Top 5 Wednesday – January 16th, 2019

Top 5 Wednesday was created by Lainey at Gingerreadslainey and is now hosted by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes. Every week, book reviewers all over the world are given a bookish topic and respond with their top 5 books (or elements of books) that relate to that topic. Click here for the Goodreads group if you would like to learn more about Top 5 Wednesday and join in!

This week’s Top 5 Wednesday topic is the top five most disappointing reads of 2018. My reading year overall ended up being fairly average. There were a few novels that stood out and became new favorites as well as some that I really just didn’t enjoy. However, I would say most of them ended up being around 3 to 3.5 stars. That being said, there were still some books that landed at those rating or right below them that were still disappointing, as I had expected to enjoy them more than I did. So here are the top five books that fell a bit flat for me.

5. The Elizas by Sara Shepard

This was definitely the least disappointing on this list and I did quite enjoy the story as a whole. However, there were parts of it that brought my rating down lower than I thought it would be. The number one thing that caused this was that it was a lot less complex and dark than I usually like my thrillers to be. I believe this was due mainly to the fact that it was a young adult novel and not the adult thrillers that I tend to read the most. There were parts of the narrative that also felt very repetitive and choppy, so it was harder to connect with the writing and really get into the story. The tension would build only to suddenly stop without triggering any satisfyingly major event. And I really disliked the romance. In the end, I did give this novel 3.5 stars, but I had expected to like it a lot more than I did.

If you want to check out my full review of The Elizas, click here!

4. Doctor Who: Royal Blood by Una McCormack

I am a huge fan of Doctor Who and I always enjoy reading the book series as well. These novels are not the best literature, but they’re typically tons of fun. When I review these books, I do tend to evaluate them in a much different way than other books due to the style of the series. The premise of this one sounded particularly interesting and I was really eager to pick it up. However, there were so many issues with it that I just couldn’t ignore. It was a surprisingly challenging read because of the massive amount of typos and grammatical errors in the actual text itself. The plot was confusing and lacking the mystery it promised, and it really didn’t live up to its potential. The writing was also not the best, lacking detail and a good narrator. I ended up rating this one 2.5 stars.

If you want to check out my full review of Doctor Who: Royal Blood, click here!

3. The Toy Thief by D.W. Gillespie

I read this back in October but I haven’t yet written my full review. This is another premise that had so much potential, but it unfortunately did not live up to. It sounded like it would be a really creepy and intriguing story and I am a huge horror fan, so I was excited for this. But it wasn’t what I was expecting and was definitely not for me. The author’s descriptions—particularly of the main monster in the story—were so vague and I was completely unable to picture much of anything. There were some interesting aspects of the plot, but mainly it was quite uneventful and severely lacking in creepiness. And I absolutely hated the narrator. I know that she wasn’t supposed to be particularly likable, but she was not unlikable in a good way either. The writing as a whole was just really crude and disgusting a lot of the time—that’s something I cannot stand. I ended up giving this novel 2 stars.

2. The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace

This was another book that I did not rate particularly poorly. However, it was still one of the more disappointing reads. At the beginning of the year, I fell completely in love with her first collection of poetry in this series and I was highly anticipating this follow-up. Though I did enjoy it, I felt it was really not on par with her previous work. She focused on many issues that are very topical and frequently addressed in poetry these days. But there was just not as much of a personally emotional connection to it. The first collection was truly a story of her life and this one didn’t quite feel the same. I ended up rating this 3 stars.

If you want to check out my full review of The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One, click here!

1. All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis

And now we come to, by far, the most disappointing read of my reading year. I have been wanting to read this book since it came out and I finally got around to it. I had such high hopes for it as the plot sounded incredibly intriguing and unique—I may have hyped it up a bit too much in my mind. The story was quite repetitive and slow, and it felt a bit too similar to many other dystopian novels that I’ve read. I could not stand the main character and the story is told in first person so there was no escaping her. She made so many selfish and poor choices without caring about the consequences to her loved ones and others. So many people suffered because of her and she never seemed to even understand the rebellion she started and what she was fighting for. I ended up rating this one 2 stars. I’ll have a full review coming out in the near future.

So, what was your reading year like? What ended up being some of the most disappointing reads? Some of the best reads? Let me know in the comments!