2023 R&R Part 3: Disappointments

Books I wish I liked, but didn't

This year I struggled a lot more with trying to read, finish, and engage deeply with books I didn’t enjoy. Part of this was a commitment to reading more widely in terms of genre. Another aspect was adding BIPOC writers to my lists. In some sense, I feel like I have failed to become a better reader of underrepresented voices because I didn’t find books that I loved.

Luckily, I’m not dead yet, so there’s still time.

Books I did not enjoy fell into a few different categories, including:

1. ”Not my bag” (I don’t care about this topic/world/character)

2. ”What just happened?” (Books with endings that didn’t stick the landing)

3. ”Did they write this to make me suffer?” (Protagonist goes through hell, and as I reader I go with them, but there’s no payout)

4. ”I have no idea what this author was trying to tell me” (Is it OK to not like books that make you feel dumb when authors didn’t get their point across to you as a reader?)

When a Cozy Leaves Me Cold: Your Souffle Must Die was unclear what sort of book it wanted to be. Was it about chocolate? A messy divorce? The perils of catering? The author was giving copies away at a convention and I can guess why it hasn’t sold very well. Despite a fun cover, the book has five acts and they’ve all been switched around. The mystery doesn’t begin until Act 2 and the best climax is in Act 3. The book ends happily, but by the end, I was so exhausted from spending time with a yo-yo-emo main character that I was happy to be done. Nothing in the book sounded appetizing to me, which is not a good recommendation for a cozy starring a chef. The most enjoyable parts were the Madonna Inn-like descriptions of the pirate movie star character’s house. It had fun dialog and was wonderfully creative, but mostly it is a useful book for taking notes and learning how NOT to structure a story.

I (Still) Don’t Like Horror: I finally got around to reading some of the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire because they are beloved by people I admire, but they are not for me. The one available from my library, In An Absent Dream, was utterly enthralling despite some very dark elements. Only after finishing it and looking for more in the series did I discover that it was Book #4 and a prequel. I did read two others from the series, but I won’t be reading anymore. These are children/young adult horror and I found myself alternatively checked out because I didn’t care about the characters and disgusted by the horrific elements. I will be on the lookout for McGuire books that sound like they will resonate, but this series is not it.

What Did I Miss Here? There was a massive amount of hype around Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell a while back, but I felt like this book needed an editor. It was one of the slowest-paced books I read all year.

I should have loved it: Unique magic systems! Fascinating characters! Plots, subplots, speculative Regency historical and political elements! These are a few of my favorite things…and yet. I couldn’t WAIT to be done with this book. I usually luxuriate in descriptive language, but I just couldn’t engage as the book tortured its characters and took waaaaaaay too long to resolve.

Wondering if all of Clarke’s novels were the same, I took a chance on Piranesi (after checking the number of pages). This book is the illegitimate love-child ofThe Magician’s Nephew and The Slow Regard of Silent Things. It rolled along at a constant pace, avoiding the long spans of boredom I felt in between the forward plot motion in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I enjoyed it despite being much more explicitly about deception and torture. I found the writing wonderful even while some of the revelations about the characters and events made me feel physically sick to my stomach.