Welcome to another Bookish Byron post! I want to start by saying my Monday and Friday blogging schedule is now back in session. I’m sorry for the sporadic posts these past three weeks – it won’t happen again.
Today, we are discussing my disappointing books of 2017. These are books I had high expectations for but they unfortunately let me down, not necessarily books I didn’t enjoy (otherwise, this would be a much longer post). If you’re interested, here’s a list of my favourite books of 2017.
There’s a mixture in this list. Some books I had a specific idea of how the story would turn out, but in the midst of reading them they let me down. Other books I had to DNF because they were boring or unfulfilling. Quite a few of the books in this list are very popular and highly praised, but for some reason or another they didn’t work for me. I apologise if any of these are your favourite books, but I couldn’t connect with them.
Enjoy!
The Hobbit | 2 out of 5 stars:
Middle-earth has been something I’ve grown up with, so I had high expectations for the novels. I haven’t read The Lord of the Rings just yet, but I did read The Hobbit in 2017 and I hated it. I was constantly disinterested in the story, hated the narrative voice and felt little-to-no feelings for any of the characters, which really frustrated me considering I’m such a huge fan of the movies.
I managed to pinpoint the reason why: it’s children’s literature. Anybody who knows me is aware of how much I hate children’s literature. The main reason I dislike this genre is purely down to the narrative and writing style. Quite rightly, the author uses plain and simple language to reach that lower-aged audience, but it didn’t work with this particular story. Considering it’s a fantasy novel, it lacked huge detail and mature content that would have helped me to imagine the world. If it hadn’t been for the movies, not only would I have struggled to conjure the characters and settings in my mind, but I would have been continually confused with the plotline. It had a lot of potential, but it fell short.
Additionally, I think Tolkien tried to shove too much action into the story. It would have been more successful if written as a duology. Important chapters lasted next to nought, and irrelevant chapters went on forever. It was unfulfilling and my most disappointing read of 2017.
Uprooted | NO stars out of 5.
My first DNF of 2017 went to Naomi Novik’s Uprooted. My biggest issue with this one was the writing style. Novik wrote in extremely long sentences, never knowing when to use a comma or a semi-colon (or a full-stop for that matter). I felt like I never got a chance to breathe and take in the story. Additionally, the characters were just the worst. Agnieskza had special snowflake syndrome; she put herself on a pedestal, but in reality she was one of the dullest character I’ve ever read about. She constantly moaned, persistently made mistakes and was just simply annoying. I kind of wish the Dragon locked her in the tower and that was that – at least I wouldn’t have to read about it then.
Speaking of the Dragon, what does everyone love about him exactly? Despite being enigmatic, he was also highly abusive (both mentally and physically). Every word he said was laced with harshness. He was a bully and I didn’t like the way the narrative dismissed this. Also, he didn’t shapeshift into a dragon so that was an immediate criticism from me.
The idea of the story was so interesting and something that was right up my alley, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. I hardly ever DNF books, but I just couldn’t deal with this one. I wasn’t interested in seeing where the narrative went, which is really disappointing.
Emily’s Journal | 1 star out of 5.
The main reason I was disappointed with this was because it was not Emily Brontë’s journal, but a fictionalised version by Sarah Fermi. The only reason I picked it up was because I thought it was Emily’s actual thoughts and feelings, so when I realised it wasn’t I was frustrated and annoyed. Essentially, Fermi tries to convince us of a love affair between a young Emily and a poor weaver’s son, Robert, in order to provide a reason why Wuthering Heights was written so passionately. It was based on loose evidence and biased assumptions, which really came across in the story so I wasn’t convinced.
Not only that, but I hated the way Fermi portrayed the sisters. Emily lacked that passion we all know and love, Charlotte was just so horrible, and Anne was constantly overshadowed by her religion. They were exaggerations of the sisters. I think this book was a complete mistake and I would never recommend it.
The Raven King | 2 out of 5 stars:
I so wanted to like this. I really loved the first three novels when I read them two and a half years ago, but this fell short for me. I partly blame myself for this; I should have read it when it came out and the first three were still fresh in my mind. It was difficult trying to remember everything, so I really felt out of the loop. Despite this, the bits that I did remember (mainly the relationships and Cabeswater), I thoroughly enjoyed.
The ending was also anti-climatic. I like a happy ending as much as the next person, but with this particular story I expected *THAT* person to die (and stay dead). If that happened, the story would have been more emotional and gut-wrenching, but it felt a little too unrealistic. In a story full of unrealistic occurrences, the ending was taking the biscuit. Not only that, but the first third of the story felt like a filler. Not a lot of significant things happened, it was just rambling, making it harder to connect to the characters. This was a huge disappointment to such an enchanting series that I once really liked.
All the Light We Cannot See | NO stars out of 5:
Yet another DNF from a book I’ve only heard great things about. I thought I would love this book because it was set during the Second World War, but I just couldn’t get into the story. I think my expectations were too high for this one; it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2015 and most reviews I’ve read have rated it 4 or 5 stars. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to those expectations.
The pacing was incredibly slow. Not much happened in the 144 pages I read, leaving me feeling unsatisfied and bored. Marie-Laure looked like a promising character on the surface, but the narrative ruined her potential. It was so disappointing and I wasn’t interested in finding out what happened to her, which still annoys me to this day. So if anyone has read it and wants to tell me what happens at the end I’d be eternally grateful because I am never going to try and read it again.
And that’s it. These were the books that disappointed me the most last year. Surprisingly, there aren’t that many, which is always a pleasant feeling. However, there were quite a few books I hated, but I didn’t expect anything less from them (that would be a whole separate blog post – check my Goodreads if you’re genuinely interested).
For whatever reason, I couldn’t connect with these books. I see why they’re highly praised as each writer offers something different, but they were just so underwhelming for me. What was your most disappointing book of 2017?
Thanks for reading, Lauren X
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