taste. I’ll have to find this comic, too, because it sounds hilarious 😂
The Ministry of Time was awful. A waste of my BOTM credit. 🤦♀️
This year I had to read Jane Eyre for my english class and it was the first classic i read in this language as a non-native speaker, so that made me kind of proud. However, I totally agree with your opinion, even though you can´t deny that this book is beautifully written and has some lovely moments I did not fall in love with it (especially not with Mr. Rochester)😅
Definitely an achievement! It’s beautifully written, for sure, but so many books are beautifully written, and many classics are beautifully written, so I don’t understand why this one is so lauded and put above all the rest!
Enjoyed the video. Happy New Year Elizabeth!🎉
My most disappointing reads were Happy Place by Emily Henry (I actually enjoy her other books but this was unbearable), and Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede (was described to me as a "feminist" horror book but there is nothing remotely feminist about it)
Oh, Happy Place… it may or may not make an appearance in my worst books video 😂
I also read the Brittney I agree it was disjointed. Much of that would be the writer but many times I got the feeling she was intentionally holding back based on some of the word used, maybe she is still afraid. I know while writing the book she still had ongoing legal battles with her family.
That was also my impression. In some ways, I can understand her choice to speak out as soon as she was able to, not knowing what the future would bring or if she’d continue to be able to express herself freely. What I’m really hoping is that in another 10 to 15 years, she’ll write another memoir with a lot more perspective on this period of her life after, hopefully, having had a lot of healing and happy years.
@@PlantBasedBride I agree. She wanted to rush this to allow for her voice to be heard. Especially with so much unknown. I would love for her to have an opportunity to heal and some time to process and if she feels up to it get a chance to share her real voice with the world later on.
How you felt about Gaslight was how I feel about Young Bright Women, it has been on SO many favourites lists of these past year. I understand the point of the book was to take the power away from the serial killer and give it to the victims just feel a bit yuck using a true storyline with living victims, one of which put out a memoir at the SAME TIME which has barely any coverage.
I enjoyed An Ember in the Ashes. I read the second book but do not remember anything about it (maybe something with a garden and a star and one of the characters taking on the duties of a supernatural entity (?)) and never got around to the third one when it came out. Might be worth trying again.
I tried to read Jane Eyre over 20 years ago during a high school summer break, put it down sometime after the childhood portion, and just never picked it up again.
Absolutely agree with your opinions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. As you were talking about Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, my mind went to Heathcliff, and then YOU SAID IT!!! My EXACT thoughts. I screamed, because no one I discuss books with thinks there is an issue with these men. It's December 31, 2024 and you just made my year. Thank you.
OMG as a kid I hated Anne of Windy Poplars and I felt absolutely awful for feeling that way because Anne of Green Gables was my favorite series growing up. I couldn't explain why I hated it back then and it truly was a chore getting through it (DNFed it like 3 times). I haven't looked up any reviews since reading it ages ago and this was very validating
It’s definitely not just you 😅 Windy Poplars is terrible and I love LM Montgomery with my whole (Canadian) heart 😂
I feel like anyone who thinks Jane Eyre is a romance novel is living in a different world. It's like viewing Romeo & Juliet as a romance. I love the book, but yeah, if I'd gone into it having been told it was romantic, I'd be very confused and disappointed, lol
Fully agree with you about Jane Eyre, even though I know we are in the minority. I didn't hate it, but I was horribly disappointed with it (whereas Wuthering Heights was a novel I **did** dislike intensely). I didn't find it at all romantic and I felt it had problematic characters and storylines. The best Bronte I have read is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which was superb.
I want to read Anne’s work! I’ve been told a few times I’d likely enjoy TToWH more than JE or WH ❤️
I chose to alter the ending of Jane Eyre in my mind to make it more agreeable to me 😄
Haha I think I’ll do this, too 😂
I agree with you. Mr. Rochester of "Jane Eyre" and Heathcliff of "Wuthering Heights" are awful characters and men.
I’d say they’re interesting characters but not good people 😅
I am here for the jane eyre slander, I have a grudge against that book from middle school... Wuthering Heights on the other hand is psychological horror and I love it
I have never understood the appeal of Anne of Green Gables. My entire life, apparently because I am a redhead (?), every person I meet tells me I MUST read/watch/see something Anne of Green Gables. So I have tried. I tried reading the books (snore), I tried going to the play (hated it), I tried watching it on TV (so bored). It's just not for me. I'm always a little nervous to read biographies of people I love/admire for the exact reason you describe here with Britney's book.
Rochester is terrible! I agree with you on that one and have never understood why people find that relationship romantic. When I read it, I decided it wasn’t a romance and read it as Jane’s journey. I think of it is a great book about Jane and her coming of age although a big chunk of it is about her really bad relationship.
Thank you! I had a hard time getting through Jane Eyre too! My worst book this year was Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater. I could not relate to the protagonist or the story. In fact, I finally gave up on it.
"Ive read 130 books this year."
You giant of a woman! As a dyslexic, it takes me a year to read ONE book!
Seriously, that is absolutely insane to someone like me 😮😮😮
I had the same experience with Ember in the Ashes. Devoured the first two books, and then the third felt like a slog. The characters couldn't find their footing and it felt like they lost all their agency as well. I want to finish it out, but definitely lost my enthusiasm after Reaper at the Gate :(
Wow, I remember we discussed our different thoughts on Britney’s book but I could have sworn that was last year! 😆 I always love how thorough you are in all of your reviews, even after reading a large volume of books.
My most disappointing read was I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts by Nora Ephron. I was expecting to be humorously commiserating together about feminine things, and parts of it came off a bit depressing and sobering, like the amount of time and money that can be spent on personal grooming in a lifetime. That may just be a subjective thing, but I left feeling existential when I wanted to have fun!!! 😂😂😂
what, no One Dark Window? 😂
There’s still a worst books video on the way 👀😂
Ooof heavy on Anne of windy poplars. I'm still surprised even after watching that video that you got through it, I never finished it😂
My biggest disappointments were definitely Salt & Broom (because a witchy jane eyre retelling sounds like something tailor made for me, it was not) and Emily Wilde (Heather Fawcett is now one of my favourite authors of all time but her most popular series I don't care for at all.
Haha yeah Windy Poplars is not a book I ever plan to reread 😂 I liked Emily Wilde but it’s not a few favourite. I’m curious to read the sequel and Fawcett’s other books!
@@PlantBasedBride I hope you read the sequel! I liked it better than the first one.
I think 'Braided Lives' by Marge Piercy was the biggest let down for me. Not terrible, but I read 'City of Darkness, City of Light' by her a few years ago and was so blown away. Maybe I had too high expectations! Also I will join your unpopular club: I read Jane Eyre years ago and felt much the same as you about it.
I feel like Britney sent voicenotes to the ghostwriter and that's why it felt so all over the place and repetitive. It reads like one of her instagram posts. I wrote in my review that Michelle Williams did A LOT of the heavy lifting narrating this book. Reading it would have been excruciating.
Ohh that’s an interesting theory! Yeah Williams’ narration was top tier.
Omg Embers in the Ashes downfall needs to be studied. I wasted so much time because book one was amazing.
I'm still sad about it. What happened to the characters after book one??
@PlantBasedBride Hélène was my favvv. She deserved better
Thanks for your rant on The Ember in the Ashes series.. I totally agree! The first book was amazing and then I DNF'd halfway through book 3 because I couldn't handle the nonsense anymore! Such a letdown.
It’s so sad 🥲 I’m looking forward to reading more Sabaa Tahir and hopeful it will be more like TEitA and not like the end of the series!
Can you do a top favorites video?? Trying to read more and I need suggestions!
Yup, that’s next!
@PlantBasedBride Hooray!
Gaaah thank you! I've never heard another person dislike Jane Eyre! I feel so seen!
An Education in Malice was my most disappointing this year. I remember absolutely loving A Dowry of Blood and thinking the writing was impeccable but An Education in Malice was just all tell don’t show and just such a let down. No subtlety just spelled everything out so plainly I actually wondered if A Dowry of Blood is as good as I remember
I was also disappointed in I'm a Fan. It was so talked about, I was expecting more. 1 star for me.
It had so much potential! I would love for the author to release a collection of essays.
I’m waiting for the orbital rant part 2 in the worst books of the year lol
😂
Same Same!!!!!! I enjoyed Jane's younger years but.... after she left school it was so boring. I hate Rochester and everyone seems to love this book so I felt really alone lol 😂 I'm so glad I found someone that did not enjoy Jane Eyre as well
She was so great when she was young! And then she lost her spark 🥲
If Romantasy, please be a standalone or a duo. Romance drama got bored so quickly, I don't know why it has to last more than one book 😅
100% agreed on Jane Eyre. Did not get along with it, or them at all.
Also, if you disliked I'm a Fan, I would avoid The Flight Attendant, if you've not already read it. I was trying to get back into reading more regularly this year, and was doing very well with it up until about July, when I read it. It was such a slog to get through. The protagonist was a terrible person and her life was a trainwreck, and I realise that this is kind of the point, but it's painful to read. She learns nothing and is more or less the same at the end as she is when it opens. I loved the series, but turns out it's so much better than the book.
I am a huge LM Montgomery fan and I think people might appreciate Anne of Windy Poplars more if they like her short stories. Each chapter very much reads like her short stories, which are formulaic and trope-ish on purpose because she was writing for money. I love them because you can see her process and the techniques she turns to again and again to elicit emotions from the reader. Windy Poplars is definitely not as good as the first three books in the series but I have an appreciation for it lol.
That’s interesting! I came across a collection of her short stories at a used bookstore a few months ago and I’ve been looking forward to reading it.
So. Much. Pining. (In the Tahir books.)
So much!!
I agree with you regarding Windy Poplars! I felt bad for DNFing it, because I loved the first 3 but I just didn’t like it!
I just want to say, thank you for being brave enough to mention Jane Eyre T_T when I heard you mention that you despised Mr Rochester I audibly screamed because FINALLY SOMEONE WHO SHARES MY OPINION T-T T-T
Haha I knew people would be mad at me but oh well 😂 he’s the worst and I said what I said! 👀
@PlantBasedBride thank you it felt so validating 😭 I thought I was just way too dumb to understand the text and ngl i felt very left out bc I really wanted to love this book 💔
I felt the same about Jane Eyre! I love the beginning but after that it goes downhill.
It starts to drag so much in the second half 😅
I was STOKED when I started Prophet. liked about 30% of it, then the remaining two thirds completely demolished all of the good vibes.
I liked Jane Eyre (the book) OK, but I don’t think I ever would’ve read it if it hadn’t been for seeing the movie with George C Scott and Susanna York. I LOVED that movie! I actually got a crush on George C Scott! Never let anyone know, though; until now. 😅
When looking at Jane Eyre through a historical lens. Oh jeez that sounds so pretentious but I don't know how to word it sorry.
Jane Eyre was a big deal because Jane had autonomy and agency. She didn't just do what she was told. Now whether she made the correct decisions is another matter entirely. But it shows her choosing for herself instead of doing what everyone else is telling her to do. Or refusing to do something she finds morally wrong. As on marrying Rochester while his wife is still alive and in the attic. It doesn't matter if she is insane and can not be a proper wife her and Rochester are still married and Jane Eyre refuses to compromise her morals.
What she sees in Rochester is beyond me unless it some sort of weird bond because he was kinda the first person to actually be nice to her.
I feel vindicated for also not liking Jane Eyre
came for the book roast, stayed for the great moral compass 💖 subscribed!
Aw thanks! Welcome 🥰
Anne’s book 4 was terrible for me as well (the cat, the fricking porcelain dogs and the uncomprehensible removal of any sweet words in Anne’s letters to Gilbert - I felt so robbed lol), and I had a hard time with the two following. I even thought of giving up the series. But I somehow learnt that these three books were written way later than the last two (if you consider the chronological order in Anne’s life) and that explained a lot indeed. So I decided to give a chance to books 7 and 8 since they were written earlier. I still have the 8th on my shelves but the 7th truly reconnected me with the series, with the joy of childhood and youth. As for the 8th, I am very curious of how the author will manage the ahem, losses, when she has such a habit to "fade to black" each important and traumatic event. Like how will she dodge (if she does try) the first world war ??
The 8th book is gorgeous and I highly recommend! It’s one of the three books in the series I gave 5 stars.
@@PlantBasedBrideI plan to read it in the first quarter of 2025, I have a reading prompt in a seasonal challenge asking to finish a series. I’m looking forward even more !
Totally, totally agree about Mr Rochester and Heathcliffe - you are not alone!!
A REAPER AT THE GATES?!!?!?!?! just fell down to my knees noooooo :(
Right because that was my fave of the series omg. I also was hyper focused on the romance(s) tbh that may have impacted my reading experience
I feel like my list of disappointments this year is longer than of love😅 so many books are just written sooo bad! At the level that it seems like they never seen any professionals before publishing 😮 what is going on(((
Not a novel, but a manga that was so incredibly disappointing was “Boy Meets Maria” by Kosei Eguchi.
The synopsis described the story as a gender-identity and sexual-identity journey. But what actually transpired, was a story about a boy who was so traumatized by his mom forcing him to be a girl as a kid and his predatory elementary-school teacher attacking him, that as a high school student he didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl (even though he identified as a boy and appeared male and didn’t like when his classmates would refer to him as a girl).
So to me, it read as a strange explanation that some people don’t identify as their born gender because of parental abuse and childhood SA???
The weirdest part was how his classmates referred to him as a girl and were all “so confused and frustrated” because they didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl.
I disliked it so much I made my very first goodreads review about it. 😂
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. I love thrillers. Was excited to see good reviews, popular, recommended. 2 stars. It was missing something. I just couldn't connect. It felt very much like she took aspects from my favorite thrillers and badly weaved them together. I was sad.
Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights. I think everyones reaction is the one we are sopose to be having. (Hell in the late 90's in English class we as a class desamated the book and movie) one the are examples of actual romantic and gothic literature. And i think it is a bit of a warning about wanting certain things. And the reality of those things. Willow talks books on RUclips has a great video on both books.
i can't speak to its quality as i haven't read it yet, but there's a queer re-telling/re-imagining of jane eyre called escaping mr. rochester on my TBR! it seems we're not the only ones who can't stand mr. rochester.
OMG adding this to my TBR immediately!
my disappointing reads: I read 26 books last year which is more than I've read in several years.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Pineapple Street
Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries
The last book of Richelle Mead's Bloodlines series
and Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult
I have different reasons why for all of them and don't want to get into it or write a novel in a youtube comment lol. Also, your top10 I've never heard of any of them except Jane Austin and Brittney's memoir. The memoir is still on my TBR but I've heard a lot of negative reviews about it that it makes me nervous and maybe I don't want to read it after all. Is it still worth it? would you still suggest people read it or are there more worthwhile memoirs out there? I read I'm glad my mom died and very much enjoyed it.
Your hair is truly to die for😭
Aw thank you! 🥹❤️
My worst read was weyward by emilia hart. Had potential, but ultimately, I feel that it went in very weird directions at times.
I almost included Weyward on this list but ultimately didn’t because I didn’t really have many expectations going into it. It was a let down, though!
Extinction disappointed me too. I felt like it was two different stories, trying to be one, because he wanted to veer much farther from Jurassic Park type stuff than readers would expect, and also because he was perhaps stumped on how to write what it looked like the book was supposed to be, and still differ enough from Crichton, , and still be awesome and twisty, so he jumped the shark (even a Megalodon would have been more interesting than what he did) and mashed in a plot that felt like it needed to be a different book. Forgive my run-on, I have fibromyalgia brain fog. I was also somewhat disappointed in Hello, Beautiful, but I am starting to figure out that stories that cover 3 or more decades of someone's life, may need some kind of other hook for me, as reading such a length of life can feel like a bungee stretching further and further, and when you reach the end, if the result isn't as satisfying as seeing the bungee finally yank back the other way, it falls a bit flat for me. This tells me that perhaps this story structure doesn't suit how my brain is wired, and that it's at least partially me, and not the story. I also tried to read Things We Never Got Over,and Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. The former I dnf'd because, for myself (not judging otherwise) i find the term, panty-melting to be a bit eyerolling cringey. I tolerate it it if not excessive, because some things are just generational differences perhaps, but this started so early in the book, and kept on, so I dnf'd it because it was going to drive me nuts. H&E Grocery, I dnf'd partially because I found the writing style much drier than expected , but also because it was becoming clear it was gonna be that long bungee stretch over decades. I knew going in it would be, and the book's description had me thinking the end might be more satisfying than Hello, Beautiful, so I pushed farther into the book. At 30% I dnf'd, because the writing style was making it a slog. This may be one I would prefer as a movie, if done right. Happy Place, the one little thing that would have solved the main characters 's problem, reduced my enjoyment. However, I enjoy so much the setting, the other relationships, and so much else about the book I give it a 4 anyway. .
Usually I enjoy Stephen King (I've read about 20 of them, or so) but beside the attack of the 60lb lobster on the beach scene I didn't go for The Gunslinger. As for Ministry of Time I would disagree on at least one point: As a spy novel it was very good in its real-life presentation of actual agents working at a Ministry. Additionally, I think any author who spends too much time on the mechanics of time travel has difficulty re-finding the main story's thread. King did it very well in 11/22/63: There's a portal that takes you back to 1959; I don't know how it got there or how it works. It's just there. Doesn't waste time explaining something that doesn't exist.
Jane Eyre is exactly what you describe and I find the adoration it inspires totally inscrutable. Nonetheless, the human heart is a mystery, as is the world in which we live. Some of that mystery is our own fault and some of it seems built in. However, a good coincidence and a good reveal with a twist are important to novels.
Enjoyed very much - thanks.
Do you ever like novels with irredeemable or terrible protagonists?
I sometimes enjoy them (Gone Girl) and sometimes can’t finish them (American Psycho), but that seemed to be a common thread among many of the books mentioned here.
I have, yes! But they’re definitely a hard sell for me as a character-driven reader. It’s one thing if it’s an unlikeable protagonist, but they’re really layered and interesting, and the themes are engaging and so on, but with a book that’s just meh overall that has a main character I can’t stand, I’m unlikely to enjoy it.
@@PlantBasedBride That’s totally fair. I just know some things are an absolute NO for some readers, and didn’t know if this tends to fall in your ick pile. 💚
Also, I HATE it when a sequel or book in a series is just garbage. Possibly unpopular opinion: couldn’t finish “Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” because I couldn’t find the energy to care about any of it, even though I loved and have re-read the Hunger Games trilogy. 🤷🏻♀️
I agree that the Silo series lost quality as it went on - but I really liked Shift.
I enjoyed aspects of both Shift and Dust, as well! They were just nowhere near the quality of Wool in my opinion.
My biggest reading disappointment was learning about Alice Munro and her daughter. Her stories now smell a bit putrid.
I cannot agree more about the Charlotte and Emily Bronte male protagonists. Apparently I need to read something by Anne, because she's allegedly the only one of the three who didn't romanticize abusive jerks. 😂
It breaks my heart that you disliked "drawing of the three" so much. The dark tower series is one of my favorites. But I understand.
Totally agree on all the other stuff though. I cannot believe how overhyped "the ministry of time" is.
LM Montgomery was kind of forced to keep writing the Anne series. You can tell her heart wasn't in it. I never got past book four.
Book 5 and book 8 are worth the read, in my opinion! Anne’s House of Dreams (book 5) was published 2 years after Anne of the Island (book 3) and books 7 and 8 were published after that. It’s books 4 and 6 that were written later, and you can tell. Rilla of Ingleside (book 8) is gorgeous!
I know it’s not listed here but is this a safe space to say that this is how I felt about all fours by Miranda July? 😭
I was quite disappointed with The Ministry of Time as well. I initially had high hopes, but the audiobook experience unfortunately detracted from my enjoyment. The acting performances were, frankly, quite poor.
Similarly, I was let down by The Only One Left. This was my first (and likely last) Riley Sager novel. I found it underwhelming.
I gave up on Riley Sager a while ago. His books never work for me!
A Reaper at the Gates was such a disappointment after the first one. I made it through but immediately decided not to continue the series.
keep going wth the dark tower series!
Luster and Stone Blind were my lowest rated of the year, and I expected to like both of them going into them 😢
THANK YOU for your take on Jane Eyre. I expected this groundbreaking piece for its time, only to feel enrage as the story progressed. While I had a different opinion from you on Mr. Rochester, in my review on Storygraph I’d said that he would’ve needed TONS of therapy and introspection before he can ever think of having a relationship with *anyone*, let alone Jane. I DNF’d 70% in and am not sure if I should continue, because where I was at Mr. Rochester gave me the ick after his love confession post reveal, and it infuriated me that it’s set up for Jane to end up crawling back to him. I may have to see your review for myself to see if it’s worth trying to pick it back up again.
I am glad to know that Ministry of Time isn't good. I like the idea of time travel stories when they're done well.
The Honey Witch is a new witchy fiction that dropped this year and it was so disappointing. The magic system, the way the author wrote thing, the character's description and the choices she has to make .. all horrible. I also recommend avoiding the Belladonna trilogy (YA fantasy) by Adelyn Grace... Gorgeous, captivating covers, mid-level, repetitive, uninspired writing at best. 2-3⭐ per book for me, not worth it.
I've just finished a disappointing book: Chicano Frankenstein. I mean, the premise sounded great to me and I thought it was going to be more wholesome, but it got me thinking about how reanimation works by erasing your identity (not a spoiler, it's in the description of the book) and there were a couple of plotholes that bugged me... it's a short novel, and unlike many others, I feel there are around 50 pages missing here to fully enjoy it 🫠
I fully agree on Jane Eyre. There were good parts, but i don't get the hype
The worst book for me was I wish you were here by Jodi Picouit. The very beginning and halfway through was really good but after that like wowww really. Love your channel btw.
Right there with you about Rochester and Heathcliff. So off putting.
RE the Dark Tower series, my husband says "Nooo, get out, get out now!"
RE Jane Eyre, I had little to no knowledge of the book when I had to read a passage for a class last year and I was REPULSED by Rochester! I had no idea from the passage that he was the leading man and not just some creepizoid.
I'm currently reading the Tuesday Next series and they make Mr. Rochester a noble character rather than an adulterous creep AND give his wife a role, so that's fun. I think Jane Eyre still worth the read, obviously (it's on my TBR again for 2025) but to me it gives me the same vibe as young women getting swept up by ~older experienced men~ and it's so special to be ~chosen~. Reading with a modern feminist eye is very asynchronous and gives a wildly different experience.
LOL people seem to either love or hate the dark tower series 😂 I don’t know what to think!
Yeah, Mr. Rochester is awful. He reminds me of older men who tried to take advantage of my youth and inexperience when I was fresh out of school and it gives me the ick 😑
I hated “The turnglass” so much, the premise was great, the writing and story awful. And “The familiar”, even though I wasn’t expecting very much of it, it ended up being even more awful than expected.
I really love the Dark Tower series and especially loved Suzanna, so do agree with the King fans that she does become one of his best characters. HOWEVER I think the Dark Tower series would have been better in hindsight without her inclusion as Stephen King is absolutely not the person to tell the story of a disabled black woman. I must admit though, early Stephen King is a problematic fave of mine. I can look past a lot because I find his world building and ability to create fully realised characters in their introductory paragraphs so compelling.
Ministry of Time definitely tops my list. The "kill your gays" trope is unfortunately present, and the main character RUNS to out a queer woman out of jealousy instead of just letting Maggie come out when she wanted to. Not to mention how the treated Simellia. The main character is full of microagressions and at one point insinuates Simellia is playing the victim while she is trying to have a conversation and relate to her and is "afraid" to pay her a compliment because she apparently can't do it without figuring out how not to be r@c!st? Unnamed protagonist leans very heavily on her white privilege and chooses not to reveal her mixed race heritage until people out right ask and is upset with her sister for being an activist and speaking out about their mother's treatment in England. I wanted to like Graham, but his decision to be friends with an objectively awful person (1743) was problematic. so many major themes were glossed over, like Grahams involvement in the Slave Trade and displacement of Indigenous peoples including the Inuit. Some of the dialog was hilarious (the discourse surrounding germs) and I loved how Maggie's character talked! But overall a HUGE miss for me.
I wanted to love The Stars Too Fondly (queer scifi!l) but it was barely mid.
A Study in Drowning was definitely up there for most disappointing for me. Such high expectations, such a boring/shallow/useless/dumb/terrible MFC
ooh and prejudiced! Which was never really addressed??
Hello, I’m happy to see you again!❤