The Worst Books I Read in 2023

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  • Опубліковано 22 жов 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 82

  • @KySpice
    @KySpice 9 місяців тому +56

    it’s a red flag to me when I look at a book like The Black Queen on goodreads and most black women have dnf’d it and white women loved it but let me digress…. the genre of books using young black women as tragic characters filtered through a white lense is never gonna be my cup of tea. thank you for your perspective on this. edit: im also not a vibes reader like i can’t keep reading if its not adding up

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому +11

      THAT PART! I reviewed it early but it didn’t surprise me when my Black mutuals rated it low while my White mutuals rated it high

    • @coffee8599
      @coffee8599 9 місяців тому

      I'm white, and I hated it. Barely finished it. The premise was great. It could have been so informative and interesting. The writing and execution are terrible. We had no reason to be attached to the victim. She was barely even in the book. Duchess was also barely a character when she should have been the focus, and how her friends/partner talked/acted was just insufferable. Tinsley shouldn't have had a POV.. she wasn't even "unreliable" so you can question her innocence. It was just annoying and a mess all around.

    • @devonmunn5728
      @devonmunn5728 9 місяців тому +1

      That is something alot more white people should take into account. I'm white and whenever a lot of Black Folks are more critical of something in regards of something with Black Rep (like the show Them for instance) I take that into account if not avoid it all together

  • @simulacraet2155
    @simulacraet2155 9 місяців тому +10

    Honestly Fourth Wing has been super fascinating from a publishing/librarian perspective, the wild amount of hype and preorder vs the quality of the writing - my collection lib friends and i are loving watching it all go down 😅

    • @nanimaonovi2528
      @nanimaonovi2528 9 місяців тому +2

      I was loading people up on actually good read a likes all summer: "while you're waitlisted read 'His Magesty's Dragon', 'Tooth and Claw' 'Firebourne', 'Eragon' the Lady Trent Series..." Librarians be sneaky.

  • @parmahmac6073
    @parmahmac6073 9 місяців тому +16

    lol. I clicked so fast. Love the lip. I really don’t like the royals so I was never gonna read Spare. 🤷🏾‍♀️

  • @deartrisha716
    @deartrisha716 9 місяців тому +15

    “Like two rocks going at it” 😂😂😂

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому +1

      Lmao it was 😂😂😂

    • @KathleenSelden
      @KathleenSelden 9 місяців тому

      Came here to say this…I’m cackling 😂😂😂

  • @ashh88331
    @ashh88331 9 місяців тому +8

    Thank you Ashley for what you produce week after week. I appreciate your authentic candor and feedback about everything related to the bookish community. It has been a privilege to consume your book videos for approximately three years now. ❤

  • @Intro_Liz
    @Intro_Liz 9 місяців тому +12

    as someone who read iron flame in a delusion fit while having a cold let me tell you... i'm never getting those 3 days back 😂😭 violet spends the whole book angry at Xaden for "lying to her" (he told her to ask questions and he would answer them and she never asks just expects him to tell her everything) then she turns around and lies to her group of friends 🙄

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому +3

      😒😒😒 see I’m glad my ass quit while I was ahead

    • @louc.6735
      @louc.6735 9 місяців тому

      for real, she was dating him for 24 hours before she learned about "the truth" ! what a dumb idiot!

    • @las8883
      @las8883 9 місяців тому +3

      Violet and Xaden’s whole “trouble in paradise” in their relationship was so nonsensical to me. It’s like the author couldn’t think of anything else to make their rift more interesting and understanding.

    • @louc.6735
      @louc.6735 9 місяців тому +1

      @@las8883 fr it just makes Violet look unreasonable. I'm enjoying the books for nostalgia reasons (they're Pern without the worst men you've ever seen), but they are Not Good.

  • @leabhairagustae7279
    @leabhairagustae7279 9 місяців тому +14

    Congrats on having such a good reading year in 2023, Ashley! Long may it continue!

  • @KaitlynMayReads
    @KaitlynMayReads 9 місяців тому +7

    I am also not a vibes reader lol. I'm the harshest critic in my personal book club and sometimes I feel like I'm a downer when everyone loved a book and I disliked it. But my brain can't let go of things (even if they're small) if it doesn't sit right with me. My worst book of the year was Wishing Game. I didn't enjoy the romanticization of adoption.

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому +4

      lol here’s to being a critical reader!

  • @ghanshyamsingh3653
    @ghanshyamsingh3653 9 місяців тому +4

    Ashley read them duggars for FIIIIILTH!!! I totally jumped to check them books being dragged for very real reasons...sooo loving the aesthetics, them lip and earings...👌💙👌🔥🔥 Love the vibesss 💙👍💙
    HAPPY NEW YEAR in the Bookish Realm 🎉🥳🎉🤗💙🥳🎉🥳
    Can't wait for them BEST BOOKS list! 😍🤤😍😜😍

  • @moustik31
    @moustik31 9 місяців тому +1

    Love the lipstick, the glasses and the earrings!
    🤩
    Edit: I LOVE Katee Robert's concepts but I have never been able to finish any of her books.

  • @hstevens44
    @hstevens44 9 місяців тому +5

    Oh gosh, definitely agree about Katee Robert. I had two books I absolutely hated last year; No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and The Fencing Master by Alexandre Dumas. No Longer Human is a semiautobiographical look at the authors struggles with depression. That part was super raw and really well done but he was so incredibly misogynistic which made it a horrible read. I've been working my way through every Dumas book and this was my 14th one. They've ranged from two and a half to five stars. The Fencing Master was a one star. Dumas couldn't decide if he wanted to write a tsarist historical fiction or a road trip book about Napoleon in Russian so instead smashed these two things together and told random anecdotes about both that had literally nothing to do with the supposed main character. The main "hero" harassed and kidnapped a woman until she agreed to be his mistress and ruined her whole life and business but it's shown as romantic. And then there is a scene fetishizing Romani people that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot and wasn't necessary in the slightest. Oof. Sorry, had to get that all off my chest 😅

    • @Atalinay
      @Atalinay 9 місяців тому +1

      I like No Longer Human, but yes the character is deplorable. Also I really liked reading The Three Musketeers by Dumas but i never quite finished it- and when i did... i don't fully remember the details but it was 'grape' and bc she was a villain i think we were supposed think it was retribution or something. reprehensible really

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому

      Dangggg that sounds rough AF

    • @moustik31
      @moustik31 9 місяців тому +1

      I was re-reading The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers in December and I was IN RAGE! Dumas is really sexist!
      😡

  • @CirceWasJustified
    @CirceWasJustified 9 місяців тому +2

    I was just watching a video from you a few weeks ago and wondering why you haven’t done a dark lip look in a while! Love it 😁

  • @AurYouReading
    @AurYouReading 9 місяців тому

    👀 Now I have to know about that Jane Eyre retelling. I love Jane Eyre. And now I’m thinking I need to reread Wide Sargasso Sea, too.

  • @RobinReads
    @RobinReads 9 місяців тому +1

    okkkayyy bringing the lip color back for us! damn i was gonna check out that libba bray book because i need more diviners vibes! guess not 😂

  • @SheriMaple
    @SheriMaple 9 місяців тому +11

    I watched Happy Shiny People on Amazon Prime a few weeks ago. I'm not surprised that Jill isn't telling all in her memoir. She does have a relationship with some of her family members, her mother included, but it is nonexistent with her father. Being in a cult for a long time, along with the familial dynamics, is more complicated and complex. Jill hasn't confronted her trauma with the sexual abuse of her brother. She will need therapy, but I don't think she has the emotional maturity to see it. She didn't want to discuss what happened to her in the documentary or interviews I've watched. It appears she exhibits the behavior of a person who's been groomed.
    Her father and brother are predators, and that is where we should focus our attention. I'm not reading the book due to watching the documentary. The idea of disciplining children in a way that should only obey authority figures e.g. parents, leaving them vulnerable to predators as they haven't taken a child's ability for discernment and critical thinking about the world around them. I read Educated, and Tara Westover stopped short of writing that her brother may have sexually assaulted her.

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому

      I need to check out the documentary. I still haven’t watched it.

    • @cakt1991
      @cakt1991 9 місяців тому +2

      She mentions in her book that she *is* In therapy, and I’d say based on the book she’s made more progress than some of her other siblings, especially Jinger, who also wrote a book in the past year which I heard from reviewers like Fundie Fridays didn’t do as much work unpacking those issues. While I don’t agree with all her choices, I don’t judge her as a victim for how she’s handled things, reading the book provides a lot of the context, at least in my opinion.

    • @SheriMaple
      @SheriMaple 9 місяців тому +2

      @@cakt1991 That’s good to know she’s in therapy. It’s an ongoing process and will take a long time to unpack her feelings and unlearn behaviors she learned in childhood.

    • @simulacraet2155
      @simulacraet2155 9 місяців тому

      @bookishrealm i watched the docu and it made me feel big feelings since i have a similar upbringing but it was WELL worth the watch

    • @TimeTravelReads
      @TimeTravelReads 9 місяців тому +1

      Jill doesn't have to give all the details of her sexual abuse. We don't have to know that if Jill doesn't want us to. We know something happened and Jill should get to decide how much we know of the details. That's a boundary Jill put in place years ago, probably because she IS in therapy. We should be putting focus on the victims, not just giving all the attention to the predators. Predators will be predators. We need to understand and punish them, but ultimately the victims need support to continue on after abuse. To say otherwise makes it seem like predators define victims when life will move on and become multifaceted to some extent.

  • @FromJessToYou
    @FromJessToYou 9 місяців тому +1

    I haven't read Fourth Wing (no plans too) but I loved hearing your thoughts. 😂❤

  • @Sophie_Milagros
    @Sophie_Milagros 9 місяців тому

    These are some of my favorite videos! One romantascy book that I really loved was The Ever King by L.J. Andrews. Ps. Happy New Year✨

  • @ArcticWolfe84
    @ArcticWolfe84 9 місяців тому +2

    I was ultimately entertained listening to the audiobook of Fourth Wing, but you are 100% correct about the world. NONE of it made any sense!! And the slight nod to some aspects of this in the second book (which was just worse, overall) didn't make up for it, especially when it added in a whole lot of its own nonsense.

  • @anjar6483
    @anjar6483 9 місяців тому +1

    I was surprised to see Counting the Cost on this list because it was one of my favorite books of 2023 in spite of all the things you mentioned. Her husband's transphobic comments didn't affect the reading experience for me bc it wasn't his story. Yes, he technically was a co-author, but it wasn't really about him and I didn't want to judge Jill based off of her husband's actions.

  • @TimeTravelReads
    @TimeTravelReads 9 місяців тому

    I think the reason Jill doesn't hold her mother accountable is that her mother has little power in the IBLP and she's trying to have some relationship with her mother. That doesn't make it right necessarily, but I think Jill wants to have some quiet influence over some of her siblings through her mother. The siblings have been threatened to be cut off if they publicly say anything positive about Jill, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of them have quietly gotten her book anyway. Should they be willing to be cut off? Maybe, but they weren't educated, and Jim Bob has made most of them financially dependent on him. As long as they're stuck believing that they shouldn't pursue educations or jobs outside of what Jim Bob provides, they'll be dependent on him.

  • @linds1122
    @linds1122 9 місяців тому

    2023 was an overall great year for me in terms of reading; though to be fair, I was rereading a lot of favorites. The worst book I read last year, and quite possibly the worst book I ever read, was a novella called Seeing the Light. I hated this book! The mc was a deplorable human being, it made no sense why any of the other characters like her, the writing was very meh and the plot was nowhere to be found. It only took me 2 hours to read and that was too much time to give to this book. Unfortunately, this was a signed book I received years ago, but I could not keep it around as it just made me angry whenever I saw it.

  • @caitlinlucyhenderson8417
    @caitlinlucyhenderson8417 9 місяців тому +2

    Romantasy is more miss than hit for me but if you want keep trying the genre there's a few that I've liked. My favourite is definitely A Taste of Iron and Gold by Alexandra Rowland, who has a new book coming out this year. Some other good one are the Sorcerer to the Crown series by Zen Cho and the Last Binding trilogy by Freya Marske, both of which combine romantasy with historical fiction.

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому

      Oooo I want to read A Taste of Iron and Gold! I’ve heard good things.

  • @cakt1991
    @cakt1991 9 місяців тому

    At first I had no idea why you didn’t like Reader, I Murdered Him, but when you were talking about the ending, it dawned on me the only reason *I* liked it was because while I like the book Jane Eyre, I find Rochester creepy, and I ironically love any book that recognizes how bad a person he actually is!

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому

      Lmao maybe I should read the original work

  • @MythicalDelenn
    @MythicalDelenn 9 місяців тому

    That's disappointing about Hunt on Dark Waters. The concept sounds interesting, but Katee Robert is really hit or miss for me so I'm not confident I'll enjoy it, especially without the element of reminding me of worlds I already like that her other books have.

  • @corvins_cash
    @corvins_cash 9 місяців тому

    That lip color is so amazing! I also really disliked Fat Angie. I always love watching your videos!

  • @asimpleworm
    @asimpleworm 9 місяців тому

    Off topic but you look amaaaazing i love that lip color~

  • @heyimsasa
    @heyimsasa 9 місяців тому

    the romantasy bar for me is way too high after i read 'daughter of the moon goddess.' nothing else compares for me. i agree with this entire list and i'm really glad your average rating this year was so high! here's to another great reading year for you!

    • @Rachopin77
      @Rachopin77 9 місяців тому

      I was a big fan of daughter of the moon goddess! Beautiful writing, interesting Chinese mythology, and stakes that made sense but weren’t awful and emotionally draining for me

    • @moustik31
      @moustik31 9 місяців тому

      That book was so good, the author even sold me on the love triangle!

  • @lusalma5404
    @lusalma5404 9 місяців тому

    Question - Fourth Wing did you read it or did you listen to it on Audio? I enjoyed it on audio but it was a popcorn read and definitely had plot holes :). If you want some romance fantasy I highly, highly recommend Sharon Shinn. If you want a straight up fantasy - Elizabeth Moon Deed of Paksenarrion. Urban Fantasy - Always Ilona Andrews. Nalini Singh more on the Paranormal Romance Side.

  • @andeeharry
    @andeeharry 9 місяців тому

    Hey there, happy new year. The lip colour suits you

  • @Atalinay
    @Atalinay 9 місяців тому

    Dunno if you'll make this video for Realm of Comics, but my worst book was "We Only Find Them When They're Dead". It is sci-fi graphic novel in an era where giant gods are dead corpses in space and are 'mined' for meat and materials. Things aren't explained enough. The characters are super flat. The plot is whatever. And the art had it's detriments.

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому +1

      I definitely have this video coming out on the comics channel. Should be up on Friday 😂

  • @Katiedora122
    @Katiedora122 9 місяців тому

    My reading year was mostly mid to positive range, but my worst book by a lot was easily Remember Love by Mary Balogh, who is typically one of my reliable historical romance authors. And while I had some issues with the repetition in her Westcott series (a somewhat understandable offense given that it's based on one family reeling from a scandal that affects them all differently), I don't think Remember Love even saw an editor. Like the inciting event from the blurb doesn't happen till 40%, the time jump somehow makes things worse, and the melodrama was unpleasant. It was a recent read for me, and I'm still trying to shake it off, lol

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому +1

      Oooo that’s unfortunate 😩😩

  • @ohladysamantha
    @ohladysamantha 9 місяців тому

    I had a pretty good reading year but some of my worst included: Well Travelled by Jen DeLuca (that series needs to end), Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory (i'm over her and this book was BORING but it was a gift so i tried) and Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor - so long and for what?

  • @chocolateoreo6489
    @chocolateoreo6489 9 місяців тому +1

    You are a stunning person, inside and out ❤

  • @johan0626
    @johan0626 6 місяців тому

    Iron Flame was worse than Fourth Wing. You didn't miss out

  • @moustik31
    @moustik31 9 місяців тому +1

    Does the Black queen have blue eyes on the cover?! I dont like it.
    🙅🏾‍♀️
    Edit: I'm here for the celebrity memoirs bashing! Given how polished they feel, I'd rather read an investigative journalist book on a celebrity.
    🍿

  • @JoshsBookishVoyage
    @JoshsBookishVoyage 9 місяців тому

    Great video. I'll be avoiding all these haha

  • @never-endingquestions3314
    @never-endingquestions3314 9 місяців тому

    I'm currently reading a book called Mothered by Zoje Stage. I've been reading it for MONTHS and at this point, I'm not even sure what genre this book is supposed to be. Has anyone else read this book? Am i tripping or is it a hard read?

  • @imaraoctavia
    @imaraoctavia 9 місяців тому

    I’m Interested in why you use Goodreads instead of an alternative, not shaming or anything just asking
    PS: I didn’t like the black queen either, reminded me of Ace of spades mixed with blackish. I was so sad about it because the cover was beautiful

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому +2

      I tried SG but they didn’t have a lot of comic single issues that I read and I got tired of having to add them to the system. It’s easier to just work with GR.

    • @Atalinay
      @Atalinay 9 місяців тому

      Is there an alternative you like? GR is still somehow most convenient for me. My 2 tries of Story Graph didn't import my books correctly. However GR will never improve whereas others have that ability. I think I'll try StroyGraph again

  • @ladyredl3210
    @ladyredl3210 9 місяців тому

    I wanted to love Reader I murdered him, but I hated it so much. It was on paper a book I should have loved but between the biphobia and the weird French stereotypes, it just… it was bad.

  • @nicoswanmakes
    @nicoswanmakes 9 місяців тому +1

    We missed the lip!!

    • @BookishRealm
      @BookishRealm  9 місяців тому

      ❤️❤️❤️

    • @nicoswanmakes
      @nicoswanmakes 9 місяців тому

      @@BookishRealm thank you for taking the hit for us for these. The Dugger family is so disturbing to me and gave me the confidence to call my family Native Fundamentalists. There's so much CSA with many of our supposed "traditional men", it's disgusting. I had to make the choice to raise my kids outside of our community and teach them traditions at home and experience chosen family.

  • @EvieM1
    @EvieM1 9 місяців тому

  • @jacobneale5844
    @jacobneale5844 9 місяців тому

    ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ :)