the worst books i read in 2019 (oops, spilling the scalding tea)

Posted on by ilsa

why not kick off my end-of-year posts with…THE WORST BOOKS OF TWENTY NINETEEN. cus damn, there were a few. a lot of these are books i expected to be AMAZING and ended up being shit. maybe my expectations are too high.

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins [my review] – Look. I hardly ever read thrillers. This book was out of my comfort zone. And let me tell you, this reading experience was NOT worth it…at all. I thought…global best seller? the people must have taste. Clearly y’all are tasteless and LIARS. This was dreadfully boring. I didn’t care for a single thing in this book. And that’s the tea, sis

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman [my review]- I genuinely hate talking about this book because it pains me that this was supposed to be a five star read and yet it ended up being literal trash. I will always fail to understand why the hype doesn’t correlate with how good a book is. This was boring. And again, I didn’t care for any of the characters. Also, creepy atmosphere, WHO?

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan [my review] – Oof. I rated this FIVE STARS last year. It was one of my favourite books ever. Past Ilsa lied. I re-read this in preparation for the sequel (which was equally as bad as book 1) and i HATED it. There was no actual plot, the romance was rushed and stupid, and I find the main character VERY annoying. This series is over-hyped. I said what I said.

Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan [my review] – yikes. the side characters are what got me through this clusterfuck of a book. again, the romance is terrible. the plot is messy. it’s boring.

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Open Road Summer by Emery Lord [my review] – You know what? This book wouldn’t have been half bad if it wasn’t for the most rude, inconsiderate, slut-shamey, hypocritical main character I have ever read about. USUALLY, I LOVE MESSY TEEN CHARACTERS WHO DO QUESTIONABLE THINGS!!! i am a teen myself so ik we are nowhere near perfect. But the protagonist made me feel SICK. she is so so slut-shamey and mean, and I’d hate to meet her in real life. the entire book = boring + cliche + stupid.

Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman – What is it with all these seemily-amazing books turning out to be boring as heck? I found this book to be SO SO repetive it was like different metaphors about grief on every page. it was boring. There were some heart-warming moments but overall – boring and pointless!

Uprooted by Naimi Novik [my review] – the beginning of this book was so promising and then? it went downhill. Did not enjoy. This book dragged, the romance was yuck, and I didn’t really care for the sluggish plot line and the weird magic (and not weird in a good way).

(the formatting in this post was weird. idk why. don’t ask me. )

what were your worst books of 2019? do any match some of mine? do you love end of year posts? tell me all in the comments!

47 thoughts on “the worst books i read in 2019 (oops, spilling the scalding tea)”

  1. Although I liked The Girl On The Train, I love your review hahah. A lot of people enjoyed “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” and I actually had to fight through most of it oof. Same with “The Sun Is Also a Star”, I didn’t despise it but it sure as hell wasn’t as good as everybody said it was.

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  2. Your end of the post graphic with “let’s whisper” fits so well. It sounds like pssst let’s whisper all of the damn unpopular (but. like. right. lol.) opinions and watch the tea SPILL. truly. Also I applaud you for making this list!!!! Kudos!!! If I had to list all my ones stars we’d be here all next decade :). You be the voice of queenly reason and I’ll support you from the sidelines because I’m a lazy bastard.

    Yes people are tasteless WHERE ARE THE TASTEBUDS GONE see this is why I live under a rock for most of the year and emerge only for important happenings such as Halloween or the CDTH release day.

    The only book from this list I actually want to read is waitIforgot thetitleandI’mwritingthisonmobiledamnthis Summer Bird Blue because ace rep. That’s it. But I’ve found no book with ace rep I’ve actually liked all my life so like *rolls eyes in low expecations*.

    Anyway thanks for being the voice of salt!!!

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    1. hahah yesss. omg no ioana you should totally do 1 stars of the year I WOULD READ THE MONSTROUSLY LONG POST!! and excuse me you are anything but a lazy bastard ! ❤

      truly i should learn to live like you and only emerge out of my cave for special occasions (and i still need to read call down the hawk)

      jdhfj i hope u find a book which has good ace rep!! sbb was just boring

      and than you for being the voice of regaility!! (thats a strange thing to say and idk if it makes sense but leave me be.)

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  3. Totally agree with you on the girl on the train, I didn’t like that book but love your review😂. Open road summer was also on my most disappointing reads for the year. I was going to read the devouring gray but you saved me from that so thank you😆😊

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  4. I tried The Girl on the Train. So boring. I could not finish it. I really love Uprooted though 😢 One of my disappointing reads of 2019 was Muse of Nightmares. After the awesomeness of Strange the Dreamer, MON was really bad.. I nearly cried when I finished it. I think the series would have been better as a trilogy. It was so rushed and they added too many new characters. So sad…

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  5. I read Open Road Summer earlier this year! I did like it, and a country singer tour/road trip sounded like an interesting plot, but there were some bits that were a bit annoying, all I can remember from the book is the best friends fighting and then Matt turning up at Reagan’s house to play her a song he wrote so she’d forgive him (I feel like that’s repeated too much in movies 😂)

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      1. Honestly it’s been so long since I read it I had forgotten all of that 🙈 It was a good plot idea though but the rest hmmm I think I’d like to see it rewritten

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  6. I’ve never read any of the books but I’ve always had an eye out of Uprooted because I quite enjoyed her Spinning Silver! I know there’s a lot of hype surrounding Girls of Paper and Fire but I decided to give it a pass bc I heard of the trigger warnings and I thought it’d be better if I just didn’t read it…

    I don’t think I have any books I actively hated but I actually DNF’ed Aurora Rising after seeing a description that rubbed me the wrong way…haha it just bothered me! Everything else was alright, that simply bothered me too much. I did love Illuminae which they wrote! Did you read that series (for me only read the first!)?

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    1. i think you might enjoy uprooted esp since you loved her other book. i think it was more of a me problem, than the actual book because i couldnt bring myself to care about anyone.

      i did read illuminae a few years back and it was …okay? i didn’t understand the hype so i just skipped out on the rest of the series.

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  7. You know, my instincts told me to stay away from Girls of Paper and Fire. I just had a feeling. And I hate it when I read a book for the first time and love it and then realize later that it wasn’t that good >_<
    And…Oh my goodness, I just read your review of the second book, did the author really complain on twitter about your negative review?? That's…something. Man, I'm glad I didn't read this book.

    I love your reviews! I hope you find some books that are actually good soon 😉

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    1. yuuuup. yeah, she basically subtweeted my review and then there were loads of replies saying what a terrible review that is…and i was just like in my head THATS MINE. it was hurtful, but also i recognise my responsibility in theimmaturity of my review.

      thanks becky!

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  8. I am with you on the Girl on the Train, there are so many better thrillers out there. Not a single character is likeable and I found myself not caring what happened.

    Also somewhat agree on Girls of Paper and Fire. I didn’t hate it but don’t think it lived up to the hype. I do still have the sequel on my tbr so will see how it goes.

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  9. I haven’t read any of these but it’s sad that books don’t live up to their hype. I’ve heard so much about The Devouring Gray and Girls of Paper and Fire but it’s hard to work out whether loads of people like the books or if people are influenced into increasing their ratings just to fit in??
    Honestly, you have the best salty posts but I hope 2020 is a better reading year for you!

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  10. Aw, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy these. 😦 Hopefully, you’ll have a much more positive reading journey in 2020! This was such a funny post, though, so ty for adding a bit of humor to my WordPress feed! 🙂

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  11. seeing gopaf and sbb on this list makes me sad but you KNOW i’m with you on gosas…. god if book 3 isn’t good i’m gonna cry. also everyone’s disappointment in the devouring gray makes me glad i’m not reading it (still mad that there were no poc characters—at least from what i remember hearing—and the author literally said it was a diverse squad of characters or something)

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    1. good luck on book three cus i am NOT putting myself through the torture of another book. (yeah i dont remember any poc characters lol. and i thought there would be queer rep but it was barely there…like a lot of characters are bi but like it’s hardly ever discussed/evident…if that makes sense…?)

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  12. I love this! It hadn’t even crossed my mind to share my least favorite reads but I think it’s an amazing idea. Now I don’t feel bad about not liking Uprooted. Once when I visited a library I found it there and decided to give it a chance. I didn’t make it far. I agree the pacing it’s torture. But so many people seemed to like it so I felt like the odd one.

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  14. omg I’m glad someone’s saying that about Open Summer Road. I think it got a cover rebrand or something and I got sent a copy recently? And I was just 😳 it was SO slut shamey and I felt uncomfortable and odd about the entire book. (I also hate country music with a fierce passion so that probably didn’t help. 😂) Summer Bird Blue wasn’t for me either, I was sad. 😔

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  15. I completely agree with on about the girl on the train – I read it a while ago and was excited because it was a bestseller, I got disappointed!! and I’m really scared right now tho, because I really enjoyed girls of paper and fire, and haven’t read the sequel (I’m really sorry to hear you didn’t like it, I’m reading too many negative reviews and I’m scared)

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  16. GOPAF was not special, you tell them!! ok, that’s rude—I’m happy that people loved it more than I did, but that book was super mediocre in my opinion 🤧🤧 And yesss to Uprooted! I mean, I gave it 3 stars, but it was a very low 3 stars. the romance was disguuusting. like, the Dragon is literally an old man, and Agniezka or whatever her name is is a teenager!!! I have no idea what they saw in each other!! i cringed so much when they had sex lmao.
    (and i’m sorry that you hated The Devouring Gray. i’ve heard mixed things, but somehow i still wanna read it)

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    1. DONT REMIND ME OF THAT SEX SCENE it was soooo awkward and not well-written and made me cringe SO BAD i hated it. (i hope you enjoy the devouring gray. i feel like some people would love it…but that someone wasn’t me. maybe my expectations were too high)

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  17. Oh, thank the stars for your real taste and sense! The Girl on the Train’s mood was bleary at least and depressing at most (plus, it should have been named The Girl and her Two Bottles of Wine and the Gin Cans honestly… those were in every scene).

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  20. Whoops, I’ve been looking to read GOPAF for a while now, considering it’s Asian (I think?) and sapphic and thus automatically everything within my heart. Guess I’m going to proceed with cautious optimism (I’ve been reading a lot of terrible reviews from bloggers I usually trust, somehow, you just tipped the list over to the point I can’t ignore it anymore). Anyway, good post:)!

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      1. so I did manage to read it a couple days back, and a lot of your points were glaringly obvous and I couldn’t help but notice them after you pointed them out…but I did end up loving it overall! I swear, I’ve never related to a book more – and maybe all the nostalgia from the vivid descriptions of Bengali food and weddings and stuff played a part, but guess that’s personal. still loved your review, though! it was a nice dose of objectivity – because we’re all obviously bound to not agree on everything – which was pretty interesting and most definitely didn’t hurt:)

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      2. oh whoops okay I thought this was a reply to my comment on your review for The Henna Wars! Ugh I’m such an embarrassment can we just pretend this never happened?

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  21. There are so many new York Times bestsellers that have turned out ro be soo mundane and boring.. especially all of John Green novels… I found every one of them, especially the fault in our stars to be extremely overrated… The Girl on the Train is no different. I had expectations from it that went right down the gutter half way through the novel

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