MOST DISAPPOINTING BOOKS OF 2020
In 2020, I read 60 books. Within those 60, I read a variety of genres. I listened to a dozen or more audiobooks. I read some amazing books. Some good books and some books that I wanted to throw across the room. Welcome to the post where I detail the books that I wanted to throw across the room or donate to a pyre. And some that disappointed me because I'm not that mean.
▶ D I S A P P O I N T M E N T S
(ARC OF THE SCYTHE BOOK 3)
AUTHOR: NEAL SHUSTERMAN
GENRE: YOUNG ADULT FANTASY
The Toll was easily one of my most anticipated reads of 2020 after that monumental and ground shaking cliff-hanger of 'Thunderhead.' I was chomping at the bit waiting for this book. I listened to it on audiobook because I wanted to get to it right away, and I didn't want to waste time at work. I cannot emphasise how much I was looking forward to this book.
It fell so short of the mark for me. I enjoyed the majority of it. There were some incredible twists and turns that I was not expecting. Yet there were moments where I was confused about the turn of events. They felt out of place for this story. It felt as if it was being shackled by the 'YA' category. I love this series, but I think it would've been infinitely better as an Adult Fantasy story. Sometimes I felt that Shusterman was wanting to go 'there' with his characters but he couldn't because of the age bracket that this book falls under. I was frustrated with this book. I enjoyed it, but I wanted so much more from it. It was still 4 stars. I just wanted my mind to be blown and for the series to go out with the ultimate bang.
(AURORA CYCLE BOOK 2)
AUTHORS: AMIE KAUFMAN & JAY KRISTOFF
GENRE: YA SCIENCE FICTION
Again, another anticipated read that failed to hit the bar that the previous book set. I read 'Aurora Rising' in preparation for the release of book 2. I fell back in love with this band of misfits, these dregs and I was loving every little easter egg that this first book seemed to have (Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica fan here) and I could not wait to see where this story goes next. As soon as I finished book 1, I went straight into book 2.
Aurora Burning started with a bang. Even thinking back now, I can't remember much about what happened in this book beyond Auri and Kal's boring storyline. I skimmed those chapters. I began to despise Kal and his 'be'shmai' crap. He told Auri that he wouldn't pressure her and this seeming Vulcan, physical, meant-to-be-together link but keeps calling her 'beloved' at every given opportunity. If I played a drinking game and took a shot every time he said 'be'shami', I would have been hospitalised with alcohol poisoning. It was obscene. Auri ended up being a Mary Sue character - so many chapters ended with her falling unconscious. It was annoying.
I loved everyone else; Scarlett is still my favourite. But Kal and Auri and their stupid love affair were beyond annoying. Now that book 3 has been announced (with a hideous cover, I might add), I'm not 100% sure that I want to read it if I'm going to get this lame romance. I'm 45% sure that I will read it because, according to my notes, I loved the ending... We'll see what happens.
▶ N O P E
These are the books that did nothing for me.
THE DISCOVERY OF WITCHES
(ALL SOULS BOOK 1)
AUTHOR: DEBORAH HARKNESS
GENRE: FANTASY
This book series had been recommended to me a couple of times, most notably by my sister from another mister. She loved it and devoured the whole trilogy and the television show. So, I started to read it...
I liked the first 200 pages as we discover everything alongside Diana. I loved Ysabeau. I loved the history between the witches, the vampires and the werewolves. And then, Diana had a breakdown, crying herself literally into tears because Matthew wouldn't let her come with him to make sure her apartment was fine. I couldn't believe what I was reading. This was a person that had rejected Matthew for so long and then all of a sudden she's in love with him, trying to seduce him, bed him, and then she's crying literal floods of tears at being separated from him. Insert eyeroll here.
I got past that and then got back into the swing of the book. Then, it was one reveal after another with Diana. Oh, she's this. But guess what? She's also this. And that. Oh and while we're at it, she's this too. This one woman cannot be all of these things. I wanted a badass witch and I got someone that kept crying. I stopped reading it with about 50 pages to go. I couldn't stomach it any longer.
AUTHOR: ROBIN MORGAN-BENTLEY
GENRE: LITERARY FICTION
This book would never have even been on my radar if it had not been for Emilia Fox. She was one of the narrators for this book and in a month where I challenged myself to read books associated with Emilia Fox, I decided to give this a shot.
I hated it. Lord, did I hate this with an all consuming passion. It started off grand. Nothing spectacular but the knowledge that I'd reach an Emilia narrated chapter at some point got me through the awful co-narrator. In my opinion, the co-narrator read as if he had been asked to read aloud in English class. None of the characters sounded like characters, or even vocally different. Imagine if a voice-over artist for Disney or Pixar read their lines so flatly? You wouldn't give it the time of day. This is what this narrator was like.
I was on my treadmill listening to this and I have never jumped off it as fast in my life just to stop the audiobook from continuing any farther.
AUTHOR: T.H. WHITE
GENRE: FANTASY
I used to love a good King Arthur story, especially one that had Morgause featured in it. In 2020, I decided to read The Once and Future King bind-up of all of the King Arthur stories by T.H. White. The first story, 'The Sword in the Stone' was delightful. It was the narrative that Disney followed for the animated feature film of the same name. So, that was good. I enjoyed that. They followed it surprisingly closely. The second book, 'The Queen of Air and Darkness,' which features Morgan le Fay and Morgause was good too, even if Morgause dies. As always. It's not a spoiler. She always dies. It was fine.
Then, I got to 'The Ill-Made Knight', and in strides Lancelot. God, do I despise Lancelot after this book. After book 3, I gave up on the whole book. One of the prevailing stories of Arthurian legend is the great love affair between Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, aka, Arthur's wife. In book 3, Lancelot grew up dreaming of being made a knight of the Round Table. He accomplishes this and promptly falls madly in lust with the Queen. To be noble and not cause a problem, he takes himself off on a quest to get over Guinevere. He meets a young maiden who reminds him of Guinevere, promptly sleeps with her thinking her Guinevere, gets her pregnant and then leaves. He goes back to Camelot, starts sleeping with Guinevere as soon as he's back because Arthur is away. He states time and again that Arthur is his King and best friend. Yet, he doesn't even try to deny Guinevere. Also, Arthur knows that this is happening behind his back! He KNOWS! Then, the maiden Lancelot knocked up comes to Camelot with Lancelot's bastard child and Guinevere tells Lancelot that he cannot sleep with her or this other woman. Excuse me, you cannot have your cake and eat it too? All of this with Arthur's knowledge and claiming to be his best friend?
I couldn't stomach this book any longer. People associate Lancelot and Guinevere as a great love story. BEEP! They're adulterers. Unapologetic adulterers! I couldn't take these characters seriously any longer and started to hate them. The book was already annoying with all of the anachronisms throughout it. Plus, Merlyn was a conniving bastard (no other word to describe him) because he meddled with Uther and Igraine just so Arthur would be sired. Igraine didn't consent to sleeping with Uther, she was under Merlyn's spell. I seriously started to hate Merlin after reading this. As I've grown and read more Arthurian books, I've grown to despise Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot and Guinevere and cheer more whole-heartedly for Morgause and Morgan/Morgana/Morgaine. I got about half-way through the bind-up before quitting.
*breathes deeply*
(THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS BOOK 2)
AUTHOR: CASSANDRA CLARE
GENRE: YA FANTASY
Okay, my gripe with this book series is this; JACE AND CLARY! At the end of book 1 it was revealed that they are brother and sister despite having the hots for each other throughout the book. In book 2, do they move on from those feelings? NOPE! They pined for each other, they made goo-goo eyes at each other, they daydreamed about kissing the other or touching the other throughout. 
Every thing else about this book series was fine. It was enjoyable but jesus did I want to take a knife to these books whenever Jace and Clary were like that. What's more is that I binged the first 3 books. I could read on immediately knowing that they weren't actually brother and sister. I had to Google it or I would've lost my damn mind. The original readers of this book series had to wait a year (or more) before finding out that they weren't actually related. Still, they shipped them. They shipped this pseudo-incest storyline. They liked it! Again, I refer you back to the above gif. Jace wasn't even a likeable character. He wasn't even good at being a broody bad-boy. He was a moaning idiot. One of my notes was; Clary could do better.
(CARVE THE MARK BOOK 2)
AUTHOR: VERONICA ROTH
GENRE: YA FANTASY
The previous book in this series was okay. It fell victim to the 'Young Adult' age category and would've worked a lot better as an Adult book.
My issue with this book was that it was so damn boring. I read this straight after finishing book 1, 'Carve the Mark', to keep up the momentum. The momentum from book 1 did not continue on to book 2. It stopped dead. The first 50 pages of 'The Fates Divide' was basically Akos and Cyra constantly being interrupted as they tried to have sex. I was bored from the moment I picked it up. It was not a good sequel, considering that this book was a duology. I skimmed a fair chunk of it before deciding to permanently put it down and quit it. Not good.
(HOUSE OF DRAGONS BOOK 1)
AUTHOR: JESSICA CLUESS
GENRE: YA FANTASY
I stopped reading this book at around the 150 page mark. When I first tried to read it, I felt as if there were far too many character perspectives. It would have been better had the narrative been third-person omniscient rather than character 3rd person perspective. It didn't read well that way and I couldn't get into it at all or even grow attached to any of the characters. The characters themselves felt like they were rip-offs of better characters. One of my notes was that "one of them was a shit Jon Snow." I clearly wasn't holding back. None of the characters excited me and the story didn't excite me. I didn't want to pick the book up and inevitably stopped reading it.
One of my biggest issues was the writing itself. In my notes, I wrote down one sentence that I could not believe made it into the finished book and that it didn't throw up red flags for an Editor; "She was more righter than she knew." More righter. MORE RIGHTER?! That's not even a word. That's not a proper sentence. It wasn't as if the character said it themselves. It was the narrative. I could not believe my eyes and it honestly threw my concentration off balance for another 10 pages.
And lastly....
(KINGDOM OF THE WICKED BOOK 1)
AUTHOR: KERRI MANISCALCO
GENRE: YA FANTASY
This book was one of my most anticipated reads of 2020. The book cover spoke to me. The story had me intrigued It started off strong...and then was like a free-falling funicular. The perspective of the book felt completely wrong to me for this kind of story. I was disappointed by Emilia as a character; she would be all fired up, angry and determined one minute, then she'd be crying and then placid as a sleepy kitten the next minute and she did this routine several times throughout the book. I got extremely tired of that dance very easily. It reminded me of the lead character from 'Ace of Shades' by Amanda Foody (another book which I hated).
The narrative itself felt very disjointed. It would go from here to there and back again but it didn't feel coherent. It didn't feel like a book being told in Acts. It was too chaotic for my liking and felt as if it was pieced together from parts of other books or self-serving for the author; as if she wanted to put this scene in here because she liked it and not because it would better the story.
With regards to the characters, I didn't like any of them. I didn't like Emilia, I didn't feel anything for Vittoria's murder, I didn't like Wrath. I certainly didn't find there to be any sexual tension between him and Emilia. When those kinds of scenes appeared in the book, I rolled my eyes and skimmed to where the narrative continued. Even the ending was boring. It didn't appeal to me at all.
I just wanted a badass witch. So many authors fail to deliver on that front. Any witches I've encountered in books are too sensitive, too naïve, too scared, too afraid of their ability despite being raised with it and trained to be brave - they turn to goo at the slightest rattle. I wanted so much more from this book and it didn't deliver anything. Additionally, despite being set in Sicily with food being a central component to the characters, not one dish sounded remotely appetising.
I've come to realise that I think I've grown out of YA Fantasy in a lot of ways. The Grisha universe will forever be something that I will continue to read. But witches, fairy tale retellings and stories that I want told under a YA umbrella, for the most part, won't be of interest to me any longer.
There you have it, a rant-heavy post about the books that disappointed and annoyed me in 2020. Have you read any of these books? Did you enjoy them or did you have issues with them like I did? Let me know. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely day.
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