Hey guys, it's Trina and this is my worst
books of 2016 list. When I say worst, I
don't necessarily mean that these are
objectively the worst quality or the worst
written, I just mean that personally
these are my least favorite books that I
read this year. I do hope that everyone
knows that I'm not attacking anybody
that love these books. You are free to
love them. There are six books on this
list. I have reviewed all of these books
either in a separate individual full
review or in my monthly wrap-ups
throughout the year so I'm going to skip
summarizing what they are about and just
let you guys know what it was I didn't
like about them.
Number six is The Love That Split The
World by Emily Henry. This one was a
debut novel this year. I was really
looking forward to it and it just
completely and utterly let me down.
It was just a mess. The plot of this book
was all over the place. I was really
upset that it started setting things up
that I thought were going to have like a
big impact on the plot and then they
were just dropped. This book could have
been two separate stories and I really
felt like the author didn't know which
story she wanted to go towards. Did she
want it to be a contemporary about losing
first love or did she want it to be a
time travel story? And there were so many
info dumps in this book in order to
explain what was going on that they just
broke up the pace so much. On top of that
the main character is a Native American
character but I heard and read articles
that it was pretty bad representation.
At number five on my list is Wink Poppy
Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke. To
me, one word that would describe this
book would be: 'lacking.' It was lacking at
character development. These characters
felt like just cardboard cutouts. it was
lacking plot. I found the plot
uninteresting. I couldn't really find it
honestly. It was lacking any sense of
intrigue because for a mystery or
thriller, the cover of this book says
that one of these characters is a liar
and you go into it looking for it. It was
also lacking in descriptions in my
opinion. Instead of actually describing a
scene and what was going on or how a
character was feeling, we were just given
one word that was repeated over and over
and over and over and over and over and over and over-
is that annoying?
That's annoying to me and that's how the
entire book. At number four on my list
is Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. This
book was really hard for me to rank
because I think is extremely problematic,
maybe to the extent that this could be
number one on my list, like at the very
bottom of the books that I read this
year because of what a problematic
portrayal of disability that I felt that
it was but there were a couple of things
that I enjoyed about it. I did enjoy the
characters and I was very very attached to them.
Unfortunately the character with a
disability, Will, who has quadriplegia, was
just grossly mistreated. He's really only
there to act as a prop. The only value
that his character is assigned is
bettering the life of the able-bodied
character. Number three on the list is
actually a set of two books that are in
the same series. I read them back-to-back
so it's hard for me to separate them in
my head so they're just both going to
get this one slot. They are Rebel Angels
and The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray.
These are books two and three in the
Gemma Doyle trilogy. There were many
reasons why did not like these two books
but the thing that I was the most mad
about was that the character of Ann is
constantly fat-shamed all throughout the
series and I was just getting really
frustrated with the way that this kept
happening. Like, I wanted vengeance for
Ann, that's why I kept reading the whole
series because I wanted her to burn
everything down in the end because I was
so mad at how she was being treated. What
the real nail in the coffin was for me
with these books is that at the very end
of book 3 we find out as a plot twist
that a character has been gay the
entire time, and a lot of you always get
onto me for spoiling this but guys, it's
not a spoiler. If it is written as a
spoiler it is bad representation and
that is ok to be talked about. Someone's
identity is not a spoiler. I totally
understand that characters may not tell
you right up fron,t they may not be out
of the closet just like real people may
not be, and that this was a historical
setting and there are many reasons why
these characters would not have been out
of the closet at the time. I respect that
they wouldn't have wanted to have been out
but this could have been revealed to the
reader or to other characters at some
point along the way that didn't turn
it into a plot twist added in just to
add drama because I just don't think
that you should add drama with
somebody's identity, you know? Number two
on my list is The Serpent King by Jeff
Zentner. i actually DNFed this book
once I hit the halfway point and the
reason for that is because something had
just been revealed to me that I felt had
no build-up whatsoever and it was a
thing that you should have seen it coming.
I didn't care about any of the
characters and once we got to the
halfway point I realized I don't care
what the outcomes are, I don't know where
this book is going, I don't want to know,
and so I DNFed it. I ended up letting a
couple of my friends spoil me on what else
happened at the last half of this book
so I do know everything that happened
and I was about seven pages away from
the plot actually occurring... over halfway
through the book. Like, if I don't know
what the story is about how am I
supposed to be invested in it? But to be
completely honest with you guys I didn't
hate or dislike this book enough for it
to even be on this list.
The only reason that it is on this list
is because I have had personal negative
interactions with this author and so I'm
just being transparent with you guys,
that is something that shapes my opinion
of his books. I have seen him doing
things that I feel are very disrespectful
to reviewers that have made me fear for
my privacy and some things that I have
seen him say made me really lose respect
for the way that he wrote the characters
in this book. I don't really want to like
get into the drama so I'm not going to
say the details of it, I'm just gonna say
personally I have not liked the way that
he has done some things and so I just
have no more interest in supporting his
books or anything like that. So that's
really honestly the reason why this book
is on this list at all. And number one on
my list, so the worst book that I read
this year was Dragonfly In Amber by
Diana Gabaldon. This is the sequel to
Outlander. I enjoyed Outlater when I read
it. Dragonfly In Amber though called to my
attention that rape is constantly used
as a plot device, that this relationship
between the main two characters has a
lot of really toxic elements to it. When
a main character is saying that they
live in fear of their spouse - that's not
a healthy relationship. It just is not.
There are many lines in this book that
perpetuate rape culture, they romanticize
rape, they victim blame when it
does happen to the woman, and I just took
issue with this. I've made an entire
video about it and why it bothers me
because of my
personal history. I did give this book two
stars because honestly I do think
there's quality in the writing here. I
think that the author is very well
researched but the relationships and the
overuse of rape and how rape was at
times portrayed as a bad thing worth
being killed over and then other times
portrayed as a good thing that is very
romanticized and desirable, that's what I
could not like reconcile those two ideas
in my head. I don't think that the book
portrayed it well. It's not for me.
Reading Dragonfly In Amber was like a
constant minefield of things that were
very harmful to me. But like I said I
gave it two stars because I did find
that there was some quality here. Now the
reason that this one still ended up at
the very bottom of my list as the worst
book I read this year is because of the
fandom. I totally understand the feelings
of fandom and just really being excited
about something. That has never bothered
me. I have never been upset with people
for liking this book but when I posted
my review of it, which was posted 6
months ago, I still, like every week I'm
always getting comments on that video. I
have endured so many personal insults
about my character, my intelligence, my
personal history, my relationships, and
how I'm just so stupid and I don't even
understand what history means. I have
really enjoyed the discussions from
people who have been open to actually
having a discussion but there have just
been too many cases of fans just
coming to hurl insults and assume that
I'm an idiot because I didn't like the
same book that they love and I'm just
over it. Honestly that has lowered my
opinion of the book even more. If you
loved this book that's fine! If you love
any books on this list
that's fine! So those were my least
favorite books of 2016. Again, I have
reviews of all of these somewhere on my
channel and I'll put links to those in
the description if you want to hear more
of my detailed thoughts on any of them.
In the comments I want you guys to tell
me what you're most disappointing book
of 2016 was. If you're wanting a little
relief from this negative opinion video
then my best books of the year video
should already be up or it will be up
soon. Thank you guys so much for
watching and I will see you in the
comments. Bye!
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