I loved many of the books I read this year, but I also had some big disappointments. Not all the books on this list are books I truly disliked, but some I expected to really love and they ended up being just okay (hence one of my "biggest disappointments"). Here are some that I didn't like or was disappointed by for one reason or another:
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley - I've liked other Lucy Foley books, but I just couldn't get into this one. The last quarter was decent, but it took me too long to get into it.
Atomic Habits by James Clear - This one wasn't necessarily bad, just very basic. It's rated highly and some of the booktubers I follow recommended it, so I was excited about it and was hoping it would be helpful, but I was disappointed. I thought I could have gotten the same thing if I'd just read the chapter summaries at the end of each chapter. It was fine, but I didn't get anything out of it. I'm happy for anyone it did help though!
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - This is another that I'm so glad some people love, but I didn't. I usually like complicated friendships, but these two didn't seem like actual friends. I also had some trouble keeping track of all the characters, possibly because of the audiobook. Someone could change my mind, but I'm done with this author for now.
Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss - I've been looking forward to reading this for years. I'm an English teacher and librarian, and it seemed like something that would be fun and right up my alley. Unfortunately, I felt simultaneously bored and stressed while reading this. The tone was pretty condescending and pretentious. It also made me anxious about school for some reason, which isn't how I want to feel while reading.
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer - This wasn't bad, but I was disappointed because my expectations were too high. I gave Meg Shaffer's last book (
The Wishing Game) five stars and since this one was supposed to be inspired by Narnia (a favorite series of mine), I thought this one would be just as good or better. However, I didn't like the relationships between the characters for some reason, and those were at the heart of the story. I should have loved this, but something about it didn't quite work for me.
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle - Okay, so this is a weird one because I loved the writing style, but some of the content drove me crazy. I don't want to give anything away here, but my review was pretty spoiler-filled. If you want to see what I didn't like about it, you can read my review
here. I will read more by this author though because I do like how she writes. I just need a whole new story.
There were a few that I just gave up on for one reason or another as well:
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon - I struggled to get into this one for some reason. I might try again at some point, but I'm not sure. I think something about her writing might not work for me, but she is so beloved that I'm not sure about giving it up for good.
Abandon by Meg Cabot - I probably would have loved this as a teenage (Hades and Persephane - should be my thing!!), but it was another that I couldn't connect with. I gave up after about 20%.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride - I'm going to assume that this one actually is good and that I jsut wasn't in the mood for it because everyone I know who has read it has loved it. I don't know what my problem was, but I gave it up at about 50%. I may or may not try it again in the future.
There you have it! I genuinely hope those of you who read these enjoyed them more than I did! I don't think this list is too bad though as I read more than 100 books this year. Honestly, only one or two of them I entirely disliked, but I can see redeeming qualities even in those. Life is too short to read books you don't enjoy though, so I'm glad there are only nine on this list. Hopefully 2025 will have even fewer!
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