t kingfishers the twisted ones had fart jokes at the climax of a horror monster attack scene, it wasnt scary even though all the reviews said it was, i was recommended it several times even after i said i didnt like it, and the narrator did terrible accents the whole time.

Jaws i gave much lower stars too and i actually prefer the movie, there was unnecessary cheating scenes and the wife was more of a main character who cheats on her husband to feel younger and it doesnt help the story at all and seemed to be pointless basically ruined the book for me.

Haunting at hill house- the only fear here is the fear of being alone, it wasnt scary, the pros were okay but not amazing like everyone says, the characters felt flat, honestly i will never read one of her works again it was so stupid.

Miss Lonely Hearts Club by Nathaniel West

A Question of Travel by Yvonne de Kretser. It’s a shame as I loved the first third but it promised much and delivered little. I came to dislike the female protagonist so much. The male I liked. We follow these two separate stories for 500 pages expecting them to come together and they do, but barely and with no significance, and then the book is over.

Spring’s Arcana by Lilith Saintcrow

DNF at page 179 when Jesus crucifies Jay Gatsby. (Yeah, you read that right).

Tower of dawn

“His Pain” by Wrath James White. I was trying to give Extreme Horror / Splatterpunk a chance because a booktuber I like reads a lot of that. I had my prejudices but decided to at least pick 3 books by different authors that fit the genre, and try to go in with an open mind.

“His Pain” was extreme all right. Extremely excruciating to get through. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a published author (with loads of high reviews and everything) with such pathetically bad writing. Then there were lazy tropes, handwaving, medically and anatomically impossible ideas - it was everything I was afraid Extreme Horror would turn out to be.

One of the other two books was actually pretty enjoyable though, so I know the entire genre isn’t like that.

…Fourth Wing…

I book club’d this with my wife. I couldn’t stand the characters, or keep my eyes from rolling every time a character tried to lore dump for ‘world building’.

Also (minor spoiler) the explicit sex scenes felt wayyy out of place - because the book reads like a YA fantasy (complete with immature protag) and the all of a sudden it’s smut city. So weird man.

7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Boring skank pick me.

Like I said in other time, the worts book I read this year, is probably, “IT” by Stpehn King. I love the author, he made me want to be a writter, but defenitly he get lost in this book. Maybe the book could have been 500 fewer pages and it was still a great book.

Yet, you kept reading… hmmmm

Easily These Violent Delights - I was influenced by BookTube to get it.

I found the story so dumb and predictable, with some elements added apparently “just because”. I didn’t like the plot, found the characters insufferable, didn’t root for the couple AT ALL (in fact I think they’re much better off apart), and overall just felt like it was a waste of time

I didn’t expect to feel this way before I read it, but the answer is definitely “Blood Meridian” for me. It was not an enjoyable read and the lack of punctuation was maddening. The overall story was good, in retrospect, but the read wasn’t enjoyable for me.

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Augustina Bazterrica. It’s a short story collection from the author of Tender Is The Flesh, but the stories go nowhere. Some aren’t even stories as much as they are fragments of thought with no plot/action/resolution. I’m not sure if there was a problem translating this book to English, but the version you can buy from Barnes and Noble is awful.

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu.

I did not like the main character, as she seemed very immature and was simply insufferable - I was just not vibing with the way she was talking and the way she was rude a lot of the time for no apparent reason. There were a lot of mention of the character’s ‘‘vag’’ and pubes… I will never forget the way the author wrote ‘‘Fanny flutter alert’’ when the main character saw a scenery that she thought was beautiful and impressive. All the more disturbing when you know the main character is 14 years old. That was a big no from me. I feel like the author tried too hard to make her relatable to younger people of our generation, and failed to do so.

Just no, thank you. I will NOT be continuing on with this series. 🥲

I’m just going to say it, it was Invisible Life of Addie LaRue for me. What a boring person surrounded by other boring people, and one casual moment where the author mentioned that an inconsequential side character was “a Black girl with dreads” sent me into a rage spiral because how in this story spanning 300 years was every freaking character white? How relentlessly unrelatable and boring. I had no sympathy for the character Addie and the book felt like watching paint dry except it was just watching someone live with the consequences of their own foolish choice.