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  • Writer's pictureJaime Leigh

Most Disappointing Books of 2017


It’s that time of the year again!

The time to talk about all of the books that we didn’t like this year. Fortunately, this year, I didn’t have a lot of books that I outright disliked. Most of my least favorite books were just incredibly disappointing. So today we are going to discuss some of my most disappointing books of 2017.

(Note the general *this is just my opinion* disclaimer and understand that I applaud authors for even writing a book. However, it is important to be constructively critical of the literature that you consume. Not all of these books I gave low ratings. I can be disappointed in a book and still give it a higher rating.)

All cover art comes from Goodreads.com

Number 6: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Everything, Everything was the biggest contemporary of this summer. The movie was set to be released, and it looked incredibly promising. So, naturally, I picked the book up. I was alright with the basic storyline and the instalove that Olly and Maddie had. They were adorable together, so I didn’t mind the “girl falls for the first boy she sees and then obsesses over him like he is her one and only stars and moon for the rest of the book” cliche. Side characters, like Carla, made me smile and added to the overall reading experience. Yoon’s writing style and the whimsical, illustrated nature of the novel blended very well. However, Everything, Everything had some big problems. My main two problems concerned how alcoholism and mental illness are portrayed in Everything, Everything. I am going to borrow a quote from my original review because it sums up my feelings on the first problem.

“However, due to the complexity of alcoholism as a mental and physical disease, due to how little time was spent explaining the complexity of Olly’s situation/the tumultuous emotions that he was experiencing by living with someone with alcoholism who was abusive, and because I feel like Nicola Yoon was just trying to pick something that had weight enough to make the reader empathize with Olly’s home life, I believe that the themes of alcoholism and abuse needed to be removed or replaced from Everything, Everything. Yoon could have accomplished the same thing that she was trying to do with Olly’s father’s disease (create a reason for both the reader, and Maddie, to empathize with Olly and his situation) by instead creating a vague reason for Olly’s parents to have a tumultuous marriage. A more vague reason for Olly’s parent’s conflict would have provided the same impact of a complicated and torn home life for Olly while matching the overall tone of Yoon’s novel better.”

In addition, the plot twist of this book is relatively shocking, until the reader understands that the “twist” is centered around a mother with an incredibly crippling mental illness that is never addressed in the end of the book. On top of this, Maddie does a 180 by the end of Everything, Everything and becomes cruel to her mother. I understand the situation Maddie was forced into was anything but easy. However, it is obvious that Maddie’s mother is suffering in ways that she will not be able to solve on her own. Neither Yoon, nor Maddie, do anything to remedy Maddie’s mother’s situation, provide closure to her story, or provide a reason for the readers to be generally empathetic. In the end the “villain” of this story is a mentally ill mother and that didn’t settle well with me.

Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18692431-everything-everything?ac=1&from_search=true

Number 5: Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

Again, this book was riding the hype train full steam ahead when it first came out. Finding Audrey was touted as a ground breaking contemporary that centered around a protagonist with anxiety and a love story where the boy doesn’t sweep in and remedy the girl's mental illness. While I obviously had problems with the book, I will applaud Kinsella for trying. Kinsella works hard to incorporate a dimensional portrayal of anxiety into Audrey's story, including discussion of not only Audrey’s anxiety, but also her therapy sessions and medication management. Audrey has several panic attacks over the course of the story, which were portrayed similarly to the actual reality of panic attacks caused by obsessive thoughts, panic disorders or anxiety. Even with a heavier subject matter, Kinsella managed to incorporate quite a bit of humor into the story as well, which provided room for the reader to breath between more intense scenes. However, for all the nods I can give this book, I was disappointed with it. I don’t believe that Kinsella went far enough with Audrey’s illness. There are some vague mentions of bullying and trauma that Audrey experienced in school, which is why she is homeschooled and wears sunglasses. Yet, there is never a concrete explanation for what triggered Audrey’s episode. It just sort of seemed like Kinsella was writing the story and was like, “and some stuff happened that was awful and now she has anxiety and an interesting quirk, on to the love story!” For me, this simply wasn’t enough. In addition, Kinsella pushes hard throughout the novel to have Audrey end her mental health journey in an epiphany and overcome her glasses wearing by the end of the book. Unfortunately, she doesn't designate enough of the story to depict Audrey’s recovery in a healthy or realistic manner. The audience is lead to believe that Audrey has been struggling with her mental illness for a while and has also been trying to manage her anxiety along the way. Even though Audrey’s love interest doesn’t necessarily heal her, she does magically recover by the end of the story. In the last 50 pages Audrey has one of the biggest panic attacks of her life, runs into a park, loses her glasses and comes back basically cured. There are little to no side effects of coming off of her meds, she is immediately put on new meds that work perfectly for her, and she doesn’t wear glasses anymore because she just happened to lose them in the park. As someone who struggles with anxiety, I was hoping for more from Finding Audrey that wasn’t there, which left me very disappointed.

Full review: http://weareonthesamepage.wixsite.com/justjaime/single-post/2017/06/22/Finding-Audrey-by-Sophie-Kinsella

Number 4: Sourdough by Robin Sloan

Many of you know that I enjoyed Robin Sloan’s previous novel, Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore. Therefore, I went into Sourdough with high hopes. Some aspects were enjoyable. The Lois Club is quirky and adorable. The brothers who gave Lois the starter were also fun side characters. Finally, the discussion of food and technology was actually interesting in some parts. Still, most of this book was incredibly boring. Nothing happened, and then everything happened all at once. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense and the magical realism/science fiction element of the book doesn't seem to work as effectively as Sloan meant it to. In the end, Sourdough pulls a full Rumor Weed from Veggie Tales meets Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Sloan is very aware of the giant leaps he makes, going as far as to have Lois reference Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Overall, Sourdough was very lackluster and wasn’t what I was hoping for in the slightest.

Full review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2098570862?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Number 3: Little and Lion by Brandy Colbert

When I first read this book, I was like, “I don’t know what I am going to rate it.” That’s changed. This is easily a 1 1/2 or 2 star book. At first, I applauded Colbert for the amount of intersectionality and diversity that she incorporated into the Little and Lion. I also acknowledged that bipolar disorder isn’t one of the mental illnesses that is typically highlighted in literature, so I did give a nod to Colbert for writing a MC with bipolar disorder. I also appreciated the strong sibling relationship that L&L is centered around.

That’s about all the credit I could give it.

The characters weren’t dynamic in the least. They were incredibly irritating and it didn’t help that there really wasn’t much of a plot. Maybe there was one, but it didn’t move very quickly. On top of this, Little and Lion book is one big love squiggle. Everyone is seemingly in love with everyone else and you sort of just want everyone to be alone and figure themselves out. Even if you are a fan of love triangles, the love triangle part of the plot doesn’t kick in until most of the way through the book. Ultimately, a book that I hoped would be one of my new favorite mental health books became a book that just left me frustrated.

Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25062038-little-lion?ac=1&from_search=true

Number 2: Genuine Fraud by E Lockhart

I loved We Were Liars when I first read it. I read it in one night and I remember it being the only thing that I could think about for days. Looking back on it, some of the clues to the “big twist” are pretty obvious. However, that doesn’t decrease the amount that I enjoyed it. When I heard that E Lockhart was coming out with another book, I had to get my hands on it, whatever it was about, ASAP. Then, when I learned this book contains an unreliable narrator, a story written backwards, and a mystery all in under 300 pages I was stoked. Yet, Genuine Fraud was *incredibly* predictable. I know this is probably how many people felt about We Were Liars, but I guessed what was going to happen after about 20% of the novel. Genuine Fraud’s predictability wasn’t as bad as its pacing. The pacing is all wrong in this book. It feels so slow. I know! For a book about mystery, intrigue and an unreliable narrator, this book should have been exciting. Even in the most intense moments of Genuine Fraud, I didn’t feel the same pull to finish it all in one night that I did with We Were Liars. The pace just mellowed out the whole story in a way that made action scenes feel just as unriveting as the coffee date scenes. On top of the story itself, I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and I didn’t think that their actions were sensible. I know Genuine Fraud isn’t supposed to be a sensible book. Still, I expected the plot to seem the tiniest bit realistic, which it didn’t. There were also a couple of questionable lines. One was the "hetero masculine superhero" or alternative ways of saying "a ripped white dude". These lines were humorous the first time around, but the more Lockhart employed them the more annoying they got. Another of my least favorite lines was "feminist yet feminine". The way this phrase is written implies that those who are feminine are not feminists, or that you can't be feminine and feminist. I think that this comparison was poorly done and a little off-putting.

Ultimately, I will read Lockhart’s next book. However, Genuine Fraud missed the mark for me, and left me sceptical for Lockhart's next publication. I originally gave Genuine Fraud three stars, but after writing this review, I bumped it down to two.

Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33843362-genuine-fraud?from_search=true

Finally...

Number 1: All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis

I feel like this is not a surprise to anyone who has been following me for the past couple of months. I feel like I haven’t shut up about how disappointed I was with All Rights Reserved. It frustrates me to the nth degree when books have amazing concepts that are unique and then they fail to deliver. Other than the cover and the concept, I didn’t like anything about this book. I hated the way that Katsoulis approached suicide, a surprisingly prevalent occurrence in ARR. Speth’s reaction to Bridgette Pell’s suicide was distasteful and perpetuates the stereotype that those with wealth or money can’t also be impacted by heavy societal pressure and mental illness. Beecher’s suicide, which served as a catalyst for Speth’s story, provided no emotional impact and seemed like a throw away aspect of the story. On top of everything else, the pacing and overall plot seemed underdeveloped and lethargic. I can’t wait to see what those who do read the second installment in this series say about it, but I will not be picking it up myself. One star out of five.

Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33257478-all-rights-reserved?from_search=true

What do you think? Did you read any of the books on this list? Did you enjoy them, or did you have similar feelings to mine? Let me know in the comments down below.

-Jaime

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