the most disappointing books of 2022!

Hello, friends!

It’s been a while! I didn’t mean to take an impromptu hiatus but a lot has happened over the past few weeks.

For starters, I’m writing this from my dorm room in Orlando, Florida as I am participating in the Disney International College Program! I am currently working in Animal Kingdom and will be until February. It’s been an experience, to say the least. Not enjoyable for the most part, but I’m hoping to do a few more exciting things before I leave that will hopefully make this worth it.

Because I was preparing for this three-month long trip and also because I was facing a total reader’s crisis and reading slump, I ghosted for the past four weeks. But I am back for the best time of the year: wrapping-up all the books I read in 2022!

Let’s start with the worst & most disappointing ones! I will also be sprinkling some HSMTMTS screenshots to make this a bit more fun and not so negative all the time.

ONE. THE FOURTH TIME CHARM BY MAYA HUGHES

While not the most disappointing book of 2022, since I didn’t have high expectations going into it, this book was still annoying AF. I hated all the characters and it didn’t help that, even though this was released only a couple of years ago, it doesn’t even pass The Bechdel Test because every other side character is a man. It was so weirdly misogynystic and not hot at all. Just a complete, total mess full of Chads.

 

 

 

TWO. THIS WILL BE FUNNY SOMEDAY BY KATIE HENRY

Definitely a more clueless character than Seb was the protagonist for THIS WILL BE FUNNY SOMEDAY. I had hopes as I had previously really loved Katie Henry’s writing, but I hated how the side characters constantly had to educate our protagonist on social issues that affected them. They ended up being not much outside of their oppressions which is not exactly good representation (laughs nervously). The fact the main character seemed to be first learning about misogyny at her big age of 16 years old was… very jarring to read.

 

 

THREE. THE CHANDLER LEGACIES BY ABDI NAZEMIAN

There’s nothing worse than the feeling like the author really is just trauma dumping as much as he can to get a reaction out of the readers and, hopefully, some likability for his characters. Unfortunately, that’s not really how it works. THE CHANDLER LEGACIES offered me no plot but constant “character introductions” until the 80% mark and then rushed with a conflict that felt so underdeveloped and like a complete afterthought. Also, it doesn’t matter how many bullying scenes you include, this will not help with me liking your characters unless they have an *actual* personality.

 

 

FOUR. CAZADORA BY ROMINA GARBER

The thing I loved the most about LOBIZONA was how easy it was for me to feel connected to Manu and resonate with her struggles. This sequel, though, took out so much of her inner monologue that it really felt like I was just watching her go through stuff but not actually *reacting* to any of that stuff. It was so sad to see something I had enjoyed so much be completely absent for the second book. It was also really sad that this was supposed to be a duology but it clearly won’t be which means now I have to wait for a third one.

 

 

 

FIVE. A SKY BEYOND THE STORM, BY SABAA TAHIR

I really wanted to convince myself that Laia would not ruin this series for me, but she kinda did. To be fair, a lot of this last book is a mess. The book’s pacing is an actual tragedy, with the author making a bunch of dumb decisions to buy herself a few more pages, and incredibly repetitive chapters. I also hated that the political landscape, which was SO interesting and made this series SO unique was completely forgotten and taken over by the fantasy plot that ultimately ended with the cringey and corny message that “love saves it all”. Very much YA energy indeed.

 

 

SIX. FAMOUS IN A SMALL TOWN BY EMMA MILLS

(This sounds like something an Emma Mills character would say)

It is true that there’s nothing wrong with this, but I was so let down as someone who had really enjoyed Emma Mills in the past. The conclusion to the big “mystery” in this book is so convenient it hurts and not satisfying at all. I also felt like the side characters are forgiven way too quickly and the protagonist sounded exactly like all the other Emma Mills’ protagonists – her biggest fault is that she’s nice and she’s a chronic people pleaser. Yeah, seen this before. TWICE. Let’s revamp, please!

 

 

 

SEVEN. DARIUS THE GREAT DESERVES BETTER BY ADIB KHORRAM

Again, I wanted to like this so bad! But it was such a mess. The love triangle involved the “bully’s best friend” (yikes) and a cardboard cutout of a character whose only personality trait was that “sex was very important to him (double yikes). The characters weren’t even good enough to be unlikable! The scenes were incredibly repetitive, coupled with a mechanic writing style that didn’t allow for any good conclusions to be drawn on page by the characters. Everything was so superficially discussed and it was even worse that the major thing Sohrab – the awesome side character and Darius’ best friend – was going through happened exclusively off page because the author just didn’t feel like intertwining this incredibly important character with the main plot in a way that was actually good.

 

EIGHT. HUSBAND MATERIAL BY ALEXIS HALL

Live footage of me as I finished this book. Y’all, this was absolutely the biggest betrayal of 2022. I still have not recovered. I LOVE Boyfriend Material aka the first book. I had it in my list of best reads of 2021. I was living for the sequel. HUSBAND MATERIAL is so terrible though omg. The book’s pacing is a mess, we see so much more of the side characters than the actual protagonists and all their scenes are just a repetition of the same conflict again and again and again without ever coming to any kind of satisfying resolution. It was such a stupid conflict too and didn’t make any sense to begin with. The ending of this book was so fucking frustrating and I seriously need all authors to stop writing sequels for their standalone books and ruining my life.

 

So, friends: what was the worst book you read in 2022 and why? Was there any major betrayal from an author you had really trusted in the past? Let’s chat in the comments!