2018 reading wrap up: let downs and dnf's (PART 1)

You know that saying - one man's garbage another man's treasure? Same here. Take these with a grain of salt. Or two (as I tend to hate books everybody else loves). 

I'm going in chronological order even, I feel so proper. 

1. The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn #6) by Brandon Sanderson

3/5 stars 

What. A Brandon Sanderson's book in this list? Am I mistaken? Have I lost my mind? 
No. 
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​Just because he's my favorite author, it doesn't mean that I can't be objective. And I am all objectiveness, really. 

I just really didn't like this 6th book (or second 3rd depending how you count them). 
It was a mess. I didn't hated it, I was just so disappointed in it - and thus it makes this list. Please don't disappoint me like that again, sir, okay? 

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2. The Thief (The Queen's Thief #1) by  Megan Whalen Turner

1.5/5 stars 

I really don't have much to say about this book, except - BORING. 

So, so boring. 

Like, wake me up when this is over boring. 

I'm not hating, I really just was so bored, how is this book a winner of anything I don't know. The only thing more boring than this book is probably this paragraph I just wrote. 
​See, objective! 

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3. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Creekwood #1)by Becky Albertalli

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DNF on page 80 and 1 star 

Oh yeah. This book. 
You know, just because the book is diverse - it doesn't mean that it can't be garbage. 

But try calling this book garbage on Goodreads - you will get crucified. Probably. 

The writing is awful. The representation is one sided. The jokes are racist. Life is easier for lesbians apparently. Tumbrl is mentioned on every other page. This book is a mess. 
Read Aristotle and Dante instead, much, much better. <3



4. Wicked Like a Wildfire  by  Lana Popović

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DNF on page 215 and 1.5/5 stars 

I read 5 pages of it and the only word that kept running through my mind was - pretentious, pretentious, pretentious. 
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It felt like the author just really liked using her dictionary - trying to fit as many descriptions and adjectives into one page as possible.

The main character, Iris is a bitchy bitch for no apparent reason. She's "breathtakingly beautiful, but she herself doesn't think so." NO, thank you! 
​All of the characters had as much dimension as a sheet of paper. 
I was bored. 
The plot? I don't know if there was a plot, but apparently I never got to it. And I generously gave up after 215 pages.

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5. Just Like Other Daughters by Colleen Faulkner

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2.5/5 stars 

I enjoyed reading this book, but I didn't particularly like it at all( if that makes any sense). And to be honest the more I think about it the more things I find to dislike.

I honestly think that when parents who have down syndrome child (or any other mental disability) read this book would be offended by the tone of the storytelling. I certainly was - and I don't even have kids.

The ending was the worst part. First of all it was very predictable. Second of all, it was just so messed up.
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6. The Queen of Subtleties: A Novel of Anne Boleyn by Suzannah Dunn

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DNF and 1/5 stars 

Look for the nearest dumpster because this is garbage! Trash. Total trash. 
I'm rude and I'm not even sorry. How this book ever got published I have absolutely no idea. 

Normally, I have the rule if I don't reach the 100 page mark, I don't rate the book, but in this case I am more than happy to make an exception and give this 1 star (even though it doesn't even deserve that). 

This reads like a trashy romance fanfic (minus the actual romance). The author obviously has no idea how people of that era spoke, so it's full of modern slang and curse words. 
Anne Boleyn's favorite word is apparently "damn".
King Henry has words such as "skedaddle" in his vocabulary. 
Anne's cousin just tells her to "f@ck off" and so on. 
STAY AWAY. 
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7. A Different Blue by Amy Harmon

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2/5 stars 

Man, I hate this cover. 

First off, the writing - the first 100 pages of the book are completely horrendous. It felt like somebody completely different wrote it. Normally Harmon's writing is lyrical and beautiful, and inspiring. This felt like something I'd read on a WatPad (which there is nothing wrong with, it's just not what I expected). A Different Blue was full of "he threw his hands up into the air", "he ran his hands through his locks", "I clipped", "growled", "sashayed to him" and more, - very cringe-y.

The book seemed to have no plot, or maybe too many plots - I honestly am not sure. So many things were happening, but then they all just ended up going nowhere.

I love Amy Harmon, but this was a huge miss for me. Or a mess - same thing. 
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8.  The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg

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2.5/5 stars 

"What in the world did I just read" - sums up this book very well. At least for me. Aside from giving it a low rating I actually do not think that this is a bad book, I think that this is a brilliant book - for the right audience. 

I like a little ambiguity here and there, but The Third Hotel is ambiguous on top of ambiguous - and at that point what is the story even? When the author leaves too much to reader's interpretation the story telling ceases to be, it looses its direction and it loses its own voice.

Everything would be made okay if the ending at least gave us something, but it doesn't. I finished the book, but I feel like I haven't, I still have so many questions and absolutely no answers. Sure, that is the point of this type of writing, but to be honest I'd rather have hard, but set in stone truths than delirious musings that go nowhere.
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9. The Hundredth Queen (The Hundredth Queen #1) by Emily R. King

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1.5/5 stars 

I have so many questions.
- Why didn't anybody tell me how bad this was?
- Why did I fall for the pretty cover yet again?
- Why didn't I DNF'd it?
- Why YA fantasy isn't really fantasy at all?
- Why did I spend $2 on it?

I do have to say that this had tons of potential. Tons! But sadly it was all wasted away. Partly because of the super Insta-romance, and partly because of the very detached writing.

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