December 31, 2024 • 22 mins
Ever been let down by a book that had all the promise but none of the payoff? That's exactly what happened to me, Lluvia, as I navigated through my top 10 least favorite books of 2024. It wasn't just a list of grievances but a journey through the personal tastes that shape our reading experiences. From the whirlwind yet predictable romance in "Lucky Leap Day" by Anne-Marie Walker to the art history depths that failed to keep me engaged in Laura Cumming's "Thunderclap," these reads challenged my literary expectations in unexpected ways. And let’s not forget "The Guest" by Emma Klein, a book club pick that left me pondering how far an unlikable protagonist can stretch reader patience.
As the countdown unfolds, I grapple with novels like Laura Kaschiske's "White Bird in a Blizzard," where over-description drowned any potential intrigue. And while "These Deathless Shores" by P.H. Lowe offered a fresh perspective on Captain Hook, it ultimately missed the mark for me. With "Farewell, My Queen" by Chantal Thomas, the lack of historical tension was palpable, leaving me yearning for more drama during the intense days of the French Revolution. Tune in, share your thoughts, and stick around for the next segment where excitement and disappointment intertwine as I reveal my top 10 favorite books and film experiences of 2024.
All episodes of the podcast can be found on our website: https://booksvsmovies.buzzsprout.com/share
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set
out to answer the age-oldquestion is the book really
always better than the movie?
I'm Yuvia, an actress and booklover based out of New York City
, and today I will be countingdown my top 10 least favorite
books of 2024.
Now, originally I was going totitle this something along the
lines of like the worst books Iread in 2024, or just having the
(00:23):
word worst books in the titlesomewhere.
And then I thought about it andI was like that just seems
wrong.
Just because these are my leastfavorite books doesn't mean
that they're bad books.
They're just not for me.
They're not.
They don't fit the kind ofreader that I am, and that's
okay.
And if I'm being honest, Iwouldn't categorize any of these
books as bad, except maybe thefirst two, if I'm being honest.
(00:46):
But you know what?
At least one of those has avery strong fan base.
And who am I to say one of yourfavorite books is bad, even if
in my opinion it is.
But I just figured leastfavorite makes a little bit more
sense because it applies tojust me and who I am and the
things that I am into.
(01:07):
But with that being said, let'sgo ahead and get started with
number 10, which is Lucky LeapDay by Anne-Marie Walker.
So this is a harmless littleromance book.
All things considered it's notterrible.
It just wasn't in a year inwhich I had quite a few strong
(01:29):
contenders for my top 10favorite books.
This is kind of just forgotten.
And I read this towards thestart of the year, and I read
this to meet one of my readingchallenge prompts of reading a
book with the word leap in thetitle.
And yeah, I mean this book wasjust okay, not terrible, not
great, just kind of forgettable.
(01:51):
And this story follows Kara, whois a screenwriter.
She goes on a trip to Ireland.
She already has this tripplanned and originally she was
supposed to go with herex-boyfriend but he broke up
with her.
But she decides to go on thetrip anyway and while she's
there, under the influence of alot of whiskey, she falls into
(02:15):
the Irish tradition of proposingto someone on leap day.
Now in Ireland the tradition isa woman proposes to someone to
a man on leap day.
So she does this.
She proposes to someone, theyend up getting married and he
follows her back to LA wherethey're legally wed, or they're
(02:35):
legally wed in Ireland and shecan't really get an annulment.
So he goes back to LA with herwhile they figure out how to get
this annulment to happen moment.
So he goes back to LA with herwhile they figure out how to get
this anointment to happen and,because it is a romance, they
end up staying together.
But there are moments in whichshe thinks did he follow me?
Because he knows that I'm ascreenwriter and he just is
using me to help me advance hiscareer?
(02:57):
Or is this genuine love?
All in all, as I said, prettyharmless romance.
The story is pretty far-fetchedand of course, there's some
things there's I'm discoveringthere's a lot of romance tropes
that I just don't agree with,and this one, it's one of those
things where it turns out thatthey could have gotten an
(03:17):
annulment the whole time theywere in Ireland because, hello,
she was drunk and know, legally,you just it's, you know that's
grounds for an annulment amongyou know, and or even it not
being legal, considered a legalwedding at the end of the day.
But he genuinely really likesher and wants to make this
(03:39):
marriage work, so he tricks herinto thinking that they can't
get an annulment, even thoughthey can, and he hopes that they
end up genuinely falling inlove which does happen and they
end up staying together.
But, yeah, there's things aboutthat concept that obviously
make me very uncomfortable andjust can't overlook, no matter
how much it's being told in thename of fluffy fluff.
(04:04):
So that's my number 10.
Number nine is the Guest by EmmaKlein.
Now, this book, along with twoother books on this list, come
from Dua Lipa's book club, andI'm discovering well, I'm, yeah,
I'm discovering that I'm reallyenjoying being a part of Dua
(04:24):
Lipa's book club, but I'mdiscovering that she and I are
not necessarily compatible.
Now, there are quite a fewbooks that came from her book
club that are on my list top 10list.
So it's kind of like hit andmiss with her choices, but I'm
having a good time reading herselections.
This was one that I was kind ofeh about.
(04:46):
So the Guest by Emma Klein.
It follows a young woman whopretends to be someone she isn't
, and we slowly start figuringout that she isn't who she says
she is.
This book only takes place overthe course of a week and that
whole time she finds ways toinsert herself into situations
(05:08):
or hang out with people andconvince them that they know her
when in fact they don't.
So it was just all right.
I think my biggest issue was Idid not like the main character
to be.
I didn't find the maincharacter to be likable.
So there it was.
Just I wasn't very inclined tofollow along on this journey.
(05:29):
Number eight is Thunderclap amemoir of art and life and
sudden death by Laura Cumming.
Laura Cumming is an art critic,an author, and she, throughout
this memoir, reveals thefascinating yet kind of little
known story of the Thunderclap,which was a massive explosion at
(05:51):
a gunpowder store in Hollandthat ended up killing Carol
Fabricius, who is the renownedpainter of the goldfish, and it
nearly killed Johan Vermeer, whois the painter of Girl with the
Pearl Earring.
So throughout this memoir shetells the story of Carol
Fabricius and other well-knownDutch painters and she goes into
(06:15):
detail about the art and it wasreally fascinating because she
obviously the book also haspictures of the artwork she's
talking about and she goes intodetail describing every little
aspect of the art and it wasreally really beautiful to have,
like this art critic kind ofexplaining to you this, these
different works of art, andlooking at them in ways that I
(06:38):
would never look at them orwould not be, would not know how
to look at them.
That being said, this is amemoir that's very close and
personal to her.
She wrote it as a way to healfrom her father's sudden death.
But while it was fascinating tolook at these art pieces a
different way and get like thisinsider's perspective, overall I
(06:59):
just didn't think it was veryinteresting.
I really enjoyed looking at theart and analyzing it, but
outside of that, I didn't reallyfind the memoir all that
compelling.
Number seven is White Bird in aBlizzard by Laura Kaczynski.
Now, this is the last officialpodcast episode of 2024, and it
(07:22):
was all right.
I think the concept isinteresting, but the way it was
written, the language, I justit's not for me.
It's too flowery, it's toodescriptive, it's just too just
not for me and I just didn'tfind this.
This should have been a verycompelling story, I feel like,
(07:44):
and the way it was executed wasjust not done in a very
compelling way, in my opinion.
I didn't find the character ofKat's mother, who's the one that
goes missing.
I didn't care.
I mean, kat didn't really carethat her mother went missing, so
why should I care?
And just for more detailedanalysis on my thoughts on White
(08:06):
Bird and a Blizzard.
Be sure to check out that lastpodcast episode.
I will more than likely tellyou to go back and listen to
those podcast episodes.
If there are any books that areon any of my top 10 lists, I
will probably refer you back tothose podcast episodes, just so
(08:27):
I can go into more details onthe books that were not covered
on the podcast.
Moving on to number six, it'sTrust by was another one of Dua
Lipa's book club picks for 2024.
And this is one that, again,it's just not for me.
This was a very popular book.
(08:49):
It's averaging about four starrating on Goodreads and this was
one of the nominees for theGoodreads 2022 Choice Awards for
Favorite Historical Fiction.
So clearly this is more of a mething, not necessarily a book,
but it was just something.
It was just not a book that Ireally enjoyed reading.
(09:12):
So this book is called Trust, asI said, because we are getting
three or four different.
I think.
It's three differentperspectives on the same story
and it kind of follows thatconcept of there's three sides
to every story.
One is fact, his side of thestory, the other side of the
story and then the truth.
(09:32):
So this is kind of playing offof that.
We have a, so all the differentaccounts in this in trust are
books within a book.
So you know that overall I amnot a fan of that trope.
Just overall, not for me.
So we're getting a biography onBenjamin and Helen Rask.
(09:56):
We're getting Helen Rask'sjournals and we're getting I
forgot what the other one is butwe're getting like different
accounts and it's one of thosethings that I knew going into
this that we were getting threedifferent sides of the same
story.
But the biography of Benjaminand Helen Rask is that's what
(10:18):
they're called in the biographybut their actual names are not
that in the diary entries and weget like the real names.
Benjamin and Helen are kind oflike the pseudonyms the author
went with for these characters.
(10:42):
A book was talking about theexact same people that were
talked about in the first bookwithin a book and by then I was
just like frustrated because Iwas like why are we talking
about these other people thathave nothing to do with like the
first set of people?
And so that kind of just threwit off.
For me I didn't think that itwas.
To me it wasn't obvious that wewere talking about the same
characters in the book within abook, as we were in the second
(11:02):
book within a book, as we werein the first one.
And, yeah, just, it was justnot for me.
It is an intriguing presencepremise, but just not for me.
Number five is these DeathlessShores by PH Lowe.
So this one was I also read tofulfill one of my reading
challenge prompts, which was abook about pirates, and I was so
(11:25):
excited to read this book.
I mean, this is a reimaginedtale of Captain Hook's origin.
We're getting it told through aqueer perspective.
The main character isnon-binary.
Queer perspective, the maincharacter is non-binary, and I
(11:48):
was just so excited to read thisbook.
I love reimaginings.
I love the story of Peter Pan.
I was really excited to readthis reimagining of Captain Hook
as someone who is non-binary,possibly trans, and it just it
ended up being reallydisappointing.
I was, I don't know.
There was just something aboutthe way it was written that just
(12:11):
was not translating well for meand it seems like a lot of
people felt the same way.
This is PH Lo's debut novel, sothey have nowhere to go but up,
and people are really excitedto see what PH Lo brings in the
future.
There was just something aboutthis one that maybe it's the way
(12:32):
it was written, maybe we wereexpecting a lot more than what
we got, I don't know.
But it seems like a lot ofpeople agree with me in which
we're really excited to readthis and it ended up being
really disappointing, but we'reexcited to there.
There's so much potential inthis book and we're really
excited to see what PH Lo bringsin the future.
(12:53):
So I feel really really badthat this is on this list,
because I really really wantedto love and it seems like so
many people wanted to love itand unfortunately it just there
was just something about it thatdid not work for us.
Number four is Farewell, myQueen.
By Chantal Thomas.
This was also on the podcastand this was just as I said in
(13:18):
the podcast.
This this is just a book wherea whole bunch of nothing happens
, which is really frustratingbook where a whole bunch of
nothing happens, which is reallyfrustrating because this takes
place on July 14th, 15th and16th of 1789, which is when the
Bastille falls and we get thestart of the French Revolution
and this takes place inVersailles.
This should be like three ofthe most high tension days that
(13:41):
we're reading about, and itwasn't.
There was just no tensionwhatsoever.
The main character is so chilland blase about everything
that's happening and I guess youcan argue that she doesn't
really know what's going onherself, but picking up on like
the nervous energy of the royalsand the other people that are
(14:03):
like in danger of gettingbeheaded, like there should have
been a lot more tension thanthere was and there wasn't.
So this was just sodisappointing.
Number three is Lincoln in theBardo by George Saunders.
This was another one of DuaLipa's book club picks and again
, this is one that is very, very, very beloved.
(14:26):
If you look at the reviews, ithas its fans.
Fans.
People absolutely love thisbook.
It again was a Goodreadsnominee in 2017 for favorite
historical fiction.
It was number two.
It was really close to winningthat category.
(14:48):
It lost by a thousand somethingvotes.
So it was very, very closebecause after this, the first
the one that won got 29,000votes, this one got 28,000 votes
and then the one that came inthird place came in with 24,000
votes.
So between number one andnumber two, it's like such a
(15:09):
close margin.
So, yeah, this is a very, verypopular book Again.
It was just not for me.
The way it was written it justit didn't work for me.
This takes place over the courseof one night and it is told
pretty much exclusively throughdialogue or excerpts of like
(15:32):
newspapers and biographies.
Some of the newspaper excerptsand some of the biographical
books that were quoted are real.
Some of them are completelymade up by George Saunders, so
it kind of varies.
And then everything else is, soit's told through that and, as
I said, it's told exclusivelythrough dialogue, by the means
(15:54):
of different ghosts or spiritsthat live in the cemetery where
little Willie Lincoln has beenlaid to rest.
So yeah, this takes place overthe course of the night.
Willie Lincoln dies, he istaken to the cemetery and the
spirits that are in the cemeterydon't realize themselves that
(16:14):
they are dead.
They think that they refer totheir coffins as sick beds.
They refer to the cemetery as ahospital.
So it is a very intriguingconcept.
Just the way it was writtendidn't work for me and I don't
know that I'm intrigued enoughto want to give it another try,
but I don't know if I will.
(16:35):
And if I do give it another try, it's definitely going to be
with the audiobook, because Idefinitely think that having the
different voices will help meorient myself as to who's
speaking, because I was having areally hard time determining
who was speaking.
And it's a very weirdexperimental book, but people
(16:57):
seem to love it.
It has its very strong fan baseand there's a lot that I missed
.
I was listening to a differentpodcast that was talking about
the book and reviewing it, and Ialso watched the interview that
Dua Lipa did with the author,and they're talking about things
that I completely missed, like,apparently, one of the spirits.
(17:19):
He dies on his way toconsummate his marriage and you
end up finding out at some pointthat he has this massive
erection.
He's a spirit with this massiveerection because that's how he
died Completely missed.
That Did not know.
That sounds incrediblyhilarious.
And then there's anothercharacter who commits suicide
(17:41):
and regrets that.
He regrets his decision to endhis life and is just talking
about how beautiful life is, andagain he doesn't realize that
he's dead.
So he's talking about this ashe's waiting for someone to save
him.
He thinks that someone's on hisway to save him from death and
at any moment now he's going tobe patched up and he'll be able
(18:04):
to continue living.
So it sounds reallyheartbreaking and hilarious, but
just the way it was written, asI said, was not for me.
I don't know yet if I'm goingto give it another try, but I
know that if I do, it's going tobe through the audiobook.
That seems like the best way togo about doing this.
Number two is Twisted Night byKay Bromberg.
(18:26):
This book I won through anInstagram giveaway and it's just
again, not for me.
I really I don't mind romance.
I've read quite a few romancebooks, but I do have a problem
with this kind in which the twomain characters one of them is
(18:47):
just out for revenge.
He's seeking revenge on thebrother of the other main
character, who ends up becominghis love interest, and so it's
not a healthy relationship.
But you're supposed to forgiveit because they have incredibly
hot sex.
For me personally, the redflags and they know like that's
(19:07):
a red flag, I'm not gonna look.
I'm not gonna look for someonelike this in reality, but this
is a really hot sex scene and Iget off on it.
(19:29):
If that's you, that's great.
I love that for you.
No judgment for me, just for mepersonally.
I cannot get into theerotic-ness of a book if the
characters are kind of toxic andI did feel like this was not a
healthy relationship that Iwould aspire to, nor do I feel
anyone should aspire to, so thesmut did nothing for me.
(19:51):
And number one is Romper elCirculo or it Ends With Us by
Colleen Hoover.
This is one of the books that Iwould say is bad I would like.
Objectively, it's just a badbook, but it has lots and lots
of fans.
This was also one of theGoodreads favorite nominees for
(20:11):
2016 or 2017.
I don't remember.
For romance it actually won.
I don't understand why I justhave a lot of problems with this
even being categorized as aromance, knowing that this is an
abusive relationship.
As I said in my podcast episodewhere I covered this, I don't
(20:33):
necessarily think it glorifiesabuse, since Lily does recognize
that what Ryle is doing is notokay and she wants to leave, but
she finds reasons to stay,which is a reality.
Some people do find reasons tostay, even when they know they
(20:55):
shouldn't, but this is not aromance and it's just not very
compelling.
And I mean I cannot get overthe names Lily Blossom Bloom,
who's a florist, I mean come on.
And letters to diary entries inthe form of letters written to
Ellen DeGeneres.
I don't know.
I just really did not like thisbook.
(21:18):
But anyway, for more again, youcan listen to the actual it
Ends With Us podcast episode,where I will actually go into
more detail.
But anyway, that is it for themy top 10 least favorite books
of 2024.
Are there any on here that youread that you agree with?
(21:39):
Are there any on here that youread that you agree with?
Are there any on here thatyou're just vehemently angry at
me for including?
I can probably imagine whichones they are, but this is my
list and I'm happy to have ahealthy discussion on why we
disagree on this.
Join me as I count down my top10 favorite books of 2024, as
(22:01):
well as my top 10 least favoritefilms that I saw in theaters
and my top 10 favorite filmsthat I saw in theaters.
See you next time.
Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set
out to answer the age-oldquestion is the book really
always better than the movie?
I'm Yuvia, an actress and booklover based out of New York City
, and today I will be countingdown my top 10 least favorite
books of 2024.
Now, originally I was going totitle this something along the
lines of like the worst books Iread in 2024, or just having the
(00:23):
word worst books in the titlesomewhere.
And then I thought about it andI was like that just seems
wrong.
Just because these are my leastfavorite books doesn't mean
that they're bad books.
They're just not for me.
They're not.
They don't fit the kind ofreader that I am, and that's
okay.
And if I'm being honest, Iwouldn't categorize any of these
books as bad, except maybe thefirst two, if I'm being honest.
(00:46):
But you know what?
At least one of those has avery strong fan base.
And who am I to say one of yourfavorite books is bad, even if
in my opinion it is.
But I just figured leastfavorite makes a little bit more
sense because it applies tojust me and who I am and the
things that I am into.
(01:07):
But with that being said, let'sgo ahead and get started with
number 10, which is Lucky LeapDay by Anne-Marie Walker.
So this is a harmless littleromance book.
All things considered it's notterrible.
It just wasn't in a year inwhich I had quite a few strong
(01:29):
contenders for my top 10favorite books.
This is kind of just forgotten.
And I read this towards thestart of the year, and I read
this to meet one of my readingchallenge prompts of reading a
book with the word leap in thetitle.
And yeah, I mean this book wasjust okay, not terrible, not
great, just kind of forgettable.
(01:51):
And this story follows Kara, whois a screenwriter.
She goes on a trip to Ireland.
She already has this tripplanned and originally she was
supposed to go with herex-boyfriend but he broke up
with her.
But she decides to go on thetrip anyway and while she's
there, under the influence of alot of whiskey, she falls into
(02:15):
the Irish tradition of proposingto someone on leap day.
Now in Ireland the tradition isa woman proposes to someone to
a man on leap day.
So she does this.
She proposes to someone, theyend up getting married and he
follows her back to LA wherethey're legally wed, or they're
(02:35):
legally wed in Ireland and shecan't really get an annulment.
So he goes back to LA with herwhile they figure out how to get
this annulment to happen moment.
So he goes back to LA with herwhile they figure out how to get
this anointment to happen and,because it is a romance, they
end up staying together.
But there are moments in whichshe thinks did he follow me?
Because he knows that I'm ascreenwriter and he just is
using me to help me advance hiscareer?
(02:57):
Or is this genuine love?
All in all, as I said, prettyharmless romance.
The story is pretty far-fetchedand of course, there's some
things there's I'm discoveringthere's a lot of romance tropes
that I just don't agree with,and this one, it's one of those
things where it turns out thatthey could have gotten an
(03:17):
annulment the whole time theywere in Ireland because, hello,
she was drunk and know, legally,you just it's, you know that's
grounds for an annulment amongyou know, and or even it not
being legal, considered a legalwedding at the end of the day.
But he genuinely really likesher and wants to make this
(03:39):
marriage work, so he tricks herinto thinking that they can't
get an annulment, even thoughthey can, and he hopes that they
end up genuinely falling inlove which does happen and they
end up staying together.
But, yeah, there's things aboutthat concept that obviously
make me very uncomfortable andjust can't overlook, no matter
how much it's being told in thename of fluffy fluff.
(04:04):
So that's my number 10.
Number nine is the Guest by EmmaKlein.
Now, this book, along with twoother books on this list, come
from Dua Lipa's book club, andI'm discovering well, I'm, yeah,
I'm discovering that I'm reallyenjoying being a part of Dua
(04:24):
Lipa's book club, but I'mdiscovering that she and I are
not necessarily compatible.
Now, there are quite a fewbooks that came from her book
club that are on my list top 10list.
So it's kind of like hit andmiss with her choices, but I'm
having a good time reading herselections.
This was one that I was kind ofeh about.
(04:46):
So the Guest by Emma Klein.
It follows a young woman whopretends to be someone she isn't
, and we slowly start figuringout that she isn't who she says
she is.
This book only takes place overthe course of a week and that
whole time she finds ways toinsert herself into situations
(05:08):
or hang out with people andconvince them that they know her
when in fact they don't.
So it was just all right.
I think my biggest issue was Idid not like the main character
to be.
I didn't find the maincharacter to be likable.
So there it was.
Just I wasn't very inclined tofollow along on this journey.
(05:29):
Number eight is Thunderclap amemoir of art and life and
sudden death by Laura Cumming.
Laura Cumming is an art critic,an author, and she, throughout
this memoir, reveals thefascinating yet kind of little
known story of the Thunderclap,which was a massive explosion at
(05:51):
a gunpowder store in Hollandthat ended up killing Carol
Fabricius, who is the renownedpainter of the goldfish, and it
nearly killed Johan Vermeer, whois the painter of Girl with the
Pearl Earring.
So throughout this memoir shetells the story of Carol
Fabricius and other well-knownDutch painters and she goes into
(06:15):
detail about the art and it wasreally fascinating because she
obviously the book also haspictures of the artwork she's
talking about and she goes intodetail describing every little
aspect of the art and it wasreally really beautiful to have,
like this art critic kind ofexplaining to you this, these
different works of art, andlooking at them in ways that I
(06:38):
would never look at them orwould not be, would not know how
to look at them.
That being said, this is amemoir that's very close and
personal to her.
She wrote it as a way to healfrom her father's sudden death.
But while it was fascinating tolook at these art pieces a
different way and get like thisinsider's perspective, overall I
(06:59):
just didn't think it was veryinteresting.
I really enjoyed looking at theart and analyzing it, but
outside of that, I didn't reallyfind the memoir all that
compelling.
Number seven is White Bird in aBlizzard by Laura Kaczynski.
Now, this is the last officialpodcast episode of 2024, and it
(07:22):
was all right.
I think the concept isinteresting, but the way it was
written, the language, I justit's not for me.
It's too flowery, it's toodescriptive, it's just too just
not for me and I just didn'tfind this.
This should have been a verycompelling story, I feel like,
(07:44):
and the way it was executed wasjust not done in a very
compelling way, in my opinion.
I didn't find the character ofKat's mother, who's the one that
goes missing.
I didn't care.
I mean, kat didn't really carethat her mother went missing, so
why should I care?
And just for more detailedanalysis on my thoughts on White
(08:06):
Bird and a Blizzard.
Be sure to check out that lastpodcast episode.
I will more than likely tellyou to go back and listen to
those podcast episodes.
If there are any books that areon any of my top 10 lists, I
will probably refer you back tothose podcast episodes, just so
(08:27):
I can go into more details onthe books that were not covered
on the podcast.
Moving on to number six, it'sTrust by was another one of Dua
Lipa's book club picks for 2024.
And this is one that, again,it's just not for me.
This was a very popular book.
(08:49):
It's averaging about four starrating on Goodreads and this was
one of the nominees for theGoodreads 2022 Choice Awards for
Favorite Historical Fiction.
So clearly this is more of a mething, not necessarily a book,
but it was just something.
It was just not a book that Ireally enjoyed reading.
(09:12):
So this book is called Trust, asI said, because we are getting
three or four different.
I think.
It's three differentperspectives on the same story
and it kind of follows thatconcept of there's three sides
to every story.
One is fact, his side of thestory, the other side of the
story and then the truth.
(09:32):
So this is kind of playing offof that.
We have a, so all the differentaccounts in this in trust are
books within a book.
So you know that overall I amnot a fan of that trope.
Just overall, not for me.
So we're getting a biography onBenjamin and Helen Rask.
(09:56):
We're getting Helen Rask'sjournals and we're getting I
forgot what the other one is butwe're getting like different
accounts and it's one of thosethings that I knew going into
this that we were getting threedifferent sides of the same
story.
But the biography of Benjaminand Helen Rask is that's what
(10:18):
they're called in the biographybut their actual names are not
that in the diary entries and weget like the real names.
Benjamin and Helen are kind oflike the pseudonyms the author
went with for these characters.
(10:42):
A book was talking about theexact same people that were
talked about in the first bookwithin a book and by then I was
just like frustrated because Iwas like why are we talking
about these other people thathave nothing to do with like the
first set of people?
And so that kind of just threwit off.
For me I didn't think that itwas.
To me it wasn't obvious that wewere talking about the same
characters in the book within abook, as we were in the second
(11:02):
book within a book, as we werein the first one.
And, yeah, just, it was justnot for me.
It is an intriguing presencepremise, but just not for me.
Number five is these DeathlessShores by PH Lowe.
So this one was I also read tofulfill one of my reading
challenge prompts, which was abook about pirates, and I was so
(11:25):
excited to read this book.
I mean, this is a reimaginedtale of Captain Hook's origin.
We're getting it told through aqueer perspective.
The main character isnon-binary.
Queer perspective, the maincharacter is non-binary, and I
(11:48):
was just so excited to read thisbook.
I love reimaginings.
I love the story of Peter Pan.
I was really excited to readthis reimagining of Captain Hook
as someone who is non-binary,possibly trans, and it just it
ended up being reallydisappointing.
I was, I don't know.
There was just something aboutthe way it was written that just
(12:11):
was not translating well for meand it seems like a lot of
people felt the same way.
This is PH Lo's debut novel, sothey have nowhere to go but up,
and people are really excitedto see what PH Lo brings in the
future.
There was just something aboutthis one that maybe it's the way
(12:32):
it was written, maybe we wereexpecting a lot more than what
we got, I don't know.
But it seems like a lot ofpeople agree with me in which
we're really excited to readthis and it ended up being
really disappointing, but we'reexcited to there.
There's so much potential inthis book and we're really
excited to see what PH Lo bringsin the future.
(12:53):
So I feel really really badthat this is on this list,
because I really really wantedto love and it seems like so
many people wanted to love itand unfortunately it just there
was just something about it thatdid not work for us.
Number four is Farewell, myQueen.
By Chantal Thomas.
This was also on the podcastand this was just as I said in
(13:18):
the podcast.
This this is just a book wherea whole bunch of nothing happens
, which is really frustratingbook where a whole bunch of
nothing happens, which is reallyfrustrating because this takes
place on July 14th, 15th and16th of 1789, which is when the
Bastille falls and we get thestart of the French Revolution
and this takes place inVersailles.
This should be like three ofthe most high tension days that
(13:41):
we're reading about, and itwasn't.
There was just no tensionwhatsoever.
The main character is so chilland blase about everything
that's happening and I guess youcan argue that she doesn't
really know what's going onherself, but picking up on like
the nervous energy of the royalsand the other people that are
(14:03):
like in danger of gettingbeheaded, like there should have
been a lot more tension thanthere was and there wasn't.
So this was just sodisappointing.
Number three is Lincoln in theBardo by George Saunders.
This was another one of DuaLipa's book club picks and again
, this is one that is very, very, very beloved.
(14:26):
If you look at the reviews, ithas its fans.
Fans.
People absolutely love thisbook.
It again was a Goodreadsnominee in 2017 for favorite
historical fiction.
It was number two.
It was really close to winningthat category.
(14:48):
It lost by a thousand somethingvotes.
So it was very, very closebecause after this, the first
the one that won got 29,000votes, this one got 28,000 votes
and then the one that came inthird place came in with 24,000
votes.
So between number one andnumber two, it's like such a
(15:09):
close margin.
So, yeah, this is a very, verypopular book Again.
It was just not for me.
The way it was written it justit didn't work for me.
This takes place over the courseof one night and it is told
pretty much exclusively throughdialogue or excerpts of like
(15:32):
newspapers and biographies.
Some of the newspaper excerptsand some of the biographical
books that were quoted are real.
Some of them are completelymade up by George Saunders, so
it kind of varies.
And then everything else is, soit's told through that and, as
I said, it's told exclusivelythrough dialogue, by the means
(15:54):
of different ghosts or spiritsthat live in the cemetery where
little Willie Lincoln has beenlaid to rest.
So yeah, this takes place overthe course of the night.
Willie Lincoln dies, he istaken to the cemetery and the
spirits that are in the cemeterydon't realize themselves that
(16:14):
they are dead.
They think that they refer totheir coffins as sick beds.
They refer to the cemetery as ahospital.
So it is a very intriguingconcept.
Just the way it was writtendidn't work for me and I don't
know that I'm intrigued enoughto want to give it another try,
but I don't know if I will.
(16:35):
And if I do give it another try, it's definitely going to be
with the audiobook, because Idefinitely think that having the
different voices will help meorient myself as to who's
speaking, because I was having areally hard time determining
who was speaking.
And it's a very weirdexperimental book, but people
(16:57):
seem to love it.
It has its very strong fan baseand there's a lot that I missed
.
I was listening to a differentpodcast that was talking about
the book and reviewing it, and Ialso watched the interview that
Dua Lipa did with the author,and they're talking about things
that I completely missed, like,apparently, one of the spirits.
(17:19):
He dies on his way toconsummate his marriage and you
end up finding out at some pointthat he has this massive
erection.
He's a spirit with this massiveerection because that's how he
died Completely missed.
That Did not know.
That sounds incrediblyhilarious.
And then there's anothercharacter who commits suicide
(17:41):
and regrets that.
He regrets his decision to endhis life and is just talking
about how beautiful life is, andagain he doesn't realize that
he's dead.
So he's talking about this ashe's waiting for someone to save
him.
He thinks that someone's on hisway to save him from death and
at any moment now he's going tobe patched up and he'll be able
(18:04):
to continue living.
So it sounds reallyheartbreaking and hilarious, but
just the way it was written, asI said, was not for me.
I don't know yet if I'm goingto give it another try, but I
know that if I do, it's going tobe through the audiobook.
That seems like the best way togo about doing this.
Number two is Twisted Night byKay Bromberg.
(18:26):
This book I won through anInstagram giveaway and it's just
again, not for me.
I really I don't mind romance.
I've read quite a few romancebooks, but I do have a problem
with this kind in which the twomain characters one of them is
(18:47):
just out for revenge.
He's seeking revenge on thebrother of the other main
character, who ends up becominghis love interest, and so it's
not a healthy relationship.
But you're supposed to forgiveit because they have incredibly
hot sex.
For me personally, the redflags and they know like that's
(19:07):
a red flag, I'm not gonna look.
I'm not gonna look for someonelike this in reality, but this
is a really hot sex scene and Iget off on it.
(19:29):
If that's you, that's great.
I love that for you.
No judgment for me, just for mepersonally.
I cannot get into theerotic-ness of a book if the
characters are kind of toxic andI did feel like this was not a
healthy relationship that Iwould aspire to, nor do I feel
anyone should aspire to, so thesmut did nothing for me.
(19:51):
And number one is Romper elCirculo or it Ends With Us by
Colleen Hoover.
This is one of the books that Iwould say is bad I would like.
Objectively, it's just a badbook, but it has lots and lots
of fans.
This was also one of theGoodreads favorite nominees for
(20:11):
2016 or 2017.
I don't remember.
For romance it actually won.
I don't understand why I justhave a lot of problems with this
even being categorized as aromance, knowing that this is an
abusive relationship.
As I said in my podcast episodewhere I covered this, I don't
(20:33):
necessarily think it glorifiesabuse, since Lily does recognize
that what Ryle is doing is notokay and she wants to leave, but
she finds reasons to stay,which is a reality.
Some people do find reasons tostay, even when they know they
(20:55):
shouldn't, but this is not aromance and it's just not very
compelling.
And I mean I cannot get overthe names Lily Blossom Bloom,
who's a florist, I mean come on.
And letters to diary entries inthe form of letters written to
Ellen DeGeneres.
I don't know.
I just really did not like thisbook.
(21:18):
But anyway, for more again, youcan listen to the actual it
Ends With Us podcast episode,where I will actually go into
more detail.
But anyway, that is it for themy top 10 least favorite books
of 2024.
Are there any on here that youread that you agree with?
(21:39):
Are there any on here that youread that you agree with?
Are there any on here thatyou're just vehemently angry at
me for including?
I can probably imagine whichones they are, but this is my
list and I'm happy to have ahealthy discussion on why we
disagree on this.
Join me as I count down my top10 favorite books of 2024, as
(22:01):
well as my top 10 least favoritefilms that I saw in theaters
and my top 10 favorite filmsthat I saw in theaters.
See you next time.
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